#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Ahmaud Arbery killed because he was Black; COVID-19 mutates; Figgers Wireless founder donates PPE

Episode Date: May 8, 2020

5.5.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Ahmaud Arbery killed because he was Black; New bill introduced to protect workers from coronavirus; COVID-19 mutates to deadlier more contagious virus; COVID-19 appears to be giving police officers more freedom to abuse African Americans; Financial expert Lynn Richardson will be here with advice on how to use your stimulus check to get back on track Figgers Wireless founder donates PPE + actress Nafessa Williams Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's

dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad 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 Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today is Tuesday, May 5th, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, shocking video of a black man gunned down in Georgia.

Why are the two white men who killed him not in jail? We will talk with family's attorney, Lee Merritt. This video has been spread all over social media, and it is stunning. Also joining us, Virginia Congressman Bobby Scott is here to tell us about a new bill to protect workers from COVID-19. Scientists say a now-dominant strain of the coronavirus appears to be more contagious than the original. We'll talk with a biologist about this. Also, COVID-19 appears to be giving police officers more freedom to abuse African-Americans. We'll break it down. Also on the show, folks, celebrity financial expert Lynn Richardson

will be here with advice on how to use your stimulus check to get back on track financially after the lockdown. And philanthropist and telecommunications executive Freddie Figures is here to talk about his donation of PPE to workers. Plus, you see her in Black Mount Lightning. Actress Nafessa Williams will join us right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. It's time to bring the funk. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the miss, he's on it.

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

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

Martin. Folks, we told you the story last week about Ahmaud Arbery, the black man gunned down in Georgia. His attorney, Lee Merritt, today dropped a piece of video that came from an anonymous source. Folks, it's a triggering video. We want you to be prepared for what you're about to see. This is the video that was prepared and given to Lee Merritt about the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, which took place two months ago by two white men who chased him down, but who prosecutors have been protecting by saying they killed him in self-defense. This video proves that is a flat out lie. all right folks now here's the deal um we told you what happened in this particular case here where the father involved here was a former investigator for the district attorney's office. This case has been moved from two prosecutors is now in the hands of a third one.

It took place two months ago. Now, according to the version that prosecutors wrote down and accepted was that these two white men rolled up on Arbery, yelled to him to stop, and then he got into a scuffle with the son and the gun went off. Now I'm going to do something again. I'm going to play the video again. And so I'm going to walk you through and again, to expose how that's a lie. Now go ahead and play the video. Now what you're seeing here is someone driving and you will see and stop, stop right there. Stop the video. Stop the video. Now what you see right there is leave the video right there. What you see is again, this person driving. We see Arbery now in the video frame. He's not running away.

He's running forward. These men claim, which the prosecutor accepted, that they drove up and yelled to Arbery, stop running. Go. Stop. running go stop as you can see their car is already in the road one of the men you'll see in a second he is already outside of the vehicle so Arbery is running towards the vehicle they got got ahead of Arbery. Press play. Stop. Now play it again.

Press play. Stop right there. What you just saw was Arbery. He sees them in the road. He goes around the truck. He's moving towards the right side of the truck. Press play. Now you hear them yell at Arbery. You hear a gunshot, but you hear a second gunshot.

You see them still struggling over the shotgun. Joining us right now is attorney Lee Merritt. Lee, you say that this video was given to you anonymously. Obviously, someone was driving and came upon this situation and started recording this on their camera. Now, had they encountered these two men or Burry earlier? What's the backstory behind the video? Because clearly they're driving and they're recording on the video camera, on the phone. You know what? I think it's important to start referring. I think it's important to start referring to these two men as these three men, because

it is our opinion that the third person who was involved in actual this, what appears for all intents and purposes to be a hunt, is a man named Brian Williams. He appears in the district attorney's opinion. And we believe he's also the person who's recording this video. Now, was the video sent to you, or did you acquire the video from someone else? I acquired the video from someone else. The video was uploaded online anonymously.

A link was sent to me by a coach of Ahmaud. So we don't know officially who actually shot this video? That's correct. Now, three hours ago, the New York Times posted

a story saying that a Georgia prosecutor will bring shooting of Ahmaud Arbery to grand jury. It is clear. Now, you posted this video several hours earlier. It is clear that posting on this video forced the hand of this prosecutor who's been sitting on this for two months. That's correct. Well, this prosecutor was given a case a little over under a month ago, but for the past month he has not made any decisions. It was it was only today after the video was released that he decided that he would present these facts to a grand jury for criminal indictment.

But see, here's the thing that I think people need to understand. A prosecutor doesn't have to actually present a case to the grand jury. A prosecutor can file charges. So now what this prosecutor is doing is saying, well, no, I want to make the decision. I'll put it in the hands of a grand jury. And then if they come back and say no charges, I'm good. That's correct. He can directly indict these men. I believe he has a legal imperative to directly indict these men. The Georgia Supreme Court has suspended the grand jury process. It's been suspended since we have been on a national quarantine and been social distancing.

And so that's no longer an excuse for not making an arrest of dangerous men. This is a posse of men who went out and hunted down a black man who they imputed criminality on with no logical basis for that imputation. And so, yes, this district attorney has an absolute obligation today, not later, to go out, file a warrant for the arrest of these men. And so, just so we're talking about here first of all one of the men is is gregory mcmichael um and what's what's interesting is this is the new york times story according to a police report mr mcmichael 64 said he saw mr arbery running through his neighborhood and thought that he looked like the suspect

in a rash of nearby break-ins. Mr. McMichael and his son, Travis, 34, armed themselves and began chasing him in a truck. Now, first of all, chasing him in a truck means that he's ahead of you and you're chasing him. That video clearly shows they got ahead of Arbery, stopped. Travis McMichael gets out of his car, truck, doors open, shotgun. He's waiting for Arbery to run towards him. That's right. And, Roland, it's important that you took that frame by frame because it completely refutes their previous narrative. That is not only untrue.

It wasn't unclear on a few parts. It was a lie, right? There was no, hey, stop, we want to talk to you. They obstructed his path and they got out with firearms. At that point, everything that they were doing was illegal. They didn't have any authority to stop this man during his job with guns and threatening him. And Ahmad does what you would expect. He sees a man standing in front of him, in front of him with guns, and he darts in the opposite direction.

And in fact, and in fact, we do this here again, again, if you, now granted, the car's approaching. If you roll a video back, as Auburn is approaching, he's still oblivious. He runs around. Turn the audio up, please. and it's important he ran over to the passenger side where the driver had to right right he is the aggressor and he has no authority to do that and if i'm a if i'm on the road by myself surrounded by men and you approach me with a gun. Everyone knows you only have two options there. You can fight or it's fight or flight. And his path for flight was obstructed.

And then this prosecutor, George Barnhill, who initially said that to police there was insufficient evidence to arrest these men because they were operating under the Georgia law of making a citizen's arrest. First of all, we read it last week. You can only make a citizen's arrest if you actually see someone committing the crime. That's correct. There was nothing seen here. Their description is, oh, well, we saw him running. He looked like a suspect.

We chased him. He wasn't carrying anything. It's not like he had a television in his arms. He was he was just jogging. He was just jogging. And to be clear, they provided a description for the so-called suspect who they knew previously

or believed previously had burglarized the neighborhood, and Ahmad doesn't fit the description. And so, they had no probable cause to believe that this was a person that they needed to stop, and if they felt they desperately no probable cause to believe that this was a person that they needed to stop. And if they felt they desperately felt they needed to stop them, then they had the responsibility to follow him and wait for law enforcement to arrive. And here's the problem. Grand juries are not being impaneled right now.

So these two are walking around free at home doing whatever could frankly shoot somebody else because nobody has arrested them. The reality is the cops could go arrest them right now, put them in jail. They would have to go before a judge. Judge can say, do I grant bail or not? The prosecutor can still go to the grand jury later so they can arrest him. Now they're choosing not to arrest them. The prosecutor can still go to the grand jury later so they can arrest him now. They're choosing not to arrest them.

They're choosing not to. And it doesn't bode well for a prosecution in the future. This is the same prosecutor that our community will be asking for justice for for a vigorous prosecution and a fair sentencing. And this is this is the man who has had the foul. This video that we're all outraged about. He's had it for over a year. I'm sorry, for over a month, and he's done nothing with it. So wait, wait, hold up. So the prosecutor, he's had this video? Yes, this is not new video to him.

It's new video to us. We've been asking him for this video since we got involved in the case. The Arbery family has been asking for this video since February 23rd. And last paragraph of the New York Times story, which frankly, I don't know how's the last paragraph. A graphic video surfaced online Tuesday that appeared to show the shooting.

In a letter to the police department, Mr. Barnhill described a video made by a third man who had joined the McMichaels in, quote, hot pursuit, unquote, of Mr. Arbery. So the reality is this here. This prosecutor, Tom Durden of Georgia's Atlantic Judicial Circuit, is only coming out today saying he will impanel a grand jury because this video was made public. That's correct. He had every opportunity to do that up until today. And he didn't do it until someone leaked this video.

It could have been someone in his office. It could have been a conscientious member of the community, but this is not new evidence to him. Lee Merritt, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. We'll stay on top of this story. All right. Thank you so much. I want to bring in my panel right now. Brooke Thomas,

host of Controlling Our Narrative podcast. Kelly Bethea. First of all, we're waiting on Kelly, but Malik Abdul, Republican strategist. Brooke, I want to start with you. Again, the fact that the reason we're even here is because of the fact that this video was leaked. This prosecutor, listening to Lee Meredith, this prosecutor had no intention of doing this now. They were going to sit on this. He's had this video. Anybody who read the previous prosecutor's account of this and then watch this video

knows full well that first account was total BS. Absolutely. You know, what's so frustrating about like any of the accounts at all is that how often still in this day and age just simply being a black man is really pushed as like a probable excuse to kill somebody you know what i mean like we saw it in dallas with the off-duty police officer and of course it was an accident but the it it really essentially came down to like he looked like he didn't belong here he like i was completely on the wrong floor. But, you know, just getting back to this, this had nothing to do with what they thought he was a suspect, a crime that they thought he may have committed, which turns out he didn't even really match the suspect at all.

This was just, this black guy didn't look like he belonged. So let me get him. And how often is that what is going through somebody's mind? We have to get past it. We can't, this stuff has to start being prosecuted like strongly,

much stronger than it is. It has to. Because we're still in this space where being a black man, people are arguing that that's really it. That's the basis of their argument in so many of these cases like this. Malik, what you're dealing with

here is a prosecutor who was simply in bed with this investigator. What you have here is they did not want to charge this man. You cannot tell me that two months will go by and no one had the common sense to say something stinks here.

