#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 3.12 Coronavirus fears intensify; NBA season suspended, NCAA cancels tourney; Ebony/Jet archive sold

Episode Date: March 19, 2020

3.12.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Coronavirus fears intensify; Trump prime-time address confuses many; Biden and Sanders address COVID-19 crisis; NBA season suspended, NCAA cancels tourney; Ebony/Jet archive sold. #RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Hey folks, today is Thursday, March 12, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, folks, it is an unbelievable 24 hours. The NBA has suspended play for the rest of the season. The NHL has done the exact same thing. Major League Baseball, they are pushing back their schedule for two weeks. Schools,

Disneyland, all sorts of stuff is shutting down as a result of the coronavirus. Donald Trump gave an Oval Office address last night, sniffled his way throughout the whole deal, and they had to walk back three things he said in a written speech. Don't you think you checked your facts before he gives a damn Oval Office speech? Today, looking extremely presidential, was Joe Biden. We'll have that for you. Also speaking today is Senator Bernie Sanders. Folks, we got full coverage, giving you all the latest dealing with the coronavirus and how it impacts you on Roller Mark Unfiltered. It's time to bring the funk. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, 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 believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks, he's rolling. Yeah. Yeah. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's rolling, Martin.

Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know. He's rolling, Martin. Martin. Martin. All right, folks, it was on February 27th, Donald Trump said that, oh, we pretty much got in 15 cases, we're going to have this thing down to zero. What has happened? First of all, stock market lost another 2,000 points today, the fourth largest drop in history. What does that mean? It's lost more than 6,000 points in two weeks. The Federal Reserve announced they're going to pump $1.5 trillion into the markets in order to stabilize them. Also,

all across the country, things are shutting down left and right. Late last night after we got the air, the NBA announced that they are going to be canceling the rest of this season. Shocking players, owners, and everyone else involved. NCAA announced yesterday that they were going to actually continue with March Madness with no fans. 24 hours later, they announced there will be no March Madness at all. They're actually suspending all spring, winter, and spring NCAA championships. Not only that, Disneyland, for the fourth time in its history, will be closing on Friday. State of emergency declared by Mayor Bill de Blasio in New York City. We're also seeing the exact same thing happen

in the state of Wisconsin. We're seeing it happen in other cities all across this country. It has been an absolute stunning 24 hours as we have seen this nation trying to figure out what is going on with the coronavirus. Here's also part of the problem that we have. Testing. So far, only 11,000 tests have been administered across the country. South Korea, they're testing 10,000 people a day. That's how absolutely crazy this whole thing is. Folks are trying to get up to date about what's going on, how this thing is going to follow. I also told you, again, NBA canceled their season. National Hockey League also canceled their season.

State basketball championships are being canceled as well. Broadway will go dark until April 13th. This thing is real and it is absolutely stunning. Here's Donald Trump last night supposedly trying to calm the nation in the Oval Office address and all it did is add more confusion to what is taking place in America. My fellow Americans, tonight I want to speak with you about our nation's unprecedented response to the coronavirus outbreak that started in China and is now spreading throughout the world. Today, the World Health Organization

officially announced that this is a global pandemic. We have been in frequent contact with our allies, and we are marshalling the full power of the federal government and the private sector to protect the American people. This is the most aggressive and comprehensive effort to confront a foreign virus in modern history. I am confident that by counting and continuing to take these tough measures, we will significantly reduce the threat to our citizens, and we will ultimately and expeditiously defeat this virus. From the beginning of time, nations and people have faced unforeseen challenges,

including large-scale and very dangerous health threats. This is the way it always was and always will be. It only matters how you respond and we are responding with great speed and professionalism. Our team is the best anywhere in the world. At the very start of the outbreak, we instituted sweeping travel restrictions on China and put in place the first federally mandated quarantine in over 50 years. We declared a public health emergency and issued the highest level of travel warning on other countries as the virus spread its horrible infection. And taking early, intense action,

we have seen dramatically fewer cases of the virus in the United States than are now present in Europe. The European Union failed to take the same precautions and restrict travel from China and other hotspots. As a result, a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe. After consulting with our top government health professionals, I have decided to take several strong but necessary actions to protect the health and well-being of all Americans. To keep new cases from entering our shores.

We will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days. The new rules will go into effect Friday at midnight. These restrictions will be adjusted subject to conditions on the ground. There will be exemptions for Americans who have undergone appropriate screenings, and these prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo, but various other things as we get approval. Anything coming from you? Folks, here's what happened there. First of all, they had to walk back three things immediately after Trump gave a speech. How in the hell do you do that when it's a written speech?

You check your facts first. Then, of course, Mike Pence goes on television today and says, oh, no, no, no, we're not restricting travel to all Europeans. But he also said cargo as well, but then came back and said, well, no, actually, I don't mean cargo. This is, okay, if y'all want to actually see

how somebody gives a speech to address a pandemic, this today was former Vice President Joe Biden. In a threat that poses to our health, our loved ones, our families, our livelihoods, you know, I know people are worried. My thoughts are with those who are directly fighting this virus. Those infected, families that have suffered a loss, first responders and health care providers are putting themselves on the line as I speak for others. I'd like to thank those who are already making sacrifices to protect us, whether that's self-quarantine

themselves or canceling events and closing campuses. Because whether or not you're affected or know someone who is infected or have been in contact with an infected person, this is going to require a national, a national response. Not just from our elected leaders or our public health officials, but from all of us. We must, all of us, follow the guidelines of the health officials and take appropriate protections to protect ourselves and critically to protect others, especially those who are most at risk for this disease. It's going to mean making some radical changes in our personal behaviors – more frequent

and more thorough hand washing, staying home from work if you're ill, but also altering the deeply ingrained habits in our country like handshakes and hugs, avoiding large public gatherings. That's why earlier this week week on the recommendation of officials, my campaign canceled election night rallies that we planned to hold in Cleveland, Ohio. We're also reimagining the format for large crowd events we had planned in Chicago and Miami in the coming days. And we'll continue to assess and adjust how we conduct our campaign as we move forward and find new ways to share

our message with the public while putting health and safety of the American people first, above everything else. Yesterday, we announced a Public Health Advisory Committee of experts who will continue to counsel my campaign and me, help guide our decisions on the steps to minimize further risk. And also, we will lead by science. The World Health Organization now has officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Downplaying it, being overly dismissive, or spreading misinformation is only going to hurt us and further advantage the spread of the disease.

But neither should we panic or fall back on xenophobia. Labeling COVID-19 a foreign virus does not displace accountability for the misjudgments that have been taken thus far by the Trump administration. Let me be crystal clear. The coronavirus does not have a political affiliation. It will infect Republicans, Independents, and Democrats alike. It will not discriminate based on national origin, race, gender, or zip code.

It will touch people in positions of power as well as those vulnerable in our society. And it will not stop. Banning all travel from Europe or any other part of the world may slow it, but as we've seen, it will not stop it. And travel restrictions based on favoritism in politics rather than risk will be counterproductive. This disease could impact every nation and any person on the planet. We need a plan about how we're going to aggressively manage

here at home. You know, you all do know, the American people have the capacity to meet this moment. We're going to face this with the same spirit that has guided us through previous crises. And we'll come together as a nation, we'll look out for one another, and do our part as citizens. We have to be – we have to harness the ingenuity of our scientists and the resourcefulness

of our people. And we have to help the world – help the world to drive coordinated global strategy, not shut ourselves off from the world. Protecting the health and safety of the American people is the most important job of any president. And unfortunately, this virus laid bare the severe shortcomings of the current administration. Yeah, that was Joe Biden speaking earlier today. Very critical of Donald Trump's administration and how they have handled this pandemic. A little bit later, Senator Bernie Sanders, he spoke. Thanks very much, everybody, for being here.

