#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 8.28 March on Washington; RNC wraps & Trump fails: 180k dead from COVID; #2020census matters special

Episode Date: August 29, 2020

8.28.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: March on Washington; RNC wraps and Trump fails: 180k Americans have died from COVID-19; NBA returns after players negotiated for some changes; Cop who shot Jacob Blake has been identified and now there will be a federal civil investigation; New charges against Kenosha protest shooter Kyle Rittenhouse; New Jersey Senate confirms the state's first Black female justice + #2020census matters special Support#RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partners: 2020 CensusIn America, everyone counts. And the 2020 Census is how that great promise is kept. Respond today online, by phone or by mail and help inform hundreds of billions in funding for education, health programs, and more. Shape your future. Start here at www.2020census.gov.#RolandMartinUnfiltered Partner: CeekWhether you’re a music enthusiast or an ultra-base lover. CEEK’s newly released headphones hear sound above, below and from multiple directions unlike traditional headphones where users only hear sound from left and right speakers. Be the first to own the world's first 4D, 360 Audio Headphones and mobile VR Headset.Check it out on www.ceek.com and use the promo code RMVIP2020#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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at taylorpapersilling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Thank you. Today is Thursday, August 27, 2020. Coming up, a Roland Martin unfiltered protest for Jacob Blake continuing in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Also, what is happening, folks. The father of Jacob Blake says he is no longer handcuffed to his bed. We'll tell you exactly what that's all about. Also, folks, we'll focus on the United States Census, why it matters for African Americans to ensure that we are counted. Also, on today's show, NBA players continue their protesting,

and they are going to return to the court, but there are some conditions. We're going to break it all down for you. It's time to bring the funk, a roller mark, and a filter. Let's go. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine And when it breaks, he's right on time And it's rolling, best belief he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling, yeah

It's Uncle Roro, yo Yeah, yeah It's rolling, Martin, yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's Roland Martin. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Rolling with Roland now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know. He's Roland Martin now.

Martin. All right, folks, today is the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It's also the anniversary of the death of Emmett Till. Those things have long coincided. Thousands gathered at the Lincoln Memorial today to commemorate that march. And also the focus was on the deaths of black men at the hands of cops. Here is a recap of today that march. And also, the focus was on the deaths of black men at the hands of cops. Here is a recap of today's march. August 28th is a day to remember the triumphs and tragedies that have taken place in our historic struggle

for racial justice. Today, we commemorate the march on Washington to jobs and freedom in 1963, where my father declared his dream. But we must never forget the American nightmare of racist violence exemplified when Emmett Till was murdered on this day in 1955, and the criminal justice system failed to convict his killers. 65 years later we still struggle for justice, demilitarizing the police, dismantling mass incarceration and

declaring and determinately as we can that black lives matter. In our struggle for justice there are no permanent victories. For on this day, 12 years ago, I was honored to address the Democratic National Convention in Denver. And on that night, on that evening in the Bauer high city, our spirits were soaring as the Democrats nominated Barack Obama, who would go on to become the first African-American president of these United States. But the progress we celebrated then is imperiled yet again. And now we must march to the ballot box and the mailboxes to defend the freedoms that earlier generations worked so hard to win. Some of you may remember that two years at the March for Our Lives, I said, spread the word.

Have you heard all across the nation? We are going to be a great generation. That was in 2018. I didn't know what would hit us in 2020. A pandemic that shut our schools and put our young lives on hold. More killings of unarmed black people by police. Attacks on our right to vote.

Worst economic crisis since the Great Depression that we learned about in school. And more extreme weather than ever before. But great challenges produce great leaders. more extreme weather than ever before. But great challenges produce great leaders. We are the great gems of our grandparents, great grandparents, and all our ancestors. We stand and march for love, and we will fulfill my grandfather's dream. So, show me what democracy looks like!

This is what democracy looks like! Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like! Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like! Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like! One last time! Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!

Okay, then, let's show them! No justice! No peace! No justice! No peace! No justice. No justice. No justice. No justice. What do we want? What do we want? What do we want? When do we want it? When do we want it? When do we want it? When do we want it? All right. 57 years ago, in 1963, there was a struggle in Birmingham, Alabama. There was the assassination of Medgar Evers, the head of the Mississippi NAACP. In the middle of struggle and murder, they came to Washington to demand that the federal government give them a Civil Rights Act and voting rights. They marched that day in a hot blistering day like today saying that as we struggle, we need legislation. And they stayed on that movement until they got the Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

He promised us full citizenship if we fought to save the Union. He promised us 40 acres and a mule. We never got the full citizenship. We never got the reparations. We come to Lincoln because you promised, Mr. Lincoln, and the promise has been broken. And we come like Dr. King came 57 years ago to say we're tired of broken promises. Tell it. Tell it. No justice! No peace! No justice! No peace!

Jacob Blake! Jacob Blake! Jacob Blake! Jacob Blake! Jacob Blake! Jacob Blake! There are two systems of justice in the United States. There's a white system and there's a black system. The black system ain't doing so well. But we're gonna stand up. Every black person in the United States is gonna stand up. We're tired. I'm tired of looking at cameras and seeing these young black and brown people suffer. All right, let's go to my panel. Rob Richardson, he is the host of the Disruption Now podcast.

Derek Holley, president, Reaching America and political analyst, and will be shortly joined by Misha Cross, political analyst and Democratic strategist. Rob, I want to start with you. Obviously, a number of speeches today, a number of family members who've had their children killed by police. Trayvon Martin's mom was there, Sabrina Fulton. You also had, of course, as you saw there, the father of Jacob Blake, who is in a hospital there in Milwaukee. You also had the George Floyd family and so many others. At the end of the day, you had this gathering, thousands were out there, crowd estimates around 10,

maybe 20,000 or so. They marched from the Lincoln Memorial over to the MLK Memorial. So Rob, at the end of the day, what now where we are is we are less than 70 days from election day. It simply boils down to mobilization and organization when it comes to voting.

Yeah, that's pretty much all it is. That's the whole point of the reaction coming out, too, because we know that despite what's going on, despite the fact that you have a president that's been in charge of leading a pandemic fail, where 200,000 people almost are dead, where he stokes racial flame every time he can instead of trying to bring people together, His people are going to be motivated no matter what, no matter what the polls say, they're going to be motivated. So it's going to it's going to turn. It's going to it's going to be on us to make sure that we come out in strong numbers, because it's always been black people that have actually helped save America. We're going to save it one more time. I mean, not only to improve our lives, but actually to make sure America survives.

Derek, I mean, obviously we have seen marches and protests from folks, from African-Americans, folks on the left, folks on the right. And again, marching and protesting is one thing. Polling is another thing. But it boils down to who is going to get out there and vote. Yeah, and that's the bottom line. Who's going to get out and vote? And I actually cycled down into the mall today and was down there for a good part of the protest in the march.

Did your ass put a mask on? I did. I had to put a mask on. Good job. Oh, so somebody covered up biking. Oh, to put it back. Good job. Oh, so somebody put it... Somebody covered up biking. Oh, look at the progress. Let me tell you. Let me be clear.

Let me be clear. When I cycle, I do not wear a mask. However, because of the crowd size, again, I pulled out my bandana and put that around my face. Yeah, uh-huh. size, again, I pulled out my bandana and put that around my face. Yeah, uh-huh. Okay.

Yeah, that's what we do. Yeah, okay. So, but all that being said, man, it was a good event. I was glad I went down there to see it. I think the numbers of the 10 to 20,000, I think that might be on the low side, so I'm waiting to see what that aerial view's gonna look look like because they were coming in droves. I mean, people were coming in droves. And so it was a really good, it was a good scene.

And so I'm hoping, man, that out of this will come some type of reform as it relates to the police and what they're doing. I mean, this last shooting, man, it's just ridiculous at this point. One after another. One after another. Amisha, I did not go out there. One of the reasons I did not go out there is because you saw that lack of social distancing. That was precisely why.

I'm sorry. And again, look, I got no problem. Here's the deal. We had the live stream, and here's the deal. I listened to people last night, uh, complain about the lack of social distancing, uh, that took place, uh, at when, when Trump gathered last night, look, you can't criticize that venue. Uh, well, they had several thousand people and then you don't say anything about what took place at the Lincoln Memorial.

Uh, and so again, to me, seriously, seriously, to me, you could have had that event. It could have been all virtual. And so look, if people want to get together and protest, that's fine with me, but that's why I was not there. And so, because I got to think about my family as well, and we have to be practicing what we preach. Nevertheless, these events are important. They are symbolic, but they also important. But it's also vital that you have a content gathering, data gathering, because having people show up is one thing. But being able to be sure you reach them and connect with them when they leave, that to me is also important. Now, you're 100 percent correct. And my my my heart goes out to you and all the people who are involved in this movement and have been in this movement long before it became a hashtag who were not able to be there today because of social distancing, because thousands of people flew in and who knows what they may or may not have brought with them. important point, Roland. We have never had a hard time in gathering people for a mass event in the

nation's capital or any other major city for that matter. What we do have more of a problem with is consistent engagement that exists outside of those pivotal event moments. What are people doing? How are they going to carry this back into their neighborhoods? How are they going to apply pressure to their state and local leadership? What do we do beyond this? I think that for a lot of folks, and this isn't to shade anybody who took part in this movement at all, but I think that for a lot of people who flew into D.C. today and who are out on the memorial, they've checked off a box and probably also didn't check off the boxes they needed to for the census. And I know you're going to talk about that later in your show, but I just want to make sure that people fully understand

what we face in this nation. And it's more than just this election in 2020. There are so many elections that we need to have people involved in who look like us, specifically younger people we know are such a large demographic but don't and are not represented as often as they should be in our electoral process. But we want to see this movement take place and more than just these these key moments throughout history. We want you to take this to the streets in your own communities. We want you to consistently have your voice heard at home. I think it's very easy to show up in D.C., which is a great city and showcase it here. But it matters a lot to take it back home. It matters a lot to carry this conversation, have some actionable items that you're actually doing outside of social media and outside of the process itself.

