#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Ahmaud Arbery's parents demand action; Gov vetoes $577M MD HBCU bill; Cops gone wild during pandemic

Episode Date: May 13, 2020

5.7.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Ahmaud Arbery's parents demand action; Gov. Hogan vetoes bill that would send $577M to MD HBCUs; Cops gone wild during pandemic; AFSCME and civil rights leaders are leading on making sure the next stimulus bill includes aid for state and local governments; Audit shows $94M meant to help poor residents in Mississippi was stolen; AP poll shows that the pandemic has been especially tough on people of color; Faith leaders turn to activism amid pandemic; Virginia's voting rights laws set the example for the country. Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$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. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.

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You say you never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, know it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens.

Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Today's Thursday, May 7th, 2020, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. The man who leaked the video of the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery steps forward. We'll also talk to Arbery's mother right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered.

The governor of Maryland, Republican Larry Hogan, vetoes the $577 million bill that would increase funding for HBCUs. Oh, I got a few things to say. And where's that black lieutenant governor, a graduate of Howard University? Why is he so quiet? Cops are going wild during this pandemic. We'll show you more examples of police brutality from cops across the country. AFSCME and civil rights leaders are leading on making sure the next stimulus bill includes aid for state and local governments. We'll talk about that with Lee Saunders, the president of AFSCME.

Also, an audit shows that $94 million meant to help poor residents in Mississippi was stolen. We'll chat with Senate candidate Mike Espy about that issue. A new AP poll shows that the pandemic has been especially tough on black people and people of color. Financially, no shock. Faith leaders have also become activists advocating for people during this viral outbreak, and Virginia's voting rights laws

should set the example for the country. Folks, it's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on the filter. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the spook, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time.

And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling With Uncle Roro, y'all It's Rolling Martin Rolling with rolling now

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Rolling Martin All right, folks. The person who released the video, who leaked that video showing the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, has stepped forward. He is a lawyer in the town of Brunswick, Georgia. This is the video that we were referring to. Of course, it was the leaking of this video which led to the district attorney announcing that they were going to actually pursue, take this to a grand jury well the issues with that is not and then led to national coverage now all of a sudden national media is interested vice president joe biden has made comments about this here the white house was asked about this earlier they were

preparing a report to get to trump as well that's the only reason all of a sudden this now has become a national story because the video was released. But what's interesting is that, why? What is the story behind this? I'm going to pull this story up. This is from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. This is, for some reason,

I can't pull this story up for some reason. And this attorney says that, and he wouldn't say if he represented anyone or not. He's a criminal defense attorney. Go to my iPad, please. There had been very little information provided by the police department or the district attorney's office, but there was entirely too much speculation, rumor, false narratives, and outright lies surrounding this event, said the attorney, Alan Tucker.

I didn't release this to show that they did nothing wrong as it's being circulated. Yet, when he was asked about this, he, of course, really couldn't answer the question. I'm scrolling up here. And when he was asked about it, here's the good, right here. Tucker's involvement, let me pull it up right here. Tucker's involvement is something of a mystery. He said his firm has not been retained to represent anyone involved in the case, but in the very next sentence, added a caveat. We may be, we may not be. I love this community and have spent my career helping people in this community. My sole purpose in releasing the video was absolute transparency because my community was being ripped apart by erroneous accusations and assumptions. Now, here's the deal.

The reality is that George McMichael, Travis McMichael, father and son were the ones who were involved. That's them right there. Also, there's a photo circulating of a father with his Trump hat on, his maggot hat, Trump shirt, doing a thumbs up sign with the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp. Now, what you also have here, though, is that there was another man who was following behind him. He was the one who actually was shooting the video. And again, I'm going to pull that name up in a second. And so the sort of problem right now is, again, understanding really what's going on here. Now, in the next hour, we're going to talk with the mother of Mr. Arbery. That'll be in the next hour. And so we look forward to having that conversation. But right now, I'm going to go

to my panel. Dr. Greg Carr, he's the chair, Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. Erica Savage-Wilson, host, Savage Politics Podcast, Recy Colbert, Black Women's Views. All right. Glad to have all of you here. I will start with you, Erica, since you are a native of Georgia. It is strange for this attorney, a defense attorney, to say he released a video because here's the first deal. How did you get it who sent it to you and then we may or may not sounds to me like no you're likely representing the third guy that's probably what happened here more than likely and thinking about the former secretary of state who i would not dignify as saying, the former secretary of state, Brian Kemp, who readily opened up the state for black folks to shop. But February 23rd, when this lynching happened in broad daylight,

he has since now not opened up the governor's mansion, nor has he opened up the courts so that justice can be served. And so around this whole lynching, I think the unfortunate piece is that in a time where black folks are disproportionately being affected by COVID-19, that then there's this other layer of trauma that's being added with the video. And so, you know, since Roland Martin and Filtered has really been pushing this story for quite some time, I know the NAACP put out something today to say that we are done dying. This is an opportunity for folks to use their social media for something good by, number one, elevating by using your name and your voice to let the former secretary of state know that we see him and that his late response, his politically expedient Twitter is not enough to say that his heart goes out to the family and that he's doing what needs to be done by way of an investigation that should have been happened. It should not take the trauma of black bodies to have to force him to do the right thing. Kemp and all those other officials that we see the McMichaels, that we see them, and that though we have our hands on several pots, we're not letting this go.

And so justice has to be demanded. We have to stand with this family today. Go back to my iPad, please. This is from the Land Journal Constitution Story. William Bryan, a resident of Satilla Shores, who was helping the McMichaels corner Arbery, he was the one who actually was shooting that video. The reality is this here, Greg. If that

video doesn't get leaked, we're not, this is not a national story. Now, we had Lee Merritt on the show last week talking about this here, but NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, none of these networks are doing this. You're not having all the response from celebrities and others. It's all because this video got released.

So we do need to be asking what's the motive of this attorney of releasing this video, being a defense attorney and asking the critical questions. Well, how did you get it? How is it in your possession? And two prosecutors go back to my iPad, please. It was initially Brunswick Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson, the prosecutor, who recused herself. Then it was George Barnhill, uh, who was assigned the case, who recused himself. Uh, and so then we have this third, uh, DA, who now is the one who said, I'm not gonna pursue this.

And so this was intended, Greg, to be an absolute cover-up. They thought people were just going to forget. Sure. But I mean, and we had to be able to chew gum and walk at the same time. When you interviewed Brother Merritt, and

you all made the point, it's very important to understand that you don't need to convene a grand jury in order to arrest these men, to jail them, to prosecute them. It's very important that we need to be able to do both these things. While we are focusing on the detail of how this video got leaked, of who has the motive, we also must understand that without a framework for being able to interpret these events,

we will be spinning our wheels. What do I mean? That video was going to come out eventually. to interpret these events, we will be spinning our wheels. What do I mean? That video was going to come out eventually, and this public outcry was going to happen eventually. Anytime you have white supremacists and white nationalists like Brian Kemp, Doug Collins, and others decrying this and saying they're going to investigate,

that isn't a search for justice. That's a preemptive strike. The phrase we need to be focusing on here as we focus on the details, the broader conceptual framework we need to focus on is rule of law. What do I mean by that? On a day when a 37-year-old gets elevated

probably to the D.C. Court of Appeals, Mitch McConnell's boy, on a day when this criminal attorney general says that we're going to drop our investigation of Mike Flynn, what they're saying is if when we control the law, you have to obey the law. What we don't want is black people to turn away from any possibility that the rule of law is in charge. So when you see a sister like Sarah Anthony in Lansing, the state rep who was surrounded by three brothers with long rifles going into the Lansing state capitol because she said, clearly the rule of law has failed up here. When we see them release this video and then all

these white supremacists line up and say, oh, this is a travesty. No, what they're trying to do is set it up, go back into 1892 and read Ida B. Wells' lynch law in all its phases. See, when you convene a grand jury, then you can say, well, the lynch mob of the grand jury said that there was nothing to see here. When you say that we're going to get justice when the governor says that, then he's hoping that black people won't say, you know what, I'm not even going to worry about it. There's a second amendment. Everybody gets strapped. And the next time you show up on somebody, I'm gonna blow your brains out.

In other words, what they're trying to do is get ahead of an obvious situation so that finally black people, they can try to convince them, oh, just let the law run its course. So I don't think that this was anything other than a tactic to try to get ahead of what was inevitable, which was going to be the release of this video. And at that point, they can't get out in front of it. Recy, it's no doubt all of a sudden the cover your ass game is

being played. It's all CYA. And like I tweeted, I do not call this DA a hero because he's going to a grand jury. The fact of the matter is these three individuals now could easily be arrested two of them directly for murder one of them as an accessory to murder they should be arrested and so that's what you're seeing here and now with the pressure now all of a sudden demands for uh the first d.a jackie johnson to to resign now the pressure barnhill should resign, now the governor, he's now commenting. Oh, Trump comments about, you know, the pain of these parents and what they're experiencing. All these things are now happening

only because the video got released. And if it was not for that release of the video, the account of these three individuals and the account of the prosecutor would be the final word. That's a fact. It is a fact, but it's also very

disturbing because one of the perpetrators, as you mentioned, actually recorded this video. So I'm curious. What was the purpose of this to get off on the video, to try to, you know, to share it amongst friends? I think it is a valuable question as far as

how did the video get to this defense attorney? I'm sick and tired of Black trauma porn being shared over and over on the internet, and it requires people to be sickened by Black men being gunned down. There was another gentleman who was gunned down just last night by the cops, and the cops said, that's a closed, that's gonna be a closed casket funeral.

I'm tired of this trauma, this re-traumatization of these videos circulating, being the necessity for even an investigation, for even a grand jury. All of these damn DAs, all they did was kick the can, and they're still kicking the can down the road. A grand jury is kicking the can down the road when, as you said, they should be arrested right now. We don't even know where the hell these people are.

