#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 6.29 RMU: Trump 'white power' retweet; Miss. to nix state flag; LGBT talks BLM

Episode Date: July 6, 2020

6.29.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Trump 'white power' retweet sparks outrage; Mississippi to remove state flag; Backlash for track owner offering 'Bubba rope'; Never-Trump group stings #45 and Putin in new ad; Say What?!? Houston prosecutor compares BLM to nazis; St. Louis mayor reads the names and addresses of people who support #DefundPolice; BLM LGBTQ activists speak out; COVID-19 continues to surge: #Karen freaks out at Trader Joes Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartcinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partner: Ceek 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 - The Roland S. Martin YouTube channel is a news reporting site 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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Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Hey, folks, today is June 29th, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, Donald Trump. We know he's always loved white power. He's now proven it by retweeting a tweet where they were also shouting white power at a retired community in Florida. When you hear the White House explanation for that Confederate flag is coming down in Mississippi. Actress Argenie Ellis will join us. She was quite emotional when that vote was taken on Saturday in her home state.

Speaking of various Confederate monuments, we'll talk with a gentleman out of Richmond who's running for the city council as they continue to battle taking down Confederate monuments in that cradle of the Confederacy. Also coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, a man owns a racetrack in North Carolina, not doing so well. Why? Because he actually had a Bubba Rope promotion. Bubba Wallace, NASCAR driver, they found a noose in his stall. Hasn't gone so well for him. He's been lost a ton of business because he's stupid. A Houston prosecutor is in some trouble because she tried to liken Black Lives Matter activists with Nazis. Yeah, not so well. Also, coronavirus continues to be a huge problem in America. We'll talk to an emergency room physician about that also. Crazy as white woman loses her mind in a store in Dallas,

tossing out all of her groceries because they asked her to wear a mask. And LGBT and Black Lives Matter, how do they coincide and coexist? Our panel will break that thing down as well. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. All right, folks. Sorry about that. That's our intro there.

We'll get that taken care of. Donald Trump. Oh, he loves himself some white power. We've always known that. From the moment he ran for office, he was appealing to the racial views of white Americans, which he wrote to the White House. On Sunday, he decided to retweet a video of some seniors in a retired community in Florida where they were protesting for and against him.

But this video is what the problem was. Fuck Trump! Fuck Trump! Oh, oh, listen to your president if you want nasty language, you idiot. Officer! Get back in your car now! I didn't hit you officer! Pick out a woman, dickwad. You big boy! Hey, where's the officer? Where's the officer?

Get out of the car! We don't need fucking Nazi pigs! Hey, where's the officer? Where's the officer? Where's the officer? We don't even fuck our Nazi pigs! This is the one we offer! Oh my God! No wonder! Please don't! You'll still be crying on November 3rd, too bad! Oh, too bad!

Too bad, you'll be crying on November 3rd! You're a Nazi! We don't want you back here! You're fucked! You're a Nazi. Beat me up. You can beat me up. You little turd. You fucking turd. I need to vote now. Oh, you go. You're a fucking Nazi.

Nazi, racist pig. That's what you are. We resemble that. We work it. We love it. Trump. Four more. We're the minorities that support Trump. Exactly. They don't come out because they will not vote for him. Where's your white hood? Where's your white hood?

Where's your white hood? I have a. I have a. I have a. I have a. I have a. Come on through! Come on through! Come on through! Keep going! Trump's out!

Wow, Trump tweeted, Thank you to the great people of the villages. The radical left do nothing. Democrats will fall in the fall. Corrupt Joe is shot. See you soon. Hours later, Donald Trump deleted the tweet. Now, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany,

her first response was that, oh, Donald, he he he didn't see he didn't see he didn't see it. Oh, he didn't hear the white power, even though it was at the beginning of the video. Then she came back out with a second statement stating that, well, he was really trying to show thank you to his supporters there in Florida who are often criticized by the left. So he was telling the racist thank you? Is that what we're doing now? He was telling the racist, thank you. Folks, you see how this thing goes in terms of how their mind sort of operates. Now, here's the thing. Donald Trump hasn't condemned it. In fact, the folks at Midas Touch, they actually dropped this particular video. So watch this. So watch this here. Hello, everyone. The transition to greatness has officially begun. The ongoing coronavirus threat, the death toll in the U.S. now officially topping one hundred and ten thousand. President Trump, the jobs president who created the hottest economy in modern history. The National Bureau of

Economic Research has said we entered a recession in February. Friday's jobs report was encouraging to say the absolute least. Look, there was a problem in how this was compiled. The unemployment rate probably should have been more like 16.3%. Once the National Guard came in, D.C. was secure. Tear gas is now being fired. They don't want these protesters to be there even though they were peaceful. There's no regrets on the part of this White House. A Trump opportunity zone.

We stand by those actions. The President of the United States just tweeted, Buffalo protesters shoved by police could be an Antifa provocateur. He lies. He lies about things. The fact that the Republican Party is now having to claim him is both unfortunate and, to me, inauthentic.

Hello, everyone. Oh, you got to give them credit for for some of these great videos here. But again, they really did not want to address the whole white power comment. OK. And so this was what Ryan Lizard actually asked today at the White House. And she was just so offended he dared ask this. Does he believe, does President Trump believe that it was a good thing that the South lost the Civil War? And then two, is he interested in following NASCAR's example and banning the Confederate flag at his own events?

Well, your first question is absolutely absurd. He's proud of the United States of America. Second, with regard to our statues, Americans oppose tearing down our statues. There's a Harvard-Harris poll released just last week that shows 60 percent of respondents said the statues should remain, and 71 percent said local governments should block groups from physically destroying the statues. So he stands on the side of preserving our history. All right. Well, yeah, that's nice.

Dr. Abus Jones, the Weaver Jones, political analyst. Mustafa Santayegh Ali, Ph.D., former senior advisor to the Environmental Justice EPA. Michael Brown, former vice chair, DNC Finance Committee. Folks, I think you have someone well, someone has their audio up. So can y'all check on that, please? And let's get that fixed. That might be Avis. Avis, can you hear me?

Okay, Avis can't hear me. So y'all go ahead and let me know how we get that taken care of. I want to start with you, Michael. Isn't it quite interesting that Donald Trump, again, he retweets this and then, no, no, no, no, no, no. He didn't hear it. No apology, no nothing. They'reweets this. No, no, no, no, no, no. He didn't hear it. No apology. No nothing.

They're fine with it. He knows exactly what he's doing, Michael. Well, first, I saw that shirt you have on on the clearance rack at Target, but nonetheless, I'm sure you got a good deal on it, so wear it proudly. Well, I see you not wearing an

Omega shirt because you can't. I have my beads on. I have my beads on. Oh, that's cute. That's cute. That's cute. Don't start, because I'm going to end it. So you better just go on with your little comment. It's your show. You will end it. And another alpha on here, Mustafa,

said we'll deal with you, but go right ahead. You know, Trump, especially to that last question, the last thing you saw in the White House press room, it's very difficult for them to deal with any kind of question and the president with race and history. See, part of the problem is I don't think, Roland, that he understands history. I don't think he's ever read or understands the Constitution or understands what this country is really all about and where it's been and who helped build it. So when you don't understand that, you're going to give answers like that. Now, the press secretary has to say what she's told to say, but we all know why she says it and why they can't give an accurate answer related to the history of this country. And it's going to continue that way until Vice President Biden beats him in November.

It is laughable, Mustafa, to watch this racist in chief. I mean, that's what he is to try to say, oh, he didn't hear the white power part. No, no, no. He didn't hear that part. No apology. No, nothing like us. No big deal. I don't give the president any passes. You know, we continually say, well, he just didn't know or he was uninformed. I'm sorry. You're the president of the United States of America. You have access to every piece of information that there is. If your studies have not taught you about American history, then that's on you. You took the job. That means that you have to be prepared for every situation that might come up. And the president is very clear. There is a strategy that he and his party have to try and garner a small percentage of the black vote, especially black men. So let's lay it out so that folks are very clear.

He said in Charlottesville, there are very fine people on both sides knowing exactly who was on both sides of that equation. So it is very much connected to the white power statement that was made in this video. The president has invited white nationalists into the White House for meetings. So he was clear about who was coming to those meetings. The president has hired white nationalists to actually advise him, to help him to formulate policy. So I give him no passes for not knowing. This is a part of a strategic plan to actually sort of fan the flames of racism in our country because he enjoys chaos, because he knows when there is chaos, then he can pretend and he can kind of swoop in and act like he's the great savior. And unfortunately, that is not the point. This is absolutely appealing to racists,

Avis, pure and simple. That's what it is. I don't care what Kayleigh has to say. I don't care what Ronna McDaniel, the head of the Republican National Committee, has to say. That's exactly what this is. And it's simple as that. Absolutely. This is a presidency who has known white supremacists as part of his base. I mean, he knew exactly what he was doing. That wasn't a dog whistle. That was a foghorn. He specifically did that as a way to signal to the most racist elements of his base that I'm with you. And, you know, as was beautifully laid out there

by Mustafa, this is just one of many signals. This is a pattern of his. And so this is a dance that they typically play. He does or says something that specifically targets or somehow lifts white supremacists up. And at the same time, then when he calls to the call, when he's called to the carpet on it, his team around him makes some sort of excuse.

He didn't know, he didn't realize, but he continues to leave that out there. He does not in any way, as you mentioned, apologize, because he's not sorry he did it. He did exactly what he intended to do. He sent exactly the message that he intended to send. And it resonated specifically with the people that he wants to support him in November. Yeah. I mean, it's real clear to me. I mean, there's almost this dancing around it. He's out here defending Confederate statues, things along those lines. But also he was using this to try to also deflect from blockbuster stories over the weekend in the Washington Post or the New York Times, where it stated that Russia was paying militants in Afghanistan to kill American troops.

He now claims, oh, I never, I never, I was never told that. Okay, but the intelligence, but y'all notice though, you notice who has not come out and said, this is false. The head of the CIA. You notice that, huh? Well, the Lincoln Project, a group of never Trumpers, they were real quick to drop this video slamming Trump. In the last year, flag-draped coffins have returned from Afghanistan. Now we know Vladimir Putin pays a bounty for the murder of American soldiers. Donald Trump knows, too too and does nothing. Putin pays the Taliban cash to slaughter our men and women in uniform. And Trump is silent, weak, controlled.

