#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 5.30 #RMU Family of man who died in Sheriff Clarke's jail gets $6.5M; Census manipulated to help GOP

Episode Date: May 31, 2019

5.30.19 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Family of the man who died in Sheriff David Clarke's jail receives $6.5M settlement; New evidence shows the census was manipulated to help GOP; Mueller speaks, says he did not find evidence to exonerate Trump and #45 responds with more lies; Jaime Harrison is challenging Senator Lindsey Graham in South Carolina; Fmr Cowboy's book motivates Black boys; More trouble for the cast and crew of 'The Chi' + A preview of the Ava Duvernay drama-series, 'When They See Us'. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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skill through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org, brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, folks. Today is Thursday, May 30th, 2019. Coming up on Roller Martin Unfiltered, the family of the man who died in Sheriff David Clark's jail receives an historic settlement. That punk-ass sheriff hasn't said anything. Oh, all had no cattle, huh?

Let's see what we got to say now. New evidence that the census was deliberately manipulated by the Donald Trump administration to hurt Democrats, and it's also because of race. We will unpack that thing. Bob Mueller speaks, and Lord, Donald Trump is losing his damn mind. See what happens when you've been lying, obstructing justice, and all you MAGA lovers are losing their minds,

saying, oh, now Bob Mueller's a bad guy. But I thought y'all got cleared. Oh, it's amazing what happens when the truth comes out. And we know Donald Trump is lying. He lies all day. And so we got some new lies for him. Joining us on the show today is Jamie Harrison. He is a man trying to unseat South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who has decided to suck up to Donald Trump every way possible. Can this brother turn South Carolina blue Lindsey Graham, who has decided to suck up to Donald Trump every way possible. Can this brother turn South Carolina blue? Also, we'll talk to Martellus Bennett. First of all, they got the script, former Dallas Cowboy,

but y'all know I hate the Dallas Cowboys. He's a former Texas A&M graduate. That's more like it. He's here to motivate black boys. Never put that cowboy stuff in a damn script on the show I got. And there's more trouble for the cast and crew of The Shot. Seems that there's more to the story about what we heard so far regarding Jason Mitchell. And guess what? R. Kelly facing new charters in Chicago.

We also have a preview of Avery DuVernay's drama series, When They See Us, about the Central Park Five. You know, the crew that Donald Trump said should get the death penalty? We'll break all of that down. Jam-packed show. It's time to bring the funk on Rolling Mark Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it.

Whatever the mess, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling, yeah, with Uncle Roro, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's rolling, Martin, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. Yeah, he's broke, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martin.

Now. Martin. All right, folks, the former sheriff in Milwaukee County, David Clark, has his inaction in his jail has led to the family of Terrell Thomas getting $7 million. Thomas died of dehydration in Sheriff Clark's jail when he was denied water for seven days. The family attorney described his death as torture. While in jail, his water turned off because he supposedly flooded another cell by stuffing a mattress in the toilet. Well, the water was never turned back on, and he died a week later.

Now, of course, David Clark is no longer the sheriff there. And, of course, he has nothing to say about this. There's no shock whatsoever. But this also speaks to the kind of treatment that we see in jails across this country. We want to talk about this here with our pal. Joining us right now is a former NFL player, Texas A&M player, Martellus Bennett, Dr. Greg Carr, chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University.

Also joining us is Teresa Lundy, founder of TML Communications, and, of course, the loudmouth himself, the loudmouth Kappa, A. Scott Bolden, former chair of National Bar Association, Political Action Committee. But there's two alphas here, so we'll keep the little kappa in order. I want to start. Stop talking, stop talking. Here's the thing that's crazy about this here.

Here you got Sheryl Clarke running his mouth talking about being a fiscal conservative, loving Donald Trump, and now the Trump people have actually kicked him to the curb. And he's such a wimp, he even blocked me on Twitter because he don't want to debate me

like the other Fox News people. But this is a guy, he literally kept water from this guy. This guy was over the jail and he didn't care. He didn't care. This brother died. And in fact, four people died in his jail under his leadership watch. I mean, it's

ridiculous. He's shown that he has no regard for human life. He's got a long track record of abuse. Last time I saw David Clark, he was sitting in the studio when you posted him up in there. He didn't know you were going to call him on line of the air. And he just turned around. And at one point he kind of smiled. He broke character. He knows this is wrong. Fortunately, a court of law also has, you know, enforced that it's wrong. But but this just talks. It really speaks to the deep cynicism in the

GOP at this point. And they'll use anybody until they won't. Ben Carson's probably next. They're going to kick them both to the curb. Martellus, we've got a bunch of other stories of, again, people being beaten, attacked in prison. And there's this gross disregard for people who are in prison. And unfortunately, too many other people say, oh, they deserve to be there.

Who cares? Even though they might be in prison, they're still human beings. Yeah, I think there's a, people, when they look at someone for what they did, they deserve to be there. Who cares? Even though they might be in prison, they're still human beings. Yeah, I think there's people, when they look at someone for what they did, they don't really think about growth. You think about reform, prison reform, or you think about the ability to change people and how people can change. There's no, anything is not, nothing's put in place for growth people as they're in prison. They go there and they're forgotten.

They get lost in the shuffle. There has to be something where they continue to be educated and continue to grow as people. That's the biggest thing. No one should really be punished forever. They could learn and they could grow, and they should be able to show how much they have grown and how much they have learned. Well, you can't learn and grow here because he's dead. Well, what you need, you know, it's interesting you talk

about growth, but the reality is the captors, the oppressors, the police, the prosecutors need room for growth, too, because none of this is the captors, the oppressors, the police, the prosecutors need room for growth too because none of this is personal. And you know, as a former prosecutor from New York and criminal defense lawyer, when I would have clients who would come in and clearly look like they've been abused from head to shoulders and what have you, we would ask the pictures be taken of them in court. This happens every day in courtrooms and jails across this country.

You just don't necessarily hear about it. And that needs to be reformed because I can see it. I can report it. I can put it on the record and what have you. But these prisoners, these young kids, older prisoners, you name it, that are processed through the court system or they're at Rikers Island and come, they're not only abused in prison, but abused on the way there. And because they're prisoners, because they are accused of having crimes nobody really cares and their public defenders are very limited as well and then the prosecutors if you care that's one thing most really don't de facto don't and so they're caught up in this political and criminal justice vortex that won't let them go they get

lucky if they can get out if they have money for bail or if they beat the charge right that unknown should be enough for them not to go back to prison. Theresa, what you're dealing with is, again, we have a society in this case where this fake black man, David Clark, treated inmates as if they were nothing. Sort of like Sheriff Arpaio in Arizona. It's probably who he wanted to model after. This guy's dead. This is not somebody who was injured, went to hospital. He's dead. like Sheriff Arpaio in Arizona is probably who he wanted to model after.

This guy's dead. This is not somebody who was injured, went to hospital. He's dead. Right, and Sheriff Clarks treated them as they were slaves, treated them, these prisoners, these humans, these brothers, these nephews, like they were forgotten, like they were lost, like they went to sentence and then they pretty much got sentenced to death under his ruling. So when I see the GOP kind of toss him to the side and by the waistline, I'm actually glad, because I hope it's a wake-up call to every African-American that is under the GOP,

especially as the administration signed a criminal justice bill. But as we can see that it's trickling down to some of those law enforcement agencies is absolutely not even at the state level. And they're more state prisoners than federal prisoners. And of course, we haven't heard anything of Candace Owens or other black people who love running their mouths. And you won't because I think everybody's taking a reevaluation of themselves, especially, you know, African-Americans who are a part of the deal. Not them. I mean, not them. No, they're not. I'm figuring out because they're silent. No, they're not. No, they're not. We don't know what they're...