I mean, they could have fleed the country. Anything could have happened. But the sense of urgency and justice, this murder happened back in February, and we're just now starting to get to the bottom of it a little bit. It's very disturbing, but I just, I'm sick of seeing these

images and I'm sick of it taking that much just violence and trauma for anybody to stand up and pay attention. It should have been enough right off the top. Folks, again, in the next hour, we will talk with the mother of the young man

who would have been 26 years old. Her birthday was on Friday. Ahmaud Arbery will talk to his mother in the next hour. You don't want to miss that conversation. Alright, folks, let's go to our second story. One that we have been focused on for several years, not only

on my TV One show, but here on Roland Martin Unfiltered, and that is the lawsuit that HBCUs or advocates of them filed against the state of Maryland when it came to duplication of programs. A federal judge pretty much said, Maryland, y'all screwed with these HBCUs. During the testimony, an HBCU expert said

they should be receiving about a billion dollars. The HBCU said we'll accept $577 million. Martin O'Malley was the governor. He offered $100 million. They said no. Larry Hogan comes in saying my final offer, $200 million. They said no. I was a part of the protest in Minneapolis, Maryland at the state capitol a few months ago regarding this. Guess what? The legislature comes back, passes it unanimous in the Senate. Today, three hours ago, Republican Governor Larry Hogan vetoed that bill, rejecting the $577 million for HBCUs. Due to the current challenges, Hogan said it would be irresponsible

to permit a bill like this that requires an increase in spending to become law. Now, mind you, let me just take y'all back. What happened in the 70s was that the HBCUs, being ingenious, came up with specific educational programs

that would be attractive to students, black, white, or regardless. Well, what happened? The white students sought one to major in these things, so they went to the HBCUs. There was a dramatic increase in non-black enrollment at the HBCUs. So what happened?

Same thing white artists did with black music. The predominantly white institutions copied the programs of the HBCUs. Well, what do you think happened? If you could go to a University of Maryland looking at the resources and the dorms and the facilities and the research dollars compared to a Morgan State or a Bowie State, all of a sudden you would go, I'm going to University

of Maryland. And guess what happened? The HBCUs saw a drop. They were harmed due to duplication. So the judge determined that Maryland did indeed hurt the HBCUs by allowing the duplication of programs to exist. And they sued. It was a 13-year lawsuit. They thought it was finally over. And now Larry Hogan decides to do this. But here's what's also interesting. I'm going to pull a photo up of it.

Because I told y'all what happened here. I told you that before the rally, I had to present an award at the Capital Region Minority Supply Development Council. RALLY. I HAD TO PRESENT AN AWARD AT THE CAPITOL REGION MINORITY SUPPLY DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL. AND IN THE PRESENTING OF THAT AWARD, I CALLED ON THOSE BLACK AND MINORITY BUSINESS OWNERS TO FLOOD PHONE CALLS TO THE STATE CAPITOL IN ORDER FOR THEM TO TELL THE GOVERNOR, SIGN THAT AGREEMENT. WELL, ONE OF THE PEOPLE WHO WAS BEING HONORED THAT NIGHT IS BOYD RUTHERFORD. tell the governor, sign that agreement. Well, one of the people who was being honored that night is Boyd Rutherford, the black Republican lieutenant governor of Maryland.

And I said, he, a Howard University graduate, should be standing up for those HBCUs. So we were backstage. And when Rutherford was coming off the stage to get his award, I was in a waiting room with the rest of these different people. So I stepped in the hallway so he could see me in the hallway. He then proceeds to tell me I didn't know what the hell I was talking about.

I said, well, I know exactly what I'm talking about. I've covered this from day one. I said, you're more than welcome to come on my show to discuss. Now, I don't want to come on your show, but I'll talk to you. I'll sit down with you so I can explain to you the deal. First of all, y'all, the federal judges ruled that Maryland did not discriminate against the HBCUs historically in the funding of the universities. Not sure how they came to that conclusion. But the federal judges did say that was du jour racism that existed

in terms of duplication of programs. So how is a black lieutenant governor of Maryland, a graduate of an HBCU, Howard University. I'm a graduate of Texas A&M. You see, this is the shirt. That's my Aggie ring right here. This right here is right here, my shirt.

How can a graduate of Howard University not be a forceful advocate of funding HBCUs in Maryland? I was texting members of the Black Caucus earlier. The Black Caucus, the votes are there. It passed with such a wide margin that they can override the veto of the governor, Greg Carr. But the fact that they even have to do that

shows you the attitude that Larry Hogan and Republicans in that state have for HBCUs. One question. I mean, well, the first part of your analysis of the brother, all HBCUs, there's something that Kwame Turei, Stokely Carmichael used to say about Howard. He said, at Howard University, you have everything in the Black world and its opposite, meaning that when people say the Black community is not a monolith, like that's some kind of

revelation, human beings are not a monolith. And there's always going to be a Negro ready to hold the coat of a white man doing dirty. And so that's what we're seeing in Maryland right now. But Larry Hogan didn't just veto that bill. He vetoed the Kerwin bill, which followed in the wake of the Kerwin Commission, which took up from the Alvin Thornton Commission of years ago, educational equity in Maryland. He vetoed a bill to put checks on long rifle purchases. He even vetoed a bill to increase funding to fight crime in Baltimore. So Larry Hogan was busy today with his little veto pen. But this is one reason I suspect it was unanimous, it passed the Senate unanimously. Those Republicans in the Senate knew

that Hogan was going to veto this bill. What will be interesting now, forget the Lieutenant Governor. I mean, he's always, he's already chosen to be a footnote in history, Howard notwithstanding. The question will be whether or not, when returned to the legislature, whether you'll see that same type of support to override the veto. Because what I suspect, finally, as I said, is that those Republicans in both chambers knew what was coming down the pipe. So to be on the right side of history as a gesture, they made it unanimous, realizing that Hogan was going to try to stop it at this point anyway. Again, it was unanimous in the Senate and in the House. Most GOP members, Recy, did vote for it.

And I'm actually, I'm trying to pull up the actual number. And so the numbers are there. Now, the question is now the question is whether or not you're going to see whether or not you're going to see them stay with that vote. That's the real issue next. I think that is the real test. I think what we're seeing is, per usual, black people are the first on the chopping block. This is a long-running lawsuit. There was a harm that was done, and this is to try to settle, not completely rectify, but settle

over a period of 10 years, additional funding for HBCUs. When we're at a time where COVID-19 presents an opportunity to make things more equitable rather than regressing, regressive in society, Larry Hogan, of course, and the GOP, I'm expecting, will side with keeping these regressive policies in place.

I'm tired of Black people being on the chopping block. HBCUs earned this funding. They were entitled to this funding. And it's just complete BS that they are trying to use this as a pretext. And I think that we are going to have to really, really push back hard against putting black people, putting people of color on the chopping block because of so-called funding challenges,

when at the same time, Larry Hogan vetoes a tax that could have increased revenue. So you can't say that, you know, we're having funding challenges, so you can't fund HBCUs, money that they're entitled to, but then you also don't want to raise taxes. It doesn't add up. Erica, again, when the bill was passed in March, mid-March. It was passed in the House of Delegates 129 to 2. It was unanimous in the Senate. So the votes are there. On the face of it, the Maryland General Assembly will override the president's veto.

Again, I would think, go to my iPad, please. This is the brother who's lieutenant governor, Boyd Rutherford, Howard University graduate. Well, I would dare say this, Lieutenant Governor Rutherford, you more than anybody should understand the importance of funding HBCUs. So will he stay in lockstep with Hogan?

Because guess what? He wants to run for governor next. Of course he does. There's something that's always said about Republicans is that they fall in line and Democrats fall in love. And I hope that this is a real, real, thinking about Governor Hogan's election around how many Democrats lined up with him. I hope that this is something that they're also tasting and having a bitter taste around. HBCUs are imperative. When you're thinking about this occupant that came into the White House, how we saw an increase in the number of students, to include my own son, attending HBCUs because there was a feeling

of safety, of understanding, of being in a communal body of people that look like you and feeling safe, professors respectively as well. And so when we look at this, when we look at how Larry Hogan on one end is propping himself up, boasting, doing the things that executive leaders should, of course, be doing. But then we're also having to, as a community, as a collective, also pay attention to the things below the fold where he's having his foot on his neck and harming those very institutions, those very bodies that produce some of our greatest scholars, our greatest minds, like a Dr. Greg Carr.

All of these things that we have to consider. So it's important to be very, very much so apprised of these things and how, though immediately they may not seem that they cause any harm, but in the long term they do. This was the press release, Greg was alluding to that, that the governor put out announcing his various actions and talking about the sudden turmoil, things along those lines that exist. And then I'm scrolling down here. And so he has his veto letter. This is his veto letter that he sent to the president of the Senate, as well as the speaker of the Maryland House, Adrian Jones, an African-American woman. So he says in here, the State Board of Revenue estimates Maryland will lose $2.8 billion, including nearly $1 billion in income tax revenue in just three months because of this virus,

a 50% decrease in revenue over the next 90 days. And so he says, for this reason, I'm vetoing the following legislation, House Bill 1260, historically black colleges and universities funding, and then he lists the other bills here as well. Bottom line is that black people always have got to wait, Greg. Well, that's true. Always got to wait. And here's the deal. Here's the deal, Governor.

You could have actually agreed to the $577 million settlement back in August, back in September or October or November or December. But see, Hogan's not fooling anybody. Hogan sent a letter to the head of the Maryland Black Caucus saying, this is my final offer. He didn't want $577 million. He only wanted them to get $200 million. And for folks who are doing the math,

that's $200 million over 10 years. That's four institutions. Do the math. We're only talking about, y'all, $5 million a year. But this is a deadly time for historically black colleges. We just heard my sister Erica say, you know, she came out of Albany and, you know, Albany State. I went to Tennessee State.

