#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 5.14 #AhmaudArbery update; Whistleblower: US lacks virus plan; Dems unveil $3T COVID-19 relief bill
Episode Date: May 22, 20205.14.20 #RMU: #AhmaudArbery update; Civil Rights orgs call for hate crime investigation into the Arbery case; Tamika Mallory with Breonna Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer; Whistleblower says US lacks vi...rus plan; House Democrats unveil $3T COVID-19 relief bill; How can schools protect students during the pandemic; Crazy a$$ folks show up in Oklahoma City #RolandMMartinUnfiltered Partner: Ceek To All Roland Martin VIPs! You’re invited to The Laugh Experience. This Friday, May 15 at 6pm PST / 9pm EST at CEEK.COM. Join Roland Martin and let’s laugh with D.L. Hughley and fellow comics Chris Spencer, Bo Dacious, Ryan Davis and Clint Coley. + Try enjoying some live entertainment in the comforts of your home. Whether you’re a music enthusiast or an ultra-base lover. CEEK’s newly released headphones hear sound above, below and from multiple directions unlike traditional headphones where users only hear sound from left and right speakers. Be the first to own the world's first 4D, 360 Audio Headphones and mobile VR Headset. Check it out on www.ceek.com and use the promo code RMVIP2020 Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #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.
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Today is Thursday, may 14 2020 coming up on roland martin unfiltered civil rights organizations are calling for a hate crime investigations into the murder of ahmad arbery also the 911 call from
travis mcmichael has been released and attorneys for Travis McMichael, one of the
two men charged in the death of Aubrey. Hill News Conference today will show you what they had to
say. Conservatives are debating the validity of the charges. Ooh, talking about how crazy
did they get last night in a Zoom debate. We also have an interview done by Tamika Mallory
with the mother of Breonna Taylor, Tamika Palmer.
Also speaking of that, the governor of Kentucky
is calling for a strong investigation
into the death of Breonna Taylor.
In the coronavirus news, Rick Bright,
Trump's ousted director of his vaccine agency,
warns that the administration has no clue what they're doing, no plan, we'll show you some of his vaccine agency, warns that the administration has no clue what they're doing.
No plan. We'll show you some of his testimony and what needs to be done in the Democratic
coronavirus relief bill to release tomorrow. We'll talk to three policy experts with the
Poor People's Campaign, plus what schools are doing to protect their students during this
pandemic. And of course, crazy as white people this this time they're stopping a brother delivery man from exiting a so-called private road in Oklahoma.
What the hell is going on?
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Martin Martell
Fam, what's going on?
115 civil rights organizations are calling on the Department of Justice
to open a full hate crimes investigation into the murder of Ahmaud Arbery,
the black man who was shot and killed February 23rd in Brunswick, Georgia.
They want this federal investigation to determine whether they call it a pattern or practice investigation into the local district attorneys and the Glynn County Police Department for systemic constitutional abuses.
Letter was sent to Attorney General William Barr and Assistant Attorney General Dryband.
Joining us right now in our panel, Dr. Greg Carr, Chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies,
Howard University, Erica Savage-Wilson,
host of Savage Politics Podcast,
and Recy Colbert, Black Women Views.
Greg, when you look at this here,
first of all, obviously, the Attorney General of Georgia
has called for a federal investigation into the DAs.
The governor has appointed a special prosecutor
in this case as well.
This is, again, more pressure.
The question is whether or not
the Trump Department of Justice
will have the guts to do it
because it's interesting how it's falling out.
All these white conservatives
falling on the line of protecting
Travis McMichael and Gregory McMichael
as opposed to Ahmaud Arbery.
Go ahead. Yes, sir. I think politics will determine the calculus. I mean, we know that this
happened a couple of months ago over that and that it was external pressure, public outcry led by the
black community, led by really yourself and a handful of others once it hit social media,
which made it a groundswell. The Department of so-called Justice now under Attorney General community, led by really yourself and a handful of others once it hit social media, which
made it a groundswell.
The Department of so-called justice now under Attorney General Barr, a political operative,
is not going to do anything that they're not forced to do.
It's important to understand that now you see Republicans in control of the apparatus
of the state.
When they are in control, they also begin to break down and fracture.
In Oklahoma, for example, the governor just vetoed a budget, both houses of the legislature
controlled by Republicans, but the governor vetoed it in part because he wants to go even
farther right. You see the same thing happening in other places like Wisconsin. The Supreme Court
controlled by them, state Supreme Court, legislature is controlled by them, but they're
willing to take a risk there. What's going to happen in this case, I think, is that the Trump
administration is going to try to determine whether or not it will help
them politically to go after these two guys. And quite frankly, and I know we're going to
talk about this a little bit later, you know, as the facts unfold, they have hired some high
powered lawyers in Georgia that might be able to get them off. So you might see an investigation
undertaken if the Department of
Justice under this extreme right wing decides that, yeah, it's not going to cost us anything.
And ultimately, we may issue a finding that we don't see a hate crime or we don't see
a pattern in practice. Racy, what we're looking at here in terms of, again,
is the pressure. The reality is these three DAs were slow on the job.
The first one declined to prosecute them, even though cops said they wanted them to be prosecuted, actually charged.
Then you have a second DA who pretty much acted as a defense attorney.
The third DA dragged his feet.
Then GBI came in.
It's abundantly clear you had DAs who were not trying to prosecute.
This is why the DOJ should investigate.
But there's been no no evidence thus far. And the Trump Department of Justice gives a damn about
civil rights at all. That is true. I mean, under the Trump administration, the patterns and
practices investigations have all become to a halt. There was even in the earlier session days
where they were actually backing off of the consent decrees and things like that that the Obama administration had been working on. So yeah, we do know that
William Barr's DOJ is all about being Donald Trump's personal henchman rather than actually
upholding the rule of law for its citizens. However, I do think that what we're seeing now
is we're seeing a lot of pressure from not just these civil rights groups, but Senator Kamala Harris on May 11th sent a letter to the DOJ demanding a patent and practices
investigation and, you know, calling out the DA, calling out the police department. And we know
from experience that Kamala Harris is not shy about getting on William Barr's case as well as
going to the deputy attorney general and things like that.
And so I think that we're starting to see a higher drumbeat that's going to make it a lot harder to ignore.
Erica. Right. And in terms of not giving a damn about civil rights,
what we do know is that William Barr and his assistant secretary of civil rights do give a damn about civil liberties. Just at the end of April, they issued a statement of interest to the Commonwealth of Virginia.
The governor here had actually said that folks who are practicing religious services are not to have more than 10 people in a facility. And so there was a congregation that had about 16, and William Barr and his assistant secretary
did get involved there.
So what we have to demand, what Risi has said, what we do have to demand is, along with these
pressure groups, with the pressure that you've put on and other people, is to say that they
should have the same energy that they have around civil liberties for this hate crime investigation with the now deceased Ahmaud Arbery.
And again, the reason I think you've got to have this constant drumbeat is because they need to understand we're not going anywhere.
The reality is black people have always had to fight for our rights.
This is no different.
We should not have to be put on this level of public pressure.
But when you have three DAs who don't do their job, we have no choice to demand justice.
Absolutely.
Roland, I mean, again, it can't be overstressed.
What Recy said is right.
I mean, when you see Senator Harris, when you see those in the legislature willing to put the fire at a bar,
and he sits there with that smirk on his face saying that history is written by the winners, the toady is absolutely right.
It is written by the winners. What he seems to not understand, however, is the apparatus of the state can bend to the of the matter is this. Kamala Harris can rain natural fire on Bill Barr, and he will sit there with that toady
smirk on his face unless and until the rest of us get out in the street.
As we've said, as you've said constantly since this news broke, it was the video followed
by action of people in the street that empowered the policymakers to be able to do something.
Barr will not be able to do something. Barr will not be
able to withstand the pressure if enough of us who are outside of the apparatus of the state
impose our will on the state. That is really our strategy, has to be.
And we can't forget also, Erica, this is an election year.
Yeah, it's a presidential election year, but it is also a year for down ballot races.
We also have a Mike Espy. We have a Jamie Harrison that are looking to take senatorial seats. And in speaking about down ballot, this is an opportunity for folks to pay attention to those races that are impacting them.
As we see it right now, their local D.A.'s looking to see who their solicitor general is. And so I hope that this is an opportunity,
as Dr. Carr said, when this is how it's always been for us, right, that we actually take this
moment and engage in a much different and in a much stronger way so that the fragment of democracy
that we do have, that we're able to retain that and build from there.
Racy? that we're able to retain that and build from there. Recy? Yeah, and also there are two open Senate races
or Senate seats in Georgia.
So black folks, if you are down in Georgia
and you are pissed off as hell about Ahmaud Arbery's killing,
you can do something about bringing more people to Congress
to put pressure on the DOJ.
Hopefully we'll have a Democratic administration,
but just because it's a Democratic administration
doesn't automatically mean that there will be action
on things like this.
And so this is the opportunity to think about
all those races, as Erica said, the down-ballot races,
but also the two very, very critical Senate races
that will be coming up.
Absolutely.
Now, folks, audio from the 9-11 call.
Travis Michael made a two.
Police has been released.
Here it is.
What's going on? We've got a string of burglaries. I was leaving the neighborhood
and I just caught a guy running into a house being built two houses down from me.
When I turned around, he took off running into the house. Okay.
What did he look like? Uh, it's a black male, red shirt, white shorts.
Can you say the house is being built? It's being built. Yes, ma'am. It's
vacant right now. He is in the house.
What's your name and phone number, sir? Travis McMichael.
Alright.
Where are you at now? I am sitting right across the street in my truck, watching the house. Watching the house with her right now. Right here at the trailer. Okay. What kind of truck are you in? A red Ford F-150. Okay.
Are you okay?
Yeah, yeah.
It just startled me.
When I turned around, when I turned around and saw him and backed up,
he reached into his pocket and ran into the house.
So I don't know if he's armed or not, but he looked like he was acting like he was so you know be mindful of that okay
what pocket did he reach into left I believe okay and now so... Possibly.
How many houses down is it from yours?
It's two towards the highway.
He's got...
I guess he doesn't realize we're here.
He's got f***ing lights on right now.
He's got a flashlight going through the house.
Does he? Okay. You just stay where you're at so that the officers will know.
Will do.
Okay.
And I'll stay on the line with you until they get there, just in case anything changes.
Roger that. stay on the line with you until they get there just in case anything changes roger that so you said he was a black male did he have hair on his head any other features you can tell me
about i couldn't tell okay he just looked like short hair okay was he tall, short? Yeah, he was taller, about six foot. Okay.
There's the neighbors. I guess it's one of the other neighbors saw it.
There's about four of us over here around it right now.
Okay.
Now, keep in mind, that was not the 911 call that was tied to Ahmaud Arbery. That was tied to several days previously.
That's why he said, oh, someone was sitting here showing someone had a flashlight, whatever.
The event that took place at Ahmaud Arbery took place in the daytime.
And so just just under just understand that distinction. Now, again, today, his attorneys held a news conference where they made it clear that people should say that Travis McMichael and Gregory McMichael are innocent until proven
guilty. Here's some of that news conference. In some countries, when the government accuses
you of a crime, you have a show trial. You get convicted and you get sent to prison.
Or even worse, you disappear altogether.
But we understand here that when the government accuses you of a crime, how easy it is to accuse. And so we have that presumption of innocence. And we have that due process
of law with rights for every individual accused of a crime. We need to be mindful of those rights that are embedded in the very fabric of our society,
that are promises made by our Constitution, a document we hold up to other countries as
an example of how government should function.
And so I implore all of you, members of the media, reporters, journalists, commentators,
and the listeners and readers that follow your lead.
