#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 7.15 COVID crisis; Black while wearing 'Blue'; CBS drops Nick Cannon; Racial discrimination at CDC

Episode Date: July 16, 2020

7.15.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: COVID-19 crisis; Rep. Yvette Clark talks 2020 politics; Police chief on being Black while wearing 'Blue'; Virginia State Trooper terrorizes and assaults a Black man; George Floyd's family files lawsuit; Chicago lawmakers call for removal of Stephen Douglas statue; Asheville City Council apologizes to Black residents for city's role in slavery; CBS drops Nick Cannon; Racial discrimination at CDC; Entrepreneur Arion Long talks about her solution-based reproductive product line named Femly. Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #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.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Today's Wednesday, July 15, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Folks, a lot of things happening when it comes to Congress. Will they extend unemployment benefits in the age of coronavirus? We'll talk about that with Congresswoman Yvette Clark of New York. Speaking of coronavirus, we are still seeing significant, significant cases all across the country. Why in the world don't we have a national face mask policy? Dr. Ebony Hilton will join us to discuss that. Also, Durham, North Carolina police chief will join us to discuss what

it's like being black while wearing the blue. Chicago lawmakers are calling for the removal of a statue of Stephen Douglas in the Bronzeville neighborhood in Chicago. State Representative Lamont Robinson will join us. Nick Cannon is out at ViacomCBS. They say because he made anti-Semitic comments, but Diddy is saying, come on over to the Black Owned Network, Nick. And black employees at the Centers for Disease Control say they are experiencing racial discrimination in the workplace. The Asheville, North Carolina City Council has voted 7-0 to provide reparations for its Black residents. Will explain. And George Floyd's family has filed a civil suit against the city of Minneapolis and their police department.

And a Virginia man is dragged out of his car and attacked by police. That took place last year. Now, his attorneys are demanding the attorney general do something about it. And today in Black Tech, you'll meet the creator of natural feminine hygiene products. Yo, it's time to bring the funk. Oh, yeah. One more thing. The back and forth. The guy ousted at Ebony Magazine as chairman and CEO of Willard Jackson, they hired attorney Willie Gary to represent them. I will break that news to you. It's time to bring the funk of Roller Martin Unfiltered. Let's go.

He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to pop. And it's rolling Best believe he's knowing

Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for gigs He's rolling It's Uncle Roro y'all It's rolling Martin Rolling with Roland now Yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real

The best you know, he's Roland Martin Now Martin Alright folks, some breaking news. I obtained a letter sent just a few, actually a couple of hours ago, to the new owners or the company that controls the debt of the company that owns Ebony magazine. They have a hired member. Last week, we told you Willard Jackson, who was the chairman and CEO,

was removed from that position by Jacob Waltauer, who leads the chairman and CEO, was removed from that position by Jacob Waltauer, who leads the company Blueprint, which took over the debt of Parkview that actually lent the money to CVG, which allowed them to acquire Ebony magazine. I know it sounds complicated, but they removed Willa Jackson from that position. Willa Jackson has now responded. He has hired attorney Willie Gary, representing him. Go to my iPad, please. This is a letter that was sent by Willie Gary to Jacob Walthour with blueprint blueprint capital advisors to Parkview as well. He says that my firm represents Ebony Capital Partners and Robert Shoemake is 49 percent owner. As you are aware, Ebony Capital Partners LLC became the owner of the majority in interest of Ebony Media Holdings LLC upon acquiring such interest from his previous holder, CBG Group LLC.

They claim that the folks with Blueprint wrongfully remove Willard Jackson from his position as CEO. In fact, this is what they said here. Mr. Waltauer, you came on the company's board in May 2020, declared yourself the chairman of the board and removed Mr. Jackson as an officer and director of the company on July 5th, 2020. This removal was publicized in a press release. In addition, your interview on the Roland Martin show smeared Mr. Jackson's business judgment and cast doubt in the public's mind as to my client's ownership of the company. Your actions are in direct violations of the company's governing documents, create a conflict of interest and contributed to lenders liability for borrowers default and

involves slander and libel against Ebony leadership and Mr. Shoemake indicating a potential malicious intent on your part. Now, let me explain. You might be hearing these different names. So here's the deal. Parkview Capital was a company out of Houston that provided the funds for CVG Group, which was led by Willard Jackson, as well as Michael Gibson, to acquire the assets of Ebony magazine. Then Blueprint took over the control of Parkview's assets when they ran into financial distress. Now, according to a deal that was struck that Willa Jackson and Robert Jackson and Michael Gibson sold majority interest of Ebony Media Holdings to Robert Shoemake out of Detroit. Park Blueprint claims that was an illegal transaction that was not officially approved by the Ebony board and also by the company that controlled the debt who gave them the money. They said, according to their documents, Parkview had to approve any

asset exchange for Ebony Media Holdings. And so what they're trying to do is get Willard Jackson reinstalled as chairman and CEO of Ebony. Now, I did talk with Willard Jackson. He initially agreed to come on the show tomorrow, but his attorney said no, that they said he can appear next week. And that's what's going on here. Lots of legal stuff going back and forth. We're going to have a real quick conversation with our panel. A. Scott Bolden, former chair of National Bar Association PAC. Robert Petillo, executive director, Rainbow Push Coalition, Peachtree Street Project. Also an attorney, Dr. Neon B. Carter, Howard University Department of Political Science. Scott, I want to start with you. Obviously, a whole lot of legal stuff going back and forth. The real issue here that they have to deal with is who actually owns Ebony?

Was that transaction with Robert Shoemake, was it a legal one? Did it have to be approved by Parkview? And that's what they're sort of going back and forth with all this drama. Well, there's certainly several controlling documents here, corporate documents. But the bottom line is, who controls the company? Who controls the stock? And what percentage of the partnership do each of these companies and individuals in these companies own and control. So you're going to have to cross-reference and look at several documents to determine whether Shoemake had the right to be installed.

I don't think he was probably self-installed. No, no, no. Shoemake wasn't installed. Shoemake wasn't installed. It was Jacob Waltower took over as chairman of the board when they ousted Willard Jackson. Willard Jackson. Then they discovered this so-called sale

to Robert Shoemake. Right. And it's, again, a whole bunch of stuff going back and forth. In fact— It won't be unraveled anytime soon. No. And they haven't even gotten to court yet. If they can't resolve it, because it's all about money and control, if they can't resolve

it, you can see that they will be in court, possibly federal court, and it'll be up to a judge or mediator, or if there are arbitration rules within those agreements, it'll be up to one to three arbitrators. So the best advice I can give everyone listening right now is stay tuned. Robert, again, when you're dealing with lawyers, you're dealing with money, you're dealing with control, who controls what. And the real deal here is this here. Blueprint doesn't own Ebony. Parkview provided the resources for CVG to acquire Ebony. Blueprint comes in and then takes over the debt of the company. In essence, they are the lien holder. We won't use a particular language there. And so according to this letter here, what Willie Gary is asserting is that even though they are the one who controls the debt, they did not have the authority to

remove the chairman and the CEO of the company. Yeah. And much like I'm going to echo a lot of what Scott said, because it's hard to litigate contract law without the governing documents in front of you. But what I think is going to happen is, as Scott said, is going to end up in mediation or an alternative dispute resolution. Usually what ends up happening is you try to take this litigation all the way through to federal court, as Scott said, and you'll end up with everybody owing more money to the lawyers and to the court system than will ever come out of it. So I do think this is a case that will be ripe for mediation. I'm not going to try to litigate it without the governing documents, but it does sound like it's going to be a mess

and there won't be a resolution for a pretty good period of time thereafter. But remember one thing, the golden rule. And what is the golden rule? He who has the money controls the gold. And if the parent or whoever took over on the finances for Blueprint, right, then they have certain rights you can almost guarantee that come with them taking over Blueprint that puts them in the place of Blueprint. And if Blueprint provided the money and provided board seats with these funds, because whenever you invest, you get certain

board seats because you want a board seat or board seats to control the direction of the company because it's your money, then that's where the fight's going to begin. Well, and by and large, it's here, Dr. Carter, what you're dealing with here, still more drama with Ebony Magazine. They have been embroiled in nothing but drama for the last decade, not paying writers, people complaining they can't find the magazine. Pretty much you have one of the most storied brands in the history of America, but certainly in black America, that right now is in shambles. Well, I mean, it's really unfortunate, Roland.

As you talked about just a moment ago, there have been a series of things that have been happening with this publication. And while these lawyers were talking, all I could think about is what about the people who work here and what chaos must they be experiencing on a day to day basis? And when we think about the freelancers who have been fighting to get paid from this publication, it doesn't look like the Ebony magazine that we have known and that we've come to enjoy over these many, many decades is going to return anytime soon. And it's a really unfortunate moment for this to be happening because there is so much that is going on in the world right now where we really do need these Black media outlets to be a voice and to talk about things that other mainstream publications just don't talk about. And it's unfortunate to see Ebony sort of in this place after such a difficult time, after such a beautiful history.

Absolutely. So, folks, we're going to continue to cover this story, providing you more details as they warrant. Okay, let's now talk about what's happening in politics. We still are dealing with a significant issue with coronavirus around this country. We're now in July. Now folks are asking, are we going to see Congress step forward to provide more relief to workers across this country? States are now going back to shutting down. California has ordered bars and restaurants, no inside dining. The governor of Texas says he may shut the entire state down. After Anthony Fauci, he is saying the reason the previous shutdown did not work because the entire country was not shut down. Joining us right now is Congresswoman Yvette

Clark of New York. Congresswoman, it's very interesting because a lot of people were attacking your governor, Governor Andrew Cuomo, saying New York was doing it wrong. We showed this video yesterday. This is an utterly hilarious video. I'm going to pull up in a second of Fox News just proclaiming how smart and great Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was and Governor Greg Abbott of Texas and how they were just brilliant with their strategy. But the reality is now we're seeing massive increase in cases there. Are we at the point where there has to be a national mandate to wear masks? Are we moving to the point where in order to eradicate coronavirus, you've got to shut the whole country down?

Well, first of all, Roland, you know, without national leadership, we're in a world of trouble. And that's what we're seeing across this nation. It's unfortunate that it got down to the pettiness of bickering between approaches. I think that everyone should have been watching what took place in New York State. We were the epicenter. And what we experienced should have been a lesson to the rest of the nation. People seem to forget that this virus began,

its spread began with one person in Hunan, China. It is now worldwide. And so we have to take this seriously. And unfortunately, with all of the mixed messages that were coming from Donald Trump, his administration, his task force, and the discrediting of the medical professionals, the health care professionals who have been indicating all along what needs to be done to arrest this virus has unfortunately now put us all in jeopardy. So we should be taking lessons from New York here. Mask wearing is ubiquitous. There's still, of course, those who, you know, won't comply. However, that is not the overwhelming majority. We have done a phased in reopening of our city, and we're constantly monitoring the data to get a sense of, you know, how the spread of the virus is moving.