These prosecutors were going to accept what these folks said. And in fact, the previous prosecutor acted more as the defense attorney for these men than an actual prosecutor. Yeah. Thank God for camera recordings. Thank God for whoever, whomever the person is who actually leaked the video. Right. Well, first I remember the person who recorded this, Malik, was involved in the pursuit. Right. Right. Well, I take that back. Sorry. I should I should just limit it to thank God for the person who actually leaked the video because they already had the video there.

And the gentleman actually said that. But this is another. So whether it's, you know, the 12 year old looked as if he was carrying a real gun in Ohio or someone walking through Walmart where they can legally carry a gun. These type of things, when it comes to that, the how we view black men and black bodies, this is just another example of that. The the this totally refutes the argument that the prosecutors were making. And I'm glad that this leap because now they don't have a choice. They should definitely be criticized. But now they have no choice because everything that we were told prior to this about the pursuit. Well, it's clear that they did not happen in the fact that they had this information and would not turn over this information to the family. And it had to be leaked. This is a to me, it seems like a clear-cut case of this being a cover-up.

Kelly, if the man pursuing, the man who joined McMichael in the pursuit was not dumb enough to record this, the only narrative that we would have is that of McMichael and his son, Travis, that was fully accepted by the prosecutor. This reminds me of the Walter Scott shooting or any other police shooting, the Laquan McDonald shooting, that were it not for the video. We would not have anything to counter the police narrative. That's why I say the prosecutor in this case is operating more as the defense attorney for Travis and George McMichael than a prosecutor. The fact that we even have to have this conversation yet again is just incredibly infuriating to me. The fact that we even have to have this conversation yet again is just incredibly infuriating to me. The fact that we actually have to say, hey, prosecutor, do your job, be fair and unbiased, and stop siding on the defense attorney side when you are supposed to be on the side of justice, that is not—it's just not fair. The fact that we have to even, even like question a police report because by history's, uh, standing, we know that they can just make up whatever they want and they just won't tell the truth is even more infuriating than the fact that this young man is dead.

There are no words other than what I've said in the past in that police officers just need to do better. If you have a racial bias, you should not be a police officer. And it's unfortunate that basically it feels like almost every police officer in these situations have a racial bias or are just straight up racist altogether. And the entire criminal justice system seems to lean on that side as well. Again, this is absolutely stunning, folks. The video, again, was released online today. Attorney Lee Merritt then put it on social media and then others begin to pick up on it.

Folks have been commenting on this all across social media. This man, Mr. Arbery, was murdered. This was murder. And these prosecutors and these police officers in this locale in Georgia are protecting two murderers. In fact, since a third man was pursuing, they're protecting three people involved in this death. This is where the governor should use his authority. This is where the Georgia Bureau of Investigation should take this over because clearly you cannot trust these local prosecutors. And for the prosecutor who has the case to all of a sudden today is going to go to a grand jury when he's been sitting on this video for a month shows you you do not have justice there. We'll certainly keep following this story with all the details, folks. The deal

with coronavirus. As of today, there are 1,229,919 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S., 71,670 people have died. 71,670 people. Nearly 200,000 people have recovered. Here's New York Governor Andrew Cuomo giving his daily update. The number of total hospitalizations is 9,600. That is a lower number than yesterday, barely. It's basically flat. You see the overall total hospitalizations is down. Changing intubations is down. This is an important number. This is how many people came in yesterday with a diagnosis of COVID into hospitals or people who were technically in a hospital who were then diagnosed with COVID. But again, Sunday is a different day operationally for hospitals. But again, the number's down, so it is good news. This is always the worst number when we're going through the facts of the day, and it is not good news. Number of lives lost, 230, technically up from yesterday, even allowing for the Sunday reporting. But it is painful, painful news for all New Yorkers. And we'll remember those families and our thoughts and prayers.

There's no doubt that we're coming down the mountain. Only question is what trail we take, what path we take coming down the mountain, how fast does that decline continue, does the decline continue, and that is purely a function of what we do. None of this is preordained, none of this is decided by any factor other than our own behavior. You tell me how well New Yorkers socially comply with distancing, etc., and I'll tell you what that infection rate is doing. It's that simple. And everything we have done thus far has worked. And that's why the number is coming down. But you tell me what we do today and tomorrow and I'll tell you the infection rate in the next few days. You see reality coming from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. You're seeing complete nut job coming from the White House where they're acting as if everything is just perfectly fine. That makes no sense whatsoever. How we also protect workers.

Well, Virginia Congressman Bobby Scott, Congresswoman Alma Adams and Donna Shalala introduced a bill to protect U.S. workers from COVID-19. It's called the COVID-19 Every Worker Protection Act. It will require the Occupational Safety Health Administration to give an emergency temporary standard that puts a legal obligation in place to ensure that all workplaces implement an infectious disease exposure control plan to keep workers safe during this pandemic. Joining us right now is Congressman Bobby Scott. Congressman, glad to have you back on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Good to be with you, Roland. How are you? Doing great. First and foremost, unfortunately, when it comes to these type of stories here,

you have the federal government who wants to rush supporting these states in terms of this White House to reopen. But frankly, they haven't put things in place to protect essential workers. Well, the bill that we've introduced simply requires OSHA to establish enforceable standards to protect the workers. There has been a standard floating around OSHA trying to get promulgated for the last 10 years to protect workers from infectious diseases. They haven't moved on it. And now we're trying to get them to move on it. And we've been writing them since early in this problem that workers need protection. You've got workers in senior citizen homes, grocery stores, prisons, meatpacking plants. When you have an outbreak, the businesses need specific things they need to do that are enforceable by OSHA. That's what they're there for, to make sure that the workers are protected.

They have issued, just in meatpacking plants and health care, unenforceable guidelines. We need to make sure that these standards are enforceable, working with the CDC. You've got businesses trying to make up stuff. Well, maybe if we did this, it would help. No, OSHA is there with their expertise, working with the CDC to tell people specifically what needs to be done to protect the workers. They're not doing it. And so you've had outbreaks in senior citizens' homes. You've got outbreaks in prisons. And nothing is being done but an occasional unenforceable guideline. And so what we've done is introduced legislation requiring OSHA to come up with some enforceable standards on an emergency basis to make sure workers are protected. And when we talk about protecting these workers, first of all, it's not just when it comes to even cleaning workplace.

We're also talking about when you're having people who will come in, you know, what is going to be the process there? Who's also paying for that? Are workers going to have to have their own mask? Are they going to have to have their own gloves? Are workers going to bring in their own cleaning equipment? We already see where Amazon workers have tried to protest. They've been fired as a result of this. These are people who are saying, yo, we're trying to protect our lives and our families' lives. Well, one of the provisions of the bill is what's called anti-retaliation. If you have complained about the unfair and unsafe workplace, you should not be retaliated against. But this would just set standards. I mean, you could have in a grocery store things like requiring customers to have masks, to have a plexiglass shield between the customer and the

cashier at checkout. You can have, require the carts to be wiped down so often. There are a lot of little things you can do. And you don't need me making this up. You need OSHA going through and telling every grocery store in the country exactly what they need, and then go to move to the next, what do you need in prisons? And then go to, what do you need in meatpacking plants? And so you don't have people just making stuff up. They need to use their expertise to protect the workers. In prisons, if they protected the prison guards, they would necessarily have to protect the prisons. And this is an outrage, what's going on in the country today

with prisoners becoming infected. But OSHA needs an enforceable standard to make sure that workers are protected. That's what OSHA is there for. And it can't be just voluntary guidelines. They're nice, but we need enforceable standards because too many workers are being infected by the virus unnecessarily. If the workplace was safer, we wouldn't have nearly the number of cases that we have. Well, and what you're in the course, if you had a White House that actually cared about workers as opposed to companies, you would have them leading the charge. And this would have been something they thought about long before they urged states to reopen. One of the problems we've got is that everybody, if you listen carefully to the experts,

there's no intelligent way to open up the economy without massive testing. Because otherwise, if you wait for a case to occur, and this is what has happened in meatpacking plants, you have someone who has symptoms, you test them, they're positive. Well, by the time they've got symptoms, they've been spreading the virus all over the plant for the last two weeks. The people they've been spreading it to have been spreading it for the last two weeks, and it's all over the plant. By the time someone is symptomatic, they've been spreading it all over the place. And the only way to contain this is significant testing so you can find out where it is before the outbreak gets out of hand.

And the only way you can do that is testing what they call contact tracing and then isolating those that are positive. That way you can get some reasonable, you can get a reasonable hold on it. If you have students, students that come in, you need to test people in schools frequently, because if someone has a virus, you need to shut the school down. If you don't know who has it, you end up having to shut all the schools down. The only thing, the only tool the governors have without testing has been just to shut everything down. If we'd had testing, we could have been areas where the outbreak isn't even

there. There's no reason to shut down. But you don't know what those areas are without testing. And there's never been in this whole episode, you said 71,000. 71,000 dead. All from the beginning. There's been no urgency from the time the president was at the Centers for Disease Control in his campaign baseball hat bragging about how good the tests were all the way to the day. They're saying we've got plenty of tests, plenty of tests. And you ask people on the ground, they will tell you that there are nowhere near enough tests being performed. We need about 10 times more than they're doing. And you just can't test somebody once if you want to have some sort of clarity. If you're in a meatpacking plant, if you test everybody one day, then tomorrow

afternoon somebody may be infected and you think you're safe. You have to continually, on a routine basis, test people. And you cannot open up the government and expose everybody to another total outbreak without testing. There's no plan that works without testing. And that's one of the problems we have now. There is no sense of urgency, even from the beginning. And so the workers aren't being protected. We need health care protections.

We've introduced legislation on that. If you lose your job, you lose your health care. There's a provision where you can keep your health care if you pay your premiums. That could be $500 to $1,500. And if you just lost your job, you don't have $500 to $1,500 for a premium. This would allow you to pay those premiums under what's called COBRA so that you can keep your insurance. Otherwise, you have to go into the marketplace, get a cheap policy on Obamacare or Medicaid. So we're going to be subsidized in it anyway. So why make somebody start off a new policy, start off a new deductible, get new providers,

and then in a couple of months get the job back? You got to say goodbye to those providers. You come back, what, you got to start your deductible all over again? Sign up with your old providers? I mean, why put people through that? Do we need to let people keep their insurance? We need to have those states that haven't expanded Medicaid expand Medicaid. We need people to be able to sign up for health care. There are a lot of things we can be doing in health care, but there's just no sense of urgency. But the fact that we're not protecting the workers under OSHA is just tragic. All right. Congressman Bobby Scott, we certainly appreciate it, sir. Thank you so very much. Thank you, Roland. I like your sweatshirt.