In the last few days, we have seen the crisis of the coronavirus continue to grow exponentially here in the United States and around the world. And we have witnessed a global economic meltdown, which will impact millions of workers in our own country. In terms of potential deaths and in terms of the economic impact on our economy, the crisis we face from the coronavirus is on a scale of a major war. And we must act accordingly. Nobody knows what the number of fatalities may end up being or the number of people who may get ill and we all hope that that number will be as low as possible. But we also have to face the truth and that is that the number of

casualties may actually be even higher than what the armed forces experienced in World War II. In other words, we have a major, major crisis and we must act accordingly. Therefore, it is an absolute moral imperative that our response as a government, as a society, as a business community, and as individual citizens meet the enormity of this crisis. As people stay or work from home and are directed to quarantine, it will be easy for us to feel like we are all alone i'm working at home not in my office or that we must only worry about ourselves and think that everybody else should fend for themselves but in my view that would be a tragic and dangerous mistake. If there ever was a time in the modern history of our country when we are all in this together, this is that moment. Now is the time for solidarity. Now is the time to come together with love and compassion for all,

including the most vulnerable people in our society who will face this pandemic from a health perspective or face it from an economic perspective. On Capitol Hill today, congressional black caucus members and others also spoke on the issue, including California Senator Kamala Harris. Senator Gillibrand, for your longstanding leadership in the United States Senate on the issue of paid family leave and so many other issues that affect our families. Here's the bottom line.

Paid sick leave will save lives. Paid sick leave will keep communities safer. It's just that basic. It has always been an issue of workers' rights. It has always been an issue of what is the right public policy approach to supporting workers, understanding that every human being at one time or another will get sick and why should they have to suffer, knowing that they either will be able to stay at home and tend to their illness or put food on the table and feed their babies or pay the rent. But with the coronavirus, it has become even more stark as an issue,

which is literally there are people in America, in fact, two thirds of low income workers do not have paid sick leave. And when presented with the issue of whether they will stay at home while they're sick or feed their babies or keep a roof over their head, it is logical to believe that they will go to work so that they can keep taking care of their family. So in the midst of this public health crisis, let us understand that one of the most significant and effective ways that we're going to slow down this virus is to make sure that when people are sick, they stay at home,

that they self-quarantine. So let's unpack the math on that. If you're sick and we don't want it to spread through the community, we want people to stay at home. If you are a low-income worker who does not have paid sick leave, if you're facing the choice of whether to feed your children or go to work you're going to choose to feed your children and that means going to work and perhaps spreading the virus so what the house is proposing is not only right

in terms of what we need as public policy in the United States in terms of how we treat our workers but this is a very smart way to address what is currently a very significant public health crisis in the United States of America. So, again, I applaud Senator Gillibrand. I'd also just raise one more point. I serve on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which is an oversight committee. And, of course, part of our oversight includes over OPM. There are 2.7 million federal workers, and we have been asking the administration what they are going to do

to ensure that those federal workers are receiving the kinds of protections they need as they do their job of working on behalf of the American people, often interacting every day with the American public. We have yet to hear a clear plan. Among the people who work for the Department of Homeland Security, again, we have oversight over that in the Committee on Homeland Security, TSA agents. We already have a couple of TSA agents out of San Jose, California, who have tested positive. And we have asked then Ken Cuccinelli and the administration, what is your plan to make sure that the TSA workers... All right, well, that was Senator Kamala Harris there. What is quite interesting is that

Senator Mitch McConnell made clear they were not going to take up the House bill they're moving forward on. He also said they were going to go to a recess next week, but he got blown up even by his fellow Republicans, and now they're not going to be on a recess next week. They're going to actually be in D.C. doing the damn work you should be doing. So let's break this thing down. Joining me right now in my pound, Dr. Greg Carr. He's chairman of the Department of Afro-American Studies,

Howard University. Also joining me is Mustafa Santiago Ali, former senior advisor for environmental justice at the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as joining us via Skype is Erica Savage-Wilson. She is host of Savage Politics Podcast. Mustafa, I want to start with you. When you look at, again, how all of this is being handled, when you look at the fact that Congress was stunned today to find out that only 10,000 tests nationwide have been conducted, when you hear Trump, Pence, and others talk about how this thing has not spread across America, first of all, we don't know that because you have not seen the wide testing. When you have private labs, you only have a handful of labs

across the country who can even conduct the testing. I was watching a clip of a doctor on MSNBC, one of their medical experts, who said she recommended to one of her clients to go get tested. She couldn't even get her to get tested. South Korea, only 50 million people in that country. They with a chart yesterday showing 3700 per 3700 people per per million who have been tested five per 1 million in the United States. They are now they in South Korea, they are testing 10,000 people a day. Australia, they've set up drive through testing zones, all of those different things that they're doing, and for some reason, these folks,

this response is just utterly nonsensical. It's lack of leadership. You know, the president and his team had the opportunity for months to actually get the infrastructure in place in case this became a pandemic. If you look at across our country, and they played a role in this, you know, we have medically underserved areas. We have physician deserts. So when we

talk about the testing, we also have to talk about all of these communities, communities of color, lower income communities that are already struggling in this space to actually have the basic infrastructure in place for folks to move in and be able to get the testing in place. Then we have to talk about the medical biases that have been traditionally in place as well and address those questions as we move forward. But with all that being said, it all goes back to the president and his team and the lack of understanding of making sure that we actually have the right types of things that are in place. Greg, this is leadership. And you either have leadership or you don't. What we're seeing from the administration, horrible leadership.

Oh, no, absolutely. Well, horrible leadership from the president, for sure. Vice president, that's clear. I mean, anyone should be embarrassed watching that, what he stumbled through last night. And, of course, now the stock market has officially entered a bear market, 20% below the high that it was at. So we have that. But you know, if I was a high school teacher

or a college teacher around the country, especially if something's going to be online for the foreseeable future, this is a perfect example of a civics lesson of the country we live in. We talk about our country, but it's really state, local, and federal governments. So you see people taking the initiative,

mayors, governors like Larry Hogan now, you know, state of emergency in Maryland. As you said, the mayor of New York City closed down New York City. What's fascinating to me is that as we've been talking offline, off air, we're in an unprecedented moment. I mean, here we are where,

I just took the Metro now, rush hour from Howard. Howard Hospital is going to be a place, as you say, Brother Mustafa, you know this better than we do, where the most vulnerable people are going to come. And they're already coming Howard Howard Hospital is gonna be a place as you say brother stuff You know this better than we do where the most vulnerable people are gonna come and they're already coming into Howard Hospital I walk past our hospital got on the train the train looked like a weekend brother It's rush hour on a Thursday afternoon And I'm looking like we have no precedent for this so the mayor of this city state of emergency schools closed the president of the United States is exposing the fact that we live in a

Federated state and people are stepping up and showing leadership based on experience. And finally, and you made this point off air, and I'm sure you're going to talk about a little bit more, you know, Joe Biden's people, he inserted himself. And what we're seeing emerges a clear contrast in this thing. I hope you talk some more about the contrast even between the clips we saw. This man is completely overmatched in terms of Donald Trump. Oh, absolutely. I mean, Eric, it's real clear. I got a phone call at 5 a.m. this morning announcing that my niece's school will be closed today through March 20th.

