#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 11.11 RMU: Vets mental health services; GA death row inmate appeal denied; MD HBCUs rally for $$$

Episode Date: November 13, 2019

11.11.19 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Are we doing enough to help veterans when then return home? Georgia's high court denies another request to halt the execution of Ray Jefferson Cromartie; Maryland HBCUs rally for equal funding; Dem 2020 presidential hopefuls talk environmental justice; Former Austin Texas police chief is being investigated as a result of an anonymous complaint about his use of the n - word. #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: Ebony Foundation | Home by the Holiday Home by the Holiday aims to reunite Black and Latino families separated by bail, while challenging racial injustice and mass incarceration. For more info visit https://www.homebytheholiday.com/ Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. It's Monday, November 11th. Roland is off today, and I'm Dr. Avis. Here's what's coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. As we celebrate the country's Military Veterans Day, we also need to look at how we take care of them when they return home. We're talking about vets and mental health. The Supreme Court of Georgia denied another request to halt the execution of Ray Jefferson

Cremote. We'll dig into that case. A coalition of organizations are holding a rally on Wednesday in support of Maryland's HBCUs. We'll tell you what you can do to help. Several Democratic 2020 candidates appeared on Friday in Orangeburg, South Carolina, for the first ever Presidential Forum on Environmental Justice. We'll talk about where they stand on the issues. A former Austin, Texas, police chief is being investigated as a result of an anonymous complaint about his use of the N-word. And can the police just let black people live? We'll show you a case of eating while black. Plus, crazy-ass white people strikes again. We'll show you. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unf it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time.

And it's rolling, best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's Rollin' Martin. Yeah, yeah. Rollin' with Rollin' now.

Yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Rollin' Martin now. Martin. Today is Veterans Day, a day when we celebrate all military who served our country. We want to thank you all for your service. We all want to look at how we take care of our vets when they return home as well. Here are some startling statistics according to the National Council of Behavioral Health. 30% of active duty and reserve military personnel deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan have a mental health condition requiring treatment. Approximately 730,000 men and women experience post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression.

Less than 50% of returning veterans in need receive any mental health treatment at all. And approximately 22 veterans die by suicide every day. And lengths of deployments are associated with more emotional difficulties among military children and more mental health problems among U.S. Army wives. Joining me to talk about this is Jeremy Butler, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Good evening, Mr.S. Army wives. Joining me to talk about this is Jeremy Butler, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan

Veterans of America. Good evening, Mr. Butler. How are you? Good evening. I'm good. Thank you. I appreciate you having me on the show. Absolutely. Thanks for joining us. So when we hear those statistics, it is just heart-wrenching to think that you have individuals who dedicate their lives to serving this country and then they get back here and face so many challenges. What are we doing to really make sure that we are able to close the gap between the needs that are there and the ability for those men and women to get the services that they require in order to get better? Yeah, unfortunately, the short answer is we're not doing nearly enough as a country, as a government, as a society, frankly. And I think part of the problem is that we're not

comfortable talking about the fact that mental health is an important part of our overall physical health. And we need to be talking about it more frequently. We need to destigmatize the fact that, as your statistics showed, there's a lot of people that are out there dealing with some mental health difficulties, and we need to be able to talk about them. And then most importantly, once we talk about them, we need to be able to connect people to resources where they can get the help they need. And we're failing, I think, on both those accounts. We're starting to have the conversation. I really appreciate you furthering that by talking about this, you know, not just today on Veterans Day, but every day of the year, we need to continue to talk about this

is important a topic, not just for military and veterans, but every day of the year, we need to continue to talk about this. This is important a topic, not just for military and veterans, but for the entire country, because I think that's how we're going to get over this issue is by having a nationwide conversation about the importance of discussing mental health and making sure that we've got the resources available to help treat those who need it.

Absolutely. I think it's a very astute observation that there is this special stigma that it seems that we reserve for mental health in this nation. And when you think of all that those who have served us have faced and seen, I think a lot of folks are maybe even wary about what do you say? How do you handle these situations? How do we interact? How will they perform on the job? You know, how do we help people understand the importance of not only making sure that people get connected to the mental health services that they need, but also how to make them,

how to better, you know, infuse them into society so that they aren't stigmatized just because they were brave enough to serve. Exactly. And I think you're making a really good point there. And that's the problem is that, you know, especially those going into the military and then during your time in service, you know, you're looked to be a strong leader and that's up and down the chain of command. You're expected to be tough, to be resilient. And those are the types of traits that we drive into the men and women that are serving. And then we kind of have a counterfactual attempt when they're on their way out and say, OK, yeah, by the way, you know, if you need help, make sure you ask for it and get any any help that you need. And so it's a little too little too late, I would say.

So I think what's important is that right from the beginning, the same way we're talking about the importance of, you know, making sure your blood pressure is in check, making sure you're going to the dentist, things like that. Mental health checkups and discussions need to be a regular part of the conversation so that we're not only having this conversation when someone is in a state of mental health crisis, but early on we can begin to catch things early, make sure that people are getting the treatment that they need. And a lot of times the mental health crisis comes from a collaboration of a bunch of events. It's not any single thing. It's dealing with economic stress, financial issues, potential homelessness,

trouble finding a job and keeping a job as they transition out of the military. It's all of these factors coming together. So when we start to attack and solve those underlying issues, I think we're really going to make additional progress towards solving the mental health crisis that we're dealing with at the same time. And I have to say, you know, it's interesting to me that politicians love to wrap themselves up in the flag. They love to all talk about how much they love the military and thank everyone for their service. But when it comes to actually voting for legislation that would require the proper appropriations

of funds to be able to meet these needs, somehow they seem to fall short over and over and over again. What can we do as citizens, as viewers, as voters to make sure that we hold our elected officials accountable such that they are on the right side of the voting when it comes to actually funding those services that veterans need so much to be able to take care of these needs. Yeah, I'm glad you asked because that really is the bottom line. Everyone says they want to support, and then when it comes with a price tag, it becomes a little bit more hesitant to do so. So there's a lot of legislation that we support, both in the Senate and the House

and work that's being done by the administration. One of the biggest pieces right now is the Commander John Scott Hannon Mental Health Care Improvement Act. It's named after a retired Navy SEAL who was served successfully for a number of years, a number of combat deployments, came back home, started working to help fellow veterans, but still ultimately died of suicide because he wasn't getting the care he was needed. So what this bill and the legislation would do is increase federal government grants to state and local organizations that connect veterans and civilians to the mental health care that they need. And that's going to be a big step in getting to this problem because we can't just simply rely on the VA, the Veterans Affairs Administration, to do this work for us. You cited the statistic of 22 suicides per day. We see that number kind of going up and down just by a little bit, but the bottom line is it's stayed almost the same for years. So we're not making progress there. If we rely on the VA to get that number 22 down, we're never going to make it because the underlying issue is that 14 of those