And that's what everyone needs to be doing across this nation right now. Does it call for a national shutdown? It may end up being so, because as long as there is one person who is infected with this virus, everyone else is in jeopardy. Let's talk about the unemployment benefits. You have Republicans who do not want to move forward with that. They contend that people prefer not to work and get a larger check than actually go back to work. White House is vacillating. What is actually going to happen?

Is Congress going to going to come back and actually pass some form of relief for workers? Of course, they've they've they've done two different PPP bills. But what about the unemployment benefits? Because we're still seeing people greatly impacted by businesses, even those that open. There are no customers. Well, the Democrats are definitely pushing for that. You know, we passed the HEROES Act, which would take care of all of the quality of life issues that are confronting our folks right now. We know that evictions are knocking on everyone's doors.

Mortgage foreclosures are knocking on everyone's doors right now. We have asked as a nation for people to stay at home with the exception of our essential workers. And they deserve hazard pay for taking on the additional risk, which is in the HEROES Act, as well as what we believe making the American people whole should look like. And that is extending benefits, unemployment benefits, doing another direct payment to families, making sure that rent and mortgages are paid by the federal government as a way of saying thank you for being compliant with the stay-at-home orders that have been nationwide. There's so much work that needs to be done. But negotiations have already begun. And I knew they would because, unfortunately, we have not learned the lessons of New York.

And so we're seeing states like Florida, Texas, Arizona, Alabama. We can go down the list of states that are, you know, in a world of hurt right now. And it's unfortunate because, again, we should have been doing more in the realm of public health as opposed to the economy in order to get the economy back. We're going to have to extend the lifeline to the American people. There's no doubt about it. Like I said, the negotiations have already begun. And now that the southern states and some of the other states that did not see and understand what this pandemic held for them are facing the same types of distress that we saw here in the Northeast, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut. I think those members of Congress who have been booing the fact that we needed to do another Heroes Act are now far more open to the idea and those conversations taking place.

We have to do it before we go out of recess in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. So those conversations are picking up as we speak. All right, then. Congressman Yvette Clark, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks, we talked about what's happened with COVID-19 and how these people are still stuck on stupid. Folks, Alabama breaks its record for most deaths in a day. The governor of Oklahoma, he has tested positive for the virus. And remember, he was the one last month who tweeted, hey, packed restaurant, y'all coming out. Walmart now says it will now require all customers to wear masks at all times. And y'all love is here. Peter Navarro.

Who handles trade for Donald Trump writes an op ed attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci. Then the White House says that Navarro was acting on his own accord. The L.A. Times, though, is reporting that Donald Trump approved of the attack on Dr. Fauci. As of today, there are 3.48 million confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States. Just a few moments ago, I'm going to try to find, leave that graphic up, folks. Mark Lamont Hill apparently sent out a tweet that said he now has coronavirus. Let me see if I can find that. I was coming in and someone alerted me that here it is right here. Go to my iPad. I've been fighting covid-19 this week. It's been tough, but I'm managing and self-quarantining.

Please wear a mask. Please observe social distancing. Please stop sharing conspiracy theories and bad science. Folks, there are one point three and three people who have recovered. One hundred thirty eight thousand Americans have died from coronavirus. Joining us right now is Dr. Ebony J. Hilton, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Virginia. Doc, glad to have you. Good to see you. It's been a long day.

Yes, I understand. We were chatting and texting last week, and you talked about how in the emergency room, in the ER there at the hospital, it was a Friday night, where y'all just got just deluged with folks. And then I saw somebody tweet you about all of these bars that were open in Charlottesville and how the folks were just packed into these bars and restaurants. Right. I mean, that's across the board. You know, we're seeing more and more people getting infected. We're seeing younger people getting infected. And I think the thing

that we have to realize is that previously we would say, you know, it's elderly people and those with pre-existing conditions. Those are people that need to watch out. But when this virus starts to hit this deep South, what we know is that young people have these pre-existing conditions. Young people have obesity down in the south. Young people have hypertension and diabetes down in the south, pre-diabetics down in the south. You are the persons that we're speaking about. When we talk about people, for instance, in Atlanta, we have a high incidence of asthma related to the traffic and the air pollution and smog and air quality, whatever you want to call it. You have a higher incidence.

And so those persons, if you get coronavirus, your chance of not only having a worse outcome, but literally having death is increased, regardless if you're 20 years old, 30 years old, 40 years old, or 80 years old. Yeah. This is, I mean, what's happening here, what we are seeing, what we're experiencing, again, from Dr. Fauci keeps saying is that people don't want to pay attention. And it's frustrating to medical professionals to have people who just refuse to social distance. And all these people, it's our freedom, it's our right, and not understanding that you're able to track it. I mean, you're able to, they have contact tracing where they say, okay, this explosion, this cluster,

this outburst happened because of this event, this party, and people are just sitting here living in denial because I think a lot of them are thinking like Trump. Oh, this thing's just going to go away. This thing is just going to go away. Right. And it will go away with them being infected at the end of it. And that's the thing.

You know, we're starting to see more and more politicians become positive in states where they were really lax about their preventative measures. And so I'm hoping those states, now that those persons unfortunately have felt what it feels like to have COVID, they will start to try to protect more of their people. But you know how people have a very short memory span.

And what I'm nervous about is that once they get over their COVID experience, that it'll go back to the same political games that got us here in the first place. Well, let's talk about that, because I saw one story where it said that they are discovering in a lot of these folks who have survived coronavirus significant heart issues. Oh, yeah, for sure. And like I said from the very beginning, there's a lot of times that people keep saying, oh, you're only reporting the deaths, but you're not reporting those who've recovered.

And we can talk about the percent that have recovered. Yes, in the United States, we have listed 92% of those who have closed cases now have recovered. But in that recovered group are people that have had massive heart attacks, that have had massive strokes, that have had limb amputations because they had blood clots in their legs or their arms. There are people who are now on permanent dialysis because they have renal failure, permanent use for oxygen because they have scarring of their lungs. So yes, they are recovered, but their life will never be the same. And that's what we have to keep in mind. And that point that you just made right there, I think is critically important because again, when I look at the critics, they keep the critics of the shutdown, they keep saying,

well, you know, this state only has X number of deaths and X number of deaths here, but it's the continuing health issues that people have who have contracted coronavirus. And what we're now seeing, this explosion, after two or three months being told, young people, don't worry about it, y'all good, they're now making up all these coronavirus cases.

Now I'm realizing that was some stupid advice. Right. And like I said, because not every young person is equivalent, right? You have some of your young people who are Olympic athletes, and then you have some of your young people who are not. And I'm going to leave it at that. And the point is, is that our bodies, based on that, behave and will behave differently. And so you can't go based on an age.

You can't say, oh, I'm 32. I should be completely fine. I don't want to have to talk to your parents and tell them that you didn't make it. So do simple things. Wear a mask. Stay home as much as possible. If you are out, stay socially distanced as much as possible. And don't do careless, reckless things. It's not worth your life. It really isn't. We've got questions up

in our panel. We're going to start with Dr. Carter. Oh, thank you. So I was curious, now that we've had all these cases, and you're talking about these lingering effects, is anyone keeping track of what people's post-COVID lives are like? Or are we just tracking the number of infections, the number of people cured and the number of people died?

Right. And that's a very good point because I think it would be fantastic to see and trace, for one, because we're going to have these people potentially on the disability list now, right? And what does that do as far as our economy and really having an employment status? Because I think that could be a potentially large portion of people. Now, we see nationally the federal lead of making a standardized protocol is not happening. Even within states, we see that different hospitals have different strategies of testing and the way they're approaching things. So, yeah, it needs to be. But is it in place right now?

No. What we currently know is that still not all states are even reporting common simple things like race and ethnicity. In fact, in Texas right now, only 9% of the cases have a race or ethnicity tied to it, 9%. And they're in a major hotspot right now. So yeah, that type of data, I think it's going to lag for quite some time, unfortunately. Scott. Hey, Dr. Hilton, Scott Bolden here. The complexity of this disease that I've read about is enormous. It's more than just a respiratory disease. I've read where it can trick your immune system into attacking your body and your organs. We see where we have heart failure. We have people and their limbs are being affected by this, whether they survived or not. Does the complexity of this disease mean that we're further or closer to developing a vaccine, or does it make it more difficult to develop a vaccine sooner than later?

Right. So very interesting point. For one, we know that there's been studies now looking at for known positive patients. Let's look at their blood to see if they're producing antibodies for one. And then for how long are these antibodies, these neutralizing antibodies actually within the person's blood system? And what we're seeing is that for a good majority of the patients, antibodies, the neutralizing antibodies that you need to really rid your body of the virus is only present up to six to eight weeks. Wow. That's less than ideal. So what does that mean in terms of vaccination? What we know is that Moderna, and I'm sure you guys have been following this, they just released their phase two results. They tested 45 people with a vaccine, and they had minimal side effects, which is fantastic. But we got to go through phase three, of which most of the programs,

about a third of the programs that do these vaccine trials end up failing. So we'll see. But what they said was that they did see that people were starting to produce the antibodies. How long the antibodies are going to last for and for this person to be, to have some form of immunity long lasting is unknown at this point. And also what they recognize is that you have to have two doses of the vaccine to mount that level of response. So, Rowan, let me ask you, real quick follow-up is this, because on the street and with my buddies,

we all say when they get a vaccine, Dr. Hilton, we don't want to be the first or we shouldn't be the first to take the vaccine. True or false? You know, I hear people say that all the time. That's for my Morehouse buddies out there. And I do. I completely understand why there is a fear of unknown. I mean, we all have that.

Now, it is one of these circumstances where you hear a lot of, you know, stories of, oh, they're giving you the virus. That's not what this is. And particularly with Moderna, they're literally giving you a piece of it. It's an mRNA virus. So they're giving you a piece of that for the vaccine. In this circumstance of where we don't have really good treatments of if you do get coronavirus, how to win that battle for you, then your best bet is to try to have something that can produce some antibodies to rid your body of this virus as soon as possible before that cytokine storm. So you asked earlier about how it turns, how the virus causes you to turn on yourself.

And what it causes is an intense inflammatory response. And that inflammatory response that's causing, instead of just the lungs to be involved, the lungs, the heart, the kidneys, everything, because of the way that it impairs your overall blood flow to those states. So because of that, for me and mine and my family, what we will be doing is as soon as there is a vaccine in place, particularly health care, we have to do those anyway. We have to get a flu vaccine every year. As far as our standard protocols, we will be getting one. Yeah, because we want to live.

