#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 8.26 RMU: Sewage in Flint River; Rev. Barber calls for moral movement; How Black men deal w/ pain

Episode Date: August 31, 2019

8.26.19 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: 2 million gallons of raw sewage spilled into Flint river; Rev. Barber calls for a moral movement; The author of 'Color him Father' talks about how Black men deal with that pain; Meet Marianne Willilamson, candidate for President of the United States. - #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: Life Luxe Jazz Life Luxe Jazz is the experience of a lifetime, delivering top-notch music in an upscale destination. The weekend-long event is held at the Omnia Dayclub Los Cabos, which is nestled on the Sea of Cortez in the celebrity playground of Los Cabos, Mexico. For more information visit the website at lifeluxejazz.com. - #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: 420 Real Estate, LLC To invest in 420 Real Estate’s legal Hemp-CBD Crowdfunding Campaign go to http://marijuanastock.org - Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Hey folks, today is Monday, August 26, 2019. On today's Roller Martin Unfiltered, Flint spills 2 million gallons of sewage into the nearby river. Can folks there get a break? Will talk to one of the activists who has been trying to hold the city from the state accountable

for their water supply. Reverend Doctor William Barber is calling for a moral movement in this country. What does that mean for all of us? He spoke to the DNC this weekend in San Francisco, making it clear where he stands on a poor people's agenda. Also, there's nothing more painful than losing a child. The author of the book, Color Him Father,

is here to talk about how black men deal with that plane. Pain. Plus, you've known her as an author, a lecturer at Oprah's Spiritual Advisor. Marianne Williamson says she wants to be president of the United States. She explains to us why. And remember the white woman in Michigan who said she wants the town to remain all white?

Yeah, she's dropped out of the city council race. No shock. It's time to bring the funk on Roland 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 fat, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time.

And it's rolling, best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks, he's rolling. It's on, go, go, go, y'all. It's rolling, Martin, yeah. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. Yeah, yeah. It's Rollin' Martin. Yeah, yeah. Rollin' with Rollin' now.

Yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Rollin' Martin now. Martin. Now. Martin. All right, more drama in Flint, where the city dumped an estimated 2 million gallons of untreated sewage into the Flint River last Sunday. Just months ago, officials warned that wastewater infrastructure

was fast approaching a critical point. The city publicly announced the spill, but they have yet to say how it will prevent it from happening again. Joining us right now is Melissa Mays, one of the original people to sound the alarm in 2014 and the founder of Water U Fighting 4. Melissa, seriously, two million gallons? I mean, you would think in Flint there would be caution upon caution. You would have as many layers as possible to not screw up the water in Flint. You would think that. But unfortunately, the state of Michigan, who created our disaster by stripping our democracy with a whole emergency manager law,

they got rid of all of our, you know, public assets and revenue streams. And then right when they left us with nothing and were poisoned because of their decisions, they're like, OK, well, you're on your own. We have no money to fix anything. We don't have money to fix what they actually broke. And they're just like, oh, well, you did a bad thing. Guess what? Oh, well. And knowing that we had these problems, our infrastructure is crumbling across the board, they just decide to take off and say, well, we're going to go ahead and scold you anyways, just like with the lead and copper rule.

We're in violation right now for doing something that the state's always done. They're saying that we didn't even identify enough tier one, like the homes that are most in danger. We didn't identify enough of those for the water testing, but the state hasn't since they took over. And so I think it's hilarious that all the things that the state's pointing out we're doing wrong, it's because they bankrupt us, they poisoned us, and they left us with no staff, no money, no support. But they're going to quickly turn around and say, well, look at what you guys did and totally avoid any and all responsibility. So here we're left with, you know, not enough staff, not enough equipment, definitely not enough money. And then we're just stuck going, okay, well, what's the biggest fire? We don't have

clean drinking water. We don't have clean river water. And I live a block away from the river. So that's great. And so, I mean, what else? Everything is crumbling. And I think that it's on purpose so the state can say, look at what a mess you are. We've got to come back in and fix you like we did before. And that left, you know, hundreds of people dead. So we're trying to do everything we can to fix it. But then who do you hold accountable? A broke city that was wrecked and taken over by the state?

Or the state who holds all the cards, all the money, but yet won't work with our city to help fix what they, you know, what they destroyed. So we're just kind of like, okay, well, what about the people here? We seem to get left out of the equation a lot. So does the city explain how this happened? I mean, how do you accidentally dump 2 million gallons of untreated sewage into a river? We don't have the right infrastructure to be able to deal with like flash floods, heavy rains that we've had this year. And so it gets backed up. All the holding tanks got backed up because we've been saying for a long time, we need money to update these. I mean, it's not just our drinking water system, the infrastructure that's

fallen apart. It's also the sewage. So we've been asking for help and money and the state's like, well, we can give you loans, which we can't afford to pay those back. And so, you know, we have no public revenue streams except for our water bills, which I pay about $300 a month for my water bill as it is. And so, yeah, so then all of a sudden they're like, oh, we're surprised that even though you told us that the holding tanks aren't big enough and we've had all these flash floods and rains and everything, heavy rains. Oh, look. Well, look what you screwed up, Flint. And Flint's like, well, we don't have any money to fix it.

We told you this. And you just left us to be literally sitting in our own sewage. Well, it seems like it's one thing after another there in Flint. And hopefully we can get some answers from the city. We tried to get the mayor on the show and some other city officials. We'll try to get them on later this week to see if we can get some of those answers. Melissa, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

All right, then. I'll go to our panel here. And joining us now, Dr. Neambi Carter. She's the Department of Political Science at Howard University. Michael Brown, former vice chair of DNC Finance Committee. Dr. Julian Malveaux, Economist, President, Emerita Bennett College. Dr. Carter, what's crazy about this is again, it's like, you would think they would say, okay,

let's not screw this thing up even further when it comes to the water in Flint. They don't care about these people. And if I'm the residents of Flint, I'm thinking these people want to kill me. Because you can't tell me that you've had no opportunity to shore up what you already know are some real deficits in your infrastructure in that city. These people still don't have clean drinking water. So now they also have to contend with an inadequate sewer system.

And they're paying their taxes, as Ms. Mays talked about. I mean, people were getting their water cut off in the midst of a crisis where they couldn't even drink the water coming out of their tap or bathe in it because they're gonna be contaminated with lead. So now you have a situation where these people are forced, I mean, are going to be forced probably at some point to go into receivership, which gives the state the opportunity to take over the city. And in many cases, if they can't fix this,

because they don't seem to have any desire to remediate any of these problems which have been well known for years, um, leaving the city, which is insane. Michael? You know, um, rolling race, um, has something to do with everything here in America. Um, so is socioeconomic.

But in this case, it's a lack of good infrastructure that we're having, especially in our kind of older cities, more industrialized cities, that haven't had some of these pipes changed since the early 1900s. And, yes, there's a racial component, yes, there's a socioeconomic component, but there's also a lack of good infrastructure in our country

that we have to fix. And these kind of problems are going to continue to persist. I forget what city jurisdiction it was last week that had a boil water alert. We've had some in this region. New York has had them. Boston has had them. Again, some of these older cities, Chicago has had them. So I think this is going to continue until we fix the infrastructure in our cities. The infrastructure issue is really important. The American Society of Civil Engineers gives the U.S. like a C-minus for infrastructure. But if you go through category by category, some are as low as D-minus. So there's a real issue there in terms of infrastructure. But more importantly, the political structure of Michigan, I mean, you can parallel this to what happened in Detroit, when they came in and take over Detroit.