Don't rush to judge me.
Our evidence in a court of law,
whether it's in Glynn County or someplace else,
the government will have an opportunity
to present its evidence in a court of law,
and then, and only then,
then you can judge our cases, the tragedies associated with these cases. Mr. Arbery's death is a tragedy.
As attorneys who are stepping into this case, we feel an immense responsibility to be respectful, to
be ethical, to be conscientious, to have a commitment to the truth.
And we are going to shoulder the responsibility of that commitment to the truth and to those
core values that we as attorneys hold dear to ourselves and our
profession. That is our promise to you all. That is our promise to the community here in Brunswick,
to the families and to the individuals. You know, it's amazing to listen to them,
Erica, talk about presumption of innocence, no rush to judgment, yet their clients rushed to judgment, accusing
Ahmaud Arbery of theft, chased after him with guns. He's dead. They're still alive.
G-T-F-O-H. The execution, the lynching of Ahmaud Arbery, that blood is not going away.
And for other people to understand that are following this case and to see that whether
or not Travis is going to have bond, whether the other Klansmen, I don't recall his name,
is going to have bond, this is a long road ahead.
They have already had private Facebook groups,
many of which that have been dismantled, GoFundMe pays, many of those that have been taken down.
So we're just going we're going to have to play the long game because the other piece of this
is whether or not that case is tried in Glynn County, Atlanta or somewhere else, that we're
going to have to look to see what that jury is comprised of. If that jury is not reflective
of the now deceased Ahmaud Arbery and his family and the rising majority of America,
then we've got some real serious outcomes to be concerned about. And this is also why people need
to be registered to vote, so that they can sit on those juries for cases like this. And so as we
listen to these attorneys bring out the diversity piece, talk
about other countries, in this United States of America since 1704, slave patrols have been
the order of law. And so us wanting to see change means that we have to be very active,
that we have to, number one, ensure that we are engaged, not just in the short term,
not just for hashtags, not just for runs,
but for however long this case plays out.
But then also make sure that we are doing what we can to make sure that, number one, Travis and his father don't get bond.
That means sending out emails, calling the DA's office, but then also ensuring that we are registered voters so that when cases
like this unfortunately continue to come up, that we can be on those juries and make sure that
justice is served. Recy, again, listen to those attorneys. Look, I get it. I mean, he's your
client, but what y'all are asking for, they didn't do to Ms. Darbury? I mean, frankly, I listened to that
and I just thought, ain't that about a bitch?
How dare you sit up there
and talk about the presumption of innocence?
How dare you wave around the Constitution
after you executed a black man
who was minding his damn business,
who was jogging and not doing anything to anybody?
It's actually sickening to hear
and they probably really believe that shit
and that's what's even more infuriating. As far as Gregory McMichael goes, when you listen to these 911 tapes and this like that, all that is is establishing a pre-alibi. It's establishing a pretext more, and I hope you don't mind that I'm reading this, Roland, but Gregory McMichael actually had a lapse in state
mandated training for things like community-oriented policing, de-escalation, use of force. And that
was between 2006 and 2004, where that meant he was not empowered by, even though he was a chief
investigator for the DA's office, to issue arrests.
And so it's so ironic that a person who for eight years had this power suspended from him because he did not have the proper training
or he disregarded the mandate to have that proper training, turned around and took it upon himself to make what he called a citizen's arrest.
But what it really is, like Erica said, it's a lynching.
It's a slave patrol.
It's disgusting.
And this whole high ground and trying to appeal to people on the basis of
constitution and presumption of innocence, it's all bullshit.
Greg.
Well, brother, I share Recy's righteous ind indignation and I think Erica has nailed it.
First of all, yes, they may have taken down the GoFundMe and tried to blend it on social media.
But when you hire Peters, Rubin, Sheffield and Hodges out of Atlanta, you've got some money.
So the first thing we see is that you have some money or it's some money behind you.
I'm sorry, brother. Let me let me amend what I said to say what you said.
Somebody is giving them money to hire these high powered lawyers. These ain't country lawyers.
No. The first Bob Rubin. These two ain't got no money. No question.
That's number one. So we now see that, as you say, the Klan then rallied around its own because they didn't pay debt retainer fee.
And Rubin, Bob Rubin, the first one, the first guy who spoke, Rubin was the lead lawyer in, I'm sure you remember, I know you covered it, the Atlanta Public Schools, the RICO prosecution, those black principals in Atlanta for that test cheating scandal. Rubin came out of Emory. He spent time working with Fulton County as a public
defender, then worked with the state as an assistant attorney general for the state,
prosecuting Medicare fraud. So this guy has a deep training. His friend Sheffield, since 2015,
Sheffield, the second lawyer who spoke, he's been traveling overseas with Rubin and one of the other
lawyers to train new lawyers in the Republic of Georgia that just broke from the Soviet Union on how to select juries.
So what Erica said is very important. The first thing we're going to have to find out
is whether they're going to change the venue from Glynn County. And they're going to fight
like hell, I suspect, to keep the venue there. Then you're going to get into jury selection.
These aren't country lawyers. They've been doing jury selection. They go overseas to teach other countries, lawyers in other countries, how to select a jury. They are going to introduce, finally video galvanized our community, but it was necessarily
something that damned them.
Now you release this report, this 911 call, to basically establish that these police-adjacent
vigilantes, because they ain't just out there. These guys used to be cops, so they were affiliated
with criminal justice system. They're out there basically serving as a neighborhood. Watch. All you got to do is
seek the right jury, introduce enough of a snowstorm to get them to introduce reasonable
doubt, and these guys walk. And they got the right firm in Peters, Rubin, Sheffield, and Hodges,
brother. I'm afraid. Well, what's interesting about this is that a lot of people, I mean, this is this is probably this is arguably the one story like this where even a lot of white folks have been commenting on social media.
What happened to him was wrong. Eric Erickson, big time conservative for far right there in Georgia, was going, y'all, y'all could try to explain this all the way.
That man did not deserve to die i don't recall uh previous
cases where you where you saw that but what's interesting about this is that for the most part
you got these white conservatives lining up behind the mcmichaels but you got a few black
folks who've done that well last night a group of uh a group of these these black black black
conservatives or call themselves black conservatives, had a Zoom debate.
Let's just say it got a little crazy, a little heated.
You get this dude, Brandon Tatum, former cop, thinking like a cop, not thinking like a black cop, who has put out videos.
And his was very interesting.
Here's a guy who puts a video out trying to offer the facts of the Albury case.
It's almost gotten two million views in only a handful of days.
Trust me, those are not black people who are watching that video.
Well, things got a little rough in this Zoom conversation.
Here is an excerpt.
Question from Brandon.
I just, I personally, I came on here for this question.
Brandon, I've spoken to you before.
I think you're a great guy.
And this is why I'm concerned about what's going on now.
I mean, I think you know that a lot of us, for example, in other cases that, of course,
other black people have definitely pushed back on when we talk about it.
For example, when people were kneeling during the football games, I didn't think that was right.
And I was very vocal about that, that I'm proud of my flag and proud of America.
But there are certain cases that are so clear cut, like, for example, Flanagan Steel.
Most people will, even if they go back later and look at it, know that it was a very clear-cut case and it was wrong.
And then looking here in this issue, I think it's something that is so clear-cut that it's something that we can bring out and say as in unison, you know what?
This is when it's wrong.
Because what we get all the time is people saying that we never talk about racism when
it actually exists. We talk about racism when it actually exists.
We talk about racism is everywhere.
And I personally will say,
and I will say that over and over again,
I will call out people who make everything about race
because that's not true.
But it's also not true when it is very obvious
when something is maybe, you know what?
Now you're on this case.
If it's not even about race, right?
If Arbery were a white man and I saw
that video, I would be
just as horrified because that
man did not deserve to die.
Period. Nobody said he did, though.
I don't know. I'd give you $1,000
if you see anybody that said that man
deserved to die. But you know what you usually do
when you know that something is wrong?
You stand up for the person who was the victim.
And that's the problem.
Laquan McDonald.
We're not seeing you.
Did you make a video about Laquan McDonald?
Did you make a video about Laquan McDonald?
We're not seeing you in this case.
No, no, no.
Did you make a video about Laquan McDonald?
Can I finish what I'm saying?
I'm saying.
You're just making up stuff.
No.
How am I making up stuff. No, how am I making up stuff? I made a video about Laquan McDonald's death
at the hands of a police officer that shot him 12 times.
Clearly, it was wrong.
I made a whole video about how that was wrong.
Okay, can we go back to the Arbery?
How am I not defending that?
Can I finish my statement on the Arbery?
I'm just saying, in this case, it seems that what it looks like
is that you're going out of your way
for people who
are trying to be compassionate to really i mean we're always the ones who are going oh let's wait
for the facts to come out okay and that is why a lot of people feel like we're heartless but in
situations where it's so clear cut three months after the fact it happened that you continue to
say let's look at the facts, and the facts are coming out
hour after hour in the media,
and it's been actually justified by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation?
It's not justified.
Why don't we talk about the facts in that sense,
just as much as you talk about the facts in another sense?
It is irrelevant.
It is ironic.
It is ironic.
No, it's not.
It's ironic that all of these cases that we see, people are involved in criminal activity.
It's never, he said, he said it's never a case where a person that just am doing nothing is just gunned down.
All these people have an extensive criminal history.
Why is that important?
Do you not think that's strange?
No.
Just because you
had a criminal past
doesn't mean that you deserve to lose your life.
It's funny because
that is relevant in the case that's
at play. You know, here's the thing.
Here's the thing. They're quick
to run and grab that talking point of
Biden and Hillary Clinton
you know,
created the, you know,
the crime bill.
You're the fakest nigga I ever seen in my life.
They created the crime bill.
I see you in person.
They created the crime bill.
They created the crime bill.
They created the crime bill.
I'm done, bro.
You a fake nigga.
I hope everybody see that.
I appreciate it.
Fake, bro.
I'm going to expose you to everybody.
And when I see you, nigga, it's going to be on.
I want you to know that.
Because you called me on the phone,
and you're saying all this, and then you get on the live stream,
and you're playing this shit.
You should be ashamed of yourself.
Is that black on black prom?
Is that black on black prom?
You's a bitch.
I told you.
Everybody on your live stream knows you's a bitch.
And when I see you, I'm whooping your ass. Everybody got your live stream. I called you. Everybody on your live stream knows you was a bitch. And when I see you, I'm whooping your ass.
Everybody got your live stream, nigga.
I like it.
You want to be hood, nigga? You want to be hood?
You on the phone talking shit to me, and you call me
and say you apologize?
Yeah, nigga.
I never apologize.
You apologize?
I never apologize.
You didn't apologize? My wife listen to you, nigga.
I never apologize.
What I said was...
Bitch, nigga. That never podcast. What I said was, what I said, what I said was, what I said.
Let's wrap this up.
So the brother you heard who was cussing another brother out, that's Brandon Tatum.
Very close with Candace Owens.
Used to work with Turning Point USA and Charlie Kirk.
Frequent visitor to the White House.
Loves himself some Donald Trump.
And that's how they were talking amongst black conservatives.
See, and so what happened is the brother who was in the top corner, I think he'd go by Hotep Jesus.
Okay, that's what he goes by.
So he basically was saying, Brandon, why y'all always why y'all
parroting white conservatives how is it that you're giving them the talking points and see
that's really what we're seeing a lot of reese you got these people who are trump supporters
like a tatum candace owens came out of twitter jail just blasting away basically saying y'all
don't say nothing about black on black violence y'all don't care, basically saying, y'all don't say nothing about black-on-black
violence, y'all don't care about black people,
now y'all are mad. She was the first
one trying to say
Arbery was out there thieving,
and trust me, the white conservatives are sitting there
loving it. See, if you want to know how to
game, just go to Brandon's
YouTube channel. His videos,
you'll see,
giving that money. Giving that. Give her that money.