All right, folks. Speaking of last night, Donald Trump gave one of the longest damn acceptance speeches ever last night, tallied more than an hour. No real vision forward. He did have a few black moments. And to bring prosperity to our forgotten inner cities, we worked hard to pass historic criminal justice reform, prison reform, opportunity zones and long term funding of historically black colleges and universities. And before the China virus came in, produced the best unemployment numbers for African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans ever recorded. And I say very modestly that I have done more for the African American community than any president since Abraham Lincoln, our first Republican president. And I have done more in three years for the black community than Joe Biden has done in 47 years. And when I'm reelected, the best is yet to come.

There were a couple of minor details that were left out there, Derek. One, touting black unemployment. Yep, number did go down. We went through that, didn't we? Number did go. What goes down did come up right now it's at 14.6 percent don't trump didn't even i want you i want you no so so i'm just so but there's to me there's nothing more ignorant and ridiculous it's for this fool to actually think, oh, I've done more for black people than any president since Lincoln. Now, if you start going through the Great Depression and FDR

and the New Deal, if you talk about Truman desegregating the armed forces, and then a number of other different things, when you talk about President Lyndon Baines Johnson, Voting Rights Act, Civil Rights Act, Fair Housing Act, putting the initial pieces in place when it came to affirmative action, I mean, we can go down the line. In fact, if you want to even just say Republicans, fact of the matter is, Richard Nixon, if you read Bob Brown's book, Richard Nixon's efforts when it came to busing, second, when it came to affirmative action, third, when it came to investment in black businesses,

Donald Trump can't even get close to that. But this is, he ain't talking to black people, Derek. He ain't even talking to you, black conservatives. He really talking to the white people saying, I've been real good to the blacks. Your assessment. You can feel okay. Now, no, hold up Derek your assessment I

Was gonna say yeah, I agree with you everything was about what you said about Nixon and you know rolling I Didn't pay a lot attention to the conventions because I knew was was going to be a lot of grandstanding on both sides. And to your point, he wasn't, I don't think a lot of blacks tuned in to the RNC convention. So I do think he was for the most part speaking to his base. And like I said, I didn't pay a lot to put a whole lot of credence, if you will, to either one of the conventions for that reason, because I know there's going to be a lot of grandstanding for both sides. And for me personally, I think a lot, for the most part, except for independents, people have pretty much made up their mind about who they want to vote for come November. I think, Amisha, I do believe that you have a small percentage of people, white independents, who could go either way. I do believe that.

I think in many ways this election is going to be like 2012. I remember after Obama was atrocious in that first debate, Democrats were losing their mind. Oh, my God, he's going to lose this. Polling show, folks were not really going either way. This election is going to come down to two things. It's going to come down to turnout, and then it's going to come down to voter suppression. Today, a judge ruled in Iowa, throwing out some 50,000 absentee ballots in Iowa because the information was filled in for the voter when it was sent to them by the local clerk. The Trump team, the Republican National Committee, they've already said they're going to send 50,000 poll watchers after that consent decree is no longer what was invalidated after the

last election. And they are going to be challenging mail-in ballots in every state. It's going to happen. It's going to happen. Definitely the election is coming down. So, you know, people can sit here and talk about the pageantry and I saw these conservatives saying, oh, Democrats and the whole deal with, you know, with the optics. That don't mean a damn thing. It's going to come down with turnout.

You're absolutely correct, Roland. This isn't a time where we're going to see Trump trying to expand his base. He hasn't tried to expand his base during the entire four years. And I don't think he's going to try to expand it by November 3rd. What he is trying to do and what the Republican Party is helping him do is ensure that there is large-scale voter suppression and voter disenfranchisement, whether that be by pushing these false narratives about there being a large amount of fraud and mail-in voting and there being problems with that, or just extremely long lines at polling stations,

polling machines that don't work, polling stations closed down in certain areas. He is counting on African-Americans staying home out of a sense of just apathy with the process or not having their votes counted at all. And I think that, you know, the tragedy in all of this is that we have a president who does not really uphold democracy. He knows that he can't win this vote fair and square. He knows that this is going to be a race war within the margins. And instead of actively competing and actively pushing forward a policy that people can get behind, he's decided that he's just going to try to steal this election by whatever means necessary. And whatever means necessary is destroying mail-in ballots, utilizing the United States Postal Service to help him to do so. In addition to that, making sure that he has these states in his back pocket and governorships

that are working against our democracy on a daily basis and are steadily trying to keep people off the rolls as we speak. Derek, again, it was just laughable listening to all of that. It was laughable. I'm sorry, Rob. Rob, go to you next. It was laughable listening to all of that. It was laughable in the fact that Donald Trump made no mention at all of any police shootings, of holding police accountable.

There was this throwaway line in there about, yes, there's police misconduct. We will hold them to the letter of the law. But everything else was a full on embrace, hug, you name it, when it comes to police. And so when I hear it, I'm going to play a video later. When I hear all of these conservatives say Joe Biden needs to speak up more forcefully against these rioters out there. I'm like, when the hell are y'all going to say something? That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm, look, look, it's fool's goal.

It's actually a trap to try to fall into that narrative because all this lawlessness, if he wants to call it that, is falling under his administration. So he's talking about all these things that are happening and saying what's going to happen if Joe Biden takes over. It's happening now. Like, so what are you talking about? It's under a Trump administration. So I actually think future Vice President Kamala Harris framed it in the right way. She's saying that he's responsible for not only these injustices with police, but he's responsible for the breakdown

in the whole decay of us not having a civil way to come together because he is exacerbating the problem. And so if you want real law and order, which just doesn't mean like cops get to do whatever they want and kill people, that's not law and order. It's real justice. They will have a real administration and we will do that and we'll hold those people accountable, including people like the guy

who, I forgot the guy's name, who shot and killed two or three protesters in Wisconsin. Kyle Rittenhouse. He needs to be held accountable. who shot and killed two or three protesters in Wisconsin. Kyle Rittenhouse. Kyle Rittenhouse. Yes. Yes. He needs to be held accountable.

He was able to go out and do this shooting and walk past a police officer like all is cool. I mean, law and order is out of control in this country, and it's because of Donald J. Trump, and we need to change administrations. If you want to keep going the way we are, then I guess you can go with this president. This is Trump's America. So I don't even understand the argument he was making. So last night, last night, you had a situation out there after the speech was over where Rand Paul and his wife, go to the video, were walking out. And apparently some people, like, they turned down car service. They chose to walk back to their hotel.

So there were protesters who were shouting at them and yelling at them. And Republicans have been in an uproar today. Derek, oh, my God, I can't believe this. They feared for their life and saying that Joe Biden must must slam this and Joe Biden must must must must, you know, criticize this. But I want to show you something else. Three days ago, Derek, three days ago in Idaho, in Idaho, there were a group of protesters who shoved their way past state troopers in the state Capitol, took over the gallery, refused to leave. The Republican Speaker of the House said, okay, fine, y'all can go ahead and stay. Then when the question was asked to the cops, why didn't y'all charge any of them? They said, oh, there was going to be a higher risk of violence if we arrested any of them. Some of them were also armed. And they said, OK, fine, y'all can go ahead and stay.

What were they what were they protesting? Masks. So I tweeted out to several conservatives who were demanding that Joe Biden speaks forcefully against this. And I said, when the hell y'all going to speak out against something? I said, three days ago. I said, they literally pushed past state troopers. Everywhere else I could say, if you did that, Derek, and I did it, and Amisha and Rob, hell, we getting hit with assault.

But they... We might not live. If we walked out alive. I'm on my back. Right, right. But wait a minute, and this is crazy. So in 2014, Derek, there were a group of LGBT activists who had a silent protest who stood in the door. They arrested them. So my whole point is this here.

Would I have been shouting down Rand Paul that way? No. Because my whole deal is the best way to shut Rand Paul up is for the Democrats to take control of the Senate and put his ass in a minority. So that's just me. So other folks. But it's amazing to me how something happened and conservatives, oh my God, Democrats, you have got to condemn this. And I'm like, man, y'all let shit ride and don't say nothing. Well, Rowan, I think that goes both ways.

That's what I just said. That's what I just said, Derek. So, I think it rides on both sides. Now, today, I had a conversation with three Capitol Hill police officers. Two of them was black. One of them was white.

And so conversation led into what took place out at Lafayette Plaza. And I was like, man, I said, I just don't think a lot of times that people see the whole true story of what took place. And they just, they went on from there. And so what he said was, two black officers. He said, we couldn't do anything

at Lafayette Plaza until they tried to pull down that statue. He said, up until then, our hands were tied. They didn't want the statue to come down. So we were then ordered to bring law and order to the whole entire situation. So again, Roland, I just think sometimes you can take a look, you can take a video, and you can take a story, and you can spin it to fit the narrative whichever way you want it to. Yeah, no, it's not that hard. No, no, no, really, look, look, look. You look at Cliven Bundy, who took over a federal land with guns and dared the Obama

administration to come by, and they backed down. Black people- Hey, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, how Fox News loved that. They called that an American patriot fighting for freedom. Go ahead.

Yes, but suddenly when we're trying to fight to live, we're not fighting for freedom. We're dangerous thugs. You got the RNC out here talking about hide your baby, hide your kids. These black people are trying to take over. No, all we're trying to do is live. We're not protesting not having a father. We're protesting the right to exist.

Oh, but basically, yeah, Derek, basically. Yeah, yeah. Basically, Amisha, pretty much four days of the Republican National Convention was like, they're coming to get you, white people. It wasn't even a coded translation. That was literally the argument. The Republicans are basing their 2020 election hopes on scaring the hell out of suburban white women because black people are protesting in the streets to have our civil rights and civil liberties upheld. And that is what it is, plain and simple.

And we got to see it person after person on that stage every night for four nights, for two hours each night. That is what this is. Trump knows that his victory might just run through the suburban communities. And he's looking to speak to these white women because historically, trope after trope, when you scare a lot of white women into believing that the blacks are coming to get them, it changes things in this country. It takes democracy backwards. It takes black people backwards. And it has caused a lot to our detriment, specifically black men, in terms of having their lives put at risk.