Of course. All right, my fellow Alpha brother, thanks a bunch. All right, folks, a new strain of coronavirus that has become dominant around the world appears to be more contagious than the previous versions have been recently identified by scientists. This new strain first appeared in Europe in February and quickly migrated to the East Coast in the United States. In a new study, scientists wrote that this strain has been dominant around the world since mid-March. This strain may make people vulnerable to a second infection. Man. Joining us right now, Joseph Graves, professor of biological sciences at North Carolina A&T.

Doc, you were on here a bit ago, a few weeks ago, and you said other strains are being developed and that we have to understand that there might be one strain, but this thing can mutate, and we're just sort of just chasing after it as it keeps mutating. Yeah, Rowan, again, I hate it when I'm right about things like this, but people in my field have been predicting for some time

that as the virus infects more individuals, it's gonna accumulate more mutations. New strains are going to evolve, and there's always going to be a trade-off between two aspects of what the virus does. One thing the virus does is it replicates many copies, and it makes the host sick. That's what we call virulence. The other thing it has to do is it has to be able to transmit to another host, and that's what we call transmission. Those two things always trade off against each other. And generally, what you see through the course of an epidemic is a reduction in virulence, meaning how badly they make people sick, but an increase in transmissibility.

And those two tend to equilibrate. In other words, they're always working against each other. In the 1918 pandemic, the first wave was not as transmissible, nor was it as virulent. But the second wave actually had both of those things. It was extremely transmissible, and it was highly virulent. But the second wave actually had both of those things. It was extremely transmissible and it was highly virulent. And that's the strain that killed most of the people in that pandemic, which eventually petered out. It's approximately 100 million people worldwide. So here you have them talking about opening up states. We still have not had widespread testing.

And so now with these with this new strain, we're just truly operating in the blind. Again, I couldn't agree with the congressman who was on a few minutes ago about how you cannot reopen the economy without widespread testing and contact tracing. It's absolutely an insane proposition to be trying to open the economy now with the infrastructure we have to deal with infectious disease. And the worst part of it is, again, political leadership in this country, particularly out of the White House, is continuing to reinforce the idea that this is not a serious issue. When you have the vice president going to a hospital not wearing a mask with people who are vulnerable to infection or disease, you send a message to people about how much you really think about what their lives are worth. And unfortunately, again, the White House has been involved in divisive, destructive rhetoric, which is going to cost more and more American lives.

So moving forward, what do we do? I mean, how do we how do we prepare for this knowing full well with these different strains? And so what do you tell the average person out there who might be coming back into the workplace? Now we're talking about public transportation, restaurants. What do we do? You have to assume that everybody's infected, including yourself. And so, therefore, the individual has to take steps to make sure that they don't make someone else sick. And that's going to involve more and more people wearing masks in public. It's going to involve changing the way we're going to be in public with regard to physical space.

It's going to involve constant hand washing, cleaning of surfaces. All of these things are now going to be the new normal with regard to how we behave. Because as I again said on the show, this pandemic is the first of many to come. Unless we change the way we live, and quite frankly, I don't see that happening in the near future, we're going to be seeing pandemic after pandemic after pandemic. So instead of hoping that these disasters aren't going to happen, we really need to change our thinking as a society and particularly again, political leadership is going to play a crucial role in terms of preparing the infrastructure

to defend critical portions of the economy, such as workers who work to bring food to people's table, you know, workers who work to keep the lights on and the heat on and to pick up the garbage. All of these things need to be done with an understanding that from now on, dangerous infectious disease is always going to be something that we're going to have to deal with as a society. So I'll ask you this. So you say we're going to have to deal with pandemic after pandemic after pandemic based upon the way we're living.

Why? What was so what exactly about how we're living that's going to drive that? One of the biggest problems we have is our population density. So you'll notice that when you look at the United States, the hotspots are in the biggest urban areas. And so when you have that many people close to each other,

and particularly congregating in public spaces, riding on public transportation. That's basically a smorgasbord for viruses and bacteria to be able to infect more and more people. So what do we do? I think the Skype freeze. OK, so let me know when we get back. I want to bring my panel in.

That certainly is not something that we really want to hear, Brooke. I don't know if, again, our leaders are properly preparing people for how life is about to be for us now in the future. No, because too many of them right now are preparing people to go back to normal, even though not only do we not have a vaccine, we don't have adequate testing, but we still don't know much about this virus whatsoever. And everyone right now seems to be, even the mayors and governors who've been like killing it are all, I've noticed, like really focused on how do we go back to normal before we even have any full understanding of this, before we get any real control over this. We just have more hospital beds now. And so it's like, all right, that's the best we can do. This has all been frustrating and it's scary. And see what you're dealing with when you have people, Malik, say liberate Michigan, liberate Wisconsin. There's people protesting in Massachusetts.

And well, this is just a hoax, whatever. That's 71,000 number. Then you see the report where the White House is now trying to downplay where it could be even higher. Now Trump is trying to move his number. Remember, it was 30, then 50, then 60, then 65, then 70. Now he's talking about 100. Hey,

as Governor Andrew Cuomo said, if you don't change how you operate, you're not going to get the numbers under control. I think you you made the point a few weeks back when you were talking about what the president himself is ultimately responsible for. The we have we're having conversations about opening up the government or the economy. And the reality is, is that this is a decision that has been left up to the states. The states are controlling when they decide to

open themselves back up. What's happening is, is that there are a lot of there's a lot of information that's going back and forth. And some some of it obviously is in the media. But I think what the challenge moving forward as we're seeing is, and we had the conversations about how to protect the workforce. So I actually think that the congressman, I think that OSHA should get involved. I think there should be some sort of federal standard as far as worker protection. OSHA is the agency. If you want to protect workers against, you know, blood-borne pathogens or exposure to lead or even our fall protection standards for people who do businesses, you know, build buildings and things like that, that's where OSHA can get involved. So I think from a federal level,

that's something definitely that the, well, I think it's a good idea for Congress to actually focus on that. I'm not sure if the administration, maybe some sort of directive, maybe that's something that they can do. But this is something that needs to be memorialized in law because, as everyone has been saying, this is going to be around us for a very long time. So as far as protecting workers, I think that we're onto something as far as trying to get OSHA to change some of those regulations to address it. Before I go to Kelly, I want to bring in Dr. Graves back. We've got a Skype taken care of. So, Doc, we talked about, again, how we have to change. So what should be our MO moving forward in terms of how we're operating every day?

Well, I think there needs to be fundamental changes to how we live. And that's really going to require making fundamental or asking fundamental questions about what kind of society we want to live in. The idea of having, you know, populations concentrated in such small areas is something I think we really need to revisit. But to be able to do that, you also have to start thinking about, well, how are you going to produce the basic needs of life so that instead of having all of the means by which that production happens concentrated in small areas, we need to think about how we can do these things in a decentralized way. Now one of the good things that would come out of that sort of decentralization is that would also require us having a bigger labor force.

And that means people who have been chronically and as many economists would call structurally unemployed would have to be brought back into the labor force if you're going to do things in a decentralized way, and particularly things like growing food, processing food, doesn't have to be done all in one place. So in fact, I was on a call with some colleagues who are researchers in microbial evolution and viral disease. And we're all talking about the fact that unless we make these fundamental structural changes in how we're living, then the pandemic is going to be the new normal. I'm the graves. I certainly appreciate it, man. Thank you very much. Thank you, Kelly. I don't think that leadership is

prepared to actually do this. And I believe that that is a shame. And the crazy thing is, if Trump actually had enough sense, which he has none, enough sense to do this, actually people respond that way. But as long as he keeps burying his head in the sand on this whole deal, and he's only fixated with the economy by understanding all of this impacts the economy. You can't get what you lost unless you prepare people for life moving forward. Not only can you not do that, you can't have a functioning economy without a consumer. Consumers are people.

You cannot consume anything unless you're, if you're dead. So if, if we do not get a handle on this virus and viruses to come, because that's what viruses do. Once we get a vaccine, the virus responds, it'll mutate, and so on and so forth. We have to keep responding to this. We should have been on a proactive tip

regarding this particular novel coronavirus because we had enough information ahead of time in order to get ahead of the ball on it. But like you said, we have a president who is inept and who kept his head in the sand regarding these issues, actually fired the people who could sooner do something about it, and now we are where we are because of this ineptitude. But like I was saying previously, we need to have a structure such that the economy is not the priority. People need to be the priority. Profit can't happen without people. Money can't be spent without people. The economy

is non-existent without people. And right now people are dying. So we can't get a handle on this. Nothing else matters. So we need to we need to really shift our focus to people. We need to shift our perspective on this issue and have a more humane response as opposed to something that is strictly or predominantly economic based. All right, folks, let's talk about what's happening when it comes to police across the country. Police officers are being given the power to enforce social distancing laws. Yet we've been showing you these videos of what happens when you're black compared to when you are white. Videos are frankly devastating. And in fact, I'm going to pull up one of the videos that again, it's just it's just crazy. It's crazy what we're seeing as to folks. If you

actually have the video, go ahead and roll it, folks. One of the latest videos I was on the page of Tamika Mallory and she was showing the video. And again, where these cops were just pummeling this African-American when it comes to social distancing. But again, please show me and let me know if I've missed it. Show me the videos of white folks who've been beaten. Now, here's what happened here. Okay, just so y'all know, there was a woman named Rebecca who's an attorney. She posted this video.

Just so y'all know, okay, what did the man say? Okay, this is what he said. He told a police officer, suck my dick. Y'all, that's not illegal. That's not illegal. Now, is it disrespectful? Yeah. But that's now?

That's now? Oh, now I'm going to beat somebody down? And I'm going to beat somebody down and take – really? Is that where we are? It's crazy. Joining us right now is Eli Mistel, justice correspondent for The Nation. Eli, glad to have you back on the show. Thank you so much for having me again, Roland.

So, man, what's crazy, again, please show me a video of somebody white getting their ass kicked because I haven't seen it. In fact, the white folks were losing their mind in state capitals. The cops were all in very good behavior as they were yelling and spitting in their faces. You see the video of the white boy in Austin. He the park ranger in Austin was explaining to this white kid and his friends about the social distancing rules.

And the white kid just shoved the officer, the ranger, into a lake and then ran away. And the officer just kind of got up out the lake and slowly walked after him. Apparently, eventually, they arrested him. But let you look like me and you try that. Right.

Right. I'm going to have a smiling mugshot. Yeah, we we put we push a ranger in the lake. Trust me, they coming out to water shooting. Right. They'll dry off that gun real quick. Right. This is this is a thing that I am worried about generally as the country opens back up. And as we try to get back to normal after during this coronavirus pandemic, because normal for black, normal for black people is already involves being in mortal danger when you are within six feet of a police officer. I'm actually playing the video right now you're talking about. And this is the video here where the park ranger is explained Lake everything.