Give her that money. Give her that money.
And that's what I'm trying to explain
to people when we expose
these folks for who they are.
Okay? I know a whole
bunch of black conservatives
who are third and fourth and fifth generation
black Republicans.
These folks are Trump
grifters.
Not anybody
in that video, but folks like Brandon Tatum,
that's what you're dealing with.
Folks like him, what you're dealing
with is they
have come of age in this Trump.
You got Lawrence Jones up there. You see him
running his mouth on Fox News.
He be saying some nonsense as well.
The sister we tried to ochre for,
we invited her on the show. We
couldn't reach her. But the bottom line is, it's here.
I've had a different view on here. Like
this dude, R.C. Maxwell,
whatever the hell his name is, you know,
out there, his usual, oh,
that nonsense.
You call it what it is,
and they're the ones who are claiming, oh, they're
leading black people out of the Democratic Party.
Well, if you following a fool like Brandon Tatum, you can be going over a cliff.
Right. I mean, I don't know any of these people, to be frank with you.
I've never heard of them. I don't know them.
But I don't like what I see from from that clip.
And I watched some of their discussion. I was disgusted
watching it. My husband has a saying.
He says that some Black people, I'm going
to put the sum in front of it, but some Black people
are the foot soldiers of white supremacy.
And that's what these Trump conservative
grifters are. When you perpetuate
these stereotypes, when you
sit up there and regurgitate these talking
points to try to criminalize an innocent
Black man who was doing absolutely nothing wrong.
It's disgusting. And the way that
Brandon turned up in that video, there are white
folks that would shoot his ass for doing
that much, okay? And so, you know,
they want to parrot these things about, oh, you have to
conduct yourself a certain way. And look
how he was turning up and N-word this and N-word
that. You know, I mean, it's ridiculous.
If he had come across some of these white folks
that they were defending, his ass would be shot
dead, just like all these other black people
that they have absolutely no compassion
for, who did far less than what he
did in that video.
You put your head down,
Greg.
Brother, that's three
minutes of my life I'm not going to get back.
You know,
Daniel Dresner wrote a book a couple of years ago called The Ideas Industry. And he talks about how over the last generation or so,
what we've shifted from is the idea of public intellectuals. On the white side, you might think
of a Daniel Patrick Moynihan. On the black side, you might think of a Wyatt T. Walker or a Pauli Murray or Dorothy Cotton
or, you know, you name it, Ron Walters.
People who are informing policymakers or in terms of social movements, let's expand it
to an Ella Jo Baker or a Septima Clark, informing social movements.
He says we've shifted from that to what they call thought leaders. Well,
that's not that meaning people who generate clicks, clickbait generators, eyeball attractors,
they're not really impacting policy if they're unattached to institutions.
So now you see people like the whole Fox network crew, Sean Hannity, thought leader, meaning what
he is supported and subsidized by a media
institution that allows him to spew his nonsense. And then people do act on that, including at this
point, the president of the United States. What we just witnessed is the convergence of the thought
leader move in our society with the explosion of social media. The reason we don't know any of these people
or the reason you keep track of them
because you have to,
you're helping us filter this stuff.
But for those of us
who would never watch something like that,
first of all,
anybody calling themselves Hotep,
Jesus or Uncle Hotep
has opened their mouth,
as my mom would say,
and put their brain on display.
I would brand,
no, I wouldn't do that
because the word Hotep,
I would brand the glyph in
their forehead. But the word hotel in the Meta Netra in Egyptian hieroglyphs literally means
peace. So I should probably back off of that. But my point is that you've got people now and a mind
that UNCF commercial back in the 70s, a mind is a terrible thing to waste. A mind is a terrible
thing to underdevelop because now everybody with a phone or a laptop can get on social media.
Anybody who wants to talk can talk. These are not thought leaders.
These are people generating clicks for clickbait, nor are they conservatives.
They are branders. And so finally, what you started with is all we need to know about that conversation.
It's very basic. This is about money money this is about watching them this is about generating revenue
none of them have anything to say about anything that's going to either a impact policy or b
change the minds of anyone who will take a minute to reflect to organize to study and to act in an
informed manner so that was a sideshow better for wwf wrestling that's why he's talking about
beating somebody's ass which he ain't't going to do. So here's why
I showed that, Erica.
Because again, these
are the people Fox
News elevates.
I just need people
to understand
what the whole design is.
Okay?
Fox Nation, now they just dropped them
in no logical world.
What a TV executive give Diamond and Silk a show.
It's a it's a minstrel show.
But what do they set up?
You take a Candace Owens who used to work with the NAACP to get a settlement from her school district.
TPUSA hires her.
She's now in PragerU.
Trump has her at the White House.
Million followers.
All these stories done on her.
All like this great mass movement leader of black people away from the Democratic Party.
But who is elevating her?
That's right.
Is there anything between those two ears?
No.
There's a reason why she will not debate me
been running for a whole year.
But she'll challenge John Legend and Don Tito,
people like that.
And there are people out there who say,
Roland, but we should ignore them.
This is why you, that's not that simple.
Because you have to understand how they are strategically used to serve different interests.
Trump does the exact same thing. A crazy, ignorant comedian.
I don't know what he ain't even funny. Terrence Williams. Same thing.
You got to understand, to Greg's point, the minstrel show and the grifter show.
You got to understand how to Greg's point, the minstrel show and the grifter show. You got to understand how they play this whole game
and how they then elevate,
oh, these are the black people we should be listening to.
So therefore, how they prop them up,
they do their books and their speeches.
And then I think it keeps going on and on.
That's why you have a Larry Elder
who will write a book called Stupid Black Men.
Yes.
He ain't trying to talk to black people.
He's talking to white people.
He's talking to white conservatives.
And that's the game that you see being played.
And that's why we call it out
so folks understand.
And let me be clear.
There are black conservatives we have on this show
who are real,
who do care about the black community.
We might differ
on some policy issues.
We might agree
on some policy issues.
There's a long history
of black people
being Republicans, okay?
You could talk about
Jackie Robinson.
You could talk about
any number of people.
You could talk about
folks who served
in Republican administrations.
Bob Brown, who accompanied
Coretta Scott King to pick up Dr. King's body, who was on the board of the SCLC, goes from there
to getting hired by Richard Nixon and who played a crucial role in terms of driving these black
people. Just because he worked for Nixon didn't make him bad. So that happens. There are black
people who work in different administrations who've done that. Alfonso Jackson, Secretary of HUD under George W. Bush. I know Alfonso well. Again,
we might differ on some issues, but agree on some other issues. These folks, the Brandon Tatums of
the world, the Candace Owens of the world, they can't even step in the same room with those black Republicans.
It's understanding the game, Erica.
Absolutely, Roland, and you laid it out.
What's being presented for the public is information.
And what they have yet to find out is that acquiescence to whiteness is not protection.
It does not preclude any of the injustices that we have seen for years and
years from happening to them. And since we're dropping gems, I'll drop something that my late
big mama said to us, which is when you open your mouth, you remove all doubt. And so for Brandon
Tatum, the moment I had to click off is when he began to invoke the name of George Zimmerman and O.J. Simpson and then go on to,
as you shared in that clip, talk about the people that have been victims of criminal activity by the
people that executed, lynched them, that they had criminal background. You're talking about
a black man, a person that is black, that is a former law enforcement officer.
I'm very concerned about what his history was when he was on the police force with the type
of aggression that we saw in that video with a muscle tight shirt on with the face of Donald
Trump. So we do have to look at the minstrel show. We do have to have this type of
information so that we can be even more engaged in understanding grifters and knowing that all
of our skinfolk damn sure ain't our kinfolk. And let's talk about another case, the Breonna
Taylor case. Black woman shot and killed in Louisville. These are the photos of the three
officers who were involved in that shooting. Go to my iPad, please. Okay. Detective Brett Hankinson, Detective
Miles Cosgrove, Sergeant Jonathan Madeline on death's duty, will still have their jobs. Now,
in a moment, I'm going to play the actual interview that Tamika Mallory did with
Breonna's mother. But I want to talk to our panel about this here because this is what I find to be real interesting.
And that is,
her boyfriend
had a license
to carry his gun.
The cops break into the apartment.
No knock warrant, Reesey.
They bust through.
He grabs his gun, thinking home invasion, intruders.
Fires at the cops.
20 bullets are fired back.
Kills Breonna, EMT worker, boyfriend, charged with attempted murder.
Do any of y'all have any of y'all seen
the National Rifle Association?
Dana Lash,
big time
Second Amendment.
Grant Stinchfield
had their show on NRA TV.
The black dude from Dallas, Colin Knorr.
Oh, big time gun person.
Brice, have you heard any of them coming to the defense of Kevin, the boyfriend?
I thought they were all about protecting gun rights and gun owners.
Yeah.
But I mean, did they say anything
when Philando Castile was gunned down
and he was allowed, he was registered to carry
and he was actually reaching for his permit
to show the officers?
Of course not.
I mean, black people don't have,
the Second Amendment doesn't apply to black people
when it comes to the NRA.
And interestingly enough, we had a similar case
in Prince George's County
where the cops came to the wrong house the NRA. And interestingly enough, we had a similar case in Prince George's County where
the cops came to the wrong house and, you know, they got fired on by the owner or by the person
who, you know, lived there. And there were no charges or anything of the sort because the cops
were in the wrong in that situation. This is nothing but retaliation. It's nothing but,
you know, a grievous injustice and trying to deflect away from the fact that the cops
killed an innocent woman who they did not have a warrant for, who was not involved in any kind
of criminal activity. They found no drugs in her place. But one thing I do want to get away from
is how we try to paint people as the perfect victim when the reality is, even if there were
drugs, the same thing, even if Ahmaud Arbery was stealing something, that does not give anybody the right to execute them.
It's a lynching. And this is nothing more than trying to intimidate the boyfriend, just like I believe Philando Castile's girlfriend was, you know, handcuffed and all the other kind of stuff.
We always see where they try to intimidate the witnesses to these illegal killings.
Yes. Again, I'm sitting here like, like, for instance, go to my iPad, please.
I see this little tweet they sent out May 6th after a scary experience.
She learned to sew and launches a custom holster business from her dorm room.
Read Nikita's inspiring story here. So they got a photo of his sister all on their page, you know, emphasizing that.
And if I scroll down, I'm looking and I'm, I'm, I'm looking at this here.
1.8 million guns sold.
Second straight month of historic gun sales.
71% up from last year.
You're seeing all these.
I don't see nothing about the brother in Kentucky NRA.
It's amazing how quiet they are, Greg.
Well, I mean, because the NRA is a perfect marriage of white nationalism and corporate elites.
Those sales are going through the roof because people are arming themselves, some of them perhaps in rural Michigan or Wisconsin or South Dakota for the coming race war they've been fantasizing about in their movies and in their literature that they circulate in their little caverns. were alive. And I wish that night that Kenneth Walker had been able to neutralize the threat posited by the cowardly Louisville patirolers acting under the cover of their deceit by not
having body cameras. If they had body cameras and Kenneth Walker had been able to neutralize
the threat, there would be two dead Louisville cops and he'd be charged with killing the police.
As it stands, what we see is what we've always seen.
Again, I just referenced our ancestor Ida Wells again,
who said that a Winchester rifle should occupy a place of honor
above the hearth of every home, of every Negro home,
writing in the 1890s when she talks about lynch law and all its phases.
This isn't going to stop until we stop it.