You know, we're field HBCU Negroes. Understand what that means. That means the state HBCUs, the Gramblings, the FAMUs, the North Carolina A&Ts, the Virginia States, these rely on the state for funding. And right now, higher education, public funded higher education is under siege.

But if you're not a flagship university like the University of Tennessee was to Tennessee State, or the University of Mississippi was to Mississippi Valley or Jackson State, then you are extremely vulnerable. And in fact, this argument is really what sent me to law school. I was an undergraduate at Tennessee State when the state legislature, under threat of a federal lawsuit, was trying to figure out how to increase resources for black colleges, but as you said, Roland, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equity Act, is where you get the argument that you can't duplicate programs at these schools.

So one of the solutions, when the lawsuit in Tennessee, which was the Geyer lawsuit, Geyer versus Alexander was in place, the Mississippi lawsuit, our friend Alvin Chambers, when you see the lawsuit in Mississippi, Ayers versus Fordyce, what they said was one of the ways to increase resources for HBCUs is to give them programs that will attract other people. And as you said, in the state of Maryland, when Morgan State got an online MBA program, executive MBA program. That is to increase revenue for them.

But what did the criminals of the University of Maryland system, led by that chancellor at the University of Maryland College Park do? They then went and put the same type of programs, as you said, at those schools, which is a direct, illegal, unconstitutional violation of the Mississippi lawsuit, the Tennessee lawsuit, and the higher education lawsuit. That's why they went to court in the first place. So where we're at right now with Larry Hogan playing this game of chicken is not the first element of this. It is coming out of the illegal act of the white public colleges in Maryland

and duplicating programs that were put into black colleges to increase the revenue. So it's all a criminal enterprise, as Ida Wells would say. This is funding lynching law in all its phases. Recy and Erica, go ahead. Final comment. No, I was. Go ahead, go ahead. Recy, Erica, go ahead. Recy, Erica, go ahead. I'll just say, I echo everything that Dr. Carr said. And understanding that these HBCUs are under attack, that really what we're seeing is that someone who does not have any care for black life, for black educated life,

that he could really care less of outcomes and seeing that all skin folks aren't kin folks, is that just much more? And I just really go back to folks paying attention to who's on the ballot and understanding who has your best interest. That as we approach another election year, that's definitely gonna be a tough election year

to go ahead and have a good understanding of who it is that's on that ballot. Because now we're in a place where we're actually depending on executive and state leadership. And then those folks, like you're seeing with the former Secretary of State of Georgia, when they do not have their best interest in heart, death comes next. Recy, go ahead. Yeah, no, I totally agree with Erica. The stakes are so much higher coming November. We have to make sure that the people that

get into office are people that are going to value HBCUs, value Black lives, and that are not going to put us on the chopping block. Because we know we are always the first ones to go whenever they have these austerity measures, whenever they want to cut back on something. Black people and Latino

people are the first place they look. Again, what I want to know, here we go to my iPad. I want to know when is this brother going to say something? When is Lieutenant Governor Boyd Rutherford, the number two official in the state of Maryland, a black man, a graduate of Howard University, how are you not going to stand with the HBCUs? So you're picking party over HBCUs. That's exactly what you're doing. And I say, Boyd Rutherford, no, I'll leave his photo up. I say, Boyd Rutherford, no, I'll leave his photo up. I say, Boyd Rutherford, have the guts to stand with HBCUs versus the governor, Larry Hogan.

Be your own man. That's what you were trained to do at Howard University. Don't put party before the interest of Towson, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, Bowie, Bowie State, as well as Morgan State. Bottom line is these universities were doing the right thing. They got screwed by white officials in Maryland with duplication. And so it would be nice to hear you something. And I was on your Twitter feed, Lieutenant Governor Boyd Rutherford, and you had a lot to say about the National Day of Prayer. Well, I guess we should pray you say something about HBCUs. I'm not going to hold breath. Alright, folks, we're seeing cops

go wild all across the country. This is a video from Los Angeles, Jasmine Koenig. Of course, we also had her on the show. Jasmine Koenig posted this video and you can see in the video, brother's not doing jack, he's handcuffed, but clearly the cop

did not like something the brother said to him, and so this madness ensued. cop not too particularly happy. Then, of course, there's Sean Reed, the brother of Indianapolis, who live-streamed a car chase between him and the cops, and he was shot and killed by the police officer. It was all being streamed. This is a warning for you to watch this video. Go ahead.

What street is this? I'm from the park, this motherfucker, to get the fuck out. Oh, baby. Oh, baby, what's this, Michigan or what? Michigan or what? Ace? I'm from the park, this motherfucker, to out. Oh, baby. Oh, baby, what's this? Michigan and what? Michigan and what? Ace? I'm gonna park this motherfucker at Ace. On 62nd and Michigan?

Somebody come get my stupid ass. Please come get me. Please come get me. Please go get me. I'm on 62nd and Michigan. I just parked this motherfucker. I'm gone. Please come heal me.

What you say? So you see the cop covering his face there. Also, there was a comment that was made with regards to him being casket ready, something along those lines. I'll pull the exact comment. Folks have been protesting in Indianapolis. No other further details what this car chase was about. We've seen these videos also received from New York, how black people have been treated when it comes to safe distancing. White folks, they're giving them masks, black folks getting slapped with handcuffs, getting beat up. Again, you look at the case, the guy won in LA.

I mean, the brother's sitting there in handcuffs. Okay, okay, fine, he cussed the cop out or whatever he said. That don't mean you beat the hell out of somebody. But the other problem is his partner did nothing. Yeah. I mean, people just feel like it's hunting season. They feel like they can get away, whatever the hell they can get away with. And a lot of people, the only thing that's actually having any kind of accountability is the fact that we have cameras. Now, these people are doing this stuff without any regard, except for

the fact that these cameras and these footage is leaking. And it's just, it's ridiculous. It's not okay to hunt black people, whether you are calling yourself making a citizen's arrest, like the people were down in Georgia, which is really just an excuse to be a vigilante and harass and target black people, or whether you are a police officer. I'm sick of it.

I mean, today, we don't want to die police officer. I'm sick of it. I mean, today it's we don't want to die or something. NAACP was trending. It's sickening. And it just seems like it's reaching a fever pitch in the past couple of days. Erica, go ahead. Yeah. And so that campaign Recy was talking about from the NAACP, we are done dying. And I'm going to tell you, I'm just going to be very honest. For my birthday, for Mother's Day, I'm getting a 380. My boyfriend is buying me a 380.

I am tired as hell. And let me say this, to be very, very clear. One thing, I don't give a damn what he said. This man in Los Angeles was in handcuffs. And so to see him being effectively boxed upon by one punk and then the other punk that sat back and watched, that is immediate grounds for termination and they all should have been thrown in jail. Sean Reid, for that to have been live streamed and for then him to have been gunned down and effectively an old punk to stand on top of his body and effectively laugh about it. And then you have these two backwood deliverance characters out of the state of Georgia in

Brunswick, which also the Absentee Ballot Task Force, some of the Brunswick officials are a part of that, led by the Secretary of State Brad Rasberger there. What D'Veasy said, it is open hunting season, and then that video footage is being played over and over again. We don't know where. Listen, they have gotten their marching orders

from their president. I'm saying this. I'm tired, but I'm done as well. And so I'm being proactive in that. And so that video that you talked about earlier with the woman that was being led to the state capital by those brothers with those weapons and they were about it and ready. That is where we're at. When we're saying that we're done dying, what we're also saying is that we are actually ready to pick up the reins. Because I said this on your show, Roland, back in 2019, and I am sorry that I'm having to keep saying this, for people to see that otherwise, you know, just kind of like,

say a name, hashtag this, to really understand the depths with which white folks are going to make sure that they retain control of this country. It is time to not only say we are done dying, but be damned meaning that we are done dying. Uh, Greg, uh, it's no shock that, uh, that whatever character,

Jason Whitlock, would be critical of LeBron James. This is what LeBron James tweeted. We're literally hunted every day, every time. We step foot outside the comfort of our homes. Can't even go for a damn jog, man. Like, WTF, man, are you kidding me? No, man, are you kidding me? I'm sorry, Ahmad.

Rest in paradise. My prayers and blessings sent to the family. Like I say, Jason Whitlock took exceptions to that. We don't care because he's a joke anyway. But, Greg, again, the problem is that, and I keep saying this here, as long as cities are responsible for these police brutality cases and you're not taking that money out of those pensions, it will continue. You start taking money directly out of the pensions of these cops, trust me, they're going to think twice about

swinging on somebody. They might. They might. In the first video we saw, it was really quite a metaphor for white male supremacy. Here we had a run of a man who couldn't pick up the black man who was cussing him out as he tried to punch him. And after raining a number of apparently very weak blows on this black man, the brother was standing there looking him in the face like, that's all you got. Meanwhile, his accomplice

standing back in fear for her own life. She probably wanted to stop, but she didn't want to get caught with one of them punk blows. But I love how this black man just stands up and looks at him like, that's all you got? My man throws his camera down, his little phone down in a little tiny fit of shrunken white male

supremacy. And that's really what this is about. Now, you know, Reesey, I'm glad you brought that up. When the NAACP says we're done dying, you know, I hate to say it, but, and that's why, Eric, I shouted like I did when you said you're getting in 380. We're not done dying.