Universities all across the country are doing the exact same thing. Dorms are shutting down. There are people who are on college campuses or in cities that are dominated by universities saying it's like a ghost town. People don't understand that it has a direct impact on where you eat, on groceries, things along those lines. Because if people are clearing out, then you don't have those services.

And what you're dealing with right now is a crisis of confidence from people in this administration. They told us last week, at the end of the week, we would have one million tests available. That's a lie. They had to actually say the day before that Friday deadline, oh, we're actually not going to have it. And a month was wasted. Literally, a month was wasted

because you had Donald Trump, who refused to even acknowledge the truth behind this. He stood in front of the cameras and said, we got about 15 cases. We're going to soon be down to zero. He was telling people on Twitter, hey, great time to buy stocks. At one point on January 10th, he was even touting, oh, how the stock market gone up 11,000 in three years. And he was quoting Stuart Varney on Fox Business and how we've never seen this before. The Dow may hit 29,000, never in history.

And then Trump literally ends saying things are going to get better. And it has gotten worse. We've seen them only get exponentially worse. And the other thing I want to mention around this is that in terms of this regime, right, and I agree with my brothers, Dr. Ali and Dr. Carr, that what we are really literally seeing is incompetence in leadership from this regime, but also a lack of strategic planning, right? Remember at the beginning of all of them coming into office, it was supposed to be this new type of leadership that was being ushered in, this new level of accountability drained the swamp.

And so then also issuing all of these different attacks around media, and then also gutting people who should be serving in these different seats to help us manage and get through a moment the way that we have, like the one that we have the one like the one that we have right now. And then now there's no one left. There's only the liar in chief left. And then I want to just kind of peel back as we've been talking about how we've seen states really act as presidents of their own state in terms of guidance and helping people really kind of move through

this global pandemic crisis that we have, is that not only do we have kids that are leaving school, both in elementary, middle, high, and then on to college, but then when we think about that in terms of their families and the type of work that they have, think about those families who their job really does depend on them actually being present, that they don't have the benefit of being able to work from home. So now you have poor and low-wealth people that are really kind of caught between, well, what is it that I can do to make ends meet, right? And then you have kids at home, too, that now they are even more anxious and more stressed out

because they're at home. That's another mouth to feed. So we're seeing this happening in schools and also for kids that are in college, because some of the kids that are at these Ivy League schools where tuition is $80,000 a year, that now that those schools are closing, they're going to an online model. If those are first-gen college students, where are those college students going? They're already food insecure. So this just really highlights what happens when in an election someone chooses to shake up and then 60 million people get behind a person saying that they're going to shake up the system for a person that is shown over and over again,

both in their business practices and any other medium that they've been in, that they don't have any type of real leadership qualities. This is what we end up with. It's now really every state, every community for itself to really protect the citizenry. Joining us right now, Dr. Oliver Brooks is president of the National Medical Association. He's a pediatrician in Los Angeles. In addition to that, he is the chairman of the Immunize LA Families Coalition and a board member of the California Immunization Coalition. Dr. Brooks, glad to have you on Roller Mountain Unfiltered. Good day to you, Martin, and enjoying your program thus far in the comments. As a doctor, I mean, how do you assess what has happened thus far in terms of how the federal government has

responded to this coronavirus pandemic? I will say that the response that I saw yesterday did not engender confidence. A lot of what we deal with as physicians is the patients, those we treat, have to have a confidence in us. So what I got from our commander-in-chief was not confidence. He let go Tim Zimmer, who was the national security advisor individual for public health and natural disasters. He wasn't replaced. Tom Bossert, Homeland Security, who was big on diseases, pushed out by John Bolton,

not replaced. So now what we're dealing with is we're scraping together a response. We have not had a state of emergency declared. State of emergency declared would allow for other funds to be released. And there's some funds like myself in the community health centers that specifically in a state of emergency. So now what I'm dealing with is a lack of tests, patients that have a lot of concerns, and I'm challenged to treat them properly. Also, at the end of May, since we look at the health and the welfare of the African-American community and communities that are underrepresented, we have to be concerned about things like if it gets strongly into the African-American and poor communities, poor transportation, public houses, so we're living

all on top of each other, not great access to health care. So I'm sick. Not only may I not go to the doctor because I have to go to work, but I may not go to the doctor because I can't readily get to a doctor. The studies have shown clearly from the CDC that those that die from this are those that have comorbidities. So we, of course,

as African Americans... First of all, what is that? First of all, what's that phrase? What is that? A comorbidity, just if you have some other illness, like in addition to you may have fever and may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, you also have hypertension, COPD, pulmonary lung disease, diabetes. All of these things put you at higher risk of complications and or death from coronavirus. So if or when this hits the African American community, communities that are poor, underrepresented,

it will devastate us. So that mortality rate that our leader told us, oh, don't worry about it, I have a hunch that it's not as high. And the black communities, if COVID really starts to spread, their morbidity rate will be, in fact, high. I'm very concerned

about that. Doc, but here's the thing that I think is just so basic. Don't you, as a doctor or as a public health official, this whole notion of keep numbers low. Don't you want to know exactly the extent of the problem to then know how are you treated?

How do you actually begin to fight this thing? Where, you know, where is it strong? Where is it weak? I mean, so without data, you're just flying blind. So you're absolutely true. The 11,000 tests that have been done in this country equal to how many are done a day in other countries like Korea is unconscionable. We work with data. So once we get the information, we know this many people are testing positive. We get a better understanding of the asymptomatic spread.

How many people actually have it that have no symptoms? The ages of those that are getting it. We need the tests. I don't know what to say. We were offered the tests. The WHO offered the test to the United States. The United States said, no, we'll figure it out. Then they released the test, and the CDC found that they were faulty.

No, no, no, no, no. Hold on, Doc. I want you to go over that again, because people don't realize that. The World Health Organization, they have been following this since the outbreak in China, other countries. They offered the United States exactly what? A test reagent that could be utilized immediately to start running tests and in large numbers. That was in January. And the United States said, no, we'll figure out our own and the test. We'll get our own tests going. We'll get it run properly coming out of FDA and CDC and disseminate it. And the World Health Organization offered that to all countries. They said, we're going to give you all of the backup data and everything,

but arrogant United States of America says, no, no, no, no, Donald Trump, we got the best people, we'll do our own. And now what they've discovered is that test is faulty. Well, it was faulty. It's now no longer faulty. But the point is, when you're developing your own test, it takes time. And that was critical time that was wasted because you need to be on top of this thing

from the beginning. So right now, it is like you are building a plane while you are flying. And it is a very uncomfortable situation. Wow. Up until two days ago, I couldn't even do a test unless the L.A. County Department of Public Health approved it because they had so few tests. Now I have found out that I can start testing more widely. So I feel more comfortable now.