And it really is kind of that simple. People are dying. We will be by 140,000 dead people in the United States within either tonight or tomorrow morning. I have zero doubt on that. Robert Petillo. You mentioned the cytokine storm. And part of the therapeutics are things such as Redesivir, which is supposed to prevent the inflammatory response. And there's been research done from the SARS virus in 2002, even MERS in 2015, regarding the effects of the anti-malarial. And that's kind of what Trump

got really intense about with hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine. What other potential therapeutics are there that may be able to help reduce the most severe reactions to this virus? Right. So fantastic question. So as far as agents from Desivir is what we're using actually at my hospital here. And what it does is it inhibits the RNA-dependent polymerase. So basically the way that the virus kind of copies itself, right? And then the other agents that we're using is dexamethasone. So it's a steroid. And that steroid is supposed to help stop and slow down that intense inflammatory response that we're seeing that, again, impairs the heart, the lungs, the kidneys. Those are the two agents that have been shown to be the most promising.

And it's all we got right now. So I'm hoping that it will be effective for the majority of people. But it really is one of those things that is so early on. For one, we're seeing more and more children being impacted by this for two. For instance, in South Carolina, we've now lost two young children within the last week. That's my hometown. So, yeah, in Florida, 7,000 children testing positive. What do we do with that? Because again, when we're comparing our population to the population of China and Japan, we have different health issues over in the United States at baseline. We know hypertension, diabetes, obesity,

it lives in our country, where it's not as prevalent in other countries. So we can't look at their outcomes and think we're going to be the same. We have a hill to climb. And yeah, and I'm hoping we can just stay off of the hill altogether. Got to ask you this question.

We now have the Donald Trump administration now saying bypass the CDC. These hospitals, when they come to sending data, is that a recipe for disaster? You know, that's a rhetorical question. You know what? I've said from day one with him, pray for him. The works of this pandemic, there's been this tug of war between economy and biology. And from day one, I've said biology will always win. It does not care what the stock market is looking like. It does not care what your bank account looks like. It does not care if you're employed or unemployed, Republican, Democrat, it does not

care. And playing these games is what has led us here in the first place. So it's going to come down, unfortunately, for states to start saying, we're going to take our own lead and initiative with this. But unfortunately, like we know, most of the South, we know which way it leans. And we are now starting to see that more and more. Those states that have certain leadership in place are having skyrocketing cases, like in Florida, where we have an increase of 1,300 percent in their positive cases, 1,300 since reopening. And they are daily having 10,000, 11,000 new cases a day. So this is, this is not good. Um, especially in a retirement state, we know that there's a elderly population in those areas and many, many people have the potential to die. Well, you talked about those

state measures, uh, Virginia governor Ralph Northam tweeted this today, breaking in the absence of federal action, Virginia has just become the first state in the nation to adopt enforceable workplace safety standards for COVID-19. Workers should not have to sacrifice their health and safety to earn a living, especially not during a pandemic. The fact that we have not had those here we are in July. That, again, speaks to why this continues to be a problem. People open up and then all of a sudden folks go back into the workplace and you don't have enforceable standards to protect folks. I mean, one of the things that we've done, one of the things that we've done, we practice social distancing here where we, you know, a worker in this room, worker in this room, we actually changed our control room, moved desk much further apart. We wipe everything down.

We spray folks in the control room, wear a mask. I don't wear a mask when I'm doing the show, but I'm the only person out here. And then, and so how we keep, but again, you have to, you gotta have some damn leadership from the top. That's the fundamental problem.

Right. And also, I think we're doing the nation a complete disservice because there hasn't been a clear message to employers even to say, this is how you can structure your small business in a really clear and concise, consistent manner. You know, these are some options for you. And regardless if you're in Virginia or you're in Texas, those options are the same. The virus is the same in every state. So we need to be clear. I think the medical community is trying to be. And that's why with Trump, you know, trying to belittle and dismiss Dr. Fauci, who at this point has been the most vocal and the most trusted medical leader in our nation,

that is negligent in that it starts to make people doubt the process that can literally keep them alive. And that has to stop. All right. Dr. Emily J. Hilton, go get some sleep. I know. I'm tired. Always glad to have you here.

We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Y'all have you here. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Have a good one. All right. Thanks a lot. Again, bottom line, Robert, there's no leadership. You don't have leadership at the top. I mean, Donald Trump does not give a damn.

The fact that the White House is literally attacking your top expert. Really? That's your enemy. Fauci's now the enemy. What are we, in grade school? We're in grade school now. Well, Roland, this is what happens when you see Joe Biden opening up a 15-point lead nationwide.

Donald Trump really believes that his only shot at winning is for people to just ignore the virus, to pretend that none of this is happening. He even is retweeting Chuck Woolery. So you have a game show host who was president retweeting another game show host to discredit the leading epidemiologist in the world saying that everybody is lying to you. So we've entered the twilight zone phase of this pandemic and the leadership has to come from the state and local level. Even red state governors like Kemp in Georgia, DeSantis in Florida, Abbott in Texas are learning that you cannot just BS your way out of the situation, that the virus is real.

And now they're taking those ambulatory efforts to help fix it. It is stunning to me, Scott, to watch them. Peter Navarro, the trade dude, attacks the doctor. If you need any better example of how this administration hates science, this is it. Yeah, you're absolutely right about it. The other thing that's really dumb about all of this is that we've given millions, billions away to help people and businesses get through this pandemic, right? And then you turn around, know that you're not going to, you haven't, you don't have a vaccine, you know that your numbers are going down, and then you jump the gun. The Republicans jumped the gun in these are going down, and then you jump the gun, the Republicans jump the gun in these various red states, and the president says, go back to work,

put your children in school, and then you see where the numbers are going up because the beaches are open and the bars are open because leadership, however you define it, is telling people, the American people, that it's safe to go in the water and the bars. And guess what? Now the numbers are going up. Nobody's surprised at that. And now they don't want to give any more money to the American people and the American business community because they either don't have it or they believe that it's too rich and enduring. Yet at the same time, you're driving this narrative that you don't care, you don't believe in the pandemic. And so you're causing us to lose money.

All of the government funding that they've put out has been a wash and a waste because the pandemic is back. It's like 1A or reset. And by the way, we haven't even gotten to part two of the pandemic in the fall and winter, which they have anticipated and predicted. And so just really dumb, you know, and they're deaf because they don't listen. They're dumb because they don't comprehend. And it's devastating because 135,000 people have died, right? This is the best argument for Biden or new leadership come November. If you need more than what I just gave you,

then you've been walking around with your head in a bag or your head in a hole. Dr. Carter. I mean, I think there's nothing more to say here besides the fact that we know this is what Donald Trump does. Whenever he's losing, whenever he feels like someone is not on board with him or his bad ideas, he tries to discredit. He tries to manipulate the public into thinking that all of the institutions that are here to work for you,

if it's not the CDC, it's the CIA or some other organization, they're all here to hurt you. And I'm the only person with the absolute truth. And I think it's unfortunate that you have real professionals who actually care about the public health having to work with an administration like this one. And I think what we're going to see is this sort of anti-science drum that Republicans have really been beating for over 20 years now is going to bite us in the in the butt one more time because as Scott rightly points out we have more people dead that can fit in FedEx field right now and that fits 85,000 people and that happens because you have people who are more concerned about poll numbers more concerned about businesses than they are about people. And the virus doesn't care about any of that.

Right along there with them. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right, folks, the attorneys representing the family of George Floyd filed a civil lawsuit against Minneapolis and the four police officers who were charged in his death. The lawsuit does not give a specific dollar amount, but sees compensatory, special and punitive damages, attorney's fees and the appointment of a receiver or similar authority to ensure Minneapolis properly trains its police officers. Now, we talk about what's happening with police all around the country. So much attention is being focused on them. In fact, the New York Times has a news story out detailing what took place there, where they have 60 video examples of cops attacking people, attacking protesters. Police say they use proper restraint. The Times reporting

says, not the case. We also are seeing examples where the St. Louis police chief, for instance, he talked about how morale is so low and how this is the worst that he's seen in his 33 years. We also see folks' retirements in New York City up 400 percent. People are saying the police are under siege. But the reality is that what you're seeing is a general public who says we've been sick and tired of being sick and tired. Imagine though being black and you're putting on the blue. Joining us right now is the chief police chief of Durham, North Carolina and the president of a national organization of black law enforcement executives, CJ Davis. Glad to have you back on Rolling Mark Unfiltered. Thank you, Roland. Thank you very much. So, so chief, so chief, when you hear all of these complaints, when you hear the officers in Atlanta who got upset because several were fired because of their actions saying, oh, this is political. And then when you see folks saying, see what happens?

Crime is spiking all across the country. But then we're hearing about slowdowns as well. I mean, this is one of those things I keep saying, I keep calling this a reckoning. We're operating now in a reckoning where police are going to have to do something about what's happening inside of these departments because the public has said enough is enough. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I agree. I totally agree. And believe it or not, a lot of my colleagues, you know, around the country agree that change has to come from within. It absolutely does. where we can have this honest conversation with the industry at large about what change looks like. Because in organizations throughout my career, I know there have been problems. You know, I tell people all the time, I don't wake up in the morning with this uniform on. I wake up in the morning as an African-American female, a member of my community, one who has always been very connected to my community

and understands what that cry for change is really all about. And working on the inside of a department, especially as an African-American female that's been in this work for 34 years, to experience discrimination or disparate treatment, not just only as an African-American female, but also as African-American, but as a female as well. So we know that if there are problems on the inside of organizations, there's absolutely problems on the outside of the organization in the community. And we have made great strides over the years. However, there's still much work to be done because every police department doesn't have an African-American police chief that's connected to the community.

But, you know, in defense of some of my other colleagues, my white colleagues, there are many that are embracing this moment as well. And their voice is more influential than even African-American chiefs' voices. So I'm glad to see that. And we're celebrating in that because that's the conversation that has needed to be had over the years. So this is a very pivotal time, Roland. And look, Noble has been trying to raise these issues for years. And let's just let's just be honest. White cops have ignored what black cops have been saying for a number of years. And this is one of those things that when you talk about it, see, one of the things that people say all the time, they say, well, they said it's always also it's not always a white and black thing, because then you also have some black cops who are more blue than they are black. What this is, this is, and this is just what I believe. I just think what you have here is you have a mindset in law enforcement. How dare any of you challenge us?

