#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 9.5 #RMU: Deconstructing the response to Lil Nas X coming out; Why we MUST monetize our culture

Episode Date: September 8, 2019

9.5.19 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Hurricane Dorian has moved on to South Carolina. Did climate change have anything to do with making the storm stronger? Why did Lil Nas X comes out on HBO? When Black people first arrived in Virginia in 1619 were they indentured or enslaved? Tamron Hall's show is set to launch; Toni Morrison has her own day in her hometown of Lorain, Ohio. - #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: Life Luxe Jazz Life Luxe Jazz is the experience of a lifetime, delivering top-notch music in an upscale destination. The weekend-long event is held at the Omnia Dayclub Los Cabos, which is nestled on the Sea of Cortez in the celebrity playground of Los Cabos, Mexico. For more information visit the website at lifeluxejazz.com. - #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: 420 Real Estate, LLC To invest in 420 Real Estate’s legal Hemp-CBD Crowdfunding Campaign go to http://marijuanastock.org Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man.

We met them at their homes. We met them at the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit adoptuskids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Martin! Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă.

Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă.

Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă.

Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Thank you. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă.

Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă cu toate pătrunjelor. Să facem o pătrunjelă cu toate pătrunjelor. Să facem o pătrunjelă cu toate pătrunjelor. Să facem o pătrunjelă cu toate pătrunjelor. Să facem o pătrunjelă cu toate pătrunjelă. Today is Wednesday, September 5th, 2019.

Coming up on Roller Barton, unfiltered. Hurricane Dorian has moved on to South Carolina, where it continues to cause massive damage. We'll also talk about the relief efforts in the Bahamas. We'll have a live update from Paul Goodloe with the Weather Channel. Lil Nas X talks about why he came out gay on HBO.

People are mad at Kevin Hart and the other brothers for questioning him. I'm going to do a deconstruction, y'all. Because I need to deal with some of y'all who got a problem when black men actually have conversations amongst each other and keep it real.

Oh, y'all don't want to miss that. When black people first arrived in Virginia in 1619, when people of African descent first arrived in Virginia in 1619, were they indentured servants or were they enslaved? And also, what's the difference? We will have this as part of our 1619, that 2019 segment.

You don't want to miss that. Tamron Hall launches a new daytime talk show next week. You'll hear what she had to say about the transition. Toni Morrison has her own day in her hometown of Lorain, Ohio. Of course, we have another crazy-ass white woman losing her mind. Plus, we remember songwriter LaShawn Daniels.

And we'll also talk about T.I. breaking down why we must monetize our culture. Hmm. And what was Tom Joyner's, one of his biggest regrets? Not partnering with Steve Harvey? You heard me right. It's time to bring the funk and roll the mic on the filter. Let's go.

He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks, he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks.

He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's Roland Martin. Rolling with Roland now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martin. Now. Martin.

All right, folks, Thursday, September 5th, 2019, our top story, Hurricane Dorian has left the Bahamas and is trashing South Carolina right now with storm surge happening. It is a major, major storm, folks. Flooding, rainfall, high winds, and tornadoes. Let's get right to it. Joining me live from South Carolina is Weather Channel meteorologist Paul Gutlow. Paul, again, the brunt of this stuff. Of course, Bahamas hit real hard.

What is happening right now in South Carolina? All right, now the Senate storm is just offshore by about 40 miles or so from Myrtle Beach. And it looks like it's going to come real close to making a U.S. mainland landfall somewhere maybe around the outer banks of North Carolina later tonight or early tomorrow morning. But we're still dealing with some hurricane force wind gusts across the coast of South Carolina and even North Carolina, some tropical storm force wind gusts. And we've been dealing with a lot of heavy rain for much of the day. That's now spreading into North Carolina. But just last year, they had Hurricane Florence. This is a little bit different. Florence came in and kind of slowed down and stalled and dumped a foot or more rain across our widespread area of North and South Carolina.

Hurricane Dorian kind of moving a lot faster now. So we're going to see perhaps half that type of rainfall over a widespread area, but not as widespread as before. So we're not going to see as much river flooding which also killed a lot of people last year this is going to be a much more of a coastal event here for the Carolinas it's in it's out and it might even bring some uh some interesting weather to maybe uh the cape and the islands of Massachusetts as we had uh in a couple of days or so so this is unlike what it was across the Grand Bahama Island we kind of sat there for over 24 hours, the Cat 5 hurricane.

This thing is now in the Category 2, and it continues to move faster and slowly start to weaken. But it's still packing a pretty big punch. It will still be an eventful hurricane for eastern South Carolina and much of eastern North Carolina tonight and into tomorrow morning. What is the impact on Georgia? THE COAST OF GEORGIA HAD SOME RAIN, HAD SOME SURF. PEOPLE ARE STILL OUT BY THE SEA ISLANDS OF GEORGIA. YOU WILL HAVE AN INCREASED SURF AND RIP CURRENT RISK INTO THE WEEKEND. THINGS WILL COME DOWN A LITTLE BIT. NO MAJOR IMPACTS FROM DORIAN INTO GEORGIA EXCEPT PERHAPS INCREASED TRAFFIC. going to have an increased surf and rip current risk probably into the weekend and things will come down a little bit but no major impacts from dorian into georgia except perhaps increased

traffic and uh people's blood pressure up worrying about whether they would have a direct landfall of that hurricane all right then uh paul goodlow with the weather channel man we appreciate it be safe thanks a lot all right then Also, folks, let me pull this up. A letter was sent by Senator Marco Rubio of Florida to Donald Trump asking for support there. In this letter, he lays out and said, Incoming images and media reports indicate that thousands of homes have been destroyed and the basic infrastructure of many communities simply no longer exists. In this letter, Rubio touts

the role Bahamians have played in the building of Miami historically and the need for the U.S. to get involved. It says Florida enjoys historically deep ties with the Bahamas and by proximity, many Floridians have family in the Bahamas. What he is asking for is for Donald Trump to actually remove the visa restrictions to allow folks from the Bahamas to come to Florida to stay with family while homes are being rebuilt. And so I'm reaching out to the White House to find out if that actually happens. And so we'll certainly keep you up to date on that as well. Also, just to understand what is going on here. This is the front page of the Nassau Guardian. I am on a email list, I'm sorry, with folks there. This is the front page of the Nassau Guardian,

a rising toll, 20 now confirmed dead. But I've been talking to folks there in the Bahamas, there are a number of other people who are dead, they have not even been accounted for. And so they believe that death toll is actually going to rise. And so we certainly are keeping word, keep looking out for that as well.

And in fact, talk about how this thing has happened. The prime minister of the Bahamas, Minister, Dr. Hubert Menes, talking about hitting close to home. His brother perished as a result of a Hurricane Dorian. This is, again, one of the stories from the newspaper there in the Bahamas. I have folks, again, who are from there who are sending me a number of stories

and other images taking place there. There are all sorts of efforts being raised to, efforts being led to raise money. They're sending me literally a list of those things. Number of fundraisers taking place right now in Miami and Fort Lauderdale for the folks in the Bahamas. Fundraisers taking place in New York as well. So what I've asked them to do is to send me actually a list so we can see all of that. This is one of the videos that was sent to me as well that was shot by folks there. Some of the ministers who were actually on the reconnaissance mission flying over the islands, they sent me this video.

You can actually see what's going on there to see some of that destruction that's taking place. A number of the homes there, Grand Abaco, as well as Freeport, the second and third largest cities in the Bahamas, talking about serious, serious damage. Grand Abaco really was laid out. More than a thousand homes totally just destroyed. And again, the death toll is going to be rising there as well. And so we're watching that to offer all kind of support that we can. And again, I've been in contact with the prime minister's office, with the minister of tourism, the minister of health there, and so many others there just to keep folks up to date about what's going on in the Bahamas. And so we certainly will stay on top of that story. We'll also see what happens with the United States,

what kind of assistance they'll be providing the folks there as well. And, of course, Trump has said he will pledge support to the folks there in the Bahamas. This is from one of the newspapers there in the Bahamas as well, saying that they will pledge support. We'll see exactly

what that is. But, hmm, we'll see. Like I said but we'll see. Like I said, we'll see. And so we'll keep you guys up to date on that as well. All right, folks. R. Kelly, he is out of solitary confinement now in general population.

His trial has also been set for April of 2020. He has been held without bail there in Chicago. Remember, he has been indicted not only in Chicago state and federal charters, but also in New York and Minneapolis, still being investigated in Georgia and Florida. And so we'll see what happens there. But he now gets to no longer be in solitary confinement. So that's pretty interesting. His lawyer said that it was wrong of him.