All of a sudden you're going to see on the right side. Watch this, y'all. Here it comes. Oh, the dude literally pushes him in the water. And other people are standing around and get the kids or takes off. And the ranger gets out. And as you say, it's gingerly, you know, walks over. Yeah, that ain't happening. If it's a man way harsh tie like that, it's. Yeah. So I think that when you when you look at how cops are going to treat us as we get back out there, as we get back to normal, now that they have this new power to harass us over following social distancing guidelines and regulations, the same kind of racially biased policing that we've seen for the past, oh,

I don't know, 400 years, is going to continue here in the year 2020 as we get back out there from coronavirus. What you're going to see is, and we've already seen videos attesting to this, right? We're going to see white people flaunting the rules, white people congregating closer than they're supposed to, while cops kind of gently explain to them and try to implore them and encourage them to follow the rules, you're going to see black people violate the rules in minor ways and catch a beatdown or worse. We're going to see cops use the violation of social distancing rules, not only to justify brutality, but certainly to justify

arrests, charges, people are going to go to jail. And as we know, just because of the country we live in, a percentage of those people who are stopped and harassed by the police will end up being shot. Police will say that they resisted arrest or they were disrespectful or whatever, but a percentage of black people who violate social distancing rules, um, will be shot by cops. Um, whereas white people who violate those rules will get warnings from cops. And when you listen to these explanations that are being offered, they're frankly weak, they're weak, you know, and They're weak. You cannot show oh yeah, well, you know, the black people were resisting, but the black people

were like, oh, it's okay, sure, give me a mask. I don't see how you can resist more than getting you and your buddies in a truck full of guns and rolling to the state capitol. Like, I don't see how you can resist more than that. You don't see black people doing that, right? It's not like black people don't own gunsitol like i don't see how you can resist more than that you don't see black people doing that right it's not like black people don't own guns but you don't see us like rolling

with our homies up on the governor to like protest of uh the fact that we can't go to the barbershop no more um the the the unequal treatment in the society is all over the place for anybody willing to look and the thing that kind of shot, I can't use the word shock because I'm way too old and way too black to be shocked, but I am consistently disappointed with the level of leadership we get, not just that a crazy Washington man with his lies and misinformation, but even in red states, even from Democrat, blue states, even from Democratic governors, even from Democratic mayors. Right. This guy that we were talking about earlier that got beat down this week.

And this happened in New York City. And if you can't if you can't rein your police in in New York City, what's going to happen to black people in Flint? What's going to happen to black people in Austin where this white boy was pushing park rangers in the fountain? What's going to happen to black people in Orlando? What's going to happen to Hispanic people in East L.A.? If you can't make this right in New York City, you're not going to be able to make this right anywhere. Well, it is something that we have to keep watching and we got to be more prevalent. Look, I get the whole deal with social distancing, but that is not a license to beat the hell out of black people. It's it's not a capital offense. And it's something that we go. We go. We talk about every time we see an explanation. It's an instance of police brutality where the cop allegedly says that the person was not following a rule.

There are lots of rules violations that are not capital offenses that shouldn't result in a person getting shot or beaten and put within inches of their life. In the justice system, which I cover, even if you are accused of violating a rule, you're supposed to have your day in court. You're supposed to present evidence on your side. You can't have that kind of justice when it's meted out by a cop on the street who simply decides that it's your time in the barrel. And so, again, I just emphasize that not only do we have to be vigilant in terms of the media, like I'm so glad that you are covering it, Roland. There are so many media outlets that don't cover

the kind of unequal treatment that we face. So not only do we have to be vigilant in terms of covering in the media, we have to demand our political leaders do better, right? If de Blasio in New York holds the leash on the cops, we've got to demand that he yank it when the cops start beating us up over some trumped up social distancing charge. Ellie, Mr. I appreciate it, man. Thanks a bunch. Thank you so much, Roland. Have a nice one.

Greg, thank you very much. I want to go to our panel here, Kelly. Look, I mean, he's right. Leadership must lead. And unfortunately, what you have is you have mayors who don't want to get on the bad side of police unions, so they don't say anything. But not only do they not want to get on the bad side of police unions, it really just feels like they don't want to get on the bad side of white people, because that it is those people, honestly, with the exception of a few people of color who have a racial bias who are committing these offenses against citizens. So citizens who are committing these offenses against citizens. So citizens who are Black,

specifically. So for me, the history of policing in this country being, you know, self-deputized white people, translating that into 2020 with, you know, cops who still have a racial bias, picking on Black people and other people of color, I can't help but feel that these municipalities and bureaucracies across the country still ascribe to that line of thinking in that if it's white, you are right. And it's unfortunate because our country has diversified greatly since that time, but we still ascribe to that old way of thinking. Not that it was right in the first place, but it should be even less acceptable today. Mellie? This is something we've seen several instances of this just around the country. And that's why I'm

one of those. And I've seen people share it on Facebook a lot, but that's why I've been careful. I haven't shared anything about what's been happening in Chicago and other places that people have been criticizing because we do respond to that in ways differently than we do people who decide to go to a beach. Twerking party versus beach. Both of them threaten, from what we understand, can threaten the lives of people around you,

but they're covered differently. So with what happened here in New York, I'm glad Ellie, he actually said something that I was thinking about earlier on, that it doesn't matter if you are in a red state or a blue state, these type of things happen all the time. And what we need to do,

whether it's a Republican governor or a Democrat governor or mayor, for instance, what we need to do is make sure that we're actually challenging them to make sure that whatever sort of reforms, whatever sort of the attention, whatever sort of training that can go on, that's something that we need to focus on. But another part of that is what I'll say is just as far as us, you know, we, Black people, Black folk, we need to start having conversations with each other as far as how we engage with the police as well, because understandably,

it's a very, very, very tenacious relationship. And as someone who I've been in situations before where I can feel the hair raising on my back when I'm interacting with the police officer. So those are real feelings, but we also need to have conversations about what we need to do to make sure that we're not ultimately in jail

or detained for reasons that aren't necessary. Brooke? I don't know. I wish that there was something that we could do. You know, I think people are already having those conversations, you know, with their children specifically, and people know, like, we generally know that, like like things are going to be different for me, for my

brother, than it would be for someone who didn't look like him. But we have just seen over and over like this guy happened to cuss. But there's been so many instances where nobody did anything. We've seen instances where people got shot when they were sleeping. You know, I wish that there was some way we could fix this by our behavior, but there really isn't. I think it's like a pipe dream. No, no, no. This has, again,

this has nothing to do with us. We can't really do anything. White folks cuss cops out all the time. They don't end up dead. Drunk, too. And also kind of like how ridiculous it is that this is a social distancing arrest, right? So something that you really shouldn't be arrested for. But we are going to see these things, especially like disproportionately in black communities all across the country as police officers are given permission to punish people for doing this.

But what happens is now this person who really didn't do anything wrong, really doesn't deserve to be behind bars, is going to go to jail. And so you are upset with him because he could be potentially spreading this virus, right? And so you're going to go take him to jail where there are a lot of other people who are really just kind of like sitting there at what their safety depends on who was brought in. And so it makes no sense to bring somebody else in for something like this. And now everyone else in there is at a higher risk because you brought an outsider in that for no real reason. Yep. That's what we're dealing with. All right, folks, got to go to a break. We come back. We'll talk with a tech executive who made a big donation of PPE equipment to workers,

and how do you still take care of your finances in this uncertain times due to coronavirus? We'll talk with Lynn Richardson. And at the bottom of the hour, Nefessa Williams. You see her in Black Lightning. She's going to be right here talking about the show and talking about what she's got coming up. Well, that's it for people to go back to work after all of this.

All that next to Roland Martin Unfiltered. You want to check out Roland Martin Unfiltered? YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. It's Roland Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Like, share, subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it. All right, folks, the Figures Foundation, an African-American-owned telecommunications firm owned by Figures Communications, has donated over 700,000 units

of personal protection equipment to healthcare workers in the hotspot regions around the country. The hotspots include hospitals and health care workers in New York, Washington State, California, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, Florida, and Michigan. Joining us now is Freddie Figures, philanthropist and CEO of Figures Wireless. And so, Freddie, certainly glad to have you on the show. Hey, thank you so much for having me. So, are you in, so you donated this equipment. Are you in the PPE business? Did you acquire it or was that one of the businesses that you have?

No, so I'm in the telecommunications business. When I saw this pandemic happen back in January, I knew I had to do something. So I started gathering all the necessary equipment from different entities all across the world, from Europe, Southeast Asia, just pretty much everywhere. So we gathered up and I purchased around 750,000 units and got them here. We've donated so far to this day over 700,000 of personal protective equipment to the hotspots across the country, such as New York, New Jersey, Michigan, California, Texas, Georgia, and back home here in Florida. So all of the necessary items that they needed, such as, you know, A95 face masks, face shields, disposable masks,

gloves, gowns. So pretty much everything our frontline workers would need. And obviously that is hugely important. You made made this once are there any plans to make any further donations sorry so i'm sorry say that one more time for me uh any plans to make further donations oh of course yes sir so right now we're still in the process right now um i've acquired an additional 500 000 and i'm going to continue to order more supplies and donate across the country. As long as this pandemic is here, we're going to be here to support. And it's so many different ways that your viewers can support by going to figures foundation dot org to look at to support our initiatives and help out the frontline workers. And obviously for the folks who don't know, just give them a sense of what kind of tech company that you have. We say it Figures Wireless,

but there are other things that you do as well. Yes. So yeah, I own and operate Figures Communication, which is a telecommunications company that provides cell phone service, mobile broadband service, and international calling services. We also manufacture our own devices such as smartphones, consumer electronics, and televisions. All right then. Well, look, this is certainly a good thing that you're doing for the folks, the workers out there. We wish government was doing their part and doing more, but we certainly appreciate the philanthropists like yourself stepping up and assisting those folks when it comes to PPE. Yes, sir. Thank you so much. And we're going to continue to do it.

All right, then. Freddie Fingers, I appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Thank you, sir. All right, then, folks. So let's talk about our panel real quick here. That's still to me. I mean, like I'm still befuddled by this whole deal. When you when you when Trump stands there and says our job is to serve as a backstop. I mean, look. How crazy to have states competing against one another. Now you got Maryland Governor Larry Hogan who's ordered gear to be hidden so it could not be snatched by the federal government. That's just stupid. States should not be bidding against one another. This is how you use the collect. This is how you use the power of the federal government to lead in this. And it shouldn't take a philanthropist giving away PPE equipment to hospitals and health care workers.