Ken Walker did his best to stop it that night.
His partner paid for it with her
life. And unfortunately, he wasn't able to wound and or kill these two patarollers who
not only invaded their home, but shot up an apartment complex. And thank God they didn't
kill anybody else. There is no justice in this godforsaken settler state, except that
we give it to ourselves.
And this should wake everybody up to run these people out of elective office. That's just one strategy to arm ourselves.
Another strategy. Now, I'll end with this. While people are while we're looking and trying to
survive and our essential workers like Breonna are out there trying to live, Mitch McConnell and his
in the Senate, he controls past legislation today, reauthorization of the Patriot
Act that allows you allows the federal government to go into your Web browser and look through your
search history without your consent. This place is getting closer and closer to the place it is.
The mask is falling off. And this is just another example of that. Yes. And the reason I'm raising
this, people, because, again, it's important for us
to show the hypocrisy that exists
when it comes to these folks.
Why is that? Because they'll
stand there. They will celebrate
these fools walking around with their
submachine guns,
walk around with their heavy artillery.
They had a photo the other day. This fool had an anti-
tank missile
launcher on his back.
How many damn tanks your ass running into in your neighborhood?
That's how crazy these people are.
Yet when a black man with a license for a gun protects his home and shoots and these cops know not war.
And so you don't know who's coming to the door. Now he's facing attempted murder charges,
and all of these people who run their mouths about the Second Amendment
say nothing because they're all about protecting police,
if they're right or wrong.
It doesn't matter.
Just like they said nothing and did not stand up when John Crawford, the third, was gunned down in a Wal-Mart in Ohio holding an air gun, an air gun that was sold at that Wal-Mart.
But they tell us they can all carry their weapons.
Go ahead with your final comment. Sure. And you're talking about the same clans, folks that are out making essentially state governments to open up.
And I don't know how many more times or how many different ways it has to be said or has to be seen that black life is not valued. You know, allies and, you know, diversity, inclusion,
all of these different effects to help make a group that will not
and does not feel like they have to accept,
because as long as whiteness is an authority,
as long as it is believed to be primary and truthful,
as long as that is held true by this nation state
and people actually take that on to be their
truth as well, then things will continue to run business as usual.
And so what folks need to wake up and see is that black life definitely is not valued
and that this gentleman, Kenneth Walker, still has to grieve the death of Breonna Taylor.
Now we're also talking about trauma that has been inflicted
upon this family, amongst all of us that have again had to ingest another injustice by the state.
And so I said on this show on last Thursday, my Mother's Day gift was a 380. Listen, it's not a
game. And I hope that people even realize that during this crisis, that though it is a heightened time and that health disparities amongst our community are definitely high.
It is also a time for us to begin to look at ways with which that we can preserve our life and go ahead and step forward to ensure that we're not only protecting ourselves but our communities. And Dr. Carr did line out some of those strategies.
And I hope that people take that to heart because it is not going to happen just by
social media campaign, just by saying we're disgusted, just by posting a hashtag.
It is going to take real energy, real effort, and real action.
All right, folks.
Again, the mother of Breonna Taylor,
she sat down in an Instagram Live interview with activist Tamika Mallory.
The interview took place with Tamika Palmer.
Here's an excerpt of their interview.
I think all of the folks who are tuning in tonight
want to share our condolences with you,
really from a deep, deep place, of the folks who are tuning in tonight want to share our condolences with you, really,
from a deep, deep place, and also commit to you that we will fight alongside you, behind you, on your sides, and really be there to hold you up throughout this entire journey.
So thank you again for being with me.
Thank you.
I'm so grateful and appreciative to have people standing up, to have people being here now because it was lonely.
It felt like nobody cared.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I can only imagine.
It's been a while.
I mean, to know that this happened to your daughter March 13th.
Is that correct?
Yes.
March 13th.
And here we are all of these months. We should have been on it.
And because we didn't know, which is what the system will often do, you know, the system will
often find ways to suppress families' voices. But we do care and we're, you know, humbled to be able
to support you at this point. Why don't you tell us a little bit about, first of all, you know, humbled to be able to support you at this point.
Why don't you tell us a little bit about, first of all, your feelings,
just where you are at this point, your family, how your family members are doing,
and tell us a little bit about Breonna.
Just as far as where we're at, we're just here.
We're maintaining.
We're dealing um we're lost to not
have answers to not know to not understand to just to not know what's happening at all exactly
yeah as far as brianna she was if brianna, every, I don't know anybody who didn't love Brianna,
you know, she, um, she just was a very sweet person. She loved family. She loved life.
She loved to help people. She, um, she had an old soul. I was, she was, yeah, she just was great. She really was a great person.
All right, again, we certainly appreciate what she had to say.
All right, folks, today on Capitol Hill, that was testimony.
Rick Bright testified regarding the folks not being prepared for this coronavirus
and national testing.
We're going to play some of that in just a second right now.
I want to be joined by Dr. Georges Benjamin,
executive director of the American Public Health Association.
Dr. Benjamin, real quick here.
My line is this here.
I'm good. I'm good. I got time for you.
These people are nuts, okay?
General Russell Honore said you cannot have a 50-state strategy.
You've got to have a national testing strategy.
Trump, White House, don't give a damn.
They do not want any part of this.
Governors, it's all on you.
Yeah, it doesn't make any sense.
You've got to have a national strategy.
You've got to actually have a plan
and you've got to stop winging it.
And these folks are just winging it
each and every day.
And that's a problem.
And it's going to cost lives.
The thing is, what I don't understand is how just, I just want to operate real quick.
That is, a national strategy means, all right, I need to be able to look at the map and go,
more tests goes over here, more over here. Don't need as much over here. Let's shift them over
here. If you don't do that here. Let's shift them over here.
If you don't do that, you don't know what the hell is going on.
You might have a whole bunch of tests sitting in a state.
They don't even need them.
Absolutely.
And in fact, we already know that has happened.
We've had states that said we can't find any tests.
And we have other states that say we got lots of them.
So it's already happened.
When you looked at the testimony today, what did you make of it?
He did not hold back at all as he laid out the problems. I mean, trust me, the Republicans
were not happy that Rick Bright, this whistleblower, went before the House committee.
Well, he's a credible guy. You know, he's worked hard. He's smart. And, you know, I think he's just
laying out the problems that we've had.
We have a dysfunctional system and a dysfunctional leadership process. And he just laid it out for
him. And I hope people just don't blow it off and think that he's just a disgruntled employee.
Even if you're mad, you know, there's credibility in what you have to say.
And we're seeing the results of that each and every day. So despite what people think about
his testimony, he says what he thinks. And I bet when they pull back the onion skin,
we're going to find out about all that is true. One of the things that also I think is critically
important, still people who are impacted. Michael Harriot with The Root had this amazing story today
about how these black women in this place in a town in West Virginia were getting no assistance,
and they pretty much figured it out on their own. They are not even medical experts, but where they
showed how all these black people in this one town, how they were impacted, got coronavirus
at a church, basically learned how to do tracing on their own, and they save folks in their community.
And that's what, I mean, people should not have to be resorting to that.
No, no.
I mean, you know, the understanding is out there.
Look, we've been doing contact tracing since the early 19th century.
So we understand this.
There's no reason for people to have to reinvent the wheel
and learn it on their own.
And we need to get more of them.
And look, if you want to get people back to work, we know that we need at least 100,000 contact tracers.
So those are good jobs.
So I don't know what they're doing.
It is confusing to all of us what they're doing.
And so, you know, we're going to stay on top of this, keep pushing, keep prodding.
Please share what should black organizations, what should black churches, what should we
be doing since we're being left out here on our own by this clueless administration?
Well, I think the first thing you ought to do is band together and talk about what you
can do to make sure you're all safe.
I think you ought to be following the guidance that we already have, which is covering up
your nose and mouth when you cough and sneeze, washing your hands, wearing a mask when you're
out but safely, because we know about this issue of masking while Black. And as we begin to move back into work, we do it very,
very carefully, very, very, very carefully. And that means that when you go back to work or school,
we need to practice physical distancing from one another. We need to make sure that we protect one
another and be respectful of one another, whether we're in the grocery store or we're on the bus,
because too many of us are public-facing in our jobs,
and we've already seen, like everything else,
this disease kills more people of color
at a faster rate than it does with everybody else.
Indeed. Dr. Benjamin, we appreciate it.
We're going to keep, again, keep pushing this.
At the end of the day, we've got to keep focusing on us,
because if we don't focus on us, clearly nobody else will.
Absolutely.
And I know the NAACP is looking at this very carefully.
And I would just encourage people, you know,
you can go to our website,
the American Public Health Association at APHA.org.
We have some information.
But the Center for Disease Control and Prevention
is still the nation's prevention agency.
We can trust them, and they have some very important guidance on their website that tells us what to do.
I would encourage people to go there and use it.
Dr. George, this is Benjamin. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot.
Roland, good to see you again.
All right, folks, here's some of the testimony today from Rick Bright.
That's a very difficult question to answer. I know that
there are companies and academic labs working very hard. Normally it takes up to 10 years to
make a vaccine. We've done it faster in emergency situations, but from when we had starting material
in the freezer for Ebola, But for a novel virus,
it's actually haven't been done yet that quickly.
So a lot of optimism is swirling around
a 12 to 18 month timeframe.
If everything goes perfectly,
we've never seen everything go perfectly.
My concern is if we rush too quickly
and consider cutting out critical steps,
we may not have a full assessment of the safety of that vaccine.
So it's still going to take some time.
I still think 12 to 18 months is an aggressive schedule.
And I think it's going to take longer than that to do so.
12 to 18 months from now or 12 to 18 months from
when this all started at the beginning of the year?
It would be 12 to 18
months from when the particular manufacturers
first received the material or
information that they needed to start
developing that vaccine. It's critical
to note when we say 12 to 18
months, that doesn't mean for an
FDA approved vaccine.
That means to have sufficient data and
information on the safety and immunogenicity, if not efficacy, to be able to use on an emergency
basis. And that is the consideration that we have in mind when we talk about an accelerated timeline.
Thank you. Lord, Erica, the Republicans are not happy. The Republicans are not happy. He testified.
I'm so glad that he did
because this is another person
that we see
that was assigned to a federal,
that was inside of a federal agency
that because he did not
do the things
and say what Trump felt like
he needed to say
that he was in effect pushed out.
And just so that the viewing audience knows
as he talks about
the first number that he talked about was 10 years, the 12 to 18 month period, that's not even FDA approved for the vaccine.
That just as recently as today, Dr. Joseph Fair, who works for NBC as a contributor,
was hospitalized with COVID. And he says that he believes the way that he contracted COVID,
he was on a plane. He said that there was not real social distancing, that he believes the way that he contracted COVID, he was on a plane.
He said that there was not real social distancing, that he traveled to New Orleans very recently and that the plane was packed, that the guidance about the middle aisle being taken out that was not followed.
And that he believes that he contracted COVID through his eyes.
His eyes weren't protected. Again, people need to understand that this is a
novel virus and that the, as Dr. Bright shared in his testimony and other folks that you've had on
this platform and in writings have talked about, it is going to take real significant time. We're
talking about experts who have battled Ebola in foreign countries who do have expertise in this area.
And so though Republicans don't like it, it is good for the audience. It is good for the
body politic to understand this because the negligence of this particular regime has now led
to 85,000 deaths, which makes the USA leading in deaths from the coronavirus today.
Recy.
Yeah, I mean, listening to Dr. Bright's testimony was alarming.