22 are outside of the VA care. And so what this bill would do is it would get money to those smaller organizations in the local community that can connect to the veterans and their family members to get them the help that they need. Similarly, the administration started a, it's called a Prevents Task Force in March of this year to also get at this issue. They've got grants within that, but they're not expected to take any action on making those happen until March of 2020. updates on all of this legislation, plus all of our other priorities to help veterans. It's all bipartisan work. Every bill of legislation we support has support on both sides of the aisle. We need to hear from civilians, from military, from everyone to reach out to their members of Congress and say this is important to act on now. If we can start moving this, we're really going to make a lot of efforts, or excuse me, a lot of leeway in getting these issues resolved.

Absolutely. And you said iava.org? That's right. IAVA, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, iava.org. We're, like I said, nonpartisan, bipartisan, nonprofit organization that we work in. We're focused on post-9-11 veterans, but really the work that we do spans the generation, too. Military veteran suicide is not an issue that's only affected the post 9-11 generation. It goes all the way back to Vietnam era veterans. Everyone really within our community is suffering at one level or another. And so the work that we're doing really is going to affect all veterans and benefit everyone. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Mr. Butler.

Thank you. I appreciate you having me on the show. Absolutely. And so now we're going to go to our panel, starting off with Mustafa Santiago Ali, Vice President of Environmental Justice, Climate and Community Revitalization with the National Wildlife Federation. Next to him is Pastor Shannon Wright, Baltimore mayoral candidate. And then Dr. Cleo Manago, political analyst. Oh, my goodness. It's just so frustrating to hear every year the same sort of challenges that remain. But politically, we seem stuck at this point of thanking people for their service,

but actually not doing what we need to do as a nation to take care of those people who are there for us. It's lip service. Yeah. You know, you say the words because you are grateful that somebody is out there trying to protect us, but you don't prioritize it by your actions. You know, the things that the military folks are trying to do are not things that transition well back into civilian life. So to not have vehicles in place to be able to help them to make that Successful transition that's our fault not their fault

Over six thousand people a year That's a lot. Yeah, it is and it makes me wonder And it's kind of rhetorical that I'm wondering, if the mental health system or approach in this country is even effective. One of the articles that Jackie sent us talked about a man who did go seek services, but they were inadequate and they didn't work well for him. And I think that this might be kind of complex, but we do our work in mental health based on Jung and Freud. And those approaches are not really necessarily relevant to everybody.

And people need to expand beyond Freud and Jung in terms of being more effective at mental health provision. And I really think that the system itself is not doing well because there's disproportionate mental health problems across the board, even outside of veterans. For example, in the African-American community, there's a huge proportion of non-use of available mental health services. And Obamacare has included mental health services as part of care, I should say, as part of

the Obama package. But people don't necessarily utilize it because they're not satisfied with what they're getting. So that's an issue, too. Yeah, absolutely. There's a stigma. And until we address the stigma, you know, inside of our communities, inside of communities of color, there's a stigma if you go to utilize mental health. That's true.

And there is a stigma inside the military as well. So we're very reactionary, and we have to stop being reactionary. So why aren't we making sure there are conversations and helping people to understand the value of mental health when we have folks who are in the military schools, when we have folks who are in ROTC, when we have folks who are going through basic training? Now we have to also ask the question, when you go into basic training, it's about breaking you down to build you back up. But there has to be mental health conversations and access points to help people to understand that it's okay if you're dealing with a situation,

if you're feeling overwhelmed. And then when you get to the back end, people would no longer be, you know, feeling the stigma if they need to reach out and they need to get help. Yeah. So, you know, that's the real deal. That stigma thing, though, is so huge. And, you know, I'm thinking if you're coming from a culture where it's a culture that, you know, that's the real deal. That stigma thing, though, is so huge. And, you know, I'm thinking if you're coming from a culture

where it's a culture that, you know, you have to be tough. You have to be strong. Your life depends on it, and the people around you, their lives depend on it. Absolutely. You know, we have to figure out a way to let people know that saying that you need help is not an indicator of weakness. I mean, how do we get that message across?

But it's also an issue of language. I ran a mental health center in Los Angeles for over 15 years, and when we changed the word from mental health to well-being... Mm. ...and found other buzzwords that sounded less stigma-stigmatizing, well, people came running in.

Because...but also that had to do with how my staff was trained to engage them around the issue of mental health literacy or well-being literacy. So because something has a stigma, I think we should realize that we should probably not use it. Instead of being mad at people or judging them for having a reaction to language,

you're supposed to be in a position of care. Change the language so they can be responsive and be willing to walk through because people know they need help. But right, nobody wants to be called crazy, including crazy people. I ain't crazy. Are you crazy? I crazy people. I ain't crazy. You crazy?

I might be. I'm just saying. Well, we'll see if you sign up. We got to stop. But, you know, and it's not just in the military. A lot of the things that we see going on in our cities, a lot of these mass shootings, a lot of these. Listen, mental health care or lack thereof is a problem.

Yes. And if we don't address it, it's going to address someone we know or love. Yeah. Period. Absolutely. If it hasn't already. 47,000 people are committing suicide every year in our country. Something like that.

