#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 1.17 TSU board responds; GA election server hack; Poll: Blacks say #45 is racist; Sanders on racism

Episode Date: January 19, 2020

1.17.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: TSU board responds, names acting president amid admission investigation; Rep. Ayanna Pressley announces she suffers from Alopecia; GA election server shows evidence that it was hacked before the 2016 presidential election and the 2018 vote; Bernie Sanders talks racsim; Poll: 8 in 10 African Americans believe that Trump is racist; Nashville woman has filed a $5M suit against a former NY cop; Courthouse in Baltimore has been renamed for the late Rep. Elijah Cummings + This weekend, women from across the nation will join the Women's March Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Today is Friday, January 17th, 2020, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. One week after the Texas Southern University Board of Regents puts President Dr. Alton Lane on administrative leave, they release a statement explaining why. Oh, but it is still puzzling, and I have lots of questions. Congresswoman Ayama Pressley of Massachusetts reveals that she is suffering from alopecia

and unveils a completely bald head. We will explain. Also, a Georgia election server shows evidence that it was possibly hacked before the 2016 presidential election as well as the 2018 election where Kemp was elected governor over Stacey Abrams. In an interview with the New York Times, Senator Bernie Sanders talks about racism and why white voters went for Trump. over Stacey Abrams. In an interview with the New York Times,

Senator Bernie Sanders talks about racism and why white voters went for Trump. A lot of black folks are puzzled by his answer. And a new poll shows that 18 African Americans believe that Donald Trump is racist. Hmm, hashtag we tried to tell you. An Asheville woman has filed a $5 million lawsuit against a former New York City police officer, a white cop, we'll tell you. An Asheville woman has filed a $5 million lawsuit against a former New York City police officer, a white cop, will tell you why.

And also, LSU goes to the White House, Donald Trump receives them, but when he says he wants to take a picture with them behind the desk in the Oval Office, ooh, one of the white players is excited! Wait to see the look on the face of the black players. And a courthouse in Baltimore has been renamed for the late Congressman Elijah

Cummings of Baltimore. And this weekend, women across the country will join in the third annual Women's March. We have all of that for you, folks. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the miss, he's on it.

Whatever 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. Yeah, it's Uncle Roro, y'all. Yeah, yeah,'s Uncle Roro, y'all Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin, yeah

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 All right, folks, one week ago, the Board of Regents of Texas Southern University in Houston, the nation's second largest HBCU,

put their president, Dr. Austin Lane, on administrative leave. They wouldn't say why they put him on administrative leave. Now, a week later after many folks, including members of the media, faculty, students, staff, and alumni of TSU have been asking and demanding answers, they decide to release this statement today explaining what took place. On behalf of the Texas Southern University Board of Regents,

we want to provide our community with an update about our recent decision to place TSU President, Dr. Austin A. Lane on paid administrative leave. We are sharing this information while remaining mindful and respectful of the ongoing investigatory process and for all of the parties involved. On January 10th, 2020, the Board of Regents met with the Chief Internal Auditor, Independent Counsel, and third-party investigators for approximately

seven hours. The Audit Committee made a public recommendation to the full board, and consistent with the Audit Committee's recommendation, in a seven-to-one vote, one abstention, the Board of Regents placed Dr. Lane on paid administrative leave. In October of 2019, members of the Board of Regents informed Dr. Lane that members of the Board, the Chief Internal Auditor, and external Board Council had been in contact with local law enforcement

given the confirmation of the improprieties in the admissions process. One university employee involved in the admissions process has already been terminated. The chief internal auditor, in collaboration with a third-party investigator, special board employment counsel, and or external board counsel

interviewed the executive management, including Dr. Lane and others at our university. On two separate subsequent occasions, Dr. Lane was invited to meet university. On two separate subsequent occasions, Dr. Lane was invited to meet with the Board of Regents at two special call meetings. Dr. Lane was then interviewed a second time by the Chief Internal Auditor

and Special Board Employment Counsel. On January 10th, the board placed Dr. Lane on paid administrative leave and named Kenneth Hewitt acting president. As the investigation continues, we urge everyone in our TSU community to comply with the university policies and internal audit and litigation risk management protocols, and we will continue to cooperate

with the independent investigations by law enforcement. As we said in November, the university's academic integrity, trust of students, faculty, alumni, and the public at large are of utmost importance. We thank the TSU community for its patience while we balance the competing interest of respect for ongoing internal investigations

and external criminal investigations with a desire to provide additional context for our recent board action. The board is dedicated to ensuring all activities at the university are conducted in an ethical and balanced manner in accordance with the university's mission, vision, and values. That's their statement. Now, they need to explain this here. Henry, go to my iPad. This is a letter, folks, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board sent to Texas Southern University that is dated July 2nd, 2019. You will see in this letter, it says Dr. Paredes.

Dr. Paredes, folks, is the Commissioner of Higher Education, Raymond Paredes. It says, this memorandum is to close a complaint regarding alleged inappropriate admission practices at Texas Southern University. The complaint alleged that Texas Southern University tried to increase enrollment by encouraging staff to admit all students, irrespective of whether the student met the university's admissions requirements. We work with Texas Southern University Office of Internal Audit and Assurance. Their confidential report found no wrongdoing regarding the university's admission practices during the fall of 2017 and fall 2018 semesters. We plan no further work on this complaint. It is signed by Mark Pol, Director of the Internal Audit and Compliance of the Texas

Higher Education Coordinating Board. It is CC to Hillary Eckford, State Auditor's Office, David Gardner, Bill Franz, and Linda Battles. Now, you might be wondering, what does this have to do with the Board of Regents with their decision? Here's what I understand in talking to sources at Texas Southern University.

There was an individual who sent an email to the admissions director of the TSU Thurgood Marshall Law School at TSU. This individual said, do I need to put this on my admissions application? And if so, will that hurt me? The individual who he sent the email to said, no, do not put that on your application

because if you do, there's nothing that I can do for you. I was told that that person, that the dean of the law school found out about that. When the dean saw that email, recommended that that employee be terminated. The dean of the law school communicated to the university president that that person should be terminated.

The president agreed with that, and that person was terminated. Now, the Board of Regents of TSU has not properly explained what they're talking about when they say inappropriate activities in dealing with admissions. So pull their statement up, folks, from the beginning. So let me walk you all through this and why these questions continue at Texas Southern University. Pull the statement up. Okay, you see here in this particular statement here, it says that on January 10th, the Board of Regents met with the Chief Internal Auditor, Independent Counsel, and third-party investigators for approximately seven hours. Now, let me unpack this. What I am told is that the normal process is when there

is an allegation of something happening in admissions, that it is the job of the internal auditor to then investigate exactly what took place. They say they met with them, but the question is, why is the Board of Regents meeting with the internal auditor about an allegation when it's not complete? Normally what happens, I'm told, is that the internal auditor then comes to the Board of Regents if there is something

that is actionable. No one has said, well, that's the case. The Board of Regents also said, go back to the statement, please. The Board of Regents says in here that the issue deals with, scroll up please, vote seven to one, go to the next page, that the issue deals with improprieties

in the admissions process. Now, there are three different levels of admissions at Texas Southern University. There's undergraduate, there's graduate, and there are the professional schools. The board has not specified where this issue took place. Is it in undergraduate admissions? Is it in graduate school?

Is it among the professional schools? They haven't explained that. Go back to my iPad, Henry. No, go back to my iPad, not the statement. Come to my iPad. Now, again, if you look at this statement right here, a complaint was made to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

They are the people who oversee all higher ed in Texas. So you clearly see here, the complaint was made. Folks, if you actually call the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, if you call them right now, I'll give you the number. If you call 512-427-6101, you will hear them say that if you are a student and you want to make a complaint against a university,

there is a process. Now, you hear in the letter, back to my iPad, so there was a complaint made. It says that the auditors for the Higher Education Coordinating Board worked with the internal auditor at TSU, who does not report to the president, who reports to the board. Now, folks, this is what the Board of Regents needs to explain. I called the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to find out if the Board of Regents had notified them of this complaint regarding improprieties and

admissions. I've yet to hear back from the Higher Education Coordinating Board. I also want to know what is the process. So I need the Board of Regents to explain to me how a complaint was alleged about improprieties and the allegation you work with the internal auditor, but is the higher education coordinating board, are their internal auditors working on this here? Back to the TSU statement, please. In the TSU board statement, they say that they are working with law enforcement agencies. Okay, I need somebody at TSU

to explain to me on the Board of Regents what law enforcement agencies are you working with. Are you working with the Texas Rangers? Are you working with the Texas Department of Public Safety, DPS, State Troopers? Are you working with the Houston Police Department? Are you working with Harris County Sheriff's Office? Are you working with the Harris County District Attorney's Office? So when you hear this, we're working with law enforcement agencies, that raises more questions. So what is going on here? Are they saying someone was taking bribes? What's going on? Now, in their own statement, they state that the employee who was involved in this was fired.