It was wrong for them to place him in solitary confinement, not being able to interact with others. And well, R. Kelly now gets to interact with folks and we'll see, but he ain't going anywhere any time soon. But now he can fly. He's not in solitary confinement anymore. Okay, I haven't introduced our panel,

but of course, Cleo Manago, Dr. Cleo Manago, Dr. Julianne Malveaux, President and Mayor of Bennett College, Dr. Greg Carr, Chairaux, President Emerita, been in college, Dr. Greg Carr, Chair of the Department of Afro-America Studies, Howard University. And so they ain't wait for no introduction and start commenting on stuff. But it's all good, though.

Well, it's commentable. Look, I'm just saying, we do different stories. Involve line is R. Kelly. He out. That's what happens right there. Put it back in, Joe. Put it back in, y'all. I'm just saying.

I'm just saying. All right, y'all. Of it back in, Joe. Put it back in, Joe. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. All right, y'all. Of course, we've been focused on 16-19-2019. I told y'all we were launching this segment. I think we're going to do every single week talking about that. And so we also put together an intro to it. Y'all fire off the intro.

I'm going to set it up. And so explain more about it. So our goal with this is very simple, and that is a lot of people had events commemorating the 400th anniversary of the first 20-odd Africans arriving that really, some say, began this whole issue of the slave trade in the United States. We did not simply want to spend, you know, two or three days on this. We really want to unpack this thing a lot more deeply and really get people to understand the impact of the last 400 years, what it has meant on the psyche of African Americans, but also on us economically, on our health,

all those different issues. And so it goes beyond just folks arriving in Point Comfort, Virginia in 1619. No, not in Jamestown. What's now Hampton, Virginia. We wanted to focus on that. Even that gray car, I think, is part of this thing as well. We talk about the rewriting of history,

where for the longest it was, oh, they arrived in Jamestown, when in fact, no, they arrived where a whole bunch of black people are right now. That's exactly right. This Hampton Roads area. It'd be interesting to hear from Professor Newby Alexander, who is, I'm glad you got her, one of the experts on Hampton Roads and Portsmouth and that whole area. When we think about it, yeah, but Jamestown fits the narrative. So when you're telling a story that's really more about

who you want to be today than it is about what happened in history, we need this segment every week. And everybody should tune in because you're going to learn a whole lot more about what really happened and what is still happening as distinct from what the fantasy story is. And, of course, it's been positioned that the first 29 Africans arrived here, that everybody who came was enslaved,

and in fact, there were some people who were indentured servants. So joining us, Dr. Cassandra Newby Alexander, a history professor and dean at Norfolk State University. Doc, glad to have you here. And so, can you unpack this for us? Were there people of African descent who were indentured servants or everybody who come over, were they all enslaved? So thank you for the question.

One of the things that I try to tell people is when you're talking about this time period and you're talking about England and what they did in the Virginia slash Jamestown colony was you're talking about a period in which there was no organized system of slavery. There was a system in the Spanish colonies and Portuguese colonies and elsewhere, but not in the English colony, in particular in Virginia. And so when we talk about who was arriving and whether or not they were enslaved or indentured servants or whatever, I usually like to say that they were bonded,

meaning they were unfree people because their status was really not defined until a little bit later. Usually historians trace it to about the 1640s when we started to see court cases put in place that essentially began to take away the rights and privileges of those who were in bondage but not necessarily enslaved.

So I want to go right there. So what you're saying is that during this period, so of course folks coming in 1619, that people of African descent had rights. But then laws began to get changed that took away those rights, voting rights, property rights. Can you unpack that? Sure. So the colony did not have a clear system of any kind of enslavement in place. There were no laws. In fact, Massachusetts, the Plymouth colony in particular, was the first to create laws, I believe it was in 1641, to enslave those Africans who were arriving.

But in Virginia, it would take until the 1660s before we would see some clear laws put in place. Now, what we would see in these early years are Africans being treated more as servants. Now, there's a difference between an indentured servant that had a contract and those who did not. There were some English people who had been kidnapped and made to be in bondage in the Virginia colony. As long as they didn't serve more than 20 years, that was allowed, because anything after 20 years was seen as slavery. And we would see many of the Africans who were arriving actually file freedom suits, claiming that they were Christians and they could no longer be held in bondage beyond a certain point in time.

And we started to see those particular freedom suits by the 1640s, 1650s. And that suggests to us that people were trying to hold them longer than a maximum of 20 years. Wow. Wow. Uh, any questions from the panel? Can I ask you a quick? First of all, Professor Nubia Zan, thank you for your work,

first of all, your ongoing work. How important is it for us to understand the difference between English enslavement and the Spanish and French versions, which were more based on religion, like Catholicism? The English, of course, couldn't do that. So it sounds like when these Africans began pursuing

what for those enslaved by the French and the Spanish became the issue, the question of religion, England couldn't base its form of unfree labor on religion. Is this when they began to tease out race as the way they were going to do this? Yes. In fact, what is interesting is that a lot of the English

ministers who were arriving in the colony in the 1620s, 1630s actually began to write about people of color. And in fact, by the time we get into the 1650s and 1660s,

they're clearly stating that there is no way that these individuals could be Christians because they were black. So they were defining Christianity and whiteness as somehow synonymous with one another. That was not the case with Catholicism. So that is really why in the English colonies there was not the same kind of protection of human rights the way that

we would see that written into the Spanish and Portuguese and other Catholic-oriented colonies. But that's not to say that the people were treated kindly or gently. There were still allowances by owners, even in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies, to really abuse people. Julianne? Sister, I really appreciate your work and thank you for it. I have a question about 1619, because there's a part of it to me that seems to be a false narrative. In other words, the first black people did not come here in 1619 because there's a part of it to me that seems to be a false narrative in other words the first black people did not come here in 1619 there was some other black people here before that and I think we need to sort of unpack some

of that also this we will that's another segment okay but the other thing about the 1619 narrative always couldn't always smack me down, but whatever. The other piece about it is the extent to which it really lifts up the British and doesn't look at everything else that was going on here, so it becomes a whiteness narrative. So I'm interested in your perspective on that because as I read it, it sounds like the Brits and white people are taking away what was really happening in this country pre-1619, which included Native American people.

Well, you know, one of the reasons why there's a commemoration for 1619 is because even though the Jamestown Colony was founded in 1607, the reality is that the Jamestown Colony, which later became the Virginia colony was not going to survive for the most part until 1619. When we saw the creation of the first limited legislative body that really set in motion the idea that this colony would now survive. You had a body that was making laws, that was creating a court system and so forth. And so it was at that time that we also saw the evolution of a system, a cultural system, a legal system, as well as an economic system.

Now, while blacks were not dominating any of those systems, they became in some ways victims of those systems, especially the legal system that almost immediately began to demarcate them as different. When they came in, they were not called by their ethnic name or by their name for that matter. They were simply regarded as black people, Negroes. And that really was very different than any of the other servants coming in. However, they had authority to some degree or standing before the courts because they were filing lawsuits against their owners for holding them too long, punishing them harshly, et cetera, et cetera. And so when I talk about 1619, I try to emphasize that we're not talking about these were the first Africans who were on the North American continent, but rather these are the people who had the real founding of American society and culture in the first colony of the nation where they're at its formation and their culture, their activities, even their presence

sort of laid the foundations for our society, culture, and especially our laws. Greetings, doctor. You're doing some excellent work and I want to thank you for it. I have a question. You referenced earlier that even though the legislation of enslavement happened in the 40s and later, in terms of the 1600s, that the bad treatment still occurred. So my focus is around the treatment because I travel around the footprints of enslavement through the Caribbean and other parts of the diaspora is that they still have some direct African sensibilities, sometimes food, sometimes accents, sometimes cultural practice. And a lot of that has been domesticated out of African Americans. And I'm wondering, during the time of 1619, when did the domestication and the lynching and the terrorization start then,

or did it happen parallel to the removal of human rights completely later in the 40s, in the 60s, in terms of 1600s? So I'd like to answer that question by sort of posing this idea. And that is that when we talk about Southern cuisine, what are we really talking about? So we started to see the emergence of what we call Southern cuisine at that particular time. And it actually incorporated foods and folkways and customs, not just the English, not just the native peoples,

but more importantly, the Africans. Because there's really no difference between Southern and African American cuisine. And so just those two terms really talks about the appropriation of blackness, of black culture as a factor that began very, very early on. And so this whole commemoration about 1619 is about restoring that place that Africans had in the creation and evolution of American society and culture. And so the appropriation is being identified

and put in proper perspective because we want to make sure the people understand that the English did not just create this country all by themselves, that the native peoples didn't disappear after Pocahontas died, and that the people who were of African descent played a major role not only in the evolution of this country, but in the very definition of what freedom, equality, civil rights, civil liberties was all about. Because they challenged every action, whether it was by running away, by fighting in the courts, or by fighting physically. We would see this action take place almost from the beginning. We would see this action take place

almost from the beginning. We would see it when people ran away trying to gain their freedom. We would see it when they filed cases in court, and we would see it even in some of the revolts. All right. Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander, history professor and dean at Norfolk State University.