That's crazy. The numbers are crazy. Yeah. I thought the numbers were higher than the gentleman shared with us of folks who are actually taking their lives. Veterans. Yeah, the veterans who are taking their lives. So, you know, I remember when I was a kid, there was a gentleman who was in our community,

and he had came back from, you know, being across, you know, and dealing with some situations when he was, you know, in service. Right. And he was ostracized. People would actually, because something bad happened when he was there, and he just couldn't, you know, sort of find the space and the support to help him make that transaction transition, excuse me. And he was literally ostracized. People would, you know, say he was crazy and they would,

you know, literally not engage with him. And he would walk the streets and he would walk the streets until one day folks no longer saw him and people were wondering what happened to him and he had Taken his life. Oh my goodness. Well, we can't let that happen that sort of thing. It's really no excuse We have to figure out a way That we don't let people fall through the cracks like that, especially the ones that are on the front line looking out for us Absolutely. No, that's not right. Well, people are listening a vis because it's getting worse. Yeah Yeah The mental health crisis is getting worse.

I was a keynote speaker at a mental health conference some years ago, and I remember asking the providers, who's in this room to diagnose somebody as crazy, and who in this room is not crazy? And, you know, people was doing this, and these were therapists. Wow. They didn't know whether to raise their hand or not. Wow.

And some people go into therapy because they need therapy. Yeah. You know, and because they have a working relationship with mental illness, so they professionalize their personal relationship with the phenomena. And they may or may not make the best therapist. And therapy does not mean you're crazy. It just means you need somebody to talk to. You know, when you can admit that there's an issue, life is stressful.

Yeah. So sometimes you need a little bit more help in terms of figuring out what are the best resources and tools for you and the people around you to be able to deal with that stress. And when you don't do that, you become stressful for everybody around you. Absolutely. And sometimes in a really negative way. So my grandmother used to say prevent is better than cure. Absolutely. So we need to work that out. Absolutely.

So we'll continue the discussion after the break. That's Roland Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered. Like, share, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it. All right, fam, it's almost that time. The holiday season, of course, is, for many of us, the favorite time of the year. Now, whether you celebrate Halloween, Thanksgiving,

Ramadan, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year's, all of these, of course, from October to the end of the year, now whether you celebrate Halloween, Thanksgiving, Ramadan, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year's, all of these, of course, from October to the end of the year, this is when you think about spending time with the people you love the most. This is also the time to count your blessings and support those less fortunate and look at how you can have an impact on their lives. Well, I have the perfect opportunity for you to be a holiday hero, have a major impact on other families. Here's the deal. Right now, hundreds of thousands of Americans are sitting in jail without being convicted of a crime. Why? Because they lack the financial resources to pay their bail. Now, think about it. If you are arrested for any minor offense, you'll be taken directly to jail.

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With your help, our goal is to bail out 1,000 people by New Year's Day. How's that for a holiday gift? A donation from you can change someone's life tomorrow, and here's why it is critical. People of color represent upwards of 90% of the jail population across the country. It ranges from 50% to 90% depending upon where you are. Of course, when they stayed in jail, 90% of people with misdemeanors ended up pleading guilty. However, when bail was paid, 50% of the cases were dismissed and less than 2% received a jail sentence. Sometimes justice needs just us to join the fight. Folks, you can be a holiday

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This Wednesday at 1 p.m. in Annapolis, Maryland, a rally is being held to support equitable funding for Maryland's historically black colleges and universities. They are Bowie State University, Morgan State University, Bowie State University, Morgan State University, Coppin State University, and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Joining me to talk about why this is so important is Delegate Daryl Barnes,

chair of the Maryland Black Caucus. Thanks for joining us. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. So this is an issue that we've talked about a lot on this show. Where are we right now in terms of the struggle to make sure that Maryland's HBCUs are funded fairly? Well, right now we're in a quagmire, if you will, where we have been underfunded for so long. This lawsuit has been going on now for a decade and a half. And our HBCUs in the state of Maryland have been underfunded. And that's why we have a call to action, a sense of an emergency, to get the governor's attention, to let him know that we would not accept what they're offering, that the state has come and said that this lawsuit should be settled around $1 billion to $2 billion. The governor has said that we'll fund it at $200 million.

That's totally unacceptable. That's totally unacceptable for me and the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus. Thus, the reason why we're having the rally on Wednesday, November the 13th. And when you think about, you talked about this difference between where you know, where the judges have said you should be funded and where this governor has offered this complete underfunding. You know, what makes him think he can get away with this? Is it just that he just believes that nothing's going to happen and you'll just fold? Well, if the governor was sitting here with us right now, he would say that he has done more than his predecessor.

He would say that he has funded our HBCUs at higher levels of funding. But I'm here to say that he has not. I would beg to differ. Looking at where we are right now in our HBCUs and our TWIs, we are not getting the adequate funding that we need. Our four HBCUs in the state of Maryland are hurting. Therefore, we need to do all that we can to try to settle this lawsuit and provide the

adequate funding that they need. Now I'm a proud HBCU grad. I'm sure that I'm not the only one on the panel. And you know, it's critical to think about what HBCUs give to this country. I mean, we produce just so many amazing individuals who really are an asset to the entire nation. What can we do as a collective to make sure that we can support you in addition to people who can show up in person

at your rally? What would you expect other people across the country to be able to do to make sure the government gets the message and finally Maryland's HBCUs get the funding that they deserve? Sure, I think it's programmings like this that helps get the message out on the importance of what this stands for. This is not

just good for the state of Maryland, but this is good for the nation because all eyes are on Maryland, on what we're doing and what will be the outcome of this lawsuit. This affects everybody. This is not just good for those kids that go to school, but this affects our economy. This affects our public safety, criminal justice reform, those that want jobs. We want to make sure that we have the best institution of higher education in the state of Maryland. We want to ensure that those kids that want to go to college can afford to go to college. We want to ensure that those kids that want to go to college have the best programming and the best athletic programs that they deserve. And it should not just be at our flagship institution in the University of Maryland. So Pastor Shannon,

you're running for mayor of Baltimore. Morgan is right there down the street from you. What would you like to see happen right now in terms of this issue? Well, let me start by saying I went to Virginia State. So did I. I didn't know you were from Virginia State a lot. I'm applying. Yes, girl. So we're going to have to talk. Absolutely. Did you like the milk?

It was a farming agricultural, and the onion milk was so. Oh, onion. Oh, my goodness. Anyway, so as an HBCU person, I do understand the significance of the colleges and what they what they provide. I get that. But but a couple of things. One, the funding does not meet the needs of where the schools need to be moving. And I understand that, too. But I think that we have to be sure.