My sources say it goes back to what happened in the law school. All right, the person was fired. That was in September. How is it that we're now in January and the board is involved in this? The Board of Regents is not an investigative body. Why are they involved in an internal audit? That's not their job. Normally, the internal auditor presents findings to the Board of Regents.

No one has explained to me how the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, how are they not involved in this entire process? Lots of questions here that the TSU Board of Regents has to answer. Again, to take the step of putting, now also I'm told that the president of the university, Dr. Lane, has had no contact with law enforcement, these so-called law enforcement agencies. So the TSU, Texas University Board of Regents, needs to explain what law enforcement agencies are you talking to. involved in an investigation that is supposed to be led by the internal auditor who then brings their findings to the board of regents three why is the texas higher education coordinating board not involved in this investigation and number four tsu board of regents what took place that caused you to go outside of your process and contact law enforcement agencies

when, what I understand, in a normal process, if there were improprieties at Texas Southern University, the first thing they would do is contact the TSU Police Department. The TSU Police Department would then contact law enforcement authorities. I'm told none of that happened. So, Board of Regents, your statement you released today is simply not enough to explain to the general public

why you would put President Dr. Austin Lane on administrative leave, giving the impression that clearly he has done wrongdoing, when even in your statement, you can't even articulate exactly why this audit committee chose to put him on administrative leave. I also need the board to explain to me how this letter was received in July 2019, July 2nd, 2019, where

they looked at and did an audit of the admission practices in fall 2017 and fall 2018 and found no issues. Let's talk about our panel here. Cleo Monago, he's a political analyst and behavioral expert. Dr. Neon Bay Carter, Howard University Department

of Political Science. And Brooke Thomas is host of Controlling Our Narrative podcast. Dr. Carter, I want to go with you. This is extremely strange when you put a university president on administrative leave, first of all, a week ago, and you don't say why.

Right. Then a week later, you put this statement out explaining why you did it. Why did they put this statement out a week ago, as opposed to having a whole week of questions from people saying, what the hell is going on? And I still find that statement very vague, actually. It's not a lot there

because they're saying this is ongoing and it's this and it's that, but we still don't really know what happened. Is it a pay-for-play kind of thing? Are they saying that the president knew and somehow let all these things happen? Are they trying to avoid a USC type situation? We still don't actually know what's going on. They also talk about admissions.

Again, that's it. There are three different admissions. So, you need to specify it. There are three different admissions. So you need to specify. Is it undergraduate? Is it graduate school? Or is it professional school? And also, there are people in charge of those offices that are not him. And I know, you know, when you're the president or you're the head of something, it's always your fault. But there are other people who are actually responsible for that.

The president doesn't actually oversee admissions. That's not his job. The dean of the law school oversees the law school. Absolutely. And you have all those different people who are actually responsible for that. The president doesn't actually oversee admissions. That's not his job. Yes, the dean of the law school oversees the law school. Absolutely. And you have all those different people who are over it. So, yes, you're the president, but there's a reason why you have those things in place. Absolutely.

And so he's trusting his other professionals, right, to administer their units. I think that doesn't... It still doesn't say why they would go so far as to put him on paid administrative leave. They haven't fired him. They're still paying him. They just removed him from his duties. And the truth is most presidents have contracts they're going to have to pay him anyway if they get rid of him. So it's still a lot of questions here about what exactly the nature of the

allegations are. Cleo, this is the nation's second largest HBCU. And you have a university president who, according to many faculty and staff and students, has been very good for the university, brought them national acclaim when they had the Democratic debate on their campus in September. We were there covering it as well. Giving to the university is up from alumni as well. Money is being raised here. And so when a board takes this action, you might want to explain further. And here's what's also interesting.

This memo that I'm talking about, and again, they got to explain this to me. What they are saying is that this is an allegation. Go back to their statement, please. Go back to their statement, please. Go back to their statement. All right? No, no, no. Their statement.

The TSU statement. I want to explain the TSU statement. Because this is why you have to read statements very clearly, folks. Go to the Texas University Board statement. So in their statement, they say an ongoing investigatory process. That's what they say. Go to the next page please. They lay out, it says, given the confirmation of the improprieties in the admissions process, one university employee involved in the admissions process has already been terminated.

Okay. So you've confirmed impropriety. I just told you that there was an admissions officer in the law school who was involved in an email exchange who the dean said you're fired the president agreed you're fired you've already confirmed it was confirmed in September so it was confirmed in September that the admissions person in the law school acted inappropriately the Dean recommended firing president back the Dean up yet six months later, we're sitting here having a conversation about you confirming something

that was confirmed in September. Roland, all I can do is deduce, because I don't know what's going on. But it's clear to me that whatever's going on, they don't want everybody to know at this point. HBCUs, and this may be relevant or not to their situation, often don't like their

dirty laundry out in the world. That's any college. Right. Well, that's any college, but not all colleges are worried about funding as much as a lot of HBCUs are. So they're very concerned about how they look to their... Especially an historically black college that's public with a Republican leadership in all

of state government. Yeah. So what's clear is that they want to be unclear. Right. And what's clear is they want to talk around something and imply that they're doing their due diligence, but they're not interested in putting it on blast right now. And I think they're just covering themselves because they're trying to prevent controversy,

because they don't want to interrupt something. And clearly, what they don't interrupt is the university's operations and possibly its fiscal state. Right. And so again here, Brooke, again, as somebody who is a reporter, as somebody who has seen these

things before, somebody who was used to improprieties, frankly from the TSU Board of Regents in the past, before the entire board was replaced by the governor because they were meddling in the affairs. We also have a board. We also have a board here

where this particular Board of Regents had a complaint that was filed against them. One of the regents, two complaints filed by an employee of the university. They fired that employee last Friday. And so it's very interesting in terms of, you know, how this board is operating in their actions. In secret, it seems, right? I think everybody kind of has the same idea. That was a very long worded statement that gave us no information. Thankfully, I think the university community should be pretty thankful to you because you broke it down much more than that statement did.

And I imagine, you know, there are a lot of people in the university community that still want to know. And if it was important enough that the president could go at least temporarily, like I think that it's a responsibility to actually tell what's going on. There shouldn't be this many questions. Right. There are loads of questions here, and it simply doesn't make sense for any number of reasons what is going on here. And the thing, Dr. Carter, why this is so important is because HBCUs,

unlike, let's just be clear, predominantly white institutions. Absolutely. Okay. My alma mater, Texas A&M, when they had drama back and forth between the president and the governor and the provost and the board of regents,

and she eventually resigned. Bottom line is, folks still give. But when you have this at HBCUs, this has a direct impact on alumni and their relationship with university, where folks like, look, I'm not gonna send you my check. I don't know what's going on here. And so these type of things can

stump the growth or the forward progress of an HBCU. Absolutely. I mean, we've gone through it at our university. I mean, lots of places have faced this. I mean, we talk about USC, but nothing has stopped at USC. I mean, people are happy to give millions of dollars to USC, but when it happens to a Texas Southern, then it's, oh,

I can't trust these people. And I think that's really dangerous because that money goes to so much. It's not going directly to these individuals. It's going to these children. It's going to the buildings. It's going to the deferred maintenance, the infrastructure, these spaces. And I think we have to stop being so short-sighted

and thinking about this in the context of this is what black people do. This is what happens at universities. And I think if they were really concerned about keeping this kind of hush and thinking about long-term progress, they would have done this in the summer. They could have done it over spring break. They could have done it at a number of times.

But at the beginning of the spring semester, when things are just ramping up again, and right now you have convocations, charter days, and things like that, coming moments when you can raise money for an institution, to have this kind of happen in the beginning of all of this is really unfortunate for TSU, and I hope they sort it out, because this is also someone's professional career and their reputation on the line as well.

And that's really all you have in this kind of business, particularly when you're in the upper echelons of university leadership, because there's just not a lot of people in that space. There's really rarefied air up there. And so I hope for the students and the faculty and administrators and others, staff on that campus, they figure it out sooner rather than later

because I think this is a lot of uncertainty hanging over that institution because we actually don't know what the allegations are and what's happening. Oh, so just for our audience, again, we have done this, folks, for the last three days. We have emailed every single TSU board member asking them to come on and comment.

The only person, the only two who have responded have been Board Regents Derrick Mitchell as well as Ron Price. Ron Price is out of the country. Ron Price says he certainly will be welcome to talk with us when he gets back into the country. We have not heard from the board chair, from Albert Myers, from some of the other folks as well.