The political structure in Michigan puts the power in Lansing and the places where you have a rural population. And they don't get cities. And cities are what? Black. And so that's the race piece that goes on there. So assume that they do take this city and put it into receivership. What happens next? Taxation will go up. The solution to this would be for the state to give the city a large grant, but that's not likely to happen, or for the feds to give the city a large grant.

But if... And now you have a Democratic governor, so it's not like you could say, well, the Republican governor didn't care. Yeah, no. I mean, it's... But it's the legislature as well as the governor. Right.

So, but the bottom line here is, what... Because you have so many black people and homeowners, receivership means yet another erosion of black wealth and black property. And that's the part that concerns me. You know I've been doing all this research on the wealth gap. And what we saw in the Great Recession was millions of black people losing home value to the trillions of dollars this is just continuing the downward spiral folks today overseas Donald Trump was at the g7 summit just lying his ass off constantly left and right but was interesting is course the next year is

gonna be hosted here in the United States and talk about being the grifter in chief this is what he announced in terms of where it's going to be held. Doral happens to be within Miami. It's a city. It's a wonderful place. It's a very, very successful area of Florida. It's very importantly, only five minutes from the airport. The airport's right next door. It's a big international airport, one of the biggest in the world. Everybody that's coming, all of these people with all of their big entourages come. It's set up so... And by the way, my people looked at 12 sites, all good, but some were two hours from an airport, some were four hours from... I mean, they were so far away. Some didn't allow this, so they didn't allow that. With Doral, we have a series of

magnificent buildings. We call them bungalows. They each hold from 50 to 70 very luxurious rooms with magnificent views. We have incredible conference rooms, incredible restaurants. It's like such a natural. We wouldn't even have to do the work that they did here. And they've done a beautiful job. They've really done a beautiful job. Doral happens to be. So this is the grifter in chief. I mean, talking about moving the G7 economic summit to a property that he owns, in essence, he's going to be profiting off of this because they're going to be paying for the facilities. And to say his people looked at 12 sites, yeah, show me the list. Yeah, please show me the list of the 12 sites to act as if somehow they can't host an economic summit.

What about D.C.? Yeah, exactly. Sorry. But I'm going to say the same thing. Like, what about here? What about other cities? He said they were two and four hours away from the airport. Where?

Right. Like, not Chicago, not L.A., not Miami. I recall the economic summit being held at Rice University in Houston. Exactly. Not two to four hours away from the airport. Exactly. Went off without a hitch. I mean, you can go through any number of places

in this country that can hold an economic summit. Well, what he was basically saying is, I'm going to hold it at my property so I can get rich off of my job, which is supposed to be a violation, right, of the Constitution, but this man doesn't care about any of that. And so it was just reading, it was a commercial, right,

trying to come up with a justification for something that anybody with half a knowledge of anything would know doesn't make sense. Dr. Balboa, there's no way in hell Republicans would be quiet if Obama decided to hold an economic summit at a property he owns. Believe it. They would be hollering and screaming. If Obama had done even one-eighth of what this man had,

the impeachment would have been filed right away. We can calculate what he's going to make from this. We were down there protesting his derail last year because of some predatory lending stuff, and the derail is, it is a nice property, but it's Trump-owned. It's absurd for him to have a World Economic Summit at a Trump-owned property

when the more advisable place, in my opinion, would be right here in Washington where you have unparalleled security. Yeah, but if he had it here, he would have a Trump hotel. Well, yeah, there's that too, Roland. I mean, no,

what you're dealing with, Michael, is this is a good grifter in chief. This is a guy who, oh, it's luxurious. We got bungalows. It can hold everybody. I mean, we've got

the most perfect, first of all, and also, look, I played at Doral before he owned it. Like many black folks, I ain't playing the damn Trump property. Since that birth of crap, I refuse to stay in a Trump property. Ain't going to happen. I know a number of people who've actually resigned from his country clubs, but this is a guy who wants to pay himself, period. No, and you're right. And Roland and I both played before it was Trump-owned.

I played at Doral. And keep in mind, Doral is also inland. It's not, you saw those pictures from France. They're gorgeous. They're on the water. They could be anywhere on the water. Clearly, he wants to be at his own property. But Doral, when it lost that PGA tournament,

has lost a lot of its kind of gravitas. And so a lot of folks aren't staying there anymore So he needs some kind of revenue boost They've lost tons of money because the money probably cuz he's a let's see a racist sexist an idiot And so all of those reasons why all of us golf courses have lost money But again, this is this is just beyond shameful and and this is a party that doesn't give a damn. They're getting exactly what they want from him. The business folks are getting what they want. The religious right getting what they want.

Everybody's getting what they want. Privately, they'll tell you off the record, behind closed doors, how much of an idiot he is, how they can't stand him. But they don't care. He is a means to an end. He is a means to power end. He is a means to power. That's all this is. You know, it's amusing, Roland, at some level, that he would actually do this.

It's amusing, but it's... He doesn't care. It's consistent. And Republicans would sense, and that's an oxymoronic term these days, Republicans would sense, ought to be outraged by this. This is a clear violation of the Emoluments Act. If there's no other, this is clearly a violation of the Emoluments Act. If there's no other, this is clearly a violation

of the Emoluments Act. And I would say, anybody around him, any advisor, anybody would say, this doesn't look good. Let's not do this. Right? Let's do something else. All those who got fired. Well, maybe, right? Or just are spineless, and they're willing to go along to get along. But I think the fact that he

doesn't even care how it looks, how it appears, how improper it is. Grifters don't care! Well, exactly, but he's supposed to. No, he doesn't! No, I'm not saying he cares. What has he cared about since he got to the law office? Absolutely nothing, but I think that's the point. That's what the outrage is, right? This is

his office. His office is supposed to care about these kinds of things. He clearly does not, and there's nobody to be sort of put their finger in the dam and say, don't do this. Like, this is not actually what you need to be doing at this particular moment. Because now you've actually given Democrats

something to really criticize you about. Again. Senator Ron Wyden said, under no circumstances should the G7 be held at Trump's Doral Resort, which would be one of the most egregious examples of corruption and self-dealing in a presidency replete with them. Well, I mean, that's. Can't stop it, though.

Senator Wyden. I love his words, but there's nothing really. And Rowan just talked about kind of the issue with, well, why? How can you do this at his properties? And why would you ever allow this to happen? You know, until, elections have consequences. And because he is president of the United States, I know I don't like to, you know, I call him 45,

I don't like to say the name, but because of that, he is empowered to the ability to do these kinds of things. And when Roland talked about, oh, the economics of his clubs and all that is true, they were gonna have a strip club fundraiser at his club in Doral. And they canceled it because of the outrage. But that's kind of what now it's come to.