And I say we, as in all of us in Maryland, have to be sure that with this lawsuit and with the way it is moving, that it is actually moving in a benefit of the schools and the students. Because what happens in Maryland is going to affect all the HBCUs. So if this thing goes awry of where we need it to, it could really have an adverse effect on all of the HBCUs. So I think all parties need to be careful and sure that they are coming to the table with the best needs of the people and the students and not political agendas. That's my only concern. And I would agree. And that's across the board. And I would agree, but this has been going on now for a decade and a half. It has. All right. So let me be clear on that. So when you talk about a decade and a half year old lawsuit, this has been tried and tested to ensure that the programming that they need, the duplication of services have been looked at,

the amount of money that is being asked for meets the needs of the students and the institutions themselves. The plaintiffs have now come back and said, this has been going on for so long, we'll settle for $577 million. That's a far cry from the billion dollars to $2 billion that the state has come back and said that they deserve.

We also know that 20 years ago to date, the same lawsuit happened in Mississippi. Mississippi settled for three lawsuits, I mean three institutions, for $791 million. Now, we also know that, you've backtracked this a little bit, our predecessor, the former governor, Martin O'Malley, tried to settle this lawsuit for $60 million. Another slap in the face. Wow. So this governor, who's a Republican governor, said, listen, I'll do better than he did.

I'll settle the lawsuit for $100 million. I'll give you folks $40 more million, and you should be happy with it. Listen, the programming, the duplication of services, all of those things, the court has come back and said that they need, that they deserve. The courts have said, looking at where we are, looking at inflation, looking at all the things necessary, this lawsuit should be settled to date at least at $1 billion to $2 billion. The court system said that. This isn't a number that the plaintiffs or we came up with.

The court said that. So looking at all of those things, we have now come up to say that there's something that needs to be done. Now is the time because this has been going on for so long. And lastly, we will be putting in legislation this upcoming session from two people from Baltimore, Delegate Keith Haynes and Delegate Charles Sidnor, to say that we need to put in legislation that gets us closer to the billion dollars that the court has said that they deserve.

So now the onus will be put on us to ensure that the lawsuit gets settled one way or the other. The purpose of the rally is to make sure that the nation hears our concerns. That needs to be your approach, because if you say this lawsuit's been going on for 10 years, which I know it has, and O'Malley said, okay, well, I'll throw 60, and then Hogan said, okay, well, I'll throw 100, which is now at 200 is his latest offer. If you're not getting what you need, then you need to take it to the people.

Absolutely. Now let me just make sure that we put this into context in case there are people who are just finding out about this for the first time. And please correct me if I'm wrong, Chairman. But it's my understanding that at the nexus, at the beginning of this, at the genesis of this, really was a situation where HBCUs in Maryland

at one point were flourishing. And they were flourishing because they had some very specific and unique programs, majors that attracted people from all over the state, attracted basically a diverse student population. And so what happened was basically your programming strategy got gentrified, you know, basically. That's correct. Those programs that you had put in place within our HBCUs ultimately got replicated at the major predominantly white institutions in Maryland. And because of that, those students who had gone to HBCUs exclusively to get that programming ended up going to these PWIs, which meant that you had less students, which meant that you had less income.

And you were basically big footed. OK. And this suit was all about correcting that wrong. And for over a decade, 15 years now, you've been trying to be made right. You've been trying to have the situation be made right, only to be undercut time and time again. I wouldn't do Roland justice if I didn't ask you, who else is joining you at these rallies?

You know, what organizations, is the NAACP taking place in this, Urban League, any other sort of major legacy organizations, are they coming there to stand beside you when you have this rally? And I want to backtrack. When you talk about the duplication of services, Coppin State used to be the leading force when it came to the School of Nursing. That school was taken out of Coppin and put into University of Maryland. Wow. So it goes to your point of the services that we once had has now been removed.

Right. Rowland has been a real good ally in helping us get to the point we are now. So a few weeks back, I was on a call with Roland and Delegate Charles Sidnor, where he made a phone call to the Divine Nine. Their president was on a call with all the other presidents around the country, and they all said, Delegate Barnes, we're coming to support you. And they did their roll call, and they all said, we're coming to support you. And they did their roll call and they all said, we're supporting you 100%. The NAACP is behind us. The Masons are behind us. The Lynx and all the other national organizations should be embarking on Annapolis on November the 13th at 1 p.m. That's going to happen. I know that four HBCUs in the state of Maryland are all gearing up.

There has been buses reserved and folks are looking to make their way down to Annapolis that day. So my goal, my hope, my prayer is that we have a very large turnout, that we send a strong message not only to the governor, but to those that are watching around the country, that the state of Maryland, the legislative black caucus, will not stand for something that does not make any sense, that we want to do what's right and what's fair, and that's what this is all about. We don't want anything that we should not be getting.

We don't want anything that we should not deserve. We just want to make sure that the children and the young people in the state of Maryland that do want to further their education, that do want a quality education, are able to receive that at one of our four HBCUs. Absolutely. Well, go right ahead. You have a question. Congratulations on your work. It's very important work. Yes, sir. I have kind of a two-pronged question. One is, being that vital programs have been previously

gentrified as Avis mentioned, what is the plan of action to prevent that again once you get the funding that you deserve for that activity to occur again that usurps your power? And the other thing is, what kind of alumni response are you getting to this crisis? Right. So to go to your first question, so what will happen? The courts have said that the programs that the lawsuit now is are the merits of the programming and the duplication of services. So if the lawsuit comes about in a way that we know it will, then the new programs and the things that our four HBCUs will have

cannot be taken away from us in the future, that they will remain with those four HBCUs. The Alumni Association is doing their part, from my understanding, that they have been sending out letters and getting their folks involved to make sure that they will be in Annapolis on the 13th, as well as the Maryland House of Delegates have been starting to galvanize and work on committees to figure out what we can do from a legislative standpoint to ensure that not only does this funding comes about, but any other thing that we can do to strengthen our HBCUs. Got you. And can you let our audience know one more time where and when they can join you?