We are not done dying until we decide we are done dying. And then that's not about marches. That's not about hashtags. And it reminds me of the brother from Monroe, North Carolina, and his wife, the great Robert Williams and Mabel Williams, who were over the NAACP chapter in that

little North Carolina town until they said that we're going to form a rifle club, at which point the NAACP suspended them. Go get their book, Negroes with Guns. In other words, what we are facing is a situation where every time we get gunned down, we say this has to end, and then we don't end it. Let's be very clear. They're worried about their money. The police union, yes, the lawsuits might back them up. But when you're facing a shrunken, shriveled piece of a human being, like the one we saw in the first video, and then something less than human, which we saw in Indianapolis, you're talking about people who in that moment really wouldn't be scared of a lawsuit.

They are exercising their what Francis Cress Welsing might say, their fear of annihilation, of genetic annihilation, of white male genetic annihilation. And so if we must die, let us nobly die. But frankly, I think that if we all went out and got us a 380, a couple deuce-deuces or whatever we're going to have legally, and then when they run up on us, like I said, with the sister in Lansing, she ain't got to worry about nobody running up on her, because ain't nobody going to spit in my face. I got three firemen with long rifles. And guess what? Not only am I not going to die, today is the day

you question whether or not Black Lives Matter as much as your life, because I'm getting ready to take it if you get in my face. All right, folks, let's go to our next story. AsM is leading a big push along with civil rights leaders and members of Congress to make sure that the next stimulus bill includes help for frontline service workers. Joining me right now is the president of

ASMI, Lee Summers. Lee, glad to have you back on the show. We have heard so much about, again, the frontline people, and we keep hearing essential, essential, essential, but you've got to make sure, though, that if you're opening up all these businesses and opening the states back up,

those folks better have PPE, better have masks, better have goggles and things along those lines. I don't think these people even care about that. They're just like, okay, whatever, open up, and then, you know, you live at your own peril. What's happening right now, Roland,

is that you have a mentality with certain people here in Washington, D.C., who believe that people can risk their lives every single day. They can be exposed to the coronavirus. They can expose their families. They don't have to work with the proper PPE, with the proper equipment, and everything is okay. Well, everything's not okay. People need to be taken care of. We have everyday heroes in the public service every single day,

whether you're a nurse, whether you're a sanitation worker, whether you're a social worker, whether you're an employment services worker trying to get those checks out every single day. And they're risking their lives going into work without the proper equipment. Now they have a double whammy where state and local government are actually running out of money because the tax base is crumbling. And you have folks that have given a lot of money to the corporation to help them, helping small businesses. But by the way, we have found, and I think the leadership conference on civil and human rights found that 90 percent of African-Americans and people of color who own small businesses are not receiving those funds. Okay? But in the public service, workers who perform tax are not receiving those funds.

All right. You broke up there at the last. So repeat that last comment, Lee. I said that people who are providing essential public services every single day and risking their lives are now threatened with a pink slip, with being laid off, with being furloughed,

because the tax base is crumbling, and Washington, D.C. is not providing aid to state and local government. Well, what you have is you also have this attitude where Donald Trump doesn't care if it's not a red state. He only wants to support those people who can help him in the election. You got Mitch McConnell who has said, hey,

cities and states, you got problems? File for bankruptcy. Well, number one, states can't file for bankruptcy. That's an idiotic and absurd statement. This is not a red or blue issue. This is a life and death issue for these everyday heroes, for these people who are providing public services,

essential public services to the citizens of this country. And they deserve respect. They deserve the necessary equipment. And they deserve to have help from the federal government as the federal government has helped corporations as they have helped small businesses. Well, on that particular point, when you talk about helping these businesses.

I mean, that's the whole deal when you got the cruise industry who wants to bail out and they're not even U.S. based companies. OK, the headquartered offshores for a reason. Other companies, of course, who are stashing cash left and right, you know, and that's what's crazy to me. I'm sorry. These the people, the workers in these cities, in these states, they don't have offshore accounts. And let's break it down further, Roland. Let's break it down further.

I grew up in a household in Cleveland, Ohio, where my dad was a bus driver. That was the way, and he was organized. He was a member of the Amalgamated Transit Union. Public service was a way for African-American families to achieve a decent lifestyle, be able to move into the middle class. And that is being destroyed right now. You look at what's happening with the coronavirus. African-American families are being affected much more at a much higher rate than white families across this country. And black families don't have the kind of health insurance and health care that other folks have. They have preexisting conditions. All of these factors contribute to a decline in our community of life. And our community is trying to move forward.

And we need support and we need help from the federal government. And that's one of the reasons why we developed, AFSCME has developed a campaign where we are pushing the need and talking about the importance of the provision of public services. Who provides those public services? Who provides clean water? Who picks up the trash every single day? Who provides health care in this country? So we've got to continue to push that every single day. The impact that it has on the minority communities is the virus,

and the fact that elected officials are not doing anything to support the public services necessary to keep this country going. It's a shame. And it's ridiculous, and we've got to stand up. We've got to make our voices heard. So we're running an ad campaign, a major ad campaign all across the country, talking about the importance of public services, and the federal government must step up to the plate. If folks want to get more information about that campaign, where do they go? They can come to our website, the American Federation of State County Municipal Employee

dot org, askme.org. We have commercials. We're even doing a letter, Roland, and I would hope that you would sign off on it. We have a letter that has been signed by clergy, by faith-based officials, civil rights organizations, talking about the need for state and local aid to the citizens of this country to continue the vital public services that everyone must have. And in fact, this, so guys, go ahead and roll one of those ads. Go ahead. We can face this pandemic head on. We can do what it takes to protect our families and our communities. Together, we can get our economy moving again.

But not without the tools and resources we need to get the job done. To win this fight, it is going to take a public service army. Don't let Congress fire the frontline workers who can save us. Text F-U-N-D to 237263 to tell Congress to fund the frontlines. All right, then. Again, Lee, this is going to be important because the reality is this is going to be the battle. And when you look at the numbers, it's a whole bunch of people who look like us, who are those frontline workers. That's exactly right. So we appreciate your support, brother. Sign that letter. We're going to be sending it in tomorrow. The National Action Network is working very closely with us on this, along with other faith-based organizations and

churches and civil rights organizations. All right. Lee Saunders, President of ASPE. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right. We certainly appreciate ASPE being one of the partners here at Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks. As of today, there are 1,287,497 confirmed cases of coronavirus. 76,693 people have died. 214,906 have recovered. Now we got some news, Greg Carr. That's pretty funny. Yeah. And I will say funny. Donald Trump is livid right now because one of his personal valets at the White House has tested positive for coronavirus. And so he's lashing out at his staff saying not protecting him. No, no, no, no. But you're the one who went to Honeywell who didn't want to wear a mask.

You're the one who has said you think it's silly to wear a mask. You're the one who has stood at news conferences with people next to you with nothing. In fact, when they had the nurses in the Oval Office, they were asked, why aren't y'all wearing masks? They were like, well, we've already tested negative for masks, so it makes no sense for us to wear a mask.

Here's what he don't understand. You can test negative today, but you might be positive tomorrow. And then, of course, with Mike Pence, when he went to the Mayo Clinic, he didn't wear a mask, trying to be like Mr. Macho, then later, oh man, I guess I should have worn the mask, because he got criticized. And so, excuse me, Trump, if you upset because your

personal valet got coronavirus, because you act like it's no big damn deal. Yeah, you know, we know, of course, Roland, and again, everyone now is freely using the word lie. Don Lemon has had a complete 180 conversion into blackness. Everybody across the spectrum.

But all they got to go do is go back to every broadcast you've been on since Donald Trump has been in this presidential conversation. You nailed this from the beginning. You can't, not only can you not believe a word that he says, you can't believe anything anybody around him says. Somebody says, oh, do you think Donald Trump has coronavirus? My honest answer is, I don't know. Because you can't trust anything they say. And this man, who's one of his personal valets, is a member of the armed forces. He's a Navy guy. And so this man is risking his life walking around all these white supremacists who are, and I'm going to call it virtue signaling, not virtue in terms of good, but virtue in terms of white nationalist values. They're not wearing masks to signal to the members of their clavern that I'm with you. So this is not an accident for Mike Pence.

This is not an accident for Trump and Honeywell. And as you said, finally, in the White House, in the Oval Office, when that nurse from Louisiana was like, I can't really get my getting what I need in terms of PPE, my people. And he's sitting there holding himself like he always does. Track and track. That's not what I'm hearing. Look, man, you're a liar. You're beneath contempt. There's nobody running the federal government on behalf of the so-called American people. And so, you know, for all we know, you're not only not asymptomatic, you might very well have the coronavirus. I have no idea is what I'm saying. So, yeah, he's just mad because he's a germaphobe and has been since

the day he came out of his mother's womb, apparently. In fact, Recy, Vice President Joe Biden can't drop this hard-hitting ad showing exactly the fundamental problem when you have a reality person playing president of the United States. President Donald Trump is tweeting out support for Michigan protesters. These are people expressing their views. They seem to be very responsible people to me. I want them to be appreciative.

And I say, Mike, don't call the governor of Washington. Don't call the woman in Michigan. If they don't treat you right, I don't call. Yeah, no, I don't take responsibility at all. Well, Reesha, that makes it perfectly clear with the lack of leadership we see right now. Absolutely. And I think Biden is doing right by doing that. Because Donald Trump, I think he's got an acronym. Hold tight one second. Hold on one second.

Hold on one second. I'm having some audio issues with you. Let's sort that out. Erica, go ahead and respond, please. Yeah, so Donald is a liar. He's out of shape. Anything that comes out of his mouth is the furthest thing from the truth. He wishes he was a tenth of President Barack

Obama. He's mediocre. He has a limited vocabulary. So anything out of his mouth, particularly remembering that he is the son of a Klansman, has no credibility whatsoever to even see him or hear the laziness with which he even speaks is disgusting. And to know that at his feet are 76,000 deaths so far just from COVID-19. And then thinking about our brothers and sisters and children that are still locked in cages, that are still being detained in Texas and in other states across the nation. He has so much blood on his hands, he and Mike Pence. And so I think that to the degree where he is spazzing out

and that that is being covered, it's illegitimate. To me, what these mainstream medias who are so in love with every move that he makes, the responsible thing to do for folks that still tune into that mess, would to be actually to report, just like what we saw in the Biden video, to continue to hold to account what he's guilty of because it's not leadership. All right, Reesa, go ahead. Yeah, no, like I was just saying, that Donald Trump is running ads as well, where he paints a completely different picture.