And so we certainly welcome any of them to come on to Roland Martin Unfiltered to explain what's going on because that statement still does not answer the questions that need to be answered about what's happening at Texas Southern University and Dr. Austin Lane. All right, folks, let's go to our next story. Congresswoman at Texas Southern University and Dr. Austin Lane.

All right, folks, let's go to our next story. Congresswoman Yama Presley of Massachusetts. Folks, many folks know her as one of four members of the squad, incoming member, a new freshman member of Congress who upset a longtime incumbent. She did a video, exclusive video with The Root, where she revealed how she has gone completely bald because of a hair loss condition, alopecia. A lot of folks have been commenting on social media. Here is what she told them. This is my official public revealing.

I have only been bald in the privacy of my home and in the company of close friends. I'm Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, and this is a word about why my black hair story is both personal and political. Before I was an elected official, I did everything. I wore wigs, I wore extensions. And then about four or five years ago, I decided to get Senegalese twist all the way down to my waist. And what happened is that I got these Senegalese twist and I feel like I met myself fully for the first time. You know, I sort of looked in the mirror and I said, oh, there I am.

And it felt good. So what started some as a political statement that was militant or people said, people will think you're angry. And I said, well, they already think that. What I was not prepared for was the glorious gift and blessing of the acceptance and the community and the affirmation. Now I walk into rooms and little girls are wearing t-shirts that say my congresswoman wears braids and we receive letters from all over the globe of women who talk about their own emancipation that they feel that I've given them permission.

My twists have become such a synonymous and conflated part of not only my personal identity and how I show up in the world, but my political brand. That's why I think it's important that I'm transparent about this new normal and living with alopecia. In the fall, when I was getting my hair retwisted, is the first time that I was made aware that I had some patches. From there, it accelerated very quickly. I had been waking up every morning to sink fulls of hair. Every night I was employing all the tools that I had been schooled and trained in throughout my life as a black woman because I thought that I could stop this. I wrapped my hair. I wore a bonnet.

I slept on a silk pillowcase. And yet and still every morning, which I faced with dread, I did not want to go to sleep because I did not want the morning to come where I would remove this bonnet and my wrap and be met with more hair in the sink and an image in the mirror in the mirror of a person who increasingly felt like a stranger to me. And so impeachment eve, the last little bit of my hair came out. I was completely bald. And in a matter of hours, was going

to have to walk into the floor, the House chamber, House of Representatives, and cast a vote in support of articles of impeachment. And so I didn't have the luxury of mourning what felt like the loss of a limb. It was a moment of transformation, not of my choosing. It is with a heavy heart, but a resolved one.

And because I believe our democracy is worth fighting for, I will vote to impeach Donald J. Trump, and I urge my colleagues to do the same. But I knew the moment demanded that I stand in it and that I lean in. And I... exited the floor as soon as I could, and I hid in a bathroom stall.

I felt naked, exposed, vulnerable. I felt embarrassed. I felt ashamed. I felt betrayed. And then I also felt that I was participating in a cultural betrayal because of all the little girls who write me letters, who come up to me, who take selfies with me, hashtag twist nation.

And I thought of those T-shirts, and I just kept revisiting them. And I immediately knew that I was going to want to, when I felt ready, go public, because I felt like I owed all those little girls an explanation. My husband says I don't, you know, that everything doesn't have to be political. The reality is that I'm black, and I'm a black woman,

and I'm a black woman in politics, and everything I do is political. I think you might overly intellectualize it and say it's just hair. People are well-meaning and have been reminding me of the India Arie song, you know, I am not my hair, you are not your hair. And that's true, but I still want it.

So I'm trying to find my way here, and I do believe going public will help. This is my official public revealing. I'm ready now because I want to be freed from the secret and the shame that that secret carries with it. And because I'm not here just to occupy space, I'm here to create it. And I want to be free.

I am making peace with having alopecia. I have not arrived there. I am very early in my alopecia journey. But I'm making progress every day. And that's why I'm doing this today. It's about self-agency. It's about power. It's about acceptance. Right now on this journey,

when I feel the most unlike myself is when I am wearing a wig. So I think that means I'm on my way. Brooke, I want to go to you first. The response has been incredible. When she posted this, first of all, the root posted this. When she posted her tweet on this yesterday, it said 9,827 retweets and 61,200 likes.

This was so powerful. I saw this yesterday and I was in tears. It was so, I, also, I don't often watch, you know, like on your phone, a video that long, just a clip. And I had to stop what I was doing and watch that. It was so powerful. And she what she said something in there. You know, I'm not just here to occupy space. I'm here to create it. And that's so important how she kept making clear that, you know, her life as a black woman will always be political. Everything that she does, her existence is political.

And I felt this is so powerful because I think alopecia is something a lot of women, a lot of black women, whether it be fraction alopecia, whether it be alopecia affecting you like it is the congresswoman here. And just as much as her twists were representative of so many young women, right? So many girls, so many women, and how the power in that, this is too. And I think that this was incredibly important. She also said something, this happened in the fall. This started happening in the fall.

So this just happened to her. She's barely getting time to sit with it herself and just realizing the power. I think that's a sacrifice, just being willing to go public with something that she hasn't had that much time to sit with herself. This was really powerful. And I think Congresswoman Presley, it's always a bummer to me that the four women, the squad, get looped together in a way that each of them as individuals, I feel like don't get enough shine, their history and their work and what they do. And I think, of course, there's power in the four

of them together, but there's also so much about Congresswoman Presley that I feel people don't know. And this is just part of it. I thought this was powerful and this was amazing and just one of the great things about her. Dr. Carter, again, when you think about this, when you think about just the reaction for a congresswoman to do this, I remember when a congresswoman out of New Jersey, why is it skipping me right now, Bonnie Coleman, when she was going through cancer treatment and had all her hair shaved off. And folks were like, oh, my God, what happened? I know of another member of Congress

who was going through cancer treatments and didn't want to do that and was wearing a wig and didn't want anybody to know what was going on. And so it's certainly powerful for her to step out and do this publicly. Yeah, and I think just being real about mourning I didn't want anybody to know what was going on. And so it's certainly powerful for her to step out and do this publicly. Yeah, and I think just being real about mourning the loss of your hair,

and that not being a shallow concern. You know, I know she said people are trying to be helpful, and they're trying to give you encouragement, but it's something that you didn't ask for. It's not something that you chose for yourself. This is something that is happening to you, right? This is your body sort of betraying you. And for women, I think our attractiveness,

our femininity, so much of who we are is wrapped up in our hair and changing our hair and being able to sort of play with it or choosing to cut it or have it long. And for that to no longer be a choice anymore when you are alone in your home, that's hard enough. But when you are a person in the public eye and you're under so much scrutiny, I mean, people are taking pictures of her every day.

People are looking at her every day. And I'm certain up until this moment, there was probably a lot of fear that one day that wig would slip or that somebody be able to say, hey, that's a unit she has on. That's not actually her hair and what that must have felt like. So, I mean, this is probably the fourth time I've watched it this week, in part because I think we, at least for me, I'd never seen a woman of her stature and in her position come out and say, this is who I am now. I'm not all the way there.

I'm learning to accept it. I'm still going through all the emotions, the trauma, even the sort of excitement, because she talks toward the end about the ability to sort of mess around with wigs and play with her look. Like, that's exciting, but it's still a journey. And I think for a lot of women, I know women who have alopecia,

it is still a very difficult place to get to because of how we have all these anxieties around our hair. Cleo, I mean, for her to, you know, come out publicly, um, there have been... I'm gonna show some photos in a minute. Uh, it's also freed a lot of other women who are going through this, and folks have been sharing their story

about what, uh, about what they've been, also been going through. The congresswoman has always been impressive. I mean, she's an impressive sister. And she's doing a couple of things in a row. As you mentioned, black women, probably more than most women in this

country, have to deal with hair anxiety and concern about hair and being treated one way or the other based on hair. And this sister, in the beginning, affirmed African textured hair and braids, et cetera, and went on to affirm being bald. And what's powerful about the image that you just put up

is that she's beautiful. You know, she's a stunning, bad sister regardless. And she's brilliant. And I'm glad she's there. And she's somebody who's very nuanced because not only is she a congresswoman who steps up and who speaks truth to power and is very impressive in that way,

she's just impressive symbolically as a brilliant, strong sister. Now she's symbolically powerful as someone dealing with this hair issue and still stepping up and shining. And I think other women who are dealing with the same thing will feel more comfortable about who they are. and that's powerful to do that twice. To do that around black hair and to do that about hairlessness. It's just very impressive and I'm glad to

be around to see the squad including that sister in terms of how she represents. Henry, are you seeing these photos that I'm playing on my iPad, if so, go ahead and pull those up as we have this conversation. These are some of the images that women have been posting on Congresswoman Yonah Pressley's timeline. Just about that. And back to you, Brooke, when you talk about this reveal, again, being this public figure, being somebody who, you know, again, didn't have to do this. She could have just been living in her own world, but she chose to. So just your thoughts on that. It's all about representation.