Sure. That's November the 13th at 1 p.m. in front of the Statehouse in Annapolis. I'm asking everyone that hears my voice to come out to be a part of this historical moment, to get involved, not only to just show up, but I need folks to call their legislators I need folks to call the governor I need folks to call everybody to let them know that this is unacceptable and that we want them the governor to support our efforts and funding our HBCU absolutely well thanks so much for joining us this evening to absolutely thank you absolutely Absolutely. Oh my goodness. So, this is so disturbing to me. But I guess we should go right on.

Should we go right on? All right. So, only six candidates turned out for the first ever Presidential Forum on Environmental Justice at South Carolina State University on Friday night. Yet another HBTU. Issues discussed included lead contaminated water, food deserts, childhood asthma, and proximity to polluting chemical plants, and how industrial pig

farms disproportionately affect low-income communities, tribal nations, and people of color. The participants were Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, former member of Congress John Delaney and Joe Sestek, the billionaire, Tom Steyer, and author Marianne Williamson. Mustafa Santiago Ali was one of the moderators. Did anyone's plan for dealing with these issues stand out to you? There were a number of folks who had some interesting sections of the work that needed to happen. I mean, Cory Booker, Senator Booker, has been working on these issues and both, you know, in the Senate and also when he was mayor in Newark and has really put some significant time in there. Elizabeth Warren has a plan that's out there. She's looking to actually put a significant amount of resources to address these issues.

Marianne Williamson touches it in a very unique way around sort of spirituality and humanity and some of the other things that are important in the process. And, you know, there are a couple other folks who had some slightly different ways of looking at it. Delaney has a very interesting way of trying to get some resources from sort of a carbon tax cap and trade. All this stuff, you know, is in the mix. The reality of the realness of this is do you have a plan to help protect people's lives? Do you have a plan to make sure that their voices are a driver in the policy development? And do you have a plan to actually fund what you're saying you're going to do? I think that last one is a big one because, you know, the reality is that in this primary season,

there seems to be a lot of people who are talking about a lot of different things, thinking big. And I think this is a moment to think big. But we also have to think about really can everything be done that you are talking about doing? And when we talk about this issue in particular, it's been an area that we as a nation really have not focused on with any great degree, even though the need is there. And I also believe the potential is there for employing lots of people in growing industries. So given your discussions with all of these presidential candidates, can you think of one particular example of a proposal that you thought, hey,

that seems feasible? I think this can happen. Well, you know, I try and stay unbiased in the process because we still got a long way to go. I think that there are elements of a number of the plans that are feasible. I think the sense that, you know, Senator Booker has put his out there. Let's say, of the candidates who showed up. So let's just call out who did not show up. And I'm sure there are a number of reasons why they didn't, even though they had months

to be able to lock it down. Unfortunately, former Vice President Joe Biden didn't make it. He had some other things that he felt was more important than the lives of African-Americans and Latinx communities and indigenous communities and others. Well, let's say I hope that he cares about those communities. Unfortunately, Bernie Sanders wasn't there. And Bernie has been someone who's talked significantly about climate change and environmental justice. But he was in Iowa.

So he didn't make it to South Carolina, where there are a whole bunch of folks of color and others who will be voting. And I'm sure, you know, they'll make their own analysis there. Julian Castro, someone who really understands the housing component of environmental justice, didn't make it. And we invited both Republicans also, as well well as Democrats and three Republicans didn't make it but it was historic yeah how do you explain the general indifference to this issue well I think that anytime we have folks of color anytime we have lower income communities and when we have indigenous populations if you look down the list of the things that are happening in our communities, environmental justice touches health care, touches transportation, housing, all these different issues. We just don't get the attention that other issues do. Well, I also meant not simply on a macro level, but on a micro community level.

I mean, I rarely hear a conversation next door about the environment. Well, but we frame the environment differently than a conservation conversation. We're talking about the 25 million people who have asthma, the 7 million kids, and disproportionately, it is our community. So if you ask somebody, if we go into a church

or we go into a mosque and we ask somebody, how many folks do you know who has asthma? Everybody's hands going up. And then we talk about, how many folks do you know who has asthma? Everybody's hands going up. And then we talk about, well, do you know where that comes from? And there's actually some things that we can do to address that. When we talk about lead issues in Baltimore or in a number of other, in Flint and so many other places, and we got 3,000 communities that have higher levels of lead

than they did in Flint, and we know that our kids are going to be damaged for their entire life once they get that. Once people have that information, they're having the conversations. They're just not framing it the way some of these other organizations and surveys do it. That's a very good point, because, you know, at least in my mind, I oftentimes think very differently about, for example, climate change versus environmental justice. And when I think about environmental justice, I think about things like the dump being located near our neighborhoods. You know, I think about the things that you mentioned, like having dirty water that's going to make your kids ill. Yet still, you know,

these are things where it's so hard to have the political power to stop the environmental injustice that continues to target our communities with these sort of toxic neighbors that other people vote out of their communities. What can we do to protect our communities to make sure that we're not more likely to be exposed to chemicals that will give us cancer or asthma or any of these other illnesses that disproportionately impact us? Well, one of the things that we talk about on this show, we can vote. But, of course, there's the education that comes before that. We can make sure that we're putting folks in office who actually care about what's going on,

and then we hold them accountable, whether they're Democrat or Republican or independent. We've got to hold them accountable. We can also begin to better utilize our dollars. Stop giving the people who are polluting you, the people who are killing you, your dollars. And sometimes it gets a little more difficult, but we have to have that evolution also inside of our communities. And we got to make sure that in our churches, in our civic organizations, in our schools, that we're actually educating young people and others about what's happening. And the amazing thing is that younger kids

and folks probably who are about 30 or under, environmental justice is a part of their paradigm. Climate change is a part of their paradigm. So, because they grew up seeing Katrina. They grew up seeing what happened in Puerto Rico. They grew up seeing the number of these things that are going on. So they're actually a driver in the process.

The environmental justice movement's been going on for 40 years, and that's why it's kind of ironic that this is the first presidential forum ever on this issue. No one will ever be able to have a state race or a federal race again and not be able to make sure that this is a part of what's happening in that space. And the jobs. That's the last part. That's good news that they're a sign of theoretical progress that the presidential candidates are including this issue

because as I travel across the country, I rarely hear it come up. And a lot of people don't even associate asthma with environmental injustice. They think it's something else. I mean, and even in Flint, Michigan, those people saw brown water for a long time in their lives before the light was shined on it.