No, they're silent because they don't want to speak to this issue because it speaks to their gross negligence. And also, it also shows all these fake-ass conservatives who care about tax dollars. That's $7 million of taxpayer money. Yeah. See, they love talking about fiscal conservatism, but they don't care when Chicago spends half a billion on police settlements.

They don't care when New York City spends almost a billion on police settlements. They don't care when New York City spends almost a billion on police settlements. We can go on and on and on. They don't care about any of that because, again, and they also don't care because they're also these fake-ass pro-lifers. See, don't tell me you pro-life

when it's a fetus, but then you're not pro-life when somebody dies in a jail. And so that's why they're silent, because they have situational ethics and situational morals. That's the deal. Greg, final comment. They're about 1,250 majority black

controlled cities in this country. I mean, run by black mayors, black by 1,250, according to Pew and some other people. Milwaukee is one now with a plurality of black people. What we're seeing around the city is as black people gain control of some of these municipalities, you begin to see black political power begin to see. Well, this is what I'm saying.

Okay, stop. First of all, this is below the city. He was sheriff of the county. Right, but this is what I'm saying. No, it's not the same difference. No, no, no. What I'm saying is that you can have a black city, but then if you have other counties that are predominantly white, that's how he was able to win.

That's where I was going. Because Milwaukee and the county and then the state of Wisconsin, the so-called swing state where you see this gerrymander issue, all these things we've been talking about, a guy like David Clark is backed up by those white supremacists in Wisconsin. And so when he drops down on the ground in a place like Milwaukee or in the county, he's being suborned by people who have absolutely no regard for life. Which is why they wanted him to run for the United States Senate. Yes. Of course, it went nowhere. And so that's what happened.

That's right. So if you read your research, you would know those things, Scott. All right. Let's talk about the new evidence regarding the census. Thomas Hofeller, the Republican Party's go-to redistricting expert who died last year. He was the man we now know behind the language that made it into the Justice Department's formal request that his citizenship question be added to the census. Now, let me unpack this. The evidence was found on a hard drive provided by his estranged daughter, who first shared it with the challengers in a partisan gerrymandering case in North Carolina. Documents show the Trump administration's purpose in putting the citizenship question on the upcoming census was not to help Hispanic voters under the Voting Rights Act, which they have lied about, but rather to create policy that would be a, quote, disadvantage to the Democrats

and advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites. Now, this is a huge issue because the Supreme Court is going to decide this case. Trump folks have been lying. Y'all are supposed to play the Trump lies matter stinger because they've been lying. They've been lying, lying, lying. Wilbur Ross lied in court, lied as to the origins of this. Lied in Congress, too.

And then these fools who have never defended the Voting Rights Act. All of a sudden, oh, we're doing this because of the Voting Rights Act. I'm going to tell us, well, here's what we have here. The Republican Party is a white party. They got a few black people, but the reality is all of the attacks on immigration, the attacks

on voter suppression, they are trying to maintain white majorities in order to hold on to power, and this citizenship question is all about trying to hold its power for the next 10 years by keeping America white again. Yeah, a lot of me just through the history of time, everything has been to suppress the voters of color. Don't matter what color black and brown

people have not had to. It has not been as easy for them to vote, whether it's us fighting for the right to vote, the way they set up votes when it's during the day, where it's really just like a rich person's pastime, where they could just go there and vote when they want to. Most people have jobs where they can't really get there to vote, registration. They make everything really tough, and the language is written in a way where it's not able to be digested by the normal person, normal citizen in the U.S. So they don't make it easy for people to learn what they need to go, and they not spread the information of what's actually happened to make a vote.

And then the other thing is people don't really vote locally either. So everyone, there's this huge thing about voting for the presidency that everyone wants to walk about and everyone wants to chant about and ride about. But then the actual voting for the places, the things that happen in your community, like there's not a lot of information about people knowing when those things are happening, who's running, who's running in your city. Those local things, local chapters, those things are happening, who's running, who's running in your city, those local things, local chapters, those things are going to matter even more to you

and make a bigger impact right away than the grand votes of things. So I think that the whole idea of voting has been done in a way to discourage people who aren't white to vote. Teresa, they want to keep white majorities. Yeah. And they're hoping that the Supreme Court,

led by five conservatives, including that so-called brother, Clarence Thomas. Now, yeah, and I'm saying so-called for a reason. And I'm questioning. Yeah, I will question because of the positions that he takes. And they're hoping the Supreme Court will allow this citizenship question. And we know it's BS. And we also know that as a result of this, they lied. This guy wrote a memo, and they actually took the section in his own words and placed it in the Department of Justice's letter to justify this question.

And so what I really hope that, kind of going back to his point, as in local municipalities actually try to do something, because we have some of those questions even on local elections during primaries, is those local charter questions that are happening that really affect those individuals now. I know, like, in Philadelphia, we just had something that had to relate to the school district's budget. And so even with that, I think, and a lot of people just, you know, didn't know, even

understand the question. There was no history. There was no resources available to even find out the question, especially for the most impoverished city. And so I think, you know, when we're starting to look at a national scale with some of these questions and Supreme Court statements, people just aren't having a better understanding, nor is it being explained. So. Well, first of all, in this case here, this is not a question in terms of a ballot initiative. What this is about is challenging the citizenship of individuals, even though the census is about counting everybody. That's right. And see what they also do, how they also pimp this game, Scott, is that they will also use prisoners, count prisoners for the purpose of the census, count prisoners for the purpose of partisan gerrymandering, but then say, oh, y'all

also can't vote. And so with this particular question is about decreasing the number of Hispanics in the country, fearing that they're not going to answer the question, therefore shut the door, which means a decrease in federal resources and it impacts the lines. What people don't realize is that based upon the census, if you have a population like in Texas, the last census, Texas added four new congressional seats because the population increased largely because of Latinos. Which means that you're going to have some losses. The losses when it comes to Congress, which also means electoral college losses.

Come on. Okay. See, I need y'all to follow me on this thing. See, I know some of y'all at home going, oh my God, is this an electoral college? Yes. What you need to understand, population shifts causes changes in congressional representation in the house senate stays the same everybody gets two but it calls them in the house well what are the states that are likely going to lose congressional representation over the next 20 years which means

loss of electoral college votes ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, all Midwestern states where there are lots of white people. The Rust Belt. And so for the people at home who, especially some of y'all Negroes out there, who are like, oh no, we shouldn't be

counting these folks. This is about protecting white interest. But everything has always been about protecting white interest. But everything has always been about protecting white interest. Oh, no, no, absolutely. Oh, no, absolutely. But this, but what this is, what this is, but what this is, because in 24 years, we'll be a nation

majority of people of color. Exactly. What they're trying to do is slow that down. So they're saying, hold up, we know this thing is changing. We know the annual white death rate in 10 states is actually a higher than annual white birth rate. What this is about is how do we codify this? And that's why they want the Supreme Court to rule. Exactly. But look at the browning of America. What is fascinating about this in a negative way is how the GOP and other white organizations

are systematic in their effort to combat politically, business-wise, economically, socially, combat the browning of America. They at local level, county level, federal level, everything that they're doing here, pay attention, right, is to either suppress the black vote, suppress people of color's economic ability to move ahead, gerrymandering, you name it, because they're trying to hold off on the majority of this country being people of color. Now, the real danger in that for them and what they won't ask us about is this, Professor. You know, their fear is rooted in they believe that if we become the majority, I think, that we are going to treat white Americans the way they treated us.