Because the minute that, you know, one of these women ends up calling the police, it's the end of it for a black man. We know that. And as these situations keep on upticking, this president is utilizing this law and order mantra. It's not even about protests. This is about scaring people who don't even live amongst the population they're afraid of, that at some point, these people are going to rise up and they're going to take whatever it is that you believe is yours, and you're

no longer going to matter in this country. That is what President Trump's message is. Derek, were you bothered by the fact that federal property, tax pay, I mean, the White House was turned into a Trump stage last night. No president has... Hell no, I wouldn't bother by that a Trump stage last night. No president. Hell no, I wouldn't bother by that mess, man.

No, no, no. Okay, okay, all right. So you're saying that if a Democrat does that, you would perfectly fine with it? Yeah. If Obama would have done that, I'd be like, go, go, go. Yeah. Keep this tape. And Derek, would your fellow Republicans

be saying the same? Hell no. Hell no. He tried. In fact, Trump had this. No, they would not. Let me tell you right now. One of the reasons why I really,

really, really want to see Biden win, especially for getting rid of racist Donald Trump, is because I can't wait. I can't wait for him and Vice President Harris to do some stuff and Republicans start talking and all black people, show me the hand, talk to the hand. Y'all didn't say a damn thing for four years. Talk to the hand. I'm telling you right now, if Democrats get control of the Senate, I'm telling you,

Chuck Schumer should be the biggest gangster in D.C. Shut the hell up. No, no, no. I'm talking about Chuck Schumer should do to the Republicans what Mitch McConnell did to the Democrats. Shut up. I ain't talk. I'm telling you right now that I wouldn't let him talk in hearings. I'd be like, y'all done gavel approved. Y'all done. Matter of fact, I wouldn't even have judge by judge. You know what Republicans do? They put seven judges up there, Misha, and had one big ass hearing. Y'all don't matter. In fact, I wouldn't even have judge by judge. What Republicans do, they put seven judges up there, Misha, and had one big ass hearing.

I put twenty five judges. That's what they that's what they should do. I mean, that's what we've seen happen from Republicans. I'll be gangster, you know, thrown away the playbook. They've thrown away the norms. They don't care. And at this point, you know, they have a habit of calling out Democrats for the smallest infraction. But we've seen throughout this Trump administration that none of the rules apply. And then when you mention them, it's like, oh, this doesn't matter. It's really frustrating because the hatchback has come up at the state level, at the federal level several times before for senators, sitting senators, current sitting senators. However, when it comes to the president, Republicans are acting like, oh, this is not a big deal.

I'm just letting y'all know. I'm be like, you done? You done? Next. You done? Next. Okay, now y'all, last night, Trump made his big old fireworks display.

You know there were protesters out there in the streets? Actually, this is a pretty cool video. Watch this. actually this is a pretty cool video watch this Well, Doug, 180,000 have died because Trump failed when it came to coronavirus. You know, I was, it's interesting. So I was, it was Wednesday. My cousin texted me. She said, cuz, they're running that video on TV where you were standing behind Trump and in front of Pence when I was at the White House. And I was like, damn, what is this?

So I turned on CNN to watch it and see what it was. But scrolling at the bottom of the screen was Spain. Their health minister said they had over 7,000 cases of coronavirus in one day. And he said, quote, coronavirus is out of control in our country. Spain, Italy, France, all the numbers are up. Even the other

one where everybody was pointing to we should use as an example. Everybody is doing it right now around the world. It's not just a United States problem. New Zealand? Know what you mean? New Zealand's not. New Zealand's not up.

No, no, no. Now, hold on, hold on. Let me help you. New Zealand had two new cases, and they shut it down, too. I guess from zero to two is, okay, okay. All right. So CNN is lying. So your defense here is that other countries have numbers going up,

even if it's only two people. There's no defense. So Trump is fine, and America's not really in trouble. So two and 200,000, you see a difference there, don't you? What I'm saying to you is the coronavirus is deadly and it's impacting the entire world. It's just saying more than President Trump is, because during the entire RNC, they spoke about the coronavirus in the past. So it didn't exist. No. Well, yes, it's called. Here's the deal. Here's the deal. when you're the president now

no no no here's the deal when you are the president no no no no here's the deal right here's the deal when when obama was president republicans are like you can't take credit for low gas prices gas prices went high it's fault it's high gas prices. Republicans said you can't take credit. No, no, no, no. I said, no. Wait, wait. No, no, no. Republicans said you can't take credit for the improving economy.

Oh, I remember Jack Welch actually said we can't trust these unemployment numbers. But now all of a sudden, oh, I've got the lowest. It's all me. This fool actually said last night, Rob, I rebuilt the American economy in three years. How your ass...

That's like saying... That's like saying... I rebuilt a car that already existed because i put some air in the tire yeah do you remember when the republicans got upset uh during 2012 when obama was talking about how the government economy works and how no one business builds everything by themselves you have to have roads you have to have bridges you have to have and he said one line you didn't build that and they ran a whole line of multi-million dollar commercials. This fool said that he built the whole economy in three years,

which of course is not true. But like, here is what's true. He is responsible for the piss-poor lack response that he had with the coronavirus. How he responded was up to him. He decided not to have a national effort. He decided that it was a hoax. He decided not to have a national effort. He decided that it was a hoax.

He decided that people didn't need to wear masks, and that caused a whole bunch of lies, period, end of discussion. The leadership starts and ends there. Hey, Derek, I'm just curious. I'm just curious. I just want to know, have you ever done this? I know you've asked some friends. No, no, no, I just want to know, I just want to know, have you ever done this? Have you ever sat down with some friends who you and your wife invited over to the house? And your wife prepared this amazing meal.

And she spent all day preparing this meal. And sat down and one of your guests said, Derek, this is an amazing meal. And you said, absolutely. I spent all day working on this meal. And you want to look at your ass like, no, your ass didn't. That's Donald Trump. Obama literally said, here is a great economy. And he's like, I built this. It's all mine. I built it all by myself. I get all the credit. Nothing happened before I came.

Your wife was sat there. She was saying, Darren, let me holler at you for a second. She would cuss you out there on the spot, wouldn't she? Pretty much. Hell yes. Hell yes. Yeah. So that's exactly what, that's exactly probably how Obama feel when this lame ass up there

talking about, I rebuilt the economy in three years. Man, whatever the hell. That's just such nonsense. That narrative also presupposes that the economy was completely in shambles and destructive before Donald Trump came in. That's what I'm saying. Which is absolutely incorrect. That's what I'm saying. Absolutely incorrect. That's what I'm saying. That's like saying, wait a minute, I have all these ingredients and uncooked meat and just nothing is cooked. But then all of a sudden, if I came in and did something with it, I can take credit for the

whole dinner. But you can't walk in and say the whole dinner is now prepared, is cooked, and is served, and then you go, where my love? Show me some love. He made it worse now. The economy's in a worse position. So he should take all the credit for the coronavirus deaths, but no credit for your car. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, Derek, what we're saying is

if your ass gonna take credit for the good stuff, your ass gonna accept blame for the bad stuff. And, and, and, and, I ain't trying to hear, oh, it was so great before COVID. Because that's a part of your, that's in your four years, baby. See, you got to accept what's in your foot. That's like George W.

Bush saying, yo, the economy was kicking until that shit fell out until, until the housing crisis just destroyed the entire economy and almost put and put us into the second greatest depression in American history. Donald Trump is the equivalent of a dude who said, yo, we were killing them in that game. And they said, no, no, no, you were killing them in the first half. You got your ass whooped in the second half and you lost the game.

Yeah, yeah, but by halftime, we were killing them. Yeah, I will say this about Trump, though. You cannot underestimate his ability to rally the troops, though. He knows how to— Oh, they don't care about lies? They don't care about lies. They don't care about the economy. I mean, like, he's able to get them to feel so good about whatever, about whiteness, about craziness, about whatever, about his bully lies that they will just buy into it this man there

this man had there for three years this man has lied saying he signed the choice act for for veterans dog there's literally video of obama signing it in 2014 the fool last night said he signed the Choice Act. And everybody stood and plies. It was in 2014, bro. This man will lie. We will just lie about anything. And things that can easily be fact-checked

extremely quickly because he knows that his base does not care about facts. He knows that his base doesn't care about truth. He knows that his base is going to be with him regardless. And I think that he also counts on Americans as just not being that smart because literally his speech was fact checked in real time. He's not only making up dates and events, he's also creating stories out of nowhere in terms of his own progress. And I think that, you know, it gets frustrating after a while because you continue to see this. We saw it got him into the White House the first time

I would be scared to think that this exact same thing would get him into it a second time Hey Derek, you know mega and so I have Derek I've now found Go ahead there. Go ahead. I was gonna say conversely Conversely, you know you saying that you know, he thinks that Americans are stupid. The same could be said for for for the Democrats. On what? It's just that all black people vote for me, period. Well, actually, actually, actually, you start breaking down numbers. The reality is that was not what?

Ninety six percent. No. Ninety three percent of black women voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. That's damn near nearly all black people. Derek, it's just by the likelihood, just like the likelihood that the majority of white men are going to vote Republican. You know why? Because they always vote Republican. Right. I mean, I mean, right. I think of that as racist. Like, for instance, like if Donald said, if Donald Trump said, yo,

the majority of white folks with me, well, no Democrat has gotten higher than 40% of the white vote since 1964. That's factually correct. So what's the problem? So, Derek. We talked about this on one of your shows before, Roland, that, you know, in 2016, that was the lowest turnout for black people when we couldn't vote.

Yes, so that was a drop of 2.4% in 2016. We're going to make sure there's no drop. But Derek, you've been in Omega. I have now found the perfect response when I have to encounter whatever you say in public. I have now found it. So, Derek, I just want you to know, from this moment forth, anytime you say some ignorant shit

on this show, I am going to play this. Are you going to make me disconnect? No, no, no, no, no. Come on, y'all! It's on the iPad. Go to my iPad. Don't be a snowflake. Huh?