We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much. All right, folks, when we come back on Roller Martin Unfiltered, I want to talk about the monetization of our culture. What does it mean when the black folks decide to make money off of what we created? T.I. broke this thing down. I'm going to unpack this as it relates to this show.

That's next on Roller Martin Unfiltered. You want to check out Roller 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 Roller Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there?

Roller 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. All right, tomorrow, folks, if you are in the Atlanta area, you do not want to miss me at the Ride Money in Motion conference at the Louder Milk Center.

I'll be moderating a panel about access and ownership sponsored by Bonji, the only African-American-owned publicly traded cannabis organization in the world. I'll be there along with Matthew Knowles, Bonita Money, Ryan Mack, and the whole Bonji family to be front and center discussing entry into the multi-billion dollar and growing cannabis industry and how you can become a distributor, shareholder, or cannabis landlord. Now, if you are interested in making money in this booming industry,

then I promise you don't want to miss this panel. It will take place at 2.30 tomorrow. But for a full list of other panels, activations, and tickets, visit ride.rollingout.com. That's ride.rollingout.com. All right, folks, let's talk about, again, what it means when we own our stuff. Yesterday, of course, marked the first anniversary of Roland Martin Unfiltered. And it's been a really interesting day

because, you know, all these ADOS people, people who ain't got no damn sense. So Angela Rice sent a tweet out congratulating us on the show. And all these trolls came out to Woodworks questioning our numbers, saying, oh, these numbers are lying. How can you prove it?

And I said, well, first of all, y'all must be pretty dumb because if you go to YouTube or Facebook or Periscope, the number is right there in the bottom left-hand corner. They can't re-roll. Now, just get a damn calculator and add it all up. But you probably want to do that. And so, uh, just for the folks who missed this, uh, and peop...

We don't really talk a lot about our podcast, but we actually take this show with an audio podcast. Here, we go to my iPad. So in the course of a year, we had 455,928 plays of our podcast on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, as well as TuneIn. Now, this was the total number when it came to our actual video views,

100.7, 100,730,126. Now the minutes viewed of this show, 434,989,797. Now people told me there was no way in the world we could make this thing happen. It couldn't get done. Oh my God, what are you doing? There's no way you can make money when, in fact, we actually generated more than $700,000 in revenue the first year of this show. Now, why am I saying all of that? Because the reality is we have to learn what it means to monetize our culture. I told y'all when I was watching

the Sam Cooke documentary on Netflix, and you saw the story about how his manager, pretty just stole his music rights from underneath him, put the company in his name where essentially Sam Cook was working for him. OK. We can show you numerous black musicians who lost their publishing rights because it was stolen by white managers

and accountants and business managers. If you read Luther Campbell's book, you will understand how his music company was stolen from him by a white executive who he hired, who used the bankruptcy laws to steal his company out from underneath him. We're talking about the history of black folks as well when it came to owning land.

I can go down the line describing all of these different things. But here we have a situation now in America where everything black folks touch is gold. We change the view of hair and clothes and style and music. Yet for a lot of us, we're giving it away. I'm going to go back to Luther Campbell. If you read his book, he describes this scene. He had a concert. And then when the concert was over, he was sitting there counting all his money. And one this scene. He had a concert, and then when the concert was over, he was sitting there counting all his money. And one of the rappers from New York said,

man, what are you doing? He said, I'm counting my paper. See, they had signed deals, licensing deals, for somebody else to hand their merchandise for $2,503,000. Luke figured out, I can sell my own shit and get paid direct. He was making $25,000, $30,000 per show selling his own merchandise. That's called monetizing your own culture.

Last year, the Global Hope Forum in Atlanta, there was a panel featuring several entertainers, including John Bryant, the founder and CEO of Operation Hope, and this is what T.I. had to say about this subject of monetizing our culture. There's a lot to be said, you know, to your point. Hip-hop transcends culture, religion, age. It's truly diverse, and it's the number one genre in the world. Hip hop is the most influential genre

in the world. It brings in more profits than any other than country music, rock and roll, R&B. Hip hop is the thing that brought the world together. if you can't agree on anything else you can agree to you know when 50 cent in the club come on, you know, yeah, everybody dancing together We can be arguing and we'll we ain't gonna agree on the same football team basketball team, but when none but a G thing Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg So hip-hop has brought the world together and I think that because we are artists and we operate from the most artist-driven part

of the brain, that kind of, it gives us a different capacity when it comes to our financial plan because a lot of us take much much more significant risks because of our belief in our art you know what i mean like you have people like for instance kanye you know kanye they said that he was you know in a in a place of uh financial discrepancy but but what he did was, that's because he chose to put all of his money into his art. All of his money.

He said, if I'm going to bet on anything, I'm going to bet on me. I can't convince them to see what I see. I can't convince you to see what I see, but I know what my art can do. I know what my art can do. I know what my work can do. So even though it's unconventional, even though it may come at some just highly disagreed upon opinions, I'm still going to do this in belief of myself. And now we see what Kanye is because of that mentality.

Now there are a lot of other people who ain't exactly Kanye who did the same thing and they didn't come out so well. But. And that he later talked about again, how do you monetize our culture? And the reason that sort of resonated, because see when I had my TV One News One Now show,

I was actually buying my own equipment. In fact, after my first job in the business, I never wanted to be in a situation where the company owned the equipment, so if I left or I got fired, then I'm sort of stuck out. So I always bought my own stuff, had my own cameras, had my own printers. I remember when I left the Dallas Weekly,

they were like, what the hell happened? They were like, oh, that computer, the printer, and the camera, rolling on all of that. So that was the same view. And so when News 1 now ended, the reason why I wasn't sweating this whole thing is I had actually bought my own camera, my own switcher. I had my whole infrastructure

where I could keep doing my thing without TV One because I own stuff they didn't own. Some of y'all are gonna get that. Why is that important? Because it's called betting on yourself. So I would dare say before we launch this show, I may have spent probably $200,000 on my own equipment. Greg Carr, why this is important is because

the part of the problem I think that we get into, which is one of the issues that we have, we talk about how do we create wealth, is that we still operate by this whole notion of white validation, that it's not a real show unless it's on MSNBC or CNN or one of the different networks, when in fact, you look at this product,

it can compete with any of those different folks as well. I had somebody tell me, man, you didn't wear a T-shirt and shorts when you were at TV One. Why you wearing it now? Because I own this shit. And they need to be buying that shirt right here. But now, here's the piece, though. But now, let me see again, though.

Somebody said, why you wearing T-shirts and shorts, but y'all don't ask Mark Zuckerberg why he wear a hoodie and T-shirts? How about that? Or Bill Gates. That's right. And the point here is, people are like, well,

why don't you take this somewhere else? Why? I'm telling you. Like last night, I was watching the Motown documentary on Showtime. And while I'm watching it, my thought is going, did black folks make the documentary? Did our company make it? And so what I'm watching it, my thought is going, did black folks make the documentary? Did our company make it? And so what I'm trying to get at is everybody wants our stuff.

We have to accept the reality that we can make the documentary, we can make the show just like they can. That's right. You know, Roland, it's fascinating you say that again, but you're always thinking like that. You're saying who owns it? Whether it's intellectual capital. We just heard from Cassandra Newby-Zander. She's at a black institution.

You're conscious in putting institutions. Individuals cannot defeat institutions. And when you say that we need to think that way, not only are you absolutely correct, let's tie it to the segment that you've now established every week, the 1619 segment. In the years immediately following the Civil War, in fact,

beginning during the Civil War, after the first Confiscation Act, in the Sea Islands, the same ones that are getting slammed now by the hurricane, Africans, through Rufus Saxton and General Sherman and them, this whole 40 acres and mule business, took over the plantations that they had been forced to work as enslaved

people and began, the first thing they did was say, no more cotton. So they broke all the cotton gins. Then they planted tomatoes, potatoes, corn for sustenance crop. Okra. Yeah, okra, absolutely. Then the Civil War generals said, and Lincoln tried to rescind this, but Saxton kept going. They said, look, in order to break the South, we're gonna deprive them of the profit from that crop. Let those Africans stay on the land. My point is, they then began to develop parcels of land,

and then when they sold the land to white speculators, some of these black folks had figured out a way to monetize that crop to get enough money to buy some of that land. And they parlayed that into land that is instilling the hands of some black families on the sea islands and in Georgia and I'm saying, I have to say this, what you're talking about, what TI is talking about, what I see Nick Cannon do, you know, Nick is at Howard. Now I watch this cat. If you want to do

business with Nick Cannon, you got to, he's like you you. You gotta contract with him. He's not gonna work for you. What I see y'all doing, what this show represents, is not us doing something new. It's a return to the thing that we always did in some kind of way. We got our heads twisted around during integration. Julian, last night, actually the last two

nights, I was on this text message and it was a sister who, not from was a sister who... not from here, but...but who...who... relates with black culture. And I was walking her through all this history. And I said, what I'm doing is what Robert Abbott did

with the Chicago Defenders. That's right. I said what A.I. Scott did with the Atlanta Daily World, what Ida B. Wells Barnett did, Frederick Douglass. I said William Monroe Trotter. We can go down the whole line. I said, because the key is this. I said, if we did not have those black institutions that were black-owned, they wouldn't...