Instead of condemnation, he insists Russia be treated as our equal. Instead of retaliation, he invites Putin to America. When Trump tells you he stands by the troops, he's right. Just not our troops. The Lincoln Project is responsible for the content of this advertising. Well, Mustafa, that online video has got more than 10 million views already. And again, this is somebody, the idiot in chief, who doesn't want to do his job, who rather... And let's be real clear, Vladimir Putin is also a bigot. He's also a racist.

This goes right in line with this whole notion of white power. That's what... I keep saying this as well. A lot of these Trump people, they are trying to maintain whiteness in America. Well, whiteness across the planet, actually, we really want to break it down, but we're focused on our country at the moment. I mean, you know, when I heard that news,

I can't tell you how it infuriated me because I have family members, I have friends who have fought in Afghanistan, who have fought in Iraq, and gave everything that the country had asked of them. And when you have the leader of the free world who continues to be Putin's puppet to allow Putin to tempt him, you know, then it says something about the decision-making that a number of folks in our country continue to buy into.

And it also says something about our democracy. And if a president is not willing to defend our democracy, to defend our troops, then, you know, we have to make some real changes happen. And I'm so glad that November is right around the corner. The fact that he's trying to play this game, Michael, is real clear. Oh, I was never told this is fake news.

Kayleigh McEnany stood up there and said, when your Times and the Washington Post should give their Pulitzer Prizes back. But again, if the head of the CIA has not come out and said this is a bogus story, it's true. And, you know, going back to what we were talking about earlier, he has no interest in learning anything. He doesn't necessarily care about history. And one of the folks said on one of the shows earlier today about the briefings that all presidents get. You get an oral briefing and then you get your briefing book. Now if you refuse to read the briefing book to get more

information about the intelligence going on, not just here in America but around the world, clearly you're not going to be aware of what's going on or you don't want to know because, obviously, you want to protect your boy Putin. And that's why I'm convinced the only place the Trump Organization will be able to do business after November, after he loses to the vice president, is in Moscow, Saudi Arabia, and I guess you can pick another country, maybe Venezuela. But nowhere else is anybody going to want his hotels up.

And so that's one of the reasons why he's treating Putin the way he's treating him. He'll be able to get low-interest loans to build his hotels, even though, frankly, he doesn't build the hotels. It's just his name on them through licensing agreements. Avis. Absolutely. In fact, we've never seen his taxes. Let's just remember that. So he probably already owes Putin a whole lot more, a lot of money and probably needs,

will be owing him a whole lot more in the not too distant future. Exactly right. Let's just remember that this is Mr. Bone Spurs in chief. Let's remember that. This is someone who was too much of a punk to go and serve when it was his moment to serve, and someone who now, as president of the United States, has as his top duty to protect and defend this nation. And he has literally sold out those people who have put their lives on the line every day in defense of this nation. You know, the only thing, I mean, that's completely unforgivable.

In fact, you know, I think it's sad, not only that situation, but the fact that you had to show a Lincoln Project ad to really make that point stark and clear. What is wrong with the Democratic Party? I do not understand why they did not immediately hold a press conference after this was released. party. I do not understand why they did not immediately hold a press conference after this was released. I don't understand why they did not develop talking points that specifically drilled down on this and then sent operatives all over the various different news channels

to drill those talking points over and over again. This is treasonous behavior. Actually, I argue that he should resign. But at minimum, if they think that it's easier just to beat him, the point is, make the point to the American people that this is treasonous behavior. If the Democratic Party won't push back and fight aggressively in the face of evidence like this,

what in the world will it take for them to get out of the fetal position and actually understand that you win elections not by merely maintaining a defensive position, but hell, going out and fighting, particularly when someone gives you such fertile ammunition like this, where he has literally sold out the troops of the United States of America. Why they have not come out swinging as a result of this new breaking information, I will never, ever understand.

Well, Democrats have called for a full House report on this here. And in fact, eight Democrats... Report? What did you do? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. When I say report, meaning they'll call for the... Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called for the intelligence community to come present all of the details with regards to this, to the full House.

Tomorrow, I saw this here, about eight, a group of eight Democrats will be going to the White House for a briefing on this intel as well. And so and I have seen where Mike where Michael, where Speaker Pelosi was on several networks a little bit earlier. But again, when you when you see this report, bottom line is here. Are this true or it's not? And I understand that my good friend, Dr. Avis, and understand her point. She wants to see a much more aggressive approach.

Speaker Pelosi is taking, as she would see as a measure, not just measured, but aggressive approach at the same time. Let's have let's let the American people see folks under oath come and talk about these particular allegations and charges. You will you better believe the vice president is going to do commercials on it. But I understand Avis's point. I understand why she would prefer a much more aggressive approach. But the American people also need to see what is happening with folks under oath, and then they can make their own decision. Because clearly, yes, it is treasonous, it's wrong.

Whether this is more impeachable than the Russian investigations, who knows? But clearly you can't have an impeachment now, it's too late. So let's just get ready to beat them and put as much information out to the American people as possible so they can make their own decisions. But this president is never going to do anything that's right. He president is never gonna do anything that's right. He's never gonna do anything that's just. And the fact that we have some, still, military leaders that still defend this president

after this story this weekend is shameful. Now, they've either been completely duped by this president, or they don't mind his racist antics. It's one or the other. Let's be clear, Mustafa, the Republicans are not going to criticize Donald Trump even on this. They're not. No, they're afraid of him. They're afraid of him because of, you know, his social media following. They're afraid that donors and others may take away resources for them, especially in election year,

but it's not even an election year issue. This has been going on for the last three and a half years. So yes, we focus on Donald Trump and these egregious behaviors that he continues to do, but let's remember, he cannot get away with these things if folks were willing to hold him accountable. The Republican Party has to decide who it is and what it wants to look like moving forward. So if they continue to not do their due diligence, if they continue to not engage and to check

him, then you're going to continue to see him do these things time and time again. Well, absolutely. So the bottom line is nothing's going to change in that regard. What was also interesting is that he gave an interview yesterday with Brian and killed me on Fox News. And the issue came up with regards to, you know, the taking down of Confederate statues. And Donald Trump actually had some advice for black people. Watch this. Guys, we have the video. Okay. All right. It was,

first of all, it was, let me try to find this here, y'all, but it was, it was utterly hilarious. When, when Donald Trump said, and so just to paraphrase, he actually, you know what? I can't even paraphrase the level of stupidity. So let me just play the clip so y'all can see it. Because, you know, he's been asked about this repeatedly and he's standing up for the Confederates repeatedly and having their back. And he basically said, again, I'm trying to see if I can find this video. He said in the interview that basically black folks, we need to learn history. We need to learn our history. I would think the reason we're saying tear him down, because we pretty much have learned our history, Mustafa. Well, you know, there's a difference between his story and history.

You know, his story is that revisionist history that they continue to pump into the educational system to make folks think that black folks, African-Americans, are not as great as they have been. And we must be great to actually be able to navigate all of the barriers that are put in front of us, the systemic racism that was built into policies to keep us anchored, to keep us chatteled. So for him to want to teach us about history, we know our history and we know your history, and that's the reason we're gonna take care of you in November. It sort of reminds me, Avis, of, um,

when Bill O'Reilly tried to tell Colin Kaepernick to learn about Black patriotism, which was utterly laughable. That's sort of the same thing with this idiot. It really is. It's insulting, especially from someone who is as obtuse and completely ignorant and idiotic and vacuous as that person that lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

You know, It is insulting. Clearly, he is someone who is once again engaged in dog whistling, signaling, foghorning his base, because he knows exactly what he's doing. For him to, as the president of the United States, sit here on television and defend a rebellious segment which are not actually Americans. They were representing the Confederacy, which was trying to destroy America. It's absolutely ridiculous. So if anyone needs to learn history, it's clearly that idiot that resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Listen to this ridiculous stuff, Michael. How you look at Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, look at James Monroe, James Madison. One thing they had, they were brilliant. They also had slaves.

So how do we grow as a country, but yet not forget our past? So you have to understand history, and you have to understand the culture and so many other aspects of our country. And people can study that, and they can hate it. And let's all hate it. But you can't take down George Washington's statue, and half of our country is named after Washington. You can't we have to remember the heritage that the the culture of our country. And you know, this is less important, but it's very important.

Some of the things that they're trying to destroy are magnificent pieces of art. Have you ever seen an area where a statue is removed and you look at the area and they put blacktop over the top of it? They put asphalt over the top and that's the end and it was the center of a town or you know a village and now the statue's gone and the whole village is like a different place and here's the other problem i have a lot of these people that want it down don't even know what they're taking down i watch them on television and i see what's know what they're taking down. I watch them on television, and I see what's happening, and they're ripping down things. They have no idea what they're ripping down.

But they started off with the Confederate, and then they go to Ulysses S. Grant. Well, what's that all about? And they would knock down Lincoln. There's a group that wants to take down Lincoln. They haven't figured out exactly why yet. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson. I've stopped them twice now from going over

to the Jefferson Memorial. Not gonna happen. Francis Scott Key, the latest, created the National Anthem. He wrote the National Anthem. So since you have done a lot for the African American community, what is your message to them who said,

"'My ancestors were enslaved because of their'?" a lot for the African-American community. What is your message to them who said, my ancestors were enslaved because of there? My message is that we have a great country. We have the greatest country on Earth. We have a heritage. We have a history. And we should learn from the history. And if you don't understand your history, you will go back to it again.