And, yeah, just like I said earlier, you know, not only did she not have to, but this just happened to her. It happened so soon. And just the willingness to, I think, just be there for other women. She knows what this is going to do. She knows that this is going to be representative for a lot of women, and that's what that's about. The pictures rolling in and a lot of people, I think there was a story of a, I want I want to say makeup artist in Memphis also dealing with alopecia and just I think the strength in numbers and just the power in someone in that position being willing to come out and show herself bald and to everyone someone who faces so much criticism and disproportionately compared to you know, a lot of other public

figures, a lot of other politicians, and still being willing to do this because she knows what it could mean to so many other women. This is, it's just so strong. And it's what I've come to expect from Congresswoman Presley. Also, I think, Dr. Carter, a lot of people

again are realizing for the first, wow, I never even knew about this, even to the extent of how it impacts folks. I mean, like this sister right here says she's been dealing with this for 10 years. And others have said, well, you know, patches. Matter of fact, I think Goldie, I'll pull up in a second, I think Goldie Taylor, she said that she had posted a tweet, uh, says she had dealt with this, uh, a long time ago, but her hair came back. And so for some people, they grow their hair back. Others never comes back. Right. Absolutely. And I think, I mean,

I think that's the permanence of it, right? It's sort of just becoming a new normal and becoming a new version of yourself that you didn't ask for or anticipate. And I don't know, you know, at any age if that's an easy thing to do, but I'm sure certainly as a woman, a mother, a wife, and all these things, and contending with something that you could not foresee, right? Like, had no expectation that this was going to happen. And as Brooke rightly points out,

probably happening at one of the most inconvenient times. Right. I mean, I don't know if there's a convenient time to lose your your hair, but certainly not when you have to go to the floor. Right. And talk about something as large as impeachment. So the future of this country. So, you know, kudos to to Representative Presley for her honesty and her vulnerability, because I think she said a lot in that seven minutes where she's talking about it's not all triumphant and feeling like a failure and feeling all of those things at the same time and trying to manage your own self.

You know, it's interesting, Cleo. So somebody on YouTube just posted, who put in her head that how she looks isn't attractive in a positive way? Look, let's just, first of all, that's a ridiculous question. And the reason it's a ridiculous question is because we live in a society

that bombards us with so many different images that these things make who we are. There's a reason why the makeup industry earns billions upon billions. And when Alicia Keys announced that she was gonna go makeup-free, folks like, oh, my God, you know, what are you doing? Because this society has said to women,

uh, put makeup on. Put makeup on. Cover up any blemish that you have. Uh, when you talk about the hair industry, I mean, billions of dollars made. And that is with women. Billions with men. It is amazing to me

the number of people who, let me be clear, I don't give a shit what any of you think. It is amazing to me the number of people... I don't. Like, I don't give a... what any of you think. It is amazing to me the number of people... I don't. Like, I don't give a... You already said it.

No. Like, I don't give... I give just... If I can just be real clear, I give zero fucks. Zero. When people go on my Instagram page and go, uh, you should cut all your hair off,

I don't give a shit what y'all think, and I don't think about it. When folks were like, I guess when I was, I remember at the radio station when I was working in Chicago, they were like, I think your hair is thinning. I was like, oh, okay. I'm literally not sitting here going, oh my God. You actually think that I would spend a dime

on a hair plug, on a tube? Hell no. And I'm going, if I don't give a damn, why do you? But there are people who literally, their whole worldview is locked up in, no, I've got to have a full head of hair. I've got to have a full head of hair. I've got to have... I'm like, man, please.

So that's why that question... Well, I think the question, it called itself affirming her. Like, telling her she should not be self-conscious about how she looks because she's beautiful. I think that was the intention. Well, the question was, who put it in her head? Yeah.

Easily. The world. The world! I mean, television, radio. I mean, you go down the line. Roland, how many times have you heard somebody in any kind of media platform with your stature at least say, I don't give a flying fruit loops,

you know what you said, about most people do. I think it's a, frankly, it's a weakness. And it's sad that we're that superficial and people's value is based on how well they make up themselves. But that's the reality that we live in, and you are one, and I think I'm pretty much that same way, who doesn't run around being concerned about it.

And one of the powerful things about what the congresswoman did is maybe left people would be self-conscious about the whole thing because she shines regardless of this whole thing, and maybe others will realize they have that capacity as well. But I think, again, that this brother or sister, I don't know who they were, called themselves saying, why is she even questioning anything based on how she looks? And you're asking the question, because society does.

Yeah, I mean, Brooke, I mean, I think about the people who go on Twitter and Instagram, oh, look at LeBron James' hairline. Do you actually think LeBron James cares about any of these folks? But there are people who, they're so caught up in this. It's the Western world. It drives everything. And look, we know right now, you got, in African nations,

they are spending stupid money on bleach and cream. And things along those lines. And so, we live in a world where people want to dictate what you should look like, what you should care about, and... Matter of fact, I'm like, with this show, when we started this show here,

uh, Jay Feldman, uh, my man, who's my, you know, long-time TV exec, executive producer, Jay was, like was in the budget. Jay said, okay, we're going to do about a makeup artist. I said, we ain't going to have one. Now, look, I understand that's a job. I understand that. But my whole deal was, I don't give a damn about no makeup artist.

Because in the television industry, it's no, no, no, no, no. You can't go on TV without makeup. You can't. No, no, no, we got to. You can't go on TV without makeup. You can't. No, no, no. We got to. Oh, no. You got forehead shine. So we got to sit.

And I said, let me tell you something. I am not. I said, first of all, I ain't paying myself. I damn sure ain't going to pay somebody else to put some makeup on the show because I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. But that's where we are. Yeah, I mean, you're right. And not at all take away from, like,

the strength of you personally not caring, right? But I do think, I mean, you've got to admit, it is easier for men. It's easier for men to get to a point to where public figures, where they don't care. I think there was a story. I want to say it was in Australia, but there was a co-anchor, a man and a woman,

and the man wore the same suit every single day for a year. Nobody knows. But people bag on what the woman is wearing every single day. Now, let me be real clear. His ass wore the same damn suit every day. That suit was funky on some of them days. No, very true. But, I mean, and I think social media has made this worse.

Yeah, that's true. I'm a fan of social media. I'm not one of those who are like, yeah, social media. But social media has made this worse because people, that's true. I'm a fan of social media. I'm not one of those who are like, yeah, social media. But social media has made this worse because people don't check themselves. Everybody's going to gossip. People are always going to gossip. People are always going to have opinions on other people that you keep to yourself. But, like, you wouldn't walk up to a stranger at the mall and say, I don't like your lipstick.

I think you should do something different with your hair because that's weird. But for some reason, behind the screen, you know, people feel like they can send you an email, they can send you a tweet, they can text you and say, tell you what they think about your appearance. And it's weird. I mean, literally, I'll post photos of people sitting here and going, oh, man, you've lost all your hair. And I'm going, uh, I don't think I've lost all my hair. I'm sitting trying

to figure out. I mean, it's not like I'm walking around with a little bitty ass patch, like, right there and I ain't got no... Okay, here's my whole deal. Okay? If you walk around, like, with a little patch right here, okay, and you ain't got, literally,

no hair on the side, the top, whatever, okay, you can have that conversation. But on the side, the top, whatever. Okay, you can have that conversation. But, y'all, I'm sorry. It's ridiculous. And I think what's going to happen is I think when Alicia Keys did what she did, it caused some women who, frankly, are not in industries where it's like, no, you've got to have makeup, to say, why in the hell am I sitting there putting makeup on?

And I think, uh, Congresswoman Pressley, by her putting this video out, uh, is going to also liberate some other people. Uh, just like we've seen a huge resurgence, a huge increase in women, especially in the television industry, but even in corporate America and others who said, you know what, I'm wearing my hair natural.

I'm not sitting here walking around going to get that damn perm every two weeks. I mean, and listen, I think there are a lot of choices. I mean, you can choose to do makeup, no makeup. I think what... It's all your choice. It's all your choice, but I think what Brooke was expressing

is how for women that choice doesn't feel like a real choice because it's like, ooh, you look terrible. You got bags. Well, fix yourself up, right? I mean, and it is, I think, an additional pressure because of the way that women are scrutinized as opposed to men because men can still be good looking, right, without hair, right?