And we can't overestimate the, I don't want to say intelligence of the American public, but how tuned in they are with the ins and outs. I mean, at the start of this coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump was getting high marks, because a lot of people weren't really in tune with it. So it is critical for Biden to beat this drum and make sure that people aren't just seeing these glossy ads

from Donald Trump. And yeah, I know you would think, well, people hear the death tolls, people hear, you know, the numbers of infected, but not necessarily everybody's going to place that blame at Donald Trump. So this is more of what Biden and the entire Democratic Party needs to do, not just for Trump, but also for Mitch McConnell and the GOP that refuses to provide relief. All right, folks. Director Antoine Fuqua, of course, Training Day and, of course, The Equalizer, put this piece here together

to honor those folks who are putting their lives on the line to save others during this pandemic. Thank you. I would certainly appreciate Antoine Fuqua for that. Folks, got to go to a break. When we come back, we're going to talk with Mike Espy about the story out of Mississippi. $94 million supposed to go to the poor, but it went to for tickets to football games.

$1.1 million went to Hall of Famer Brett Favre. Really? We'll discuss it next, right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. 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. Mississippi is one of the brokest states in the union, and an auditor there found federal welfare money was used to pay NFL Hall of Famer quarterback Brett Favre $1.1 million for speaking engagements

that he never showed up for. After Favre's failure to reply to the many text messages, the Associated Press sentence manager, Buss Cook, told the AP that they had nothing to say. Favre doesn't face any criminal charges, but the other issue is that what they discovered is that money was spent on all kinds of other things, Cook told the AP that they had nothing to say. Favre doesn't face any criminal charges. But the other issue is that what they discovered is that money was spent on all kinds of other things, tickets, concerts, you name it.

Joining us right now is Mike Espy, who's running for the United States Senate from the state of Mississippi, a former congressman there. Mike, glad to have you back on Roller Martin Unfiltered. This is just crazy, $94 million for the poor, And it was treated as a slush fund by some state officials. Yes. All right. Hold tight one second. Looks like we're having an issue there with the audio. So, folks, let me know if we can just quickly get that repaired. And if we can't with a Skype, just get Mike on the phone, because I do want to get his thoughts on this. And so, Mike, let's go ahead and talk again.

Let's see if it's gotten fixed. Okay. Go ahead. Repeat your comments again. Speaking with me? Yeah, go ahead. Okay, well, sure. Yeah, I was just telling you that this scandal is deepening and widening every day.

We found out in February from an auto report that $94 million of TANF money, welfare money, money from a program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. There was a conspiracy to embezzle $94 million. And at the same time, there were, you know, 98 percent of the TANF applicants were rejected because they wanted to repurpose the money to be sent for personal purposes. Cars and entertainment tickets and speeches by Brett Favre, $94 million stolen from the welfare program in Mississippi, to be repurposed for Republican operatives and friends of political leaders. So that scandal was uncovered in February,

and six of those conspirators were indicted, and now the stories are coming out every day showing us just how bad it was. And we're talking about, I mean, look, this is supposed to be going to poor people. Yes. You're giving Brett Favre a million bucks for speeches he didn't even give? He never gave.

He got $1.1 million to make speeches that he never gave. So the tenant program is a program to take indigent people and try to lift them to build their capacity. For those who never graduated grade school or high school, to make sure that you can push them into a GED or industrial school. For those who needed jobs, make sure that you can help them with resumes, job opportunities.

For women who were single head of households to make sure they had child care, to make sure you could build them into some sense of self-sufficiency. That was the purpose. But I'm telling you that 98 percent of the applicants were rejected and they only gave 5.4 percent of the money to the applicants and 95% of the money to private corruption. Also, I'm seeing here that $650,000 was spent on Bibles and grammar. I mean, really?

I mean, it's more than that. Apparently they love sports figures because not only did they give money to Brett Favre to make speeches that he never made. You remember the wrestling star, Ted DiBiase? Yep.

All right. They gave Ted DiBiase and his son millions of dollars for programs, wrestling matches, and books that Ted DiBiase wrote that nobody read. So, I mean, this just goes on and on and on. And so I'm just saying, I called three months ago when we first heard about this for a federal investigation. It's good enough to have the state auditor of Mississippi to uncover this, and that's fine. But we need to bring in the full weight of the Office of Inspector General of Health and Human Services, the originating cabinet department that blockbratted the $94 million to Mississippi Department of Human Services. So I've called upon that.

And then I called upon Senator I. Smith, my opponent in the Senate race, to give back the $3,500 that she received from one of the principal conspirators. So we put on that yesterday. And then yesterday evening, she agreed to donate the money. So it took me coming out, calling her out to show some accountability that she's finally beginning to do it. But there's more she has to do because the money came from the Appropriations Committee of the U.S. Senate, and that committee, that's the committee in which she sits. So we've got to do much more to clean this up. Two million dollars for wrestling ministry, money going to hotels, steakhouses, lobbyists, books on Ten Commandments.

Absolutely ridiculous. While people who are poor desperately needed those resources. We certainly appreciate it, Mike Espy, for you weighing in on this. Keep the pressure up to get people to do right in Mississippi. Now, you know I'm ready to get in for U.S. Senate. I need your help.

MikeEspyForSenate.com Okay, Mike, we got it. MikeEspy.com What's that again? MikeEspyForSenate.com Okay. All right, Mike, we got it. Mike Espy.com. What's that again? MikeEspyForSenate.com. Okay. All right, Mike. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks so much. We'll have you back on and talk about that race. All right, folks. Top of the show. We told you that a lawyer in Brunswick, Georgia, has announced that he released a video that shows the tragic shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery. This has unleashed all sorts of repercussions, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Now they are involved. All these things happened because the DAs were sitting on this evidence and were not going to move. That, folks, is undeniable. I think it's important for us to understand that. So don't all of a sudden say, oh my God, they're doing the right thing. No, no, no.

They had no intentions on doing the right thing until this became public. Joining us right now is somebody who's been personally affected by this. She, of course, is the mother of Ahmaud Arbery, also joins us with Lee Merritt as well. First and foremost, just condolences for losing your son. He, if I'm correct, his birthday, was it Friday? He will turn 26 years old?

Yes. That has to be just difficult but I gotta first of all before you even get into all the stuff of the last two days just let folks know who Ahmaud Arbery was

Ahmaud was my baby boy he has two siblings one sister one brother and again he was the baby I had him back Um, he has two siblings, one sister, one brother. And again, he was the baby. Um, I had him back in 94 on Mother's Day. So around this time is really when we celebrate Mother's Day as well as his birthday.

Um, one of the, Cooper Jones, uh, he, according to the stories we read, he was an avid jogger. He played football in high school. That is correct. When so here we are in May. This happened in February. When this took place,

were you just simply perplexed as to how your son is dead because he simply went out jogging? And also, did he live were you just simply perplexed as to how your son is dead because he simply went out jogging? And also, did he live in that community, live nearby, anything along those lines, because he was running in that area? And that is correct. He lived in another subdivision about three miles from where he was jogging.

And I never worried about him jogging because that's what he did daily so I didn't have any concerns and that was the post where I had to become worried when he went out jogging I want my pound to get prepared to ask some questions as well just want to let y'all know in advance the fact that we are here

we covered this story last week we had Lee Merritt on talking about it but frankly Ms. Jones national media didn't care. But it wasn't until that video got leaked where all of a sudden people began to pay attention. And the problem here is that you and the family, you had not seen this video. The DA's office sat on the video.

Y'all found out when we found out, correct? That is correct. Lee Mary, that's what really strikes me when we talk about where we are now. I just fundamentally believe that on a third DA, that they were hoping this thing would go away and not have to adjudicate it for them to say, oh, now I'm going to go to a grand jury.

It's only because that video is out. I absolutely agree. The level of corruption that is being exposed by this case. And you know what? Ahmaud's legacy is going to be the exposure of a great deal of corruption in the criminal justice system in South Georgia. They were hoping that this case would go away. They were hoping that they could murder a man in the streets and that there will be absolutely no consequences for anyone involved. And the legal apparatus was going out of its way to make sure that that became a reality.

I wanna go to my panel with questions. First up is Greg Carr. Greg, you're talking to Wanda Cooper Jones and Lee Merritt. Yes, of course. Brother Merritt, again, thank you for continuing to stand. And Sister Jones, I mean, there are no words. I know how my mother would feel on my sister versus then my nephew.

You talked about Ahmaud in a way that, I don't want to use the word humanized because he's a human being, but that reveals to the world who this young brother was. You know, help us understand if you can. And I think about Sister Sabrina Fulton, of course, Trayvon Martin's mother. You know, help us understand if you can. And I think about Sister Sabrina Fulton, of course, Trayvon Martin's mother.

At this moment, nobody wants to be in the spotlight that you're in. And I know this has gotta be incredibly difficult. What do you call on those of us who are feeling this pain just by kind of proximity to you? What are you calling on us to do? I mean, set aside the justice would be restoring your son's life, of course, as Sabrina Fulton says. I mean, but what do you want us to do?