It's no sound. Just pull the video up. No, I don't know what the control room. What y'all doing? Pull the video up. No, I've got video playing. And it's showing it. So, Derek, this is perfect for you. This is perfect for you.

Because last night, and I want to thank Melania for providing me this video. Do y'all have it now? Here we go. Here you go, Derek. This is for you. For now, for Derek, this is right here. Derek, right? Ah, this bullshit.

This lying ass. Right there. That's going to be for you every bullshit. Hang on. This is lying to hell. Right there. That's going to be for you every time. Every time. Every time, Derek. Every time. Like, let me get your mind turned. This is mine right here, Derek. Bullshit.

Here you go. There you go. He lying again. Yeah, that's it right there. That's what it's going to be from this point forward. When you say something and people go like, Derek, back on your show. Yeah, okay, his ass.

Mm-hmm, look at that. She's like, hi, Coach First Lady. How you doing? Yeah, okay, whatever. Let me go to a break. We come back. Yeah, that was for you. I'll be back.

Roller Martin Unfiltered in just a moment. You want to support Roller 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. As Roller Martin Unfiltered, support the Roller Martin Unfiltered daily digital show by going to Roll it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin Unfiltered support the Roland Martin Unfiltered Daily Digital Show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible.

RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. As our community comes together to support the fight against racial injustice, I want to take a second to talk about one thing we can do to ensure our voices are heard. Not tomorrow, but now. Have your voices heard in terms of what kind of future we want by taking the 2020 census today at 2020census.gov? Now folks, let me help you out. The census is a count of everyone living in the country. It happens once every 10 years. It is mandated by the U.S. Constitution. The thing that's important is that the census informs funding,

billions of dollars, how they are spent in our communities every single year. I grew up in Clinton Park in Houston, Texas, and we wanted new parks and roads and a senior citizen center. Well, the census helps inform all of that and where funding goes. It also determines how many seats your state will get in the U.S. House of Representatives. Young black men and young children of color

are historically undercounted, which means a potential loss of funding or services that helps our community. Folks, we have the power to change that. We have the power to help determine where hundreds of billions in federal funding go each year for the next 10 years. Funding that can impact our community, our neighborhoods, and our families and friends. Folks, responses are 100% confidential and can't be shared with your landlord, law enforcement, or any government agency. So please take the 2020 Census today.

Shape your future. Start at 2020census.gov. NBA is back this weekend, but after extensive conversations with other governors, owners throughout the week, the league and its players released a joint statement today detailing the concrete changes they hope to see going forward as they resume play. Among the commitments is the immediate establishment of social justice coalition with representation from players, coaches, and governors that will cover a wide array of issues,

including increased voting access, promoting civic engagement, and advocating for meaningful police and criminal justice reform. In every NBA city where the league's franchise owns and controls its arena property, team owners will work with local officials to turn those arenas into voting locations for the 2020 general election, giving constituents a way to vote in person during the coronavirus pandemic. If that isn't possible, there will be an effort to use those facilities in other ways,

including as sites to register voters and receive ballots. Folks, this was something that they had no choice. The players were prepared to walk away. LeBron James, one of the voices, had reached out to he reached out to President Barack Obama. Amisha, this is a pretty, pretty interesting deal here. And this is where players utilizing their leverage. That's what they did. Okay, we got issues with your microphone. So let me go to Rob. Rob? Yeah, I mean, this is the power of solidarity. It shows you

the power of coming together and what you can use with your platform. I'm proud of these athletes. I actually had some debate with some folks. They were like, well, they shouldn't do this. They don't have a plan. Clearly, they do. And this got folks' attention. This is what's going to be needed for this fall, because we're going to need a lot of energy. And they're going to, as we've talked about, they're going to try every avenue to suppress, to

intimidate. But when there's a light shine on it, it's going to be very hard. And there's a high turnout. Despite all of those issues, we're going to be able to win so i just tell people look don't worry about voter suppression just get out and vote uh derrick you got some um you got some nfl owners they better be one because be concerned i was reading a talk i was reading a piece from jim trotter earlier today and he said there are a number of nfl players who were thinking about saying yo we're gonna boycott at least one of the games i'm telling you these these what the owners what the owners got to understand is this here. You ain't got no product unless you have players. Get the players.

Indeed, bro. Man, let me tell you. I just, so it was a couple days ago, I was taking Derek to our training for our track practice. And he was saying, dad, they're Derek to our training for our track practice. And he was dead. You know, they're not going to put us in the protest. It was like we'll protest. Let's play the game. And I was so

I was so happy when I heard the walkie-talkie and walked off and we're going to play because that's our man these players have the power to really make a change. Well when you had when you had your show, when we was on TV One, we were talking about the NFL, when he was kneeling, when Kaepernick was kneeling, all that kind of stuff. It's like, Derek, you're going to get this message to the White House. I said, I'm going to get it over there. And right now, man, and even back then with Colin Kaepernick kneeling,

I think these players, as long as they have a plan, and they have a plan, they can have an impact on what society and what happens in this country right now. And if the NFL right now, if them boys come out and boycott a game, Shorty, it's going to make all the world of a difference. But after that, after these boycotts, after the protests, you've got to have a plan.

The plan's got to be some type of justice, something as it relates to police reform. And it can't be defund the police. It's got to be some type of justice, something as it relates to police reform. And it can't be defund the police. It's got to be a concrete plan. And these athletes can be the centerpiece, if you will, to make this thing happen. Simple as that. And again, this shows you how collective leverage. Because, again, I'm not using power.

And here's why. See, power means you control. The reality is the NBA governors, they control because they own the teams. But this is where you use leverage and influence. And I think it's important for people, just like the players did not boycott the games. That was a strike. It was not a boycott. This is leverage and influence that they are exerting to get the league and the owners to do what they need them to do. And I would hope that these black players in the NFL would, as a collective, find some guts to realize it's more you than them.

I mean, Jerry Jones can sit here. I'm telling you right now, Jerry Jones could talk all this crap he want to about kneeling. Let me tell you, let me tell you what changes that when Dak Prescott has the guts to stand with his fellow player. When in fact, y'all, y'all have the video of the Minnesota Vikings today. Today, the Minnesota Vikings players got together and they spoke to the issue and they spoke as a team. Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott, pay attention. We want proper persecution of Derek Chauvin, the police officer that kneeled on George Floyd's neck for eight minutes, along with the other officers. That's all we want, just to start there. And as a social justice coalition, as a group,

and as a team, and as an organization, we're doing everything we can to build sustainable programs that will help the long-term effects of the lack of economic prominence in low-income areas, the lack of mental health support in some of these areas. We are doing everything we can, but now it's on the bureaucratic system to also meet our intensity, to meet our level of what we're demanding, because it only goes so far.

It's a two-way street. We can do what we can with the finances and the resources we have, but we need the politicians. We need the government officials, the bureaucratic system, like I spoke to, to stand up and be leaders because we live in a world right now where everyone cherishes the voices and the stances of entertainers. And everything falls back on us. What are they going to do?

What stance are we going to make? Right now, we're saying right now we're going to put the pressure on the bureaucratic system to implement a proper persecution of Derek Chauvin. I repeat his name again, Derek Chauvin. I'm not going to just say the officer. His name is Derek Chauvin, along with the other officers who murdered George Floyd in the streets of Minneapolis. I speak for my entire team right now. I appreciate

them allowing me to come up and be the voice, but just know I'm one man, but the army behind me is much stronger when we're together, and we wanted a unified voice in this moment. I appreciate Coach, the administration, for allowing this to, you know, even be possible today, but it's a two-way street, like I said. Now it's time for the bureaucratic system to hold up its end and to supply a fair trial, fair juries. All of the process that we've known has failed us before. We're sick of the process and the system failing us. We're standing up right now as the Minnesota Vikings

and saying we want a proper jury. We want a proper persecution of Derek Chauvin. Thank you. If the NFL and all of his players stood behind him, and that was a white player who spoke after him as well. We're now seeing this, Rob, in the NFL. Excuse me, in Major League Baseball, where white players, and let's be real clear, we didn't have this before,

where white players were standing up for these issues. Go right ahead, Rob. No, I've actually never seen it. It's encouraging, but I would tell you it's also scaring a lot of people. I can speak right here in Cincinnati, Ohio. My fiance and her kid goes to a Catholic high school, and the principal came out with this letter saying he doesn't want, he believes Black Lives Matter,

but doesn't want anybody taking a knee at the game, or otherwise you could get suspended. So in other words, you don't he believes Black Lives Matter, but doesn't want anybody taking a knee at the game or otherwise you could get suspended. So in other words, you don't believe in Black Lives Matter. You don't believe in protest. So you have, this is worrying people. And that's why I know it's working. And so it's taking the power of the agency. We're not here just to entertain you. We're going to fight for our rights.

And I am so proud of these athletes. And I'm so proud of this generation right now. Again, that's how. Go ahead, Derek. Go ahead. I was going to say, that brother did a really good job with the Minnesota Vikings, but the day before, Ryan Tannehill, white quarterback for the Tennessee Titans,

stood up and did something very similar to that and the whole team behind him, and it was powerful to the point where he actually started, got choked up and a couple of tears came down and it was a to the point where he actually started, got choked up and a couple of tears came down. And it was a good thing, man, because there are some genuine, some really good white people out there who are really, really supporting this movement. And I think these players, man, the NFL, first of all, the NBA, applaud them, applaud them for what they did. And they are a true example.