Abbott didn't give a damn what the colonel was doing, what McCormick was doing with the Chicago Tribune. He didn't care. But the difference is this here. Black folks bought the defender. That's right. Black folks said, we have to pay for that.

So they had the ability to send staffers around the world because black folks funded it. What happens now, which is just grating to me, is that we have people who say they want black ownership, but then they want white advertisers or white media companies or other

folks to foot the bill and say, why can't we get it for free? And that, to me, is the danger because then whoever pays the piper is the one who controls the product. The free press, it's not free unless you paid for it. I mean, I admire what you've done, Roland.

I think it's really important. And I think it's important in the historical context. Let's look at 1880, when black wealth to white wealth, the ratio was one black dollar for 36 white dollars. By 1910, it had dropped to one black dollar for 16 white dollars. By 1910 it had dropped to one black dollar for 16 white dollars. In other words, black people post-enslavement were making economic progress. That's a period in which Ida B. Wells was able to fund her newspaper. The period in which Trotter and all those were able

to fund their newspaper. All black people were not on the same page. You saw a lot of tension. Oh. Martin Delaney, all of them, they disagreed. But they all believed, and you can go back to 1836, where it said, let us plead our own cause. And that was the bottom line. So now, you know, everybody wants to be on the air. Me too.

But just saying. But, you know, the fact of the matter is, you will be censored if you're on the air. Me too. Just saying. The fact of the matter is you will be censored if you're on the majority press. There will be some things you cannot say. I did something very recently. They said, we need you to go light. I don't know what Malvo light is. Other than light skin.

That's about it. Hold up. Method Man could be watching. Remember he said hold the red bone with the red hair? That's about it. Oh, look. Stop it. What? Hold up. Hold up. Method Man could be watching. Remember he said? That's true. Remember he said, oh, he said, who's the older red bum with the red hair?

Don't light up Johnny Blaze tonight. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. But the point is that majority press has a narrative. Even Nicole Hannah-Jones with the 1619, the New York Times, you saw the splashback they got from that. How dare they try to rewrite the narrative. Well, we are not rewriting the narrative.

We are writing the narrative. And so I think it's really important for us to understand that black people had economic agency absent the 40 acres and a mule until evil white people started passing laws to take our stuff away from us. That's very true. Lynching was not about raping white women.

Lynching was about economic envy. That's right. The first lynching that Ida B. Wells documented was because a black man opened up a grocery store across the street from a white man. It's called a people's grocery. All the black people started going there. That's right.

Then two little boys got into a fight over some marbles, which was their excuse. They always had an excuse. So they would go shoot up the black people's grocery store over some boys having a fight over some marbles, which was their excuse. They always had an excuse. So they go shoot up the black people's grocery store over some boys having a fight over marbles. And then lynched three black men, one of whom was Ida B. Wells' godchild's dad and one of the first black postmen,

which was a serious job for black people at that time. So I've been studying this stuff, which is driving me nuts. That's why I'm already crazy and I got crazier. Because when you start reading about lynchings, you just go like... Makes you sane. But, like, lynching black men because they own cars. Lynching people because they have businesses.

Now, I mean, not the little petty stuff about lynching people because they didn't cross the street, but because you own shit. Excuse my language. In Florida, brother owned 40 acres of orange grove, lynched. And so let's just be clear about why this lynching occurred and why African-American economic accumulation is so threatening to predatory capitalism.

So Cleo, when you look at Chance the Rapper, reads his record, reads his contract, and realizes that if he gives him a mixtape, he then is done with the recording contract, and then he then goes out and says, fine, I can now just do distribution deals. That's exactly what Prince told them 20 years previously when he said, stop being a slave to the record labels.

When you saw people who realized that, wait a minute, okay, no, I'm going to write my own music because person i mean smokey robinson uh getting paid like crazy i was talking to frankie beverly uh and the cincinnati music festival and in essence the people said uh frankie you mad at beyonce she did before i let go he said hell no do you know how much money she's made me because I own the publishing no question. And so what what what what what? Ti is talking about is What we create what we develop we should be not getting a licensing deal No, I want the whole piece I'm not trying to sit here and play this game

But a lot of this still is this notion of white validation. Oh, in their eyes, oh, I'm seen as big. And I'm like, that's great. But guess what? You might have a show on those networks, but you ain't controlling and owning that show. That's right. I'm glad you mentioned Prince because one reason

I was so heartbroken when he died, because he was literally one of the most powerful black artists that ever lived. He owned everything. And he finally got Purple Rain back. And that's why people were skeptical about him dying right after because he finally became the owner

of his most greatest work. But I also heard, and this is relevant, that you're going to be doing work around deprogramming? You're going to do some deprogramming. We're going to do that. Okay, because we need to do that. Because back in the day when people were supporting the offender and when IDB was around, we were less confused. We were more clear.

There were no arguments about white evil. It was like, when is it going to happen next? Right now, there's arguments among black people about white evil. It was like, when is it going to happen next? Right now, there's arguments among black people about white evil. When you have conversations about black people supporting black people, somebody will say, well, all white people aren't bad. Nobody said they were. Why are you coming to an abstract white rescue project

that's not relevant to the direct conversation? Because we've been trained to look at them as... Because we don't look at structure. But even when black people have structure, for example... No, no, no. Economic structure, political structure. We don't look at structure. But even when black people have structure, for example... No, no, no. Economic structure, political structure. We don't look at the structure. Forgive me for interrupting you, but

it's, you know, when people say all white people aren't evil, I don't say all white people are evil. I say that the structure of predatory capitalism, which supports white supremacy, that's what's evil. And that's important, but I want us to understand

that we need to purge that impulse to run to the rescue of white folks. It's an unconscious training that comes out of a lot of things, including the mythological white Jesus. Sure. And we... I mean, some of the stuff that Roland has heard

about why you're doing this, why you're doing that, when other white folks are doing the same thing, but why are you doing it has to do with... And in fact, let me help you out. So somebody asked me, they said, man, y'all did great numbers. I said, let me be clear.

We didn't buy a single ad. We didn't do a single boost. But here's the other piece. Not one media outlet would do a story on me launching my own show. Now, I look at these media sites, or I look at all of them, TV Newser, Mediaite, Multichannel,

look at all of them, and I see stories on this white boy who launched a YouTube show, or this white woman who's over here doing something. I see all these stories. And my publicist literally, in the first four months of this show, could not get a story done.

Why not? I said, oh, because, uh, one, th-th-their own bias. Then it's also who he think he is. Exactly. And that's why I said, baby, don't worry about it. Exactly. We just gonna do the work. Exactly. And let's be clear, there were black outlets

who would not do stuff. And I said, don't worry about it. I said, because we gonna show the concept works. Now people are going... Now that's why I laugh, and the reason I keep smacking these ADOS people,

because, look, they've been on my timeline all day. Check the numbers, check the numbers. And I'm like, get a calculator. I'm like, if y'all want to have this debate... But, Rola, them people can't count. No, no, no, but see, but again, though, the reason I talk about the whole deprogramming deal, I said, how can y'all be about black liberation

and black freedom and black consciousness? I said, but I'm doing what y'all say. I love this one here. They were like, well, you owe black media. I said, well, my numbers are better than your new black media because what they can't stand is that when you're unbought and unbossed, you're even that way with some black people.

And that's why black people need to understand that we need to be deprogrammed. We should be excited about what Roland's doing. We should be glad he had three numbers, let alone three million numbers. We should be glad he exists. We had 100.7 million. Okay, well, I'm sorry. He has 100 points. 100.7 million.

The bottom line is that why we even... This is not a rhetorical question. The question is why are we even hating and saying he don't got no numbers? That's anti-black. I don't care how many Pan-African outfits you got and how many tiki's you got. Because here's the deal, here's the deal, Cleo.

If you're trying to throw doubt into what he's doing, it's anti-black. But here's the deal, hold on, hold on. But here's the deal, though. There are people who hate on me, and I've said to them, go do you. Right. Do your show.

Right. Radio, online. I said, I ain't got to watch you. I said, but do you. I said, I ain't dogging you. Knock yourself out, because my deal is, if you're talking to a segment,

and you're serving them, that's great. That's fine. But what I'm not gonna do though is, I'm not gonna let folks try to denigrate something because again, the larger picture is, like that was at one point

in the late 1800s. Literally, 10... There were 10,000 black newspapers that were started in a 30 year period between 1850 and 1900. 10,000. Because we believed in controlling our own information.