Is that, you know, if you have a strip club and you want to have a golf club, you've got to go to a property. And so the bottom line here is that where is the Republican of conscience? Where is one of them? I mean, Bill Weld of Massachusetts. I'm sorry, you say Republicans and of conscience

Don't exist but but Bob just raising it because it has to be somebody Like I said, well the Massachusetts is running for now running for president on the Republican He's challenging Trump and there's another fellow who's challenging Trump I don't think they they'll get very far but they are challenging him But somebody needs to be talking about this in the loudest ways. And people need to be editorializing and everything else. Not that it's going to make a difference. He doesn't care. But to show you how much of a joke

these people are, let me tell you what this idiot said earlier today. He said that Melania has gotten to know Kim Jong on, even though she wasn't present at a single meeting when he went there. But I love this statement here for the new press secretary, the one who got fired for plagiarism, Stephanie Grisham. Quote, President Trump confides in his wife on many issues, including the detailed elements of

his strong relationship with Chairman Kim. And while the first lady hasn't met him, the president feels like she's gotten to know him, too. For what? Look, these people will lie about a lie. I mean, that's what's so hilarious. I mean, look, that's why to hear anybody claim that this

idiot is truthful. Well, I mean, we know that. He'll lie, like you said, about anything, and I think the speed with which he'll lie because he lied several times in that press conference. He lies waking up. think I feel like what time he woke up But really you're turning your show with the comedy because I've been as comedy. So, you know We're devolving into comedy because like for instance He said he skipped the climate summit at the g7 because he had meetings with Germany and India

The German Prime Minister was in the climate meeting. But he also said he knew more about climate change than anybody else, too. No, no, but it's a little hard to say, I'm going to meet with the German prime minister when she's in the meeting that you skipped. But I think this is going to also require the G7 countries to say, we're not going to do this, right?

Well, they're not going to do that, though. I mean, if we're the host country, the host country, that president, has the right to choose the venue. But what I'm saying is if there's going to be any stopgap somewhere, that's probably the most likely place that it would come from. Some criticism saying this doesn't look good.

Right? You know, Naomi, I say, I mean, I wish that were the case. I'm not saying it's going to happen. I'm saying that's the most likely source of any sort of opposition to this very bad decision, this illegal decision. His boy Boris Johnson will love it. The French might not.

Wouldn't Mike Pence give the GOP everything that 45 would? I never really bought that argument that, oh, they're getting their judges, they're getting all these policies. Pence would give them the same stuff. But the point is, it says to me that they like what this guy says about that, oh, they're getting their judges, they're getting all these policies, Pence would give them the same stuff. But Pence doesn't have to.

No, but the point is it says to me that they like what this guy says about people of color and women in the GLBT community. That's the point. Well, that's the only part of it. I mean, Pence does the – Pence, before he was his VP, Pence was not well enough known. He was – he's not charismatic. He's as interesting as a mayonnaise sandwich. I mean, so I mean the heat

He can't as judges. He has McConnell If they remove him he becomes the They want but I do think the thing about Mike Pence is my kiss has no gravitas. He has no There's nothing about Mike Pence that makes you want to say hello into my pen He's not come on my idea log bomb linesologue. Bottom line is this here, okay? Okay, so y'all might... Look, this dude is going to lie about everything. He will lie about lies.

That's why I use hashtag TrumpLiesMatter. That's all he does is lie. And anytime you hear some of these old dumbasses out here running around trying to defend him, they lying too. Okay? They don't care. Okay? These people do not care about the truth.

They don't care about facts. They will lie about everything. So that's why, look, you hear these folks running around and get lying. Oh, Trump has done more for the black community than any president. I heard Darryl Scott say it there. And look, I talked to Darryl. Darryl

know he lying. Darryl know he lying. Darryl know he lying. Trump ain't know he lying. Daryl know he lying. Trump ain't doing a damn thing for black people. Okay, Candace Owens lying. They all lying. Lying. They all lying. And I'm telling you.

And if you sitting on your ass at home and you say I'm not going to vote, you stupid too. I saw a story this weekend where some voters in Pennsylvania, Democrats in Pennsylvania, regretted sitting out 2016 saying, oh, I didn't like I like my candidate options. And now all of a sudden they're like, oh, my, I regret what I did. Yes, you should regret it was sitting your punk ass at home. OK, because, again, America should learn to listen to black people. Black people voted at a higher rate than anybody else against this fool. OK, so like, look, I don't feel like you got Lindsey Graham talking about Americans should accept the pain from these trade wars.

You literally have Iowa farmers who are losing their businesses, dairy farmers in Wisconsin losing their businesses, all because of this idiotic trade trade war this fool is having that makes no sense whatsoever. And again, Republicans are scared to do anything. I mean, this is, they are going to lie about everything. There's nothing they're going to lie about. And I keep talking about the appointment of judges. I keep talking about what they're doing and how they are appointing judges. And Matthew Peterson is a commissioner, the Federal Elections Commission, and he resigned leaving a shortage on that particular commission. And the reason I'm saying this, because again, what you have here is you have folks who, this was a guy who Trump wanted to put on the federal bench, who is so idiotic, he could not even answer some most basic legal

questions. And people need to understand exactly what it is these folks are doing. And they are putting incompetent people in places. Over departments. Forget just Carson at HUD and Devos at Education. I mean, you can go

Commerce. You can go USDA. You can go every single department. I mean, you know it's bad when one of the smartest people who's been a cabinet member is Rick Perry. I mean, one of the smartest

in this administration is Rick Perry. Look, Rick Perry, Texas A&M Aggie, former governor of Texas, and Rick a great guy, okay, but ain't the brightest bulb in a dark room, okay? And that's what you're dealing with. In fact, I saw this today, and I remember when it aired, and I said, you know what, I just got to play this.

Just so y'all understand what they're trying to do to this country, I pulled a video up of when Peterson was being questioned by a Republican from Louisiana. These are the kind of people they want running the country. Hit play. You can just raise your hand on this one, if you will, to save a little time. Have any of you not tried a case to verdict in a courtroom? Mr. Peterson. Have you ever tried a jury trial? Mr. Peterson. Have you ever tried a jury trial? I have not.

Civil? No. Criminal? No. Bench? No. State or federal court? I have not.

Okay. Have you ever taken a deposition? I was involved in taking depositions when I was associate at Wiley-Ryan when I first came out of law school. But that was... How many depositions? I would... I'd be struggling to remember. Less than 10? Yes. Less than five?

Probably somewhere in that range. Have you ever taken a deposition by yourself? I believe no. Okay. Have you ever argued a motion in state court? I have not. Have you ever argued a rules of civil procedure? The federal rules of civil procedure? I, in my current position, I obviously don't need to stay as, you know, invested in those on a day-to-day basis. But I do try to keep up to speed. I'm not going to say that I'm not going to say that I'm invested in those on a day-to-day basis, but I do try to keep up

to speed. We do have at the federal election commission roughly 70 attorneys who work under our guidance, including a large litigation division. And as a commissioner, we oversee that litigation.