That's what they stared at us. Exactly. Because they know what they did to us. That's right. And I'm still doing. But now watch this. Hold on. But watch this now, right? If you look at our culture of people, of black people, if there's any person or group in America that should be the angriest of all, it is black America.

And we're the most sympathetic. And we're the most sympathetic. Hold on. We want to matriculate. We want to integrate. We want our fair share, our piece of the pie. Some of y'all want to integrate. A lot of us.

I would say we're two decades too early. No doubt. We didn't have the infrastructure. But they haven't paid attention. They haven't paid attention to what our culture says, which is completely different than their oppressive culture. Greg, you know, Roland, this is a very, and this might be the most important topic we're discussing tonight. To tie a couple of things you said, Brother Bennett, together. The local level is very important.

This affects local politics as well in terms of distribution. And when you said that our folks maybe don't understand, we're out there trying to make a living, trying to survive, to listen to what Roland said, to you to walk through this, very important. There are 435 seats in federal legislature in Congress. That number doesn't increase.

So for a state to get... 435 in the House, 100 in the Senate. Exactly. So for a state to get a congressperson, some other state has to lose them. So what they've done is with this guy, Thomas Hochbelder, and mind you, we wouldn't have even known about this had his daughter not been on the Internet looking for him and found out that he died. She didn't know he died. She was a strange person. That's exactly right. So then she reaches out to her mother to look through for family photographs and stuff. She discovers all these hard drives

and then reaches out to this to this nonprofit to say, I'm looking for a lawyer that's not connected to my father because I'm trying to get this probate stuff done. And then she says, but I did run across these things that might be interesting. And here's where it gets very interesting. This New York billionaire, Paul Singer, he was the one that paid for the memo that this guy wrote because the question was, here was the question, how can we increase our strength in the Republican Party? That's when this guy writes a memo and says, you've got to reduce in the sense if we see, we got to be able to reduce the number and to reduce the number of people who we don't want voting. You should move from counting just bodies, people who live in these states and go to

counting. This is their strategy. Voting age citizens. That's what they want to move to. But guess what? The only document in the federal law that was even tracking any number of voting age citizens was the Civil Rights Act of 1965. Why was that? Because they

wanted to make sure that black folks were being represented in the federal legislature. So now they... Voting Rights Act. Voting Rights Act. Excuse me, Voting Rights Act. So then what does Hopstead say? We got to be able to tie this to voting age citizens, but we don't have any data. Right. The best way to get data would be to put a citizenship question on the census, and that would also serve to scare these people off from from answering the census and that would shrink it their real strategy finally this is why this lawsuit for the spring court is so important this is why john roberts feckless john roberts justice gorsuch mcconnell and this brett beer kavanaugh and this

tom thomas this is why this block is so. When they had oral arguments a couple of weeks ago about the census question, they look like they're buying. They're ready to buy this exact opposite thing of saying that it's going to help voting when, in fact, it wouldn't. But here's the real issue. They want to get to the point where they can count voting age citizens. Right. They start counting voting aid citizens, that means they can now move those seats to those growing majority states, but also reduce the number of non-white people who are going to participate in the process. And as Roland always says, they want to run this thing for the next 50 years. And that's why the court is so important. Which is why you have to understand the lawsuit in Ohio, the Supreme Court, a white guy filed,

where they are purging people by saying, if you have not voted in the last two elections, we will automatically remove you from the voting rolls because the next step, Greg, is going to be not just those of voting age, but those who vote. Right. Which is why, which I told y'all what happened in Florida. One of the reasons Andrew Gillum lost, because white folks in upper Florida who are senior citizens voted at higher rates than you did black folks and brown folks in Miami-Dade County and Broward. Understand this, okay? So let me just say this before I go to my next story. This is why y'all ain't getting this on CNN. You're not getting this on MSNBC, you're not getting it on Fox News. That's right. Because you have to understand what Republicans are doing. They are specifically going through and saying, OK, we have to figure out legal ways to restrict voting.

The guy who died, he was their top expert on gerrymandering. That's right. Oh, y'all might say, OK, gerrymandering. Yes. Remember the Wisconsin case when the Supreme Court kicked it back? There are two gerrymandering cases right now before the Supreme Court, one from Maryland involving Democrats in one district, but the other involving North Carolina. You also have the Pennsylvania case in gerrymandering. If this conservative Supreme Court rules that gerrymandering is allowed, every state will create gerrymandering is allowed every state will create gerrymandering that's why in some states Democrats can win 55% of the vote that's right but then they don't win the majority of the seats because of gerrymandering all of these things are

linked and all these things go back to the highest court in the land Supreme Court deciding this which is why they refused to have Merrick Garland even have a hearing, which is why I'm still upset that Obama didn't nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court because he wanted to play fair. They don't play fair. Just had Mitch McConnell say, of course, if there's an opening next year in the presidential year, we are going to have hearings. But he said something differently in 2016. Y'all need to understand, all you Negroes out there who are saying elections don't matter, these things are no big deal. The Supreme Court and the federal judiciary is the most important thing Republicans want to control. That's right. Because that's who determines what laws are

constitutional. And what are they loading up on? Unconst constitutional? That's right. That's what's going on. And so that's why Democrats got to be running strong folks in the United States Senate next year. Because if you do not take control of the U.S. Senate, the Republicans will control those seats. The only thing is if Republicans maintain control of the Senate and the Democrat is the president, the president is going to be actually making the appointments for the federal bench, then you're going to have the fight. All these things are connected, so you better understand what's going on. Speaking of that, Bob Mueller, of course,

has ticked off Donald Trump and his people when he came out yesterday and spoke about his report. Now, he didn't say anything new, but this is what actually changed the game. By him speaking and by him countering what Barr said, the Attorney General, he has forced the conversation back to the report, the one that people didn't read. Press play. Now, I have not spoken publicly during our investigation. I'm speaking out today because our investigation is complete.

The Attorney General has made the report on our investigation largely public. We are formally closing the Special Counsel's Office, and as well, I'm resigning from the Department of Justice to return to private life. And as set forth in the report after that investigation, if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. It explains that under longstanding department policy, a president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. That is unconstitutional. Even if the charge is kept under seal and hidden from public view, that too is prohibited.

The special counsel's office is part of the Department of Justice, and by regulation, it was bound by that department policy. Charging the president with a crime was therefore not an option we could consider. I got to deal with this, y'all, okay? I got to, because this is really, like, pissing me off. It's really ticking me off. I'm sorry. Last I checked, I mean, I've read the Constitution. There is nothing, there's nowhere in the United States Constitution that says a president cannot be indicted.

Nowhere. You can't find it. What he's talking about, Scott, is a memo that was written by the Nixon Department of Justice in order to ensure Nixon didn't get indicted. And all of these people are acting as if this is like manna from heaven, like God told Moses, here are the two tablets, and you can't die the president. It's a bullshit memo. Right, right.

I wish we had it. It's written by Nixon supporters. Well, remember who ended up the attorney general in that Nixon justice department. Which one? He fired two or three. No, I'm talking about the one who said he would do whatever Nixon wanted. Robert Bork. No, William Winquist went over there and Bork was over there and, you know, John Roberts clerked for William Winquist. See, these people think generationally. But let's think about this for a second. It's very important what you just raised. Mueller believes in America to a fault. I think what Mueller is saying, basically what he's maybe afraid of is, if he indicts the President of the United States,

now you've thrown this country into chaos. He don't want to set no precedent. Sorry. But here's my problem with that. And that's what that nonsense Nancy Pelosi is saying. But here's my problem with that. And that's what that nonsense Nancy Pelosi is saying.