I mean, he really basically kind of said that we're screwed and that Donald Trump and his administration has completely abdicated their responsibility to have a competent response. And what they're banking on, and I'm editorializing
here, this is what Dr. Bright said, but what they're banking on is that people are going to be
more concerned about getting to the bars. We saw the bar in Houston that was packed. I've seen at
least on social media and other places than they are about the very, very rising or very quickly rising death toll.
I think people still have it. It hasn't said into them that this virus is not any less dangerous than it was when this whole stay at home push started.
It's not any less dangerous. It's not any less infectious. It's not any less deadly.
We've made no advancements whatsoever in the treatment. We're not even closer to the
vaccine. And I even saw a survey saying 25 percent or more people won't even take a vaccine once it's
available. This is something that's going to fundamentally shift our way of life. And people
are still going about it like business as normal. And that's where the Republicans are unfortunately
winning the messaging war on it, because people would rather believe a fairy tale than believe that they're going to have to radically adjust the way that they go about their daily life.
Greg.
Roland, this is a critical point you're raising now.
The country, of course, is aware of Dr. Bright's testimony today.
The Republicans ran out of questioners.
Every Republican questioner sounded like the complete idiot they are, defending themselves
by attacking everybody from Barack Obama to imaginary creatures or whatever else they
could come up with.
So it's a critical point for that point, of course.
And as we've heard, we heard Erica walk through it and then Risi, this is the importance of
dealing with the fact that the federal political
apparatus simply doesn't exist.
In this venue, as we tie that to the story that you evoked, our brother Mike Harriot
over at The Root, when he started talking about Romelia Hodges and the other three sisters
who kind of came together in West Virginia to stand in the face of this, you've now grasped
something that our people need to pay strict attention face of this, you've now grasped something that our people
need to pay strict attention to, this question of contact tracing.
And so when these sisters in West Virginia, Hodges, Danielle Walker, who's a delegate
in the House of Delegates of West Virginia, Tiffany Samuels and Terry Berkeley got together,
they forced the hand of Joe Manchin, the senator in West Virginia, of course, who then offers resources
to get people tested. But then West Virginia stopped gathering data by race because now it's
going to be an embarrassment. They had already shut down one of the only hospitals in the area
that would serve black people in that area of the state. But I'm raising this for this very specific
reason. You know, we're here in the D.C. area. I'm on something called the Black Coalition Against COVID.
A bunch of D.C. folks are getting together,
trying to help our people understand that contact tracing is coming.
You got to let people know who you've been in contact with.
Those people are not going to share the information with other people.
You know, our people have right reason to be paranoid about the government,
asking questions about where you've been.
But at this juncture, the federal government is broken.
The state governments are battling back. We saw what happened in Wisconsin today, for example,
where the Supreme Court overruled the governor in another show of naked partisanship, including
that judge who lost his election last month. And they say, open up the state. That's going to put
you at risk, black people. So the black, I was on a call yesterday with educators from around
the country, Miami, Milwaukee, other places, Baltimore. And they were saying that our people are facing
sickness and death as we know, in an unprecedented manner. But this contact tracing issue is real.
And so when you see what happened in West Virginia, even as Dr. Bright is saying,
this thing is going to get worse. And Donald Trump continues to turn his head to try to have
campaign rallies like at this factory today, when he's over there playing around with
testing equipment. Our people need to understand that it doesn't take money to ask questions.
So the churches, the Masonic organizations, as you always say, the fraternities and sororities,
it's time for us now to get real about identifying who is sick, getting them resources,
helping sequester them if we can, because until
some more, we put pressure on people to get more resources. We are going to be the ones that die
and contact tracing this issue you're raising today. Contact tracing is something we should
be talking about every day. Absolutely. All right, folks, got to go to a break.
We'll be back with more.
Roland Martin Unf the field. Like, share, subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin.
And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it.
Alright fam, to all Roland Martin VIPs, you are invited
to the Laugh Experience taking place this Friday,
May 15th at 6pm Pacific,
9pm Eastern at Se p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern at SEEK.com.
That's C-E-E-K.com.
Join me and let's laugh with comedian Dio Hugli, Chris Spencer, Dio Hugli, Chris Spencer,
Bodacious, Ryan Davis, and Clint Coley.
It's a first-of-its-kind virtual comedy show on SEEK.com.
SEEK.com, remember, y'all, is the black website created
by this sister. Created by this sister, y'all. You can watch it on your phone, your laptop,
even in virtual reality. Now, I'll be there, and I hope you will be there as well. Now, remember,
we had Mary on the show. Of course, the creator of Seek. She also is the one who created her own
VR headset.
So they have these available at Seek.com.
And so it's real simple.
I was actually testing this out a couple of nights ago.
Actually, it's pretty cool.
And so just go ahead and zoom out, Anthony.
And so it's real simple.
You take your phone with this head down there.
Some of them, there's some VR headsets
where you can actually connect to the web
and stuff along those lines.
But this one here, what it allows for you to do is,
so you actually have your, you go to the Seek app,
and so you can pull it up here, right here on your phone.
And then what you do is you place your phone right into the VR headset,
close it up, and then you're able to then put this on.
And so what's going to happen is you put this VR headset on.
Y'all, what's so cool about this is that it literally looks like you're in the room.
So what's going to happen is they'll be live until you can sit here and you can look all
around.
You can look at the ceiling all around.
It's going to be pretty cool.
First time ever, again, a virtual reality comedy showcase that's taking place
this Friday. And so that's what it looks like once you're inside. You get to be able to look around
on the inside of this room. It's pretty cool. And so you can just do this again. It's created
by a sister, this device and the site as well. She also created these 360-degree sound headphones.
Y'all, these are boss, okay?
Bluetooth, as well as you could actually plug in.
The Bluetooth creates the whole 360-degree sound,
and so it's great for gaming as well.
And so if you do use these, there is a promo code that you can use.
With the promo code up, I think we do.
If y'all don't have the graphic, y'all should have the graphic, folks.
So if not, y'all need to take care of that.
And so I'm going to give you the promo code.
So y'all go ahead and write this down, the promo code.
This is the headset right here.
These are the headset right here. These are the headphones right here.
You don't have to watch the virtual comedy showcase
with your headphones.
You can watch it right here on your phone.
It's not a problem,
but it does give you a whole different experience
when you're watching it in virtual reality.
And so what I want you guys to do is if you want,
if you wanna get these headphones,
get this headset here, I want you guys to do is if you want, if you want to get these headphones, get these get this headset here.
I want you there's a promo code that you can enter in to be able to do so.
And so we pull that promo code up. And it's been like I say, I've been having way too much fun with this whole deal here with these with these headsets and ago these this is this is called the world's first 4d
360 degree audio headphones
And of course, this is the mobile VR headset. And so that's what you have here
They have a special code for our followers here at Roland Martin unfiltered
and so we're gonna pull're going to pull that up. And where
is it? I thought we had it here. And so we had all these different emails back and forth. And
so I'm trying to find it. Promo code. All right. This is what you use to buy.com, C-E-E-K.com and use RMVIP2020, RMVIP2020. And so you're going to get
a discount. All of you who watch the show, you're going to get a discount if you buy these headphones
VR. Y'all, we support African-Americans who are in the tech space, who have created their own
companies. And that's why we do what we do.
And the thing, Greg, I kept telling people, you know, when we launched this here,
the reality is that without platforms like ours, you wouldn't know about these African-Americans
who are creating tech.
I mean, look, who are this sister built and designed her own headphone, her own VR headset.
And so I just keep telling people, look,
the networks are only going to cover these people when they blow up.
Roland, I tell you, brother, and I know that because, you know,
Reese was on that show that night and as was Erica,
and I know we were all blown away, know and I'll just say this I mean
this is Roland Martin unfiltered if this were a white man 22 year old white man or some Harvard
dropout like Mark Zuckerberg uh we would not only know her name and her company she would probably
have already been made multi-billion dollar offers to capitalize her and go forth. But this sister right here, tapping into the long arc of black intellectual work.
In fact, the first symbol we have in world history of an intellectual is a black woman named Sashet.
She, in the ancient Egyptian tradition, and I've been to Egypt now almost a dozen times,
when you see her in the temples, it's a picture of her in a leopard dress and she's counting. She is the symbol of everything that can be counted, everything that can be
recorded and observed. They give her credit for architecture, for astronomy, everything.
This sister is a daughter of Sechette. If she were a white boy, she would be all over everything.
And we are now facing finally what Naomi Klein wrote a piece in The Guardian the other day, she called it the
screen new deal, meaning what? All these corporations, education, for example, Google and
all these folks, healthcare, they now think that this pandemic is going to give them the opportunity
to do what they've been trying to do for the last 20 years, which is move almost everything they can of human activity online. We're going to need
some of our people not only in that conversation, but shaping that conversation so that we don't
end up a bunch of zombies programmed to somebody else's agenda. This is extremely important what
you're doing right now. Well, we got some other people going to be having on the show, Erica,
who have created platforms. And so our whole goal is to certainly have having on the show, Erica, who have created platforms. And so our whole goal
is to certainly have them on the show, partner with them in certain terms of what we do. And so,
yeah, when you use that code, let me explain to y'all, when you use that code to buy this headset
or the headphones, of course, that's coming back to the show. That's why we do it. And so we always
talk about recirculating dollars and black people supporting black
people. And I told y'all, Anthony, give me
a wide shot. I told y'all.
I told y'all how we roll.
This set, give me a wide shot.
Give me a wide shot. Switch to that camera. Switch
to that camera. Don't give me one.
Switch to these cameras. Give me a wide shot on these
cameras here. Keep that one on me.
So I told y'all, this desk,
this set was built by an
African-American TV set designer. Yes. That's what we do. When we talk about, we talk about,
again, in terms of what we do, the lighting system we have in here, a black lighting designer. And
we're actually going to do, once we get more money, about another $4,000, I'm going to bring them in.
We're going to completely do all the lights in here.
And then I have a brother on the show, Figures Wireless.
These are not his television.
They just sent me two of their TVs, 55-inch television.
That's a brother, that brother, Freddy Figures, out of Florida.
Not only does he do his own cell phones, and this is one of the cell phones,
he also makes his own television, manufactures his own televisions as well.
And so he sent me a couple. We're testing those. And so just understand, we practice what we preach here at Roland Martin Unfiltered.
And that is supporting black owned businesses. Erica, go ahead.
Yeah. And that's something I was admonishing people earlier today was to support Roland and Martin and Filter for those very reasons that you lined up.
Where else are you going to see yourself on a platform like this?
It's nowhere else. Now, one of the questions that Risi asked, which I thought was really impactful and really kind of like widened the conversation, was that she talked about noticing that the price point for these particular devices were made affordable.
And so you're talking about 4K, $4,000 just to be able to do something additional to the set.
We have a buying power of about $1.3 trillion. The check should be cut.
Support going to platforms like Roland Martin Unfiltered, where that platform then extends to
expose us to ourselves so that we're able to see that, listen, we've been doing this, as Dr. Carr
has pointed out so eloquently. We live in the future.
We are the originals. To be able to see ourselves in this way, to understand the power that we have
is going to take what you have said time and time again, along with the connecting of dots,
that we have to absolutely fund our own freedoms so that we don't just become a digital participant
in elevating white supremacy as well.
All right, folks. And I think there's an issue with YouTube. Looks like that site has gone down.
All of a sudden I looked and so they have some issues there. But I think that we're still live
on Facebook and I'm looking at some of the other platforms. So, all right, let's continue with our
show, folks. The U.S. response to COVID-19 has been reckless and uncoordinated.
Congress is trying to do their part.
The House is likely going to present another coronavirus relief bill tomorrow.
But the Poor People's Campaign COVID-19 Health Justice Advisory Committee says, you know what?
It does not have what it all needs to have.