We advise them on overall legal strategy, provide recommendations and edits to briefs and so forth and meet with them about how we're going to handle it. If I could ask you this, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but we're only given five minutes for five of you. Sure. When's the last time you read the federal rules of evidence? The federal rules of evidence all the way through would, well, comprehensively would have been in law school. Obviously, I have been involved in, when I was an associate,

that was something that we had to stay closely abreast of. And there have been some issues dealing with evidentiary issues that will cause me to examine those periodically in our oversight role of the litigation division at the Federal Election Commission. Okay. Well, as a trial judge, you're obviously going to have witnesses. Can you tell me what the Dober standard is? Senator Kennedy, I don't have that readily at my disposal, but I would be happy to take a closer look at that. That is not something that I've had to contend with. Do you know what a motion in limine is? Yes, I haven't. Again, my background is not in litigation as when I was replying to Chairman Grassley. I haven't had to, again, do a deep dive. And I

understand and I appreciate this line of questioning. I understand the challenge that would be ahead of me if I were fortunate enough to become a district court judge. I understand that the path that many successful district court judges have taken has been a different one than I have taken. But as I mentioned in my earlier answer, I believe that the path that I have taken to be one who's been in a decision-making role on, I would guess now, somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 enforcement matters, overseeing I don't know how many cases in federal court. The commission has been a party to during my time.

Yes, sir. I've read your resume. Just for the record, do you know what a motion and lemony is? I would probably not be able to give you a good definition right here at the table. Okay.

Do you know what the younger abstention doctrine is? I've heard of it. But I, again. How about the Pullman abstention doctrine? I heard of it. You've heard of it? I've heard of it. I've heard of it. I've heard of it, but I, again.

How about the Pullman abstention doctrine? I heard. You're going to see, you'll all see that a lot in federal court. Okay. Any of you? Come back. Now, why did I play that?

First of all, that took place a number of months ago. Peterson withdrew his name from consideration. But just so y'all understand, the White House stood by his nomination. They literally stood. And then they accused his critics and the media of trying to hurt his judicial nominees. Y'all, that was a Republican from Louisiana, Senator Kennedy, who was questioning him. So I just need y'all to understand that this is a... This is like Dumbo

meets a rock meets one of the stars of Clueless. All roll into one. That's this administration. But, I mean, this is... This administration is full of mediocre men like him, right?

That's not even mediocre. I mean, that's an insult to mediocre people. Mediocre people do a lot of things, and I'm telling you. That's beyond mediocre. I mean, it's beyond mediocre because he knew where he was going, and he knew he would get questions, and I would be surprised that nobody shared with him in advance that he would be asked some of these things.

So the fact that he hadn't prepared just lets you know how arrogant they are in their behavior. But he said nothing... But they get breaks all the time. This guy was going to be, Mike, a lifetime... Absolutely. He better rule judge. Lifetime. And they're doing...

I don't know what the age of the gentleman was, but they're all in their late 40s, early 50s. No, some mid-30s. Well, at the point, they're going to be there for half a century. And Julian, and this is not, I mean, if people understood what they're doing in the USDA, in the food program, the SNAP program, what they're doing to the environment, what they're doing in wiping out all sorts of civil rights regulations. I mean, they are

inflicting massive damage on this country. We're not even talking about just the major stuff. We're talking about literally, you know, that federal bureaucracy. And that's why when Millick is on this show, I cannot fathom anybody, especially

anybody black, literally saying they would vote for this idiot. First of all, we talked about China earlier. Final comment, go ahead. Bloomberg says the tariffs will cost the average family $800. With the food programs, the SNAP restrictions they just put out there, three million more families will be food insecure.

We can go down the list. This is a war on poor people. This is a war on black people. This is a war on the American people. But there's some white people who would rather starve and be white than have good sense and vote for somebody who will rule in their economic interest. I'm so glad you played that clip. We talked about incompetent men. The one that irks me the most of all is that ignorant DeVos. I call her Betsy DeVoid, as in devoid of good sense. Because she never...

But she makes him like a Rhodes Scholar. You're right. That's what I'm saying. That's how, again, dumb... It's like they have the Idiots Convention. Literally, they have the Idiots Convention. All I'm saying, y'all, if you know of somebody who actually says they're voting for Trump,

you should say, I'm going to commit you. I'm going to commit you to an observation period because you're absolutely crazy. All right, y'all. I've got to go to a break. We come back. I'm telling you. I'm just letting y'all know. They're nuts.

They're absolutely nuts. We come back. We're going to talk about Marianne Williamson. She's running for president. I'm just going to play the interview for y'all. We'll be back on Roller Martin Unfiltered. supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. It's Roland Martin Unfiltered. Support the Roland Martin Unfiltered daily digital show

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Be sure to get in the game and do it now. This weekend in San Francisco, Democrats gathered for their annual meeting and a number of people addressed the Democrats there. And one of them was Reverend Dr. William Barber, who talked about the importance of the poor people's movement, trying to get Democrats all across this country to understand the need to mobilize poor folks in this country. He is the co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign. And of course, he made the case for a moral movement in this country to address issues like racism, poverty, the environment, and war. Here's an excerpt of what he had to say to the DNC. I want you to know that the left versus right, Democrat versus Republican, conservative versus liberal framework has allowed people to do what's wrong while we call it right. Black in healthcare is not the right.

Being about voter suppression is not the right. And left versus right is too puny. The language is too small. It doesn't help us have the kind of moral imagination that's necessary in this moment of generational change. And we must declare no more. We need a revolution of values in public life. We need leadership that will draw on our deepest

religious and constitutional tradition to fight not only for what seems achievable but what must be our moral duty. Somebody asked me as a Christian am I a conservative or a liberal? I say I'm both. I said because there are three two thousand scriptures in the Bible that said the primary purpose of every nation is to care for the poor, the children, the sick, the women and the immigrants. So to be a conservative is just to hold on to the essence of. So I want to hold on to the essence of,

and I want to liberally spread it to everybody. Don't get trapped in labels. And then seven, and finally, we need fusion organizing to build a moral movement. This is not the time to turn on each other. It is the time to turn on each other. It is the time to turn to each other. It is the time to understand that interlocking injustices require a moral fusion interlocking movement. When we embrace moral language, we must ask, does our policy care for the least of these? Does it lift up those who are most

marginalized and dejected in our society? Does it establish justice? That is the moral question. If someone calls it socialism, then we must compel them to acknowledge that the Bible must then promote socialism. Because Jesus offered free health care to everyone and he never charged a leper a copay. You want to have, it's time for us to say, if you want to have a moral debate, bring it on, baby. The Bible says that a nation will be judged by how it treats the poor and the sick and women and the immigrant. The Bible says that God makes it rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you want to call caring for folk socialism, then the Constitution is a socialist document because it calls us to promote the general welfare and to establish justice. Why are we afraid to use the language welfare when every politician swears to promote general welfare. We can't be scared of labels.

This current administration is practicing, though, a kind of socialism. It's called corporate socialism. You give to the greedy through tax cuts and deregulation and economic incentives and deregulating of energy companies. And they refuse to bail out communities and human beings, but they'll bail out businesses. That's called treating corporations like people and people like things. And we need political leaders who will stand up and say

that helping people who are in need is a moral issue. It lines up with our deepest religious values and our deepest constitutional values. That is not about being on the far left. Y'all stop using that language that gets you trapped. It ain't about being on the far right. It ain't about being Democrat or Republican. How dare anyone say that blocking living wages is the right? Denying people healthcare is right. Some things are not about left versus right, Democrat versus Republican, it's about right versus wrong. A moral message can energize

the people who feel left out, Tom, and looked over by the whole framing of the system as it is. And we've seen how it can bring people together Those people that have been pitted against one another especially in the south now. I'm from the south What many politicians support the current administration and still play the divisions of lies and racism? But my Democrats you all gotta do a little repentant to How you haven't always come south with everything you have. The south is the native home of poverty. The 13 former Confederate states, 52.7 million people are poor and low income. 24, 25 million are white, 28 million are people of color, 13 million people without insurance.