And I think if the nfl can follow suit man i think we could really have an impact it's only going to happen when you have players you have the guts to actually stand up as simple as that but again amicia i think what you're seeing is you're seeing a new generation of folks find their voice and this is how you use your leverage and influence to be able to create to create change no you're absolutely correct and i think they're watching these people in the streets who, in many cases, don't have two dimes to rub together, and they are

sitting in their multi-million dollar homes with this level of influence, with this embedded base of followers. It is incumbent upon them to take on a leadership role and really speak out now. For the NBA and the NFL, these are two institutions of sports that would not exist without the athleticism

of African-American males. So to see the NBA, first and foremost, go out of its way and take the charge that it has, I think that it shows a strength in leadership and it's something that we're going to see showcased throughout some of the other leagues. I'm also extremely impressed by the MLB and the NHL, which are not majority black, majority black leagues

that are really taking a stand right now as well. Yeah, that's the case folks. Let me give you this headline here. Fabiana Pierre-Louis has been confirmed to become the first black woman to serve on the New Jersey Supreme Court. The full state Senate voted 39 to zero to approve Governor Phil Murphy's pick

to be the next associate justice on the state's highest court. She will be the third black judge to join the court in the state's 244-year history. She also will be the youngest justice on the current court. It's also a, of course, her folks are immigrants of Haiti,

and so certainly congratulations to her for that. All right, folks, that is it for us. First half of our show, Rob, Alicia, and Derek, we certainly appreciate all three of you being with the panel. I look forward to seeing you guys next week. We're hanging on this time, not hanging up.

Yeah, Derek, nice job. Yes, in fact, Derek, one of the folks on my social media said Derek must have taken his ADHD medicine because he hasn't hung up yet. You ain't pissing me off. Yeah, all right. You took your medicine.

Thank you for taking your meds. You're my man, though, bro. Thank you. Even if you're alpha, you're still my man. Thank you. Thank you for taking your meds. So, please, if you can affect Kanye, that would be great. But Omega Kappa, that's all the same thing.

Y'all, thanks a bunch. Folks, hold Omega Kappa, that's all the same thing. Y'all, thanks a bunch. Folks, hold tight. Hold, it's the same thing. Coming up next, the census, why it matters to African-Americans. The census, why it matters. That's next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. You want to check out Roland Martin Unfiltered?

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And we want to thank the folks. All right, we're back. I want to thank the people that asked me for being, of course, partners here with Roland Martin Unfiltered. What they're laying out is critically important, and so we appreciate their support for this show. Folks, the Constitution requires an accurate count of the country's population every 10 years, and this year, 2020, is a census year. The data collected affects the ability to ensure equal representation and equal access to important governmental and private sector resources for everyone across racial and ethnic lines. Unfortunately, certain populations are at a higher risk of not being

fully counted in the census. Some, like African Americans, have been historically underrepresented for decades. One of the reasons of major changes in the way the data is collected, like relying on the internet as primary way to reach households and how they respond, and some people are just reluctant to respond because they don't trust the confidentiality of the data being collected. Now, in the next hour, we'll give you a talk about why black folks must participate and really get people to understand really what the census is and how it impacts you. Now, let me stay right there, because some of you are watching right now. There are more than 6,000 people on YouTube right now. And there's a thousand plus who are watching on Facebook and Periscope.

And you're sitting there saying, all right, you know what? This is not really exciting. This is not really interesting, but we're talking about billions of dollars. If you are watching us right now and you care about parks, roads, stop signs, highways, expressways, health centers. If you care about how dollars are being allocated based upon census tracts, the census is how that money is allocated. Michael C. Cook, senior. He is the director of public affairs for the Census Bureau. He joins us right now. Michael, how you doing? Thanks for having me. I appreciate the opportunity to let people know that the 2020 census is still going on. Time is running out, but it's not too late. And we just want to make sure that they understand why it's important,

why it's easy, and the fact that it's something that the black community can't miss out on. I also want to bring up Dr. Amina Demessi, Vice President of Research and Policy Analysis for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Doc, glad to have you as well. So I want to talk to both of you. So, Mike, I want to start with you first. Again, when we say billions of dollars,

first of all, people are watching and going, yo, seriously, are we really talking about billions of dollars? First of all, people are watching and going, yo, seriously, are we really talking about billions of dollars? But we literally are talking about how the nation is funded. That's correct. Every 10 years, we conduct a count. You got it right. You hit the nail on the head. Article 1, Section 2 states that it's a mandatory count of everyone residing in the country for two things, power and money. 435 seats in the House of Representatives are allocated because we count everybody once, only once, and in the right place. But also those federal funds, you mentioned billions. Some people have actually measured

it to be $1.5 trillion every single year that flows down to the local level. For things like roads, schools, infrastructure, the current pandemic underscores the need for accurate census data. When we're talking about emergency preparedness and healthcare. But then when you look at SNAP benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, if you have college students,

Pell Grants, so every single facet of the country, business sectors, private and federal and public, they use our official statistics to justify making investments that impact your lives. It only takes a couple minutes, but it sticks with the community for 10 years. This is a voting year. When you vote, it tends to stick with you for the terms of that election, four years, one year, two years. But when you look at the census, for 10 years it'll shape your community.

And so I just wanna take the opportunity to let all of your listening audience, all those that are following you, that the census is happening. If you haven't responded, there's still time to respond, but it's something that you need to take part in, stand up, respond, and get counted. Black America Counts is an initiative with the

Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and Fair Count, the organization founded by Stacey Abrams. Their goal is to identify hard-to-reach communities and guide outreach and mobilization efforts to help increase census turnout. Dr. DeMessi, let's talk about that because people, look, the absolute old way, they went door to door. Folks got census shirts on and they've got bags and they go door to door, knocking on doors. For a lot of folks, they don't like people just knocking up on their door. But now you've also seen now with the Internet how that's changed as well. And so how has technology helped? Has it improved this process to be able to reach those hard to reach places or hard to reach people? I'm sorry. Yeah. First, you know, let me just say that what Stacey Abrams did in her, you know,

15 seconds of fame was created a movement, a new movement for us to understand the power of data as it relates to the resources needed by the Black community. As you just heard, we are consistently undercounted. And so the brilliance behind our partnership is that we are identifying hard-to-count communities, particularly Black and Latinx, in order to really cast a wider net, go beyond what the census has done, to really equip our policymakers and organizers with data, information on where their communities are. Because here's the thing, right? It's great that we have another medium to fill out the census. You can go online.

It takes five seconds if you have Internet access. When we talk about our community, not only are we wrestling with a global pandemic, we don't all have access to the Internet. So, you know, what are advantages to some are unrealistic for our community. So we have to bridge that gap. So what our partnership does is also identify communities of color, either a county that has 25 percent lack of Internet access or community of color. We want to know where those communities are and we want to equip our policymakers and organizers with the information they need. So we can then do what Fair Count is doing, which is actually setting up Internet access for people and communities, but understanding that there are a number of barriers.

And so just providing Internet is not enough for our communities to get the accurate count they need. Michael, how many people how many people are out here? How many people are are in the country who are trying to get this accurate count? We have two hundred and thirty four thousand people that we've hired knocking on doors. They've been doing that since August 9th. We have seen that the self-response rate for the nation, which really right now stands at 60 to 64 percent, is actually at 80 percent when you add in the amount of people who've actually been counted by people knocking on doors. So I applaud the fact that people are responding, but I know that there's still work to be done. And I encourage people

to go to 2020census.gov to respond online, like you said. But remember that our online instrument is optimized for mobile, so people can actually respond on any mobile device, any device that can get to the internet, as well as phone numbers. We have 13 phone numbers in 13 different languages that people can call to complete it over the phone. Michael, let's talk about safety. And that is, look, this has been one of the concerns, my data, who's getting it, who's getting my information, am I have the terminal of my social security number, bank records, what's going on here. And so what data is being asked for when it comes to the census? When someone asks you to complete the census and they knock on your door, they will come to your door with a mask.

Masks are mandatory. Their safety, your safety in the pandemic is number one. They will be six feet away from the door asking you questions and inputting these simple questions into an iPhone 8. They will ask you your name. They will ask you your phone number because if there's something wrong with your answer, they circle back, they're going to call you. They're going to ask you how old you are.

They're going to ask you your race, your ethnicity, your relationship to anybody else who lives in that house, how you've lived in that house. They're easy questions. We don't ask you about social security number on the 2020 census. We don't ask you about bank accounts. All of that detailed information about, you know, you that you give up on many surveys that you ask, answer any and every day, that's not part of the 2020 census. These are statistics about your household as of April 1st, 2020, that can be released in aggregate in statistics. So decision makers can make informed decisions that impact their lives for the next 10 years. Dr. Demasi, is there any particular group, I mean, the most vulnerable? I

mean, when I look at voting, typically the older you are, the more likely you are going to vote. And as you go down with age, it actually gets lower and lower and lower. Are we seeing that same thing merit when it comes to the census? Yeah, I mean, and I commend, you know, Michael and leadership in this space because, you know, every 10 years gives us another chance to get it more right. Right. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you see it, you know, age does not insulate us from our rates of participation. It is if the challenges are across the board. Right. So one of the things with our fair count, Black America Counts partnership was using the model that Stacey Abrams used in Georgia and mapping it across the country so we could see what do our populations look like. And it doesn't come as a surprise to most of us who do this work that a lot of our communities in the South,

right, disproportionately affected, you know, high proportions of Black folks with higher disproportionate rates of challenges to get the census filled out. So you have people like, and it goes across the country, right? You've got people like Congressman Stephen Horsford out in Nevada that partnered with our chair of the CDC, Karen Bass, and created a CDC Census Task Force specifically to make sure that we can really bridge the gap across all ages, communities, whether you're senior or young, you need to be counted at the end of the day.