You will go right back to it. You have to learn. Think of it. You take away that whole era, and you're going to go back to it again. You will go right back to it. You have to learn. Think of it. You take away that whole era and you're going to go back to it sometime. People won't know about it. They're going to forget about it. It's OK. Now, what I do like, I like the idea of building new statues to people, to great people, people that have done something. And I think that's OK. But you don't want to take away our heritage and our history and the beauty in many cases the beauty the artistic beauty Some of the sculptures and some of this work is some of the great you can go to France you go anywhere in the world and you'll never see more magnificent work and

That's a factor. It's not the biggest factor, but it's a factor when oh oh That's a factor. It's not the biggest factor, but it's a factor. Oh, oh, Michael, it's just, we as black people should just be thankful for these beautiful Confederate monuments. We should just be thankful for the flowers that are around them. I mean, wow. Things we never thought about. Part of the wow is he clearly, and we all know this, he's a walking hypocrite. Remember in the early days, when I have early days,

he always talks about how he only deals with winners, and I love winners. Now, the history books I learned from is the Confederates, the Army army lost. They're losers. And they were fighting a battle for what was wrong, and certainly on the wrong side of history. I know they like to hide behind, oh, it was for states' rights. It wasn't for states' rights. It was to keep slavery legal in that part of the country. So give me a break. He's a walking hypocrite. So here are losers he's trying to defend. And that's what's going to continue to happen with this president, with Republicans on the Hill who are, I know a lot of us saw the footage when reporters were asking Republicans

when they were walking through the press room to comment on the different issues related to whether it's mask wearing, whether it's Confederate statues. And these Republicans just keep on walking. Now, a couple of them stopped. A couple of them gave a couple little weird little comments. But they're enablers. And as long as they're enablers and until the Senate goes down and Mitch McConnell is no longer the majority leader and clearly there's a new president, we're going to continue to see this kind of offensive both behavior and language. Well, Avis, are you saying that we should just be some thankful black people? Yeah, I'll be thankful when we vote his behind out of office in November. That's when I'll be thankful.

You know, it is, once again, it's just insulting to our intelligence. And it's disrespectful to our history to make it invisible and irrelevant in the larger context of what he was describing. Of course, we should have the right and we have the historical memory that is necessary to understand our struggle. And that has created a moment in this particular period in history in which there are many of us who are saying it's time to stop, allowing these symbols that are reflective of people who were abusive and not only traitors to the nation, but specifically abusive and murderous and rapists and everything you can mention to our ancestors. Both of my parents are black.

I come by the skin color as a result of somebody taking something that didn't belong to them. So I think that to sit here and try to erase that history, to me, is the height of insulting. And I cannot wait until we galvanize our power to get him out of office in November. Well, absolutely. And so I think that just one of the things that, again, I think that people had better understand is that when we start looking at these things, you know what you're dealing with, it's you're dealing with crazy folk.

You're dealing with crazy folk who who are going to defend this bigotry at every single moment. And that's what I think we're dealing with. All right, folks, let's go try next story over the weekend in Mississippi. Huge decision by the legislature there to take down the Confederate emblem off of their state flag. It has been there for more than 150 years. On Saturday, the House first voted and the Senate voted the next day. Here's some of what they debated. A few days in this building to express your desire one way or another. And I would simply say this to you. I appreciate you. I'm glad you're where you are. I'm glad we're all here together making this decision. To the gentleman Monroe from Monroe's point about the people's vote, I simply want to say this. There's no desire here to usurp anybody's right to a vote.

People voted for you and me. You went to their door and you knocked on it and you asked them to vote for you. You signed up for this. This country has gone to war. And we didn't stop and weigh all the things and run a ballot out to every person in this nation to see when Pearl Harbor was bombed if we were going to go to war. This state seceded from the Union and they didn't run a ballot box up through the Mississippi River and back down the middle of the state on a railroad and see where everybody weighed in on it. Delegates went and took a vote and they moved.

And why today would you urge anything different than you as a legislative body, earlier this session, we forcefully said to different folks in different branches of government, this body has a duty and a right on certain things. I submit to you that this is one of those things, Mr. Speaker, I would move that we adopt the resolution. All right, gentlemen, use the floor. Question now recurs on House concurrent rule. Excuse me. House concurrent resolution 79. Open the machine, Madam Clerk. If you favor the resolution, vote aye. If you're opposed, vote nay. Everyone voted. Has everyone voted? Closed machine. Madam Clerk, by a vote of 85 yeas and 34 nays, resolution passes.

By a vote of 37 to 14, the bill passes. Well, folks, a commission will be set up to actually come up with a new flag. It will be put on the on the ballot. If the voters do not accept it, they will come back with a new design and vote again the following year. Joining us right now is Arjanue Ellis, Mississippi native. She has been fighting against this. We talked on Saturday. You were quite emotional after the Mississippi House voted, Anjanue. Yes, I was.

I was. He's being, Roland is being, is being a politic right now. What I, in fact, was was screaming and yelling in his ear. Screaming, yelling, crying, very emotional. Yes. Yes, I was very, very emotional. I was very...

I am. I'm still in the clouds about it. Still in the clouds about it, yes. And the fact that it passed the House, then it passes the Senate. Now you're talking about, of course, it now goes to the governor for his signature. And for the folks who don't know now, the decision, does the flag come down and then this committee comes up with a new design and they put it on the ballot in this November?

There's a process they actually put in place. Yeah, there's the flag, at least at the Capitol building, is already down like seconds. So Saturday they voted on the resolution. Sunday they voted on the actual bill, the House and the Senate, and it passed. So seconds after that, dude was on top of the Capitol building pulling that flag down, pulling that flag down. So as of now, there is no flag. There is no flag there. And so Tate Reeves, it's in his hands now to sign it. He has already said that he is going to sign it. They're going to set up a commission. The commission is going to come up with they voted, they then began to lower that flag. That is something that, frankly, a lot of African-Americans did think would happen. But the amazing thing was this here, Anjanue, as I watched the debate on Saturday, you had these folks stand up and that and what got me was the one guy who said don't don't take the joy

away from the voters to be able yeah i want y'all if i can find it y'all he kept just just don't steal the joy from the voters to allow them to be able to vote to remove it. We shouldn't take that joy from them. I watched that going, man, sit your ass down. Man, that is that is the incomparable Chris McDaniel, the Republican. Oh, that was that was Chris McDaniel. the Republican. Oh, that was Chris McDaniel. Yes, sir. That was the bigot who black folks crossed over to make sure he did not become a United States senator, that Tea Party.

Oh, that's who that bigot is. Yes, that's him. In fact, hold on. I think I found him. I know we don't have much time for you. You go ahead and talk. Y'all got to watch this. He said, I'm confident

that voters in Mississippi would do the right thing. He know damn well what happened last time, Marjanu. Was it 64%? Mm-hmm. That's why he wanted to go Mm-hmm. That's why he wanted it to go for a vote. That's why.

All these cats that got up and they said we should, you know, let the people decide, let the people decide. That's why. That's why they want to let the people decide, because they know that racism outnumbers black people in Mississippi. So if they put it up

for a vote, that is exactly, it's going to be the same result as that happened in 2001. And they know that. So that's why they're, that's why they're talking about let the, let the, let the people decide. That's why Tate Reeves, the governor was saying, we should allow, we should, it shouldn't happen with, you know, boom, you know, politicians making decisions that should go for the people. He knows that, too. Tate Reeves was celebrating Confederate History Month in April. This was a few weeks ago. So this new man that he's sort of presenting himself as is a result of their fear that Mississippi would lose college football.

Right. And that's, let me tell you something. They've had an economic loss. And while we're talking, this is actually the moment where the Confederate flag came down to the state capitol. Guys, go ahead and show that video. But that was a deal. You had the start running back for Ole Miss who said, I'm not playing.

You had a basketball player for one of the teams who transferred. He said that flag was a big part of the reason. What happened here was this year. Businesses were about to leave. SEC said no state championships. This is what I keep trying to explain to people. If you want to affect change in America,

money. White folks understand money. And when you start losing enough money let's go back to apartheid apartheid ended in south africa because of the divestment campaign it was money exactly exactly we can't i mean i listen i wanted that flag to come down. I don't care why. Right, right. I don't care why. But I'm not stupid as to why. I'm not stupid as to why it happened. Here's the thing.

Myself, Dr. Adelia Carthen, Genesis Briggs, and a whole bunch of other people before us have been trying to get that flag down. Myself and Dr. Carthen and Genesis Briggs have been doing this kind of work steadily for the last six or seven years with me, but five years with them and us working together. And I can't tell you the amount of money that I put in.

Today I realized that I paid for an ad to go in variety that cost $6,000 that I took out of my own pocket to encourage the film and television industry to stop doing business out, to stop doing business down in Mississippi. The money that I have spent, the time that I have spent, you know, and other folks as well, you know, and, but here's the thing. This has been, we've been doing this work in earnest for the last, like I said, together five years for the massacre that happened at Mother Emanuel AME in South Carolina. And we saw Dylann Roof was a Confederate. When Heather Heyer was mowed down in the street in Virginia a couple of years ago, Confederates were all around her and they were flying the Confederate flag. None of that, these domestic acts, these acts of terrorism, these acts of

domestic terrorism didn't even move Phil Bryant. It did not move him. What happened was the SEC saw what happened to George Floyd, but see, it wasn't just what happened to George Floyd. They saw how their players were responding to what happened to George Floyd. Right. And in fact, this is a video that Mississippi State put out. Watch this. Way past time for this to happen.

I'm personally excited to be a part of this movement to get the flag changed. I think changing the flag will better promote the actual perception of Mississippi. The perception right now is an environment of segregation and that is so far from the state that I have known to grow and love. So often we get asked about the flag when we recruit young athletes from around the country. So often we get asked about why that symbol is still in our flag.

So by changing the flag, what it will do for our program, it will allow us to recruit more nationally, more openly about how Mississippi is the most hospitable place that I've ever experienced living in my life. And I've lived in several different places. And this is the key right here on Janu. What we keep saying, they want athletes to shut up and dribble or shut up and catch. When athletes stand up, they can force change. Now, I'm not, to your point, I'm not dismissing your work and the work of others.

But when they went, oh hell, if these black ballplayers sit down and don't play, we have to do a damn thing. That's why Bill Rode has been saying, if the black basketball players want to change something at the Final Four,

sit down and tip off to make a statement. This is why Colin Kaepernick took a knee. They have never wanted black ballplayers to use their power. And that's what caused these white folks in Mississippi to say, no, hell no.

Look, they stop playing, how many jobs, the amount of money they lose on football and basketball, come on. Yeah. They would never recover from that on. Yeah. Yeah. They would never recover from that loss.

Ever. The amount of money that they bring in, that Starkville and Oxford brings in from when they have games, it almost is comparable to the whole, you know, what Mississippi brings in and Texas. Like that's how, that's how much money, that's how much money that they bring in. It would be, it would be a loss that they would never recover from. And here's what he, and I, to your, to, I just want to amplify what you just said, what Kylan Hill did, which is the running back for Mississippi state is he recognized his power in an industry

that would not survive without him. Right. And so he is our Rosa Parks because he said, no, I'm not doing it. He said, I'm not playing. I'm not playing. I'm not playing. Can you imagine? Can you imagine when we go back, when they start playing football again and they all go out on the field?