And I believe that that mindset is there. When you think of 18,000 police agencies around the country. And when you think in terms of police agencies being able to operate pretty much in a silo, to be able to pick and choose which policies are best for their organizations. And if there is no opposition from the community or no voice from the community about what policing should look like in the community you know police departments have a tendency to think they're doing everything right and you know the badge has always been sort of a noble profession if you will and individuals who have been sworn to serve feel that when they get up and put that uniform on every day, that they are legitimate. But as we know in the

President Obama's 21st century police and document, the number one pillar that police agencies need to address is trust and legitimacy, because that's where we've gone off the track and gone in the wrong direction, because legitimacy should be determined by those individuals who are actually receiving the services from police departments, and that's the community at large. Questions. So let's start with Robert Portillo. Robert? One of the issues I think that people see is we always hear this mantra, there's always one bad apple, but we don't hear the rest where they say one bad apple spoils the bunch. How can we get police officers to view requests for better policing, not to be wholesale attacks

on policing in general? Because all the community is saying is no one is saying we don't want any police. We don't want any bad police. How can we get that message across to law enforcement? Well, and I think it takes people like myself and other leaders that understand the one bad apple concept, number one, and to admit that you have more than one bad apple sometimes. And in our industry, and I heard it said quite poignantly by Chris Rock, believe it or not, that some career fields can't afford to have one bad apple. And law enforcement is one of them. And we should be doing everything in our power to ensure that we have the absolute best in our organizations and not tolerate

those individuals that would breach the trust of the community. So, you know, that whole one bad apple concept, I talk to my officers about it all the time and I tell them, I don't want a bad apple. If one's here, I want to extract them and send them on his way because the consequences of a bad apple are too grave, you know, in this industry. Dr. Carter. Thank you, Roland. diversity in police departments have led to or lessened the number of these sort of incidents of death by police, quite frankly, in Black communities? Well, I think because the diversity has to be at all levels of the department. And just because we have more diverse departments as it relates to officers on the street,

the philosophy of the department and the values and the mission of the department has to be set, that tone has to be set by the leader of the department. And it requires not just to have African-American chiefs or minority chiefs in place, it also requires that other individuals in the organization in leadership positions are also representative of the communities that they serve. And as I said before, it is an anomaly with 18,000 agencies around the country. When you think of the number of minorities that are actually leading police agencies, some of our major cities are, but you have a number of smaller agencies or mid-sized agencies that are

not near as diverse, don't have any women. Some police agencies are still hiring their first African-American and still hiring their first female. So some of what Noble is advocating for is national best standards that force the hand of law enforcement professionals that are leading these agencies to ensure that those agencies are diverse, to ensure that policies, national best standards, accredited standards are rolled out in all police agencies, as opposed to just allowing departments to use policies and procedures like a smorgasbord, picking and choosing what you feel is best for your department. And if there aren't

any standards and expectations that are set at a higher level, we will continue to see unfortunate travesties as George Floyd. Scott. Thank you, Chief, for being here. I'm A. Scott Bolden. I'm a criminal defense lawyer and I'm a former prosecutor, and I've been abused by the police over my 58 years of living. My question for you is that in my years as a prosecutor, very oftentimes the mentality has been an us versus them mentality in the prosecutor's office, in the criminal complaint room when police officers would come in, they referred to the public or those who have been arrested as mopes or dogs or perps and what have you. It's not surprising to me that when they're on the street and they're fighting, quote, the bad guys and they're peace officers versus police officers,

that you have this trust and legitimacy issue that you raised from that report. How do you as a leader and any police leader or any police department, 18,000 in all, rid ourselves of this us versus them mentality? Because we are members of the public that they're engaged with, and I understand you got bad guys. Bad guys are rough,

and sometimes you got to get rough with them. I got that, right? At the same time, though, the mentality kind of how they matriculate is us versus them. This insular defense called the I call it the thick blue line. Can you comment on that and and discuss how we read that us versus them mentality from our departments? Yes. And, you know, that's a mentality that has been sort of ingrained in police departments over the years. Yeah. That that, you know, those individuals that go to jail, that's the the the miscreant in the community. That's the individual that is lower than I am. And it's in and it's no different than how my my officers in the past. I've had to have conversations with them about the whole recruiting process.

How do you treat an African-American person who is coming here to be a police officer, and you treat them as if they're one of the criminals out on the street, as opposed to giving them the opportunity to have a life-changing experience. So there is this bias that does exist in law enforcement agencies. And as it was said before, and I can't remember if it was rolling or not, but that exists even with our African-American officers from time to time. So how I deal with it is I try to let them see me not as the police chief, but as the black female that's not paranoid about how I feel when I go into a retail store and I get followed around, okay, when I'm out of this uniform. And how I'm treated, even if I get pulled over in another jurisdiction where they don't recognize me as the chief of police. And sometimes, quite frankly, I don't let them know that I'm a chief of police because I'm afraid of what could potentially happen.

So, you know, I have to be honest in this space. This is a pivotal time in our history. And until we have more leaders that are in positions, because this is just a snapshot, that will be honest enough to talk about the realities and the truth and work towards what change looks like. And I mean, meaningful change, not change just to say we check the box, we do implicit bias, we do de-escalation now. We have community meetings and warm and fuzzy kinds of hugs and things. What does meaningful change look like in this industry?

And it's gonna take a very surgical look and it has to come from a much higher level than just communicating through opportunities opportunities through the media. It has to come from a federal source. It has to be forced upon agencies around the country. Just being humanly decent. How hard is it to be humanly decent to another human being? Well, Chief, I'll give you an example. And we have this. This has been circulating. This actually happened last year. Virginia State Trooper Charles Hewitt actually

has been characterized as terrorizing this brother named Derek Thompson. So what happened was Thompson gets stopped for a minor traffic violation. Now, one of the officers said, hey, I think there are drugs in the car. And they wanted to search.

Thompson had his camera rolling. This is what transpired. You can't do that, sir. This officer is trying to unlock my car. This officer is unlocking my car. They just illegally entered my car.

And I'm being forcefully removed. Take a look at me. I'm a fucking specimen right here, buddy. Sir, I'm in no... You have gotten to my last... My hands are up on camera. All right. I'm in no threat to these officers. You're going to get your ass whooped in front of fucking Lord and all creation.

I'm going to give you one more chance. I'm being threatened. You can bring that with you. All that you film, the whole thing. I'm being threatened. No, I'm giving you a chance. I am not doing anything. I'm giving you a chance.

I feel unsafe and I'm in no right now. I'm not doing anything. I feel unsafe. I feel unsafe. And I'm in no threat to these three officers. My hands are up. I am doing nothing wrong to provoke anybody or anything. Making sure this is all recorded. I've just been threatened by a lawful officer. I have just been threatened by a law officer as two other officers stand by and say absolutely nothing. I'm willing to participate. My passenger door was open. My driver door was open. I have it on camera.

He rolled my window down to do so. I'm giving you to the count of three. Sir, I'm still, this is all on camera. I am not resisting. I'm making sure it is being known. I am not resisting. Okay. My hands are up.

One hand on this camera. My seatbelt is being arrested. As long as your hands are up, that's fine. I'm not resisting. As, my hands are up one hand on this camera Being arrested as long as I'm not resisting Please do not touch me sir. Keep your phone out sir. Please do not touch me. See that's what we're coming to a disagreement Sir do it. I'm not touching this officer. It's on camera. My hand is by my car right now. Now you're under arrest. Now you're under arrest for disobeying the lawful plans of an officer. I'm giving you to the count of three. This officer has threatened me and I'm making it known I am no threat to this officer.

I've been threatened. Watch the show. My life is in danger. My life is in danger. How do you like that? How do you like that? is in danger you are harming. You are harming me. You are harming me. You are harming me, sir. You are harming me. Now, a letter was sent to the Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring about what they, his attorney's call unconstitutional police violence. This is what they said.

Go ahead and show the graphic, please, of the letter. It says they described what took place. They said the office of troopers conducted an illegal search of the vehicle. And then they said on April 29th, Virginia State Troopers stopped Mr. Thompson's vehicle. The trooper alleged Mr. Thompson's inspection sticker was expired and that she detected an odor of marijuana. She announced her intent to search his vehicle. Mr. Thompson did not consent to the search and the trooper returned to her patrol vehicle to call for backup. Fearful of police violence and alone in his vehicle,

Mr. Thompson placed his cell phone on his dashboard to film the interaction. And then it goes on and on in the letter here. So, Chief, there's several things. Scott says you have to comply when a police officer gives you a lawful command. But this is also, to me, one of those examples where if you're a police officer, I mean, that video was about a two and a half minute video. This is where, I'm sorry, if you're a police officer, you want to avoid having to go there. Now, what I found to be interesting, this officer is in his face. The other two officers are quiet, saying nothing. You don't have anyone to me de-escalating the situation

to try to sit here and work it out. Just your thoughts on just what you saw there. Well, you know, I don't know what led up to it. And at the point that you showed the video, it doesn't matter what led up to it. There were several violations of what I would consider my policies and some of the policies that we are trying to push through our Congress to ensure that all departments comply with the duty to intervene. When you see another officer doing something wrong, the duty to stop it and intervene. That individual, whether he was about to be arrested for something that occurred prior to these officers getting there, just the behavior, just the actual, you know, manner in which the officer is communicating is so condescending. And it's amazing to me that the driver managed to still keep his cool, even though he may it was almost as if the officer was um glad to be on the camera

like you can't do anything to me like i'm untouchable and he then actually said okay y'all ready to see a show here comes the show that's again that's that's one of those things and look i look i i think back to the Sandra Bland case. I think back to that. She was, the officer followed her. And she's thinking the cop is trying to come by, so she just gets over. Then he pulls her over for not signaling. And then he's talking to her, and she's smoking.

And then he's like, is something wrong with you? Are you agitated? Are you fine? And the way he's talking to her, and then he tells her, is something wrong with you? Are you agitated? Are you fine? And the way he's talking to her, and then he tells her to put the cigarette out, which is there's no law that says you can't smoke in your own car. And then when she said, why? I'm not breaking any law.

Then when he said, ma'am, get out of the car, and she said no. And that was the trigger where he said, you disobeyed an officer's command. Boom, I can now arrest you. And that's the trigger where he said, you disobeyed an officer's command. Boom. I can now arrest you. And that's the problem with these officers when they know the law. I hear you, Scott. But that's not the law, though. Well, all depends on what state. Well, that's true, too. Well, in Texas. No, no, no. In Texas. No, no. In Texas. In Texas. If an officer tells you get out of the car, you have to comply. But in the case of

Sandra Bland, chief, he knew what he was doing. He pushed the button and he waited. And that's when he said, that's it. And begin to pull on the door and snatch you out of the car. Well, here's, here's the problem because for whatever reason, training police officers around the country, and that's probably too broad of a brush, is that you may have to comply with a police order, but nowhere in a training manual does it say that you can use deadly force or unreasonable force to get compliance from that individual. The video you just showed, the video, the guy, the individual was not leaving the car. They were relatively calm, although they were inappropriate, as the chief said, and they were relishing this, but he wasn't moving from the car. They smelled marijuana. They asked him to get out of the car.

They allegedly smelled marijuana. Allegedly, okay. But listen, you got to go. That's the fact. You're dealt. He would not move. He was videotaping. Got no problem with that. But when they asked him to step out of the car, even if they're going to do an illegal search as a survival technique for him as a human being and legally probably in that state. Right. He's got to comply with that order. But he can fight later. Right. But here's the issue for me, Chief. The issue is how the police officer conducts him or herself.