So, you know, unfortunately the undercounting doesn't discriminate, you know, within these, there are challenges throughout, but we do see some variation across states as well, more challenges in the South. We see less challenges in sort of the Midwestern states. But, you know, the census has the data to keep track, but it really is incumbent upon us to get the word out, because it's kind of abstract, right? We all say, go to vote. Everybody gets that. When you say, go fill

out the census, people are like, well, why? Right? And then we got to break it down, because this is about the services that you need every day for your survival that we are voting about, right? This is what it comes down to. Reapportionment, reallocation of resources, billions of dollars. So that's the language translation that our communities have to make so people understand it is just as important as voting. Michael, is there any particular region of the country for black folks that is more difficult? And where do we do the best? Well, you know, when we look at our statistics and we look at the returns of self-response, we have found that the patterns of non-response actually track with the patterns of the country that have been highly impacted by the

pandemic. So we are working with our partners to ensure that while people are dealing with life and liberties and making sure that they are safe, that they know that in this time, there's still time and a responsibility to respond to the 2020 census. When you look at the black community, black men ages 18 to 35 are historically undercounted. That's what we call the differential undercount. So those people that look like me that are 18 to 35, as well as kids ages 0 to 5, the young children are typically undercounted. So we have a robust media campaign and our partners have been sharing that information and being laser focused and making sure that those communities,

those pockets of the country that look like those undercounted communities are actually knowing that it's easy, safe, and important. Dr. DeMessi, again, when we are trying to convey this and getting people to get it, look, there's a lot of people who don't trust government. They just don't trust them. So what messaging are y'all using to reach people to get them to understand? So we're breaking it down really not just saying it's important to fill it out, but why it is. Okay. So, you know, at the end of the day, people might not get the numbers so much. Right. But when you talk to them about federal transit programs, Section 8 housing vouchers, school breakfast programs, right, highway planning construction, unemployment insurance, which, you know, we're seeing because of the current recession we're in, is skyrocketing in our community. It resonates. So, number one, we're trying to translate why it's important to be counted, to understand that this is a social justice issue. Data is important in a post-civil rights era where, at the end of the day, people are looking at our numbers.

Policymakers need to have these tools. That's why the census does this job, because we need to be represented. This is all about representation at the end of the day. And most of us get that part. So we are trying to talk about the 300-plus federal programs that our tax dollars go to fund across the country based on these needs that people do connect with. People know what it means for their kids to go to school and have lunch. People know what it means for them to have medical assistance and Medicaid. Well, that's what this census is about. It's about making sure we're counted so that we have equal access to all of these services that are coming out of our taxpayer dollars. Michael, a last question for you. Deadline. We know that it was shortened a

month to be able to collect data. And so when is the drop dead date for people out there who are watching and listening to be sure that they fill out that census. September 30th of 2020 is our deadline. We currently are earmarking that date as the date in which we will conclude all of our field operations so that we can then start compiling the data and performing all of the tests and rigorous processes to turn over our apportionment accounts by December 31st, our current statute that's on the books that we have to meet. All right. Michael, Dr. DeMessi, I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much for joining us. Thank you. Thanks for having me. All right, folks, got to go to a break. When we come back, we'll talk to folks who are out in the field making it happen, organizations

who know what it means to emphasize the census. That is next. 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. As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered daily digital show by going

to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. As our community comes together to support the fight against racial injustice, I want to take a second to talk about one thing we can do to ensure our voices are heard. Not tomorrow, but now. Have your voices heard in terms of what kind of future we want by taking the 2020 census today at 2020census.gov? Now, folks, let me help you out. The census is a count of everyone living in the country. It happens once every 10 years. It is mandated by the U.S. Constitution. The thing that's important is that the census informs funding, billions of dollars, how they are spent in our communities every single year.

I grew up in Clinton Park in Houston, Texas, and we wanted new parks and roads and a senior citizen center. Well, the census helps inform all of that and where funding goes. It also determines how many seats your state will get in the U.S. House of Representatives. Young black men and young children of color are historically undercounted, which means a potential loss of funding or services that helps our community. Folks, we have the power to change that. We have the power to help determine where hundreds of billions in federal funding go each year for the next 10 years. Funding that can impact our community, our neighborhoods, and our families and friends. Folks, responses are 100% confidential and can't be shared with your landlord, law enforcement, or any government agency.

So please take the 2020 Census today. Shape your future. Start at 2020census.gov. All right, so a lot of y'all are always asking me about some of the pocket squares that I wear. Now, I don't know. Robby don't have one on. Now, I don't particularly like the white pocket squares. I don't like, Robby don't have one on. Now, I don't particularly like the white pocket squares. I don't like even the silk ones. And so I was reading GQ magazine a number of years ago,

and I saw this guy who had this pocket square here, and it looks like a flower. This is called a shibori pocket square. This is how the Japanese manipulate the fabric to create this sort of flower effect. So I'm going to take it out and then place it in my hand so you see what it looks like and I said man this is pretty cool and so I tracked down it took me a year to find a company that did it and so they basically about 47 different colors and so I love them because again as men we don't have many accessories to wear so we don't have many options and so this is really a pretty cool pocket screen and what I love about this here is you saw when it's in the pocket, you know, it gives you that flower effect like that. But if I wanted to also, unlike other, because if I flip it and turn it over, it actually gives me a different type of texture.

And so, therefore, it gives me a different look. So there you go. So if you actually want to get one of these shibori pocket squares, we have them in 47 different look. So there you go. So if you actually want to get one of these Shibori pocket squares, we have them in 47 different colors. All you got to do is go to rollingthismartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So it's rollingthismartin.com forward slash pocket squares. All you got to do is go to my website and you can actually get this. Now, for those of you who are members of our Bring the Funk fan club, there's a discount for you to get our pocket squares. That's why you also got to be a part of our Bring the Funk fan club.

And so that's what we want you to do. And so it's pretty cool. So if you want to jazz your look up, you can do that. In addition, y'all see me with some of the feather pocket squares. My sister who is a designer, she actually makes these. They're all custom made. So when you also go to the website, you can also order one of the customized feather pocket squares right there at rollingnessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So please do so. And of course, that

goes to support the show. And again, if you're a Bring the Funk fan club member, you get a discount. This is why you should join the fan club. Folks, our black mayors really need you to focus on the census because they have been very much in pushing this to their constituents. Joining us right now is McKinley L. Price, the mayor of Newport News, Virginia, is the president of the African-American Mayors Association. Mayor, certainly glad to have you with us. So can you please, again, as somebody who's sitting in the mayor's position, let folks know what happens when they don't fill out their census, how that impacts you and your budget? It impacts us tremendously,

especially when you realize that this is something that's going to take place for 10 years. It's approximately up to $2,000 per person per year for 10 years amount of money that you're talking about. So just as your former guest talked about, when you're talking about SNAP, WIC, all of the programs that affect the people who are historically undercounted, it's affecting them. So it's a tremendous strain on our budget if we're underfunded.

And historically, 10 years ago, we were pretty much underfunded. If we're about at the same percentage, for our city, it may be as much as $100 million per year. $100 million per year. And so when you are conveying that, are folks getting it? Because I'm sure they're complaining, Mayor, we want this and we want that. And we want these services and we want pools staying open, pool hours. And we want park stuff. And you like, well, damn it, if y'all had filled that census out, I could have had more money. Absolutely. We're doing everything we can, you know, with social media. We're having contests. We actually had a contest between mayors.

You'll see the larger cities doing it, too. I think Houston and Atlanta had a rivalry, those two mayors. But the mayor of Hampton, Mayor Tuck and I, if he won, had more people within a period of time to enroll before I did, I would give him a bushel of oysters, and I was going to get crabs if he won. Even though I had more people to register percentage wise because it's the smallest city, Hampton, he won. And I had to fork over the oysters. So I hated that. But we're trying every means we can to be able to make people understand how important this is. There are a lot of, of course, when we talk about African-Americans, when we speak about

community needs. And I often talk about on this show how we have to connect the dots. And what I mean by that is a person is sitting there and they're living in a city. And somebody right now, whether they are in your city, they're in some other city, and they're saying, you know, we need these things for our community. Well, in their mind, they're going to just simply go ask you without realizing that you're going to go ask somebody else.

And then you might be asking the state of Virginia. You might be asking the federal government Virginia, you might be asking the federal government. And so then those resources come down. And so what folks are not realizing as far as I'm concerned, uh, is that when they don't take this seriously, you can ask for all that you want, but that sucker is locked in for 10 years. It's locked. You can't, you can't go back and say, Hey, these things have changed in our city in the last two years. No, you're locked. Your city can experience tremendous growth in the next five years, but you're still locked into the next census, right? That is correct.

That is correct. The count, like you said, that drop dead date, whatever number is there for you, that's it for 10 years. You't get it's no replay it's no mulligan it's no slips that's it the um um when we talk about needs we talk about needs um what are you hearing the most from your constituents what What do they want done? Well, you know, we're the fifth largest city in Virginia, and we're about 60-40 population, 60 percent majority race, 40 percent minority. And where you have public housing and areas of poverty, those are the places that are in the greatest need. And those are the places where we're having generally, as you heard the statistics, the most difficulty in getting the

count. Young men between ages of 18 to 35, children, for some reason, people are not reporting the number of children that they have in the house. Everyone that's in that household, when that person comes to ask you to take that census needs to be counted. It's, you know, it's heartbreaking to see the level of need in the city and you want to be able to match the resources to the need. And people talk about equity. Everything that's equal isn't always, you know, needed the same where you have need. You want to be able to have the resources to do more for them. And it's heartbreaking sometimes when, you know, you see the need, you have the plan, you know what you want to do,

you know what would help and then you don't have the resources. And those are the people who generally either don't vote or don't don't have counted in the census. And it's painful. You talked about how your mayors are competing. What about young constituents, people who are 18, 35? Because if you think this thing out 10 years from now, then they're going to be 28, 45. And so obviously getting them to understand long term what this means, too. Absolutely. That's why education about the census is so important. The panelists that you just had, the literature that is out there,

we're trying to come up with any means we can, especially for the younger group. Because what does it matter? I'm not going to see this money. It's not coming in my pocket. But actually it is. And 10 years, when they want to do something in their neighborhood, they want to street widen, they want lights better in their neighborhood. All of these things are contributed by the amount of money that we have. Also, which is very important, the number of representatives as the person talked about.

Last question for you. That is, if you are one of those folks knocking on the door, or even just in what I say this year, talk about the mayors. Have you created let's say a competition between churches, a competition

in something else? That way you sort of are getting other people involved in this where they can sort of, you know, sort of go back and forth on this whole thing? We have tried to create a competition. We've done this with our mayors. We're trying to get organizations and clubs. We have been very responsive to the local census takers in our neighborhood. They have really been good. I mean, they've been very creative. They'll come at a drop of a minute to any type of club meeting, any gathering of three or more people will have a census taker there to either distribute literature, inform people about it. So, you know, use the numbers. If you have an organization, you have a church group, you have a neighborhood that doesn't understand the purpose

and the need of this, then we really want you to call the Census Bureau and everybody has a local leader that will come out, will send someone out so that they can educate people to the need of this. This money is important and we have one shot at it every 10 years. And I just can't emphasize that more. All right, then. Mayor, I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Hopefully when this... Thank you, my fraternity brother. I appreciate it. All right. Always have a good alpha in the house, folks. Mayor McKinley Price of Newport News, Virginia. I can't wait to, when this

COVID thing dissipates so I can get down and see you. I live in Northern Virginia, so it'd be great to get down there and play some golf. Absolutely, sir. All right. Thanks very much, folks. Of course, Mayor is President president of the African-American Mayors Association. Got to take a break. We come back.