And I'm talking about pro football now. When they all go back on the field and it ain't no black people out there. Can you imagine that? Right. Which is why we got to have the black ballplayers to find that level of consciousness to say, wait a minute, hold up. We could flip this whole script. That happened in Missouri when a football team said, yo, we ain't going to play on Saturday. Yes. Yes. Use your power. Use your power.

And the first thing in using your power is you have to know that you have power. We have been so brandwashed in this country. We believe that the NFL and the SEC and the Conference USA and the NCAA, that they are doing us a favor. They're not doing us a favor. They are using our labor and making money off of it. And this young man said, no, you're not going to do that. You're not going to use my labor and at the same time put a flag up that says I'm not even human, that I'm a material interest.

You're not going to do that. Right. That's the power we have, not just in football, not just in sports. In every capacity where we work, we have that power. It's just like you said, acknowledging it and owning it. That's it. Arjuna Ellis, well, look, we certainly cannot wait to see the next battle is what's that design going to look like?

They did make sure they said the flag had to say, in God we trust. I think that, right, they said it's got to say that. So it's like, okay. My question is which God? My question for Mississippi is which God? Because there are clearly two gods in Mississippi. It's the God that the Confederates pray to and the gods that we pray to. They're not the same God.

They're not the same God. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right.

All right. All right. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Have a good day. Yes, indeed. You take care. Congratulations. not the same God. All right. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Have a good day. Yes, indeed. You take care. Congratulations. All right, folks. If y'all want some laughter, listen

to this. This is Chris McDaniel. Listen to this for you today and not in support of the current flag. I want to make that clear. I do rise in support of not taking the joy from the people of Mississippi to tell this country and the world that we are moving forward together. We want to take the joy away from them.

We have seen momentum across the state that says we are ready for a change i've got text after text after text saying i am for a flag change but don't take my right from me to choose i want to tell my kids and my grandkids and my children that I made the right choice. We as a body want to take that from them. I don't think we can move forward together if we say you can have any flag you want except this one. If we put the current flag on the ballot

with another good design, the people of Mississippi will change it. I believe that. I'm done. Come on. I'm done. I'm done. Let's not. I'm done with that fool. Avis, first of all, who does this fool think? That's why the rest of the legislation is like, sit your ass down. Man, change this damn flag. This fool actually sitting here saying,

them white folks in Mississippi voted last time and it passed 64%. Oh, no, if you just put the current flag and the new flag, I just think they gonna change it. Well, I know my girl Antinu is the, she's the actress, but I will have to say that was almost an Academy Award

winning performance. Don't take our joy. I mean, allow us to have our joy. Try it! Hey, Roland, to have our joy. Try it. Hey, Roland. Roland, you know what?

I wonder, in that legislation, did it also prohibit fans bringing Confederate flags to the games? Actually, I know for a fact, Ole Miss has already, they banned that years ago. They banned the Confederate flag from being flown. It used to be, if you look at some old video of Ole Miss games. Yes, I remember some of that. Like, I don't know how in the hell them brothers played there

where you had 60,000 people in the stands waving Confederate flags. Ole Miss also got rid of their old Reb mascot as well. So that happened as well. But it's just, Mustafi was just a joy. Just, y'all stealing our joy. You know, once again, since they don't think that we know history,

let's talk history. It was 1995 when Mississippi decided to ratify the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. So, sometimes it takes them a long, long, long time. That was 130 years after slavery was over. So they did the right thing. You gotta move forward.

The culture in our country has changed. It's not changing, it has changed. And I'm glad to see that Mississippi is finally doing the right thing. So all my friends in Turkey Creek, Mississippi, and in Biloxi and in Jackson, I celebrate with you. But this is, again, this is where black people have to understand their power.

If black athletes a decade ago had done this here, we ain't playing. At Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Southern Miss, that flag would have come down.

There ain't no football and basketball without black players. No. Knock yourself out. Not saying anybody would pay to see. Knock yourself out. Knock yourself out. And so I'm like, even in this moment, I'm trying to get black organizations to understand our power. I'm looking at these announcements, Comcast. I I'm going to really break this thing down on Wednesday's show. But Comcast and Apple and Adidas, all these countries, 100 million, 100 billion, 100 million. And I'm sitting there going, no, damn 100. One billion. I'm saying to executive leadership council, National Association of Black Journalists, NAACP, National Urban League.

And again, I'm going to break this thing down further on Wednesday, y'all, because I'm going to lay this thing out called I'm Not Satisfied. But Dr. King wrote in Where Do We Go From Here, Chaos or Community, that there are four institutions that are positioned to change America for black America. He said the black church, the black press, Negro fraternities and sororities, and Negro professional and business organizations.

You've got to have entities putting forth the agenda and leveraging the power to say, no, no, no, no, we're not interested in y'all giving a million dollars to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or some change over here to the large community for civil rights under

law. No. What I'm talking about, and I'm telling y'all, I'm going to break this thing down on Wednesday. If they said to all these entities, corporate America, collectively corporate America, y'all got to give $5 billion to HBCUs. Do the math, y'all. The average HBCU in America has an endowment of less than $20 million. That will completely change the endowments of every HBCU in America. All I'm saying is I need black people to understand our power and be willing to be militant enough

to make the demand. And I think right now, Michael, too many of us got small asks. These brothers proved we're not going to play. What y'all going to do? That brother made that announcement less than two weeks ago. That flag is now down.

That's called using your power. Final comment. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's what, you know, it's courage. There's, you know, that word I know is either overused or underused, depending on who you talk to. You know, a lot of folks in our community are comfortable and like things the way they

are, don't rock the boat. And then you have other folks that say, no, we need to do better. We can do more. And so until more people are on the former and have more of the courageous gene and really want to step up, no matter what the consequences are. You know, that's what's going to continue to occur. And that's just an our community. Yeah. Clearly, there's courageousness that has to happen also in the white community. Yeah. But I'm talking about our community. And folks, Friday night, police arrested six

people at a protest near the Robert E. Lee Monument in Richmond, Virginia. These protests have been continuing there as well. Now, check this here out. Regina Boone shot this photo, and the person who did this artwork is Dustin Klein. This is that actual statue there. What they have done, Jermichael McCoy, who was, of course, running for Richmond City Council, they have projected onto the Robert E. Lee monument BLM on his horse. The quote from Harriet Tubman, slavery is the next thing to hell.

And then her image. Now, first of all, it's very interesting. Jelani Cobb tweeted this here. He tweeted, honestly, this is so hot, I feel slightly conflicted about them taking the statue down. Now, this is what I say. You take the top of that statue down, and then what you do is, or take the whole thing down and turn that image into the statue. Jermichael, go ahead.

Let's do it. Roland, first off, just say thank you, man, for bringing me on your show this evening. As a candidate runner for office in these uncertain times, I appreciate it. So from a Kappa man to an Alpha man, thank you so much for having me on tonight. So what is happening there in terms of they have the protests there?

The federal judge put a halt to this. The governor said it's coming down. Is that statue going to come down? In time, it is coming down. And so the statue is actually oversaw by the state. So the governor has the authority to take it down. They're just fighting it in court. And so one thing we have seen over the history in our city is that these statues, both the structures and the symbolisms, don't come down easy. They fight it in court. But the people are resolved to make sure that, one, their voices are being heard and that we are challenging these statues one by one. And obviously, look, you got white folks there. Well, they're fighting, trying to hold on as much as they can.

And then, of course, you got them loving Trump, these MAGA folks. He's like, oh, these beautiful statues. But like I keep saying, if you go to Germany, you are not going to see a single statue to Hitler or to any Nazi anywhere in that country. It's against the law. And also, you have to understand here in the city of Richmond, those statues served as a point for one of wealth, right? Because monument ad, they have a series of

these statues. And so back when the original development was being built back in the late 1800s and early 20th century, they barred black people from owning homes on that boulevard. And also some of those homes are the most expensive real estate in the city, so of course they're not going down easily overnight. But one thing you're seeing over at the General Lee statue is that the people, the community, the artists, the activists have come together to make it their own form of art and protest. And so it has been a rallying point across the city for folks to gather,

not only for marches and speeches, but also in bouts with the local police department. Well, I think that is critically important. And all these people, and look, Bob Johnson was disagreeing with people taking down statues. But this is real simple. This government, this country,

these states, these counties, and these cities have protected these white supremacists. And what I've said is we now are maximizing our power. So it's real simple. Either you take them down or we're going to take them down. And absolutely. So here in the city of the Richmond, the state legislature actually passed a law this past spring to say that local municipalities have controls to remove statues effectively July 1. And so city council, brothers like Councilman Michael Jones, who's also one of my frat brothers, is actually taking the charge to take these statues down.

But more than nothing, one thing is important that we realize is that the statues are the symbols, right? But how do we break down some of these structures that we realize is that the statues are the symbols, right? But how do we break down some of these structures that we have here in the city of Richmond? Many of our young people go to schools that are failing, right? 70 percent of our graduates of high school graduate on time. Access to health in the middle of a global pandemic. Many of our residents, our black residents, are disproportionately affected by this health crisis. And also police reform.

Yeah. Right. We spend nearly one hundred million dollars in the city of Richmond on police. But people do not feel safe. How are we making sure we are addressing city council to make sure we redress these issues? And that's why I'm running. Well, I say, first of all, it all should come down. So statues and those things as well. Jermichael McCauley, appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right. I forgot to show this earlier. This is a map that the folks put together in Mississippi. The newspaper there, Ashton Pittman's on his Twitter feed. These are all of the Confederate monuments that are in the state of Mississippi.