And they had normalized this as a part of their reality. And I think that people need to unlearn realities that hurt them as part of the work. They're desensitized to think that this is normal. You're talking about this on the presidential level, but I can tell you how it affects us in Baltimore. The city used to track food deserts, but there have become so many food deserts in the city of Baltimore that it's now food challenged priority areas. They've stopped. Wow. So in Baltimore, you have more liquor stores and bodegas that may sell a quart of milk in the back of the store so that you've got the little kid grandma sending the kid to the store, but they go into

the liquor store to get the milk. So it has become okay because the supermarkets don't make money in our communities. Because if we're looking to stretch that dollar, we're not looking for the freshest produce. Because we don't always understand the value in that. When I was younger, I used to think canned was just as good as fresh because it was cheaper. But there's a big difference between the nutritional value in canned, frozen, and fresh. Right. We're not being taught that.

We're seeing the after effects of not having that. And in a city like Baltimore, there are folks that really cannot get to a supermarket. You're not getting fresh produce. You're not getting all of these things. And when you can't even eat correctly, you forget the lead in the pipes in all the school buildings. Forget the lead paint. Forget all... Food. Right. But there's an additional issue that I believe likely affects Baltimore as well.

When there has been a major market in the community, the food was not good quality. The vegetables, et cetera, didn't look good. They were leanin' and stuff. So people left those places and went to the white folks' stores. And so the white people who owned the stores that owned the community claimed that they didn't have

a lot of people who were using the stores, so we got rid of it. That's also looking at the institutional racist part of bringing an old watermelon or several old watermelons to a black community store that nobody wants so they go to the white place which justifies that there's only these other areas that go to the shop.

Absolutely, the quality of the food is definitely different depending on the zip code that you're in. Let's anchor this in the reality of what's going on in our communities. We have 100,000 people who are dying prematurely from air pollution. That's more than dying from gun violence.

So when we help people to understand that this many people are actually dying, who are dying prematurely from air pollution. That's more than dying from gun violence. So when we help people to understand that this many people are actually dying, more than are dying from gun violence, it gets people's attention and they have to get focused. And that's why we were blessed. We had the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, President Gilda Cobb-Hunter, who actually said this is significant.

And they actually helped to sponsor this. And now those black legislators, like the gentleman who was just sitting here They're now going to start to begin to introduce legislation on the state level Which is important to be able to begin to address some of these issues and here's the other dynamic It's not just health that we are being disproportionately impacted. It is also wealth So when somebody puts a coal-fired in your community, your housing values go down. They put a waste treatment facility, it's

going down. We can go down the list of all these things, as you said, that nobody else wants. When they put it in our community, our values go down. Your housing values go down, there's less tax dollars, and all these other dynamics begin to play out. But often these things occur in the daylight.

That's why I went back to the issue of people in Flint seeing dirty water. Another issue, which we probably should talk about on another show, is how we see ourselves and how the society has battered our self-concept and has us accepting and tolerating crap that we don't have to tolerate. And when we see them building the sewer dump next door to us that we can smell and it's really there, we have to have simultaneous messages along with consciousness around environmental justice with rediscovering our self-worth.

Absolutely. One quick thing I do want to make sure we get to before we have to break. Let's talk a little bit about the jobs that if we were to really focus on this issue in a way that could start to solve these problems, it could create an entirely new economy in this nation. Is that correct? Without a doubt. We often talk about a number of the different examples of place-based work that's already happened. So we don't even have to deal with the theoretical, but we'll touch on this. So like in Spartanburg, South Carolina, right up the

street from where we did the event, the community there got a $20,000 grant leveraged into $300 million in changes. They rebuilt their community. They rebuilt their housing. They rebuilt the community center so they'd have cultural connections between elders and young people in the community. They got five healthcare units when before they had to travel a half, seniors had to travel a half an hour to get to healthcare. And that created jobs and gave access to healthcare. And then on the sort of more larger scale, when we talk about this new clean green economy that you hear all these candidates talking about, we should be asking them the poignant questions of, so we know we can get people into worker training programs

and get them into jobs. How about ownership? Because right now, when we look at solar and wind and thermal and all these other things that are part of that mix, less than 2% of those jobs are owned by people of color. Not just African Americans. Oh, my God. Less than 2% of all those folks. We have to change the dynamic of the old sort of fossil fuel paradigm. Right.

And as we talk about this new green paradigm, we have to make sure there's true equity in that process and that our folks are represented and that we are building wealth through this. Literally, it'll be a multi-trillion dollar economy. And we gotta make sure we get some black in that process and that our folks are represented and that we are building wealth through this. Literally, it'll be a multi-trillion dollar economy. And we've got to make sure we get some black and that green. There it is. Get some black and the green.

All right, we'll have a break and we'll be right back. You want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real, as Roland Martin Unfiltered support the Roland Martin Unfiltered Daily Digital Show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com.

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A San Francisco man identified as Steve Foster of Concord was stopped and later handcuffed by BART police officers as he holds a sandwich he was trying to eat while waiting for the train. Here's what happened. Bro, that monster can go. You are detained and you're not free to go. Here's I do. Can you please let my backpack go? Are you gonna cooperate?

Yeah, we're- Are you cooperating with me this fucking long? You're gonna go to jail. I'm not gonna jail for eating a fucking sandwich. No, for resisting arrest. I'm not resisting arrest. You are resisting right now. I haven't done nothing wrong. I've done nothing wrong.

You can argue that with me. I've done nothing wrong. Let my bag go. Just what? Let my bag go, bro. What are you doing? Let my bag go. Bro, bring them up here then.

Stop. I'm not doing nothing. I'm going to continue my sound transition every fucking morning. Every morning, bro. Let my bag go. Yeah, why is there a store downstairs selling food if we're not allowed to eat up here? Why is there a store downstairs? And does it not say on, there's no signs here that mark that we can't eat on the platform. Where, where is there a sign up here that says we can't eat on the platform?