But now we're behind. And this is one of those things where catching up ultimately can be deadly. So it's not like in a basketball game where when you get to the end, you won 99-98 even though you were down by 12. This is one of those when you get to the end, you look back and there is a field of bodies behind you because you were not able to get the information out to test, to monitor, to understand better this disease. He hasn't declared a state of emergency because he's concerned that it will contradict the message. So now, Doc, we've seen cities and states do that. If the president declares a state of emergency, what does that mean? What does that now look like? So what it would mean is that FEMA

would then take control over the response, number one. Number two, it releases specific monies. Some of the monies that they're earmarking are either extra spending or they're being taken from other areas. A state of emergency changes the whole approach. The federal government is now in charge. That hasn't happened. He says it's because this is like seasonal flu. But let's underscore the fact that right now, Tom Hanks and his wife tested positive. Where are they now? In Australia, where it is late summer. The other thing, if you think about it, WHO declared a pandemic. So flu can be a pandemic.

It's not now. Flu is a disease that we see every year seasonally. But there have been pandemics of flu. So he could say it's like seasonal flu. And if he says like seasonal flu, that is a pandemic, then the response is totally different. But we're not there yet. And Doc, in fact, Tom Hanks and his wife were tested in Australia. Had they been in the United

States, they would have not have qualified according to the testing rules. That is actually correct. So again, we underscore testing, testing, testing. That is what will get us to where we need to be. Again, my staff even now are somewhat concerned because we just don't know. We can't, when we have someone where we have a level of suspicion, I run the test. It costs 20 bucks, maybe comes back in somewhere. Now the time changes too. It was two to three days.

Now I'm hearing it's a day. But now when we can test, then we can allay people's fears. We can monitor. We can isolate. Basically, the approach is isolate, identify, isolate, and quarantine. That's the response to a public health infectious disease condition. And right now, the difficulty is identifying. Right.

You can't really identify them. So again. That is our challenge right now, the difficulty is identifying. Right. You can't really identify them. So again- That is our challenge right now. As you said, you're building a plane while you're flying it. Dr. Oliver Brooks, president, National Medical Association. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you very much.

Folks, again, one of the reasons why this show matters is because we want to, again, utilize our Black health experts so you understand exactly what's going on. Doctors you know who you can trust, providing you the kind of information. So how did we even get to this? Where did this thing even come from? Not all these conspiracy theories you're hearing out there. Well, the folks at Vox Media put together this really, really great video. And it was sent to me today. And I said you know what let's let's go ahead and play this and and it just really lays out where the coronavirus came from and how this whole thing originated you don't want to miss this so check this out 19 when health officials in China admitted they had a problem health

authorities have activated the most serious response level after an outbreak of a new type of viral pneumonia in central China. A rapidly growing number of people were developing a dry cough and fever before getting pneumonia. And for some, it turned fatal. Doctors have named the disease COVID-19 or coronavirus disease 2019, indicating that a type of virus is causing the illness when they try to trace its origin they found a likely source this food market in Wuhan out of the first 41 patients 27 had been here it wasn't conclusive evidence but Chinese officials quickly shut down the market they had seen this happen before

at a place just like this the health officials are trying to get a grip on an alarming outbreak of SARS. The virus originated in mainland China. It spread across the country. The disease had been festering for months in southern China. In 2002, a coronavirus had emerged at a very similar market in southern China. It eventually reached 29 countries and killed nearly 800 people. Now, 18 years later, this coronavirus is in at least 71 countries and has already killed over 3,100 people.

So what do these markets have to do with the coronavirus outbreak, and why is it happening in China? A lot of the viruses that make us sick actually originate in animals. Some of the viruses that cause the flu come from birds and pigs. HIV-AIDS comes from chimpanzees. The deadly Ebola virus likely originates in bats. And in the case of the 2019 coronavirus, there's some evidence it went from a bat to a pangolin before infecting a human. While viruses are very good at jumping between species, it's

rare for a deadly one to make this journey all the way to humans. That's because it would need all these hosts to encounter each other at some point. That's where the Wuhan market comes in. It's a wet market. A kind of place where live animals are slaughtered and sold for consumption. It was not a surprise at all, and I think that it was not a surprise to many scientists. Peter Li is a professor and expert on China's animal trade. The cages stack one over another. Animals at the bottom are often soaked with all kinds of liquid animal excrement, pus, blood, or whatever liquid they're receiving from the animals

above. That's exactly how a virus can jump from one animal to another. If that animal then comes in contact with or is consumed by a human, the virus could potentially infect them. And if the virus then spreads to other humans, it causes an outbreak. Wet markets are scattered all over the world, but the ones in China are particularly well-known because they offer a wide variety of animals, including wildlife. This is a sample menu reportedly from the market in Wuhan. These animals are from all over the world, and each one has the potential to carry its own viruses to the market.

The reason all these animals are in the same market is because of a decision China's government made decades ago. Back in the 1970s, China was falling apart. Famine had killed more than 36 million people, and the communist regime which controlled all food production was failing to feed its more than 900 million people and the communist regime which controlled all food production was failing to feed it's more than 900 million people in 1978 on the verge of collapse the regime gave up this control and allowed private farming while large companies increasingly dominated the production of popular foods like pork and poultry some smaller farmers turned to catching and raising wild animals as a way to sustain themselves.

At the very beginning, it was mostly peasant household, backyard operation of turtles, for example. That's how wildlife farming started to get off the ground. And since it started to feed and sustain people, the Chinese government backed it. So it was imperative for the government to encourage people to make a living through whatever productive activities they can find themselves in. You can lift yourself out of poverty, no matter what you are doing, that's okay. But then in 1988, the government made a decision that changed the shape of wildlife trade in China.

They enacted the Wildlife Protection Law, which designated the animals as resources owned by the state and protected people engaged in the utilization of wildlife resources. That's one of the most devastating problems of the law, because if you designate the wildlife as a natural resource, that means it is something you can use for human benefits. The law also encouraged the domestication and breeding of wildlife. And with that, an industry was born. Small local farms turned into industrial-sized operations.

For example, this bear farm started with just three, and eventually grew to more than a thousand bears. Bigger populations meant greater chances that a sick animal could spread disease. Farmers were also raising a wide variety of animals, which meant more viruses on the farms. Nonetheless, these animals were funneled into the wet markets for profit. While this legal wildlife farming industry started booming, it simultaneously provided cover for an illegal wildlife industry. Endangered animals like tigers, rhinoceroses and pangolins were trafficked into China. By the early 2000s these markets were teeming with wild

animals when the inevitable happened. The latest on the deadly SARS virus, the worldwide death toll, up again today. China has reported more than 1,400 cases of infection nationwide. It is what health officials have feared all along. In 2003, the SARS outbreak was traced to a wet market here in southern China. Scientists found traces of the virus in farmed civet cats. Chinese officials quickly shut down the markets and banned wildlife farming. But just a few months after the outbreak, the Chinese government declared 54 species of wildlife animals, including civet cats, legal to farm again.

By 2004, the wildlife farming industry was worth an estimated 100 billion yuan, and it exerted significant influence over the Chinese government. The wildlife farming industry was tiny in China's gigantic GDP, but the industry has enormous lobbying capability. It's because of this influence that the Chinese government has allowed these markets to grow over the years. In 2016, for example, the government sanctioned the farming of some endangered species like tigers and pangolins. By 2018, the wildlife industry had grown to 148 billion yuan and had developed clever

marketing tactics to keep the markets around. The industry has been promoting these wildlife animals as tonic products, as body building, as sex enhancing, and of course as disease fighting. None of the claims can hold water. Yet these products became popular with an influential portion of China's population. The majority of the people in China do not eat wildlife animals. Those people who consume these wildlife animals are the rich and the powerful, a small minority. It's this minority that the Chinese government chose to favor over the safety of the rest

of its population. This parochial commercial interest of small-numbered wildlife eaters are hijacking China's national interest. Soon after the coronavirus outbreak, the Chinese government shut down thousands of wet markets and temporarily banned wildlife trade again. Organizations around the world have been urging China to make the ban permanent. Chinese social media, in particular, has been flooded with petitions to ban it for good this time. In response, China is reportedly amending the wildlife protection law that encouraged

wildlife farming decades ago. But unless these actions lead to a permanent ban on wildlife farming, outbreaks like this one are bound to happen again. We're going to have to help those small farmers also because they don't have any... Again, that was a video from Vox Media. Absolutely fascinating to understand how this whole thing started.