Like, there's a whole sort of lineage of men who've been bald through time that people thought were extremely good looking, attractive, sexy, all of that. And when you're a woman and you do say, you know, I'm not going to wear makeup or I'm just going to honor my hair and let it do what it does on its own,

it's, you know, taken as somehow you're not putting in any effort, right? And I think there is, and with social media and filters and all this other stuff where people can kind of get these overinflated senses of what they look like, you can Photoshop yourself

and be whatever you want to be. It really has made us have these unrealistic expectations of what people actually look like, men and women. Alright, folks. Brooke's got to go, so do me a favor, please. I want you all to go download her podcast, Controlling Our Narrative podcast. Brooke, thanks a lot.

Take care, Brooke. Thanks for having me. It's always really great. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Got to go to a break. When we come back, we're going to talk about election systems in Georgia. Were they hacked by the Russians? That's next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. You want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club.

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Logan Lamb, an election security expert, says that a Georgia election service shows evidence that it could have been hacked before the 2016 presidential election and the 2018 vote that gave Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp a narrow victory over Democratic incumbent Stacey Abrams. Now, the incident, which occurred in late 2014, long before either of those elections, not only calls into question the integrity of Georgia's voting machines during critical elections, but raises new questions about whether attackers

were able to manipulate election data and voter information through the compromised server. Additionally, Georgia counties were among those that Russian hackers targeted in 2016 when they breached some state websites and probed others for vulnerabilities that would have given them access to voter registration databases

and other election data and systems. Cleo, why this is important is because people who don't understand viruses, who don't understand computer viruses, don't realize that folks can plant things and lie in wait and then all of a sudden activate them at a certain point. This also was why when the Georgia folks, when they were sued, when Kent was Secretary of State, they went after Kent

because they quickly deleted those servers. So the problem is when you wipe the servers of the data, you did not have the ability to track the footprints to see exactly what happened. So there's a serious concern among people that these Russian hackers have infiltrated.

And we know now that, remember initially they were saying, oh, it was, it was really all caught. It was kind of like, no, 20 different states that were targeting and then different places they accessed in Florida. We don't know. We don't know in terms of how far this thing has gone because the reality is, is here. If you are in one particular county and then you put your voter data on that thumb drive and then you drive that thumb drive down to the election center. And when they put that thumb drive in their computer system, that virus then can go from one county to infect the entire state computer system. And they have a way of hiding these viruses in these computer systems and then just wait and so for the Trump administration to do nothing election integrity for Mitch McConnell to allow that bill that was voted on by the Democrats and Republicans

To sit idle it raises some concerns about whether or not we're actually going to have an election in 2020 that is protected from folks on the outside. Well, we already know that there's been interference with people's voting capacity for many, many years, even as far back as Bush. What I'm concerned about, though, is that we do have the technology to stop this. Why are we not using it? I mean, the Russians haven't gotten to the Pentagon, far as I know, and to any of the mainstream federal sources that we keep sacred and secret. So why are they not trying to put a hold on this? But of course, people like Trump and his courts

are not bothered at all by this interference, because they need this interference to win. And what happened with Camp in Georgia is an example of the prowess of that type of interruption because a man stole the election and is still the governor. But Bush did the same thing as the president. So did Trump.

So I wonder what are we going to do about it, particularly, as I said earlier, being that we do have the technology to track external forces who come into our databases. That kind of technology does exist. Well, and the fact that they are sort of not bothered by this and we're doing everything actively seems to support any investigation to try to figure out exactly what was going on. Precisely.

Exactly, because they're benefiting us. But it's also not just this election. We also need to be thinking about the census that's coming up in 2020, which is going to have some electronic components. So this is going to be far bigger than just this one moment in just Georgia, because if they're doing it in Georgia, I guarantee they were doing Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, all the other places that are important to these elections. And I think we have to be mindful that we have another election cycle coming up. still talking about what happened four years ago, then we're not probably actively going to stop what's going to happen in 2020 because in a place like Georgia, where they're deleting the information that we could use to go back, there's no record. The people who voted don't get any

record. So there's no paper backup. There's nothing. This stuff is literally digital. Aren't we passive as citizens in the face of this? I mean, I don't hear, other than Roland and Phil the Whispers, I don't hear that much complaining about this phenomena of interrupting our capacity to have a democratic voting system.

Well, I mean, I think there are actually a lot of people, because remember when California had their recall vote, it was actually political scientists and others who stopped that because of the voting equipment that was used largely in black, Latino, and poor districts. But these are silos. Nation, nationally. These are. But what I'm saying is that one, I think I think there is stuff happening, but it's partly silo because this happens at the state level. Right. I mean, they are in charge of the kinds of equipment they use, the timing, the date, all of that of elections happens at the state level. So I think that's why it feels that way. But you do have

folks like Fair Fight Georgia and others who are sort of trying to increase capacity to talk about this nationally, because the way it happens in Georgia isn't gonna be the same way that it happens in Florida or Indiana or any of these other places. But I do think that as more and more places are going to the electronic voting, we have to always be mindful

that it just gives us another way, right, to commit elections fraud, right? And the very thing that this set of Republican administrators said they were trying to thwart with these voter ID laws, it seems like they're inviting Russians in the back door to do it. You know, just come through the front door. Don't even try to hide or pretend because they seem to be giving them all the coverage that they need. But it's guaranteed. It's guaranteed. And it's been guaranteed for several elections now that the Republicans in particular are going to interfere with the Democratic voting process.

It's guaranteed. So where is the preemptive strike to counter that? That's my question. And I'm aware of what's happening in California and these different places, but I'm talking about a national outcry against this interference of democracy. Absolutely. I concur.

So we'll see what happens there, folks. The New York Times soon is going to announce who they are endorsing for the Democratic nomination for president. They did interviews with all the candidates who agreed to sit down. Not all of them did. One of them, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

In this video that was released, Sanders appears to be saying that racism is only a reaction to economic anxiety. Take a look at what he had to say, and we'll talk about it. What about the fact that Trump has touched a chord in 40 to 44% of the people? What about that issue?

It's like Trump is a symptom of a widespread problem. Yes. So, I mean, how do you address that? What is the issue? How did Trump become president? Not everybody, but tens and tens of millions of Americans feel that the political establishment, Republican and Democrat, have failed them. Maybe the New York Times has failed them, too. That explains the appeal of racism? Yeah. People are, in many cases in this country,

working longer hours for low wages. You are aware of the fact that an unprecedented way life expectancy is actually going down in America because of diseases of despair. People have lost hope, and they are drinking, they're doing drugs, they're committing suicide. And when that condition arises, whether it was the 1930s in Germany, then people are

susceptible to the blame game, to say that it is the undocumented people in this country who are the cause of all of our problems. And if we just throw 10 million people out of the country, you're going to have a good job, and you're going to have good health care, and you have good education. That's all we've got to do. So all over the world, Trump didn't invent demagoguery. It's an age-old weapon. And you take a minority, and you demonize that minority, and you blame that minority, and you take the despair and the anger and the frustration that people are feeling, and you say, that's the cause of your problem. Clear your reaction. I think that this guy is suffering from blind, subjective whiteness. And it's easy for a white dude to say, it's not really racism. There are these other factors. And he's proven through

this kind of rhetoric, similar to other people who are running for president right now in this lily white slate that's left after everybody else has been dropped out, that he has a white subjective frame of reference and blind tunnel vision, because that's not true what he said. It's not true. Well, so, Bernie Sanders has one gear, right? Everything is about economics. That's it. So he has no way of explaining how this economic anxiety

becomes racist and xenophobic, right? And for all the people in the world who are facing this same crippling despair, right, these diseases of despair and the drinking and all this stuff, it only seems to afflict white people, right? It doesn't seem to work like this for other people. And when you think about black folks, for example, we are doing worse than anybody else

on most indicators of economic health and wellness, yet you don't see black folks showing up to support a Donald Trump. So I think the problem with a Bernie Sanders is Bernie Sanders thinks it's always economics, but it doesn't explain race, and it doesn't explain racism. That's why that black woman's eyes look like they were about to fall out of her head,

and the man asked him very pointedly. So economic anxiety makes one racist? That's not true. And he knows it isn't. Well, I shouldn't say he knows it isn't, because I do think he is actually very sincere and he believes what he's saying. But if everything in the world is a nail and you're a hammer,

then, you know, you never have another response. You never have nuance. You never understand anything about race and other things. This is why it's important to hold whoever is the president accountable, because we're subject to their subjectivity and their white blindness. And they sign, support, or write legislation and policy based on their subjectivity, and it almost always trickles down into not being effective in terms of

powerfully advancing the lives of black people. Absolutely. And if you're going to use solely a class lens, that's certainly not going to work, because white supremacy doesn't have class, because when you look at who Donald Trump's voters were, the lie they told was that it was poor white folks. But that's not who was voting for Donald Trump. So I can't believe this sort of economic anxiety argument. And if he thinks that's what it was, I don't see him winning because it can't just be the economy, right? When you talk about,

at least Donald Trump is going to say, economics are doing great right now. Unemployment is at an all-time low rate. So what's going to explain voting for him in 2020? It's not going to be economic anxiety. But there are whites who appreciate the raceless perspective of how society operates. Absolutely, because they don't have to do any hard work. Exactly, and it will support him, those who will, because he won't look at the world through a lens that's considered of race dynamics. That could help him. Well, and absolutely it's going to help him.