Oh, I don't I don't I don't think that any of these efforts should rely solely on that. I think it should be a collective effort on behalf of the federal government, states, private interests. I think that we all this is a global pandemic. And I'm not one of interests. I think that we all, this is a global pandemic. And I'm not one of those, and I say this all the time, and people say, oh, well, why would you believe that? But just from the jump, I'm not one of those who believes that the federal government does everything or really anything for that matter perfectly. I can't think of an example. I can't cite a single example of something not even of this magnitude, but when we've had other previous disasters. I can't think of an example, I can't cite a single example of something not even of this magnitude, but

when we've had other previous disasters. I can't think of an instance where the federal government has been pitch perfect in its response. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, had operational standards, no, there are examples.

This is what FEMA does. There are examples where FEMA has come in with their people, with their systems and being able to organize and set these things up. That has happened. This here, this this here is nonsensical. You have, you have somebody who refused to properly use the National Defense Production Act. Said I'm going to use it. Then I'm not. Well, then I might use it. Then I'm not. It was all over the place when not as with ventilators. It was perfectly clear.

We're going to need massive amounts of PPE. Then let's not forget, this is the man who stood at the podium in a news conference and said that workers were basically stealing the equipment out the back door. That's what you're dealing with. So if that's your thinking, hell no, you're not going to be serious about trying to order more PPE. Well, what you're talking going to be serious about trying to order more ppe well what you're talking about is a procurement issue and at the end of the day the president of the united states obviously is not in charge of the federal government's procurement yes he is no no no that's not true yes he is when you are no no no no no hold up when you say he's not in charge of it when you are there's a reason that Harry Truman had the buck

stops here. You hire the people in place. I was, I was actually getting to that point, but you wanted to disagree with me before I even said it. But of course, at the end of the day, the buck stops with the president of the United States. You can't say they're not the procurement officer, but then the bug stops. No, that's what you are. You are a procurement officer. Yes, you are. Roland, I mean, okay, I get it.

This is the game that you would like to play on. No, it's not a game. Hey, hey, hey, hold on. Hell no. What you're not going to do, what you're not going to do, what you're not going to do is tell me I'm playing a game when 71,000, 71,000 Americans, microphone down, 71,000 Americans are dead. 71,000 Americans are dead. And we have somebody who accused healthcare workers of stealing equipment out of the back door. Kelly, that to me is what's shameful.

And yes, we have systems designed for this, but you have somebody who doesn't want to use a system who brings Jared Kushner in, who goes, oh, we're going to come up with a whole new system. And then, Kelly, we have people who, one guy, a Silicon Valley engineer who sends Donald Trump a tweet who the next day receives a 60 million dollar PPE contract. And he's never done PPE. I need to get over the fact that Malik just said that the president isn't in charge of procurement. That's really his job. But nevertheless, the fact that the notion is that, you know, federal government shouldn't be the sole source of anything that this country does.

You can argue here or there with that. There are solid arguments on both sides, the main one being that we pay taxes for this to happen. But at the same time, even if you don't agree that they should be responsible for all of it, it is our government's job to take initiative of it. And our government right now is so behind the ball on this that we have philanthropists that we are looking to ahead of our own government, ahead of our own president, to actually receive guidance on how we should get this done. That is shameful. We should not have a Bill Gates, you know, taking precedence over what our president says regarding this issue. We should not rely on a Bloomberg or even the guy that we just had, that you just had on the show,

relying on them for PPE and guidance and referrals and the like on a global pandemic affecting this country when they don't have a role in the government regarding this country. Our president has that role. Our administration underneath the president has that role. And guess what they've done? They've done nothing. They have done absolutely nothing that takes initiative. I'm not saying they've done absolutely nothing at all over the past couple months, but all things considered they have been playing defense on this issue and very poor defense i might add everybody else these philanthropists and other countries that have been helping us we have maryland had to commission south korea

to bring us something that our federal government had the money to give the state. That is abysmal. That is shameful. Brooke, I said absolutely shameful. Brooke, I simply cannot accept the idea where workers are having to buy health care. Workers are having to buy their own equipment. I can't accept this notion of governors stating how the equipment that first of all, what Donald Trump said, y'all got to order your own. And then when they order their own, the federal government was seizing it.

Now, Miller can sit here and say, well, not a procurement. Here's the deal. Is Donald Trump literally sitting in the Oval Office stamping procurement orders? No. But you're damn sure hire the people who do. You damn sure put them in place. And if they are sitting here not doing the job, but guess what? Maybe they're not doing the job, Brooke, because the person who's at the top of the food chain is so clueless on this that he's not sure what in the hell he wants to do.

It's like, oh, I mean, I will not. I will not forget Donald Trump standing before the camera telling the media, y'all should look into this. I mean, why do they need so much equipment? Is it going out the back door? These are people who are putting their lives on the line. And this idiot is standing in front of the cameras, accusing them essentially of stealing equipment. You also remember he was willing to be very helpful to red state governors. It was essentially like if you don't speak to me, if you don't interact with me or if you don't talk about me when I'm not around in a way that I feel flatters

me, you're on your own. And I do like that it was pointed out earlier that the federal government is funded by the people that it's supposed to protect. We're in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. We're in the middle of a pandemic. I just can't accept the answer whatsoever that anything is simply just not the president's responsibility because all of this is so moving and he's willing to take the responsibility when it comes to helping governors that he likes just like he's he said like in not so many words that like if you aren't someone that interacts with me in a way that i like the health care providers in your state have to suffer.

So moving forward, so moving forward, Malik, are we going to continue seeing states fighting with one another, actually having to outbid one another? The federal government could have stepped in and said to companies, no, PPE normally costs five bucks. You're charging 15, 20, 25. Hell no. That's the point of the National Defense Production Act, to keep the price gouging from happening. We have governors who have said they were ready to place an order, and then they say, oh, no, we got one state. They're going to pay 10. Oh, they're going to pay 12. Oh, they're going to pay 15. They're going to pay 20. And states were sitting here bidding against one another. So what the hell is Trump supposed to be doing? Is he not supposed to stop that from happening?

Or is this all about make as much money as you want to? And I'm not going to care about the citizens and the taxpayers of the country. It's a free-for-all. So which one is it, Mallet? I think you're right. That is a great example of using the defense authorization. I think that's a good example. So why didn't your guy do it? Okay, well, from what Attorney General Barr said from the podium, and I think he's spoken on it twice now,

he's talked about what the federal government was doing in response to things not just like price gouging, but even hoarding. I didn't realize that hoarding was actually an issue, but apparently it is, too. So he's talking about the steps that the DOJ has taken to address things like that. So while those things may not have been in place initially in the federal government's response. These things are in place now. Some of these things, you know, it's taken a while for states to catch up. So it never occurred to you, it never occurred to you that when you're in the middle of an emergency, that there are going to be people who are going to slap high prices. It never occurred to you.

See, if FEMA is involved, FEMA is used to that. I've lived through three hurricanes. We all know the deal, what happens when hotels, a room that's normally 89 bucks, all of a sudden it's $289 after a hurricane. And the state comes in and says,

no, drop all prices or we're throwing your ass in jail. There were some people in Texas after the last hurricane. And what they did was they were trying, they were gouging county governments. Oh, we're going to charge this much money to haul trash and haul debris out. State found out. State said, we're throwing all y'all asses in jail for price gouging, lower the prices. They

did. Donald Trump hasn't done that. Well, I well, maybe I'm not understanding what you're talking about. You probably aren't. Versus what Attorney General Barr said from the podium. I mean, this is what he said himself. I mean, maybe he's lying, but this is what he said.

I'm sorry, did you say, you said Attorney General Barr lying? Yeah, we kind of used to that. Well, I'm just telling you what he said. I mean, I can only go with what he said. And what he said was, is that the DOJ was actively involved in efforts to make sure that they're addressing things like price gouging and hoarding. He said this from the podium at least twice now. So it's not accurate to

say that the federal government is not focusing on these on these things. Yes, there are things that the federal government should have done from the beginning, but there are things that they've done well since then. And understandably, people don't give them the credit for those last weeks or three weeks that people generally talk about. Well, you've heard things that the federal government is definitely doing. And I will just. But first of all, first of all, first of all, you don't give credit for three lost weeks. You don't give credit for that. Yeah. But but but if you just but if you're if your suggestion is, is that we ignore everything that comes out outside of those three weeks, then I just disagree with

that. Well, how about this here? OK, so fine. So fine. Beyond those three weeks, then you've explained to me how in the hell a Silicon Valley engineer could send a tweet to Donald Trump one night and the next day is awarded a 60 million dollar PPE contract when the Silicon Valley person has never, ever before done PPE. Please, by all means, explain that one to me. Well, I don't know how the contracting and procurement worked in that particular situation. Hold on, hold on. Let me say it again. A Silicon Valley engineer sends a tweet. A lot of money. Sends a tweet

directly to Donald Trump. The next day that company is ordered give them a $60 million contract. Yeah, you probably have to talk to someone more familiar than that. I probably have to talk to somebody more familiar. But I do, as far as the federal government's response.

I mean, I can talk about what the federal government's response. No, that's not what I asked you about. What I'm trying to explain to you, Malik, is I don't want to hear the federal government spin. The problem is this here. No, no, no, no. The problem is this here. First of all, when you have people who this is what they are supposed to do and you leave competent people in place and you don't replace them with incompetent people, then you're able to do the job. But when you put the person in the health and human services department over the coronavirus deal, who used to be, I'm sorry, what was he, Brooke? A dog walker? A dog trainer? Secretary Azar? No, no. The person Azar put in charge, who was a dog trainer. Wow. That's, yeah, that's the Azar put in charge who was a dog trainer.

Wow. That's yeah, that's the expertise to put in charge of an international pandemic. Yeah, I'm not I'm I'm surprised the Senate would confirm someone. No, no, that job is not that's not a Senate confirmed job. That's that's the job that Azar put on. But that's what happens when you have incompetence in this administration. All right, folks. Malik, Brooke, certainly appreciate it. Kelly, thank you so very much for joining us on the show. Coming up next, folks, we're going to talk with Lynn Richardson about how to keep your money straight in this moment. After that, actress Nafessa Williams.

You see her on Black Lightning. She's right here, Roller Mark Unfiltered. You want to support Roller Mark Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered daily digital show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com.

Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. 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. All right, folks are getting their stimulus checks in the mail. Twelve hundred bucks, twenty four hundred dollars for those filing jointly. Five hundred bucks for each qualifying dependent child. Crucial dollars for lots of people. Obviously, it's not enough. So what do you do with it? But also, how do you deal with your finances that are now in total disarray because of the coronavirus epidemic? Joining us right now is financial expert Lynn Richardson. Lynn, glad to have you on the show. How are you doing? Hey, Roland. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

All right. Checks are rolling in. So what do you tell people what to do? Pay all their bills off or hold that cash? Hold the cash. Keep as much cash as you can. Well, the first thing is to get in proper order. Many of the mortgage companies, all federal government mortgages, VA mortgages, FHA mortgages, mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are all on hiatus. So people should not feel ashamed because everybody has either had a money problem, is having a money problem, or will have a money problem at some time in the future. Call your lender. Get the six-month extension, the three-month extension. Get whatever they have available that is penalty-free. Get it. Call your car company. Call your credit card companies. Call all of your lenders and get whatever extensions they are offering, because we know that the stimulus checks are not enough. The minimum salary of the median salary for a family is roughly nine hundred dollars per week.

That's about thirty six hundred dollars a month. So the twenty five hundred dollar one time stimulus we know is not enough. So I'm encouraging people to keep their cash and then to be wise with the rest. There are two things right now that are important, your health and your wealth. So I'm encouraging people to keep their cash and then to be wise with the rest. There are two things right now that are important, your health and your wealth. Once your health is intact, then you want to take care of your wealth. And everybody must spend less money, get more money. If you don't have a job, your job is to get a job. If you have a job, your job is to get a job.

And which job am I talking about? Your home- business, because when you have a home based business, then you can do number three, which is get your money back by having access to over four hundred seventy five tax deductions. So I want people to keep their cash rolling. All right. So you got that. You got a stimulus check. But now moving forward. Look, we don't know how far this is going to go most people most of these people are talking about working with people through may june maybe july we're now about to operate in a much longer period here and so what must folks be doing when it comes to making adjustments you know what happens if they don't suspend mortgage payments they don't suspend mortgage payments. They don't suspend car payments. They don't suspend insurance payments. What I do. Yeah. So that's why right now during the season that we

have, because you're absolutely right. We don't know how long these extensions are going to go. We don't know if they're going to have that. We do know that student loans are suspended for quite some time, but we don't know how long it's going to take. And more importantly, there are people who are at home who are not going to go back to work because the world has figured out how to work with people at home. So they're not just going to start hiring people. So what people have to do is to literally cut every single possible unnecessary expense. I was born and raised in Chicago. We grew up on bologna cheese, peanut butter jelly, grilled cheese, or a bowl of cereal. So, you know, keep your budgets as low as possible. Get rid of the additional subscriptions that you don't need. Ensure that you are tracking every single possible

penny. But what I'm going to say, Roland, and I feel like Noah, he said it was going to rain. Nobody believed him. Everybody was laughing. And then the world was full of water. I've been saying for 12 years, everybody should get a home-based business. And right now is the time to ask for all the relief you can, apply for everything. Because also when you have a home-based business, I'm talking about self-employed people. And you don't have to go file anything anywhere. I'm talking about DJs, babysitters, housekeepers, hairstylists. If you're a self-employed person, you can also apply for the business relief because that's where the money is. With the Paycheck Protection Program, the EIDL is depleted, but they're giving money out through the Paycheck Protection Program

every single day. I'm seeing hundreds, thousands of people who are sole proprietors, truck drivers, Mary Kay consultants, Uber drivers. So I really want people to cut back on everything possible. They're telling us we can go outside, but we need to stay at home because when you go outside, you have to spend some money. So stay home, spend as little money as you can, have a frugal diet because Whole Foods is taking your whole check, have a frugal diet and start a home-based business and also apply for any relief if you already had a home-based business. Okay. And so with that, so when you say

home-based business, somebody is watching right now, people are sitting here, they're on YouTube, Facebook and Periscope saying, what the hell is she talking about? What business? Yeah. So do you cook for anybody and get paid? Do you do do you tutor for anybody? Do you anything that you do? I say everybody can have a home based business being being a consultant doing something. This is low risk services. So you would not have a home based business as a dentist. You need a license, a building. You know, you need all kind of stuff for that. You would not have a home based business as a surgeon, but you'd have a home based business as a tutor. What if you were teaching during the day? You could tutor from your home based business. You can have a virtual assistant. I know so many people who are administrative assistants, executives who could have a virtual assistant business.

People who are doing one lady, she lost her flower shop. I said, listen, you are in the business of bringing joy. So now that you're not delivering flowers and nobody will even produce the flowers for you to deliver, how many other ways can you bring joy? There's other ways to bring joy to people than a flower shop. So I really encourage people in my book, The Symphony, A Guide to Creating and Balancing Multiple Streams of Income, I talk about this. Now, I don't want you to be like Lenny and I got plenty, you know, from good times.

You know, you're selling lighters and socks. But at the same time, you want to have a symphony. You want all of your businesses to work together. And I think everybody has something in them that if they just pull it out, it could be a world-class business. So really, we don't have any other choice. We have to ask for the extensions. We've got to minimize our expenses and we have to be in the business of getting a job. And that includes our own job with our own home-based business.

Okay. And so with that said, what must they prepare to even do that? Because that's not just, okay, I'm gonna set it up. Yeah, no, this is good. So here's the deal. If you want a home-based business, you already have everything you need. One, you have your name, okay?

Now, I am going to tell you something. I am living proof that this works. I applied for the business assistance that the CARES Act is providing because we know that the stimulus checks for a husband and a wife and a child, that's not enough money. But with the business stimulus,

you can get access to up to $10 million. So I applied as a sole proprietor. I use my name and my social security number. There's no LLC involved. There's no corporation involved. There's no employer identification number involved, just your name. So the government for the first time in history has said that freelancers, what do you do for freelance? Now, so anybody who works and gets cash or anybody who works and gets a 1099 is technically a self-employed independent contractor or 1099 employee, which ultimately is a home-based business. So a home-based

business literally means that your home is your principal place of business. It doesn't mean all the activity happens there. You could have a home-based business as a babysitter, but you have to go someplace else to babysit. You have a home-based business, you're a truck driver, but you have to go get in the truck and drive. It simply means you do not have a building. Like a dance teacher who dances and goes everywhere, she has a home-based business. But if she has a building, a dance school, that's no longer a home-based business. So I'm encouraging everybody to not, this isn't the easy way, this is the IRS way. The IRS has given you permission to not only have a home-based business, but the IRS then says, guess what, we'll give you your money back.

What do I mean by give you your money back? Well, let's just say, for example, you went to the grocery store, spent $200 on groceries, ate your food, and then next week the grocery store manager said, hey, come back and get your money. Well, that's what the IRS says. The IRS says if you run your home-based business like a business, and remember, that's any business. You could be a DJ, a hairstylist, do eyelashes, bake cakes, do hair, braid hair, all the businesses that people do that they don't realize they have so much power in. The IRS says if you run that business like a business and you document your expenses, then you can use your cell phone and I'll give you your money back. You can drive your car and I'll give you your money back.

So the reason I'm speaking about this, Roland, is because what we have to realize is we actually do have power. It may seem really powerless now. Like everything shut down, your job ended, you don't know where you're going to get money from, your bills are coming, but there's something that you can plan. Because, see, if you fail to plan, then you are planning to fail. And this is going to put more money in your pocket down the long run. So there's a couple of ways that we can increase cash flow.

One is through passive streams of income. If you don't already have them coming in, they're not going to come in today. Two is to literally go and get more side jobs, including the home-based business. And three is to get your money back. See, that's the missing piece. Because if you simply make more money everybody knows that the more you make the more the irs will take the more you make the more the irs will take so you have to include getting your money back and so that means my brothers and sisters the the mechanic in the alley he has a home-based business i used to go take my car to the mechanic around the block he put my battery in for 4040 instead of $400.

That's a home-based business. So the key is you got to report the income. Put your income in your bank account. If you have or haven't been doing that, but you know you've been in business, then you have options. And if you haven't been in business, then I want you to start a home-based business. Everybody has to have a home-based business. People wonder why Warren Buffett pays less taxes. Why Jeff Bezos,

the world's richest man, he had a $160 billion tax refund. Let me tell you something. The wealthy rich are operating by a whole different game. People want to know why our president, we can't see his tax return. I don't think it's illegal. I think it's perfectly legal.

I think it's blueprint for how to, well, first of all, we know exactly. We know. We know exactly why he won't see those tax returns, though, because he's going to see he's going to show how he's used every trick in the book to cut down on his taxes. And that's why he's trying to do it. Lynn, tell people, tell people about your website, your book. Go to Lynn Richardson dot com or go to asklyn.org. Go to asklyn.org, submit your inquiry. You'll get a whole bunch of answers. If you really want to go to the next level right now, my book, The Symphony, A Guide to Creating and Balancing Multiple Streams of Income, will tell you how to get to the next level. And my book, Living Check to Monday, The Real Deal About Money, Credit, and Financial financial security will help you get out of a financial rut.

It'll teach you how to budget, which people don't like the word, so I say schedule. And it'll teach you how to develop new money habits so that if this ever happens again, then you'll be ready. But you're absolutely right, Roland. That's why we won't see his tax return because it's a blueprint for how to write off everything. There you go.

All right, that's Lynn Richardson. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks, coming up. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks. Coming up next, all the folks on Instagram as well. We're about to chat with, we're about to chat with Nafessa Williams. Now, so here's the deal here.

So we're going to have two conversations because we're live streaming the show. And then we're going to connect to her right over here on Instagram. And so that's what's going to happen. Now, to all the people people on Instagram the Lynn Richardson interview You'll be able to go see on our YouTube channel Okay, and so what's gonna happen is the fest is gonna connect here on Instagram and then what's gonna happen is I'm gonna be talking to the Fessa while we're live streaming on Facebook periscope YouTube So that's coming up next gonna go to break come back. We'll chat with the star of black lightning on roller Martin unfiltered

You want to check out Roland Martin Unfiltered? YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. It's Roland Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Like, share, subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it. All right, so a lot of y'all are always asking me about some of the pocket squares that I wear. Now, I don't know. Robby don't have one on.

Now, I don't particularly like the white pocket squares. I don't like even the silk ones. And so I was reading GQ magazine a number of years ago, I saw this guy who had this pocket square here and it looks like a flower. This is called a shibori pocket square. This is how the Japanese manipulate the fabric to create this sort of flower effect. So I'm going to take it out and then place it in my hand so you see what it looks like. And I said, man, this is pretty cool. And so I tracked down the, it took me a year to find a company that did it. And so they're basically about 47 different colors.