You know, a lot of people have not taken this thing very seriously. You had folks, conservatives, who were saying, you know, taking Donald Trump's lead, this is a hoax, this is a fake, this isn't real. You also had an NBA player who now is being diagnosed with coronavirus, Rudy Gobert, plays for the Utah Jazz. This is Rudy Gobert at a news conference joking with the media before he found out that he was infected and then before he found out that he infected another teammate. And some of the teammates have been reported even saying that he had been touching their clothes,

playing around with them, not realizing that he was carrying it. Wow, Rudy thought that was cute. Now Rudy is apologizing. He went on Instagram and apologized, excuse me, went on his Instagram page and apologized for his actions, saying now he realizes how serious this thing is. Erica, that's the thing. You know, again, you had conservatives at CPAC who were acting like, oh, this is no big deal. But it was a conservative person who was there who was infected,

who was led to the quarantining of several members of Congress. You got Donald Trump, who was there, possibly came into contact with this person. A Brazilian legislator has been tested positive for coronavirus. Trump still will not even take a test. And I'm like, dude, you might have it. I mean, it's just idiotic how these people are thinking. It really is. And then when we expand it and we look at even cruise ships are offering discounts on people to take cruises,

especially porting out of California for as low as $25. Even thinking about some of the plane tickets, the pricing, $10, $16, $20. But now that it has impacted a part of the world that we consider entertainment, athleticism, now it all of a sudden becomes really significant. And it makes me kind of think about Donald Trump when he had months and months to prepare for this and weeks where he knew that this was actually going around the globe. And that the only reason that he began to pay attention to it is when the market started on their downward trend last week and just continued to go down. So I think what's really happening as we kind of like pull back and we look at all of this is really to understand that this pandemic is here. Right. And so that in our own way, no matter what it is that we do, to be very, very careful about the way

that we're actually interacting with other people. Social distancing, even if people aren't displaying any symptoms right now, is something that people in companies and organizations are definitely moving towards. And so I think that unfortunately, as people are seeing this part of the world being touched, that they're making it more seriously. But if we had had leadership, first and foremost, that would have done what Joe Biden said, which was said in his speech to make it about the health and safety of American citizens.

I think that when that's the tone from the top, then every other sector that kind of rolls up under that can really have that same display of seriousness, not after the fact, but well before. Here we go to my iPad. This is the statement from Rudy Gobert. He posted on his Instagram page, I want to thank everyone for the outpouring of concern and support over the last 24 hours. I have gone through so many emotions

since learning of my diagnosis, mostly fear, anxiety, and embarrassment. The first and most important thing is I would like to publicly apologize to the people that I may have endangered. At the time, I had no idea I was even infected. I was careless and make no excuse. I hope my story serves as a warning and causes everyone to take this seriously. I will do whatever I can to support using my experience as a way to educate others and prevent the spread of this virus. I'm under great care and will fully recover. Thank you

again for all your support. I encourage everyone to take all the steps to stay safe and healthy. Love. One of his players, Donovan Mitchell, also posted on Instagram his comment. Let's pull that up, please. And, you know, he spoke to this issue as well, where he talked about him being impacted. He posted a heartfelt message on his Instagram page. And so you see that statement there from Donovan Mitchell. And again, it's just stunning when people not quite understanding how significant this is and how folks wanna blow this thing off and act like it's really no big deal.

And what you're dealing with, unfortunately, are, again, careless individuals. That's the problem here. And so here's exactly what he said. You can go to my iPad. Thanks to everyone who has been reaching out since hearing the news about my positive test. We're all learning more about the seriousness

of the situation, and hopefully people can continue to educate themselves and realize that they need to behave responsibly, both for their own health and for the well-being of those around them. I appreciate the authorities in Oklahoma who were helpful with the testing process and everyone from the Utah Jazz who have been so supportive.

I'm going to keep following the advice of our medical staff and hope that we can all come together and be there for each other and our neighbors who need our help. Greg, I'm gonna go to you because here's what's interesting. Last week, LeBron James gave an interview where he said he wasn't too thrilled about not playing in front of fans.

He said, you know, I play for the fans. And I actually had reached out to the president of one of his companies as well as to one of his very close friends who plays in the nba and said uh get this message to lebron to lebron shut the hell up this is real i'm like first of all more fans watch the game than actually who can afford to sit in the nba arena but this is a public health crisis then of course uh the follow earlier this week he goes hey you know i didn't realize you know whatever the nba NBA decides, you know, you know, I'll buy it by that. I didn't really, you know, you know,

we got to ask, I didn't really realize how major this was. It's like, yeah, this is how major this is. You know, when you talk about these players, it's not just, not just them infecting other players, but it's also security personnel who they came in contact with, people who work for the team as well. And if it just, who are not multimillionaires. If you had a car service who drove you to the game or who picked you up, you now put that person at risk in their family. When you hear people talk about, well, if you're young and you're healthy, it's all good.

Okay, my parents are 72. So now what happens when it comes to your parents and your grandparents? And so people have to understand you cannot play games with this because you might say, well, I'm healthy. I mean, look, my doc called me today with my blood results, said, OK, all my stuff was looking good, top to bottom. But I still better be concerned about my damn health and how if I somehow get it and I pass on to a family member, that can have a negative impact on an elderly family. Absolutely.

My own mother, 93 years old, she's in your hometown in Houston, my brother-in-law and my sister. We've got to be very careful. Both my brother-in-law and sister work in health care. They know that. Your home state of Texas, you take Mark Cuban, who has shown initiative and said, I'm going to keep the people who work for the Mavericks on the payroll.

They can't afford to miss a check. And even LeBron's former teammate, Kevin Love, in Cleveland, just announced today he's going to put $100,000 into Kitty so to make sure that the people who clean up the arena and work in that arena who are not multi-millionaires will be somehow taken care of. That's what

made what Katie Porter did today so important. We're talking about, goes to the theme you initiated with, leadership. Leadership isn't just the President of the United States. It's people with resources saying, no, I'm going to look out for these people. It's a governor like Larry Hogan. Forget the politics for a moment. He said, look, nobody can have a meeting bigger than 250

people, and you've got to be six feet apart. Social distancing. Everybody can show up. I was going to have my school choice in the Black Choice Town Hall next week in Prince George's County. I was going to wait until next week, a black choice town hall next week in Prince George's County. I was going to wait till next week. And I'm like, look, bottom line is, you know, we probably wouldn't have anywhere from three to four hundred people out there. I said, no, we're postponing it. Cancel it.