Where is there a sign up here? Where is there a sign up here? Sir, excuse me. Where is the sign up here that says that we can't eat on the platform? Where? We can't eat on the train. People come up here and eat every fucking day. Where?

Where is the sign that says that? Let my bag go, bro. Is there a chance you could allow me to talk? You ain't got no reasonable cause to fuck with me. Is there a chance you could allow me to talk? Bro, let go of my bag. You are detained and you're not free to go. Stop.

I'm not detained. I've done nothing wrong. I've done nothing wrong. You are detained. Stop. Stop. You're not allowed to go into jail, my man. Detained for what?

For eating. It's illegal. It's illegal. It's a fucking violation of California law! I've already said that! Mmmmm. I do this every morning bro. Watch out. Just trying to go to work. Just trying to go to work, eating a sandwich.

I eat at 5 in the morning. Bro, let my bag go! Do you want to cooperate or not? I've been standing here, I ain't went no fucking where. Let my shit go! I asked you for ID. You have no right. I asked you for ID. You don't need my ID. I do.

I've done nothing wrong. Dude. Dude. I'm not your fucking dude. Where? I don't know. I don't understand. I didn't know that you can't eat on the platform.

You're not free to go. Lord have mercy. Okay. on the platform. You're free to go. Lord have mercy. OK, angry Bart writers staged an eat-in protest at Embarcadero Station? Hey, I got it! On Saturday. Listen, y'all, I watched that and I thought, this is how, when you're navigating this world

in a black male frame, you can be policed for any dumbass reason at any time. See, that could have been a teachable moment. It is infuriating. That officer could have said, according to code and statute, blah, blah, blah, this is illegal. However, since you didn't know, this will be your warning.

Have a great day. You are employed. You are trying to go to work. You're not out here doing something wrong. That could have been a teachable moment instead of a I look like an ass moment because I'm trying to arrest this man for eating breakfast. I have news for you, and this goes back,

Ava, as well, to what I was telling you about some of the disadvantages of being a black male, since we were talking about how horrible women have it. That's right. Well, we do. We'll talk about that later with boxing gloves. But anyway, when a white cop typically, and sometimes a black cop, gets into a power struggle with a civilian,

particularly a black male, they're not going to give them any leeway. They're not interested in nothing but having power and having control. And the reason that cop had his hand on his back because that was his effort of trying to have some control over him, and the guy wasn't letting go, and the guy probably wound up being handcuffed because

and just to the audience, to brothers, you cannot win a power struggle with a white cop. And usually a black cop, any kind of cop, because they have the upper hand, they're enjoying that upper hand, they're not going to give up that upper hand, and when you are resistant to them, you're just asking for a problem.

Now, I'm from the Bay Area. Well, I used to work and live in the Bay Area. And there's a sign on the doors downstairs that have a dog and have a sandwich. Because you're not supposed to bring a dog on the Barker Dale train or food on a Barker Dale train. And it's not the worst crime in the world, but they do have those symbolizes

at the bottom of the stairs. But the bottom line, if you have anything else I say, is don't be arguing with no cop about power. They have the power. Some of us get killed and yanked and brought to jail in the middle of our lunch break and stuff over vying for power with a cop who's not

going to give it up. Over a $3 sandwich. It could be a $2 sandwich. That ain't the issue. It's just control. No, it's not. It's not the sandwich, and I understand that. I haven't lived there, but I've been on the train there before, and I've seen folks come with their Starbucks coffee cups because they're on a rush to get to work,

and they got a suit on, and they got a briefcase, or they got a purse, and they got red hair or blonde hair or a whole bunch of other colors. Is that code for white? Well... Okay, you can just... And what I'm saying is... It's unfiltered. You can say it.

Right. You know, so there is definitely some differences in the justice thing. Absolutely. There's definitely some disparities in how this plays out. But we keep dying and stuff in these situations. That's why I was telling people to not try to take power or balance power with these cops. They're not going to give you the power.

It's so frustrating, though. I can understand because, as you're saying, he's just trying to go to work. He's trying to not go to work hungry. And, as his companion correctly pointed out, why are you selling food here if you can't eat here? It's absolutely crazy. That doesn't make any sense.

They don't sell food on the platform, y'all. But I know they must have sold it, but they sell it downstairs, right? Now, conceivably, when you go into the train station on the first floor to buy the food, where do they think you're going? You're supposed to eat the sandwich. Excuse me, the sandwich. You're supposed to eat it.

You're supposed to partake. You're supposed to partake. With Grey Poupon. Downstairs at the burger place. With Grey Poupon. Okay. Downstairs at the burger place. And I agree with you, brother. I mean, are you kidding? The barrier is more racist than, well, I won't do any more comparisons, but the bottom line is very racist.

But let's just quickly say that out of this came folks who stood up and protested. And maybe there will be some slight changes in the regulations. Probably not. Or at least, hopefully the folks who are there will pay more attention and they won't be so aggressive in their policing. Absolutely. Now, I understand that in their opinion, in that officer's opinion, in his mind,

he might have been thinking he was performing a service as a part of his job for a quality of life issue. Because, you know, you leave crumbs and then the rodents that we've been speaking about on break come out and, you know, then you have issues with urban areas and the rodent population. I don't have that problem in the Bay Area.

He's trying to work that out. So I'm just saying. And if you saw the people who were at that protest, I don't know if they can bring up the film again, but most of them was white and they just having a rebellious moment. They're not rebelling against macro-racism in San Francisco, so don't try to... I ain't impressed. Okay, well, maybe this will impress you.

And ate their little grapefruit pong sandwiches. Is that what you're saying? Grapefruit pong. See, hey, I'm sorry. Austin, Texas City Manager Spencer Kronk told city leaders that he decided to approve an outside investigation into an anonymous complaint filed with the Office of Police Oversight

against former Assistant Chief Justin Newsom and others in the department. In the complaint, the whistleblower alleges that Newsom, on a continuous basis, for at least the last decade, has used the N-word to describe African Americans. He also alleges that his racist behavior was well known by the department heads.