Because I know we're going to act, but we need to hear from you in this moment if you can articulate even a bit of it for us. I just need some assistance on trying to get these men indicted. They really need to go to jail. I mean, I just, two months and two weeks has been too long. I mean so I can, I have, I cannot imagine. So my most earnest condolences, Mrs. Jones, to you, to your children, to your family, and blessing upon Mr. Merritt and the incredible work you're doing. My question for you would be, have the local city officials, have you received any support? Have they been standing with you? And is there perhaps anything that we could do in that capacity to help move them towards that place

if they've not? Ms. Cooper-Jones, did you hear a question? I'm sorry. I thought that was Lee's question. I'm sorry. Can you repeat the question, please? I'm sorry. I thought that was Lee's question. Sure. Have you received any support from any of the local city elected officials? And is there something that if you have not, that we could do in that way to help move them towards to providing some level of support for your local city officials. Okay. Just recently, I began to receive support. The case had been out there. The crime occurred back in February. And just last week, when it went public is when they reached out to help me. I mean, when it went public, is when they reached out to help me. I mean, when it first happened, no one reached out.

There was no support. There was only articles coming in the newspaper, which had the stories of the murderers in it. So, no, ma'am, there was no support. I mean, they have came in with some support within the last week, but two months ago, there was absolutely no support at all. Recy? Ms. Cooper-Jones, you have my deepest condolences.

I think I read somewhere that you were actually told a different story about the incident occurring in the home versus outside. How much has the story changed in terms of, you know, what you're now seeing happen with transpiring from that video compared to what you were told by the authorities? Initially, I was told that there was a burglary and a mom was confronted by the homeowner.

There was a confrontation, and at that time, there was a struggle over the firearm. I kind of questioned the story before the video came out because the news articles that was coming out said something totally different as well. I have not viewed the video, but I've had some of my siblings who do so, and what they've described is nothing like I was told at first. When we talk about, um, what's happening now, Lee, I'll go to you. This attorney, this defense attorney, releases a video. Says he's not representing anyone,

but then says he may or may not. Does that seem strange to you it is it is actually very strange because these men haven't been uh charged yet they have the liberty to kind of play these games where uh their attorney who is clearly their attorney uh releases a video and attempts to uh impact the outcome of this case, but can say, hide his hand and say that, you know, he doesn't represent anyone just yet. It's clear that he intended to somehow influence the outcome of this case with the video. The scary thing for me is I believe that he thought this video would help his climax. And

because the culture is so backwards there that they thought that that excuse of a citizen's arrest was valid here. As one of Cooper Jones, as Greg alluded to, you are now a part of a sorority

that no black mother wants to be a part of. We talk about mothers of the movement, people who have lost their children to police, police abuse, lost their children to police shootings. You look at Trayvon Martin, Sabrina Fulton, police abuse, lost their children to police shootings. You look at Trayvon Martin, Sabrina Fulton, Tracy Martiner, Trayvon's dad, what they had to deal with. Just explain for the folks watching what you had to endure for the last two months during the full well

and the individuals who clearly shot and killed your son Have not been brought to justice by anybody and it took yelling kicking and screaming just to get to this point We're at right now It's been hard I mean it's just the fact that he's gone and he's not going to be, I can't see him. I can't touch him. I mean, it's really hard. And at this point, I'm not for sure whether I've even really processed it. You know, I think I'm still in a numb stage and I can't heal.

I can't begin to heal because it's just, it wasn't worked appropriately. And then I was beginning to heal, and then the video came out. It's just been a nightmare. It's just been really hard. And of course, the governor weighs in. Vice President Joe Biden weighs in. Now Donald Trump is weighing in.

But I would think the only thing that can actually bring you any sort of solace is to actually see these handcuffs slapped on them, go through the legal process, and then being convicted and found guilty of murdering your son. That is correct. I mean, it won't bring him back,

but it will make me feel better. Well, we're going to continue to cover this story. It is one that we covered before mainstream media decided to do so. We're going to certainly stay on it. We thank you for your strength and your courage. Again, prayers to all the family of your son, Lee Merritt. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot as well. Thank you, sir.

We've got to go back to a break. We'll be back at Roller Mark Martin Unfiltered in just a moment. You want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered daily digital show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com.

Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. I can! Alright, so a lot of y'all 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, and I saw this guy who had this pocket square here, and it looks like a flower. This is called a shibori pocket square. This is how the Japanese manipulate the fabric to create this sort of flower effect. So I'm going to take it out and then place it in my hand so you see what it looks like. And I said, man, this is pretty cool. And so I tracked down, it took me a year to find a company that did it. And so they basically have 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 square. Now what I love about this here is you saw when it's in the pocket, you know, it gives you that flower effect like that. But if I wanted to also, unlike other, because if I flip it and turn it over, it actually gives me a different type of texture. And so therefore it gives me a different look. So there you go go so if you actually want to uh get one of these shibori pocket squares we 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 uh and you can actually get this now for those of you who are members of our Bring the Funk fan club, there's a discount for you to get our pocket squares. That's why you also got to be a part of our Bring the Funk fan club. And so that's what we want you to do. And so it's pretty cool. So if you want to jazz your look up, you can do that. In addition, y'all see me with some of the feather pocket squares.

My sister who is a designer, she actually makes these. They're all custom made. So when you also go to the website, you can also order one of the customized feather pocket squares right there at 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 fam online church services have been going viral since the pandemic started many pastors are reminding their congregations uh of this uh and the goodness and promises of god during this challenging time however many have questioned whether it was god's will for the virus to spread or if it was sent as punishment.

In addition, activism grounded in the values of faith is playing a crucial role in the midst of the pandemic. Faith leaders, particularly in the black church, are making a difference by partnering with organizations to provide PPE and giving a voice on issues such as gun violence and voter suppression. Joining us right now is senior pastor of Relentless Church in Greenville, South Carolina,

John Gray. Pastor Gray, how you doing? I'm doing well, Roland. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your show. And I do want pocket squares, and I need some ascots as well. Well, we'll have to hook you up on that one. Gotta do that. You've always had an extensive online ministry,

people being able to watch your services on Facebook, on YouTube. you've always had an extensive online ministry, people being able to watch your services on Facebook, on YouTube, on Periscope, on all the different platforms. But it's been hard trying to get a lot of other churches to wake the heck up to this whole deal and understand that, look, you have to move to the 21st century and you can't be congregating and having people all packed in churches. This has changed all of that. Yes. Church as we know it is fundamentally changed forever. Ask yourself this question. Do

you want your aging parents sitting next to strangers as they cough? Do you want your children and children's church next to children that you don't know their hygiene regimen? Church has changed, and we are going to have to deal with a new reality. For us, our audience is larger than our in-person audience. So we've always put a lot of infrastructure into having a global reach while still having local outreach. So that's very important for us. Meeting the needs of our poor, our underserved, our elderly, our widows, our veterans. It's always been a big part of who we are. We're going to continue to do that. And the truth is, if you do not adapt, churches will not survive. I have a lot of thoughts as to why that is and where we are from a global standpoint,

the church, but I'm just going to let you kind of lead the congregation or lead the conversation. But for us, we've been preparing for something like this for quite some time. And on that, I mean, and so you can't just prepare yourself or your staff. You also have to prepare the members. I was reading a story in South Korea. They put in some extremely strict practices in place they've said no shouting in church

they've said no singing in church and I saw those rulers said I don't know how that's going to go down in some black churches no shouting or singing I'm like I don't know about all of that. But again, those are things that people have to factor in

when you talk about droplets in terms of coming from your mouth, how that could spread coronavirus. It's unbelievable that we're even in this situation because expressions in worship vary from culture to culture, as you know. The African-American church expression is not one that is quiet. It's expressive. It is emotive. It is engaging. Slap your neighbor. High five. Hug five people. Those days have come and gone.

And I think that we're going to have to deal with the reality that if you read the New Testament, the book of Acts in chapter two, the Bible says they continued daily in the temple and they grew from house to house, which means that the actual original church grew from house to house, not building to building. And I think for too long, certain aspects of Western Christian thought have idealized gathering in buildings when in fact, the original intent of God was for us to never get comfortable in edifices, but build our faith in our homes and then with our neighbors and then spread that way. That's what he said in Matthew 28.

He didn't say build a building and tell them to come here. He said go. And so since maybe some of us weren't getting that message, I believe he allowed this moment to force us out so that our faith could be seen outside the confines of the four walls. Let me ask this question before I go to questions from our panel. So whenever people say, why did God let this happen?

And I keep reminding people of the very basic two words, free will. That's first. Two, that we have the capacity to actually stop whatever happens. Coronavirus did not actually have to happen. We played a video from the folks at Vox.com where it was the growing of exotic animals that were not being eaten by the poor in China.

They were being eaten by the elites in China, but the government changed the rules that facilitated having these exotic animals in these wet markets. And that created the condition and the space for this to actually happen. That doesn't have to happen. And so I think people get so caught up in why did God let this happen as if they want. We just to me, it's like, OK, we want to do whatever we want to do. God, now come in and fix this thing and save me from doing it. No, you know you didn't have to actually do that.

That's right. Free will, you said it best, Roland. You're a theologian as well as, you know. No, I'm bootleg. My wife, she got papers. She ordained, she went to seminary. I'm bootleg, let's be clear. Listen, but you got papers by association.

You got the PBA. What strikes me is that people blame God for this, but the reality is these are things that we created. I think there's two other things we need to consider. There's the difference between God ordained and God allowed. Did God create coronavirus to punish the world? No, that's not in his character. This is a wicked disease.

It steals the breath from people. It cuts and severs families. You don't even get to say goodbye to your loved ones. There's nothing in God's character that reminds me of that. But is it God allowed? I think so. I think this was allowed for a number of reasons. Number one, we have treated each other with contempt and disdain.