I'm like, to me, that was a no brainer. I mean, again, you have to be smart. We made the decision on the National Association of Black Journalists. We postponed all of our regional conferences, all of our short courses. And we're monitoring the situation to see how it impacts our national convention. This is what is happening, Mustafa, across this country. And I think people also, somebody just posted this and I saw it. They said, you know what? I don't necessarily know people realize how nasty some folks are. People do need better personal hygiene, but we should anchor this

also in the science and the facts. So we know that we have over, what, 330, 360 million people in our country. If we have 1% infection rate, we're talking about 3 million people, 2%, 6 million, 3%, 9 million. That's a lot of folks. Then you look at the infrastructure inside of our communities, going back to what we were talking about with the Young Brothers who were playing in the NBA, our communities don't have the infrastructure to deal with this yet. So, and as Dr. Brooks talked about... Well, in fact, this is the nation. In fact, the medical experts are even saying we can't help everybody running to hospitals to get tested

because the hospitals are not constructed to handle that number of that influx of people. That's correct. But when we look at where African-Americans and Latinx people are living, you know, we've had hundreds and hundreds of hospitals that have closed. Again, we have the physician deserts. So we've got to be very mindful of the fact that, yes, we may be young and strong, but as you said, our mothers, our grandparents, my mom just got over pneumonia twice in the last couple of months. So I have to be extremely careful when I'm going back home and engaging with her. I got one of my attorneys who's in her early 50s who just got pneumonia. I mean, you can't play with coronavirus, have pneumonia.

Well, think about this also, and it has not come to pass yet, but if somebody knows that they have an infectious disease, a sexually transmitted infectious disease, there are laws on the books that if you intentionally impact someone, affect someone, then there can be repercussions for that. I know this is a different situation, but we may get to a place where people know.

We just had somebody got on a plane in LaGuardia, and then when they got off the plane, they told folks that they actually had the virus. So that's a case where you knew you were sick, and you still put other people's lives in danger. So we're just going to have to think about these things, and folks are going to have to figure out how they're going to deal with them. Well, and when you talk about just the utter nonsense that you hear coming out of the mouth of Donald Trump, how this man is so ignorant, he is so irresponsible that he will just say whatever the hell. He said that he has repeated over and over and over again that, well, if somebody is wanting to get tested, is that a problem? Oh, he's reached out to the insurance companies.

They've said, no, we didn't say we're going to pay for the testing. They said, we will waive the copay. We're not paying for the testing. They also have the power. Greg mentioned Congresswoman Katie Porter of California. This is what she did today, challenging the director of the CDC on this very issue. Watch.

Dr. Kadlec, for someone without insurance, do you know the out-of-pocket cost of a complete blood count test? No, ma'am, not immediately. Do you have a ballpark? With a copay, ma'am, not immediately. Do you have a ballpark? With a copay, ma'am? No, the out-of-pocket, just the typical cost. I do not, ma'am. Okay, a CBC typically costs about $36. What about the out-of-pocket cost for a complete metabolic panel?

Ma'am, I'd have to pass on that as well. Do you have any idea you want to take a ballpark? I would say $75. Okay, $58. Getting closer. How about flu A? The flu A test. Ma'am, again, I would take a guess at about maybe $50.

$43. Flu, this is like the price is right. Flu B? Too high again. I would probably say $44. That's good. How about the cost of an ER visit for someone identified as high severity and threat? I'm sorry, ma'am.

What was the question again? How about the cost of an ER visit for somebody identified as having high severity or high threat? Ma'am, that's probably about $3,000 to $5,000. Okay. That is $1,151. to five thousand dollars okay that is one thousand one hundred and fifty one dollars it this all totals up to one thousand three hundred and thirty one dollars that's assuming they aren't kept in isolation isolation can add up for one family already four thousand dollars and fear of these costs are going to keep people from being tested from getting the care they need

and from keeping their communities safe we live in in a world where 40% of Americans cannot even afford a $400 unexpected expense. We live in a world where 33% of Americans put off medical treatment last year. And we have a $1,331 expense, conservatively, just for testing for the coronavirus. Dr. Redfield, do you want to know who has the coronavirus and who doesn't? Yes. Not just rich people, but everybody who might have the virus? All of America. Dr. Redfield, are you familiar with 42 CFR 71.30?

Excuse me. 42 CFR 71.31 30 excuse me 42 CFR 71.30 the code of federal regulations that applies to the CDC 42 CFR 71.30 I think if you could frame the what it talks about that would help me I'm okay relate Dr. Red Redfield, I'm pretty well known as a questioner on the Hill for not tipping my hand. I literally communicated to your office last night and received confirmation that I was going to be asking you about 42 cfr 71.30 this provides the director may authorize payment for the care and treatment of individuals subject to medical exam quarantine isolation and conditional release that i know about and my office did tell me that i just didn't know the numbers ma'am that's congressman great so you're familiar dr redfield will you commit to the CDC right now using that existing authority to pay for diagnostic testing free to every American, regardless of insurance?

Well, I can say that we're going to do everything to make sure everybody can get the care they need. the existing authority. Will you commit right now to using the authority that you have vested in you under law that provides a public health emergency for testing, treatment, exam, isolation without cost? Yes or no? What I'm going to say is I'm going to review it in detail with the CDC and the department. No, I'm reclaiming my time. Dr. Redfield, respectfully, I wrote you this letter along with my colleagues, Rosa DeLora and Lauren Underwood, Congressman Underwood and Congressman DeLora. We wrote you this letter one week ago. We quoted that existing authority to you you and we laid out this problem. We asked for a response yesterday. The deadline and the time for delay has passed. Will you commit to invoking

your existing authority under 42 CFR 71.30 to provide for coronavirus testing for every American regardless of insurance coverage? What I was trying to say is that CDC is working with HHS now to see how we operationalize that. Dr. Redfield, I hope that that answer weighs heavily on you because it is going to weigh very heavily on me and on every American family. Our intent is to make sure every American gets the care and treatment they need at this time of this major epidemic, And I'm currently working with HHS to see how the best

operationalize it. Dr. Redfield, you don't need to do any work to operationalize. You need to make a commitment to the American people so they come in to get tested. You can operationalize the payments for tomorrow. I think you're an excellent questioner. So my answer is yes. Excellent. Everybody in America hear that you are eligible to go get tested for coronavirus and have that covered regardless of insurance. Please, if you believe you have the illness, follow precautions. Call first. Do everything the CDC and Dr. Fauci, God bless you, for guiding Americans in this time. But do not let a lack of insurance worsen this crisis.

And I would just like to echo what you said. It's a public health, a very important public health that those are, those individuals that are in the shadows can get the health care that they need during this time of us responding to this outbreak. And of course, we had stuck on stupid who was who was in the Oval Office with the Prime Minister of Ireland. This is what this dumbass said. Thank you all very much. It's an honor to be with the Prime Minister of Ireland. We've known each other now for quite a while, and we have a great relationship, and a great relationship with Ireland, And we have a lot to discuss. We will be talking about the obvious, and we'll

also be talking about the virus that's hit the world. See, they've canceled their big soccer games, their championship games, and a lot of other games. They've canceled a lot over in Europe and all over the world. So this is a big world problem. We've taken some bold steps. We took the original boldest step of all when

we closed very early with China. That helped us save thousands of lives. And we went very early with Europe. And I think that will likewise be very good. And hopefully we can get it back together very quickly in terms of reestabestablishing with China that's on track to something happen fairly quickly because they've made a lot of progress over the last three or four weeks and certainly with Europe we think we can go

hopefully very quickly they have some hot spots that are really bad they'll get them better Germany I guess has, I guess, has some problems now. France has some problems, some pretty big problems. And Italy, of course, is probably record-setting in terms of what they've gone through. Italy's having a very hard time. But we think we'll reestablish very quickly once this ends. And it's just a question of time. I think it'll go pretty quickly. Stay away from people and wash your hands

and do all of the things that we're supposed to be doing. A little bit anyway, but it'll be... It'll go very quickly. I know that we were just talking that Ireland's closed their schools and... OK, y'all. He praised the UK and Ireland for the work they've done on this. Ireland's not in the UK and Ireland for the work they've done on this.