And I think, again, watching that video, the other two officers, when they saw that their fellow officer, that trooper, was that agitated, somebody should have said, let me step in. I agree. Let me talk to them. Hold on, hold on one second. Chief, go ahead. How do you get him out of the car?

Chief, go ahead. Chief, go ahead. I know. I know. Both of you are right, believe it or not. And that's not just to pacify you. Both of you are right, because the officer was 100 percent wrong in his approach and how he communicated. And one of the trainings that Noble has is that we have a course called The Law in Your Community. And it teaches not just drivers and young people about how to have safe encounters with the police. It also teaches officers of what is appropriate and how to best get compliance without it escalating to another level. And that means

when other officers come on the scene to not be silent, to help get him out the way and somebody else try a different technique as opposed to, okay, you're not doing what I tell you to do. We're just going to drag you out the car. Sometimes it takes a totally different individual to have that, that, that communication with, with, with the person. Cause sometimes people just want respect. And that's the thing. That's the thing for me that when we talk about how officers respond to citizens, that is what needs to be dealt with. But you can't use deadly force. No, no, no, no, no, no, listen, but it can't.

By the police, you can't use deadly force. No, no, no, but just remove deadly force. The point I'm trying to make here, Chief, is that you have to, again, I keep using the phrase de-escalate. We showed a video the other day that happened in Houston, where they arrested his brother. And they were like, get your knee off his neck. It wasn't on

his neck. It was on his back. And at one point, one of the officers says, do y'all want to help us? First, they went, hell no! But then one of them went, yeah. So they stepped in and they said bro they said brother calm brother brother don't fight don't resist just put your hand behind your back we're here for you

we're recording we're watching the whole deal and guess this is exactly what happened it all went here and guess what the brother calmed down he was handcuffeduffed. He was taken in. But it was de-escalate. What I the problem I have, the video is the officer got so agitated. It was like, you want to show I'm going to give you a show. And that's why he immediately put the arm around his neck to drag him out of the car. Yeah. And now you create a problem. Final comment. Go ahead. Yeah. I was just going to say, I think it moved away from the issue at hand and turned into this tug of war between the driver and that one particular officer. Right. But, you know, and what we do try to ensure that drivers know is that this is the way you properly complain on an officer.

I tell people all the time, if you've got a problem with one of my officers, I want to know about it. Comply and complain later. Don't try to have that battle in the middle of the street with an officer, because even if he's wrong, sometimes officers' authority in their positions, especially if you've got a rogue officer, he can turn that situation into one that could really spin quickly out of control. So the safety of our citizens is really important to us in how we train on our Law in Your Community program. All right, then. Chief Davis, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. And thanks for all the great work.

Thank you. All right, folks, got to go to a break. We come back. We're going to talk about taking down a statue that's actually on a grave site of a huge slavery supporter. That's going to be quite interesting. Also, we'll talk about black employees of the CDC saying we are facing discrimination. And in Asheville, the city council votes to give reparations to its black residents, not money. We'll see exactly what they're votes to give reparations to its black residents, not money, but we'll tell you exactly what they're going to give. And you know how we cover all of these videos, these viral

videos targeting Donald Trump. Oh yeah, we got a few good ones. All of that next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Now the virus that we're talking about having to do, you know, a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat. You know, I'm very well under control in our country. The people are getting better. They're all getting better. We've done really an extraordinary job.

We're going down, not up. We're going very substantially down, not up. And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've to be down to close to zero. That's a pretty good job we've done. It's going to disappear.

One day, it's like a miracle. It will disappear. I've got about 22 people right now in this whole very vast country. We've done a great job. We're doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm.

We're doing great. We have tremendous numbers of cases. Because of all we've done, the risk to the American people remains very low. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your response to this crisis? I'd rate it a 10. A lot of really creepy statements, actions for sure, but statements that he's made in the past that make me very uncomfortable, certainly as a mother, but as a person who breathes air. You're going up the escalator? I'm going to be dating her in 10 years.

Really creepy statements. If Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her. Stop it. Oh, it's so weird. Stop it. You know what, you are sick. It makes me very uncomfortable that he would look at certain other Americans the way he apparently has in the past. What does Tiffany have with Marlon? She's got Marlon's legs. She's got this part. What's the favorite thing you have in common with your father? Either real estate or golf. Donald with your daughter? Well, I was going to say sex, but I can't relate to that. He's definitely not a typical father.

Creepy, creepy, creepy, creepy, creepy, creepy. As the sun rose over Afghanistan this morning, 8,600 American troops started their day knowing Russia has bounties on their heads, paying Taliban militants to murder our troops and the heartbreaking truth that their commander-in-chief deserted them, that he ignored the intelligence report

dropped on his desk in February, too lazy to read it himself. And now, since the report was read out loud to him in June, days have passed, weeks have gone by, still no action, not a call to his Russian master to stand down, not a call to console the families left behind. When the sun sets over our troops in Afghanistan tonight, how many more bounties will Russia have paid out? Our troops deserve a whole lot better than a traitor like Trump.

Without liberty of the press, there is no representative democracy, nor individual liberty, nor social justice. Only darkness, impunity, abuse, mediocrity, and repression. When you look at history, the first thing that dictators do is shut down the press.

That is why our press was protected by the first amendment. The free press is the despot's enemy, which makes the free press the guardian of democracy. This fake news charge that is now picked up by authoritarians locally, they're now using fake news as justification for jailing journalists. 262 jailed just this past year. That's a record. A few days ago, I called the fake news the enemy of the people, and they are. They are the enemy of the people. Stick with us. Don't believe the crap you see from these people. The fake news. Fake news. You are the enemy of the people. Go ahead. Fake, disgusting news.

And the fake news. A lot of bad people out of fake media. Look at them. Does everybody like the press? No. Fake news. Do you think the media is fair? No.

Horrible, horrendous people. And just remember, what you're seeing and what you're reading is not the truth. It's the truth. It's the truth. It's the truth. It's the truth. It's the truth. It's the truth.

It's the truth. It's the truth. It's the truth. It's the truth. It's the truth. It's the truth. It's the truth. people. And just remember what you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening. Saudi Arabia provided al Qaeda with support, financing and resources that were critical to the success of the September 11th attacks. The Saudi government using school books that teach Arab children to hate Jews and to hate Christians. Intelligence agencies have confirmed Saudi Arabia's crown prince personally ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't.

The Trump administration informed Congress that the president will invoke emergency authority regarding arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Both sides of the aisle are criticizing the Trump administration's latest arms deal with Saudi Arabia, accusing the administration of bypassing Congress. The biggest concern, Saudi Arabia's human rights record, their involvement in the conflict in Yemen. The Saudi-led coalition has been accused of indiscriminate civilian casualties. The worst humanitarian crisis in the world right now. Children are literally starving in the street. How exactly does the country and its government

get to ignore this? And what is the nature of America's relationship with Saudi Arabia? Donald Trump has more involvement and is more enmeshed with the Saudis than any president in American history. I like the Saudis. They're very nice. I make a lot of money with them. They buy all sorts of my stuff, all kinds of toys from Trump. They pay me millions and hundreds of millions. Saudi Arabia, and I get along great with all of them. They buy apartments for me, they spend $40 million, $50 million. We've become very good friends.

We are with Saudi Arabia, and we're staying with Saudi Arabia. We're staying with Saudi Arabia. And by the way, just so everybody, I have no business whatsoever with Saudi Arabia. Couldn't care less. All right, Dr. Cotter, I'm going to start with you. You look at current polling. I mean, Trump is fading. I still tell people ignore all polls, ignore what they're saying. But the bottom line is this here. This is a nation that is tired of his nonsense, his lying and his BS. And I run Brownstein had a story today showing Joe Biden plus thirty three with college educated white folks. Yeah. I mean, look, you can't have a recession and a global pandemic and everything else is going on in this country right now and expect to win in November. But we know stranger things have happened. I think we should all be careful

not to count our chickens before the eggs hatch. But I think it's, you know, it's one of those things that, I mean, it's one of those things that, I mean, it shouldn't have taken all of this for people to see how disastrous this presidency has been. I mean, Donald Trump has done so much that was bad over his presidency that it is this one moment that sort of undone all the many wrongs, like the children being held in cages at the border and all of these other, you know, the revocation of TPS, a temporary protective status for Haitians and others. I mean, like, Donald Trump has done one dastardly thing after another.

I mean, having Stephen Miller in your inner circle alone should disqualify you, I think, from being the president of this country. So it's no surprise why he's here. I think it's surprising that he has any support at all. I think that should be the part that surprises us more than anything. What I love about these viral ads, Robert, is that they didn't let him talk. Everybody keeps saying that Joe Biden needs to come out of his bunker. No. If I'm Biden, this is me.

Nope, I'm good. Let that fool keep talking. That news conference yesterday was a joke. Bizarre. It was horrific. But let's understand, the people who are Trumpers care nothing about any of that. They know all that, and it's yes and. So that's why I think Joe Biden does have to come out of the bunker, as he did earlier this week, releasing his climate change plan,

releasing his, articulating his plan for the African-American community, because what's going to have to happen is we are in a country that's going to have 50 million people unemployed, 150 to 200,000 people dead, four to five million people infected with a disease, that is not great for voter turnout. And low voter turnout, it always benefits the Republican who's running. So Democrats are going to have to have the duty of pushing up turnout, encouraging people that there is actually hope at the end of the tunnel, articulating what their message is and how they will fix the solutions solutions and getting people to the polls.

You can't simply just depend on winning by default that Trump will beat himself. You're going to get those people out there and get them voting. But here's what we're seeing, Scott. I saw the story just the other day and I'm trying to find it, where Republicans are now upset because they historically had a huge advantage when it came to absentee voting. Donald Trump has trashed mail-in voting so much that it's turned Republicans off. Right now in Florida, the Democrats have a 300,000 person advantage with mail-in voting. And so, and even like last night, we saw in Texas, in fact, let me try to find the tweet just to understand what's going on.

And I totally get your point. But but but that was a runoff last night in Texas. And understand the this level of intensity that exists from Democrats. And we have seen this in a number of other races. We are seeing the massive amount of turnout. Dave Weigel had posted a tweet. I'm trying to find it yesterday. And he was showing the turnout in Texas. And he pointed out that state Senator Royce West of Texas, who lost last night in the runoff by around 40,000 votes, he showed that Royce West got more votes than the two Democrats who ran for governor in 2016, and he lost. Scott, the Democratic enthusiasm is there, but again, Biden is playing this thing smart by, if there's a train wreck, you don't step in yourself.

You don't get involved. You avoid it. That's right. You don't get involved. Listen, a highly motivated electorate that gets motivated every day by Donald Trump and the GOP is not something you want to get in the way of if your name is Joe Biden and you're the Democratic nominee. Donald Trump doesn't have anything left to run on. He cannot win Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. At least it doesn't look like it. He does not have the economy.