Sherelle Barber, senior advisor and coordinator for the committee,
joins us right now. Sherelle, I got a text from your dad, Reverend Dr. William J. Barber.
He said this bill is unacceptable. Why? There are a couple of reasons. So we've taken a look
at it. And again, I would just say that we haven't done a deep, deep, deep dive of it.
But there are a couple of things that are notable. For example,
there's still only a one-time direct payment in this bill. And we know that this pandemic is going to be long lasting. And so, you know, this kind of still this piecemeal protections for those
who are losing their jobs, the nearly 35 million individuals who file for unemployment. You know, these just one-time direct payments aren't enough.
We need to guarantee reoccurring payments during this time.
It's also not clear, and again, we need to look at this more closely,
whether we're adequately taking care of the homeless population,
undocumented workers, folks in prisons. Are they getting the testing and the treatment that they need in order for this pandemic
not to spread in those places?
And we're also concerned about the healthcare access
during this time.
Again, during a pandemic,
people need access to free testing and free treatment.
The bill does seem to address testing and treatment. However, it does not call for an expansion of Medicaid. And again, this is so critical because so many folks already in the U.S. were underinsured or uninsured. And so not to expand Medicaid during this time really is going to disproportionately impact the poor. And you know that's going to disproportionately impact our communities.
All right. And so what more do you want to see in this bill?
There are a lot of other progressives are not happy at all saying that Democrats are giving up too much to Republicans.
Right. Well, OK, I was going to also just put this in context. If you think about the fact that this pandemic, the World Health Organization declared the
pandemic on March 11, 2020.
We are nearly two months beyond that point, and we still haven't really focused on, again,
the most marginalized populations.
And we're seeing that those populations, Blacks, poor folks, are being disproportionately
impacted.
So I want to say that
first and also say that the bill that they are putting forth now, you know, some of those
provisions should have been the first thing we did, but we gave trillions to corporations.
Again, what we are missing is a focus on the most marginalized communities. Again, those income
protections that are needed. There are people who were hurting before. Again, those income protections that are needed,
there are people who were hurting before this crisis. And the fact that we can only come up
with a one-time payment when folks were, you know, in debt before this crisis, we're already having
to make ends meet before this crisis, it's still not enough. We, you know, we have to talk about
the moratorium provisions and not just the moratorium where they are going to have to pay for, you know, the debt accumulation at a later date.
But there needs to be a complete cancellation of the debt, you know, based if they're not able to pay rent in this moment, you know, paying four times that in, you know, in a few months or even in six months is still going to be prohibitive
for most folks in this country. And so, again, we've got to think about what are the ways we
are taking care and protecting the most vulnerable populations, particularly communities of color,
poor communities that were in crisis before this crisis. Questions from our panel. We'll start with Erica.
Yeah. So thank you so much for joining. My question to you is, have you seen with these,
this layout, have you seen more broader support from ally groups and from folks on the Hill to ensure that, because thinking about the brown and the black folks
that do engine hospitality, travel, service jobs,
have you seen more broad support from groups at Ally
and from folks on the Hill as well?
And more support for, I'm not clear of your question.
For the acts that you've laid out, for the acts that the board has been taking.
Yeah, so coalitions, yeah, definitely.
So folks have really come together to push Congress to move forward on this, right?
And so, again, we can't take care of this pandemic unless we take care of it for everyone, including service workers.
So there seems to be pushes and coalition building around these issues. The question is, will Congress deliver on the needs of, you know, folks that you've mentioned, sort of other
essential workers in this moment who are literally putting their lives on the line
during this pandemic? And so the hope is that that pushing will
Congress do what they need to by the workers who are, again, most exposed but least protected in this moment?
Let's see here. Greg.
Thank you, Roland. And thank you, Dr. Barber, for all your work. Really, I mean, your ongoing work.
You know, I was listening to some educators on a call the other day in different parts, including Philly.
They got long roots in Philadelphia.
And they were talking about, and you've covered this,
but I really want to ask you again in the context of what they were talking about. A lot of food and shelter insecurity for our people, concern about rent,
concern about all those things.
And then, particularly out of the educators we were talking to out of Miami, the fear among the immigrant populations to even come forward for
any type of service for fear the federal government is going to drop the hammer on
them and they'll end up, some of them perhaps deported. How should we be thinking about
addressing the most vulnerable in the immigrant population and putting a floor under those who are really
literally worried that they might miss a rent payment and look up and be outside?
No, no, that's so, and that's such a critical point that you're making. You know, we,
many of my colleagues believe that, especially among not only undocumented immigrants, but
even documented immigrants, that we are
severely undercounting the number of cases in those populations.
And so we know that there's not, you know, there hasn't been the right amount of testing
and treatment for blacks, but these populations are under surveillance, have been under surveillance,
and are at risk of, like you said, being deported.
So we need to be pushing for,
if we're going to collect information from them, if they're going to access health care,
that they're completely protected so they can get the care they need, they can get the testing,
they can get the treatment without fear of, like you said, being deported. We need to absolutely
be taking care of this. Another point I want to make is that
the extent to which we don't address the issue among any of these populations, undocumented
populations, in our racially segregated communities, among our essential workers, means we don't
deal with the pandemic at all, that we actually help to enhance the spread of the virus within the whole
population. So again, this piecemeal approach by the federal government is actually making the
pandemic spread even more in our communities. And the fact that we don't just nip it in the bud
with the kind of bold legislation that we need means we don't take care of this pandemic at all.
And it's detrimental to our communities and it's leading to more cases and more lives lost.
Recy.
Yeah, thank you, Dr. Barber, for your work on this.
I read through the PDF that you guys are distributing.
One thing I noticed is that some of the asks
really aren't necessarily things
that will require more funding from the
government. In fact, when we talk about detention centers, whether it's prisons or immigrant
detention centers, those are the kinds of things that the government can actually work on releasing
certain populations. But there doesn't seem to be as big of a push. Instead, you have rich people
like Paul Manafort that are getting these prison releases, these early prison releases. What do you think can be done, at least on the side where this is more of a policy
decision that pushes the administration rather than something that's attached to funding that
the House needs to push through? Right. I mean, I think, again, there's so many advocates who are
working on this. One of the researchers that we have on this committee, Dr. Zinzi Bailey does work on incarceration and health,
and they have written extensively
on how you can actually put policies in place
to do what they call compassionate release.
Literally people who are right now in jail
because maybe there's a fine they didn't pay
or they're waiting trial,
but it's not a non, an offense that, you know,
that they can be released for. They're, you know, and so there are ways, again, to collectively
raise our voices to, you know, to say that these kinds of policies need to be put in place.
And again, we think about prison populations as being isolated, but they're not. They're workers
within these prisons that then go back to certain communities. So again, but they're not. They're workers within these prisons that
then go back to certain communities. So again, you're not only, you're putting, you know,
prisoners are literally sitting in prisons, you know, some of them waiting, you know, for death
because of the unsanitary conditions in prisons, because of, you know, the limited ability to
quote-unquote isolate, but also the workers in those prisons are also at risk.
And so, again, we do need to be pushing for and not politicizing this issue
because it literally is a matter of life and death for those who are in prison right now
and those affiliated with that population.
All right, then. We certainly appreciate it.
Hopefully they'll take a lot of that to heart.
We'll see what happens.
Thank you.
All right, going to a break.
We come back.
We're going to be talking about schools.
What are they doing to keep our kids safe
when it comes to coronavirus?
Plus, this is a big deal.
Black man in Oklahoma.
White folks blocking his brother from leaving
because they said, how dare you be on this property? Wait till y'all see this video. a black man in Oklahoma. White folks blocking his brother from leaving.
Because they said, how dare you be on this property? Wait until y'all see this video.
Roland Martin Unfiltered
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There are things we expect for schools.
Math, science, arts, history but we don't expect them to find ways to ensure students have safe places to live or food to eat.
In these uncertain times, there are schools who are doing just that.
Joining me now is Benison Njaki, director of academics at Brooklyn Laboratory School, of course, in Brooklyn, New York. And we'll be joined
in a moment by Mika Mika-Wolmoth, science department chair and career development
instructor at DaVinci Rise High School in Los Angeles. All right, first, Benison, I'll go to
you. And that is, I'm going to fire you in a second. That was this video that went around
showing how we are so impacted by buffets due to coronavirus.
Now, of course, we all know in school you got lunch lines,
you got kids who are eating in cafeterias.
And so what have y'all been doing to keep the kids?
Yeah, so just we started off with, you know, the closure,
just thinking about the highest needs, you know, in terms of safety, just social, emotional wellness.
And so one of the first things we did was really begin a conversation with families.
And so what that looked like is we reached out and we've been reaching out for the past eight weeks to families.
And we're simply asking, how can we be helpful and what are your highest needs?
We've started a fund as a school.
It is the Brooklyn Laboratory Charter School Emergency Family Support Fund.
And families can request and ask for anything they need, not just academics.
And over the past few weeks, we've been lucky enough to be able to support with groceries, with medical needs, and also with housing. So we've sort of shifted our role and responsibility as a school to only deliver instruction, to really become a partner around getting families those essential,
essential needs through this pandemic. And look, people are concerned. That was a topic yesterday
in the hearing when Senator Rand Paul was like, got to get our kids back in school. And Fauci was
like, wait a minute, hold up. Look, there's so much we still don't know about this.
Yeah. And I mean, to that point, you know, one of the biggest areas that this pandemic has
highlighted is that, you know, school closures led to 124,000 K-through institutions closing.
And when you think about that number, it actually drills down to
seven and a half million children with special needs, right? And so these needs sometimes
literally look like six to seven different adults. That helps a scholar from home to school and back.
And so not knowing the sort of ways in which kids can continue to get infected and then the ways it can show up in
the classroom. I mean, we work with kids, right? We serve grades six through 12. So we have the
eight of the babies all the way to children who are going to college in a few months. So
we really have to like step back and not be so quick to say things are ready to go back as they
were. I mean, I'm clear based on just children, families. I'm in Brooklyn right now.
And, you know, you sort of hear the ambulances going back and forth all day and how that
actually affects learning. We just have to be incredibly cautious to not
re-anger the sort of trauma that kids are facing through this pandemic.
There was a video that really went viral that showed uh what what what they were
doing in some schools in china i would love to get i would love to get your thoughts to see
if y'all might have to implement this all right folks go to my ipad watch this yeah
hold on one second hold on right hold on优优独播剧场——YoYo Television Series Exclusive That's a whole lot.
Listen, Rowan, like, I'll say this much, right?
When I watch those videos, it sort of raises, you know, concerns that we share as a school community. You
know, we're in Brooklyn, New York. And so that just legitimately means that we have to address
this differently. Based on the children we serve, we have children in wheelchairs that are coming
to school. What does that entry process look like, right? And also, we are working and we're in
spaces that are co-shared, right? So it's not a matter of just the spray down.
But we also have to think about children who through this process have seen family members be carried out.
They've seen those masks and have now attached a very different experience to that.
And you're asking those children to put those masks on and go into schools. And so from a safety trauma, social emotional wellbeing,
I see the video and I acknowledge that I see how that's
working in that context, but for us,
we really have to be here in New York City,
a little more intentional about not just doing it
because others are doing it,
but really being responsive to the sort of CDC guidance
that has been out. And then also listening very closely to what our families are saying to us about what they're
going to need to be able to say, yes, I can send my child to your institution and to your
school again.
Greg and Recy.
Yes.
Listen, brother, much respect for you.
I mean, it appears that the schools are really becoming in many ways first responders around the country with the homework packets, with food, with everything people need.
Let me ask you, given the fact that it may very well be the case that we don't go back to school, certainly not maybe in the city where you are and in the People's Republic of Brooklyn, specifically in the fall.