That is the key, folks, when you talk about what we're seeing and what's going on and how there's just this desire to love that. In fact, check this out. The owner of the North Carolina racetrack has been facing death threats, losing employees and sponsors since he offered a Bubba rope for sale on Facebook's market. Mike Fulp's post came a day after an FBI investigation decided that the noose discovered in the Talladega Super Speedway storage was not a hate crime. They said that it was actually a it was a wasn't, it was a pull for the door, but it was still fashion in a news where he got a little cute, went on Facebook and put that up. He said, damn, I'm just stupid. I've been losing business. Yeah. That post right there has caused

most of his sponsors. Most of his employees have quit as well. I keep telling y'all, act a fool. You're going to lose your damn jobs. Guess who might be losing her job? One of Houston's top prosecutors is being strongly criticized for comparing Black Lives Matter protesters with Nazi jewelry plunderers during this show up. Kaylin Wilford, Harris County D.A. Office Chief Trial Lawyer

shared the controversial meme. The caption above the photo reads, wedding bands that were removed from Holocaust victims prior to prior to being executed in 1945. Each ring represents a destroyed family. Never forget, Nazis tore down statues, banned free speech, blamed economic hardships on one group of people, instituted gun control. Sound familiar? Uh, guess what?

She's facing that kind of pressure. This is the thing that we keep seeing, Avis. People in power using their power. Now they're getting busted. In fact, there was a mayor in Alabama who criticized the University of Alabama football players for their Black Lives Matter stance. You kind of got to be real stupid if you are mayor in Alabama and you dare criticize the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Avis, he quit his job. He resigned. They're not very bright, are they? So it is just interesting to see all of these folks desperately trying to hold on to

their point of undeserved privilege that they have been bequeathed in this society and to see the extent to which they will go to try to do that, even when it means having sort of these broad, illogical contortions to try to discredit a movement which has made so clear to people the grave injustices that have cost lives for centuries and continue to do so to this day. What they have not taken into the calculus is that the broader population, quite frankly,

has shifted. If you look at the polling data on the general population and perspectives on Black Lives Matter, it's shifted significantly in this moment. So, you know, while they still, they will be, while they believe they're speaking to a majority who not so long ago probably would agree with everything that they said, and there are still those who do, the fact of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of sort of the public stance on this in recent weeks since the just excruciating murder of Mr. Floyd has shifted and they have not gotten the memo. And as a result, they're suffering in a variety of ways. And in fact, you want to see the craziness of Mustafa. Look at the mayor of St. Louis, Lida Crewson. During a Facebook Live video,

she actually was so ignorant to read the names and addresses of protesters who were calling on the city to defund the police department. Watch this. ...on who is... It's no police, no money going to police. This is...

I may be saying that wrong. Same address as... $75 million to cure violence, $210 million to affordable housing, $100 million to health and human services, zero to police. Well, here's somebody... I think it is...

wants all the money to go to cure violence. So here she is, Mustafa, reading their names and their addresses. Now, she apologized, but she did this a couple of years before and apologized again. Well, protesters said it's something to say this is what happened at her house over the weekend. This was her apology. I apologize. I apologize. This was her apology. I'd like to apologize for identifying individuals who presented letters to me at City Hall today. This was during one of my Facebook updates as I was answering routine questions.

Never did I intend to harm anyone or cause distress. The update is removed, And again, I apologize. You're right. Guess what? Somebody did her a favor. They put her cell phone out on Twitter, actually called it Saturday night. It went straight to voicemail. But the protesters also were in her neighborhood. These white folks were none too happy with that. Here's this video that's gone viral coming out with an AR-15 and a handgun. Listen up. Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!

All right, guys, that's Mark T. and Patricia McCloskey. They're both personal injury lawyers, and they were yelling, private property, get out, private property, get out, because apparently, Mustafa, that street is a private street into the residence there. The protesters were marching to the mayor's home. Now, what I've been told that it is actually against the law in Missouri to point a weapon at someone like they did. Yes, it is against the law. And, you know, I've been down that street before. So let's real quickly unpack this.

I mean, for the, whether it's a district attorney or an ADA, you know, when you allow your biases to play into it, then you're putting people's lives in danger. The way that, you know, you begin to enforce, the way that you begin to adjudicate, all of that plays out into these biases. And, of course, it's black and brown bodies who are being put on the line. You know, in relationship to the gentleman, well, I'm not going to call him a gentleman, to the lady and the man, because the wife had a pistol and then the gentleman had the AR-15. You know, they need to be brought up on charges themselves. And their attorneys, they know better than to be dealing with this type of behavior. And just imagine if those protesters were armed and were walking down the street. You know that

there would have been a different dynamic with the police. You know without a doubt that they would be moved over to the side. Their weapons probably would be tried to be confiscated. They might get arrested. So, you know, there has to be justice in this place also. Now, here's the deal here. I'm looking at the St. Louis Today website, and apparently what's happening, this is what they wrote here. Police are continuing to investigate. When they asked the cops, the cops, a police spokesman said,

talked to the courts whether this was illegal. Now, a constitutional law professor at St. Louis University said that because it was, the homeowners broke no laws by brandishing or pointing weapons at them because Portland Place is a private street. He said the McCloskeys are protected by Missouri's castle doctrine,

which allows people to use deadly force to defend private property. That's still going to be up for debate. But your thoughts on this, Avis? Well, you know, I don't live in Missouri, but from what I have read, and I understand that it's a private street, but according to Missouri law, section 571.030, this is a Class D felony to display a deadly weapon in a threatening manner. It's considered a crime in that state, and it's punishable by a range of between one

day to one year in jail, or up to four years in prison in prison and fine not to exceed $5,000. So they were definitely pointing that at those people who were exercising their constitutional right to protest. And as you mentioned, any little slip, the woman there, literally, she seems to have her hand on the trigger. The gentleman there is pointing it directly at those people who are walking by. No one actually stepped on their property. They were on the street. And, of course, folks are making fun of them. This is a meme that's going around.

Look at this guy. He's got an iPad. She has a brain and a gun and no idea how to use either. Karen, a hate story. Now in theaters, parks, streets, parking lots, pretty much anywhere black people get uppity and don't know their place. Guys, lower the cash app so they can see the bottom of the

meme. Trust me, they have been killing them, but the bottom line is this is the stuff that protesters are having to deal with. And remember, they were protesting because the mayor read the actual names and addresses of protesters on a facebook live so they were like oh you're fine we'll go to your house

absolutely and that was that was threatening that was a threatening act uh she did that on purpose i don't care what her little sorry apology said she did that as a threatening tactic and an intimidation tactic to try to dissuade others from actually voicing their thoughts to their elected official, right? I mean, she's supposed to be representing everyone in that city, not just those people who may or may not have voted for her.

And so the fact that she would put the lives of her constituents in danger like that, everyone in that city, no who may or may not have v the fact that she would p her constituents in dange means that she really doe job. All right folks. Now is happening as COVID-19 to spike. According to th there are 2.5 million cas

thousand cases new, 126,000 people have died, 885 of those deaths are new. Man, joining me right now is Dr. Daniel Fadboui, emergency response physician. Okay, so apparently something is wrong with his audio. Guys, let me know when we have that worked out. But the bottom line is we're still dealing with a pandemic. We're dealing with an administration that refuses to deal with that. Donald Trump over the weekend was playing golf, Mustafa. And at the end of the day, they still are not serious. And we're seeing spikes, huge spikes in Texas. We're seeing increases in Florida. It's happening all across the South.

And then you got Dan Crenshaw, congressman, trying to blame the protesters in Texas, was like, no, actually, the governor himself said it was the bars and the restaurants, which he opened. And now he's saying, OK, close back. Because they were such in a hurry to open everything, they did not take their time, Mustafa. Yeah, and they know the steps. CDC has told folks the steps. We have seen other governments across the planet who have done it right and who have done it wrong. And we know what happens when you do it wrong. You know, the president has showed no leadership whatsoever in relationship to COVID-19. But, you know, in the beginning, he refused to get in front of it.

He's refused to take responsibility. He's refused to make sure that the states have what they needed. And he refuses to work with the governors to actually make sure there is a national process across our country where we do the basic minimum, making sure that people are wearing their masks. Yep. It's a great start. Avis. Yeah, I mean, this has been a master class in incompetence. And the sad situation is that people are dying. Right now we have over 120,000 people who are dead. We have states like Texas who are experiencing spikes as we speak.

We have states who are nearing capacity in terms of their ICU units. And you just yesterday for the first time had the vice president, who apparently was finally given the okay by Daddy Dearest to actually use the word mask and specifically say that people should wear masks. This is inconscionable. This shows a reckless disregard for the lives of Americans, the people, once again, that this administration and those at the very top, specifically the president, has been sworn to protect.

And so to me, it is absolutely amazing to me to think that anyone would even consider voting for him in November because literally your life is on the ballot. Absolutely. Dr. Fugbahi, Fog Bui, who's on the phone right now. I'm glad to have you on, Doc. Look, you're in the emergency room dealing with this as well. What we are facing right now is a huge issue because these states were trying to rush to open. I mean, it has to be difficult to see hospitals at 100 percent capacity in Houston filling up because policy leaders, Republicans, would not listen. Yeah. Thank you, Logan, for having me on. I agree. I

basically came up to about three different acronyms for this. It's R, I think Avis alluded to, of recklessness. The fact that people don't want to wear masks for whatever their phobias are. So many different reasons, which I can go into later. I think also the other R was reopening. Reopening prematurely, before the time was right. We know what the criteria were to be able to open, making sure that you see at least the positivity, depending on what you're looking at, the positivity rate

of the tests over a 14-day period to see that it was actually on a downward trend significantly. The only people who really got it right was New York, New Jersey, and maybe Connecticut on the outset, and also California, some parts of it. So I think at this point, because we've had no leadership, and the other third R was basically racial disparities, because there was protests and rioting, wherever you get this gathering, it's going to spread. That's the fact. But the fact is that COVID really affected everybody's lives. And our leadership, poor leadership, I would add, has definitely put our lives in jeopardy. And people need to understand they need to wear a mask, take all this phobia and all the garbage that people are talking about saying, oh, it shows weakness,

it doesn't let me feel masculine, or it shows some fear. All those things are just excuses. The bottom line is, it is not really a constitutional right in a sense. We need to actually look at it as a global solidarity for everybody trying to help each other out so we can get through this. We haven't gotten it right. Other countries have done this very well, and we still are at the bottom of the list when we have all the expertise and the knowledge, and we're embarrassed on the public front. But not only that, we're affecting our lives. And guess who it affects? It affects us, our group of people, the minorities and all the others who haven't had

a voice. That's who it affects the most. And of course, you know, what, 500,000 deaths across the globe. I mean, it's just a huge impact. And the problem is, and I keep saying this here, let me get your thoughts. The problem we still face is, guess what? We still have not tested enough people to understand how significant this is. A little over 25 million. No, we should be at 100 million testing by now. I agree. The issue of testing, tracing, and really identifying where the problem is and being able to identify those is a big issue. And if we don't have leaders, we finally just have a leader finally wearing a mask. I mean, it's and there's a Nigerian product that said it's crooked from the head. And that just basically means if you have a leader that's not guiding you in the right direction, and that means even leaders and the governors in different

states also, politics really invaded my space of medical expertise and biodefense. And because of that, that's why I'm really speaking out on this thing. Because normally I'd say, okay, you know, let everybody figure out their party sides. But it's invaded and encroached on the medical welfare of the public. And that's an issue. And I have a big issue with it, as many of my colleagues do. Doc, we surely appreciate it. Thank you so very much. We'll keep pressing the issue. My pleasure. All right. Thank you very much. Mustafa Avis, we surely appreciate both of you being on the panel today. Michael was with us as well. Thanks a bunch.