The taxes cuts won't work. He can't give any more money away. We have high unemployment, and he drives the pandemic with his 70 days of sitting on it because he doesn't believe in science. What is the reason, other than I like Donald Trump in that 40 percent, to vote for Donald Trump? It can't grow. And so, sure, the Democrats have to get their message out. They've got to stand up and say what they support and what they believe in.

And they've got to get people to the polls. Yeah. But this is not the America that independents and Democrats and moderate Republicans want. Here's what you're seeing. Here's a tweet here. This is what Dave Weigel tweeted last night. Turn, let's see, sorry. Turnout in recent, turnout in recent Texas Democratic runoffs, 2012, 236,305, 2014, 200,992, 2018, 432,000, 2020,

955,000. It's doubling. So what is that? So you're absolutely right. First of all, no poll has ever elected anyone. And I can tell you, everybody, ignore the polls. But from a strategy standpoint, if you're Biden, you don't actually waste opportunities, Robert, in July. Let's just be honest. This thing is going to take off September 1st.

OK, so take us to September 1st. Now the question then becomes, if you're Joe Biden, what's your strategy? What are you doing when it comes to your your rallies or events or whatever? What's going to be your strategy over a period of some 60 odd days? Because if the coronavirus things numbers continue the way they are, bottom line is you're not trying to go out there. And Trump is going crazy because for him, he desperately needs those rallies. He feeds off of them. And now the media has not looked, they're not going to cover that news conference yesterday like they normally would, because the moment he

launches into attacks under an official White House event, cameras are going to turn away. And you're completely correct. And that's why I think the Biden strategy has to be not so much to attack Trump. Trump is attacking Trump. Trump is in a one-on-one primary with Donald Trump right now that he's losing somehow to Donald Trump. And what I, but I do believe that Joe Biden has to look at some of these poll numbers, particularly with African American men, where you're still seeing between 15 and 25% of African American men in swing states that are supporting Trump, where you're seeing an enthusiasm gap with African-American men, a lack of policy solutions specifically dedicated and directed at African-American men.

I think if you do not focus in on that, you're going to get down to places like Milwaukee, places like Detroit, Philadelphia. You're going to see depressed black male turnout. And that can be enough to switch a blue state to red, particularly with voter suppression. But here's the deal. And with the electoral schemes that are always going to be in place. But here's the deal.

I agree with what you're saying, but the difference here, Dr. Carter. To win a blue state? Hold on one second. Here's the difference, Dr. Carter, when you look at the numbers. Trump's numbers among white college voters are tumbling. He only won by 78,000 votes in 2016. He cannot afford to lose five to 10 percent of white educated voters and white women. That means, dude, you're losing.

And older white voters, he's lost them and many of them are going over to Biden. And so those numbers actually, I get Robert's point, and I agree, offset that as well. Final comment before I go to my next story. Look, I mean, we all know that elections have consequences, and I think those people who made that choice for Donald

Trump in 2016 were hoping that the world was going to continue as it was. But now here we are, and we have 140,000 some odd people that are going to continue as it was. But now here we are, and we have 140,000 some odd people that are going to be dead very shortly. We're going to have a country in free fall economically. And look, he basically said, old people, we're willing to sacrifice you just to keep this country open so we don't have to admit that we have a problem and that I didn't do my job. So I think these people are finally realizing that when you have a moment

like this, you actually need real leadership. And it's not enough to just cast a protest vote because you didn't like the black guy last time, that you actually have to pick somebody because they actually know how to do the job. So I think those people are going to continue to peel off. And those people who were marginal Trump voters will continue to peel off because they weren't that invested in him to begin with. His core supporters, though, they're going nowhere. All right, folks, in Chicago, in Chicago, three state representatives, Cam Buckner, Curtis J. Tarver, the second and Lamont Robinson, sent a letter to the governor, J.B. Pritzker, calling for the removal of a nine foot tall bronze statue of the late Senator Stephen Douglas. They also called on Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to no longer promote Douglas'

tomb as a tourist site. Now Douglas, he was the one involved in the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates. He was a huge supporter of slavery and said some extremely nasty things about black folks and that frankly, whites should always rule them. Joining us right now is State Rep rep Robinson. How you doing sir? I'm doing well Roland, how are you? So what we're talking about here is this is not a statue. This is actually this nine foot tall piece that's tied to, his body is buried there, correct?

That is correct. And so this is located in Bronzeville, which is the heart of South side of Chicago. That is correct. And so this is located in Bronzeville, which is the heart of South Side of Chicago. That is correct. So do y'all want the do you want the Mazat? Do you want all of that removed or just that that that top part that where y'all are saying that basically this this this believer in slavery is sort of overlooking black Chicago. Roland, thank you for allowing me the opportunity. And thank you for the question. You are correct. We just want the statue removed.

May he rest in peace. We don't want to remove the tomb, only the statue. And so have you heard from the governor and the mayor on this? We have not. This has been there for a very long time. And that land, of course, was then gifted to the state. And so that is considered that land is now basically part of the state registry. That is correct. So can you actually can that even be removed if be removed if it's a historical location? Well, we are removing statutes all across the state, particularly at the Capitol. And, Roland, we need to focus in on Richard Wright and Gwendolyn Brooks,

folks that in our community we should be focusing in on and not Douglas. And so we're asking that to be removed because he's at the epicenter of black culture in the Bronzeville community. And so we should not be focusing in on this gentleman. We should be looking at other folks that have done great things in the Brownsville community. And that's what we're asking for, Roland. All right, then. Well, State Representative Robinson, we certainly appreciate it. We'll certainly see what happens. And let us know when there's a response from the governor and the mayor. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot, folks. Black

employees at the Centers for Disease Control sent a letter to their director, Robert R. Redfield. The letter addressed racism and discrimination that employees experienced in the workplace. The letter also included a list of seven key demands and tangible actions compiled by employees. One demand urging the agency to declare racism a public health crisis in the United States. More than 1,200 employees signed the letter. Let's now talk about what's happening in Ashford, North Carolina, where the city council voted 7-0, apologizing to black residents for North Carolina's historic role

in slavery and discrimination, and they voted to provide reparations to them and their descendants. Now, the resolution does not mean direct payments, but instead they will make investments in areas where black residents face disparities. And so we're going to have a guest on in a second. And this is so this is the thing that is very interesting, Dr. Carter. So whenever we've talked about reparations, that word itself is a trigger for a lot of different folks. And there are others who said, if you call it something else and you call it investments in specific programs or in areas, it's the same thing. Is it the same thing? Because there are people who are reparations advocates who say, no,

they believe that reparations is a combination of payments directly to African-Americans, as well as specific investments targeting black folks. How do you see it? Well, look, I think reparations can actually talk about a range of kinds of ways. It means to repair. Right. There's a damage done. There's a hurt that was caused and we have to figure out some way to repair it. And I think there are a lot of people who do talk about, you know, actual transfers of money to individuals. And then there are people who talk about these sort of more systemic things. And I believe in this Asheville plan, they had things like homeownership, business loans and other kinds of things that will give people access to or the ability to create wealth for generations.

And I think that's at least a step in the right direction. But I think for many people, because reparations has been, I think, bandied about so much, and often in terms of direct cash payment, that we don't talk about the sort of broader ways in which we can conceptualize reparation, because there's a whole set of sort of international precedent and law that also goes into this field that we call reparation. So I think this is not out of bounds. I think for those who only want to see a particular type of repair, this may be less than satisfactory. But I will say that it is, for others, the kind of systemic types of change that they actually do want to see rather than these sort of individual, perhaps one-time transfers of cash. Robert, Bob Johnson called for, he had presented this plan, $14 trillion in reparations.

We've seen other folks present plans that are specific to what Asheville is doing, addressing the need. How do you see it? Do you think that do you think the issue is that if you call this investments to deal with black inequities, as opposed to using the word reparations, that it's received differently? Well, I don't think there's going to be any way to make white America receive the idea of paying for their past transgressions in an amiable manner. Quite frankly, there's just a segment of this country that believes that there is nothing owed, that there's nothing to be done, and that cannot stand. What we've seen over the course of this past summer of the summer of activism that is going on is we've been bending that arc of the moral universe in a way that's never been bent before. We have these arguments about Confederate flags for two decades or for decades

in the South. I tell people to start tearing them down. We have these arguments about Confederate statues and trying to find middle ground solutions to them. People just start throwing ropes around them and pulling them down. So what is going to happen in America is we're going to be drug kicking and screaming into reparations. We're not going to find a political compromise to it. We're not going to find a moderate solution to it. We're simply going to come to a Kairos moment where the nation is going to have to come to reconciliation with the people that they enslaved for 200 years and then abused for the next 200 years. I think that moment is closer now than it has been since any point since the end of the Reconstruction. The issue, Scott, always comes down to money,

and the reality is it then goes to what do you do with it? Where do you begin to apply it? We had Reverend Dr. William Barber on the show on Monday. He talked about their Poor People's Campaign plan and how they talk about specific remedies dealing with the poor. Your thoughts on what Asheville has done, and then I'm going to go to City Council from Asheville. Well, I think we ought

to make it slightly easier. Why don't we start with an apology for slavery? They did. In Asheville, they did. In Asheville, they did. And then secondly, all options ought to be on the table, as my political scientist colleague

said, however you define it. The true believers who want to define it as a cash payment, if you're going to be that rigid, that's not going to happen. But the apology and then some type of structured investment for the betterment of our communities of color, whether it's individual or whether it's business or whether it's a collective, certainly ought to be on the table. It'll be interesting when and if the Democrats take over the House and Senate and the White House, whether reparations is going to be a platform issue or not. African-Americans will be pushing for that. People that don't look like

us will be pushing for that. We'll see how far this party goes with it. All right, let's bring in right now Asheville City Councilman Keith Young, who joins us right now. Councilman Young, welcome to Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you. Thanks for having me. So how did this resolution come about? I think, you know, the moment that we're in in this country right now, there's a perfect storm. You've got all sorts of issues brewing in the country with COVID-19. And then the death of George Floyd was a catalyst for the largest civil rights movement that we've seen. And I think with all of that going on, activists have been very active in communities all across the country. And activists here have been pushing for this.

This is something that I've been pushing for, but it's not something that we would have been able to even imagine six months ago. So I think the perfect storm that is in the country right now is what has culminated our city into the moment and thrust us into the national spotlight right now. But is this really any different than for the longest, Reverend Jackson and others who call for a Marshall Plan, a massive investment in black communities? And again, because I look at what you're talking about here, when you say the investments you're going to make,

that's what it sounds like. Yeah, there could be similarities. I think, you know, overall, there's this concept of the American dream that, you know, everybody can have life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, even though black Americans have been denied that. When you look at a systemic issue such as, you know, employment, criminal justice issues, home ownership, overall equity, creating generational wealth. It's a systemic issue that deserves a, it's a complex issue that deserves a fix that is going to be perpetual.