The number of poor people in those 13 states is more than one-third of the total number of poor people in the country. The number of poor whites in those states, the 13 states, is also more than one-third of the total poor white people in this country. But if you could come south, and if you win in the south, do you know just 13 states gives you 170 electoral voters? And 26 senators? And 31% of the United States House? And what we learned in North Carolina is they don't fight us being together because we're weak. They fight us being together because we're weak. They fight us being together because we're strong.

And any party, any party that will be willing to engage poor and low-wealth black, white, and brown people across the South and energize them to vote not just with a last minute robocall but with real serious organizing then it's a new day these states aren't red states they are unorganized states they are underfunded states they are states where we have found fusion coalition that are waiting to be called to higher ground. Come on. That was Reverend William Barber. Again, you can go to YouTube to check out the full speech there.

Michael, I'm going to start with you. His message to the Democrats there, critically important. 75, 76. He put it in moral terms as to why he should be elected coming out of the reign of terror of Richard Nixon. This is a party, if we really want to be honest, that has

been afraid to use words like that, moral language, religious language. They've been, in some ways, hostile to religion. And I think if they truly listen to what he is saying, they need to be able to reframe some of these issues in moral terms. Right, and you can't be scared about the church or the synagogue or the mosque because I think there's a, whether

perceived or not, that there's a view that the far left don't want to get church and synagogue and mosque all mixed up in our politics. So we have to stay away from that message. But clearly there are a lot of people that like that kind of message. Hence why, and I have to credit Chairman Perez for asking Reverend Barber to come and speak away from that message but clearly there are a lot of people that like that kind of message hence why and i have to credit um chairman perez for asking reverend barber to come and speak because a lot of people would not have done that and in fact um they have they asked both parties oh come and speak republicans have refused them thus far of speaking absolutely you know reverend barber is a brilliant leader who released a moral budget in June of this year.

He had people from all 50 states come to talk about the moral budget. And he's about to kick off like a nine or 10 month tour, which will culminate with a poor people's march on June 20th, 2020. I think it was brilliant for the Democrats to have him there. But I wish that they had, uh, pushed more. There should be a debate with these presidential candidates that focuses solely on poverty. They basically rejected the notion of single-issue debates, and also there was some back and forth

around whether there should be a climate change debate. But if there is to be a single-issue debate, it must be on poverty. Well, see, the problem with them framing it that way, Dr. Carter, that poverty is not a single-issue debate. It must be on poverty. Well, see, the problem with them framing it that way, Dr. Carter, that poverty is not a single-issue debate. It actually touches education. It touches economics.

It touches health. It touches so many different areas. So I don't see this as a single issue. I see it as a significant issue that hits all kinds of different areas. And it hits all of their constituencies. And I think what Reverend Barber has been pushing on, even when he had them come,

when he had the Poor People's event in D.C., is you have to talk to all the people all the time. And you can't do what the Democrats have been doing, which has really been very tepid about poverty, about social welfare, about black folks, to be quite frank. And I think, I mean, there was more in that comment there that you are leaving these people behind because one, you know, they're captured. So you don't have to do anything really hard to win their vote because what's the alternative? These crazy

Republicans and that's not going to work. But he's saying you left all of these voters on the table. It really reminded me of Jesse Jackson's old speech about the little rocks laying around, talking about how he registered these black voters, and he said Ronald Reagan won by the margin of despair. And I think this is that kind of thing that Reverend Barber is talking about. The Democrats don't win in the South because the Democrats gave up on the South. They gave up on black people. They gave up on poor people, poor white folks.

They gave up on the South. And we've seen real possibility in the South, not just because of the work that Reverend Barber is doing, but Stacey Abrams, Andrew Gillum, they have shown that the South is in play if the Democrats get off their butts and do the work, and he's doing the work for them. And invest the resources necessary to do so.

The South was in play in 92, though, in 88. I mean, the reason President Clinton did so well in the South is because the Democratic Party selected a Southern governor. But then you turn around to 2016 2016 and the South is basically being ignored the numbers that Reverend Barbara put out there are the compelling numbers a third of the poor people in the south 41 of what did he 41 percent of the Congress you know he said the third one percent of the Congress but the but the problem that you have again with Democrats going south is it forces

them to have to talk directly to broke-ass white people. Yeah. See, it's real simple. If you go to Alabama and Florida, you go to North Carolina, you go to South Carolina, you go to Mississippi and Arkansas and Louisiana and Texas, you talk to black people and maybe Latinos. But it forces them to have a conversation to broke-ass white people that y'all broke. And Obama was afraid to do this.

I mean, I could tell you. On several occasions, I said to him directly, dude, stop having these health care events in the suburbs of Ohio and Virginia. No, go to the brokest, sickest, whitest part of Alabama, Mississippi, and say, I passed the Affordable Care Act for y'all broke, sick-ass white folks. And it's the policy. And I say it because they're walking around thinking, we ain't that sick.

I'm like, no, you need to say, these are your health rates. And that's being honest with them because you got broke ass white people walking around thinking, we ain't really broke. No, y'all broke. And y'all are sick. And they wanted the Affordable Care Act. They didn't even know that that's what they wanted. Got them dumb asses in Kentucky who voted for

a Tea Party governor who voted for Trump and 40th election was saying, man, I sure hope that they don't touch our Affordable Care Act, dumbass, you just voted for two people who want to get rid of the Affordable Care Act because them fools are walking around saying we can't stand Obamacare. I mean, some folks are so dumb that they don't even realize how dumb they are. And you got to be willing to go there and say, how many of y'all don't like Obamacare? Hands go up.

How many of y'all love the Affordable Care Act? Hands go up. It's the same thing, dummies. Well, you know, West Virginia is, is, uh, proof positive of everything that you're saying. Well, with the mining industry there, um, and those folks losing their health care. That is health care.

A thousand miners just two weeks ago got laid off. They checks bounce. They won't return phone calls. And I'm like, where's McConnell and Trump? And they were bringing those jobs back, remember? Because the mining industry was going to take off again. Sometimes you got to all I'm saying is you got to tell

dumb white people some basic stuff to say, y'all dumb. They playing you. Now, Rolando, if you tell the white people that they dumb. No. No, you got to see. No, if you dance around stuff, that's how you lose. Howard Dean had it right when he said God gave his guns.

OK? That's what appealed to dumb white voters. And I'm calling them people like, well, why you calling them dumb? No, you're dumb if you keep voting against your own interest. OK? If you actually think you're going to be rich like Trump one day no you're dumb if you keep voting against your own interest okay if you actually think you're gonna be rich like trump one day you're not okay it ain't gonna happen so y'all sitting around thinking oh yeah it's gonna happen one day no you've got to be outside of your mind if you are voting for somebody who who said i going to sit here and solve the opioid crisis, who

put in charge, in the White House, of the program, a 25-year-old boy who his only leadership that he had on his resume was he was in the Boy Scouts. And when he got called out, they like, damn, we got to get rid of this boy.