And so, you know, I mean, my life. But we didn't believe we were God, though. That was the problem. We didn't believe we were God. Everybody brown ain't down. So, you know, these ADOS folks. But here's the deal, though. But again, though, I don't mind them doing what they do.

Go right ahead. Because I ain't talking to you. Knock yourself out. But what I'm trying to get our people to understand is, is that, because another thing is this here, which Tia also deals with, because musicians have done this, how they collaborate. I've said it.

Every major black media company, I went to them before we launched this show. Right. Nobody wants to do anything. Right. I talked to folks since we said it. Every major black media company, I went to them before we launched this show. Right. Nobody wants to do anything. Right. I talked to folks since we launched it. Nobody wants to do anything. And I'm looking at them going,

y'all ain't got nothing like what we're doing. But they don't, they can't do what... Which is why Vision... They're not free. They're not free. The issue is that they're not free. But we need to learn to... But we need to learn to understand that... Let me tell you something.

Rupert Murdoch sold his Fox Entertainment interest to Disney for, I think it was like $70 billion. See, they ain't got no problem. Look, Bob Iger is a big-time Democrat. Sure. Rupert Murdoch is a big-time conservative. But guess what? When Obama was in there, Murdoch was kissing up to Obama. For them, it's about money.

And what I'm trying to get black folks to understand is, we are 24 years away from America being the nation's majority people of color. We are seeing black people, black ad agencies going extinct. You know why? Because what used to be black dollars became going extinct. You know why? Because what used to be black dollars

became multicultural dollars. And the white ad agencies had no problem. They're like, okay, you know what? Y'all can handle the multicultural dollars, but here's the problem. It used to be mainstream. Let me help y'all out. Let me walk y'all through.

It was black, multicultural, mainstream, which means white. And that's... Hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me explain it. Yes, sir. Black, multicultural, mainstream, which means white. There were three buckets.

Black got merged with multicultural. So then it was multicultural dollars and mainstream, which is white. Here's what happened. Demographics changed. What was multicultural is now mainstream. That's right. So now the mainstream firms, okay, so when the multi...

Let me see. Let me go back. Black, multicultural, mainstream, which is white. Multicultural increases, moves out black people, so now black people are now fighting Latinos and others for the same crumbs. Mainstream is sitting here saying,

okay, y'all can have... That's crumbs to us. Demographics change. Guess what? Black and Latino now getting frozen out, because mainstream said, we're going to gobble up what y'all got because, see, what y'all got is going to overtake ours one day. So what's the problem?

Again, let me unpack it. The black folks who worked for agencies and the black people who worked in corporate America knew the black ad agencies. The black ad agencies knew the black media people. They understood what we can do in our power and leverage. The problem you have right now, white control ad agencies, most of them European,

they pretty much bought up all of them, they don't know black people. They don't know me. They don't know that black newspaper. They don't know Tom Joyner. They didn't look at metrics and numbers. So the problem is your black ad agencies are not withering on the vine. What does that

mean? If your black ad agencies wither on the vine, black media is not going to be withering on the vine. Unless folks see the larger picture and say, no, we have to sound the alarm because this is the game they're playing, folks,

because I want y'all to hear me. What they're saying is, we don't need to buy Roland's show or Tom Joyner or Harvey or Ricky Smiley or Essence or Ebony or Black Enterprise because they also watch TNT and TBS and ABC. So we can get them by giving the money to ABC. Even though we know black people watch both,

but watch one totally differently than the other. So we don't understand the game. What's going to happen is, because I need y'all to hear me, what's going to happen is we because I need y'all to hear me, what's gonna happen is, we're gonna wake up one day and realize the black media outlets have gone away because if two buckets of revenue

don't exist, they're dead. Subscriptions and advertising. That's right. If they take the advertising and we don't subscribe, there will be no show. That's right. If they take the advertising and we don't subscribe, there will be no show. That's right. Or radio show.

Or TV show. Or digital show. Or magazine. Or newspaper. Which now means we're left to ask somebody else, can you please cover our story?

That's right. Can you please put on different voices? And that means we're gonna have numerical numbers, a demographic shift, and asking somebody else, can you please cover us, Greg?

I was gonna say, Roland, this is... And this ties to everything we've been talking about from the beginning of this show to now. Again, 1861, 1862, the Contraband Acts. South Carolina and in Mississippi, you see blacks take these plantations and move over. When these white boys collaborated, and Dr. Malvo-Julian, you said it perfectly,

predatory capitalism. When they opened up the Sea Islands for investors, the northerners came down to buy up all the land. The blacks who had saved enough money to do this, let's call them the subscribers in land, to make the parallel. They were able to buy a little bit of land, but here's where it came in.

The plantations that were bought up, what the northern white boys did was say this, we want to own the land, but we will hire you to stay down here and work the land. In fact, we just will pay you to work the land. So, what's the parallel? You're describing an era when they can't get around black content, but they want to own the black.

They want us to work on these media plantations. Which is why I call it, in politics, political sharecropping. Absolutely. And this is called media sharecropping. Media sharecropping. So, like, when I was on CNN, I literally had a major executive tell me when I launched my Ascot and Bowtie line

and I had my other stuff, he said, y'all, this was a quote. Now, you know if you were full-time here, you couldn't be doing all that stuff. Exactly. And this is what I said. And that's why I'll never be full-time here. Right.

Because my multiple revenue streams is what gave me the freedom to say what I wanted to say on air. Because they did not control all my money. Final comment. Final comment. The issue is control. The issue is really about control. We can look through history and talk about control.

And the challenging thing right now is that there are so many stories, Roland, that you bring to the air, like the crazy-ass white people, but other stories, which we don't see elsewhere. Which, in terms of all kinds of things, we don't see elsewhere. We need to know about what's going on in our nation around the exploitation of black people, and the New York Times ain't gonna cover it.

See my shirt? Yes, value black people. That's the bottom line. First of all, put your hands down so they can see the shirt. You're like, see my shirt? No problem. You can't really see the shirt.

I wasn't going to remove it ultimately. I got you. How about wear a T-shirt? The bottom line is that black people need to unlearn the myth of white supremacy, purge from that myth, and learn to value black people at all costs. Yeah.

That's what we... Because, as I said earlier, and this is relevant to everything that we've been talking about, including you even getting more subscribers, which you deserve to get, is that we question it if it's black. We question its relevance.

We question whether it has value. When Robert Johnson sold BET to become the CEO, remember that? Right. He sold it, and they let him stay there. Rich sharecropper is still a sharecropper. Exactly. Some black people thought, ooh,

because now he know he going to get paid. Hold up. But for those black people, he actually got paid in the sale. But see, even with that, because, and I get, we think differently when it's like, I understand the power of media. But here's what I also explain to people, okay? BET got sold for $3.3 billion.

John Malone got one-third of that. Bob and Sheila Johnson got that. Bob and Sheila Johnson, through BET, created more black millionaires than any other... Yes, they did. Oh, any other black company in history. Yes, they did. Second, by selling the company,

they now actually employ more people through the company. The more, the multiple companies they own than just BET. Uh-huh. Now, I totally understand the value of media. What I also, and we'll do this deconstruction in a whole other day, walking black people through what selling also means

when you take that capital and now can do other things. That's good. So I'm going to do that another day. So I'm going to do it another day, but finish your point. But I got to deconstruct this Kevin Hart, Lil Nas X.

Go ahead. But there's a difference between system success and black cultural success. Oh, I got you. Go ahead. But there's a difference between system success and black cultural success. Oh, I got you. I understand. There's a difference because if you become a bunch of neutral black millionaires instead of black people who do what Jews do

and Asians do to make sure they're supporting legacy and building black people and building more cultural legacy of self-love and self-respect so the rest of the children could love themselves, that's different than- Which, which, which, hold on, hold on. I'm almost finished. Real quick, like I really, I really gotta go.

I know, but if people interrupt me, then I can't finish. Come on. When Bob had that, that, that station, they had news. They were what I call trance breaking, black focused news shows with, I forgot the name. I got it. I got Lee's story. They got rid of all of that. And it's still gone. You have been the only

consistent news source that had syndication in the country. They got rid of all of it. Right, because his whole deal was entertainment's more important than news. He said it. My closing comment is that

trans-breaking work for black people, getting us out of the anti-black mythology and the white supremacy mythology is equally important, if not more important, than just becoming successful in this system. Which is why, again, we'll do it another day, but I'll break down what Robert Smith is doing, who's worth $5 billion,

and how he is also doing the thing with things that he is funding that he is actually controlling. That'll be another deconstruction. Gotta go to break right now. When we come back, I'm gonna break down this segment that's on HBO show, LeBron's show on HBO.

Now, a bunch of people are trashing black men, saying black barbershops are filled with sexist, misogynistic, homophobic black men. I got something to say to all y'all. Y'all might want to listen up and buckle the hell up. You're watching 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 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 I told Greg it's a great camera work. So Gerald Albright was in Virginia. I shot that video last year, so we got some other stuff we're going to be showing y'all.