We have no heart of empathy for our fellow man. We do not believe in equal inherent value of every human soul. We don't. We have not treated each other well. I believe the earth is a living organism. Romans chapter 8 says that the earth is eagerly awaiting the revealing of the sons of God, and it's groaning in birth pains until now, which means the earth is waiting for people who have a moral compass that points true north,

that we can have honorable discourse among brothers and sisters, regardless of race, creed, religious background. We haven't been doing that, Roland. And I think for those of us who are believers, I believe that God is saying, for me, and for those who are a part of the Christian church, um, you guys have been real relaxed in your presentation of me,

and you haven't been showing people who I truly am. And so I'm gonna to allow this to give you a warning shot to get your act together. The Bible says judgment comes to the house of God first. So I feel like this was a shot over the bow of the church to say, change your trajectory, change your parameters, change your idea of success. Because before, Roland, you know it, success was how many people you could get in a building. Now success is how many people can you serve? How many meals can you distribute?

How many elderly can you care for? And I think that was the original intent of the church, and I think that's the return that God wants. Let's go to Recy first. Hi, Pastor Gray. Let's go to Recy first. of the church to help your congregants and people who follow the Christian faith understand how, even though the government isn't requiring you to stay home, or even though the government is requiring certain things of you,

it's still important to take these precautionary measures. Thank you for the question. The first answer is I can tell you what we're not going to be, and that's the control group. We heard one of the governors from one of the states say that the church is the control group, meaning we're going to see what happens with the spread of this virus with those who go first, and then we'll figure out what to do. I've already determined that whenever they open up the state of South Carolina and lift

restrictions beyond, our church is still not going to open in a physical location. I can't have on my conscience the reality or the possibility that someone contracts this virus and maybe loses their health or their life because I want to gather. There's no amount of money or notoriety or any of that that is worth the possibility of losing a life. I think it's important for pastors to take the lead because there's two sides to that. One side is you lack faith. You call yourself a man of God,

then why don't you open the doors? But faith does not lie. And faith sees facts as well. And in the multitude who counsel their safety, I think it's unwise for me to put elderly African-American individuals with pre-existing conditions in a closed setting with people we don't know, and particularly when coronavirus is asymptomatic

in some people, and you don't even know you're carrying it, and you can get other people sick. We're going to have to let people know that we are not about just meeting in a building. We have to become more committed to, um, what Dr. King called the beloved community, away from the building. So we're trying to be very front-facing in the community.

We're-we're always doing things every single week. Four days a week, we're giving away groceries, um, fully masked, look like we're, like, in spacesuits, but we give groceries to anybody who drives up to let our community know that we are committed to them. But the reality is we may not go back to services in a building the way we did even seven weeks ago. And that's okay with me, as long as we can still practice our faith and stay connected and stay alive. And so I don't know if that answered your question, but I'm telling our congregation that if there is a time when we're in the building, there's going to be protocol, and we're going to wait until at least June to see what happens now

that they've opened up the communities again. I want to see if the curve has flattened. If not, then we just won't go in. I'm not willing to risk anybody's life just to say we gathered. Greg Carr. Well, thank you, Roland. Brother Gray, Pastor Gray, first of all, it's really

encouraging to hear that you all are, that the community, that the congregation is serving and that that's at the center of the faith practice there. Thinking about religion as distinct from spirituality, I'm looking at some of the things come out of Haiti and West Africa. We know that for our people, the ritual kind of forms the crux of the religious practice that informs the spirituality, right? And it's interesting, there's a brother, Chancellor Williams, Dr. Chancellor Williams, who was a great historian.

People know his book, The Destruction of Black Civilization. A lot of people don't know he's from South Carolina. He wrote a book in 1952 called Have You Been to the River, which is a critique of charismatic leadership in the little storefront churches and some of the smaller churches in South Carolina. My question is this. Do you anticipate with us being apart physically in terms of religious practice, the possibility of the emergence of some of these cult-like figures that Chancellor Williams was critiquing back in the 50s emerging online to siphon in some of that charismatic stuff and take us off in a direction that we may not have even seen back in the days

when even Reverend Ike was riding high in terms of taking siphoning that off and using the cyber platform to do it. First of all, whatever you just said needs to be an entire show by itself because you speak about...

I grabbed four different things that need to be addressed. First of all, Karl Marx said religion is the opium of the people. People will always find something to worship. What this season has done has taken away our idols, whether it was sports, whether it was entertainment, whether it was the ability to come and go as we please, those things have been taken away.

From 1619 until right now, black and brown bodies have been in chains, whether physical or emotional or spiritual in this nation. And we know that Christianity was used to propagate everything from the Crusades to slavery. Uh, and so the idea of charismatic Jesus stems from the South and the need to believe that there's something after this torturous existence. What it morphed into was a money-making machine that kept us at bay and created a new era priesthood where you can only get to God if you get to me first.

And you got to give me money in order to get to God. And all of that is being torn down. And whether we're talking about mosques or churches or temples, all of it's being torn down because to get to the most high, the essence of perfection, we now have the ability to do that ourselves. I do not want people to worship at the altar of John Gray. I am the first person to lead from my wounds. What I believe is that people are going to have to make a decision on what is truth. Now we are in the era of live your truth, which is,

I respect it, but it's dangerous because what's true for me may be extremely harmful for you. There is a difference between truth and subjective truth. And so there will always be people when the Bible calls them false Christ or people who prop themselves up for their own gain. But the first thing Jesus did in the last week of his life is he went into the temple and he tore down the tables of the money changers. It was symbolic of him saying, you're not gonna pimp people in an attempt to make them think this is how you get to God. And so the second thing he did, and I'll finish trying to answer your brilliant question,

is he turned over the table of those selling doves. And when Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove. And so what he did is he said, you can't buy the anointing. You can't fake being a genuine spiritual leader. And I think this season is going to draw a delineation, a mark in the sand that causes us to see those who are truly about the business of God versus the business of ministry, because they are two different things. Thank you. Erica. Well, first, hallelujah. Amen. Thank you, Pastor Gray.

And you somewhat answered my question when your response to Reesey, because my specific question was I'm still connected with my church in Georgia, was that delineation that you talked about for people that have the belief and that actually do say that because they believe God, for those who are of the Christian faith, because they are believers, that they believe that their faith will keep them from having COVID and not the exercise of wisdom. So what do you say to those people that are really saying that if a person says themselves to be a believer, if they're taking all of these preventative measures and not going into worship or the place of worship, that somehow that means that they don't believe God as strongly as they should. How do you counter that narrative or how do you address that? I would respectfully direct them. First of all, it's a great question. I would respectfully direct them to Exodus chapter 12, where God is speaking to Moses as the last plague in a series of plagues to deliver people from oppression, which, by the way,

to the panel and to Roland, I think is significant that it's been 400 years that we've been in this country as a people. And it was 400 years that the children of Israel were enslaved, and it was a plague that marked their freedom. And here we are, and there's a plague in the land. But in Exodus 12, this is what God said. He said, tell the people, put the blood on the door. When I see the blood on the door, I will pass by. If I don't see the blood on the door, something on the inside is going to die. What God was saying is we're going to require some social distancing. The plague is coming. The only way that you're going to be free from the plague is if I see the blood on the door. He didn't say faith.

He didn't say if you tithe. He didn't say if you have deep spiritual insight, stay in the house until the plague passes by. If I don't see the blood on the door, then that means you didn't obey the social distancing requirements to allow this thing to pass you by. If I don't see the blood on the door, then that means you didn't obey the social distancing requirements to allow this thing to pass you by. And so it wasn't even about faith. I could have been an Egyptian in a Hebrew house, but if the blood was on the door, he wasn't coming to get me

because it was not about my faith. It was about obedience to a higher authority. The blood is on the door. Stay in the house. Let it pass by. Once the plague is done, then you can come out. And so I think for believers, it's important to understand that faith and science are bedfellows. It doesn't dishonor God for me to listen to the scientific reports about what happens if we sever our social distancing measures right now, what that will do to the curve. My faith doesn't stop me from having this virus. I don't care how much I love God. God also expects me to use wisdom. I don't have to believe in gravity,

but let me jump off a high building. I can assure you that my faith won't stop me from becoming a large brown pancake on the pavement. And so to answer your question, my sister, I believe that there is wisdom in listening to our science experts, our doctors, local, state, and national officials.

But that will inform my faith. I'm not hostage to what they say, but I'm also going to use wisdom. And if God told the Hebrews to stay in the house until the plague passes by, I think I'm going to do that today. And like I keep telling

people, the bootleg version is keep your behind at home. Pastor John Gray, we appreciate it. Thanks so much. Look forward to having you back on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you so much. All right, folks. Got to go to a quick break when we come back. How the pandemic is exposing the inequalities and how black people and people of color are bearing the brunt,

not just when it comes to the deaths, but also financial. We'll talk with the Associated Press reporter next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. 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.

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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 Alright, folks. In addition to the fact that people of color have been hit harder by the deadly virus, they're also enduring the worst part of the pandemic's

financial impact, according to a recent survey from the Associated Press' Nort Center for Public Affairs Research. The poll found that 61 percent of Hispanic Americans have encountered household income loss, unpaid leave, and pay cuts. 37 percent of Latinos and 27 percent of Black Americans say that they have not been able to pay at least one type of bill. Only 17 percent of white Americans say the same. Joining us right now is the national race and

ethnicity reporter for the Associated Press, Kat Stafford. Kat, glad to have you back on Roller Mark Unfiltered. This is the piece right here that people need to understand. We keep talking about dollars and cents and talking about wealth

or whatever, but it's real simple. If you got more money and more resources, you can weather a storm far better than people who have fewer resources. And so when the government is sitting here trying to figure out, okay, how do we deal with this? This is that moment. This is that tragic moment that people are going to have to understand, we must confront. Yeah, you know, really what this shows is a couple things.