Civil rights groups are doing their part to also encourage folks to fill out their census form. We'll talk about that next on Roland Martin Unfiltered? YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. It's Roland Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered. Like, share, subscribe to our YouTube channel.

That's YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it. It's rough out there. People are looking for change, for answers. One answer is at your fingertips, the 2020 census. Census takers will be visiting households to make sure we are counted because an undercounted community

could miss out on billions of funding for schools, health care, and job assistance each year for the next 10 years. Too much is at stake. Respond online today. Shape your future. Start here at 2020census.gov. As our community comes together to support the fight against racial injustice, I want to take a second to talk about one thing we can do to ensure our voices

are heard. Not tomorrow, but now. Have your voices heard in terms of what kind of future we want by taking the 2020 census today at 2020census.gov? Now folks, let me help you out. The census is a count of everyone living in the country. It happens once every 10 years. It is mandated by the U.S. Constitution. The thing that's important is that the census informs funding, billions of dollars, how they are spent in our communities every single year. I grew up in Clinton Park in Houston, Texas, and we wanted new parks and roads and a senior citizen center. Well, the census helps inform all of that and where funding goes. It also determines how many seats your state will get in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Young black men and young children of color are historically undercounted, which means a potential loss of funding or services that helps our community. Folks, we have the power to change that. We have the power to help determine where hundreds of billions in federal funding go each year for the next 10 years. Funding that can impact our community, our neighborhoods, and our families and friends.

Folks, responses are 100% confidential and can't be shared with your landlord, law enforcement, or any government agency. So please take the 2020 census today. Shape your future. Start at 2020census.gov. All right, folks, civil rights organizations are united in pushing Congress to extend the deadline for the census count. But the reality is that if it doesn't happen, we still have to drive this thing as hard as we can. Joining us right now is Beth Link. She is the census counts campaign director for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. And Melanie Campbell,

she's the president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. All right, glad to have both of you on the show. Beth, I want to start with you, and that is, look, date's been moved up, and the reality is if it doesn't get changed, we have to ensure that we are counted. And so what does that look like? Yes, you're right. I mean, the bottom line is, as you've heard on the show today, the census is about money and power. And look, Roland, the Trump administration and Trump wants to erase Black people from the 2020 census because he knows that it's our shot at getting billions of dollars to our communities and the political power that we deserve.

And that will enable us to be able to make real change for our families and our communities and the political power that we deserve. And that will enable us to be able to make real change for our families and our communities. We are doing everything that we possibly can, whether it's census city challenges. Mayor Lightfoot has a census cowboy on the south side of Chicago. Last weekend, he texted over 350,000 people who had not yet responded to the census, inviting them to respond in our Sisters for the Census text bank. But the reality is, is that the census is allowed to proceed with this truncated timeline. The Census Bureau will not have the time to count everyone. And we're already seeing that the black community is behind.

Michael, at the beginning of the show, said that nationally response rates are about 80 percent. That includes responses at the door. But when we look at the black community, on average, predominantly black communities are 10 points behind the national average. But if you look at specific communities outside of Chicago, we're seeing self-response rates in the 30s and in the 40 percentiles. We're seeing in Detroit response rates in the 40s. In Mississippi, around 50 percent self-response rates. So this is really going to hurt us if we don't get this extension. But this is also why I'm a huge believer in this, Melanie.

And it's not just with the census. It's with civics across the board. Messaging matters. And I think connecting the dots matter. And I just think this is, the census is one of those things that people hear about it, but I mean, I don't really know.

And then we sit and talk about those of us who live and breathe public policy. Yo, billions, billions of laws. And the people, personally, I don't know what you're talking about. I think you've got to operate like my man Joe Madison said, you've got to put it where the goats can get it. Where you've got

to make it as plain as possible for somebody to go, oh, I didn't realize that the census affects that. Right, right. Well, you know, Roland, you helped us launch back in February, Black History Month, right? And we said

due to in 2020, vote and be counted, right? And so we didn't know at that time we were going to be dealing with COVID. So we've been actually, while we're out here getting out the vote, tying voting and the census as about

building power, as a power dynamic. Two, it's about your money. It's about our money. Get that money. So we say it's about money, power, and respect. And then the respect comes in being able to make sure that we show, make sure that

as black people, that we're fully counted, that we're fully counted so we can leverage that power politically, economically, and through our issues around health care, we're going to tie it to this COVID-19. So for these next 30 plus days, because we're right with Beth, with the leadership conference and all of our colleagues to keep pushing for the Congress to intervene. And at the same time, we're looking at that September 30th date. This last push, we got, we said, this is it. We got to go hard. My sister LaTosha said we got to go hard in the paint, right?

We got to do everything we can. And while we're knocking on doors, a lot of our folks are knocking on doors, doing safe distancing as best we can. The phone bank, for the next 30 days, we're pushing the getting counted and voting early. So we just

had to tie them together. We thought that was going to be what we were going to do for the first half of the year, but who knew? So I messaged Q2 in 2020, vote and be counted. The whole point, Beth, when I'm talking about how you got to make this thing plain, is really getting it. And that's why I keep bringing things down to sidewalks, pools, parks, senior citizen centers. Things that are right there in people's neighborhoods that they want to see improved and tying that to filling out that form.

That to me is, I think, how we have to be operating where a person goes, oh, I had no idea those things were related. Had no idea. Absolutely. And if you also think about the pandemic and the health concerns that our communities are facing right now, I mean, the reality is that racism and discrimination have meant that our communities are relying on Medicaid, housing assistance, other financial assistance at disproportionately high rates. It also means that we are more susceptible to chronic health issues that makes us more susceptible to die from a global health crisis and a disease like COVID-19. And we need the resources for healthcare, for infrastructure.

So certainly folks need the resources to have have more better internet connectivity in your homes. We need the jobs that census data will bring to communities when they see the large population growth in a specific area. And we need the resources going to our schools. We need that extra lane on a highway that resources would bring. We need the resources that will bring relief for natural disasters that we're seeing across the South and in the Gulf. Census data drives that. That's that distribution of $1.5 trillion every year. And if we miss out on our piece of the pie, it will impact us certainly for the next decade, but could impact us for generations. And that's really what we're talking about when we're talking about participating in the census, but also make sure that communities are not deprived of their right to participate in the census by truncating the timeline. And Congress can move, extend those timelines, but the House already has. It's up to the Senate in an upcoming COVID-19 package or any other moving bill. It's urgent. It has to happen. And our community needs to

respond so we don't miss out. Obviously, Melody, COVID has impacted everything. I mean, the reality is normally you have a ton of outdoor events, things around churches, all kinds of stuff to sign people up where people are at congregating and going, but you actually have none of that. And so where we are is really, I mean, we are in truly an absolute digital world. Now, I live in that world, so I totally understand it. But this is one of those things where I think civil rights groups taking advantage of their databases, saying, hey, each one of you out there, you know, right now, look, there's more than 4,000census.gov, to five people, and not relying, frankly, on a group or relying on somebody coming on your door

to be able to sort of spread this thing as fast as possible, as quickly as possible. And then the faith community is one. I'm working with real close to Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner with National African-American Clergy Board. She's done an awesome job really utilizing the faith community

for so many of our churches online and not in congregations physically. So every angle that we can use. What you're doing with your show tonight is really a shining example of spending the time

and taking the time. So many folks are sheltered. Not everybody, because of first responders and a lot of people working, having to be out of home. But most people, even if you're working, you still go in more at home than you are out in the general community. For being in the U.S., every avenue you have. And some of us, we still will have to and are.

Our folks still are making those phone calls. And 5,000 folks that are watching, they just look at my work first. Have you been counted? Check and make sure you've been counted. And then make sure that your family has been counted and just starting from there. The other part of it is, really, a big part of it, I know we talked about Black men and how important that is. So for us, we're doing a challenge, which is focused on black men, especially black voters to say,

hey, we want you to vote and count it. Because a lot of young people would be counted at school and other places if your students are really honing in on black men and really making sure that black men are, just like we're concerned about the vote, we have to be concerned about the census as well. So we're just pushing, we're not going to let off the gas, Roland, until there's no day left to get folks to count. You talk about that whole point about connecting those two. And Beth, we've been telling folks about vote.org.

Be sure to get registered, ask them for your ballot. But at the bottom down here, they have 2020 census where they can fill out the form right there as well. And so again, to me, this is one of those things where you're in a constant state of messaging, pushing out to as many people as possible. And no outlet, frankly, is too small, because if you can pick up, you know, 5,000 or 10,000, another 5,000, 10,000, again, that response rate you're talking about goes up dramatically.

Right? Absolutely. Actually, hold on, Melanie, one second. Beth, then Melanie. Beth, go ahead. Okay. No, absolutely, you're right. I mean, we are all influencers in our own communities. I think folks right now, first, take the census, go to 2020census.gov, and if you've done that, share the message.

You're a messenger and an influencer in your own community. Share this show. If you're watching on Twitter, hit that retweet. If you're watching on Twitch, share it. It's to get the message out to our communities. I think everyone knows someone that has not responded to the census. Maybe they're just procrastinating or maybe there are barriers in life circumstance that has gotten in the way, but we can't, we can't mess up on these, on these resources. I also just want to say, you're right that the pandemic has really impacted how we as advocates reach out to communities and invite people to respond. We've held a number of digital weeks of action and days of action. I know that the National Coalition for Black Civic Participation and the Gaspur Coalition have been doing incredible digital organizing on the different social media platforms. We've seen teletown calls from the CBC and other members.