The same system put the monuments up that people are talking about tearing down, which we have, that has disparities in policing, allows that to continue, are the same systemics that recycle itself generation after generation. So what we've tried to do here is put together a plan that will allow a step-by-step approach which breaks down the problems, the root causes, tries to identify some entry points and search for possible solutions, and then take action after that and kind of learn from what we've done and adapt that and do it all over again.

So there is no end point into what we're doing. So there may be some similarities, but at this point in time, in my mind, this is something that is perpetual, that will outlive anyone that's that's on our council or running our city right now. It proves to be in itself, I believe, generational as the problems that we're dealing with for black America are generational in itself. So when you say make investments in areas where black residents face disparities, what are we talking about? What areas have you already identified what those are? Yeah, I mean, of course, you know, there are great disparities even right now with health care. I mean, that's being seen with COVID-19 and the effects on Black population and education.

In my city, we have the largest, one of the largest education. Looks like we lost Councilman Young there. All right, so let me know if we can get him. Is he there? Yes. Go ahead. You froze there. Go ahead.

Also, criminal justice, business ownership, home ownership, overall equity, and again, creating generational wealth. All right, then. Councilman Young, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, then. Councilman Young, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, then, folks. Got to go to break.

We come back. We're going to talk about Nick Cannon, fired by ViacomCBS for comments made that they call anti-Semitic on his podcast. That is 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 that keeps it black and keep it real.

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Good for listening to music, videos, gaming, you name it. All you got to do is go to Seek.com. There's a promo code you can use, RMVIP2020, RMVIP2020, for you to get this. Also, the VR headset. So you can check out the products there on Seek.com. And so check it out. And so we certainly appreciate them partnering with us at Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, ViacomCBS chose to end their long-running relationship with Nick Cannon

after a podcast interview with Professor Griff, formerly of Public Enemy. ViacomCBS accuses Cannon of promoting hateful speech and spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories from this podcast. Then let's go to what it really is then. When we talk about the power of melanated people, when we talk about who we really are as guys and, and right then in that, uh, melanin is so power and it connects us in a way that the reason why they fear black, the reason why they fear is because they, the lack that they have of it. So then

when you see what's, you know, Dr. Francis C. Wellesley talked about is that fear in that that that genetic annihilation efficiency of you have a person that has has the lack of pigment, the lack of melanin, that they know that they will be annihilated. So therefore, however, they got the power, they they have the lack of compassion. That melanin comes with compassion. Melanin comes with soul that we call it. We call it soul. We soul brothers and sisters. That's the melanin that connects. So the people that don't have it have are, are a little, and I'm going to say this carefully,

are a little less and, and, and where the term actually comes from, because I'm bringing it all the way back around to Minister Farrakhan, to where they may not have the compassion or the when they were sent to the mountains of Caucasus, when they when they didn They're acting out of a deficiency. So therefore, the only way that they can act is evil. The only way they can they have to rob, steal, rape, kill and fight a flight in order to survive. Exactly. So then these people who didn't have what we had, and when I say we, I speak of the melanated people. Right. They had to be savages. They had to be barbaric. They had, because they're in these Nordic mountains, they're in these rough, uh, torrential environments. So they, they're acting as animals. Right.

So they're the ones that are actually closer to animals. They're the ones that are actually the true savages. And then they built up such this this I want to say warrior, but they built up such this this this conquering barbaric mentality. Now, it was more than an hour-long podcast. Now, Cannon later took to social media and said this, anyone who knows me knows that I have no hate in my heart, no malice intentions, nor malice intentions. I do not condone hate speech nor the spread of hateful rhetoric.

We are living in a time when it is more important than ever to promote unity and understanding. The black and Jewish communities have both faced enormous hatred, oppression, persecution, and prejudice for thousands of years and in many ways have and will continue to work together to overcome these obstacles. When you look at the media and other sectors in our nation's history, African Americans and the people of the Jewish community have partnered to create some of the best, most revolutionary work we know today. I'm an advocate for people's voices to be heard openly, fairly, and candidly.

In today's conversation about anti-racism and social justice, I think we all, including myself, must continue educating one another and embrace uncomfortable conversations. It's the only way we all get better. I encourage more healthy dialogue and welcome any experts, clergy or spokespersons to any of my platforms to hold me accountable and correct me in any statement that I've made that has been projected as negative. Until then, I hold myself accountable for this moment and take full responsibility because my intentions are only to show that as a beautiful human species, we have way more commonalities than differences. So let's embrace those as well as each other. Now, that's what he released on Monday. This is the statement that Viacom released on Tuesday. Statements from ViacomCBS about Nick Cannon attributed to ViacomCBS spokesperson. ViacomCBS condemns bigotry of any kind and we categorically denounce all forms of anti-Semitism. We have spoken with Nick Cannon about an episode of his podcast, Cannon's Class on YouTube, which promoted hateful speech and spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. While we support ongoing education and dialogue in the fight

against bigotry, we're deeply troubled that Nick has failed to acknowledge or apologize for perpetuating anti-Semitism and we are terminating our relationship with him. We are committed to doing better in our response to incidents of anti-Semitism, racism and bigotry. ViacomCBS will have further announcements on our efforts to combat hate of all kinds. Now, other folks got involved in this thing, of course, took off on social media. You name it. Dwayne Wade sent a tweet out where he said to Nick Cannon, we are with you. Keep leading. That was today at 156 p.m. Well, Wade got lots of criticism from folks for that particular tweet. He then tweeted this out.

I want to clarify my now deleted tweet. I was not supporting or condoning what Nick Cannon specifically said, but I had expressed my support of him owning the content and brand he helped create. That was at 432 p.m. He then tweeted this. I was too quick to respond. This is an hour later because he got more criticism. I was too quick to respond without being fully informed about his hurtful anti-Semitic remarks. As you all know, I have zero tolerance for any hate speech.

Now, that was his particular tweet. Diddy sent out a tweet. And particular tweet. Diddy sent out a tweet, and this is what Diddy sent out. He said right here, Nick Cannon, come home to Revolt TV, truly black owned. We got your back and love you and what you have done for the culture. We are for our people first, for us, by us, let's go. Now, there's a new development in this, and that is Nick Cannon now is stating on his page, point blank, that he said that Viacom, he wants ownership of Wildin Out, the show that he created. He produced a 1,500 word response on his Facebook page. He has about 3 million followers on his Facebook page.

And he demands, this is, let's see here. This is what he tweeted out. Let's see if I can increase this. My apologies. He laid it all out. I'm deeply sad in the moment so close to reconciliation

that the powers that be misused an important moment for us to all grow closer together and learn more about one another and stay at the moment was stolen and hijacked to make an example of an outspoken black man. I will not be bullied, silenced, or continuously oppressed by any organization, group, or corporation. I am disappointed that Viacom does not understand or respect the power of the black community.

He then goes in and details his relationship with Viacom as a family over the last 20 years. He also lays out that in terms of what's going on here. And then you also, of course, have him operating as host and executive producer of the Masked Singer. Now, no word on whether or not that's what's going to happen there. He also has a daily talk show host. They have a daily radio show. No word on any of those. But he also is now demanding that ViacomCBS give him ownership of his show while they're out saying it will swindle from him. Panel, take it away.

Your thoughts on all of this. Scott, I think you want to go first. Who wants to go first? Who wants to go first? Who wants to jump in this mess first? I think ladies first. Okay. Well, I will say this. I think this was a...

I love you. No, you don't. I think this was a... I think this sounded like, you know, 90s hotepery all over again. There was nothing new that had not been said before. And I think one of the things that Nick Cannon is

quite clear about the words he uses, he's not a boy, despite his boyish looks. That is an almost 40-year-old man and a father. And, you know, a college graduate. So, you know, Nick Cannon was very aware of what he was saying. I think the issues of his

ownership of his content is a separate issue from what he said. I think what he said was ill-informed. And unfortunately, you know, for many, there is a desire and a yearning for knowledge and to want to understand why the world looks the way it does and why it's unfair to black people. Unfortunately, sometimes people get led astray, even though it's in a book. I always tell my students, be skeptical. How would somebody know this? How would they get to this conclusion, right? And I think that even though he's citing some well-respected work there, that work is questionable on a number of fronts. And I think whenever we have a platform as one as big as Nick Cannon's, we always have to be mindful. We always have to be fronts. And I think, you know, whenever we have a platform as one as big as Nick Cannon's,

we always have to be mindful. We always have to be thoughtful. And you can say whatever you want to say. But of course, we know what we say has consequences. So he's not canceled. He's not deplatformed. He won't be broke. His life won't be over. Right. He'll just have a different venue to to ply his his his many shows and other other kinds of things. But I will say, I think what he said wasn't actually really all that helpful in this particular moment. It didn't really move the discourse forward. And as I always tell my students, the truth doesn't need a remix. It's bad enough. He had positive things to say about Minister Louis Farrakhan. Robert, a number of people

took exception with those comments as well. Again, what we played was a two-minute clip of an hour-and-a-half conversation. But your thoughts on him making it clear that he's not going to apologize and back down? Well, I think that's his right

and his prerogative. The mistake I do think that he has made is not getting those ownership rights up front. You can't, and this is what I tell people in corporate America all the time, who feel like they're safe in their corporate jobs. Everything you're working for, you're working for somebody else. You cannot work for somebody else for several decades. And then once things go badly, then demand ownership. You have to negotiate that ownership stake while you're negotiating your contracts. You have to ensure that when you have negotiating power, right now you've already been terminated. You do not have power. You cannot set any criteria. Viacom does not have to listen to anything that you have to say because you've been terminated. So it's

important for us to understand, particularly in the African-American community, stop looking for someone else's table to sit at. Stop being comfortable eating at somebody else's establishment. You have to establish these things for yourself. If you want to be in this entire, as Puffy tweeted out, for us, by us space, that means you might have to suffer for a little while in the wilderness before things work out for you. And you cannot be comfortable with somebody else and then want to be critical of them once things do not work out. It's interesting that he wrote this here, Scott, in a pleasant turn of events and the best blessing in all of this hurtful attack is the outpouring of love and support from the Jewish community. It has been amazing. I've spoken with many rabbis, clergy, professors,

and co-workers who offer their sincere help. I must apologize to my Jewish brothers and sisters for putting them in such a painful position, which was never my intention. But I know this whole situation has hurt many people. And together, we will make it right. I've dedicated my daily efforts to continuing conversations to bring the Jewish community and the African-American community closer together, embracing our differences and sharing our commonalities. Through the guidance of my multicultural team, which embodies several people from the Jewish community, specifically Michael Goldman, my business partner for three decades, who discovered me at the Hollywood Improv when I was doing stand-up as a kid. Through thick and thin, he has been by my side, yelling at me when I talk too much and laughing with me as we've always overcome adversity together. I love you, my brother. Thank you for helping me become the man that I am today. He then goes on to say in

here, he says, Viacom, that they are on the wrong side of history. That's what he says. So, Scott, what do you make of that? Let me tell you what I make of it. I listened to the show. I've seen other transcripts of it. I've listened to, that sounded like an apology, but I'm not sure it was. I've listened to, I've watched the Dwayne Wade piece.