I think with Bernie Sanders supporters, I do think that class lens is very powerful because it does let white supremacy off the hook. That's right. Right? Nobody has to do any work. All we have to do is just make sure people have health insurance and that, you know, people can work and be paid a fair wage. And then all the other problems go away. And we know that doesn't happen.

Right? At least if you've been paying to the last 400 years of history, you would know that that's not the way it works. But that's the story that Bernie Sanders tells, and if he's telling that story, then he fundamentally does not understand America, he does not understand American politics, and he certainly doesn't understand the needs of people who are non-white.

I disagree. With what? So let me unpack this. Play it again. I disagree. With what? So let me unpack this. Play it again. What about the fact that Trump has touched a chord in 40 to 44% of the people? What about that issue?

It's like Trump is a symptom of a widespread problem. Yes. So, I mean, how do you address that? What is the issue? How did Trump become president? Not everybody, but tens and tens of millions of Americans feel that the political establishment, Republican and Democrat, have failed them.

Maybe the New York Times has failed them, too. That explains the appeal of racism? Yeah. People are, in many cases... Leave it right there. So Bernie Sanders, so then, the brother asks the question, but does that explain the appeal of racism? Here's what the questioner should have done.

The questioner should have then said, this is what I mean. Folks, this is the fundamental issue that we face. And I've said this for years. I said this when I was on CNN for six years. Whenever an issue comes up, this is what happens. And our next story is going to even explain that, where a new poll says, here's a perfect example.

So a new poll shows that, y'all go show the graphic, a new poll says eight in 10 black Americans describe Donald Trump as racist. Okay? Okay? So you can show the graphic if you want to. So I'm going to link these two things together. Eight in 10 black people say Donald Trump is racist.

This is what ends up happening. You're a racist. No, I'm not. Come back to me. You're a racist. No, I'm not. So then the debate revolves around that exchange. Not the issue.

Not what he said. Not what he did. Not the issue. Not what he said. Not what he did. Not the policy. But the phrase, you're a racist. So when Bernie is asked, well, what about the racism? And then Bernie then begins to explain what Donald Trump is doing. What Senator Bernie Sanders is actually saying, folks, and is articulating,

is that these people don't see themselves as racist. They never have. The fact of the matter is, you will rarely find an individual who says, I am an absolute racist. They're not going to say that. That's true. They're not going to say that.

That's true. What they are going to do are make judgments, have perceptions, and make decisions through a racial prism that actually is racism, but they don't see it as that way.

See, in order for me to deal with somebody, I have to understand how you think and how you operate. And so if I say, yo, I ask a racist, what's their response? No, I'm not. Here are my friends.

This is who I hang out with. That's what Donald Trump does. He's going to show you the black people who gave him hugs after the First Step Act. This means I'm not a racist. See, that's not how we have to frame the question. See, some of y'all right now are saying, oh, you're giving us a legal answer. No.

I'm trying to explain to you human condition. That they're not going to see it here because they don't see themselves as racist. Now, press play from where we left off with Senator Sanders. In this country, working longer hours for low wages,

you are aware of the fact that an unprecedented way life expectancy is actually going down in America because of diseases of despair. People have lost hope, and they are drinking, they're doing drugs, they're committing suicide. Stop. And what... So, in 2009, they're doing drugs, they're committing suicide. Stop.

So in 2009, Pew asked the question, are you optimistic about the future of America for your children? A majority of African Americans, a majority of Hispanics, a majority of Asians said yes. Only one group at 41% said they were optimistic. That means a majority of white Americans said in 2009 that they were not optimistic about the future of America for their children.

Here's the problem with polls. Polls only ask questions. Preset. And you can either say yes or no. What you don't have is some ask the question, which is all subjective, why? 2016, September 2016. Another poll was done.

The question was asked, are you optimistic about the future of America economically for the next 10 years? African-Americans, lowest wealth, highest optimism. Latinos, second lowest wealth, second highest optimism. White folks, highest wealth, lowest optimism. You have to then ask the question, why? Why are they feeling that way? Now, it's very easy.

And yes, we are seeing this through our black prism, through our black lens. We know what we see because we know history. White people in America are never going to say en masse, we're absolutely racist! But you have to listen to the code words and then begin to

unpack what they say that all funnels, remember what I said, race, not racist, but there's a tunnel that exists between racist and not racist. And all those phrases and code words funnel into that tunnel.

So there's somebody who's over here who you can go, you know what, they're not really racist, but they have these racial perceptions. So maybe if racist is like 10, they're at four on that line. So they ain't full-fledged Richard Spencer, Stephen Miller racist,

but they on that racial line. Press play. When that condition arises, whether it was the 1930s in Germany, then people are susceptible to the blame game. To say that it is the undocumented people in this country who are the cause of all of our problems. And if we just throw 10 million people out of the country, you're going to have a good job, and you're going to have good health care, and you're going to have good education. That's all we've got to do.

So all over the world, Trump didn't invent demagoguery. It's an age-old weapon, and you take a minority, and you demonize that minority, and you blame that minority, and you take the despair and the anger and the frustration that people are feeling, and you say that's the cause of your problem. Now, if any of you saw the documentary

The House I Live In by Andrew Jarecki, what you will discover in the documentary is he talks about this whole issue of race and the war on drugs. He talks about how Asians were targeted, who were using opium and heroin in the 1800s. They were targeted. He talked about how African Americans were targeted as well

in the 1930s and 40s when it came to heroin and cocaine. He talked about the same thing happening in the late 1960s and 1970s. So when you hear Bernie Sanders talk about that, this is what is the deal. The reality is the deal. The reality is this here. When white people are feeling economically threatened,

lynching, their racism increases. Their appeal to direct demagoguery increases. What we have to understand is that that internal racism meter inside of most white Americans who have these feelings, it is suppressed. It's tempered. When the comedian,

guy who was on Scienceville, remember when he lost his mind, Michael Richards? And remember how he, it just, he goes, it just came rushing out and I don't know where it came from. Because he was so deep inside, he was effective at suppressing it. But in a moment,

he lost the ability to be able to temper what he said, and it came, quote, rushing out. So a lot of people are attacking Bernie, saying he doesn't get it, he's clueless. No, he's not. What Bernie is actually doing is articulating for us exactly how those white folks think. And so that's how Trump is able to play both sides. That's how he can have the little black comedian, the little court jester, Terrence Williams, and Candace Owens, and these other people who are supporting him who serve as the Pastor Darryl Scott,

Diamond and Silk, Paris Denard, all these black folks over here. But then you look at the actions over here. And so what we have to deal with is a demagoguery. And that, Cleo, I think, is what he's saying there because that's what we've seen. When we go, that's racist, it immediately is going to shift the conversation

away from the issue to now this thing that you really can't prove and you're just having a debate on racist, not racist. Well... Okay, Mr. Behavioral Expert. In most cases, racism can be proved. But I don't think this is really the issue. And I'm

not sure how much we agree or disagree on some kind of spectrum. But I do believe that racism, as we call it, because we're talking about a poll now, is such a norm in this culture that it's not seen as racism. Racism is, I mean, white supremacy mythology

is drenched in everything. You can't turn on TV, but a lot of us, including black people, have become numb to it as a norm, so we don't sit and critique of it, we sit and adapt to it. Right. We celebrate it. Exactly. So not only do white people have a hard time concepting racism,

a lot of black people do too. Precisely. Because if black people had the clarity to recognize racism and how far and widely as we be up in arms, the so-called Black Lives Matter movement would have not went away, but stepped up, because things under Trump have gotten worse for us on a policy

level, let alone on the ground level. But I think that the issue with what's his name? Bernie. Thank you. Is that it's white subjectivity, because what he did put in there, he's Jewish. Is he Jewish? Yes, yes. What he did put in there was the Jewish Holocaust. The 1930s, what happened in Germany.

That's what he was referring to and talking about what happened to his people. Though he don't see racism, though he feels like these are social determinants that are affecting people's lives and making them want to get numb on drugs or just simply economics, he did bring in the Holocaust, his struggle,

because the man has white subjectivity and white Jewish subjectivity. And frankly, people like Bernie Sanders, who have white subjectivity, are not helpful to black people. They're not, because they cannot see the elements of race and racism and how it affects us, because they're somewhere else in their own subjectivity.