Yeah, right. But the Constitution clearly lays out high crimes and misdemeanors. Yes. The Constitution has created a provision that a president can be removed. Right. And my problem is these people in D.C. have walking around like, oh, no, no, you can't. You can't. No, you can't touch the president.

I mean, and that's why when Trump came in, he was like, oh, hell, I can do what I want to do. The reason the memo lives, remember, it lives in DOJ. It's never been challenged. It should be put in shredder. It's policy. It's not law. OK, so. So, one, that's never

been challenged to extrapolate other parts of the Constitution and say the impeachment, which is a political process, is what you do with the president. And if it's a federal crime, because they say high crimes and misdemeanors, that may be true, but no one is above the law. And the reason that is unsettling is because if Donald Trump shot somebody or set somebody on fire in the lawn like that gentleman did yesterday, and we all observed it on video, are you saying that the president couldn't be charged? Yes. If Mueller is absolutely right about this, and I think he punted because he could have challenged all of this, if he's right, then there is one person above the law.

And impeachment isn't a crime. Impeachment means you get removed from office. But that begs the question, well, what if I do commit a crime? I can just walk away. That's nonsense. Or do I have to be charged by the state if I kill somebody while I'm in office? And this is the thing that Martellus is driving me crazy. It's because literally what they're saying is that yes, everybody in America, except the president, can get charged. And that's what you're left with. Spirity Agnew

was vice president under Nixon. That's true. Got charged. Tax evasion. Had to resign. At the state level. Yeah. But no, no, I got you. But he's the vice president. They are making the argument that, oh, no, president is just totally untouchable. He can do what the hell he wants because the logic was he would be too busy being president if he got charged. No, wrongdoing is wrongdoing.

Yeah, I think the other thing now that changes, too, is I think everyone, we're in a display culture, so everyone worries about how things look and how things are. So I feel like they feel like it's a reflection on America, how it looks, because now more people can see what's going on in America. So they feel like, hey, if we do this, then Russia sees us, this place sees us. Everyone can see that we're in turmoil right now. So I think they kind of move from a point. But I don't think there are any moral victories in politics.

Not at all. But Pelosi's problem. it may be a political process but she is politicizing whether to move for impeachment or not because she knows that he won't be impeached in the senate but there's a moral political and obligation, constitutional obligation for the Democrats in the House to do their job. Mueller almost put that, Mueller put that back on the Congress. He said there is an alternative piece. And by the way, he could have gone further and said, but for this memo, I would have charged or he could have been charged with obstruction.

Because then that would have added more pressure. He decided to put on that. But even he didn't come strong enough. He set up instruction. He gave you 10 examples, and he said, now Congress, go do your thing. But his was interesting. But, Teresa, his was interesting. The Ken Starr. That's right.

Ken Starr was an independent investigator. He had a memo. And his memo, here, go to my iPad. This is from a July 22, 2017 story in the New York Times. The 56-page memo, locked in the National Archives for nearly two decades and obtained by the New York Times under the Freedom of Information Act, says this. Quote, it is proper, constitutional, and legal for a federal grand jury to indict a sitting president for serious criminal acts that are not part of and are contrary to the president's official duties. In this country, no one, even president clinton is above the law right my problem is mullet gets up

there and says oh well this memo for 1973 this is it this deal just this is doj uh they're this is also the memo and the problem here is that impeachment is not supposed to be nice. Right. Or easy. Impeachment should tear apart the country. It should be uncomfortable. Because it is the highest to say that we are going to initiate impeachment proceedings against the president of the United States. And then enlist the Democrats. And I hear Pelosi, but here's this whole problem I have.

Well, there's no sense in us doing this because the Senate is controlled by Republicans, and so therefore they're never going to convict him. Richard Nixon was never impeached by the House. There were impeachment hearings. The hearings were so destructive that they said, player Howard Baker, the long walk up the driveway, Ms. President, time for your ass to go. Because if this continues, we will be forced to vote to impeach you.

Nixon resigned before there was even a vote. I hear Pelosi's point, but I'm like, what are you talking about? The hearings allows the public to actually listen to what's in the report. We deserve that. And listen to witnesses. I see. And what happened? It was in the low 30s.

Approval ratings, the numbers to impeach Nixon. By the time they got through those hearings, it was above 50 plus percent because the public was like, he did what? He did what? He did what? He did what? Oh, yeah, he got to go. And that's why. And so and again, sort of listen to them, because what the Democrats are trying to do is if we could just wait for the election. That's what Obama did in 2016.

And didn't release the report on Russia. And I think, you know, kind of just, I think everybody's waiting for the process. And I don't think... How do you wait for the process when you are the process? You are the process, but nobody wants to be the first one to start that process. But here's the problem.

When you were sworn in, you were sworn to protect and uphold the Constitution from enemies, enemies, foreign and domestic. And Elizabeth Warren said on The View, I was sworn in to uphold the Constitution. Not Democrat, not Republican, not Trump, not Obama,

the Constitution. And that's and that's why you have just you have Representative Amash, Republican from Michigan, who is taking heat by saying, I'm sorry, I read the report this man committed obstruction of justice and so that's what they're fearful of if more individuals are read and more elected because I doubt that most of the city don't know they haven't read it hasn't read they barely read the

four-page memo so if more people start to read it if it goes more out into the I mean it is out there I'm actually on page 300 so if more of it is out there. I'm actually on page 300. So, if more of it's out there, and I think the process of the hearings actually start to take place, then yes, the proceedings will happen. And then Matt Martellus, because by him coming out, basically saying, y'all ain't read my damn report, I'm trying to tell you to read it,

he is now forcing another conversation because Barr tried to play everybody. Barr tried to shade it. Now, you can't shade it when Mueller says, if we were convinced that he did not commit a crime, we would have said so. As him saying,

his ass committed a crime. Go. Yeah, I think that the whole thing is that in a democracy, the people deserve to have the information to make the decisions that need to be made. So right now, it's a deprivation of information, which if we don't have information and people aren't reading these things, they should be able to sit and listen to the conversation happening in real time. So therefore they can make the people as a large

can make the decision that needs to be made. But now by not going to hearing, by not charging them, we don't get a chance to have access to information in a digestible way for the majority of the population to be able to understand what's happening. Because not too many people, people don't even read books. So you can't expect them to pick up the Mueller report and go read that and really... They'll watch TV. Well, first of all, let me... They'll watch the hearings. Right, precisely. That's the key.

All right, Henry, go to my iPad real quick. Shout out to Latoya Alter. She contributed a buck ninety-nine. Hey, no, no, no, the iPad, the iPad, the iPad. She contributed a buck ninety-nine to the show. She said, the iPad, the iPad. She contributed a buck ninety-nine to the show. She said, this is impeachment dollars. She got two on it. She said, I put two on it. And so, really, y'all can give to the show on the

YouTube channel. Y'all can do that. No question. For your fan club because of the impeachment. No, no, no. Wait 25%. What you keep saying, Roland, by explaining these things in ways people can grasp them now. And then, Teresa, I'm glad you said that because when you begin to read the report, which is for sale for dirt cheap all over the country, you can get it online. For free.

For free. Free 99. Yeah, right? What you read is what he has done. But, I mean, again, Marcel, the point you're raising, brother, our people are not reading. People in this country are not reading this people in this country Got it. And so what Pelosi realizes this electorate is one the people on back Trump are going to back Trump I take this out. Yeah, but then guess what? His little sticky fat fingers all of a sudden said what the truth was.