Ireland's not in the UK. I'm just trying to tell y'all. Maybe you meant Northern Ireland. It's just crazy. Got to go to a break. We come back more on Roland Martin Unfiltered. You want to check out Roland Martin Unfiltered? YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin.

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Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Alright, folks, Johnson Publishing Company and parent of the now defunct Ebony Jet. First of all, Johnson Publishing Company, they filed for bankruptcy.

So they're actually now defunct. They have sold their photo archive for $30 billion. Now, that took place, of course, months ago. Now, an advisory council has been named to oversee the creation and programming around the historic collection before it's handed over to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. The collection has 983,000 pictures, some 3.35 million negatives and slides,

as well as 9,000 audios and visual recordings. Now, what they've done is five different foundations came together to actually put the money together to actually buy the collection. And so what they're doing is they're sorting through it right now in Chicago, categorizing it. It's a massive collection. And the sister, who of course is a librarian,

the Library of Congress, she's actually going to be overseeing this advisory committee. And so we're certainly glad to hear that is taking place in terms of protecting that history that is ours. All right, folks, let's talk about this. Y'all know what time it is. Travel girls are allowed. I'm white. I got you, Carl. Illegally selling water without a permit. On my property. Whoa! You don't live here.

I'm uncomfortable. All right, folks, her brother tried to enjoy a day at the amusement park, but a white man called him out of his name, and it didn't really go over quite well. No! No! Yo, yo, yo, I'm talking to you. We're going to get out of this.

Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. He's going to drop. Stop. Relax. Relax. Stop. Relax. Relax. Relax.

Let's get off. Stop. Relax. Relax. Relax. Oh my god. Stop. Relax. Relax. Relax. Fuck you, stupid. Oh, my God. Stop. You got to get up, up.

Stop. Stop. Off the right. Off the right. Just saying, Greg, I've been saying it. You've been saying it. Y'all are going to run up on the wrong bruh. Yes, sir.

Can you believe that? See, I didn't hear that, Doc. He called the woman a name. He did. My man's going, yeah, yeah. You saw them white kids. They're like, we don't want no parts of this terror right here. But yeah, yeah, you right.

Like you've been saying. You're going to get the right one one day. I don't know when they're going to learn, Erica. I think today might be a day that they start learning. But here's the other thing. I do love the statement that the company issued on behalf of the employee that was involved in this altercation. really in the age of Twitter and Instagram statements, which really should be people being courageous and brave enough to do the things that they did, you know, when they were saying that they were about it, like do it up front. In their statement, they said that, listen, the conduct of

this person that was an employee is not to be condoned. They weren't taking, well, the employee just responded. They quickly said and got out in front of that statement to say that, listen, what they didn't do was right. And so what we did was we terminated this employee and we don't tolerate that. They considered their 124 year history ahead of kind of saying, well, we're going to investigate and we'll be able to make a decision later. So kudos to this company for coming out in front of this statement and making a declaration that, you know, this man did what he needed to do to protect his family. And anybody that agitates and works for us will be dismissed. And Mustafa, now beyond this, this story, you still have cops in Miami Beach losing their minds.

This took place, folks, this video here. Go to my iPad. This took place in, I'm going to roll it back so you can actually see the beginning of this. And so you have spring break going on. And this cop, he, you know, he's... So go ahead. No, he's, so go ahead.

No, he's just showing up. He's choking her, what the fuck? Oh my God. She's bumping into her, y'all. She's going there. She's bumping into her. Ah, shit. Oh my God. Y'all, he told her. It's a movie. And I don't know.

Man, these niggas shooting out this bitch. Don't make her. I'm posting my video. Yeah, man. Man, these f******. Oh, my God. All right. Woo!

Video's been circulating. And again, it's part of this issue that, and again, we don't quite understand what you know, what led to this aggressive action, but it also speaks to, again, how police take an aggressive position first, as opposed to how do you deescalate the situation. Well, for me, it continues to be a part of the dehumanization of people of color. But at the same time, those are young girls that are there. And for grown men to feel that they need to run and tackle them like they're in the NFL says something. And then for folks to also move in, whether it's with guns that have rubber bullets in it or live bullets in

it, also sends a message to what looked like the majority of folks who were there were, you know, students of color. So, you know, we have got to do something about this military-style policing that continues to happen in non-military situations. And, uh, and I've also been a huge proponent of us making sure that also anyone who puts on the badge has to have psychological testing. And not just before you get the job,

but also as you're going through it. And, Doc, you are much more of an expert in this area than I am, in making sure that folks have not got to a point in their career where they no longer to be on the street. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. No, I think, um, I agree with you, Doc. Um, it's interesting.

I wouldn't call those men. They certainly have on uniforms, but they're not men. These are underdeveloped human beings. I wonder if those were white girls, if they had tackled them. To see a piece of a man run down a street and give a side body block to a girl. Now first of all, that's just one video, Greg.

This actually, actually I've got to let it, go ahead and finish your point. No, no, no, please. I'm gonna let this run continue. I'm gonna let it, go ahead and finish your point. No, no, no, please. I'm gonna let this run continue. We start the video because there was another incident that took place six days ago. Same thing, Miami Beach, where they pretty much body slammed this sister who was from North Carolina,

25 years old. So I'm trying to do a reset right now. I'm on the Miami Herald website. And let me see if I can reset this. They don't have where you can rewind their videos. So here we go. I think we can go ahead and get this to play. I'm going to have to go back and find the video here because they, so it's how they actually do their videos is a lot different. So let me go back and try to find it.

Go right here with your comments. I'll try to find it. No, no, no. As we're talking about this, I mean, it's spring bake season. We've got this coronavirus out here, you know, and I've had some concerns. You know, I'm listening to students talk about,

as we heard Erica say a minute ago, talking about picking up cheap flights. You've made it there. You know, I'm listening to students talk about, as we heard Erica say a minute ago, talking about picking up cheap flights. You've made it there. You're enjoying yourself. You're doing whatever you're doing. We know, and I'm sure we've all seen this. These white students coming out. Go ahead.

OK, so, yeah, go. Please. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! Yo, bro! They used that violence on a woman. For what? It took five of them. It took five of them and it was one of her. That's messed up.

We can't enjoy ourselves and trust y'all with us. But we get rowdy. It's OK to calm us down. We know how to calm down. But then y'all turn around and slam her? Five, six against one? Oh, no. That's messed up.

Again, that was from the Miami Herald there. And she said she was just frustrated. She was trying to gain interest. And they say there was an altercation with the security guards there, that's what they say, and they said that's what required her to be body slammed that way. And the guns? And the guns. The guns and both.

You know, Malcolm X said this many years ago, he said, you never see one of them come after one of us. You never see one of them come after one of you. This swarm mentality. This piece of a man tackles a child. This one, another one, you hear the girls say, use their violence against us. They use their violence against women.