So we're really going all in to get out the count. But that's also impacted the way the Census Bureau can reach out to people. We know that folks may not feel comfortable opening their door to talk to a census enumerator because of the pandemic and health concerns. So folks should know the easiest way to avoid an enumerator or a census taker at your door is to respond online at 2020census.gov or to call the phone line and respond that way.

Melody, go ahead. The other piece was the need to engage black immigrant communities, the Caribbean community, and folks from the African diaspora, because that's a big part. If you think about 2000, this is in 2010, since the black population growth, a big, good, part of that is black immigrant communities. And so really making sure that we're engaging. So we're close with Dr. Claire Nelson, who's been pushing with the Caribbean community and Benjamin Afrifa and others.

UndocuBlack, you know, is another group that we are working with. And I know with Beth and her and the Leadership Conference Publishing and just really getting us. We had just had two weeks ago, Roland, you know, we pulled everybody together again and said, hey, we've really got to get together and push hard on this census, but also getting voting early, too. So again, I say do two in 2020 is that simple message, vote and be counted. People understand both of those are opportunities for us to exercise our power and get the resources we need and want and deserve because it's our money. At the end of the day, this is about your money coming back to your community to take care of your street, your school, your community, and get the things that you deserve and our community deserve.

It's not a handout. It's about our money. Otherwise, it's going to go to somebody else. Our political people are going to go to somebody else. Well, and that's why I make the point specifically to black men. Look, if you're out there saying you want these these things, this is directly tied to it. And again, I just think that for for a lot of people that this is this is a civics thing, not not really understanding the levers of power, how these things work, where resources come from, who you're seeking things from, and how they work. So the census ties directly into districts in terms of how they're drawn, which is tied into who represents you in Congress or in the state legislature, which is then tied to resources that come your way, which is tied to all of these different things.

And as somebody who's covered city government and county government, I've sat in many of those long board meetings. And when the conversation comes up, they're talking about census tracts, what the data says in census tracts. Hello. When they say census tracts, that comes from the census. So that's how those things. And so literally they're even breaking down for the people who are watching, they're even breaking down health stats, education stats, uh, all of those things by census tract. And that's why I, the people have to realize if you don't fill it out, then you're actually hurting yourself when the, in the data collection where they're

saying, oh, this is a, for instance, Congressman Jim Clyburn has a 10, 20, 30 amendment that, that is based upon census tracts where 10% of the people who live, who live below, they want 10% of the resources to go to those census tracts where 20% or more of the people live below the poverty line for 30 years. That is literally determined by the census tract. So, go ahead, Beth. Oh, no, I mean, you're absolutely right.

I mean, we like to say the census is a tool for change, and we have to use it. I mean, civil rights advocates, like you just said, use census data to defend our rights, to fight to protect the Voting Rights Act and to enforce it, but also to push for new legislation. If we don't know where we are, we can't then track and see disparities or see where our rights are being undermined by bad actors. So census data, yes,

money, lots and lots of money that can go to our communities. Yes, number of seats in Congress you get, but also the basis for redistricting. But also it's our power. It's a tool for change. And I agree. I think that that's a point that folks may not realize that literally everything that you think about census data underlies. And it really is the foundation of our democracy. That's not hyperbole. Final, Melanie, final comment. Hey, I just say to folks out there, if you have been counted, get counted. Get counted and let you vote. And we're going to get that. it's about money, power, and respect.

And we deserve every dollar. We deserve to control the power. We talked about on these streets where we're having to protest, we want to be able to control those city budgets and have the resources we need. The things folks are talking about, about moving and reallocating funds. You've got to have the funds there to reallocate, right? Provide those services. And census matters. Voting matters. All right, then.

Beth Link, Melanie Campbell, I so appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right. Folks, going to the commercial break. We come back. We're going to talk with Congressman Stephen Horsford, who is over the Congressional Black Caucus Census Task Force. That's next on Roller Martin Unfiltered. You want to 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. As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered daily digital show

by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. It's rough out there. People are looking for change, for answers. One answer is at your fingertips, the 2020 census. Census takers will be visiting households to make sure we are counted because an undercounted community could miss out on billions of funding for schools, health care, and job assistance each year for the next 10 years. Too much is at stake. Respond online today. Shape your future. Start here at 2020census.gov.

As our community comes together to support the fight against racial injustice, I want to take a second to talk about one thing we can do to ensure our voices are heard. Not tomorrow, but now. Have your voices heard in terms of what kind of future we want by taking the 2020 Census today at 2020census.gov? Now, folks, let me help you out. The Census is a count of everyone living in the country. It happens once every 10 years. It is mandated by the U.S. Constitution.

The thing that's important is that the Census informs funding, billions of dollars, how they are spent in our communities every single year. I grew up in Clinton Park in Houston, Texas, and we wanted new parks and roads and a senior citizen center. Well, the census helps inform all of that and where funding goes. It also determines how many seats your state will get in the U.S. House of Representatives. Young black men and young children of color are historically undercounted, which means a potential loss of funding or services that helps our community.

Folks, we have the power to change that. We have the power to help determine where hundreds of billions in federal funding go each year for the next 10 years, funding that can impact our community, our neighborhoods, and our families and friends. Folks, responses are 100% confidential and can't be shared with your landlord, law enforcement, or any government agency. So please take the 2020 census today. Shape your future. Start at 2020census.gov.

All right, folks, Congressman Stephen Horsford of Nevada. He chairs the Congressional Black Caucus Census Task Force. He joins me right now. Congressman, glad to have you back on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you, Roland. Appreciate everything you're doing. Look, guys like you, y'all get tons of requests from people. Folks come to y'all, they come to your constituents and they say, we want to see this, we want to see that, we want to see this. And what a lot of people just don't realize is really the process that has been established in this country as to how dollars are allocated. And this count, this one count every 10 years basically ties your hands because the numbers are the numbers. And once it's done, once it's tabulated, see you in a decade.

You are so right, Roland. And what's frustrating is I know we have people taking to the streets over this past year talking about structural racism, social injustice, racial inequities, everything from health care to education to jobs and employment, small businesses. And so much of it depends, as you just said, on information that comes from the census. Right now, as of the end of July, the self-response rate is about 65 percent nationwide, while among the predominantly black census tracts, there is an undercount of about 14 percent. That 14 percent equates to billions of dollars that we will lose every single year over the next 10 years. And I want to make this point.

I'm hopeful that we're going to have a new administration and we're going to have the history-making new vice president in Kamala Harris. Well, guess what? A Biden-Harris administration will advocate for more funding and investment in our schools, in healthcare, in funding for colleges, historically black colleges and other things.

But if the data isn't there, the money can't flow. And that's the message that I want people to hear, is that we have to be counted in order for this money to get to our communities, not just now, but for the next 10 years. So when we talk about on the congressional level in terms of what the task force is doing, how have y'all been really helping to shape and reshape this whole issue to ensure that African-Americans are being reached? Because again, I hear all the time, CBC ain't doing jack. They ain't doing nothing. They don't accomplish nothing. But this is one of those things where folks don't see how the sausage is being made so uh one of the things that we've been doing is working very closely with stacy abrams organization

uh fair count and fair fight i know you were just talking to uh the the black round table as well as the leadership conference as well as the national Conference, as well as the National Urban League and the NAACP. So we have been convening these organizations for more than a year and a half now under the leadership of our chairwoman, Karen Bass. But specifically, we have looked at every member of the Congressional Black Caucus. There are 55 of us. We know exactly what the response rates are in each of those districts. We've done heat maps to show where the response rates have come in under count, and we have been targeting those resources. Our majority whip, Jim Clyburn, literally is putting up billboards throughout

South Carolina and his district over the next few weeks to encourage people to get out and vote. We've conducted town halls nationwide and in our district. I conducted job fairs in my district where we were able to make sure that people from our very community got hired as enumerators. And I know one of the biggest issues that you've pushed us on is to have accountability for the Census Bureau and where the millions of dollars of marketing money is going and whether or not there's money coming to black press, to black media outlets in order for that message to reach our community. So we've been doing a lot, but unfortunately, we're up against the same forces that don't want our community to vote. They're the same forces that don't want us to be counted.

Why? It's structural racism. They want to prevent the resources, the funding to come to our community. They want to take away our representational power in our congressional seats and in the legislature. My congressional district that I have the honor of representing got created in 2010 because we had a fair and accurate count. Well, I'm the first African-American to serve in Congress from Nevada. I'm actually the first person of color

from Nevada to serve in Congress. And so that matters. Representation matters. But if we are not counted, we're going to lose the progress that we've made. So, again, we have until the end of September. What have you, what have you been seeing among African-Americans in your state, how they have been able to make this, to really drive this messaging home and get African-Americans to understand what they must be doing. Well, what we've been doing in my state and in my district is working with community-based organizations, trusted faith-based leaders, our churches, of course, the Divine Nine, our fraternities and sororities, to talk about the importance of this

and to get out, even in the midst of COVID, and encourage people to make sure that they're counted. All right. Congressman Stephen Horsford, it's always great to have you on the show. Thank you so very much. Keep up the good work, and we'll keep pushing the message out every day to get our people to understand this money is ours and we got to make it happen. All right. I certainly appreciate it, sir. Thanks a lot.

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Look, there's not going to be other shows. There's not going to be dedicating a whole hour to this issue. Why it matters to us? Because when we're being undercounted, then we get less money in our communities. And that's why it matters. Shout out to these people who have given 50 bucks or more. Casey Pitts, Cheryl Rogers, Corey Brown, Desiree Zimmerman, Eric Sterling, Fairmont Landscaping, Fern Glover, James Dix, Landria Jordan, Lenores Abrams, Love to Praise Ministries, Our Black Business Portal, Patricia Williams, Petrula Griffin, Ramona Beck, Richard Leftenant, Sandra White Brown, Sheila Brown, Sheila Pitts, Sylvia Jackson, T. Cry and Company, LLC, Unique Clary, Vanessa Mitchell, Veronica Perry. Again, folks,

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