This is what he tweeted this morning. Russia, Russia, Russia. That's all you heard at the beginning of this witch hunt hoax, and now Russia has disappeared because I had nothing to do with Russia helping me get elected. It was a crime that didn't exist, so

now the Dems and their partner, the fake news media, blah, blah, blah. But then he tried to backtrack y'all, so then he tried to send this tweet out. Actually, no. He, first of all, deleted the tweet, tried to send another tweet out actually no he first of all sit deleted the tweet try to send another one then he realized damn that really didn't do the trick so so then he's got to hop in front of the cameras watch this no russia did not help me get elected you know who got me elected you know who got me elected i got me elected. Russia didn't help me at all. Russia, if anything, I think, helped the other side.

What you ought to ask is this. Do you think the media helped Hillary Clinton get elected? She didn't make it. But you take a look at collusion between Hillary Clinton and the media. You take a look at collusion between Hillary Clinton and Russia. She had more to do in the campaign with Russia than I did. I had nothing to do. And by the way, that's one other thing.

If you look, this was all about Russia, Russia, Russia. They don't talk about Russia anymore because it turned out to be a hoax. It was all a hoax. But your little fat finger says something different. Bottom line is, you're lying. You're lying. Mueller yesterday said a foreign country did, in fact, interfere with our election.

We know for a fact that Russian hackers access the voting records of two counties in Florida. For some reason, they won't tell us what those counties are. We know for a fact that he and his cohorts, his campaign, they were trying to meet to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. You are a liar. You're an orange liar, but you're a liar. And they're going to accept it. That's why every time he lies, y'all, we will use hashtag Trump lies, Mary.

Now, speaking of lying, there's nobody who has lied more to help Donald Trump than Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. In fact, he has absolutely embarrassed himself. He should never call himself a friend of Senator John McCain again, because what he has done to suck up to Donald Trump is actually shocking, stunning, and pretty pathetic. And the person who says it's time for him to go is Jamie Harrison. Jamie, a top official in the Democratic National Committee. He joins us right now. He announced that he is running for the United States Senate in South Carolina. Jamie, you got an uphill battle, of course.

You're in a red state. A lot of black folks, but you still got a lot of white folks who wave their Confederate flags. Lindsey Graham, of course, has been reelected several different times. What will it take for you to beat Lindsey Graham in South Carolina? Yeah, you know, Roland, I tell people this whole red state, blue state stuff is an excuse. I mean, think about Maryland, think about Massachusetts, think about Maine. Those are quote unquote blue states, but what do they have in common? They have Republican governors. So the Republicans don't cede anything to us. So why the hell should we cede anything to them? We are going to fight, and we're going to give Lindsey Graham the fight of his life, because we're going to start talking to the people. We can spend all day talking about Lindsey,

but Lindsey is just part of the problem. These people in South Carolina are going through something on a day-to-day basis. I was just in Denmark, South Carolina this weekend handing out just bottles, hundreds of bottles of water to people because the government, the local town had been putting chemicals in the water for 10 years. Chemicals that the EPA said they shouldn't have put in there. And so do you think Lindsey stepped into that town? Did he make a phone call? Did he go there? It's a predominantly African-American little town. He didn't. He didn't lift a finger. So these folks need someone who will go in and fight for them. And that's what I want to do. That's who I am. That's what I've done my entire life. And that's what I'll do as the United States Senate. You also have a guy, you also have a guy right now who, who, who we have video of him talking

about impeachment, talking about high crimes and misdemeanors. Now he's saying the Democrats led a rectal exam with Donald Trump and that Mueller should move on and so should we. I mean, did he kind of forget what he had to say? Does he have dementia? Does he have Alzheimer's? Well, Roland, I don't know if you've seen my video. We kind of highlight some of the back and forth between what I call Lindsay 1.0 and Lindsay 2.0. And the Lindsay 2.0 is, in essence, an overpaid golf caddy. I mean, this is a guy who will say any and everything because he believes that he needs to touch the emperor's role in order to have power. The sad part is that he doesn't use any of that power to benefit the people of South Carolina.

Again, it's going to be a huge race. You've got to raise a lot of money. You've got to go across that particular state. I'll ask you this. I asked Bernie Sanders the question. This is the last question. Are you going to go look broke white folks in the eye in South Carolina and say, your education is bad.

Your healthcare is bad. Why are you going to vote for a guy who wants to get rid of the very healthcare that's actually saving your life? Yeah, I am. And you know what I'm going to do, Roland? So in South Carolina, four rural hospitals have closed. And it's because the Republicans refused to allow Medicaid expansion. Lindsey Graham has his health care bill, Graham Cassidy, that he made up in the barbershop with Rick Santorum somewhere in Washington, D.C. But what this means in these

communities is that if you have complications with diabetes, you have a stroke or you have a heart attack, doesn't matter if you're black, white, Latino, doesn't matter if you voted for Donald Trump or you voted for Hillary Clinton, it's a matter of life and death. And so the cause of it is the Republicans who refuse to allow this health care to happen in these communities. I'm going to fight tooth and nail, and I'm going to educate the people of South Carolina, because that has not happened here in well over a decade, about what these guys are doing on a day-to-day basis to take their taxpayer dollars and give it to other states.

All right, folks. J.B. Harrison, good luck. We appreciate it, and look forward to having you back. Thank you, brother. I appreciate you. All right. Thanks so states. All right, folks. Jamie Harrison, good luck. We appreciate it and look forward to having you back. Thank you, brother. I appreciate you. All right, thanks so much. Thank you, man. All right, folks, got to go to a break right now. We come back at Roland Martin Unfiltered. We'll talk with Martellus about his new book.

All of that, Roland Martin Unfiltered, back in a moment. You want to check out Roland Martin Unfiltered? YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. It's Roland Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered. 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. Hey guys, they're back. MarijuanaStock.org has another great investment opportunity.

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as little as 200 bucks up to $10,000. Like I said, you don't want to miss out. You should certainly join the folks who are investing. You can go to marijuana stock.org marijuana stock.org to get in the game and you should do it now. All right, folks, let's talk about a book written by Martellus Bennett was who's on our panel here. It's a book, it's a letter of encouragement to all the brown-skinned boys around the world who feel like sports are all that they have. He believes that the things that make these boys great on whatever playing surface they choose would make them great in life. And so let's talk about his book right now with Martellus. So first of all, where did the book idea come from?

Well, I originally wrote this poem watching the Alton Sterling incident. I didn't really, like, usually when I get lost for words, I usually turn to my art. Like, whether it's painting, I paint those moments, or I kind of paint the way I feel to translate, to communicate with the world what I'm going through. So I wrote this poem originally then because when I see Alton Sterling, I saw myself, saw my brother. That could be any of us, and I think that's a big thing about this world. For us, when we see things happening to black people, we realize that could be anyone of us and anyone that we know. When the rest of the world sees that, they'd be like, oh, that's not you.

You don't live there, or that couldn't be you in those situations. So that's when the initial, that's why I wrote the original poem. And it went, a lot of people loved it, and I put it online, and people were reading it to their kids. And I'm an experienced guy. I write children's books because I like to create moments for families to come together. Because a children's book, you just don't have it until you're a little kid. Like, hey, go read this and come back and give me a book report. You sit down and you read it to them, bedtime stories or whenever you want to read.