How are you all thinking about continuing once folks have stabilized?
And of course, that's an ongoing process, but continuing the education of the children, particularly when we have challenges of access to wireless or even, you know, laptops or tablets and the homework packets.
Are you concerned about at some point the children continuing to develop educationally?
And how are you beginning to think about addressing that long term?
Yeah, so I think that in terms of going back and addressing the learning,
we have to sort of understand that the learning is now unfinished, you know.
And so when any time learning is unfinished, you have to not just pick up
from where things are.
You have to investigate and interrogate
what that loss is and how we can reengage the scholar.
So it's going to be a very, very slow process that is informed by sort of the information and data we can reengage the scholar. So it's gonna be a very, very slow process
that is informed by sort of the information
and data we're getting from children about what they need.
We have to listen very closely
and pay attention to sort of the trend lines nationally
around how kids feel entering that institution.
I'll be first to tell you,
it's not gonna be a,
we're returning back in the summer or in the fall.
It's gonna be a slow sort of incremental approach and sort of like gauging what we're getting back as a process.
Recy, then Erica.
Hi. You mentioned about, you know, slowly reengaging things.
I've seen some people suggest that perhaps the children should be kept back a year or, you know, like repeat the same grade. Is that something that you think
sounds appropriate? Or do you think that that could lead to, you know, issues with kids feeling
like it's some sort of deficiency or failure on their part if they have to quote unquote repeat
the same grade? I would argue that it's incredibly dangerous to take that approach of holding children back.
Right. This is a planned event. And the idea that, you know, because kids have been out of school, they haven't been learning.
It's absolutely it's not true. Right. We know that kids are always learning.
But also, you know, what we've also discovered through this process is that the pandemic is sort of
highlighted the level of inequity that happens, right? So we started with families and we said,
do you need a computer? And folks were like, yes, some said they didn't have it. So we have to
provide those access points. Once you provide those access points, now you have to think about,
is there a strong internet access to be able to do the work we're asking for? Now that you provide
that, you have to add
another layer that says, okay, what happens if a technology piece of the device breaks down,
right? So when you have those sort of issues, we cannot take a punitive approach that says,
well, let's do this year over, especially when the impact on children is lasting, right? So
it's almost one of those things where we cannot punish the children
who've always had the least
by saying now you have to do three times more of the work
because you weren't able to access
a certain level of engagement on the platform.
So I will say any sort of conversation
around holding children back because of the pandemic
and because of the pandemic and because of the
learning is absolutely not, doesn't serve our most vulnerable populations. What do you say to a
family that has three to four children who haven't been in school and are just now being able to
access individual educational plan provisions, right? They're service providers. And so it's very complex
and it cannot be that we say, all right, this happened and go back and do it again. That's not
effective. Erica? Yeah. Hi, Benetton. Thank you for the work that you're doing.
I wanted to ask you as a person that's from the rural South, understanding that
New York unfortunately represents a quarter of the COVID fatalities. Is there any collaboration
that you all are doing outside of New York with other educational organizations, school,
to help specifically Black and Brown communities continue to progress through COVID along this educational
track? Yes. So one of the first things we started to do beyond the sort of provisions we're doing
in New York is thinking nationally, how do we begin a conversation that supports learners who
are most vulnerable? So more specifically, we launched an alliance. It's called the Educating All Learners. So if you go to educatingalllearners.org, and it's a national
platform where we're literally providing resources to say that if you have children who have these
learning needs, these are resources you can access. We have experts on the site. You can
actually ask questions, get feedback. We're providing trainings, and we're really trying to completely provide a completely free platform that anybody can access.
Anyone can get on there. Parents can get on there. And our goal with that is to understand that, yes,
we're hit heavily in New York, but it's a national and global emergency, and we cannot sort of, you
know, hoard resources as they come up. We've been learning from things that folks are doing all over the country in Chicago.
We've been working with places in Connecticut and Florida.
So we're really thinking through what is the best thinking around how we support black
and brown children.
We know that, especially when it comes to education, equity is one of those things that
just weighs a little heavier if you show up the way I look,
right? And so we have to be incredibly intentional about that platform being a gateway.
And it's a partnership, not just with Brooklyn Lab, it's with Innovate EDU. We've partnered
with the National Organization for Special Education. And so we're really seeking out
solutions and saying, if you have something that works,
please share that resources and
we'll connect you to the highest needs as
we see them. But we're definitely starting
the solution with saying,
how can we serve those who have the least
before the pandemic? Because
now they have so much further to go.
All right. Benison, we
appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Good luck.
We're rolling. Friday, 06. Another alpha man up in here. You felt we appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Good luck. Rolling. Friday, 06.
All right.
Another alpha man up in here.
See, I—
You felt that?
Yeah, man.
Y'all, I ain't even—see, y'all, I ain't even know these things.
This is like the third day in a row.
Greg, I keep telling the rest of these little youth groups, they can't touch us.
Come on, man.
Your boys used to live in Brooklyn.
Of course the educator is an alpha.
Early, early, yeah, man.
That's what I'm talking about, brother.
Go ahead.
Appreciate you, man.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. All right,
then, y'all. Of course,
big deal on Saturday.
Matter of fact, y'all can roll the video. Y'all should have it, right?
Thank you.
High schools
may be closed.
Graduation ceremonies may be canceled.
But we won't let that stop
us.
Join us on May 16th as we all come together.
Say goodbye to the end of an era and welcome a new beginning with you at the center.
It's time for America to celebrate and honor you,
the high school class of 2020.
Saturday, 8 p.m., President Barack Obama will be giving the commencement speech
to all the 2020 high school graduates across the country.
As you saw in the video, LeBron James and others.
Folks, it's going to be happening.
It's going to be a great thing.
Kevin Hart, Zendaya, Pharrell Williams,
the Jones Brothers, and more will be participating.
Brought to you by XQ America.
And we'll be live streaming.
It will be on a number of networks and streaming,
including right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered.
All right.
Y'all know what time it is.
No charcoal girls are allowed.
I'm white.
I got you, girl.
Illegally selling water without a permit.
On my property.
Whoa!
Hey!
I'm uncomfortable.
Y'all, today's viral video shows a delivery driver being held against his will in an Oklahoma City area neighborhood
took place on Monday, blocked in by a man who identified himself as the homeowners association president.
Travis Miller, a home appliance and furniture delivery driver,
captured the encounter on his Facebook Live while driving through the neighborhood of Ashford Hills.
Trying to leave. And I got super neighborhood, the super neighbor over here blocking me in.
So I'm going live. This is what I'm dealing with right now.
This is what I'm dealing with right now. This is what I'm dealing with.
This is who I'm dealing with.
Napoleon, move out the way.
My name's David Stewart.
I don't care what your name is.
Get out the way.
I don't care.
Move out the way, sir sir you picked the wrong day move
out the way so I can leave.
I asked you one question.
It's none of your business, and I asked you.
It's none of my business.
It is not.
No, no, it is my business.
Mm-hmm.
Why?
You're the mayor of the Coles Act?
I'm President's Overspoken.
Okay.
It's a private street.
And apparently you need a gate code to get in here, right?
That's correct.
So how did I get in here?
I don't wanna know where you're going.
It was none of your business. I'm going out. That's where I'm going, but you're in my way.
I'm not arguing with you anymore.
So then move out the way then.
I'm not moving.
All you have to do is tell me where you're going.
I don't have to tell you shit and you're pissing me off.
No, you do. No. I don't have to tell you shit. And you're pissing me off.
No, I don't.
He's the president of the home.
The Homeowners Association.
What's going on?
I'm trying to leave.
Why?
What do you mean, why?
Why are we in here for?
None of your business?
Yeah, it is.
Of course it is.
I live in here.
Did I deliver it to your house?
You didn't deliver anything.
I know that.
Because it's none of your business.
That's why.
I'm just asking why you're in here.
You're asking questions.
You don't need to ask questions. All you need to do is have your buddy move his car so I can leave and go about my business.
So did you make a wrong turn into a gated neighborhood?
I need to have a gate code in order to get in, right?
That's common sense, right?
So if I had a gate, if I'm in here, I had a gate code, right?
That's none of your business, yet again.
It sure as hell is it
i'm not in the wrong i don't know who this is what's your name
uh-huh uh just so you know more than you two guys live on this street too
and you're not the only ones with gated with. You're warning us what? I'm not warning nobody.
That's what you said.
I did not.
No, I did not.
And that's the reason why I'm recording, too.
So just in case.
I don't understand English.
Apparently you don't.
I'm in the wrong.
Show me your badge then.
Recy, by all
means, take it away.
Let me explain something
to the white folks watching this show.
If you happen to be watching the show,
you are not our overseers.
We don't answer to you. We are not
slaves anymore. We don't have to tell you
a goddamn thing about where we're going.
Mind your fucking business. If you're
so scared, if you're so concerned,
then why don't you keep it moving?
What they did in there was false
imprisonment, and I hope that Travis Miller
files a civil suit
against those two gentlemen, as well as the
Homeowner's Association,
because they had absolutely no right to do
what they did. You don't know anything?
You think your ability to
just ask somebody a question
trumps their ability to move freely? No. Like I said, we're not slaves anymore. Get the hell
out the way. Now, if the situation had escalated even further, then it would have been on Travis
Miller. It would have been on the black guy. I'm glad that he recorded it. And these men,
you know, it's just what we see every day, all the day, people harassing us, making it seem like we don't belong where we belong.
There's no reason that this man who's just trying to do his job is going to go into this gated community and do anything nefarious.
The only thing nefarious is what we saw those two white men doing to this black man.
All right. Erica.
Yeah, this is what white people walk in. They walk in believing that they have the ability to stop, question and assert a fall authority.
To be quite honest with you, they should get the hell out of this country because they are the first illegal trespassers.
And so to Reese's point, I'm very glad that this brother did in fact record it, but I'm also glad that he stood
his ground and what he said in adjudicating that in order for him to be able to access this
neighborhood, that he wouldn't need a gate code and that it was none of their damn business why
he was there. And so again, this is another glimpse of what we're seeing, why black folks,
listen, acquiescence to whiteness does not preclude you from this type of activity
from this type of aggression get your shit together because these folks and their president
they mean business but we have like that brother also got to show them that we mean business too
great how you gonna ask me where I'm going when I'm leaving?
Dude, he got a big-ass truck.
It's clear.
He delivering something like,
well, where you been?
Like he said,
did I deliver something to your house while your ass asking?
Look, I tip my cap to Brother Travis Miller
for maintaining his humanity
and for us for maintaining it as well.
This is the fundamental contradiction in black life in this settler state.
When we see ourselves as human, we ask questions like the one you just asked.
It's common sense when you're a human being. But the fundamental contradiction is that this state,
as Erica has said, invaded by people who were illegal from their first presence, who then brought us here in the largest illegal forced migration in human history.
This state does not see us as human.
This is, you know, it's kind of we can laugh about it now because the brothers survived.
But let's be very clear. These two Oklahoma paddle rollers are therollers are the Oklahoma equivalent of the McMichaels' father and son in Georgia. The concept of the pat-a-roller
comes out of the 19th century, the so-called slave patrols. These are, to quote one African who gave
his testimony after enslavement was over during restructuring, he said, the pat-a-rollers,
the slave patrols, served a function for black people that the police served for white people.
In other words, the job of the pat-a-roller is to restrict black movement, to control black bodies.
Well, what we see is that in the United States of America, the function of the pat-a-roller and the function of the police are pretty much the same. So any random white person is deputized with
police powers when it comes to policing black bodies, which leads me to this. Finally,
what we saw Travis Miller do is a manual in some ways for how you almost have to approach this.