But that's Gerald Albright, one of the folks performing Life, Luck, Jazz Experience in Cabo, November 7th through the 11th. I'm going to be there, folks. We'll be broadcasting Roller Martin Unfiltered at Thursday and Friday. It's going to be a phenomenal opportunity, folks, listening for you to have top-notch music

and libations. That's alcohol. And, of course, golf and spa and wellness. We have the Omnia Day Club Los Cabos nestled in the Sea of Cortez, a celebrity playground of Los Cabos. It's a wonderful experience, the second annual Ultimate Jazz Getaway

for folks who appreciate that music. It's going to be a phenomenal time, luxury accommodations. Again, as we said, great food, great drink, golf, spa, health, wellness, all kinds of stuff we'll be doing there. And of course, the various things taking place include many concerts, the Spirit of Jazz, Gosselin' Brunch, Jazz Sunset Cruise, some of the confirmed guests,

comedian-actor Mark Curry, Gerald Albright, as I said, Alex Boonyong, Raul Madon, Incognito, Pieces of a Dream, Kirk Whalum, Average White Band, Donnie McClurkin, Shalaya, Roy Ayers, Tom Brown, Ronnie Laws, Ernest Qualls, and more. If you want to see the whole lineup, go to lifeluxjazz.com, L-I-F-E-L-U-X-E, jazz.com, L-I-F-E-L-U-X-E, jazz.com.

And if you're wondering, this venture, it is a black-owned venture, just so y'all know that. And so I'm one of the ambassadors. I'll be there. A pre-birthday celebration for me. We're going to have a great time. So I want y'all to go to the website, check out the packages, and look, it's going to be cold in November on the East Coast.

So y'all can come hang out in Colorado for four days so we can have a grand time. So really looking forward to making that happen. LifeLuxJazz.com, LifeLuxJazz.com. All right, y'all. Let's talk about this here. So I saw this clip on social media, and it was, so LeBron James has this barbershop show on HBO,

okay, part of his media company, Uninterrupted. And so there was a conversation with Lil Nas X, Kevin Hart, and others about Lil Nas X coming out gay. Roll the clip. And with all that early success, you felt it was important to make an announcement recently. He said he was gay, so what?

Yeah, what's the point? Why did he feel that was necessary? It's not about who cares. That's actually my question. Why did he feel it was necessary to come out and say that? It's not about who cares. That's actually my question. Why did he feel it was necessary to come out and say that? It's not that, like, it's, like, being forced. It's just, like, knowing, like, growing up,

like, I'm grown, I'm grown up to hate that shit. I'm not supposed to ever like this. Hate what? Hate what? Homosexuality, gay people. Come on now. If you're really from the hood, you know. You like, you know, like, it's not something... So it's like, for me, the cool dude with the song on top of everything to say this any other time,

like, I'm doing this for attention in my eyes. But if you're doing this, like, while you're at the top, you know it's, like, for real. And it's, like, showing, like, it doesn't really, like, matter, I guess. Exactly, it doesn't. There it is. Now, allow me to deconstruct this in the show. There was this huge backlash on social media

of people saying, oh, that's the stuff that happens in black barbershops. Uh, you know, homophobic, uh, sexist, all they talk about is women, uh, and stuff along those lines. And they were trashing. Uh, I can't believe Kevin Hart said that. Okay.

The point of the show is to have conversations that we don't have. See, it's-it's a little idiotic to say, I'm-a trash the people, I'm-a tra-like, say, I'ma trash the people, I'ma trash, like, uh, I'ma trash Hart, I'ma trash the other guys who said, uh, well, so what?

Why'd you come out? Them saying that is what leads to Lil Nas X explaining why he did it. See, if everybody in the barbershop goes, oh man, that's so brave of you, that ain't real. Because in real life, we have real conversations.

See, what has also happened in this society is we have created this whole notion of black men as these wild, dangerous, dangerous, angry, sadistic, crazy, outlandish individuals as if beauty shops ain't talking about lesbians. How about that?

See, we have created this dichotomy of black women being so knowledgeable and accepting and loving and open and black men as being haters and closed-minded when the reality is you got black men who don't like gay people, you got black women who don't like gay people, and then you got people who say,

let's actually have dialogue. For a lot of folks out there who don't even understand, I've been in black barbershops. I've been in the barbershop where one cat said some bullshit and got checked by somebody else. Every time. And then somebody said, oh, damn, I didn't even know that.

Come on, brother. Then you got the cat who think he knows what he's talking about, but he ain't Googled a damn thing and ain't read nothing. But then he gets checked by the knowledgeable brother in the barbershop who does know stuff. Then you got the person in the barbershop who they think know a lot of stuff,

until somebody who actually has read some shit comes to the barbershop to get a haircut. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. See, I've been in that position. We all have. Well, you sitting there, Greg. You know, you sitting there. Come on.

And then all of a sudden, somebody sits there talking to you like, you know, I ain't really trying to bust his ass. Come on. Let's go, Roland. Well, I'm not done. Everything he's sitting there, you got to wait, Julian. This is a deconstruction.

I'll let you know when you get to talk, OK? Thank you, Roland. It's a deconstruction. So what happens, y'all, is I've been there. Well, they run their mouth. You're like, I'm just trying to, I ain't trying to say nothing. Because, see, I'm going to embarrass his ass if I say something.

No question. But then he keep talking, then you go ahead and embarrass him. Yeah, I say something. We also talk and say, well, black men don't talk enough. That's what the hell they were doing. That's right. OK? They then said, then when Lil Nas said, come on,

y'all from the hood, y'all know. You know what I'm saying. He was saying, y'all know what the real deal is. Let's not trip, because these cameras are here. So why do we sit here and trash them for being them and having a real conversation? We know why Lil Nas X came out, and he's right. Because he said, I grew up and it was bad.

Here I am, big star. I can help somebody else who's going through the same situation. Because, see, we all have understanding of what we do. I had somebody ask me and they said... Somebody asked me and they said, when Caitlyn had her surgery, you talk about it? Nope.

I said, that's personal. And they ain't right. I said, I don't talk about personal stuff. They I said, that's personal. They didn't write. I said, I don't talk about personal stuff. They're like, what do you mean? I said, have you ever seen me talk about a celebrity who got married? Nope. Have you ever seen me talk about a celebrity who got divorced?

Nope. Have you ever seen me talk about a celebrity who's dating somebody? Nope. You ever seen me talk about a celebrity who had a baby? Nope. You know why? Because about a celebrity who had a baby? Nope. You know why? Because I don't give a damn. There are so many entertainment shows out there. If that's what you want, go watch those.

I don't have the time for that. So my deal is, it ain't because Caitlyn went from a man to a woman. It's not because somebody gay found life when Robin Roberts came out. Okay. You do the story? No. from a man to a woman, it's not because somebody gay found out when Robin Roberts came out. Okay. You do the story?

No. Because that's your business. That's a standard that I have on the show because if I start talking about all celebrity stuff, who's they dating, who they married to, who they now with, then guess what this becomes? A celebrity show.

We have finite time, and we talk about stuff that's not covered elsewhere. But again, that's my news judgment. Now, I would be wrong if I discuss celebrity stuff, but I ain't wanna discuss stuff where somebody who's gay came out. They're just like, hold up, why you got a different standard? The reason this

pisses me off is because we have this society, and black folks are really doing this as well. But we are trashing black men who are trying to be more transparent and open and honest and having conversations. Because, see, if y'all really want to go there, you go to a black women's conference,

oh, hell, they talking about all kind of stuff. They sitting here crying I mean they are wailing you name it wailing but you go to a black male conference and you got most folks talking about sports plans dominoes talk spades

bit of wits because it's about games because we promote this whole idea when black men get together or men get together it's all fun and games, but women good together, and they working on themselves, stuff along those lines. If you don't like the honest and raw conversations that they have on this show, well, don't watch. But it's wrong of us to get mad

when somebody in an actual conversation says something, and that's their particular point of view. Remember a couple of years ago when Mark Cuban was on a panel and he talked about how he felt if a group of black men were dressed a certain way and they were approaching him, how he would respond. People got all upset. And I'm like, and I said it.

Why y'all getting upset? Because that's Mark Cuban actually being honest. If Mark Cuban can't be honest about that conversation, then how can we actually break down walls? See, the problem I have is we have fake conversations. Oh, we have fake conversations. We have fake conversations on television. We have fake conversations on radio.