And yet, he stayed there for a decade. I mean, good Lord, really? That's the problem. That's a part of the problem is that you have these other folks who are in leadership. Yeah. Who have allowed this to go on. And, you know, and I know the whole, what is it? I mean, our brother here, he'll be able to describe it better. But, you know, I know the whole what is it I mean our brother here he'll be able to describe it better but you know there's this this brotherhood sometimes that exists where people don't speak out you know other officers don't write out against other officers but it plays a role in the policing it plays a role in the way that you see folks and the example just now that you will grab

somebody or you will detain somebody so So when we allow this type of racism, this type of discrimination to take root in these bodies, we got a problem. Absolutely. But that problem has been going... It's not new. You know, in all honesty, I'm surprised it made the news. Because it happens... It's not an anomaly. That's true.

It happens all the time. When made that case make the news? He's a former police chief, maybe because it happens so it's not an anomaly that's true it happens all the time when made that case make the news he's a former police chief maybe because it was safe because he was no longer there but there are folks that are still there doing what he's doing saying what he's saying and worse so if that's news why aren't the other issues that are happening just like that every day around the country news. Good point. Well, I ain't pontificating on this. Excuse me. I am decided not to pontificate on this issue too much depth because depth. Because we use the word all the time.

We just stop using it too. Uh-oh. Black folks need to stop using that word too. Because it's their word. It's dehumanizing and it messes with our brain and our self-concept and our thinking and we need to be mad about it. Sometimes these people get to say these words

for 10 years because it's echoing through the building so much because we're saying it too. So we can't have our cake in white supremacy too. Okay. Now in this building where this officer was working, I'm sure it was not echoing from us in that building because there wasn't much of us

in that building. I mean, let's be real about that for a second. Is that a deduction or is that a fact? Well, since I don't live in Texas and never have, I couldn't tell you for sure. But I would believe... Okay, so, and there's about how many

of them in the building? Either way, I think your point is we all need to stop saying it. Okay, so, and there's about how many of them in the bill? Either way, I think your point is we all need to stop saying it. Yep. Okay. So, in southern Louisiana, this racist was caught on camera calling a fellow driver the N-word. Lord, this must be a whole N-word show. Ooh.

Here he is. Can we all just say it? I said you were talking crazy, you stupid f***ing n***r. Okay. Did you get it that time? I did. I said n****r. Cool. This is right here. Wow y'all. Call me a f***ing n****r. Oh my gosh. This is what we living in today. This is what we are living in today. But it just shows you that we're still living in this time period, y'all. Like, we still going through racism. crazy. Old-ass man talking to a young black female like that.

Sad. Avis. Is this the crazy-ass white people segment? Because there have been several situations through this show where the crazy-ass white people moniker would have been appropriate, but I think definitely for this segment, this has got to be a good

finalist for the crazy-ass white people segment. What the hell was that? This young lady, she embodied the spirit of Martin Luther King. She found somebody else's cheek to turn because I am not... See, I would have been following to a destination just so I could get a plate and report what I was about to do. She took that way too calmly for my taste.

And I got to give her some credit because I can't say I would have... All jokes aside, it would've been a black woman angry moment. Y'all know what was going on, right? He was going to pick up the police chief. Oh, of course. So let's all go to get the chief. Let's talk about it. Well, see, what I hope

gonna happen, because she said something about this happening in this day and age. I was in Virginia some time ago, wasn't it, like last year. Mind my own business, driving. And this white man in a red truck who had the Confederate flag on his... He was driving

next to me and I was paying him no mind. That means I was not paying him any attention. Why do you look to this side when you start speaking like that? Because he was in that lane. He was white and he wasn't you. Oh, oh, oh. He was in that lame. He was white. He wasn't you. Oh, oh, oh, oh. He was in the lame.

He wanted me to pay attention to him. And I was, I have a life. I don't, you know, I'm not paying attention to you. So he pulled in front of me and I couldn't do nothing about that. And he said something very, very similar. And I hear this kind of stuff all the time. I don't know why people acting like this is, where y'all been? No, I'm not surprised, too.

But I'm just saying, I would not have taken it that calmly. I know I would not have taken it that calmly. You wish I would have did. Excuse me, what would he have done? This is your experience. Let me break it down for you. I would have had some choice words to say back at a minimum. And I definitely would have followed his ass.

So, two years ago... She wanted to be surrounded by the Klan. In a car, had a situation. I think I'm being censored, y'all. So, we gotta go to the next story. A judge has issued a new execution order for Ray Jeff Cromartie, I'm sorry, I hope I pronounced that correctly, whose scheduled death for by lethal injection was halted Wednesday by the Georgia Supreme Court. Cromartie has been hoping for a court to order new DNA testing, which he said could prove it was actually his accomplice who killed store clerk Richard Slyzie during a robbery attempt in April of 1994. The Georgia

Supreme Court has shot down Cromartie's appeal for the testing, even though the victim's daughter has spoken out in his support. The question of who pulled the trigger at Junior Food Store in Thomasville near the Florida border has been in dispute for 25 years. We'll continue to update you on this story. So, in memoriam,

Bernard J. Tyson, chairman and chief executive officer of Health Insurance Kaiser Permanente, died unexpectedly in his sleep on Sunday. He was just 60 years old. In addition to leading one of the nation's largest nonprofit health plans, Tyson's was the company's first black CEO and a champion for accessible health care, racial justice and workplace diversity. Time magazine named him to its 100 most influential people list in 2017 and it's a list of 50 top leaders in health care in 2018. The day before his death, Tyson spoke at the Afrotech conference on equity in health care and technology and earlier that week he spoke on a panel at the AT&T Business Summit where he discussed the need for companies to be both diverse and inclusive of diverse

workforces. In response to his death the National Union of Healthcare Workers postponed a five-day strike by 4,000 mental health professionals that had been set to begin today at more than 100 Kaiser clinics across California. He is survived by his wife, Denise Bradley Tyson, and three sons from his earlier marriage, Alexander Charles and Bernard Tyson Jr. We'll keep his family and all those who loved him in our thoughts and prayers. So that concludes today's Roland Martin Unfiltered. Roland will be back tomorrow. If you like what you see here, be sure to go to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com

and join the Bring the Funk Band fan club. Until next time, I'm Dr. Avis. Holla! This is an iHeart Podcast.