I think it's interesting, frankly, why he puts racism to bed as a real problem he brings in the Holocaust from the 1930s. And now, Dr. Carter, the bottom line is this here. To Cleo's point, and I met with Senator Bernie Sanders specifically about this, when he kept attacking identity politics.

And that really was in a response. That was in a response to the fact that he lost to a woman. It was in a response that he lost to a woman because black folks didn't support him. And in many ways, Bernie Sanders was angry after 2016 that in his mind, that he did not win the nomination because of identity politics, when in fact, everything nomination because of identity politics when, in fact,

everything about politics is identity politics. And when I met with him, I specifically told him that, first of all, the phrase identity politics did not even come about until the 1960s when that was a response to the Black Freedom Movement.

And then, of course, you had the Women's Movement that came on the heel of the Black Freedom Movement. And then, of course, you had the Women's Movement that came on the heel of the Black Freedom Movement. And so you had the late 1950s, 1960s, then you had the 1970s with the Women's Movement, Title IX, and so all of a sudden, to criticize you fighting to be treated like a full American, oh, you're playing identity politics.

And so, Bernie Sanders, that frustration is there. And so, yes, when he's talking about these folks out there, or it's because of this, and he says, working class economic anxiety, you're absolutely right.

Dude, we broke too. Bruh, they ain't the only ones taking opioids. They're not the only ones who are using drugs. They're not the only ones, but when white folks start using drugs, when white folks start drinking, when white folks start dying, when you say life expectancy,

first of all, the black life expectancy ain't increased. What he's talking about, when the New York Times did a story on the life expectancy dropping, and not because of hours increased, it's because white life expectancy dropped because of the opioids. And so Bernie that was really talking about white folks,

but he wouldn't just say it. He used the broader terms, but looking through it, we know exactly what he's talking about. Yeah, well, I think even just the choice to say people and not say white people. Yes. Because you don't view all people as people. And that's because American society has...

Because everything in America has been determined through a white prism, you don't say white. So you don't see Politico do a story saying white pastors endorse Trump. You will see a story, black pastors endorse Joe Biden. So white folks will not put white on it.

Well, but that's because whiteness is this sort of blinding light, right? It's this sort of ever-present, omnipresent thing, and it's the exemplar, right? Because when he was talking in 2016 about the folks in the Midwest and talking to regular Americans as if black people don't live in Toledo, Chicago, Cleveland, right?

He was talking about white people, and I think that's something that irritates a lot of folks about Bernie Sanders. It's like, we know you're sincere. We know some of the things that you're talking about economically make sense, right? We know that healthcare is a right and people should have a ability to access it and should be paid a proper wage and all these kinds of things. But when you say things like what he said on that, I actually don't think he's just talking about Donald Trump voters. I think he's talking about himself because he is one of those

people. And I think that's the thing thing because that white man narrative of being lost, when you're talking to a people who are looking at having zero wealth as a community as soon as 2053, don't tell me about economic anxiety. But you know what, though? Totally agree. But here's also the reality.

The last election, 71% to 72% of the total... See, some of y'all about to really get upset with what I'm about to say. Some of y'all about to really get upset. Numbers don't lie. In the last election, 2016, many political scientists believe that 2016 was going to be the first election

where less than 70% of the total electorate was white. But because there was a decrease in black turnout and Latino turnout, and then you had Donald Trump appealing to those white folks in rural America. 71% or 72% of the entire electorate was white. For all that we do in demanding Democratic candidates talk to us, demanding they have a black agenda,

Latinos demanding they have a Latino agenda, the reality is, if you're running for president, they have a black agenda, Latinos demanding they have a Latino agenda. The reality is, if you're running for president, you're talking to white folks. Because 70% of the total, again, folks, 70%, these are numbers, in fact, 70%, the rest of us are in that 30. And so because if you look at our demographic numbers,

white people, the reason they don't use, they don't preface anything with white because they haven't had to because when they talk, they mean white. In the whole history of America, there was no need to say white people. Because when they say people, they were not talking about us. And so... And they're still not. Right. And so what happens, so these candidates,

the reality is these candidates are doing what white folks have always done. And that is not self-identified because it's like, well, if we want to talk about black unemployment, we mention black unemployment, but when we talk about black unemployment, we mentioned black unemployment. But when we talk about white people, we just simply say people, unemployment.

But yeah, but I think the only problem with that narrative is like, yeah, most of the electorate is white because we live in a majority white nation. I think most of us know this and we know that these people of color. I got to stop you right there. You said most of us know. Well, most. A lot of us know. Well, we should know. A lot of us know. But even that phrase right there, a lot of us don't even articulate, when you talk about, again, the power of white supremacy, we don't even say America's a white nation. What happens is, even us, we fall for, no, no. We're a nation of immigrants.

We're a nation... No. The reality is, America is a white nation. And what's driving all of this, and this is what Bernie did not say, while they appealed to Trump, because it all goes to 2043. Yes. 2-0-4-3.

When America will be a nation that's majority people of color. So the fear, this is what Bernie didn't say, the fear that Trump was able to push buttons, they ain't just looking at it,

when they say jobs. Yes. They just looking at it. Because when they say jobs, yes, they're looking at shit. My white son and my white daughter, they're going to have to compete now. They can't just walk in and get it because of whiteness. And then when you look at majority-minority states that are already in existence, you look at Hawaii, you look at Texas,

you look at California, you look at Arizona, these places, and they're portending what's gonna happen as we move across. When he mentioned life expectancy. Yes. Seventeen American states, the average white death rate

is higher than the average white birth rate. But, see, the bottom line, though, and I think, frankly, Barney represents this, too, no matter how appealing it is to some black people, is white folks ain't sitting back being passive in the midst of this threat. No! They are actively

on the liberal side. Sustained! Independent side. Right. And on the Republican side, but a little bit more clandestinely on the left side, because it's really incorrectly to be not supportive of all people on the left side. White people ain't playing that game. Like, we don't like y'all.

Stay out, get the hell out of here. We're putting up walls, jails, your mama, whatever. Don't come. But the white supremacists who are on the left with the left green piece and don't kill the SEALs uniform on, we're sitting here in the midst of all this white threat to black progress, black, the

very life of black people through Polish brutality, et cetera, and basically being very, very passive. So my question is what are we going to do in the fact that we are living amidst white folks who ain't playing? We just got finished talking about how they're interrupting

the vote and the Russians, who is white supremacists as well, and how they have all this things that they're sitting up to make sure that they can do what they did to Stacey Abrams and to the brother in Florida. What are we going to do? And even when you talk about the right, the changing of the of the of the country role in terms of become more people of color, black reproduction is here. Latino reproduction is here and getting here and here and here. Black reproduction has not moved. Black reproduction is still higher than white reproduction. But we're being outpaced by Latino

reproduction. And again, I want to reiterate the facts that our reproduction might be higher than whites relatively speaking, but it's static. It ain't doing this. So as the country changes to something beyond white in terms of white people, that don't mean it's not going to... Well, it doesn't mean it's not going to be anti-black.

Well, it still could be anti-black. Well, first of all, if you look at the numbers, it's a write-down. It could still be anti-black under Latinos. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Go to Florida. I'm not suggesting... Go to other parts of the country.

That's my point, is you're right. Like, just because it becomes something not white... We need to get ready is what I'm saying. What are we going to do? It doesn't mean... We're sitting here in front of a freight train that's long enough away for us to actually stop it from running us over,

and we're not stopping the train from coming. Which is why, in nearly every speech that I've given in the past five years, has been that. Which is why, for me, when we talk about why do we do what we do on this show when it comes to, when we talk about wealth building, when it comes to education, when it comes to why we have to vote, because all

I have been yelling is, 2043, 2043, either we better be in position to take advantage of a demographic shift or we're going to get run over. That's right. And that's why, and again, so while people keep wondering, they're like, well,

why are you doing this show? It's because, easy, you're not going to hear this on MSNBC. For all of how liberal they are, black people are number one watching them. You're not going to hear it there or CNN or Fox News or the broadcast networks because their agenda is not to speak directly to us and what we're about. That's why.

But I will say this. As we are talking about these demographic shifts, I do want us to avoid doing what white people do and say, it's these people because they're having more babies than us, because they're younger than us. Those are the people we should be scared of because I think that can have negative consequences on our

community. So I think we can have a real conversation about numbers and demographics and the world is going to change. But what I'm saying is, but let's not fall into the tropes of those. That's not my intentionality. I'm not suggesting it's your intention, but I'm saying that language can get real loose.