Or people sit here and they don't really want to be honest, and you sitting there going, you know you full of shit. And you know you lying. Because what they're doing is they're playing to the audience because I don't want to come across as being a certain way. I believe the reason we have problems in our marriages, in our families,

in our frats, in our sororities, in barbershops, in beauty salons, in groups, because we don beauty salons, in groups, because we don't have real, raw conversations. My last point in this deconstruction is why I feel this way,

is I'm a life of my Alpha Phi Alpha, plays a Texas A&M-Palma Con chapter, and we had brotherhoods. So we had a reunion one year, and so we went to this clubhouse of one of the undergraduate brothers. So we walked in, and the brother's like, all right, man, so we got food here,

and so we got the music going on, we got stuff to drink. Our girlfriends, the AKs, they coming by about 9.30, and then we go to the party. We all like, um... The grad brothers went, do they not know this is a brotherhood? Like, um... The grad brothers went, do they not know this is a brotherhood?

We were like, okay, turn the music off. Put the alcohol down. Call your girlfriends, tell them they ain't invited. Call them AKs, tell them they can't come over here. And these young brothers were like, what y'all doing? We said, we gonna teach y'all ass what a brotherhood is. See, a brotherhood, what we call it, is not a time we get together

and play games. A brotherhood is where we get together, close the door, and we have brotherly conversations. We were having this one conversation where brothers were talking about black-on-black crime. We were talking about, oh, man, I couldn't kill another brother.

Then we had one brother say, y'all awful as shit. He said, I will kill a man in a heartbeat. They were like, what? He said, I did when I was in Iraq. He said, one of us was going home in a body bag and it was not going to be me. He described killing an Iraqi with his bare hands. That totally changed our discussion

on killing somebody else. Because we were talking about it in the abstract. He said, let's brought it for real. In that brotherhood, we had brothers who gave their lives to Christ. We had brothers who talked about the marriage disintegrating. Brothers who talked about sexual

addiction. Y'all, we didn't leave that brotherhood till 7 a.m. Mm. Mm. What is my point? When black men get together and have real conversations... That's right....transformative things happen. The problem with the television show is you get to see it, and now you want to comment on it.

That's right. I would rather have brothers say what they said and then we talk about it than not have a conversation. That's right. So for those of you who got a problem with what you heard, check yourself. What you should be saying is, thank goodness there's a TV show owned by LeBron James featuring black men having discussions that you ain't hearing other places,

instead of you judging what somebody said in the conversation. That's right. My deconstruction on this ends. Now y'all can comment. You know, Roland, I sent you a text message. You would be talking about... You would just jump out and be the first one

to be talking about black men, this conversation. Julianne wanna go first. Because I love black men, this conversation. Julianne, I want to go first. Because I love black men. I love my brothers. Oh, I'm going to mess with you, but go ahead. You're always messing with me. What's new? But the point is this.

What are the points? We don't wail at our conferences, by the way. Yes, y'all do. No, we don't. Don't even front. First of all, my wife is a ordained minister. And look, y'all, I've been to women's conferences, and y'all wail.

Matter of fact, hell, I was at the Chris Tucker golf tournament. And no, y'all, I've been to women's conferences, and y'all wailed. I've heard... Matter of fact, hell, I was at the Chris Tucker Golf Tournament. And no, no way, no. That was a women's conference taking place at the same time I walked... This sister was wailing. Okay. No, no, no, no, no, no.

Let me be real clear, since you want to go there. Y'all, she was wailing on her knees, on the ground. Wasn't nobody patting her on the back. She was in the corner. No, I ain't done. They were selling stuff.

No, no, no. I'm letting her know. They were selling stuff. They were like, baby, go ahead and wail. Do your thing. But she was wailing. Now you can go ahead. You going to tell me what I saw with my own eyes.

You saw one sister wailing. You did that collectively wail. Guess what? They on YouTube, Facebook said, yeah, we w Sister Whaler did. You saw collectively Whale. Guess what? They on YouTube, Facebook said, yeah, we Whale. Go ahead. I didn't see that on my Facebook. Somebody just text me.

We do Whale. What did that say, Greg? It says, we do Whale. Brothers Whale, too. Brothers be Whaling, too. No, but the point is, I was watching. Not enough, but go ahead. I was watching, for a number of reasons,

some of your previous programs and being touched by the transparency in the conversations you were having with brothers. I think last week you had the brother who did the book Color Me Father. Yep, yep. And before that you had the brother, your fat brother, Omari.

Omari Harvey, yep. And I was watching those, trying to put, Omari. Omari Harvey. Yep. And I was watching those, trying to put together something that I'm working on. But what struck me, Roland, and I sent you a note saying, you need to begin to have these conversations with brothers and to make this something.

There are plenty of women's conversations. We don't look at men as a collective. We look at men as a collective. We look at women as a collective, women's issues, and I'm the last of the living feminists, last living nationalist feminists. But in any case, we don't look at brothers as a collective, and we must, because much of the damage that happens in our community

happens because there is no transparency among men about what's going on with them. That little clip, I had never seen that before, but the brother came, he said he was gay. Why do you have to say that? Because we know there's homophobia in our community. I ain't scared. I'm not scared of anybody's sexuality. In fact, let me just say that the black community

is like the human community. It's not a monolith. We know that. So people say the black community is not a monolith. Please be quiet on that because you haven't said anything profound. Nope, not at all. That's number one. Number two, stay out the barbershop, please. Just like when we were growing up.

Now, when we was growing up, you stayed out the beauty parlor. If I needed to get a message in the beauty parlor, I stood at the door. If my mom was getting her hair fixed and I had to go run an errand, in other words, there used to be spaces you could and couldn't negotiate. Now, because we're not a monolith, I accept unisex hairstyle.

I've had my hair cut in them. But when I want to have that unvarnished conversation, Ron, when you were talking, it would remind me of that Richard Pryor joke. Richard Pryor said his daddy used to sit in the barbershop and wait for a negro to make a mistake. 1940, what? They didn't fight nothing.

He said, get in your car. I got the almanac at the house. Boom, boom. The point is that anybody can get it in the barbershop or the beauty parlor. And I don't want to hear a conversation between women, gay, straight, LGBTQ, whoever, when they are having a conversation where they unpacking something.

Because there is a value to being in spaces where you can be unfettered. Now, Kevin Hart, for whatever reasons, jumped out there. unpacking something because there is a value to being in spaces where you can be unfettered now kevin hart For whatever reasons jumped out there little nas x got to explain himself to their brothers I'm not worried about your sexuality, but you gotta explain yourself to me and quite frankly Let's be clear love to kevin love But I ain't even in no barbershop with no white dudes sitting there because I'm gonna have a conversation and you can finally this is the Last thing this is the last thing I say I know sue a black would say I agree with you on that No, I'm the same have a conversation, and you can finally... This is the last thing I'll say. I knew Sue of Black would say I agree with you on that one.

No, no, I'm just saying. Go ahead. I know we got to go. I know it's your show, but you won't go too far. I guess what I'm saying is this. When you have spaces that are sacred to our people, those spaces are off limits if you're not ready to have that conversation. If there are other places you want to go, fine,

but you have the choice to be able to do that, and you have the freedom of choice. But as far as I'm concerned, at my age, if you don't want to hear that, stay out the barbershop. So, Cleo, the issue, again, I had here was that because it's a TV show and they're filming it and people are now getting mad at the response. No, the response was real

because that's what real people say. And I'm not going to get mad when somebody said, well, why? Even you laughed when we played the clip when somebody said, well, why? Even you laughed when we played the clip where Kevin said it. Well, what's the problem? He's like, you okay, okay? And it's like, and look, you seemed to love it. You were

cracking up laughing, but the point here is they were having a conversation and that's the whole point. Have real conversations. Well, excuse me. I completely agree because it's true, that we as a people are not having enough conversations, period. And somebody made it difficult for us to unify,

to have dialogue some time ago, and we're now in the festering zone of not having had conversations, and it's a long time coming that needs to happen. I think another perspective needs to be considered here. I saw this piece because your producer sent it to me. I think another perspective needs to be considered here. Um, I saw this, this, um, piece because your producer sent it to me. I hadn't seen it.

And I saw some of the comments. And this is what has not been said yet. Same gender-loving black people, including black men, go to barbershops to get their hair cut because they're black men. They got this kind of hair. I hate going to the barbershop

because either I'm hearing about some Christian crap or some sports or some what people call so-called homophobic conversations about faggots, etc. This is what happens all the time. You got to change your barbershop. Oh, well, I'm not talking about my barbershop.

I'm talking about the phenomena that people are thinking about when they watch this show. There was some moments of probably waiting to exhale, if you will, among same-gender loving people who watch this because what we're not saying or considering is that that had never happened before.