Folks, got to go to a break. We come back. LGBT protesters, Black Lives Matter protesters. What happens when you're black and gay? That's next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. You want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here

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All right, so a lot of y'all always asking me about some of the pocket squares that I wear. Now, I don't know. Robby don't have one on. Now, I don't particularly like the white pocket squares. I don't like even the silk ones. And so I was reading GQ magazine a number of years ago, and I saw this guy who had this pocket square here, and it looks like a flower. This is called a shibori pocket square. This is how the Japanese manipulate the fabric to create this sort of flower effect.

So I'm going to take it out and then place it in my hand so you see what it looks like. And I said, man, this is pretty cool. And so I tracked down. It took me a year to find a company that did it. And so they make these about 47 different colors. And so I love them because, again, as men, we don't have many accessories to wear. So we don't have many options. And so this is really a pretty cool pocket screen. And what I love about this here,

as you saw, when it's in the pocket, you know, it gives you that flower effect like that. But if I wanted to also, unlike other, because if I flip it and turn it over it actually gives me a different type of texture. And so therefore it gives me a different look. So there you go. So if you actually want to get one of these shibori pocket squares we have them in 47 different colors. All you got to do is go to rolling this Martin dot com forward slash pocket squares. So it's rolling this Martin dotcom forward slash pocket squares. So it's Rollinismartin.com forward slash pocket squares. All you got to do is go to my website, and you can actually get this.

Now, for those of you who are members of our Bring the Funk fan club, there's a discount for you to get our pocket squares. That's why you also got to be a part of our Bring the Funk fan club. And so that's what we want you to do. And so it's pretty cool. So if you want to jazz your look up, you can do that. In addition, y'all see me with some of the feather pocket squares. My sister was a designer.

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This is why you should join the fan club. Yesterday, December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. In 1941, America's leaders asked a generation to go to war, to build an arsenal for democracy. They did nothing less than save the world. It didn't come easy. It didn't come easy. It didn't come quickly.

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If you black and same gender loving? Where do you come into this mix? And so we want to have this conversation right now. Joining us is David Johns. David, of course, leads the National Black Distance Coalition. He joins us right now. David, how you doing? I'm good, Roland. Thank you for having me.

Thank you for making space for this conversation. You got this whole club scene. I see you with the whole background. I see you. I see you also. Jasmine Koenig, homegirl of mine. She is out of Los Angeles. And so we're glad to have her here. Cleo Monago, behavioral analyst. Cleo joins us as well. We got one more guest who we are waiting on. In fact, hold on. Okay. Abdullah, do you have... Hello. Hello. Abdullah, how you doing? Abdullah. Hold on. Let me get the title right. I'm sorry. We did not have it here. Abdullah Rasheen Hall, Artistic Director, Trans Chorus of Los Angeles. And so let's go and get the conversation started. So I'm going to start this way and I want to start, um, start, uh, with Jasmine first. Jasmine, we've seen, we've seen the

protest. We've seen, um, folks out in the streets. We've seen this whole focus on Black Lives Matter. Uh, but then you've had other folks who say, well, you have LGBTs taking over Black Lives Matter or taking over black protests. And so then you have competition. You have folks going back and forth. How do you see all of this playing out and this whole view that somehow it's competition? The reality is, if you black and same gender loving, you also a part of Black Lives Matter because you still black. So, first of all, Black Lives Matter was founded by three black women, two of whom identify as queer. OK, so let's let's be really clear about that. I think that when we talk about Black Lives Matter, all black lives matter.

Black trans lives matter. Black lesbian lives matter, Black lesbian lives matter, Black same gender loving lives matter. So I don't understand this argument that the LGBTQ community is taking it over. Again, I don't separate my Blackness from my gayness. Like, you know, it's all of who I am. That's what I bring to it. So I think a lot of other black queer folk,

when they come to these protests, when they participate, they're coming as black people. So, you know, when I hear this argument that the LGBT community is taking it over, well, it was founded by people who were queer. So I need a little help with that one. David, it's somewhat reminiscent to when folks have talked about protests that were,

you've heard people say, well, women are leading these protests, but they're fighting on behalf of black men impacted by the police, but the reality is black women also have been shot by police. Ayanna Jones, Rekia Boyd, I mean, we can go on and on. Breonna Taylor. We can go on and on and on. It reminds me of the Black Freedom Movement

where you had largely Black men who weren't knowing the reality of what Black women were going through. Your thoughts on this moment that we're in. Yeah, I think that what people miss is that this moment is connected to a larger movement.

And this movement, as Jasmine said, has been led by Black queer, Black trans, Black non-binary folk. And when we forget that, we allow racism, white supremacy, and anti-Blackness to suggest that the only queer people who exist are white queer people. So the reality is that when Black folks in particular are talking about what the queer people are doing, our queer marches, our LGBTQ movement wins, they're really thinking about white folks and white folks who are privileged still because they are white, even though they also might be LGBTQIA plus identified. And so it's really important for us to recall and acknowledge history. As Jasmine said, and I acknowledge Jasmine was a founding member of NBJC, it continues to lead and has been in these streets long before Black Lives Matter was trending. The first person to use the hashtag on Twitter

is a Black queer man named Marcus Anthony Hunter, a doctor at UCLA, a professor at UCLA. There would be no Pride. We're having this conversation still in June, which is Pride Month. There would be no Pride, as Jasmine mentioned, without Marsha P. Johnson, a Black trans woman who resisted at Stonewall

when the police were taking over what should have otherwise been a safe space. And the thing that I know as a black same-gender loving man is that when the police see my black body, they're not going to ask me for my bio or question whether or not I'm same-gender loving. I will often have to deal with the fact that racism, homophobia, all these things are wrapped up in what it means for us to be Black in a system where people don't often like to see us as human thereafter. Avila? Amen.

I agree with that. My pronouns are they, them, theirs. I am gender nonconforming, gender nonbinary. And I always say to my chorus that if the cops pull me over, they're not going to care that this lip is painted or these eyes. They're going to see black male and react. My blackness runs just as deep as my queerness. So it's not we're taking it over.

It's not that being queer is a white thing. You can't say black lives matter without including black lives that are LGBTQg lgbtq plus lives i mean it's just ridiculous and um sorry i'm in my car but it's all good so we'll get you right back uh cleo let me bring you uh into the conversation uh you have always saido, that there has to be an internal conversation in black America before you really deal with what's happening externally. Yeah, I think that there's some missing elements so far in this discussion. For example, you mentioned in the beginning of the show that this is Pride Month. Well, what you may or may not know is that after so-called Pride Month, there's Black Pride Months across the country.

I know. I do. Okay. I forgot. You know a lot. I forget that sometimes. So those Black Prides came into existence because of the racism of the so-called larger pride, which is really a white pride. Some people are looking at this whole thing, including myself, as being quite surreal that

the racist white pride, which has been racist and primarily white acculturated and white affirming, is now matching with a queer-identified leadership brand movie called Black Lives Matter. And there's some conversations I need to have.

Am I frozen? Yeah, you're, first of all, your video is frozen, but your audio is fine. So keep talking. Don't worry about it. Okay. We got your audio. You're good. Okay, cool. Anyway, the black, there's people in the black community who are wondering what's going on for two reasons. One is because this community, the LGBTQ community, which is a white culture and paradigm, has not stepped up for black people ever. For example, some people on this show might not know who James Craig Anderson is. James Craig Anderson is a brother that was killed in 2011,

a same-gender loving brother that was killed in 2011 by some white man who ran him over in the parking lot of his job with a truck. And the white gay community, who found out he was the same gender loving person didn't say anything and never has said anything. So for the black community to be skeptical of what's going on now, as far as I'm concerned, is not an irrational reaction. Cleo just brought- Cleo, go ahead.

Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Also, the black community has not had on a macro level, on a large scale level, a rational, engaging conversation about gender nuance, diverse ways of being and sexuality. So it keeps hitting us in ways that are perplexing because we have not dealt with the issue in a rational way from a black cultural perspective. Queer and LGBTQ, rainbow flags, all this stuff, comes from the white gay community. It's their paradigm, it has worked well for them.

And there's black people who have used it as black people to frame themselves. But the bottom line is a paradigm is a paradigm. A culture is a culture, a movement is a movement, and the gay movement is a white racist movement. So I'm gonna put this out to the whole panel here, because I wanna put it out to the whole panel, because Cleo said something where he said,

um, holding the white LGBT movement accountable. So what's interesting about that is, what's happening is that the reckoning that we're seeing is the reckoning of black folks in whiteness. And the reckoning is happening in all of these institutions. It's happening in corporate America. It's happening in public policy.

It's happening in various organizations. And even in organizations where black folks are working with others, it's literally working at, look, I'm in the ed reform movement, and I've been telling people who believe with Charles schools, I'm like, yo, it's about to be a reckoning with black folks who are in this movement. And so anyone can jump in. Do you believe that this movement,

that that reckoning is actually happening with the white LGBT movement? Jasmine, you raise your hand. Go ahead. Because you know I'm all over this. Go ahead. This movement will not pass up the white LGBTQ community. Not on my watch, it won't. They have a lot to atone for.