So I like to create those moments. But mainly, like in my company, I focus on creating escapism for black kids. Because I think escapism is one of the things that we miss out on the most because When you get to visit other worlds fictitious world that were built you come back a little change and realize your world doesn't have To be the way that it is and we don't really get to experience escapism. We'll get Star Wars won't get Hogwarts We don't get all these other places that exist in the world So that's how I come out make these things but dear black boy to make a dear black boy I believe they're like the children are the

landscapers of our tomorrow yes um so for me i try to pave the way i want the world i want to shape the world what the world is going to be like that my daughter's going to live in in the future so a lot of times when i'm working with kids and kids who look like me look like her dad and things like that so that she could see i could see the change happening as i go so um i felt like as a black man as as you probably get people, probably actually, what sport do you play when they meet you? They don't really actually what you're interested in and what you're doing or who pisses me off. How many professional athletes do they ask? So what else are you into? Are you into painting and writing? Well, let's ask me,

ask you about your painting, about your art. No one, no one ever asked me about those things. Like really? Cause I never saw myself as an an athlete I saw myself as a creative who had athletic ability right so I get I get mad when someone refers to me as a former NFL player because I've done stuff for Disney I've been on Forbes 30 under 30 I've been at week's top 100 creatives in the world I've did TED talks there's so many other things that I'm a former of that you could mention that has nothing to do with the sport and I feel like they value the black boy as an athlete in the world so the black boy starts to see value in himself by the way they perform on the field but what i try to get them to understand is that currency of athleticism is only valuable on the court on a sport on a on a field but once that

game is over being able to jump high does not matter in the tech industry being able to run fast does not matter in the hospital well it does kind of matter in the hospital industry. Being able to run fast does not matter in the hospital. Well, it does kind of matter in the hospital because you can run to patients faster. But you got to be able to do something once you get there. So for me,

that value in the world, the black boy, the world is more beautiful when the black boy dreams. And a black boy deserves the space to dream the dreams that they want to dream. No longer should we have to

feel like they will have to roll them a ball and say, good luck. Right? Everything is on the table. Everything is an option. Every opportunity exists exists for you and it's hard because you don't see yourself represented in these different fields like we talk about politics no black kid they could run in all these things like we try to break in like there's so many

firsts happening for black people and we've been in this just as long as everyone else you're a person 2019 yes does it so got, so I'll throw this out. Okay. How long has the book been out? This book has been out since I released it March, March 27th.

March 27th. I think, no, that's when I retired. How many? But when you retire, you talk about the company that you wanted to create and things that you're doing.

How many mainstream TV networks have you been on? I've been on a lot. Yeah. Have you been on MSNBC? I was there with that we were out sharp in his own yeah yeah yeah CNN yeah I was on box dude Don with Don ABC the thing that reason I'm saying that is because you're absolutely right in terms of how the the the narrative that is shaped. So the reason I say it, and it really does piss me off,

when people see me wearing Texas A&M stuff and they go, did you play ball? And then I'm like, no. Then the second question is, are you a coach? Then the third question is, are you a fan? I'm like, when are you going to get to the graduate part? And it really does piss me off because and what people other people will say man why you get all of a sudden I'm like because what you're doing is you're saying that the only way you could have gone right to a Texas A&M is if you play football

the broader point which I think the point that you're making is that this world has to see us as more than just mandingos. Yes, gladiators, entertainers. I feel like when you look at a black boy, you should see a dreamer, you should see a writer, you should see a scientist, you should see every possible thing in the world. So when you see a black boy, you shouldn't assume that they play sports. You should be like, hey, what are you guys interested in? Right there.

What do you like? Okay, but in all fairness, let me just conceptually push back. Okay. You're an incredible athlete. Your brother is. They see you on TV. You chose to play football. You chose to play football.

Folks who don't know his brother is Michael Bennett. Absolutely Michael Bennett. Also a Texas A&M graduate. Right. And plays now. So you were a willing prisoner of that athletic and NFL culture, and yet you do other things.

I was not a prisoner. Hold on, hold on. Aren't you asking the public to be more difficult and to go deeper into you when all they know, just from a big picture standpoint and PR standpoint,

is you as a football player? No, I am not, because I was never, like, I am not a football player. I play football. That's not who I am. That's one thing I did. What's the difference? That's something I did. But it's a whole identity thing.

Like, when they tie my identity to a sport, I have issue with it because that's not who I am. That's something I did. And when they tie your identity. But that's how they know you. No, no, no. But wait, but wait. Well, that's how the fans know you. But here's the thing, though.

Well, they know you as a football player. But I give them so many other opportunities to introduce them to other things that I do in the world. I have been creating and making things. Someone had to teach me how to play sports. No one had to teach me how to make things. Interesting. Right?

So, like, for me, what I'm saying is, playing sports is not a bad thing. It was my side hustle. But that's where your most exposure is, though. It's my side hustle. They're not exposing you. No, no, no, no. Go ahead. I'm back there.

The other talents aren't as exposed. Yeah, so football, let me tell you, so football is my side hustle, right? I use it as an opportunity to get to where I want to build, right? So the fact is that I was never really a football player. I'm not a football guy. It's something I had to do to get to where I wanted to be. I understood that from the get-go, right? So when I wanted to go to school, what I want to do, I used it. The problem is most kids don't use the sport. The sport uses them. So therefore, they get nothing out of the sport. And that's a form of PTSD that happens when guys retire from the NFL or whatever sport they is because they lost their identity when their parents signed a waiver for them to play in peewee football. So the whole thing, what I'm telling is they're grooming full human beings who are more than just athletes because that's just something that they do.

But if I agree with you, I agree with all of that, right? But at the same time, isn't it unfair to criticize others who see you as an athlete and an NFL football player because that's their greatest exposure? That's what you're known for. The problem is they will assume I played in the NFL even if I didn't play in the NFL. Boom. Boom. No, you're not. No, you're not. No, you're not. I was waiting for! Boom! Now you changed the timeline.

No, he's not. No, he's not. No, he's not. I was waiting for that one. Hey, Roland, watch this. I didn't think you played football. Scott, just because nobody ever asked you did you play ball, don't mean that they don't ask you.

No, they don't. No, they don't. Hell no. But look, no, no, no. But, Roland, this is my agent. But look, this is my agent. They asked you if your ass was a trainer. They ain't ask you if you were their player.

But let me say this to you, brother, because I think it's very important for us to understand. What you're doing now is finding your way into inventing something that we didn't need before this generation. This is really a result, what you talking about, Scott, of the post-desegregation era. Because if you think about, let's go back even to Paul Robeson

or before that to Major Taylor and these cats. If you were an athlete in our community you were in black institutions which means you were also good in athletics but you were also good in academics and Lice Cats went out and built companies and became lawyers and doctors right after 1960s the 60s when you see desegregation when they began to cherry pick black athletes and put them in these white schools the thing got inverted so this generation now you have much more in common with a Bill Russell or a Paul Robeson or, you know, or an Althea Gibson who was like that. But what happened is now. I can agree. Go ahead. Yeah, so what I'm saying is, like, there's, like, for the thing is, like, when you limit a black boy to just thinking that sports is the only escape.

Right. Right? There's so many kids who became doctors and lawyers this weekend that never got put on a pedestal. Right? But the NFL, you see the draft. You see these kids. So you see people that you can relate to that make you believe, like, that's the thing that you can do. But once you don't see the doctors, you don't see the film directors.

Exactly. You don't see that stuff. But those people exist. That's right. But they have to be. And wait, but wait. Here's why. No, here's why.

No, no. Here's why, Scott. Here's why. Stop yelling. No, here's why. Because you're not listening. I'm listening. I can't hear because you're yelling.

Here's why. Because when they do that, the problem is, to your point, when they see the person who is 6'7", who didn't play ball. They have now associated 6'7", and 250, 260, 270, 230. African American, male. Oh, you play ball. Right.