That's who he put in charge. And they're running around going, yeah, but Trump. Because you know why? It used to be God, gays, and guns. You know what it is now? God, guns, and legal immigration. And that's the problem. They are walking around saying, that's right, it's those illegals.

That's why we don't have any jobs. I'm like, no fool. It's the Chamber of Commerce who screwed y'all to move jobs overseas. It's the folks who refused to fund education. It's the folks who refused to do any sort of job training. And when you have a West Virginia town with a hundred and some odd thousand people, and they drop three million pills

in one year on your town, you might want to be saying, who the hell got all of us high? And who profited? And it wasn't black people. Where's the profit? That's all I'm saying. You know, just follow the money here.

I mean, I think that one of the things that people don't talk about enough is the term predatory capitalism. I mean, basically, you have allowed these corporations to thingify, in the words of Dr. Thin King, thingify people.

And so we can follow the money with Big Pharma. We know that they're making money. And we know who they're contributing to as well. And the same folks who can't stay in labor unions, and these same people, these same broke white folks, are going, labor unions are bad! And I'm going, but yo ass broke.

And you have no protections on your job. You can be fired at will and need the right to work states. And you broke. And white supremacy, your interest, though, this is need the right to work states. And you broke. Yeah. And white supremacy, your interests though, this is what you think works for you. And you broke. But hey, being white sometimes is more valuable

to people than money. And your white ass broke. But see, they think they can eat white. Exactly. They think they can eat white. It's like a meal. White. White folks, we wanna help y'all out.

We wanna help y'all out. White broke and black broke broke. That's what it is. So on to a break, we come back, we'll talk about the importance of fathers and the pain they also go through, which doesn't get talked about a lot. Next to the Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Roland Martin Unfiltered. The blackest show on all of digital, cable and broadcast. Check out our audio podcast. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. It's Roland Martin Unfiltered. Press play.

All right, folks, November 7th through 11th, I want y'all to join me in Cabo, Mexico for the Life Luxe Jazz Experience. Folks, it's going to be an amazing, top-notch music and upscaled destination. The weekend-long event is going to be held at the Omnia Day Club in Los Cabos. Ooh, looks real good.

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But again, jazz concerts, food, music, we're going to have a grand time. And see, there'll be one of those folks who go, dang, I wish I had gone. You got an opportunity. So go to LifeLuxJazz.com right now for all of the details. All right, folks, just the thought of your child dying is enough to reduce some people to tears. Compound that with just trying to survive as a black man in America, and you have a picture of what rage looks like.

These are some of the issues Lawrence Drake looks at in his book, Color Him Father. He joins us right now to talk about this here. And so, first of all, why do you call it Color Him Father? Actually, the title was... That wasn't the original title. The original title was Daddy, I'm Not Here, But I'm Not Gone. And as we were working with the publicist and some other folks,

somehow that just didn't fit what we were trying to say. And we started listening to the 1963 song by the Winstons called Color Him Father. And what was interesting about the song and the way it happened, quite frankly, is that almost every day for about a week as I was working on one of the chapters, that song just kept coming on the radio. And it talks about how a man who adopted seven children that weren't his own, took care of these kids, and that the mother believed that she couldn't have made it had it not been for him,

because the original father of these kids died in the war. And there was this young man giving his tribute to this man who was really his father. And it struck me that that was really part of what we were saying about how black men often are not talked about as fathers. The image of being a black father is that we're not present, that we're not there, and that simply isn't true. Well, first of all, it's not true. It's beyond a lie.

When you look at the studies, black men actually spend more time with their children than other fathers. And I always make the point as well, when you watch these NFL draft or NBA draft, and, of course, they'll be back there, and they're showing the first-round draft pick. They're showing him hugging his mama. And you're like, it's a dude sitting right there.

Don't nobody talk to him. He don't get no shout-out, no love. And you're like, uh, how's that black man sitting right there? Who's daddy? And it's personal for me because, again, when you watch television, you'll see all kinds of black men shouting out mama. And very few will talk about their daddy.

That's right. That's right. Well, the whole idea of, you know, when my daughter passed away, even though as a psychologist I am very familiar with the stages of grief, I found that there was no literature that really spoke to me as a black man and more specifically as a black father. The other irony of it is that I knew 10 other men personally who had lost a child. They were my friends. I had gone to their daughters' and sons' memorial services. And frankly, one of the things I said very early on

is that if I knew the pain was this bad, I would have grieved harder for them. But when I talked to each one of them, the objective was not only to celebrate these wonderful human beings, but also to put a dent in dispelling the myth about who we are as men and more specifically how present we really are in our children's life in real life. So the statistics say one thing, but, you know, some people are visual learners, so we need to show them actually what this looks like. Mike? So we need to show them actually what this looks like Mike As a

father of three sons and a I Think I thought I was a good son and a good grandson and a good great grandson And it's hard to teach those the values and I talked about all the time with my children I hate sounding like an old dad but I do say oh it was different when I was younger and and they but it's factual I mean it was absolutely absolutely is and and they and and but what I've learned and uh hopefully I'm doing it right is I don't care how many times if I say the same thing I say it over and over and over I stay on message right and I think that's part of being,

is just so when they're at that fork in the road in life and a tough decision's there, I want them to hear me in their head before they make the decision. Yeah. My daughter is still teaching me. I mean, part of the reason

for writing the book as well was, you know, she was very instructive about when I was not being a good dad. And what I mean by that is that there was one occasion, in fact, I was right here in D.C., I was driving one day and she called me on my mobile and she said, Dad, I've got a problem I need to talk to you about. And so I, you know, listened. But of course, in the usual style of fathering, I decided I've got a problem I need to talk to you about. And so I listened. But of course, in the usual style of fathering, I decided I needed to solve the problem for her

and told her what she should do. And after she listened to my explanation, she said, you know, Dad, can I just say something? I need to just say this to you. Don't be upset when I say it, which whenever she would say, don't get upset, I knew something was coming. And I said, well, what is it? She said, you know, ever since I was a little girl,

you have always solved it for me. If I stubbed my toe, if I fell off my bike, you were there. She said, but the problem with that, not that I don't love you for it and appreciate it, but it's hard for me to learn how to make mistakes and make my own decisions when you make them all for me. And that was a teachable moment for me as a dad because I think sometimes we as parents, we do want to solve it for them.

And she's still teaching me today because as we have been on this book tour, we have met men in the audience who've never talked about what happened to them, never talked about the pain. I knew all these men. None of them knew each other. And when we came together to actually do the first set of interviews, they got to know each other, and they've become a collective of men

who can now lean on each other and believe there's a safe space. Yeah, but part of that's also because this society, the reality of this society, is set up to... When parents lose a child, everything is check on the mama, check on the mama, check on the mama. Chris Rock in his stand-up routine,

he talked about that, where he said it was always tell your mama the food was good, tell your mama routine, he talked about that, where he said it was always tell your mama the food was good. Tell your mama this. Tell your mama that. And dad didn't ask for nothing. And so we've created this whole notion that dad is fine. He's unemotional. He'll be able to

handle it. Everything is geared towards a mom. I say it all the time that if you're in Australia, you'll kill yourself to get home for Mother's Day. Right. You could be around the corner for Father's Day and be like, yeah, I'll see him next week. And so there really is this whole

different deal in terms of how we treat and react to a mother, especially a black woman, compared to a father. Yeah, I mean, I tell a very similar metaphor. I said, you know, I tell a very similar metaphor. I said, you know, on Mother's Day, you can't get a restaurant reservation.