And let me tell you something. This debate between African Americans and the Jewish population or Jewish Americans is not old, is not new at all, first of all. And people who have been in the struggle, whether you're black, Jewish, whatever, Indian, American Indian, Native American, there is no upside to comparing our struggles to one another. We should stop comparing those struggles.

It's no problem to lock arms and move forward, but stop comparing our struggle to each other's struggle because there's no upside. How many times have we seen this? Black people and black revolutionaries want to get on and talk about different struggles, and then they do the comparative to make black people the chosen one. You're free to believe whatever you want to believe, but everybody doesn't need to know what you believe if you're in certain positions. You don't have a right to be on a show

or be tied up or connected to Viacom. And if you want to be a martyr or you want to be an activist, then so be it then. Sometimes you got to choose between the money and activism. That's a personal choice. But I can tell you one thing. Every time I've seen someone of any power, of any notoriety, get into this debate about blacks and Jews, it doesn't end well. We need to stop it because it doesn't move the ball forward.

The only way we can move the ball forward is locking arms with each other and moving forward towards one America and not this one black America, one white America, one Jewish America, one Irish America. We've got to lock arms and move forward together. That is the only way forward. That's the only way we're going to get rid of America's original sin and we're going to attain or reach freedom, justice, and equality. He says that you can't, black people can't be anti-Semitic since we are the original Hebrews, that we are Semitic people. Why debate that? Why raise it?

How is that educational? You see? Anybody who's been at a barbershop in the West End in Atlanta has heard this exact same speech. And so you have some guy, you know, in incense with a daishiki on who read like a couple of pamphlets and they want to sell you on this level of mythology. We have real problems right now that we're trying to solve. We don't need to go into the genetic lineage of every group of individuals on the planet Earth. We can solve the problems that we have right now. And if you go through the civil rights movement,

you can look at Cheney, Squirner, and Goodman, who died for this cause. You can look at the NAACP and its founding, where it had a lot of Jewish Americans who were part of the founding of those organizations, a lot of financing behind much of the social justice activism right now. Where do you think all these signs come from? Where do you think these banners are coming from? They're being financed and supported by a diverse group of people who are like-minded. So why go into the

conspiracy theory rabbit holes when we can be solving problems right now? But Dr. Carter, it's interesting. There are a lot of folks who are watching us right now. I'm looking at comments on Facebook and Periscope and YouTube and folks are saying, Nick is right. I mean, look, there will always be somebody who is willing to believe anything. And I think, look, I think it comes from

what people have experienced and what people have witnessed and we want to answer for it, right? Because some of the things that Black people have experienced are so horrendous, we have to have an answer. Unfortunately, Nick Cannon doesn't have that answer and neither do many of the people that he cites. And I think part of the problem is

if you keep looking backward, you can't look forward. And it doesn't mean we're saying nobody cares about Black people and we shouldn't care about, you know, so the uniqueness of our experience and our culture. Nobody is saying that or suggesting that. But it's saying that if we're going to do anything forward thinking, then it can't be because we're tethered to these old notions about race because that same racial science that he's playing with is the same racial science that justified black people's enslavement and continued denigration in this country. And we don't want to be a part of that.

We shouldn't be a part of that. Our justice is not going to come on somebody else's neck. Final comment, Scott. Exactly. We only got one country, this experiment, right? Nothing good. Now that you've said all that you've said, Nick Cannon, right? And now that you have your social media followers who say, Nick, you're right. All right. Now what? Now what? Now where is that going to get us? Does that get us to one country yet? Does that get us closer to our Jewish brothers and sisters? They were on the front line in the 60s.

They were on the front line doing Jim Crow, if not all of them, a lot of them. And we didn't get civil rights, and we didn't move forward in whatever industry there is without the help of people that didn't look like us or people that struggled like us. Gotcha. I'm not saying he's right or wrong. What I'm saying is it's not necessary to the debate. It doesn't add to us moving forward. All right, folks, we'll have part two of this conversation tomorrow right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Are you back tomorrow? No, we're not. No, no, we're not. We have the Thursday panel. We had. We have the Thursday panel for that. I thought we had that deal. For the Thursday panel for that.

So, Scott, Robert, and Dr. Carter, we certainly appreciate you joining us today. Thanks a bunch. Folks, we want you to support Roland Martin Unfiltered. This is a black-owned independent platform. Right now, there are 7,226 of you watching on YouTube right now, about 1,000 on Facebook, about 116 on Periscope. Please join our Bring the Funk fan club. Your dollars make it possible for us to do what we do the show's not over folks I got one more topic and sisters you definitely don't

want to miss this here a black feminine hygiene products company you don't want to miss this conversations up next with this sister because we feature black-owned businesses right here that's one of the reasons why we want you to support what we do at roller Martin unfiltered You can give to us via right there on YouTube. You can give via Cash App, PayPal, Venmo. Also by sending a money order cashier's check. Make it out to New Vision Media Inc. 1625 K Street NW, Suite 400, Washington DC 2006. And so we want you to do that. Again, Cash App, PayPal, Venmo. If you want to use a credit card, all you got to do is also go to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. You can use Square to do that online. We certainly appreciate all of your support. It matters to allow us to do what we do.

And so I'm going to do this. I'm going to read some names off after we have our next guest. And this next topic is why we do what we do, and that is being able to have Black-owned businesses to talk about things that they're doing. And so, after being diagnosed with a reproductive illness related to chemicals found in popular feminine care products, entrepreneur Arianne Long created a unique solution-based reproductive product line named Femly. She joins us right now. How you doing? Hey, Roland. I'm great. How are you? Doing great. So let's talk about this here. So when did you launch this company? So I launched the company back in 2015. Okay. And when you talk about these chemicals,

how did these chemicals in these feminine products negatively impact your health? So it was crazy. I was actually using a popular brand that many women around the country use. And I was diagnosed with a cervical tumor. And my doctor was the one who briefed me to a government study that was just starting to link a lot of reproductive illnesses with chemicals in feminine care products. And so as you saw that and then you begin the research, what did you then begin to do? So because of that, I learned that many of these products contained additives like BPA and dioxins.

And if you're unfamiliar with what those do, they're basically linked with cancer and fibroids and other reproductive illnesses. So I wanted to make a switch. And when I couldn't find a solution that was good and great for me and women like me, I decided to form my own in the form of Femly. And so, and what, what is different about Femly with the products that you were using? So two things. One thing that I discovered was that a lot of other hygiene products are super bad for the environment. They take 120 years to break down from the point that they're thrown away. Not only that,

they contain those additives and they're not comfortable. Many of them are kind of bulky, like a diaper. So we decided to provide a solution that was organic, biodegradable, 100% cotton and comfortable. So yeah, that's basically what we do and what has been the response oh my god it's been overwhelming um unfortunately in the process of growing this company i endured the stillbirth loss of my daughter and was on life support and out of that we we received monumental support from the community from people around the country from people in other countries and we're able to launch our very own line i believe that we as black people can be the change that we want to see in the world and that's important to me now you've had

now some people say oh my goodness but your products cost more than these other products and your response is i mean it costs more to get fibrates taken out. Look at your medical bill. It definitely, I think that by spending a little bit more we're investing in ourselves. What if a few more dollars every month could actually change the narrative of your life and change your your health status. You know these reproductive illnesses are not cheap. You know a lot reproductive illnesses are not cheap. You know, a lot of women are having to go through hysterectomies and other symptoms and harsh periods.

So that's what we're really trying to do, just provide a simpler, safer solution that is accessible for most people. And to combat that lack of finances from certain demographics, we actually partner with organizations. So we donate to women in need for every purchase. We partner with nonprofits that serve people who can't afford our products. And all of those things are near and dear to my heart. And again, what we're dealing with here,

we talk about the fibroid issue. I mean, black women are affected by fibroids more than anybody else. I've had another guest before, Jessie Thompson. She was texting me actually something else a little bit earlier about, again, how black women need to be very cognizant of these various chemicals and the role that they are playing in the creation and expansion of fibroids in black women. Right. It's so true. I can't tell you how many stories I've heard from people who had to go through a rough surgery or, you know, battled infertility and other things. So the crazy thing is that we started this to increase access, but we've partnered with organizations that have increased literacy scores.

Girls were missing school because of their periods. We've had women call in and say, you know, I'm pregnant. This is the first time I've gotten this far along, and I don't know if it's due to this feminine care switch. So you never know what the byproduct of making a healthier choice could be. You really never know. All right, then. Where can people go to get more information?

Familybox.com. That's F-E-M-L-Y-B-O-X.com. You can follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at at Family Box. All right then. Arion Long, I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. And it's always great to feature black entrepreneurs who are creating their own

companies and doing good things. Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot for having me. All right. Thank you very much. All right, folks. Here are the names of the people who are giving $50 or more who get a personal shout out from me. Let's roll it. 3-D-D-O-O-7, Adu Bamberg, Adrian Clark, Andrew Scott, Andrea, Antoine Simmons, Anton Williams, Antoine Roby, Ruth, Bernard Sims, Ben Isom, Blessings, Ojiata, Bobby LaVert Boyd, Bryson Desenor, Kareem Tobeth Nogongang, Charita Jones,

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for the year. Y'all, you can do more if you want to, but that's $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day to do a daily live two-hour show that's targeting our people. Look at the guests that we have today, Congresswoman Yvette Clark. You look at Dr.bony hilton uh you look at of course the city councilman uh young from uh ashville i mean you look at all the guests that we've had what this show is about us being able to show the best and the brightest black entrepreneurs like ariel long folks anybody else doing that every single day live five days a week so we need your support dr supporters right there on youtube go to rollermarknonfilter.com. Use our cash app, PayPal, Venmo. And of course, you can also send in a money order. Be sure to make it out so I can cash it, y'all.

New Vision Media, Inc. NU Vision Media, Inc. 1625 K Street, Northwest Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 2006. Again, Washington, zip code 2006. Folks, don't forget, Monday I started my twice-a-day commentaries on iHeartRadio's Black Information Network. You can also catch our podcast on their app as well. So simply download that. And, of course, we are on all the podcasting platforms. And so if you missed the video show, you can also always catch the audio show. That means a lot to us as well. So subscribe to our podcast.

Got it? All right, folks. Tomorrow on the show, Alabama Senator Doug Jones will be here. Also, Angela Peoples and Philip Agnew wrote a column in the Washington Post saying, Black folks, if you want to support a candidate that's going to Black Lives Matter, Biden should pick Elizabeth Warren as VP. They are going to join us as well. And yes, Recy Colbert, Black Women Views,

and up to Greg Carr and Erica Severus Wilson will be here tomorrow for part two of our conversation about Nick Cannon. Folks, I will see y'all tomorrow. Have a great one.