Even though it's not what you think, there's others who might think this. I'm talking about the absolute fact that we keep hearing about the browning of America, the changing of America, 2004, etc. And I know lots of black people who are assuming that we're going to have an

increase in power because of reduction in whiteness. And I'm saying that ain't necessarily true, that there's all kinds of interruptions of black progress, black self-love. The media is telling black people, do not love black people. Run the biff in whatever these white women's name is. Becky, that's the one they use. Run to them, love them. It's almost impossible to find on a daily basis two black people in the media loving and caring about each other in terms of intense, consistent, reliable love story. And I can go on and on with all these different things

that are getting in the way of black people focused on the whole concept of loving, caring about black people and black parents raising black children to value black people. But I want to go back to the point that you said when you said that when people hear these numbers, they automatically assume that something magically is going to happen with power. I go back to

2008 and I got receipts. When I wrote the piece for Essence Magazine, when I said the election of President Barack Obama is not going to all of a sudden flip a magic switch and all

these things change, there is still going to be lots of work to make it happen. So the point here is that if you take what Bernie Sanders said, and again, my reaction to what Senator Bernie Sanders said is not as angry and visceral as a bunch of other people who I see on social media. Because, again, I'm listening to what he's saying. I'm also understanding in terms of how folks think in this country. But I will say this here. There are people who are going to the polls in November who are white

who are about the protection of white interest. When you hear the phrases American values, American morals, what makes us truly American, they are speaking through a white prism. They are not looking at how we are.

And so, that's why we really need you supporting this show because we have got to have places that are here to purposely reprogram black people and reprogram

folks to teach them about what is going on. I'm literally working on a book proposal about 2043. I'm telling you, 2043 is real. And folks, see it. Republicans are purposely

trying to pack the federal courts in order for them to be in control because they know, and I know I'm over time, but I gotta say this in 120 seconds. When you say there's a redefining

of American morals and values. Joe Biden said this. It was edited and people were like, oh, what Joe Biden said. We talked about our culture didn't come from Africa. It came from Europe. If you heard the whole clip, Joe Biden was actually saying,

y'all, this is about white people. He actually was saying that and he was explaining why that's a problem. He was saying, look, this is about white people. He actually was saying that, and he was explaining why that's a problem. He was saying, look, this is where it came from. So when you hear the decline and the disappearance of American values,

what makes us America, they are talking about whiteness. They ain't just saying it. That's what they're talking about. Because what they know is that over here, black folks and Latinos, we look at this thing totally different. We look at the

flag in a different way. Both of us who have been reprogrammed or never programmed based upon white supremacy. We look at public policy differently than they do. And so when you hear those phrases, you get better understand what they're saying. And you gotta have

places who are gonna say that versus those places, mainstream media, who not only are going to repeat it, but they're going to actually exemplify it. And that's why it's important. Last story real quick tomorrow. Women are gonna gather in D.C. and other cities across the country for the

fourth Women's March since it was launched in 2017. This march will be a total rebuke of the policies of Donald Trump. Marches will start gathering beginning around 10 a.m., with the start time set for an hour later at 11 a.m. For more information, go to womensmarch.com forward slash 2020march. And again, those 53% of white women who vote for Donald Trump, let's see if they do it this time. Real quick, Khaleesi Halliburton of Nashville was black, filed a $5 million lawsuit against Michael Reynolds, who was

a white former New York police officer. In the lawsuit, Halliburton says that Reynolds kicked in the door of her home and screamed that he would break every fucking bone in her neck and called her and her children niggers. In connection with the July 2018 incident, Reynolds was convicted on charges of assault and criminal trespassing and was sentenced to 15 years in jail and three years probation

after pleading no contest for misdemeanors, and he was fired. He said he entered Halliburton's home by mistake, thinking it was his rental property. Reynolds resigned from the New York City Police Department earlier this month, following an online petition calling for his firing in support of Halliburton. The petition was signed by more than 10 000 people today donald trump welcoming his new favorite college football team of the louisiana state tigers to the white house today the event quickly turned into a campaign rally of course but the most priceless part of it

was when the faces of quarterback joe burrow uh and the men standing behind him so watch this here when donald trump uh says let's go into the oval standing behind him. So watch this here when Donald Trump says, let's go into the Oval Office, and you're going to see this really excited white boy. Look for the faces of the black people. Press play. Press play. Guys, you boxed it. Coach, we don't normally do this, but I'm doing it for this team.

Anybody would like to come with me to the Oval Office, we'll take pictures in the Oval. It's a special place. There's no place like the Oval. They come from all over the world. They have their own big offices and everything. They go into the Oval, and they say there's no place like this. So, coach, if you'd like, we can take whoever wants to come to the Oval Office.

We'll take pictures behind the Resolute Desk. It's been there a long time. A lot of presidents, some good, some not so good. But you got a good one now, even though they're trying to impeach the son of a bitch. Can you believe that? Can you believe that? Got the greatest economy we've ever had, Joe. We got the greatest military. We rebuilt it. We took out those terrorists like your football

team would have taken out those terrorists, right? But we're doing good. So we're going to go to the Oval Office with some of the players and all of the players, I guess. And again, I want to just congratulate the team. I want to congratulate your great representatives and all of the players, I guess. And again, I want to just congratulate the team. I want to congratulate your great representatives, all of you. Go back to the freeze in the video there. Now, the box, we put in the box, it actually cut off those two brothers at the top. You couldn't see their whole faces.

But when he, but you see the white guy right behind Coach in the blue suit and the beard. He was so excited when Trump said, we're going to get a photo in the Oval Office. He turns around to the brothers and goes, wow. The brothers are looking like, dog, we don't really care about that photo. So the four brothers in that picture barely cracked a smile.

Duh-uh, duh-uh. They ain't like, look, we ain't trying to be here. But this is the one that was it. When he kept talking about taking a photo, them brothers were like, yo, man, we excited. But the white guy one that was it. When he kept talking about taking a photo, them bros were like, yo, man, we excited. But the white guy in the beard, oh, he was hyped. He was hyped. He kept going, wow. He turns around, wow.

And the brothers look at him like... This is gonna live forever. They'll never live this one down. Right. Never live this one down. See, that's why you don't go. See, that's why you don't go. Because it's like, I ain't gonna stand here in front. Like, I ain't trying to be here. Uh, I'd be like, say, player, y'all can go,

but I ain't gonna be here. Well, he said who wants to go. They didn't have to go. But that white-black response that you're illuminating represent this country. Right. The white guy was like... It's the same racist Trump. It's the same crazy... He was hyped.

Getting ready to get impeached Trump who he's hyped about. I mean, he was like, woo, woo. Formally. We got a photo in the Oval Office. Brother's like, I can't wait till they release the photo to see. I want to see how many of them actually.

And how many of their mamas, when they showed them their picture, what did you do? And how many of them go to the family reunion and got to deal with that. All right, y'all. I going to go to the family reunion and deal with that? All right, y'all. We got to go. We appreciate Dr. Carter, Cleo, as well as Brooke for being on the show today.

Don't forget, folks, if you want to support Roller Martin Unfiltered, go to rollermartinunfiltered.com. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar you give goes to support this show. Again, you can pay via Square, PayPal, or even Cash App. We got all of those ways for you to do it.

And again, this is about us speaking our own voice, owning it and controlling it, and not asking anybody for permission for the conversations that we have. Monday, I'm in Bentonville, Arkansas, speaking to the black folks at Walmart on MLK Day. We're going to have a special show on that day as well. And so, as we always end the show on Fridays, hear the people who are supportive of this show who join our fan club. If you don't see your name, choose an email,

and we'll make sure to get that taken care of. And also, this is the Afrotech. This is the conference Blavity put on. So I want to go ahead and rock this. And Henry, if you can, I rock these shoes. Matter of fact, you know what? I can't show the shoes. Let me go ahead and show y'all the photo. So look at Cleo. Cleo like... Cleo trying to cop my shoes. Matter of fact, you know what? I can't show the shoes. Let me go ahead and show y'all the photo. So, look at Cleo.

Cleo like, Cleo trying to cop my shoes. So, I can't show you. Hold on. I'm pulling a photo up. Don't worry about it. So, Nagaz Footwear. It's a black-owned company out of Atlanta.

They sent me these shoes here. And if you go to their website, so you see these shoes right here. So they sent me three pairs, so I certainly appreciate it. I'm wearing the ones with the African continent. And so I appreciate that. We're gonna see them, we're gonna have them on the show next week, so they'll be on the show next week

talking about their company, the products that they actually put out. And so we look forward to that conversation. So the shoes, so I needed a hoodie that was green. So luckily I had the Afrotech hoodie. So, all right, folks, I got to go. I'll see y'all Monday. Holla!

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