And then the rest of them surround with they pumped up, probably steroid-fed biceps. Then this piece of a woman comes along with her finger on her trigger. They stand there and create a periphery. What we're seeing is whiteness at its finest. See, whiteness depends on, as you said, Doc, on reducing the humanity

of others. They're protecting an imaginary concept. But I'm going to tell you what, they're going to keep it up. And they're going to keep it up. And at some moment, see, this is the tension of it. I don't wish anything on anybody. But if you tackle a child like that, and then the thing escalates, and you look up and realize

that you're surrounded and you don't have enough police cars, and some of those police look like and you look up and realize that you're surrounded, and you don't have enough police cars, and some of those police look like the people you're harming, this thing could very easily turn left. And once it turns left, it's not going to course correct. There's going to be violence met with violence. And that's what Malcolm, Martin, everyone else, Ida B. Wells in the 1920s and 30s said, you know, this isn't about the lynching. Lynching isn't about the violation of white women. Lynching is about them putting black people back in their place. And so this violence is about you Negroes are not going to be human. We're going to impose our will on us, which is why Ida Wells said a Winchester rifle should occupy a place of honor above the hearth of every home.

They're going to learn one day that we might learn about that Second Amendment. And on that day, we might see a different kind of America. You can't keep doing this. Erica, I do wanna go back to the coronavirus for a second. I wanna get your thoughts on this here. Michael Steele posted a tweet. He works with a particular commission that deals with voting.

And they want to suspend the rules to allow mail-in voting. Just your thoughts on this. I mean, as this coronavirus thing continues, remember, you got primaries taking place on Tuesday. Florida's one of those states. You got another 25 or so states who have yet to even vote. Then of course, as we start thinking about in August, Florida actually, so you have the presidential primary

in Florida taking place on Tuesday, but you have the primary for their congressional races and others taking place in August. What about the possibility of there being mail-in voting all across the country? Yeah, I think it's something to consider. And I think just around that, then we would have to think about,

well, what are the ways in which people are going to have those ballots actually delivered to them, who's going to be in charge of picking them up and ensuring that there is some type of accountability to say that I have a receipt that I voted. And I think that's important to bring up when we're talking about Republicans who, for lack of better wording, are just really offspring of the current regime right now because they're all off of one sheet of music, all singing in one note, is that they are actively participating in voter suppression. And when I'm talking about actively participating, talking about looking at the Secretary of State

and how they're actually helping their municipalities, helping those people move through their elections, right? You have folks that work within their cities to do that as well. But everything all leads back to that Secretary of State. So when you have very real examples that are in our present and are not too distant past, when you're thinking about a Stacey Abrams that ran

against the Secretary of State who was effectively a participant in the game and also refereeing the cause as well, that is the one place where I kind of have a pause and really concerned around people participating in voting by mail-in when we do have active suppression that's happening. And so I think that when we're not at a place where free and fair elections are not as much of a risk, which I don't know that there's ever been a time, but especially now, that that's something that immediately, I would say, get behind. But I think that there also has to be kind of like provisions that are built into that to ensure that everybody that does vote, because we saw from last Tuesday and this past Tuesday that people are very much so invigorated to get out and vote. So just hoping that that would be equalized and met with checks and balances so that the enthusiasm that people have around going to cast their ballot would also be seen...

People have that same level of enthusiasm and trust that their vote was actually counted. But, Mustafa, the fact of the matter is we have to be thinking about this here. Because if you're talking about canceling sporting events, canceling colleges and schools, you guys think about having millions of people coming in a voting booth.

Yeah. I mean, this is a time also. So we know that many of the folks who work at our polling booths are older, usually, because they have the time to actually be able to do it. Yeah. My parents worked the polls. My parents worked the polls in Dallas County, yeah.

Yeah, and we also, I'm one who believes, and I respect what Erica's sharing, but we have to vote early, you know, and we've got to get those ballots in. But we've also got to work with our churches and our civic organizations and all these others to help people to understand in this time, you know, how important that is. And then, you know, eventually we're going to have to start better utilizing technology. but there are all kinds of problems that are in that space, especially with outside influencers, Russians and others who are trying to infiltrate and play games in our voting. So we got to figure it out. Greg, bottom line is we look,

I mean, this might have to be an option. Washington State already does this. They do. And it's highly successful. We may be having to look at this when it comes to this national election. Actually, Washington State is ahead of the curve, as we know. What's going on in Seattle, the state of emergency in the state of Washington, they're set to be able to vote for the very reason

you say. And, you know, it's very interesting as you were talking, Doc, I'm thinking about, I'm thinking, wouldn't this be a beautiful excuse for Donald Trump to say we should suspend the election? Oh, you know he's already there. That's exactly right. I mean, as you said earlier when you showed that very important summary that Vox produced, you've got clowns like Tom Cotton running around talking about he's going to hunt now who's responsible for this

virus. And of course everybody's saying, so which bat are you going to look for? But the whole point, to your point, if you can sustain Such an idiot. Idiot, but if you can sustain this perception of us versus them them and then empty that kind of momentum into a summer where they may have to

suspend the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, then certainly you could argue, even if we're past the coronavirus, you could argue, well, in the wake of it, I think we need to probably just cool this off for six months. And then you're looking at what they're facing in Russia with Vladimir

Putin attempting to alter the Constitution so that he can stay in power up until the 2030s. But you don't do that by executive fiat. You do it by the pretense that you've had an election. That's what people don't understand. Fascism doesn't creep by saying that you just took over. Fascism creeps when people do nothing. So this voting thing is very serious, and here we are in March. We need to be thinking about November and beyond. That's absolutely right. And when you just mentioned those conventions, also, folks, Sunday's

Democrat debate between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders will not be in Arizona. DNC, CNN, and Univision is going to be moved to Washington, D.C. Not going to be an audience there, but they still plan on having this debate, just the two of them, and so we'll see if that even moves forward.

All right, folks, we've got to go. Certainly want to thank Greg, Mustafa, as well as want to thank Erica for joining us on our panel today. Don't forget, folks, if you want to support what we do at RollerMart Unfiltered, go to RollerMartUnfiltered.com, join our Bring the Funk fan club.

Every dollar you give goes to make this possible. We need you now more than ever. Allows us to do what we do to remain independent and free to speak to our issues that absolutely matter to us. Also, zoom out for me. I want to thank Jamel Heels. Jamel has a line of t-shirts, and so she actually sent this to a number of our black journalists. Y'all go ahead and zoom out. So it says, support black journalists. And so that's what the shirt says. And so, Jamel, thanks a bunch. I appreciate that. And so we want to go ahead and wear that.

Looks real good next to this alpha ring, right? Mustafa and Greg? Indeed it does, brother. Uh-huh. So you got two more alphas on the show. Yes, indeed. That's how it is. And so again, Jamel, thanks a bunch.

You said to Aaron, Haynes, and others as well. And so again, Jamel, thanks a bunch. You said to Aaron Haynes and others as well. And so, yeah, we all stand in this thing together. And if y'all want to see actually absolutely great, cause you see you have of course the fist and then you have the pen, but if you actually want to see a great documentary, the group, this is the cats out of California. I did a number of years ago,

a documentary called soldiers without swords, which is a documentary on the history of the black press, black newspapers, which is phenomenal. Actually, I own my own copy of that. And so you definitely want to check that out. So, all right, folks, I got to go. We'll see you guys tomorrow. Don't forget, stay tuned to our social media accounts. Subscribe to what we do, our YouTube channel.

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