And I'm here for that conversation. You know, look, Roland, you were all over the Ed Butt case with me, right? So you know that during fighting to get that man arrested, the white gay community had very little to say. As a matter of fact, he was one of them and

quite well liked by them, even though, you know, black gay men's bodies were showing up dead in his house in West Hollywood. And it's not just an L.A. thing. This has gone on across the country. And so I think it's up to us, right, whether you identify as same-gender loving,

queer, trans, non-binary, whatever, it is up to us to hold them accountable and not give them a pass. And that's what the issue is. We have to hold people accountable. Just like we have to hold people accountable in our community, the black community, we have to hold people accountable in that community. And I wanna touch on something that Cleo said.

Cleo makes a lot of really good points, but one thing I wanna offer out there is that this is also a generational thing, right? So when you talk about Gen Zers and millennials, you know, because of the work that people like Cleo did, the work that people like I did and Keith Boykin and others, yeah, they get to walk a little bit freer and, you know, they weren't prohibited in their thinking

and in who they were in ways that we were. So when you talk about having to have this conversation in black America, I agree, but let's be clear on who that conversation has to be had with. It has to be had with Gen Xers, Baby Boomers, and the silent generation, because I see Gen Zers and Millennials

as being more accepting of who people are. It's not an issue for them. Abdullah? Yeah, Jasmine's right. David and Abdullah. David, go ahead. I was going to say the data shows that more than 70%

of students in high school identify as anything other than strictly heterosexual. And that's not to say that there's a gay agenda. If there is one, I'm looking for what I want the cliff notes. But it is to say, as Jasmine articulated, that young people understand that the binaries that have existed, black, white, boy, girl, pink, blue, gay, straight, don't really work for anyone. And so it's important for us to acknowledge that.

As Jasmine also mentioned, because Cleo created a term, same gender loving, there is a word, an affirming word for some of us that exist here. We were having a conversation just earlier this week with some Haitian brothers and sisters and acknowledged that that kind of word doesn't exist in Haitian Creole, right? And when we think about how beautifully diverse our community is, there's so much more work that can and needs to be done within our community. Just this weekend, we lost a 17-year-old black trans girl, Bria, who was murdered in Arkansas. And a few people are saying her name, right? A few people are saying her name in the same way that fewer people are saying the name of Breonna Taylor, and we should acknowledge that misogyny has everything to do with that. We talk a lot about George Floyd, and we should. Fewer people are talking about Tony McDade, the Black trans man who was murdered by the police

in Tallahassee less than a week after we learned the name of George Floyd. And so I say all of this to say that it's complicated, it's tough, and it takes a whole lot of us doing a whole lot more work such that we as a community can stand better together so all of us can be free. Avila? Yeah, I was just going to say I agree with both of them. We got to realize that a lot of the younger ones coming up have same-sex parents. So there's a generation of Black and brown and white kids out there who have same-sex parents, moms, dads that are raised where they are not in the binary anymore. all of us be here today, which is wonderful, to be open and honest and have a real conversation with Black and white America about being a Black queer. You'll see a lot of non-binary people that are white getting a lot of spotlight, but you won't see somebody like me or others getting that kind of spotlight because it's like, oh, make a choice. And Jasmine, you are absolutely correct about

what you were saying about Ed Buck because I'm making the trouble, but he gave so much money to HRC. None of the gay community in Los Angeles was talking about it at all. But we as black people have to realize that all black lives matter, including trans and gay, lesbian, bi lives, so that those clear that the LGBT movement stands on the shoulders of black people, on the black freedom movement, the civil rights movement. When you talk about accountability, what Jasper also talked about, in Atonement, for you, what does that look like? Well, I saw that show. I saw your interview with him. He's quite impressive. White folks did a good job of making sure they had a black person in front of their movement so it could look like it was inclusive, though it historically and paradigmatically and culturally is not. All I can say is that,

and I go back to what I think is most important, is that our community needs to have Black conversations about these issues. We have not had them. For example, one of the reasons why the Black community is apprehensive to address transgenderism, particularly male to female transgender and feminine men and homosexual men, is because there's a history of castration, destruction, and attack on Black men and emasculation of Black men in this society, both in contemporary society and in the past society. Without a conversation, it looks like trans people and feminine men are that way as a result of white oppression. I don't necessarily believe that. I know that there's more

going on to people than what white folks do. Naturally, same gender loving, feminine, masculine, the whole gender spectrum occurs among people of African descent. But I'm real clear about why the black community is looking sideways at this LGBTQ force coming into a movement that was inspired, supposedly, by the murder of black men, which has the highest rate of murder by the state of any group in this country. I don't know if I'm frozen or not, or you can just hear me still.

We still got your audio. Keep talking. Okay. If I say Cleo's broken up, that means you good. Keep going. So we need to stop denying that there is a white puppeteer behind a lot of what's called black and gay stuff.

I mean, there's other things that I would like to say, including about the genesis of NBJC, some other things that I know about because I've been around so long, but it's better to have that conversation face to face. I'll just reiterate that one of the reasons why black people are not trusting this LGBT infusion into an allegedly black movement is because there's racism and white supremacy from the white gay community. And the stuff that Jasmine mentioned before I left earlier about atoning, that atoning has not occurred. Just the other day, a young black man talked to me about being on one of these apps, these dating apps that they have, and a white man trying to

pick him up. And when he refused him, he said, well, I can go get some BBC someplace else. And David and Jabs don't know what BBC means. I don't know if you do, Roland. No. You know what BBC? No. Okay. Well, okay. I know what that means, but I don't know what you were saying about it. BBC means big black cock. And black men are often reduced to being just that

and treated like thugs and objectified beings by the white gay community. I'm not impressed when black people find acceptable blacks to sit in front of their machines like the brother who's sitting in front of HRC. The C is still for Caucasian. That's what it should be. He's just there to give the impression of that there's no racism, and there is. So again, the reason why the community, people in the community are looking sideways at this whole thing is because of the history of racism. And Jasmine also mentioned that the women who get credit for the Black Lives Matter are so-called queer. Well, that's a surprise to some people. Not to me. I knew that years ago.

But that's a surprise to people because they didn't talk about that when they first got credit for the onset of this thing called the Black Lives Matter movement. But now it seems like it's something that was laid in the back that's finally come out. And it seems like it's come out at the risk of distracting from a black movement against the destruction of black people by the police. David, go ahead. David, go ahead.

I just I don't I don't I respect the space that Cleo occupies, but sometimes don't understand the point that he's trying to make. I don't I invite him to say whatever he wants to say about MBJC. Also don't understand when there are public records of the two women in particular that Jasmine named talking about being both black and queer. If there's something to be discussed, it's the role of white people in writing stories where they don't acknowledge our fullness and then not having the language,

including the words that you provided in creating the term same-gender loving to have conversations that acknowledge our fullness. I also don't think it makes any sense for us to be talking about David Alfonso when he's not here to defend himself or HRC. We can all talk about, again, the fact that each of us work and respond

to white supremacy, white folks, and the stuff that they do to make our work more difficult, but I continue to go back to struggling, acknowledging that we work better together and trying to understand what points Cleo is ultimately trying to make our work more difficult, but I continue to go back to struggling, acknowledging that we work better together and trying to understand what points Cleo is ultimately trying to make. Well, let me jump in here for one second.

Jasmine, go ahead, go ahead. Okay, so a couple of things. One, on the issue of atonement, I absolutely agree with Cleo and will reiterate my point. That has not been done. So what does that look like, right? Part of what that looked like is, is having white folks step back and sit down and move out the way, right? You know, they, they have always, white gay folks have always occupied

this space, whether you want to call it same gender loving, queer, whatever letter of the alphabet, they have always had to be the face of it. They have always had to be leading it, which is why we got gay marriage as the big gay issue, right? Because for white gay folks, that was their ceiling. That wasn't my ceiling as a black lesbian woman, but that was their ceiling. And I think it's time for them to step back

and sit down and let other folks lead. I also think within our own community, time for them to step back and sit down and let other folks lead. I also think within our own community there needs to be these intergenerational conversations, because again, I go back to Gen Zers and millennials and wanting to press upon people to understand that the things that maybe my generation and other generations are upset about, they're not because they didn't have to deal with it. But that doesn't mean it's any less important. And that came up here in Los Angeles

when the white gay pride here in LA decided to, all of a sudden, wanna march for black lives after 50 years of ignoring them. It was like, really? But we had younger black folks like, hey, yeah, let's do this. And it was like, kinda like, hold up. There there's some history here and we should acknowledge that history. So I think there's a bunch of issues here, but at the end of the day, you know, it is up to us.

Like, what do we want and are we going to fight for it? I have no problem telling an HRC, telling a GLAAD, telling some of these organizations, look, you know, you've had your time. It's our time. When you look at the makeup of this country, you know, it's people of color who are moving and driving things. And how come that isn't happening within the LGBTQ movement? It's because there are white folks that don't want to see that happen. So we're going to push back against white supremacy in every facet of life for black people. We're going to have to do it there too. Roland, the reason that young same-gender loving people, and I've literally interviewed young people to get to find their perspective on current times. The reason that there's a relatively large

amount of, and there's a large amount who do not, so I'm going to say that too, but the reason there's a large amount of same-gender loving people who will say, well, let's join this pride stuff. Let's do this. Let's take advantage of this moment because most of them are ahistorical. Most of them don't know their history. And this is true for heterosexual Black people and all kinds of Black people who don't know our history, who don't hear about Black issues until February when we talk about how well we ran away from white folks for a whole month, and not knowing a whole history back to Africa and back before the colonial period. But most people do not know black history

and definitely do not know the history of same-gender loving people in this country. For example, James Baldwin, who's often called gay, did not identify with gay and rejected the gay movement because of his racism. But people will call him gay because they don't know the history. So I want to make that clear in terms of why you will have some black people today going, well, let's do this. Let's jump on board of this pride thing.

Let's take advantage of this white willingness to let us in because they don't even know their own history. Abdullah, go ahead. Well, I love what you're saying, doctor, but like every time someone queered that's black, I'm just gonna say it. It's not a white thing. It's a me thing. It's who I am. It's how I was divinely created and put here.