On Father's Day, you can take a bowling ball and roll it down the middle of any restaurant and not hit anybody. Because they're just not there. And the reality is that there's a chapter in the book called Not One Without the Other. And the one thing that is particularly acute in our community

is understanding that regardless of the relationship between the mother and the father, the child has to be at the center because children need the nurturing that a man and a woman can give to a child. And when you see us as we grow up and as we become adults,

if there's a deficit in either one of those, it manifests itself in certain ways. Before I go to Julian, Dr. Carter, I'll ask you a question. I was, this was a few years ago, we were at a black journalist convention, and so we're at this table,

and it was probably about seven or eight of us. And it was three guys, and it was five women, and four of the five women were lesbians. So there's one woman who was Latina. She was saying, look, look, you know, daddy don't matter. Me and my partner, we raising a kid. But there were two black lesbians who was like, I don't know, hell no, we might be lesbians,

but daddy means something. And so they started talking about what their dad meant to them. And it was very interesting in this conversation where their whole deal is, no, no, no, no, let's be real clear. We ain't saying black daddy don't matter. And so, and this Latina had to get checked. She got checked because she thought,

you know, like we in the lesbian club, they're like, no, no, no, no, we black. Daddy means something. And it was very interesting watching that conversation for them to say, no, a man needs to be present and relevant in that child's life. Right. I agree

100%. And the other thing about it is that we find that one of the pieces of research, obviously, that I did was Moynihan's book from 1963, which talked about the erosion of the black family and and i touch

on the fact that black fatherhood started to erode even when we got here in 1619. one of the first things that the slave owners did is they gave the status of a slave child by the mother and not the father and so there's been this this entire um i won't call it conspiracy, just a movement, if you will, that black fatherhood has eroded over the last 400 years. And we are really working hard to try to change that in small ways. But certainly the book, my belief is that my daughter would want me to say, my dad was not like that. And there's a lot of dads that aren't like that and we should be talking about that much more loudly. Julia. What I'd like to know from you though is where are the support groups for black men? There was a piece on Queen Sugar last week where Aunt Vi talked

about her pain and Hollywood went to hang out with some of the brothers and he said well I have pain too where do I get to talk about my pain? And so you're a psychologist where do black men get to go to talk about my pain? And so you're a psychologist. Where do black men get to go to talk about their pain? Is this something we need to recreate and to encourage? Because all too often, brothers, when they share their pain, they're smacked down. Why are you so emotional? In the political campaign, Andrew Yang became very emotional when he contemplated if his children had been shot. Would a brother have been able to get away with that?

Before Long answer this, I'm going to speak to that, and I'm going to get his thoughts on it while he answers your question as well. I think part of the problem is that where you have black male institutions, there is too much of a focus on games and not what they are going through. I have been to men's church retreats, and so much of the focus is on fishing,

playing basketball, playing cards, playing dominoes, and I'm sitting here going, oh, I know some of y'all going through hell, and not dealing with this. I think the same thing happens in fraternities because I think we have bought into this notion that the only way you can get black men to come to these places

is to focus on games and things along those lines. And I've challenged leaders, Doc, to say, no, no, no, no, no, no. If you go home the same way you came, you're actually letting down the black women and your children who sent you here because that ain't the point for you to come to a men's retreat to play games. Yeah, yeah. No, you're absolutely right. You know, so you asked two questions. One is, is that where do you go?

I did some early research, and this actually came out of a women's empowerment conference that I had attended. I was one of the few black men who was there. And I attended just because I wanted to understand why did these women feel disempowered. But what came out of it was I started asking the question about why do we feel disempowered as men? And so I started looking around the country and the realization is that there are no shelters or no spaces for black men to go. So I mean Roland and I are fraternity brothers but the fact is if I went to any of those guys and said and talked to them about my pain, the look I would get wouldn't be one, it would be more of judgment.

So the question is, is can we in this movement, which we're calling the color of fatherhood, begin to create a portal, a safe space? I have some other folks who are in the discipline of psychology who've agreed to say, hey, I'm willing to listen to these men privately to talk about their pain, so we on the portal are going to create a space for them to come and honestly, so they can come and talk about that. But it requires leadership, though.

It does. Because when you, Dr. Carter, you're next with the question. We had a, we have an annual reunion of our, my chapter, Palmicron of Alpha at Texas A&M. We had a, we have an annual reunion of our chapter of Polymeron of Alpha Texas A&M. So we had a reunion and we have a brotherhood.

So it was at a brother's apartment, or one of those apartment, you know, party rooms or whatever. And it was a trip because, so we roll up, undergrads put it on, they said, all right, so we got food coming. And so we got this music. They said, and AKs and our girlfriends

was coming by at 9. And we looked at them. We like, what did you say? We like, don't his ass know this is a brotherhood? And they kept talking. So we were like, OK, turn the music off. Lock the door. Tell your girlfriends they can't come.

And tell none of them AKs or Deltas, anybody else, they can't come either. And these young cats were looking at us like we were crazy. We're like, no, no, this is called brotherhood. And that brotherhood was around at 9, it was about 8 p.m. We didn't leave until 7 a.m. Wow. And the conversations that took place in that, I remember we were having this discussion. We were talking about black on black crime.

We were talking about, you know, what we go through. Oh, I could never kill another brother. And one of my brothers said, he said, y'all lying, y'all ass off. He's like, what do you mean? He said, oh, he said, I've killed a man with my bare hands. He said, when I was in Iraq, he said it was me or him. And one of us was going home in a body bag.

He said, and my ass here. And it changed this whole different conversation about, because people just say, oh, no, I could never kill another man. He's like, no, no, yes, you can. And so, and it was just this, again, these really deep conversations. But we forced that dialogue by saying, again, no, women can't come. Turn the music off. This is what a brotherhood is supposed to look like.

But that has to be forced by leadership. Now, go ahead with your question. Yeah, so I was thinking of a few things. One earlier, that people create all kinds of male leadership roles in kids' lives. Uncles, granddaddies, brothers, friends. Like me, Uncle Daddy, real quick.

Yes, exactly. And I was thinking about my own father because as I've grown up, you know, I've sort of gotten closer to my mother because we're both women and there are ways in which we talk to each other that is different now. Yes.