Journalists of color, especially Black journalists, to be frank, we have been sounding the alarm on these inequities that have existed in our country, to be frank, since, you know, we were brought here via slavery, right? And, you know, for a lot of us, this is not surprising to see these numbers come out. You know, the first brought here via slavery, right? And, you know, for a lot of us, this is not surprising to see these numbers come out. You know, the first step of this was to really take this racial data in terms of who's being infected with this virus. And now what we are seeing is the second step, which is the economic strife that we're seeing in communities across the country in terms of black Americans as well as Latino folks as well. And, you know, I had a story a couple weeks ago that really dove deep into the pain that's

unfolding in my hometown of Detroit. And what was also part of that story was this financial issue that's really starting to bubble up. So when we see these polls come out, for me, it's sad, but unfortunately, it's not that surprising because if you go back and historically look at some of the things that have happened in this country, if you look at Hurricane Katrina, if you look at the Great Recession, our community really still has yet to recover from those crises, right? So when you think about the long-term impact of COVID-19, when you're talking about Black people, when you're talking about other communities of color,

we have yet to see the total magnitude of what this is really going to do. Well, and look, we always have said that different groups don't have enough money to be able to weather a $300 or $400, $500 shift in income, and we're actually seeing this. And I think that people that at some point folks have to understand, yeah, if you don't have a livable wage, $15 an hour,

if you don't have savings or investment, if you're not in that position, you're not going to be able to handle what's taking place here two, three months, four months, potentially six months, not having a job. Right. And really, I feel as if that, to be frank, is where the media comes in. This is where we should really be shining a light on this issue. And Roland, I know this is something that you've talked about. This is something that I'm passionate about as well. This is an example of why we need diverse

newsrooms. We need people who understand these communities, who understand the impact of issues like this. Without us in these places, without us making these decisions in terms of coverage that you see, this will continue to go on. So I'm pessimistic. I'm not sure if now that, you know, a lot of mainstream media outlets are finally reporting on some of these disparities that we're going to see systemic change. But it is encouraging to see some of these congressional leaders, some of these state leaders and local leaders to start to pull together these task force. But really, it's going to take a lot more pressure. It's going to take a lot more of us digging into these issues. And let's be clear here. Race is a part of every piece of America.

It is interwoven within the fabric of this nation. So when you think about COVID-19, you can't talk about it without talking about race in these disparities that have existed forever. Well, it's also quite interesting. I've seen some of the comments. People are upset with you because you report on race. And those are the people who don't want to accept the reality of race in America and how it has an impact in everything that we do. Housing, education, finance, you name it, health, it does not matter. Yeah, and you know what it's like. A lot of people attack journalists of color,

especially black journalists on social media. But for me, I mean, it's part of the job. I just feel like in this moment, my role is to really make sure that we are uplifting some of these voices that historically are underrepresented, historically are never seen on the pages of these national outlets. So people can have their opinions, but I'm reporting facts. I'm reporting facts and data and really showing what's happening on the ground in these communities. All right, then, Cat Stafford. Michelle, I appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. Thank you. Take care. Thank you very much. Erica, Bob Lundin is here. I mean, this is that moment where public officials are going to have to stop ignoring the haves and the have-nots, really the have-nots. When you see in school districts, 40 and 50 and 60% of the people

not having access to technology. I was talking the other day with a school official who said that what people don't realize is they're tracking this. They've got places where 60 and 70% of black kids aren't even logging on. Aren't even logging on for the assignments. And now it's like,

okay, well, then it's like, well, are they playing around? Playing games? No. If I don't have access, if I don't have a computer, I can't log on. And so, all these assumptions, Erica, that's been the part of the problem. People who

are in political power, the problem is People who are in political power, the problem is they just assume, oh, everyone has a computer. Sure. Everyone has internet. Everybody has, like, I'm sorry, what's wrong with you?

Everyone has these things. No. Sure. And I'll give my hometown of Albany, Georgia as an example. We're thinking about a community of about 70,000 to 90,000 people, including the county. You're talking about folks that depend on one specific place to get their water, gas, and light. And if they're not able to pay that bill, which usually for folks that live on the south and the east side of town,

ends up being $400, $500, $600 a month in a rural community that's 45 minutes away from the interstate where you have people that are feeding off of Albany because it is town, it is the city. When you add all those factors together, there is a historically black college there. So you have college students, some of which that are first generation college students. So when you have a place that's cut off like this, when people cannot even afford to make their utility payments now because they're laid off from jobs that weren't paying a damn. And so now they don't have utilities. They already didn't have broadband. And then you also factor in folks who don't have proximity to an actual grocery store. The gas station is a grocery store. So now you have folks, guardians who may not be able to pay rent. They can't pay

light bills. They definitely don't have broadband because they're thinking about how in the hell they're going to feed people in their family. But the profile of people that are in these elected positions, again, elected positions, look at how they look. Think about some of the Black experts that we've seen that we hadn't even seen before, that perhaps some people did not even know carried the level of jobs that they're carrying that are being threaded into this conversation now, talking about COVID-19 and the disparities that we see in our community. And so there has to be a demand for these people who are in office to, number one, do the right thing, and that also we have to make ourselves a part of the conversation. That is the importance of those members of the CBC and how dare anybody think about trying to primary the folks

who are actually doing the work to make sure that some of the things that folks don't even think about are legislation pieces that will help Black folks do happen. And so in just thinking about all of that, we have to also think about the profile of the elected officials. And as we've been talking about on this show throughout the entire time, is that this is why it is important, not just federal elections, but those state, those down-ballot races as well, because those people impact, whether it is known or not, our daily living every single day. Recy, Beto O'Rourke has talked about what's happening with food.

He's a perfect example. We have seen these massive lines all over the country at food banks. All right, so now you have people trying to raise money, trying to sit here and, okay, how can we send money to food banks? He says it's simple. Increase the damn SNAP benefits. He said you have a federal

system that's already set up where you can provide food to people, but we have an administration who wants to cut the SNAP benefits, but then we're also paying farmers not to grow food. That's utterly logical. Why would you pay somebody not to grow food when there are hungry people, when you can say, no, we're going to pay you to create food and send it here? Yeah, absolutely. To your point, you mentioned

the better works. I want to mention Senator Kamala Harris who introduced this Week to Feed Act which allows for restaurants to do something with the food that's left over. She's partnered with Jose Andres on that. Also SNAP benefits. That's something she's called for. You also have the COVID racial disparities

task force. And to Erica's point, we have to have a seat at the table. I saw that Vice President Joe Biden named Kamala Harris's bill. You can't outsource the response, the disparate response that Black people and people of color are experiencing to the Senate. You can't outsource it to the Black elected officials. We need a person that's going gonna have a seat at the table. And so that's what we need to press upon in terms of our representation in the next administration,

the people who are going to be weighing in on the people who get the cabinet positions, the people who are running FEMA. And as to Erica's point, the people that are actually in there doing the work right now, let's make sure those people get support and that they're not primarily out of Congress

with some newbies coming in that haven't been doing the work. Right. Greg. That's right. No, I think what we just heard, Erica, you laid out the framework brilliantly in terms of how we need to fight and what we need to be fighting for and what's at stake and how the relationship of race and class intersect these

people in the outlying areas making it more difficult for people with less money in the city of albany to be able to work and then recently of course by following that up by naming the bills naming the legislation that is in the federal pipeline, in particular with Senator Harris and working with other stakeholders. And now we have to understand that as a consequence of, well, after we inform ourselves and as we inform ourselves, we have to act with a clearer understanding of where we live. I think for a lot of Black America, the confusion around America comes by, with all the facts we have up until the killings we saw again today on this show. To the contrary, we still want to believe this place is

somewhere other than what it is. Pastor Gray talked about religion being turned into a tool of capitalism. Well, that's because capitalism is the organizational logic of the country that we find ourselves in, and racism overlays it to keep it going. So, of course, they're not going to extend benefits, because those benefits, they perceive, will go to black and brown people, even though it benefits more poor white people. Of course they're going to go to state capitals

and say, reopen the state, because they're not going back to work. It's going to be black and brown people who they want to come back to work to serve them. And when we see Sister Stafford's article, and when you look at how this virus is no respecter of social class, where you see it fairly evenly hitting people under and above and below, I'm sorry, under 50,000 a year and above 50,000 a year, what we understand is that we are now in a position where we can't appeal to people

who have proven time and time again they do not have the interest of even poor people of their own race at stake. It's time to stop being polite now. And if you're not going to vote in this election, then please prepare to suffer the consequences. But just like this virus and you don't wear a mask, meaning you don't respect other people enough to protect them from you when you don't vote, what you're taking, you're basically taking your political mask off and said, I'm just going to spread whatever happens to me to you. We've gotta be smarter now,

because if we're not smarter, this virus, which could literally rewrite global political economy, could end up meaning the end of the federal United States of America as we know it. What this virus has exposed are the people who are frauds, are the people who are hypocrites, are the people who say they care about the poor

but do nothing. It has exposed evangelicals who care more about right-wing judges. When Mitch McConnell comes back this week, and his whole focus is to elevate a 37-year-old man to the second highest court, the D.C. Court of Appeals, somebody who was rated unqualified, who has never tried a case in his life,

who was just made a federal judge last year, and six months later, you're trying to elevate him to that second court? Y'all, that's what they care about. It is not the people, and that's the real issue. Greg Carr, Reesey Colbert, Erica Savage-Wilson, I appreciate it. Thank you so very much.

Thank you, bro. All right, I want to thank the people who have contributed 50 bucks or more to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar you give, certainly we appreciate. I wanna thank the Lawrence Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Kristen Clark, for their donation. Thank you so very much.

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So, I'll see you tomorrow. Please support us in what we do. All right, folks, y'all take care. Have a good one. Holla! 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.

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