And I just wanted to jump back on what Jasmine was just saying about HRC. I was a governor with HRC for three years. I know Alfonso. He's doing a really great job, but he's not getting the same press that Chad did before him. And one of the reasons why I chose to leave HRC Los Angeles was because I didn't see a lot of diversity there. I pulled a seat up to that table and tried my best to work it while I was there. But after a while, you got tired and I told them, you need to reach out to others in the community. But I think that this conversation is so twofold because on one hand, we can't demonize

all the queer people that's involved with Black Lives Matter and say it's a white thing or we're selling out of anything. We just have to be there and know that our blackness runs as deep as our queerness. Roland, I don't think it's an issue of black people selling out. I don't think somebody identifies as queer when they're black, they're quote unquote selling out. I think they're being the victims of hegemony.

Most people in this country only speak English because English is the official language and that's what everybody's born and that's what they hear. And whiteness and what white folks do is an omnipresent phenomena that all of us are subject to from birth. So when white people come along with something, often we're at risk to try to take it on as our own and adapt to it, as opposed to challenging its white supremacist ethos and genesis and learn to love ourselves in our own image, which is what healthy and successful people do. People who are successful, including the white gay community, are such because the very root of their culture, their symbology, how gayness came to be in this

country in terms of the current construct, totally affirms them. Lesbianness from Greece, queer from Britain, the pink triangle from Germany, the whole thing affirms them, which is why they do well. The reason that we don't work together necessarily and have the same footing from a culturally strong basis is because we have been interrupted by whiteness, and that whiteness has seduced us, And some of us have learned to refer to ourselves from white paradigms and it creates a schism and destabilization. And that's why this community is one of the most destabilized communities in this country,

because it is not coming from a culturally affirming place as black people in terms of how it operates. I don't think any of us disagree with Cleo, your very pointed and thoughtful critique of white supremacy and the way that it works. And it is important for us to acknowledge that as long as there have been black people, we have been incredibly and beautifully diverse. A part of me feels like we spent a lot of time talking about gay white people. And one of the ways that white supremacy works is taking up space, even when black folks are supposed to be dreaming or healing, otherwise talking about what they need. And so I want us to acknowledge that and to be liberated and appreciating that each of us can celebrate the ability to choose different terms and to access

the language and histories that exist to be fully realized in the ways that make the most sense for us and feel the most native for each of us. I think that there is the ability for us to do all of what we've described in ways that will respond to the very ways in which white supremacy seeks to deny us the ability to do all of that. One of the things that I... Can I ask something? Yeah, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.

I just want to ask, like, as a journalist, as someone who is on television a lot and on the radio who has to try to explain things to different communities, you know, I use the language that's going to help my audience understand what I'm talking about. So sometimes same-gender loving is not that phrase because they'll be stuck on stupid, not understanding what I'm saying.

And it's easier to use a word like queer, even though I don't identify as queer, but I understand that there is a large segment of the population that I'm talking to that does. So I think we need to take all of that into consideration, particularly when we're talking to black people and we're talking to our people. That has been something that I have struggled with,

like I said, just as a talking head, using words that I'm not necessarily comfortable with, but understanding that you have to know your audience. And I know you know about that, Roland. Of course, absolutely. One of the things that I think, and this is going to be the last round of questions here, one of the things that I still look at for me in this moment is what's next. And then it also has to be what I call a significant ask. And one of the things that I find to be very interesting, as I have talked to all black folks in all these different sectors, is that we have black folks who are actually afraid to challenge the very folks who are funding many

of our institutions and so what's been real interesting like well you know but but but that's who funded us and i'm like wait a minute but that's who we having a problem with i mean let's just cut to the chase who got the money in america white folks. Right. All right. I don't care what you say. LGBT? White folks. Media? White folks. Okay. We can talk about aid reform? White folks. I mean, we can go down the line on any sector and it's white folks.

And so, for the four of you, how do you get folks to understand that people who many will call allies also have to be challenged to do more, and that might be a huge ask, and we also have got to train one another to stop being afraid of the big ask and only accepting the small ask and apologizing for it. Anybody can start it off.

I, let me go first. So you know what I've been telling people? Everybody wants to scream Black Lives Matter, and I get that. Black lives absolutely do matter. But so does hiring Black lives, putting Black lives on your board, renting the Black lives, electing Black lives, and supporting Black lives. It's not just a hashtag. It's not just something trendy to say. So you're absolutely right about where the wealth is, where the money is in America. And it is our job to make sure to push back up against that

but have really clear demands. When I look at boards of organizations and there's one Black person or two token Black people on it, when I look at organizations and there's no black people in leadership at every single level, that troubles me. And so again, when I said that white gay folks need to step back and step down for a minute and let people of color, in particular black people step up,

that is a clear and direct ask and demand. And we're gonna do things in our way, the way that makes sense to us, the way that we know things need to be done. Because we've got a lot of white, I'm so sick of white gay people telling black people how to talk to black people, how black queer folks should be feeling about things. We know ourselves and we know our communities and we know how to get things done and it's our time to do that. Yes.

We have to be willing to... I was going to say we as black, gay, queer loving people, we have to be able to challenge that too with white gays. You're right, Jasmine. I sit on two boards where I'm one of two black people.

One is for the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles, and the chairwoman is a black trans woman. But the majority of the people on that board are white. And sometimes we have to, well, I get in trouble for challenging them on their point of view of being Black and queer, putting us at the table, but not just putting us there, but opening up that opportunity. Just ICM put in deadline Hollywood, they're going to hire more Black assistants. Well, I don't want to be another Black assistant at ICM. Give me a shot at being a Black agent at ICM, then we can talk. So that needs to open up all across the board for everybody.

Cleo. Roland, I don't relate personally to what you described. I run a black organization that is decently funded. And I've been able to do this without having to talk to white folks, having to acquiesce to white folks, having to depend on white folks. I think, frankly, you're doing something right now very similarly. You have your own television or your own broadcast, your own digital network, and it's primarily black people that are keeping things going in terms of resources to partner with you to do your work.

Well, I'm doing something very similar. And I don't relate to talking to white folks and asking for nothing. For example, when I apply for federal funds, those federal funds are taxpayer funds. Those are Jasmine's funds in terms of how they came into being. They're your funds. They're David's funds. They're my funds. Those are taxpayer funds. So I apply for federal resources for one of the ways I get my work resourced. That's not white money. That's everybody's money. I don't ask white gays for anything.

And I don't need to ask them for anything to do what I do. I refuse to do anything that I'm doing that interferes with the affirmation of black people on all levels. David said something earlier about white people being talked about too much, whatever. When you're saying queer and gay, you're talking white talk. I don't even call it what it is.

Otherwise, I don't even talk about what white folks are doing or their paradigms or whatever is going on with them because my work is centered from a black centered, black informed, black considerate, black historically informed perspective. So I don't relate to this whole thing around going to white folks and doing a dance for them or acquiescing for them or fighting with them. I don't I have not fought with no white folks about hardly anything in decades because they're not in my universe. You can get you can get work done without having to be bothered with white supremacy in direct ways. You can get work done without having to be bothered

with white supremacy in direct ways. David Johns, final comment. Yeah, for those who aren't as bold as Cleo, can appreciate that Derrick Bell, one of the founding fathers of critical race theory, reminds us that interest convergence means that white folks

won't let anything happen for us unless it benefits them. I believe our big ask should continue to be around the divest-invest movements that we're seeing happening with police departments, happen for us unless it benefits them. I believe our big ask should continue to be around the divest-invest movements that we're seeing happening with police departments, with city budgets, in schools, as you well know, Roland, and with regard to so many other publicly funded institutions that often cause trauma and harm in the lives of Black folks. I also want to lift up

that in this moment of crisis, while people are continuing to do this advocacy and organizing work, that we need to take care of ourselves. We already are more inclined to have the kinds of mental health stress that causes people to die. And that was before COVID. And so I'm especially concerned about us continuing to do this work and dying in the process. The last thing I'll say is that if people are still wondering why they should care about any of what we've been talking about, I will remind them that there are so many children who are black and identify using any of the terms that we have used over the course of this language, to know more about all of these histories, and to stand with folks who are Black, queer, trans, non-binary, and all of the other terms,

because it is often us who continue to sacrifice for the rights that other people, including Black people, take for granted. David Johns, Jasmine Koenig, Cleo Monago, Abdullah, I certainly appreciate it. All of you, great conversation. Thanks a lot. Thanks, Roland. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, folks, our final story before we go. A group called Hashtag Black Female Anonymous dropped a post over this weekend that hit like a bomb saying the truth about Essence. Go to my iPad, please. In this particular piece, they claim that there are fundamental issues at Essence. They are calling for, this is what they say, We demand the immediate resignation of Essence Ventures owner and chief executive officer,

Rishi Lou Dennis, Essence Ventures board member and former Essence Communications CEO, Michelle Ebanks, chief operating officer, Joy Collins-Prophet, and chief content officer Mona Liu. They are calling on AT&T, Coca-Cola, Chase Bank, Ford, McDonald's, Procter & Gamble, Walmart, and WarnerMedia to eliminate all active or future sponsorships and media buys at Essence Ventures until the company is under new leadership. They say the Essence brand promise is fraudulent. They also say that they have had an abuse of power against black women and that they also talked about the treatment, the pay and how black women have been treated at the company as well. Now, the folks at Essence responded today with this statement.

They released a quite long statement. They said, candidly, the last 24 hours have been heartbreaking. At Essence, we uplift the voices of, provide platforms for and generate opportunities that elevate black women and communities have done so for 50 years. They say, still, they talk about anonymity, says, still, anonymity does not negate accountability. Facts will always matter, and we are not afraid of the truth. The allegations and mischaracterizations throughout whether of pay inequity, intimidation and otherwise are unfounded attempts to discredit our brand and assassinate personal character. Further, accusations of sexual harassment or misconduct are extremely serious and we fully understand the gravity of the implications. Now, Black Female Anonymous, they said that unless the resignations happen in five days,

they will begin to drop more information. So we'll certainly see what is going to happen next. All right, folks, that is it for us today. We certainly hope you appreciated the conversation, the diverse discussion that we had today. Always please again, support us at Roland Martin Unfiltered. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. Here are your options, Cash App, PayPal, Venmo. Of course, you can also send us a money order

to New Vision Media, Inc., 1625 K Street, NW, Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 2006. Great conversation we're going to have tomorrow, folks. Dallas Mavericks

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