What you're saying is, no, y'all gonna look at me for me. Ask me what you do, which is the point I am making. So I don't want to hear somebody say, oh, Roland, you're built like a running back.

I didn't play goddamn football. Okay? Never played football. So don't tell me I'm built like somebody when I'm not. Roland was the dude who, when Yates High School

won a state championship, my ass was in the press box videotaping the game because I was at the Magnus School of Communications. I wasn't there to play ball. And if we don't push back on that, that means that when teachers see a boy who is six foot tall in the eighth grade, they're going to say, why don't you play ball?

Why don't you play ball? Unlike we had a brother who played football at Texas A&M who was not playing on an athletic scholarship. He was there on an academic scholarship because he was there to be an architect. And the coaches used to get pissed because

why are you late? Because they're the architecture project. But that's an issue too because now when black boys go to colleges, they go to these major universities, they push and discourage the take on majors that take you away from the game. That's right. This has come to a problem of not bringing a whole human being. Like they say, what they usually do is say,

they'll say school first, football second. No question. You see what I did right there? School first, football second. Hold on, hold on. Hold on. Put the camera on my camera. Put the camera. School first, football second. That's, hold on. Hold on. Put the camera on my calendar. Put the camera.

School first, football second. That's what they do. That's how they tell you. The whole idea is that when guys go to school, they, every guy, every player,

every black kid thinks that they're going to make it to the NFL. They're not. There's only 1,500 guys in the NFL. 1,500. There's 100,000 people.

In the history, the numbers even skew. Right, no, but the point is, not only every year right every year exactly and what and what i have been trying to do so you take uh you take as a brother uh uh right now folks ain't ever even heard of this brother y'all you heard of uh uh who's the nba commissioner Al Silver. Adam Silver.

Who's the number two? Oh, it's a brother. Oh, my goodness. Okay, you really going to get your stuff revoked. Hold on. He is, you're right. You don't even know. You don't see his face.

I do see his face. You don't even see his face. So here's my name. His name is Mark Tatum. That's it. Yeah, Mark Tatum. Of course that's it. I'm telling you that's who it is. So here's the point that I keep making. Here's the point that I keep making. Brothers, if y'all want to be in the

NBA, be Mark Tatum. Oh, no question. There's a possibility. The whole thing is... But, Teresa, if I never see a Mark Tatum, and I only see a Mark Tatum and I only see LeBron and I only see Steph, well, then I'm going to be LeBron and Steph versus Mark Tatum going to be there for about 30 years and he's going to make a hell of a whole lot of money and he ain't bouncing one basketball. I think it's the quick fix that they teach young boys. Like my nephew's 13 now and he, you know, and he's quite tall

to be in seventh grade. So, you know, he goes to all-white school, and mostly they was like, hey, you should probably go play basketball or football. Right? And the guy gets both. And he gets straight A's. And I said, but then I remember one time

he pulled out his phone in class, and it was just, oh, let's just sound the alarm. You know, we might have a problem here. So which is it? So now he might have a behavior problem because, you know. Here's the thing. When I came out of high school, I was the number one basketball player and the number one football player in Texas.

I was in an NBA draft in high school. I was an honor roll student. I was one of the smartest kids in the school. The thing is, what happens is when you have a kid lean on that sports, there has to be this intersection where it's okay to be intellectual and athletic. But now when you're athletic, they push you away from being intellectual and try to groom you to be the athlete because it's the number one way that we think of escaping. And that's right.

And then they cut off any information about the ones that do what you do, which is a maroon. You do this other thing. Two quick examples. I had a lot of these young people at Ohio State when I was teaching out there as a graduate student. Robert Smith. Robert Smith went to medical school. Right. You can't believe how the Ohio State football, they went ballistic.

It's guys all day. What are you doing? Went nuts. And retired early. That's right. From the Minnesota Vikings. That's right. And they were mad as hell.

And he said, uh, I like my brain. That's exactly right. That's what it comes down to, but at a young age, you don't really worry about your brain. I'm going to get paid millions of dollars for money. When you start having a family and you have other people to care about, then you'd be like, oh, shit, you know, maybe I should be... My wife and

my daughter deserves a functional husband, right? Like, in the long term of things How you deal how you influence the others around because others name was gonna give us the sister call Oh Scott you want a question now, but you don't gonna give. Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on. Red, wait, wait, wait, wait. Red, it's my turn. He sits right next to him. Don't ask about what's good. Red, go.

It's my turn. Claudrina Harrell, who's the chair of history at the University of Virginia right now. She was an all Atlantic 10 basketball player at Temple University. She's one of my students and I was there. She influenced the other young women on that ball team to take academics seriously.

She got a PhD, she's teaching at Virginia. What has been your experience in the locker rooms with these other brothers who look at you and say you know man maybe I need to eat you got something for me to read or I mean do you see this like a David West in the NBA oh my man the thing is the one thing I learned about the NFL and players who come into the league is a gap of information right they come into a league and they don't study they don't pick up books so when they go back into the real world they have no the level of education has grown so far they left behind on what they knew in 2010 they retired 2016 then it's like all there so like I had to got a book they won't read it they don't like theirs they have no thirst they never had a thirst for knowledge no very few of them

were actually by design so so let me ask you this. They don't want smart. They don't want intelligent people. They want intelligent football players. So when they say a guy's smart, they're talking about his football IQ. Not his intellectual IQ.

Which is why Rosen, when he was in Arizona, one of the criticisms, even though he's white, it was like, he's too smart. That's what knocked on me throughout the NFL. Really? I was a smart guy and I was too smart. That's what knocked on me throughout the NFL.

Really? I was a smart guy, and I was too smart. I had a coach tell me before a team meeting, come in and say, hey, Martellus, I'm going to make some mistakes today. Can you hold your questions or anything? Oh, no. Wait a minute. He didn't want you to shame him in the meeting.

It's not shame. It's about getting the right information. Right. I don't think about it in a way of, like, combating and having a rebuttal. It's like, no, coach, I'm a note taker. And I learned to be a note taker because I was playing for the New York Giants. And our offensive coordinator was Kevin Gilbride.

And he used to chew your ass out if you mess up, right? So we had this one play, and Eli, like, threw a lot of interceptions because he had to make these read routes, right? But there was a play where we couldn't run a post against a quarter's defense or whatever. I'm just getting a little deep. Go ahead. Because Hakeem Nix was running a post on the backside.

So, in the meeting, he starts cursing at me, and he's yelling. So, I'm going through my notebook. I go back to June 3rd. This was like September. So, he's going on to something else. I'm flipping through my notebook. I get to June 3rd, and I'm like, hey, yo, coach, on June 3rd, you said we do not run a post.

We have a post on the backside by the ex-receiver and it's right here and then he turned red and Eli turned back to me. Eli was like this. My coach was like, hey, you got him. So I always like the information because I can perform the way I'm supposed to perform and they'll throw shit on you

and it's the rules that they taught you. Come on, Coach, real quick question. Okay. How do we close the enlightenment gap? You're clearly enlightened. I can name a handful of athletes, whether I've represented them before or not, that clearly are enlightened, multifaceted,

multi-talented, bright, capable, but beyond football IQ. How do we close that enlightenment gap across the board with all athletes, African-American athletes, in your opinion? I think it's about giving them the space to be who they want to become. A lot of these guys are pushed into this direction, and they never

really get to explore the world. So when you don't get to explore, you cannot discover. So a lot of these guys never discover things that they're interested in outside of the sport, because they were never encouraged to explore things. So once you get to the NFL, this is all you ever wanted as a kid. Why would I explore any other avenue that could possibly, this is supposed to last forever but don't realize that the average career is three

and a half years right if you're lucky I played for a decade right and I plan on playing for a decade I'm almost retired after my third year but they could study other stuff but they should that's the thing it comes back to time but why would I study when I never studied I never created the habits of learning or gaining information or seeking information where information is always given to me or I got a pass to be able to play at a high level and then we also have to own up to the reality that when you also have family who is also I what happened to me in LA having LA and a sister at KJ uh LA she said hit a photo of her son on the wall and she said that's my first rounder right there.