And so I love them because, again, as men, we don't have many accessories to wear, so we don't have many options. And so this is really a pretty cool pocket screen. And what I love about this here is you saw when it's in the pocket, you know, it gives you that flower effect like that. But if I wanted to also, unlike other, because if I flip it and turn it over, it actually gives me a different type of texture. So therefore it gives me a different look. So there you go. So if you actually want to get one of these shibori pocket squares, have them in 47 different colors all you got to do is go to rolling this martin.com forward slash pocket squares so it's rolling this martin.com forward slash pocket

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

She actually makes these. They're all custom made. So when you also go to the website, you can also order one of the customized Pocket Squares right there at RolandSMartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So please do so. And, of course, it goes to support the show. And, again, if you're a Bring the Funk fan club member, you get a discount. This is why you should join the fan club. All right, folks, y'all have seen her on Black Lightning.

She's one of the stars of that show as well. All right, folks, y'all have seen her on Black Lightning. She's one of the stars of that show as well. Of course, unfortunately, with all this stuff happening with coronavirus, we don't get to see all the stuff she's involved in. Joining us right now on Roller Martin Unfiltered, we have actress Nefessa Williams. What's happening? What's going on? All good. Good to see you.

First and foremost, I crack up at your videos on Instagram, your workout videos. Sitting here complaining, oh, Lord, the train is killing me. It's just way too funny. This obviously has to be

just a little different to have that much exposure into your personal domain every day. It is. And the workouts are tough as hell. So, you know, y'all be seeing me die a little bit more. Or it's like the post-death. After I'm done the workout, I'll get on and I'll share it. And sometimes I'll do the workout live.

But they are strenuous. They are tough. But I just try to, man, I'll do the workout live. But they are strenuous. They are tough. But I just try to, man, I just try to be a beast out here. And if I make it a lifestyle and I do it every day, then my body is conditioned to being strong. And so, in fact, I'm going to play one of these videos. It was too funny. Wait, you got one of my videos?

You post them on instagram they don't mean you're supposed to pull them up they're already public let me see look at you you're getting all getting all sensitive and everything uh i'm trying i'm trying to see if i can uh get to it actually with you being live i can't get to it. Actually, with you being live, I can't get to it. So, uh, but, but, but, but, but it's just way, it's just way too funny. Uh, you have certainly, um, uh, people have captured the attention of folks with the success of black lightning, uh, since, uh, since his launch, you know, how has this show changed, uh, your trajectory as an actress? Wow. It's one of those shows that as an actress, you work 10 years for to be able to, you know,

to get. It's pretty much what every actor goes for, a great show that they're passionate about, where they could be a series regular, and they cannot worry about having to pay rent. I would spend a lot of years in LA trying to figure out how I was going to pay my bills. So that's one aspect that has changed. And that's a beautiful blessing for me to be able to work on my craft every day. I feel like I get to go to the gym every day and work out on that muscle. And that's honestly a blessing for me. And just also seeing how the character has affected and changed people's lives, and particularly within the LGBTQ community

with me playing the first black lesbian superhero, you know, little girls, little teenage girls or young women see the character and they now feel normal to be themselves. And to me, that's the most significant way that it's changed my life. All right, so here's the deal. For the people who watch you on Instagram,

unfortunately, we're going to turn y'all off because what's happening is y'all are getting the echo. And the people who are watching on Instagram, unfortunately, we're going to turn y'all off. Because what's happening is y'all are getting the echo. And the reason you're getting the echo is that when I talk, it's going through Instagram and then it's being picked up on her speaker and it's coming through the other way. And that's what's going on. So we're about to shut y'all down. We're going to have this conversation. If y'all want to see Nefesa and I talk, go to my YouTube channel right now, youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin, my Facebook page. Go to that one as well. I prefer you to go to my YouTube channel.

So go there. Y'all can hear the rest of the conversation. Of course, we're going to stream this later as well because we are able to do that, and we'll stream it on Instagram too, okay? All right, so we'll see y'all later. All right. Okay, I'm good. So, yeah, they were complaining about the echo. So, yeah, so the only way we could have actually gotten rid of that echo

is if you had headphones on and you had a microphone on, and then that way there was no sound coming through the Instagram. But that's just me being a techie. All right. Salim Akil, the director of Black Lightning. I had the pleasure of being in the opening episode. So we were...

And see, people don't understand. Like, I didn't run into you or nobody else because... I know! I mean, and I hated the fact... So Saleem asked me to be in the finale. Yep.

Y'all shot the finale on MLK Day. We did. And I had a speech in Arkansas and there was no way... Now, if y'all shot like at on MLK Day. We did. And I had a speech in Arkansas, and there was no way. Now, if y'all had shot like at 9 o'clock at night, I would have been able to get from Bentonville, Arkansas, where I spoke at Walmart, to Atlanta to shoot it. And so I hate I couldn't do it. But, man, I certainly want to do it.

Next season, you know, we have a season four. Thank God. So I'm sure there's a way to work it out for you to come back and be a part of the show on season four thank god so i'm sure there's a way to work it out for you to come back and be a part of the show on season four oh yeah it's always too it's always hilarious when i get a text message oh my god i'm watching black lightning on netflix and i see you and i'm going yeah calm down calm down calm down so you so you were talking about again you know you know how this has changed and i think that's people don't understand like like like a a career defining role especially

in a young career i mean just changes everything and look it's a lot of shows that don't get to a season four yeah and that's you know it's like you work all these years as an actor to get a series regular and then you like praying hoping and wishing and you putting your best foot forward you know that it'll get picked up for a season two and it doesn't always happen. So I'm honored and I'm really, really thankful and I feel blessed. And I say that for my entire cast. You know, the thought of going into a season four

is just like, to be able to continue to tell this story and do it for our culture and do it within the black community for us, made by us, it's not just any show. It's special to me. So to be able to go on to season four is, like, blowing me away. I feel like we just started. And again, what's great about it is, I mean, this is a black show.

Yeah. So this is not a black superhero. No, no, it's black. It's black. Black superhero, black neighborhood, black neighborhood black people black villains all that yep yep and it's cool because we didn't see superhero shows you know where the characters look like us and they wore their hair like ours like we're very you know particular. Celine was very, very serious about us looking like the neighborhood we lived in. And that meant wearing cornrows.

That meant some of the mothers. Our mother on the show, she wears short hair. She literally looks like a goddess. So we just wanted to represent what we look like in the hood. And, you know, we never saw that story of superheroes going to the hood to save people. So that's a first. And it's pretty dope to see it still going. I think we're running a slideshow here

of some of your best of. You were talking about playing the character. How also is it when now when you get stopped and people see you, that is a little jarring for people who are not used to being popular all of a sudden. Yeah, you know, I tell people all the time, it's like when the shift happens, it happens really, really quick. And there's really nothing to prepare you for that shift. And although the shift has happened and you're gaining fame and, you know, people are stopping you and you in your mind, it takes time to catch up to that. So it's almost in a sense like a new identity that you have to take on.

And you are now becoming someone different in a sense but you really feel like you're still your old self so there's like this balance that you have to find um some days you sick and you're walking through an airport and you're tired and a fan comes up to you and you know it's their only shot in their mind that they're gonna see you so you know just keeping in mind that these are the people who keep the show on TV. So I'm always, you know, very, very aware of who these people are to my life, to the show. And I try to give them that time,

but it's not always easy to do it. And like I said, the shift happens, but it doesn't always happen in your mind right away. So it's taken some time to catch up to like, oh, wow, celebrity fame has hit and knowing how to deal with that. So describe for our folks that first feeling where, oh, my God, Nevesa. OK, I'm sorry. I don't really know you. I know why I'm calling you by your first name.

What was that like? At first, it's a bit exciting, because you're like, oh my God, they know my work. You know, as an artist, you work for, you know, people to have an understanding of who you are, and hopefully they appreciate your work. And it's not the main reason why I do it. I just love the art.

But it is a bit exciting at first when people are acknowledging your work. So that aspect is cool but after a while it's like you know there's some things that also comes with it you got to be a little bit more careful you can't just be posting your house you know in certain areas of your home you know you want to kind of keep private because once you put it out there it it's public. So there are things that you have to put into consideration and take safety precautions. But it is different. It's different.

It's way different because what happens is, and Cynthia and I were talking about this here, that when you're on a television show, unlike movies, you're actually a TV show. You're actually coming into people's homes. Yes. So it's a whole different reaction because they think they know you. I mean, they know you. I can go, hey, how are you doing? People go, OK, I don't know why I'm like that familiar with you. Because then they go, OK, but then again, I listen to you for a decade on Tom Joyner or I watched you for six years on CNN or TV One. And for me, I'm just sort of used to it. Now the one I do like messing with people,

because what I love is the one where they see you and they're going. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I'm not paying attention, but I am, then I go, it's me. They're like, I'm not paying attention, but I am. Then I go, it's me. They're like, I knew that was you. So it always cracks me up. Or they'll say, has anybody ever told you you look like Roland Martin?

I'm like, all the time. All the time. Yeah, and you can play it both ways. There's times when people come up to me and they're sure. There's no question in their mind that it's you. And then there's other times when people are like wow does anybody like you said does anybody ever tell you you look like her i'm like oh my god girl i get that all the time i haven't even seen the show but i get it all the time so you know it's kind of cool to play on it however you feel in that day but some people are just certain and sure that that is you

and you're gonna get them a moment first moment. First of all, I had somebody try to argue that I wasn't me. And I'm going, uh, trust me, I'm me. No, no, no. You can't be. You can't be. I'm going, or, what you doing here

shopping? Because I need some stuff. What the hell you mean? What am I doing? I'm like, I shop. Listen, I had somebody stop me at HomeGoods like, oh, girl, you're so cute in person. What you doing at HomeGoods? I was like, I want to bargain just like you. I'm shopping. Like, what? I love HomeGoods.

And that ain't going to stop after Black Lightning. It's just not going to stop. It is what it is. But people are shocked to see you living somewhat of a normal life or doing normal things that they're doing. I think that tickles me. But I like a bargain. I like a discount.

So y'all going to see me at HomeGoods. Obviously, we're dealing with coronavirus. It has stopped a whole bunch of other stuff. What other things were you in the midst of working on when all of this shut down? Well, I had just wrapped Black Lightning. We had just wrapped for season three, and I had been, you know, taking meetings, looking to do a film,

and I would have liked to have thought that I would have been filming something now or any day now, but, you know, corona came through and shut it down for all of us. So with that, adapting to the idea that this is our new normal way at least for right now i've just been doing a lot of um creating on my own i've been filming a lot of youtube videos the link is in my bio on my instagram page so go check that out i'm uploading a workout video this week um i'm really curious about directing too so i've been doing a lot of studying with that.

So a lot of the things that I've been wanting to do, but haven't had the spare time to do it, I've been using this time for that. A lot of reading, a lot of writing, and working out because I feel like that's my insurance against any viruses or any illnesses. I believe, you know, it's the lifestyle with our health. And that means in the gym and in the kitchen.