Because, yes, I'm her daughter, but we are experiencing similar things at this point in my life. But I've found that that's been more difficult with my dad because, you know, I'm different now. I'm not a little girl anymore. And he's in a different place in his life. And I don't know what it's like to be, you know, a 70 year old young, younger man, as he likes to call it. And so how do you do that? I mean, I think it would probably be different if I were a man, but my dad has three daughters and I see our relationship changing very, very much from what it used

to be when I was younger. Well, it's very interesting because I think that part of the challenge is the way we communicate with one another. So when you talk about your dad at 70, what he's trying to figure out is what do I say differently or the same that I could say when my daughter was younger? So I call my daughter my little girl. I've always called her that up until the day she died. And she was always my little girl. And sometimes when she'd call me, I'd pick up the phone and say, hey, how's my little girl? Now, she's a grown woman, well over 40, but she was still my little girl.

Point is, is that our communication was such that she felt very comfortable allowing me to say that. And sometimes the opportunity to be your dad's little girl is just as important as you being the mature woman that you are. And at his age, he's looking to validate that he's still important to you. And I think that that's really what is really at the core of many of our relationships between particularly black women and black men is the level of importance and deference that we show each other and appreciation for who we are. And more specifically, my ex-wife and I, three or four of the dads are not married to their mother's fathers or to their mother's children. You know, the mother of their children, we're no not married to their mother's fathers, or to their mother's children. You know, the mother of their children

we're no longer married to. But my ex-wife and I, we co-parented our children for 27 years, because we've been divorced for 27 years. We co-parented them when they were young. And so when my daughter left this earth, her mother and I were standing there. Just as we were standing there, she was laying there, and I was standing there when she was laying there and I was standing there

when she was born. And the point is, is that I think that level of commitment is so important to our community. That we have to realize that they're at the center and once we have them, everything else around us is not as important. It's really about them. I also think, and last point here before we go, and what

we have to also understand is that the relationship goes beyond even if you're a biological parent. The reality is there are folks who are uncles, who are cousins. You look at, I was playing golf this weekend with Warwick Dunn. He was a brother whose mom was a police officer shot and killed, and he raised

his brothers and sisters. There's another brother who's playing the Los Angeles Rams right now who's literally raising his younger brother. And his younger brother got a problem. He's like, you ain't my daddy. He's like, yeah, but I'm raising you like my daddy. And it's like, I've raised six nieces off and on. And now three of them are back in my house.

And I'm like, damn, y'all need to go back. But the thing is, for for me and dealing with them I also make it let make it very clear one I'm not I don't play this game of you ain't my daddy cuz the moment you come the moment that comes out of your mouth I'm a slap slap it back into your mouth Because and look now some of y'all they're tripping but letting y'all know I'm a firm believe in corporate punishment Actor fool and hashtag team whip that ass will show up. I ain't got no problem with that. But it's making it perfectly clear because were it not for what me and my wife are doing, your behind is in trouble.

And establishing that ground in terms of this is how we operate in this house is critically important. And I think in many ways they understand and respect that, and then those who don't can't come back because we make it clear this is what is going to happen here. Well, I'll make one final point. We did two things. One is you asked me at the outset why Color Him Father, and so other than the song itself

which inspired the title. The other thing is that as we got deeper into it and as I thought more about it there are all kinds of fathers so Color Him Father is really also a differentiation to say there are other different circumstances where people are playing the role of father. Color Him Father is that it can be colored a number of of father. Color him father is that it can be colored a number of different ways. And the final point is that if you notice on the cover, we have a man's hand inside of a child's hand. We took a photo of making sure that when we picked the model for the book, that the cuticles of that man were not well manicured. What we wanted to show is that that father works. And we wanted to convey as many messages in the book,

everything from the color to how we staged their hands together, because we believe things matter. Words matter, pictures matter, and the visualization of black with a child matters as well. Well, I think it's a great image in terms of holding a hand. And for the folks out there who also don't, because I'm a big believer in this here, also don't understand the value of intimacy between a father and a daughter,

the importance of hugging, letting them be known. Because I got a rule. I walk into the crib, I don't care what everybody doing. Everybody stop what they doing. You got to come hug me. Exactly. You could be downstairs, upstairs. If you ain't paying for nothing, if I'm paying for everything,

no. Because I, and my niece is like, my one who's a freshman at Howard. And I was her, last week was her first day and I was doing, the day Steph Curry was at the golf deal. And so she said, Guerrero, come visit me.

So I walked on campus and I saw her and I'm like, yeah, you gonna hug me? She's like, well, I'm like, no, no, no. Let's be real clear. Just because your ass on campus don't mean you not gonna get hugged. I don't give a damn about your friends. I don't care about nobody else.

This is how we roll. And ain't no vote. So I never understand those conversations between daddies and daughters and sons like, okay, you know, now that I'm older, we can't sit your ass down. So my nieces, no, they can be 35,

38, 40, married. Trust me, you gonna come hug me. Roland, that's such an important point because male hugs, male non-sexual hugs are extremely important for young women. Those young women who grow up fatherless are often very vulnerable to touch. So someone, they don't want to have sex with you,

they just want to hug. Right, or fathers that abused their wives, they saw that and saw the mothers being abused, and that's not this whole idea. That's important. It's important. It creates an indelible impact on them. So I always, when fathers ask me as a former college president

of women's college, give me some advice, I'm like, hug your daughter. Tell her you love her. Do it as often as you can. So that when Chucklehead with low riding pants rolls up on her, you know, my daddy loved me. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, the book is called Color Him Father Lawrence M. Drake II. Get the copy right now. Lawrence, we sure appreciate it. Thank you so very much.

Thank you. That's how alphas roll. You see, Julianne, I mean you gonna learn that one day. I know, I know. Delta's rock. Y'all may roll, but we rock. Let's not start today. You say all that you want to, but I keep telling you Alpha's your daddy, and Michael can't say nothing. Well, I will give you props. I'll give you props for your Alpha interview last week. It was really excellent.

Oh, Maury Hardwick that we had on Friday. That was a really nice interview, and I like the male bonding thing that y'all did with your Alpha thing. I'll give y'all props when you deserve them, but you don't always deserve them. We always deserve them. So stop being a hater. Delta rocks.

Stop being a hater. Delta rocks. Yes, but y'all still came after us. It's all good. All right, y'all. I'm going to run my Marianne Williamson interview tomorrow right here on Roller Martin Unfiltered so y'all can check it out. We'll be back tomorrow.

Don't forget, if you want support on what we do, go to RollerMartinUnfiltered.com. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. You can contribute via Cash App, PayPal, as well as Square. We launched this show September 4th of last year, and we had about 170,000 YouTube

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And then, of course, we completely control the content. I don't have to ask somebody. I don't have to ask a producer who don't look like us. Can we please talk about these issues? No, I get to ask myself. And that's why we got to be able to control the narrative and control our platforms and then give it the time necessary to speak to those issues. And so Julianne, Michael, Naomi, thanks a bunch for being on our panel today.

Folks, I'll see you guys tomorrow. And, yes, I'm rocking my Jack Yates High School shirt. You know, the debate next month is Houston is going to be on campus of Texas Southern University in Houston. Jack Yates is right across the street. Shout out to Grenada Latham. She is the interim superintendent. Hey, HISD dysfunctional-ass school board. Her sister's been the interim superintendent for more than a year.

She needs to get the permanent job. She's killing it. And, of course, Yates is no longer on the list of schools academically in trouble. And so she's done a great job there. And so shout out to Principal Guillory as well. And so we always representing the trade in Houston. So I got to go. This is an iHeart Podcast.