I said, what? I said, what did you just say? That's my first rounder. I said, no, that ain't your first rounder. Why aren't you raising him to be the owner of the team? Yes. She had never. She said, oh, my God.

I said, why are you limiting what your son can do? You are seeing him as a first-round draft pick. My nephew Chris, when we took him to the Texans game, after the game we were there with the players and other family members, and so Bum Phillips, not Bum Phillips, his son, Wade Phillips. Yeah, I play with Wade. Wade comes out. Wade comes out and he says, Chris, how you doing?

What position do you want to play? I said, oh, no, I'm sorry, Wade. Here we go. No, no. Chris is being raised to be an owner. And Wade was probably like, that's great. Wade was like, wow. But I needed him to understand.

No, we ain't talking about linebacker, running back. And no disrespect to that, but I needed Wade to understand. Yeah. Here's the thing, though. This is what I like to call a social currency, right? In our community, if a kid that has a great jump shot walks into the barbershop, we celebrate him. Great point. We put him up.

If a kid who walks in as an honor roll student, they'd be like, oh, they'll come in. Like, that's the first round. He's going to be great. They don't come in with a kid who's an intellectual and be like, he's going to change the world. Come on, brother. He's going to start the next big tech company. They never encourage that that way. That's right.

But the athlete walks in. Everyone's like, great game. Everyone shows up to support his game. No one goes to their Spelling Bees. No one goes to see the black kid that's doing the science fair, that's building the next tech robot or doing these things. So if you don't feel encouraged or empowered by your community, why would I stay in that field when my community celebrates this? Because every kid wants to be celebrated and every kid deserves to be celebrated for what their genius is. Some kids are geniuses on the field. More kids are geniuses off the field.

And they should feel like it's okay, and they should feel encouraged to dream the dreams that they dream. And it doesn't have to be, you don't have to play sports to feel like you're black. Which is why, which is why, which was why it was very interesting, it was very interesting when I graduated from Jack Yates.

And to your point, we had a number of players who went on state championship football team guys who ran track and they had medals yeah uil medals yeah but with graduation i was a school of communications yes sir i had 10 medals tops in television tops in radio tops in every single field. Was voted the best student in the whole school of communication. They gave medals for that. Oh, yes, we did. That's important.

So when that was graduation, the athletes had their medals. Right. Walked my ass past stage with my medals. And my deal was my jacket. We had letterless jackets. Academic achievements. For school of communication.

See, that's critical. I said, R. Martin, Mr. TV. letter miss jackets. Academic for school communication. See, that's critical. I said, R. Martin, Mr. TV. That's fire. Because the other students, I shot everything. They'd be like, here come Mr. TV. That's why we go now back to

graduate, back to reunion. They're like, damn, he did exactly what he was doing. But the key is, the cats who play ball, to your point, they're retired. I'm still doing what I was there. Because it's forever. Because your mind is... Your athletic ability is going to lose it. You're going to lose your athletic ability.

And every ball is going to go flat. But your life does not have to flatline when that ball goes flat. You dropped about five freezes. That's why... That's why I want all of y'all... That's why I want all y'all to get his book, Dear Black Boy. Where can they get it? Oh, they can get it on Amazon. Actually, I'm the publisher and the printer.

Come on. I picked out the paper. No, no, no, no, no. Where can they get it? Where you get all of the money, not Amazon. You can get it on the imaginationagency.com. Okay, you can get it on the uh imaginationagency.com okay so give it again the imaginationagency.com the imaginationagency.com we'll tweet that out as well dear black boy all of y'all uh should get your copy we gotta go but i gotta squeeze this one

in because martellus has never likely seen this segment but we always have fun with this one we done found another crazy-ass white person. No charcoal grills are allowed. I'm white. I got you, girl. I'm illegally selling water with our permit. On my property. Whoa! Hey!

You don't live here. I'm uncomfortable. All right, y'all. So a Starkville, Mississippi couple was enjoying a holiday barbecue over the weekend when a crazy-ass white woman pulls a gun on them. Here's the video. This lady literally just pulled a gun because we out here didn't have reservations. We didn't even know we had to have reservations for it.

We didn't know. only had to tell us we didn't know. We didn't know. Don't think you had to do was tell us to leave. We would have left. You did not have to pull a gun. We're really that's all you had to say. That's all you had to say. Well, that's all you had to say. That's all you had to say. Well, that's fine. That's fine. All right, y'all.

Her name is Ruby Howell, and she told the couple that they needed reservations to be at the park. Apparently, the company, she works for Campgrounds of America. They don't quite agree. Guess what? Her podcast got fired. I keep telling y'all, keep recording white people doing this.

And what we should then do is go apply for her job. I'm telling you. Hopefully we get the same rate. If white people keep getting fired... We should make a documentary about crazy-ass white people doing crazy-ass shit. No! This is turning to

a daily segment. It's so ridiculous that it doesn't even make sense. I think what happens is, change happens. This is one thing I call, it's a Trump effect. When you have someone who has such a big stage and they promote racism, it makes the other racism feel like it's okay because now they

feel like their views are supported by someone in the highest position. People walking around with guns because someone's at a park. Oh, you're at the park? First of all, I'm not even on your grass. I'm out here. They feel like they own everything. You do not own everything. You do not own the space. You do not own us.

The whole thing with like, even like women, you don't own women. All this shit is just crazy. It's just... Privilege. This is real simple. If more of y'all white people doing crazy stuff we get y'all we gonna keep rolling the video and if y'all keep getting fired y'all could help in the black unemployment rate so i encourage y'all to still keep acting a fool and we're gonna keep showing y'all crazy as white people right here on roller mark down the filter hey i gotta go don't forget to support our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar you give goes to make this show possible.

We are independent. Nobody owns us. Not corporate. We can talk about what we want to talk about as long as we want to talk about it. We talk about black folk stuff. We're unapologetic when it comes to being black. You ain't going to see Don Lemon wearing an African outfit on CNN. Not going to happen.

Oh, just in case for some of y'all might just in case for some of y'all out there who want to be a hater and some of y'all probably saying, well, you didn't wear one when you were on CNN. Check your ass. Go see what happened when the Detroit NAACP had their Freedom Fund banquet

and Reverend Jeremiah Wright spoke there in 2008. Go see who was armed with Soledad. And what was I wearing? The same African outfit, the white and gold. It was on the cover of my book, Listening to the Spirit Within. I'm just saying, don't try it because I got receipts. Go to RolandMartinOnTheFilter.com and join our Bring the Funk fan club.

Don't forget, all of you people, fan club members, you can get a discount of two books on my site, RolandSMartin.com. Of course, several different books. You already have the promo code. If you're, okay, all y'all who use the Cash app, y'all didn't put your emails on the Cash app. That's why you had the promo code. Email me, we'll send y'all the promo code. After we verify, y'all paid. All right, we gotta go. Y'all have an absolutely great day. I'll see you tomorrow. Holla! Thank you. A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one.

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And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. 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 names in music and sports. This kind of starts that in 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 Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive.

But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes, rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. This is an iHeart Podcast.