And cooking a lot. I've been cooking. Yes, I know. Remember, I sent you a DM about one of your cooking videos in terms of how you were shooting it. I know he's not sitting

here. Again, first of all, as a creative, it's just like all these people have been tripping because I've done all these videos talking about the versus battle and how I've been annoyed with the sound. I mean, just annoyed. People and other artists have been

hitting me like, yo, dude, why is your sound so great when you're playing music? I'm going because I got the right damn hook up uh and and it's like like even like a lot of these i it's been driving me crazy people who are doing real shows and doing interviews from home and they don't have microphones and they're using just they're using just the microphone on the computer and it's grating. I mean, Van Jones was on CNN, and I saw this.

Van posted this clip, and he put it on his Instagram page. I sent him a text like, Van, I said, I need you to order this damn microphone, bro. I said, if I got to hear one more hollow-ass interview, it's driving me crazy. And so I spent like,

so you had this cooking video. I'm trying to find it. You had this cooking video, but I'm going to play this one here. This is your video where you like the Corona's not going to stop you from eating shrimp. Let me skip the ads. Fried rice. Okay.

So now, okay, you at this. So now we all of a sudden, then you got some hair videos on here. So you just making all kind're at this. So now we all of a sudden, then you got some hair videos on here. So you just making all kind of home videos. You know what? A lot of my supporters, they want to see more videos on YouTube. So when I ask them, it's like makeup, it's workout, it's hair videos, it's cooking. So I'm just giving them what they've been asking me for.

And it's been cool because it's like forcing me. The quarantine has forced me to like really be in the kitchen more. And I was not quite the cook before this. So I've been in the kitchen practicing. So are you, are you shooting and editing your videos? I'm shooting. And then I have a good friend of mine who edits them for me.

I am not the editor. My patients don't work that way. Okay. You really have a cutting board with your name on it? I do. It was a housewarming gift by my friend Tiana Paris got it for me. Oh, not that. Y'all know that crazy child.

That's hilarious. Oh yeah, you got the branding down Pat. That's branding. I was going to say that is branding marketing 101, right? Yeah, you got the branding down Pat where you got your name on the cutting board thank you oh lord look at you look at you so it's hilarious well well i think you're absolutely right what is very interesting for a lot of a lot of entertainers whether whether they're singers, whether they're actors, whatever, that the world that we knew, and see for me, look, I've lived in a digital world for two decades.

So this is not, I mean, so, you know, I created the first black news source audio podcast in 2005, first black news source video podcast in 2006. So this is not, so this world is not new to me. But all of a sudden, for people who normally are on stage, are on the television screen, on the big screen, now, they're now like neophytes in a world that they're not used to being in.

And so they're having to go back, like just beginner's basics is to figure out, okay, I'm using the person with the talent, but now I got to be the person behind the scenes too, because they're doing stuff from home. And now they're having to get creative with how they shoot videos at home and how they're doing that.

Yeah, it's a new world and we got to get creative. As I just heard you say about people's sound, you know, hopefully they'll learn from this. But people really just working with they got at home. And I mean, Amazon is great or Best Buy. You know, you can go and buy a mic to make it, you know, a more a better quality. But people are really just trying to figure out how to do it. I never filmed my own videos before. And it was just like, all right, if I'm really going to do this quarantine thing and not kick it with anybody, I got to figure out how to do it myself.

So I think people are just really just trying to figure out how to live right now. And I think we're going to come out of this a lot, you know, smarter and a lot more equipped to do things for ourselves so that we can be more independent when it comes to our creativity, because this time has literally pushed us to do that. Well, you speak of that, we're about to roll in this video now. You did a quarantine acting class? Well, no.

That was right. That was literally the weekend before we got put on lockdown. That was in Philly and I have a lot of supporters in Philly who that's my hometown who are just starting out as actors. So I just feel like it's my duty to go back home and, you know, I'm not a vet yet, but, you know, I do have more experience than some of the newer actors. So I feel like it's

just my duty to go back home and share what I know and help them for making some of the mistakes that I made. All right, then. That was a really cool experience. And so before the Rona hit, we got the acting class. Now we got you doing cooking classes on YouTube. Now we got you doing hair videos on YouTube. And what did you say? You about to shoot

a workout video? Yo, I shot the workout video and that is hard because you're trying to encourage people to work out. You can't take breaks. You can't be all over the place. Like, you got to really keep it up. I find that you're like a trainer when you do it. So you got to like really get on the ground.

Well, one, you got to do the exercise multiple times. You got to do the exercise multiple times, both legs. I mean, not that you don't normally have to do it, but you know you be, you BS when you by yourself. You on your phone, you stop, you take a break, you stall, you grab water. Oh, no, I know, because we... We've seen your videos lay on the floor.

And the trainer's like, get up! Get up! That's hilarious. So you're shooting or you already shot it? I already shot it. I'm literally sending it to my editor. That's hilarious So you're shooting Or you already shot it I already shot it I'm literally sending it to my editor When we're done

So you shot the workout video At home At home right here By myself Okay so And obviously you want there to be good lighting Or whatever stuff So you really were like, okay

Wait a minute. I got to be the gaffer the director the cinematographer now gotta be Where I set the camera in the light I was losing light and I was freaking out I was like oh my god this is what it's like when they're on set being responsible for the light for the electricity so I'm doing all of it except for the editing but a ring light will serve you really really well everybody should definitely if you're gonna be home if you're going to be filming your own videos a ring light is something you want to invest in yeah i mean i guess i mean you know i mean i've i ain't i ain't got no ring light so you know soft light soft box lights whatever oh yeah no we got we got to have the uh yeah we got we got we got to have a whole setup

because uh for me uh again when you sitting here at the crib i want I wanted to look a certain way. And in fact, so I'm going to show you this here. Let me airdrop this to my computer here. I got it hooked up. So again, I told you I got to be a little different with it. And so that's a shot of us doing this show from the crib. So as you see, we got the whole green screen set up. Okay. Actually, there's three soft boxes and four other lights.

I see you. Yeah. Look, I can't be regular. I can't be regular. No, we can. We can. I'm mad at that. Then I made my nieces be technicians.

I see. So one of them was handling the switcher, and the other one I made them do the photos to post on social media while we were live. See, look, I'm all about building a skill set. I love it. All right, Defensa, how can folks reach you? So, folks

reach me by following me on Instagram I really love Instagram, I love posting videos on my story, on my page and it's at Nafisa Williams just how it's spelled up here, my first and my last name and that's my name across all social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

I keep it simple it's my first and my last name, so it's really easy to find Let's get it right, Twitter, Instagram. I keep it simple. It's my first and my last name, so it's really easy to find. Let's get it right. Okay, it says Nafisa. It's Nafisa. Nafisa. Gotcha. I said Nafisa. Most people do. Hold on. Put the black people

in these names. So we got Espeo, y'all. N-A-F-E-S-S-A. Now, if you look at that phonetically, you're thinking Nefesa. You are. You got to take that up with my mama, though. What's wrong with you? So your mama said Nafisa.

That's what she said. So why ain't your name spelled N-A-F-E-E-S-A? You got to take that up with her, Roland. I was getting the name. I don't know. I'm just saying. I mean, if it's Nfisa if you name nafisa nafisa pull it back up please nafisa n-a-f-e-s-a that's it

it happens with a lot of people named roland a lot tell your mama she shouldn't be confusing people like this. Listen, Rihanna's name, we say Rihanna, but she says Rihanna. So it's just a, you know, a little slight difference in the pronunciation. Well, no, I get Rihanna and Rihanna because it's still

R-I-H-A-N-N-A. Okay. You got two S's. I got two S's. And draw out that one E. Draw it out. Lord have mercy. Y'all go to YouTube. Subscribe to her YouTube channel.

She got 27,000 subscribers. Please do so. Nafisa. I appreciate it. Nafisa Williams. I'm sure glad to have you on the show. I text Salim Akio. He said, uh, what's up?

That's what's up. So yeah, hopefully season four, you get to come play with us. All right. I'm gonna do that. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna hit him tomorrow. I'm like, all right, come on coach. Put me back in the game. Put me back in coach.

All right. Yeah. I'll be the new superhero. There you go. Flashback to when I pledged. I made them call me Big Brother Action News. The Feast of Williams. I appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. That's hilarious. Have a good one. Thanks for having me. All right. You take care. All right, folks. Thanks a lot.

All right, folks. Real quick, those of you who gave to our Bring the Funk fan club, I want to read those names for you. I appreciate all of you who have joined our Bring the Funk Fan Club. Your dollars make it possible for us to do this show every single day, kicking out some incredible content to everyone. And so I'm trying to get to the names real quick here. We actually had all the names in here.

So let me get right to it. So here we go. All right. DeJuan Sterling, Dana Johnson, Darren Lloyd, Diva Empowered Magazine, Ebony Gully, Fresnel Sorrell, Hope Bly, Joan Warren, Joyce Wise, Keith Holloway, Lavinia Dover, Latricia Walker, Mary Harper, Michael Smith, Michaela, Michelle Gamon, Montressa De La Cruz, Naquan LaRue, Pamela Williams, RL Services, Russell Sanford, Shane Hawkins, Tavares, Kuntz, Terry Jones, Travis Everett, Troy Boyd, Vanessa Howard, Veronica Thomas, and William Smith. Folks, if you want to support what we do, join our Bring the Funk fan club. What is our goal? To get 20,000 of our subscribers, 20,000 of our viewers to become members of our Bring the Funk fan club by the end of the year. We're asking 50 bucks a year. If you want to get more, that's great. If you want to at the end of the year. We're asking $50 a year.

If you want to give more, that's great. If you want to give less, that's great. We're trying to average $50. That's $4.19 a month, $0.13 a day. And so we certainly want you to please provide that to us. And so please go to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. You can give via Cash App right here. This is PayPal, actually.

PayPal.me forward slash R Martin Unfiltered. And then, of course, Cash App is dollar sign rmunfiltered. You can give right here on YouTube. Of course, y'all are watching right now. You give right there. So please support what we do. Look, we're the only black daily digital news show in this country doing this five days a week live. And we stream, of course, seven days a week all around the clock. So giving you the kind of great content that you need and deserve. All right, folks, I got to go tomorrow. My man, Teddy Riley is in the house. Don't want to miss that conversation. Don't forget

black owned businesses. Please fill out the forms to take advantage of the PPP program. Go to nationalbankers.org. Black banks can assist you in applying. So please do that. We want to make sure that our people are getting the resources necessary to stay in business. All right. I'll see y'all tomorrow. Howl! Howl! I know a lot of cops.

They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1. 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. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of

Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. 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 their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. 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 Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an iHeart podcast.