It's 2019 and that, a conversation between black men where a same-gender loving person talks about what they are in the presence of other black men i've been in those spaces brother but i hate what you're saying no no no he's saying that that's on that's on air go ahead go ahead go ahead thank you for hearing the context no you're right i'm talking about on air yeah so people are listening with sensitivity i disagree with the comments that i heard that were similar to what you raised in

terms of people critiquing it, but I get it. Because another problem that we have here is that the LGBTQ community, which is a war community that fights everybody, that don't take no stuff, that starts fights, that always... that invented the word homophobia, teaches black people how to deal with who they are in very defined and defensive ways

instead of rational ways in terms of reflecting with other black people. And the black community, like I told you some time ago, has not had a macro conversation about same-gender loving people being part of the black experience. There's been a macro, a collective. What I mean is that there's been silos. There's been academic discussions. There's been discussions sponsored by white gays

to get black people to speak their rhetoric. What kind of, I'm curious. But there has not been- What kind of conversation are you talking about? A town hall at the NAACP meeting? Tell me what you mean. I'm talking about black people getting together to rationally engage the fact

that they're same gender loving, bisexual, and what's called trans people in our community, and engaging that phenomena in ways that are no longer, at least for that day, judgmental or abusive, or creating the scar tissue, or exacerbating the scar tissue that's there that has yet to be resolved, because we have not had the conversation,

even on the continent, in Uganda and Azania, Africans have had a conversation about this that was macro. It was televised and there were local conversations. We have not done that in my lifetime. But there have been silos. So there are people who are watching that phenomena who might be considered, if you will, too sensitive. And that might be true. Who are reacting because they didn't see it pan out

the way they wanted it to pan out in terms of a conversation. What you're saying, Roland, is that it was a real conversation and it should be seen as a real conversation and people should not be dogging it because it didn't turn out the way they wanted it to because people were doing something that we need to have that we're not doing. Because when you dog it, what you're now doing

is you're telling somebody, oh, I ain't going to say nothing because I know what happened last time. And my point is, you can't... When somebody says... Again, I go back to, again, the brotherhood concept. Okay? The brotherhood concept. I remember being in a brotherhood where one brother let some stuff.

He repeated some stuff that happened in the brotherhood. Oh. And he got his ass whooped. And we didn't move. Mm. He got his ass whooped. And we let it go. Then it was like, okay, then we're done.

Now, why? Somebody probably is like, that's violence. Keep your mouth closed. The point there was... no, no, no, no, no. See, again, though, see, again. When you take care of stuff in-house, see, that was a reason why my college chapter never got infected by external forces because we didn't let it in the house.

We took care of business in the house. That's what a brotherhood does. The purpose of a brotherhood is, I should be free to say whatever I want to say, and it stays in the brotherhood. Right, but most brotherhoods... So the point I'm saying here on this conversation here, the reason I take offense to the people who got mad is because we, because of television,

we are observers of the conversation, but we ain't in the brotherhood. If you stop it, if you stunt the conversation, you're never gonna have a real conversation. Right, that's true. Because everybody's too careful. Right. And that's why my deal is

when we talk about race, we talk about sexism, misogyny, we talk about what you're talking about, same thing to loving, you have to allow the space to create it for somebody to be so against, so bad, I don't care, because

if I shut you down from the outset, there will never be a real conversation. But guess what? Hold on, hold on. Cleo, and then I'm ending this in three minutes. Go. Okay, one of the critiques I saw was that Kevin Hart was being phony. Right.

Because Kevin Hart was like, oh, he's gay. And what y'all talking about? When, I'm not saying what I agree with, I'm talking about how people, I interpret behavior. They were like, wait a minute, he just got finished not getting a gig, and he has these attitudes that sound like somebody who's anti-homosexual. But here's another piece. People also don't know, which I also don't know, when that was shot.

Sure. So I don't know if that conversation was shot before the Oscar controversy or after. Right. Go ahead. But let me just ask one Right. But wait a minute. I'm almost finished. Cleo, go ahead. No, Cleo, go ahead.

When the controversy happened is not really relevant. I got you. What he did that was so-called homophobic, and on another show I'm going to tell you why I say so-called because we don't have time today, happened before the Oscars. It happened a long time ago. I got you. And so that had been registered before then.

But one thing I want to close with so you can understand the difference between somebody who's heterosexual who might be watching this, somebody who's same-sex or loving who's watching this, in terms of how they're reacting to it or might be concerned about things beyond Kevin's phoniness,

is that wherever I go, people assume I'm heterosexual. So I'm in a barbershop, and we do the handshake, and I'm getting to get my hair cut, and people will launch into the Jesus Christ N-word field. LeBron did a good hook shot faggot conversation. And then I have to come out, but I'm not really coming out because I don't do believe in coming out. I come in to self-love.

I come in to self-knowing, and everything else takes care of itself. I'm not concerned about what nobody thinks. I don't come out to nobody. I don't care what you think, so I don't come out. But the point I'm making is, though, when I see black people being foul to black people, I intervene. And I have to intervene a lot. How does that unfold when you do that?

We got time for this? No, we don't, but we're going to save that one. So hold on. Go ahead, Julianne. And literally, I got 120 seconds. The issue for me in this is, you're talking about authenticity and fakeness, but is a television program

the place where you expect to really see authenticity? Yeah, hold up. When you're desperate. Hold up. Depending on what the show is. I don't expect authenticity with them damn housewives show, which I never watch. I don't watch reality television.

But what my... The philosophy that I have brought my entire career in media is that when I'm on radio and we're on TV, we ain't having fake conversations. No, we real, but that's not... No, no, no, but that's my point. So my point is, the realness of the discussion

is really predicated on the platform and the folks involved. Well, is that the appropriate platform role? I don't... First of all, I don't watch the show every week. What I... I have seen clips. And what I've seen is, they've had some real, honest conversations on their show about some issues

that are unsettling. There are people who got upset that LeBron and some other cats, I believe, have used the N-word on the show in the conversation. And their deal is, because this is who we are and this is our conversation. The only point I'm saying is, is that I need people to understand, you can't keep saying,

-"Man, keep it real!" -"Right." And then getting mad when folks keep it real. I agree with that. That's the most fundamental issue. And we can't tackle tough subjects in any community, but especially in the black community, if you don't allow people who might

disagree vehemently to be there. What I... I don't mind y'all black conservatives are scared to death to come on my show. But here's the deal. I don't mind you being black conservative to come on my show. I have one... No, no, no. I don't even use stupid. I have one rule.

No, no. I have a very simple rule. Don't lie. Here have one rule. No, no. I have a very simple rule. Don't lie. Here's the deal. If you come on this show and lie, I'm going to light your ass up. I don't allow

lying. I don't allow... And if you make a mistake, Greg just said something and I corrected him. The thing is... And I've done it in the past. And here's and I corrected him. Sure did. The thing is... And I've done it in the past. And here's why I do that. Because a person who's watching, I don't want somebody to say something.

They're like, well, Roland didn't say nothing, so it must be true. That's right. So I tell them, that's why I say it. So I'm like, any black conservative, y'all are more than welcome to sit on this panel. But don't come here and lie. Then it's going to be a problem.

But we just got to have these real conversations. A bunch of stuff, y'all, I did not get to. I know that. Crazy-ass white person. We gonna save that for tomorrow and some other stuff. But, again, this is what happens when we have real conversations and the show goes... And I can't stand these fake-ass TV shows

when they go, we gotta stop it right there. We out of time. No bullshit. The 24-hour cable network. Extend that shit for 20 more minutes. I never understand that. And so normally we have an hour show, but today we went an hour and 29 minutes. All right, y'all, be sure to support

Roller Barton on the Filter by going to our Bring the Funk fan club. Go to rollerbartonthefilter.com. You can join via cash at PayPal Square as well. I keep telling y'all, you are not getting a real discussion like this anywhere. It ain't happening on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ABC, NBC, CBS. It ain't happening on no black website.

This is the only place we keep it real and raw, and that's the way we like it. So, please, we need your support. Join our Bring the Funk Fan Club. Get a subscription because your dollars make it possible. I'm going to be in Atlanta tomorrow for the Cannabis Conference, and we are not live streaming. We'll have a live show. Avis Jones and we will be sitting in for me tomorrow,

and so I'll see you guys on Monday. Don't forget, next week I'm going to be in Houston for TSU, Texas Southern University, for the Democratic debate taking place, and so looking forward to that as well. And so we got a packed, packed show. Lots of things happening, so I'll see you guys on Monday. Y'all be sure to

watch tomorrow. Have an absolutely great weekend. And y'all have been tweeting me. Like, I don't know. I forgot who gave me this shirt. So I have no idea. So I'm going to take a picture, put it on social media, and then somebody going to tell me where in the hell I got this shirt from. Because somebody gave it to me. So I can't tell you where to get

one. And I can't look. Greg, what is it, Greg? I can't. Oh, right here. So Dubois, Malcolm, Angelou, Madam CJ, King, Harriet, Frederick, Wells, Turner, Obama. Is that it? Rosa. Rosa.

And Garvey. And Garvey. Black history. Yeah, so all about black history. I don't know where in the hell I got it from. So if y'all know, I'll let y'all know as well. So, okay, I got to go, y'all. It's an hour and a half. I got to see y'all later.

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