Number one, you keep your cool. Number two, you if you can record and stream live stream has
become very important.
Number three. And you see later he called the police. Now you've got to be a little tactical about this, because, again, these random white people are patty rollers, which means what?
The police show up depending on who the cop is. They look at these white men like deputy police.
So now you've got to be careful. But finally, you then, when you finally
escape the situation, because we all know from growing up, they would tell us when you have an
encounter with the police and including little deputy wannabe police like this, your job is to
escape that encounter with your life. You don't get no argument right there, which is why I tip
my cap. But finally, when you escape, you document it, and then you do what
you need to do so that we're talking about it now,
which means they are on alert that we're
not just going to take that L. And I found it
fascinating that one of those guys called
his employer later
and said, take down the Facebook
live post. Because again, of course,
when you're a white man, you can call another
white man on a black person
and say, hey, I still want some punishment
even though I was in the wrong to begin with.
Hold on, who called?
The employer. I mean, the guy, one of the guys out
there, I think Stewart, he called
the furniture company.
Wait, wait, wait. One of the two white guys
called
the
brother's employer and said,
y'all tell him to take it down.
Yes, sir.
Because that's the job of Pat Arrola.
Now, help me out.
I'm trying to understand.
So they would try to tell him,
this is a private driveway.
Why are you here?
But you're going to ask me to take down a video
on my damn page?
That's the Pat Arrola mentality, brother.
Every white person can be a deputy police
when it comes to a black woman or man.
Look.
You one of them rogue black people.
You do what you want.
You know, you're one of them rogue
Negroes. Y'all do what y'all want.
Y'all better not roll up on Erica.
First of all, I'm telling y'all,
I'll let y'all know right now.
When he got his punk ass out of his car,
I would have put that shit in reverse,
drove my ass on that grass.
Yes, sir.
I would have put that truck on that grass
and drove around
and then shot their ass to finger driving off.
That's what I would have done.
Yes, sir.
First of all, let me help everybody at home.
Y'all, the live stream went 40 plus minutes.
Yeah.
This wasn't no five minute conversation.
Y'all, we edited that.
That means that they sat in that truck
dealing with these fools for almost 45 minutes.
I'm telling y'all,
that would have been some track marks
in that damn grass.
Right.
From my truck.
But then, Roland, would you have a situation like Ahmaud Arbery,
where they chased him down in a truck?
And so even that, you still have to be careful.
So I do applaud Travis Miller for the way he conducted himself.
But also, I don't know if you guys noticed,
when they made the comment, oh, is that a warning?
See, that's how they start to set you up and try to, you know,
portray the situation differently,
which is why it's so important to record
these encounters, because
next thing you know, oh, he was threatening me
and they're on the phone with the police establishing
their pretext, like the McMichaels
did, for what they're going to do
and be, you know, deputized
in the slave patrol and that mentality just go
down and mess with black
people.
Hey, hey, hey. I just need, I just need,
listen.
Any of y'all white folks pull this on rolling.
I just want y'all to understand.
Anthony, give me a shot.
Y'all see this bag right here?
This bag right here is always
with me. I'm just letting
y'all ass know. I got four phones.
Four.
Four.
iPhone Pro Max, iPhone Pro Max, Google Pixel 4, and Figures Wireless.
I'm letting y'all ass know.
I'm going to have you streaming on every platform you sit here.
I'm just letting you know.
Look, and I'm gonna be shooting
horizontal the whole time so I can
fill the whole screen up
when your ass, and look, I'm just letting you
roll. And see, look, I'm telling you, hey,
I'm gonna be Steven Spielberg,
Spike Lee on your ass
if I'm shooting. I'm just letting
you know. So everybody black,
please, I want y'all to keep
streaming. I want y'all to keep filming
these fools, and we gonna keep
exposing the segment. I had somebody
email me. I had, what's that
fool, yeah, y'all, what's that fool, Deontay,
a little black Republican? I'll be
just destroying his ass on the
show, because he ain't never
prepared. And so he gonna try to tweet
me one day, how would you
feel if somebody white had a segment called Crazy
Ass Black People? I'm like, yo, that's just called Fox
News. Right.
You know what? Right.
It was called Diamond and Silk until
about a month ago. So, bottom line is
this here, okay? If white people
stop doing crazy stuff, and look,
there's some good white folk. They not
on that segment. But
them crazy ass fools, I going to keep showing it every time.
And that's going to be the sit-up.
Crazy-ass white people.
All right, y'all.
We got to go.
Before we go, here are the folks who have joined our Bring the Funk fan club to listen to y'all.
Okay, now look.
Some of y'all have hit me saying, why can't I get a shout-out?
Because, you know, but I ain't give $50.
Well, that's why you get a personal shout out.
So people who've joined the fan club, $50 or more, get a personal shout out.
Look, that's how I got to do it, okay?
So here's Otto Bamberg, Amy Lewis, Arnetta Henderson, Benjamin Cicero.
Panel, y'all stay right there.
Claude Brown, Demario Green, Denise Young, Dion Smith, Donald Rubin Realtors, Eunice Haynes, Joy Hilton, Catherine Daniels, Kenneth Johnson, Linda Givens, Melba Peet, Myra Campbell, Nelson, IGN, Patrick Outlaw, Sakithia Austin, Sonia, she ain't got a last name,
Stanley Lewis, Sylvia Terry, and Wayne Lockett.
Those are the folks who've joined our Bring the Funk fan club.
50 bucks or more.
Folks, your dollars goes to support what we do.
Give right here.
Cash out, dollar sign, RM unfiltered.
PayPal, paypal.me forward slash rmark unfiltered.
Graphic, y'all.
Graphic. Come on, y'all. Too slow. Graphic. Y'all got to work with me. Paypal.me forward slash rmark unfiltered. Graphic, y'all. Graphic.
Come on, y'all, too slow.
Graphic. Y'all got to work with me.
Graphic. Pull it up.
Then, of course, you can also pull it up.
Let's go.
And then, of course, thank you.
Come on, now.
And then, of course, y'all, where the address?
Wrong graphic.
It's wrong graphic.
I do this every day.
I need y'all to give some more money so I can replace some people in the control room.
All right.
See?
That's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to get the graphic straight.
All right.
Address, 1625 K Street, Northwest, Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 2006.
Make it out to NuVision Media, N-U, Vision Media.
Your dollars make it possible for us to do what we do.
So we appreciate all of you. And so we of course are going to have the
folks who get $50 or more. I'll read
their names off. That's how I do it. You get a
personal shout out. Then we'll roll the credit
tomorrow of all our donors. More than 6,000
people have joined our Bring the Funk fan club.
Our goal is to get 20,000 by the
end of the year. 20,000 people
giving 50 bucks or more,
completely funds our show.
It's about being independent and giving you the news that you need.
Hey, go to my iPad real quick.
I want to see what they got up.
Y'all, the Prince Estate, okay, let me pull up.
The Prince Estate is doing something major.
The Prince Estate is showing, y'all, Reesa, you a Prince fan?
Oh, absolutely. Okay, uh, Greg,
uh, Prince fan?
Roland, I saw your Twitter and I already hit my people
in Minneapolis. They are fired up.
So, y'all, here's the deal. Here's the deal, okay?
Uh, so, what's happening
is the Prince estate, what they're
doing is, uh, they are
showing, they're doing a fundraiser for coronavirus.
They are showing this 1985 concert from Prince.
It's streaming at 8 p.m. Eastern today through 11.59 p.m. on Sunday.
On Sunday, 100% of the proceeds are going to COVID-19 relief.
Now, I was just pulling it up.
Let's see what they got going on.
So if you go to the page, this is what you're seeing right now.
Anthony, pull it up.
Y'all, this is the concert.
Right now, they've never streamed it before.
So this is from 1985.
So y'all go to the Prince
YouTube channel. Check it out between
right now and 11.59pm
on Sunday. Hope y'all enjoy.
Prince was a bad brother.
Look, he loved what I did. I found
out after he died how much a huge fan he
was. And so, man,
look, we certainly miss him. He's been gone
for years. Purple Rain came
out in 1984, right?
Yeah, so this is like so.
Watch that concert, brother.
So in this concert, in this concert, I just had the story.
He's singing all hits.
It's like 16 or 20 songs he's singing.
Y'all, it was on VHS.
It disappeared.
Folks have not seen this in two decades.
You can watch it right now on YouTube now on Sunday.
And so shout out to the Prince of State for certainly appreciating that,
for putting that out there.
Recy, thanks a bunch.
Erica, thanks a bunch.
Greg, thanks a bunch.
One thing.
One thing.
Which one?
Roland.
Yeah.
Oh, I want to say shout out to Patrick Outlaw.
You shouted him out.
That's my bonus dad.
So I appreciate his support.
That's your bonus dad?
Yeah, my stepdad.
My mom's husband. Oh, I bonus dad? Yeah, my stepdad.
My mom's husband.
Oh, I was about to say, what the hell?
Black people in these play daddies and that's why I was like, bonus daddy.
He's married to my mother.
He's married to my mother.
Oh, all right.
Oh, okay.
Well, we appreciate his support,
but she threw me off grid
because see, here's the deal.
All right, y'all know how I roll.
I got one mama and one daddy.
I don't call nobody else mama and daddy.
Okay.
You might be in the minority on that.
No, bro.
I got a whole lot of brothers and sisters.
Matter of fact, my sister's husband was saying, well, mom and dad,
I don't think he was talking about his parents.
I was like, oh, he's like, oh, you're talking about mine.
Right.
I said, oh, my bad.
I said, I'm sorry.
That's Mr. and Mrs. Martin.
I don't know who.
You got him. No, I don't know who. You know, I'm trying.
No, I don't do that.
I don't do that. I ain't call my wife's mama, mama.
I was like, what's her name?
That's Miss Hood.
I got one mama.
OK.
Oh, yeah.
First of all, you heard me say my sister's husband.
That's true.
I don't say brother-in-law.
That's true. Wow. No, it no it's not no i'm just being i ain't never i don't say sister-in-law who that that's my
brother that's my brother's wife martin called your parent i don't know what she called him
i don't know what she called him now i've heard I've heard her say mom and dad look at her like.
Oh.
Oh, no, I'm just.
I've always been.
I don't look.
Hey, hey.
Hey, hey, hi, Ro.
That's why she threw me.
She's like, bonus, dad.
I was like, you like a quiz show?
I understood.
I understood, Reesey.
It's your bonus dad.
And he's supporting Roland Martin.
I'm feeling it.
Oh, I appreciate it.
All right.
So Patrick Outlaw. That's a hell of a last name. It's a great last name. Fields. Oh, I appreciate it. Alright, so... So Patrick Outlaw.
That's a hell of a last name.
It's a great last name.
My mom is Yvette Outlaw. Shout out to her, too.
Oh, that's Bonnie and Clyde
right there.
Yes, absolutely.
Alright, I'm going to see y'all tomorrow.
Ha! Ah! I know a lot of cops.
They get asked all the time,
have you ever had to shoot your gun?
Sometimes the answer is yes.
But there's a company dedicated to a future
where the answer will always be no.
This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.
I get right back there and it's bad.
Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Clayton English.
I'm Greg Lott.
And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast.
Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war.
This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports.
This kind of starts that a little bit, man.
We met them at their homes.
We met them at their recording studios.
Stories matter and it brings a face to them.
It makes it real.
It really does.
It makes it real.
Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.
Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves.
We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we
also have to learn to take care of ourselves.
A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else,
but never forget yourself.
Self-love made me a better dad
because I realized my worth.
Never stop being a dad.
That's dedication.
Find out more at fatherhood.gov.
Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services and the Ad Council.
This is an iHeart Podcast.