#RolandMartinUnfiltered - ATL cops busted for tasing Black students; Athletes back #GeorgeFloyd; Troy Byer talks mental health

Episode Date: June 9, 2020

6.2.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: ATL cops arrested for tasing Black students; Athletes back #GeorgeFloyd; Troy Byer talks mental health; No charges in James Scurlock case; Facebook won't remove Trump's incendiary posts; Rep. Terri Sewell calls for the abolition of a holiday devoted to a Confederate leader; Bakari Sellers talks about his new book, "My Vanishing Country: A Memoir." Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partner: Ceek Be the first to own the world's first 4D, 360 Audio Headphones and mobile VR Headset. Check it out on www.ceek.com and use the promo code RMVIP2020 - The Roland S. Martin YouTube channel is a news reporting site 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. Today is Tuesday, June 2nd, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin, unfiltered protests continue across the country and police officers and vigilantes in multiple cities are striking back in atlanta six cops have been charged with the attack on two students one from morehouse one from spelman they have hired attorneys well you'll hear from the da as he announces those charges in omaha no charges against the white bar owner who killed a young black man will talk when they pastor there in in Nebraska.

The George Floyd case in Minneapolis Police Union has no contract will talk about what that means for the man who killed him. Civil rights leaders are not happy about Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook not removing Donald Trump's tweets with talk with Rashad Robinson. In color of Change. Also, is it time to end the Confederate holiday in Alabama? Congresswoman Terry Sewell says yes.

Speaking of that, last night, the mayor of Birmingham took down a Confederate memorial. The Alabama Attorney General says he is going to sue. Plus, how do we keep your peace of mind during these troubled times? We'll talk with actress Troy Bear about her mental health initiative. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics.

With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's rolling, Martin. Yeah, yeah. It's Roland Martin. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rolling with Roland now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best.

You know he's Roland Martin now. Martin. Martin. Folks, it was just a few days ago in Atlanta where police were seen captured on video taking two black students out of their car for breaking curfew. That video has gone viral. Go to my iPad, please. This is the video right here. You will see in just a moment where the cops, what they did is they approached this car,

snatched these two students out, hit them with tasers. The next day, the mayor of Atlanta announced that two of these cops were fired. Now, all six cops are going to be arrested. Fulton County DA Paul Howard announced that today his office has filed to arrest the six officers involved. DA Howard joins us right now on Roller Martin Unfiltered. District Attorney Howard, glad to have you back on the show. Thank you, Roland. Glad to be here. So first and foremost, this is very rare to move this quickly.

What did you see to determine that these officers needed to be arrested immediately or right now? Well, Roland, as I announced today at the press conference, this is, in fact, the third time that my office has moved to arrest an officer prior to indictment. And the reason that we were able to do it is because the information was there. We had seven police body cams. We had a very detailed video from one of our local media stations. My staff was able to view those videos. We were able to interview the witnesses. The information was there before us.

And when the information is before you, what our community is asking, why can't the prosecutors move forward? And that's what we decided to do. So what stands out here is that, again, the six officers involved, you're filing charges against. What I'm curious to know is you've given them until Friday, turned themselves in. Why is that? If I did something and you filed charges, I'm arrested. Well, we wanted to many of those officers, as we understand, were still participating in some of the surveillance of some of the protesters this week. They had some of them had been working apparently for several days without a lot of rest. So we thought as a common courtesy, we would give them until Friday to turn themselves in.

Obviously, that's surprising to a lot of people. Folks, this is from WSB. Go to my iPad, please. This is the photos of those six police officers, five African-American, one white, one white male. You talked about that body camera footage. Did all officers have their body cameras on? We covered the story out of Louisville yesterday was the shooting of the barbecue owner. None of the cops had the body camera. The grandma Taylor, none had the body camera. And so all of these officers have the body camera. So you had an opportunity to see from each one of these cops' perspective what took place, correct?

Absolutely. And Roland, as you recall, the last time that you and I had a discussion on this very broadcast podcast, we talked about the lack of body cameras in a case involving a young man that was shot 59 times here in our county. And what we talked about then is starting a national movement to make sure that every officer was required to wear a body camera. And if they operated a vehicle, there should be a dash cam in that officer's car. Well, this is an example of why those body cams are necessary. You can just imagine with what happened to these two young people, if we did not have that body cam information, we could not have gotten these results. The body cams are hugely important, not only for our community, but for the whole country.

The mayor of Atlanta, the police chief, moved very quickly, firing two of those officers the next day. Now you have a total of six who are going to be arrested. What message does this send to cops right now in Atlanta, but also across the country, who are engaged in activity against protesters trying to enforce curfews? What message should they gain from this? Well, what I am hoping that police officers will understand that if they are violating the law, then there will be consequences. Roland, this is a feeling that many people in our community express, and I know that you've heard it all around the country, but what people believe is that nothing will ever happen to these offices. And that's really backed up by the statistics in a 10-year period, between 2005 and 2014, 10,000 citizens were killed by policemen in our country.

Only 153 of those cases were they ever prosecuted. So that feeling is, based upon statistics, a fairly legitimate feeling. So what we want the officers to realize is that if you're going to do something that is unjust, then that there are consequences. So maybe what these officers will say, I will stick within what my department says is appropriate conduct. We showed the video the other day. They were arresting in Seattle. They were arresting a young white kid. And while they were arresting him,

one of the officers had his knee on the kid's neck. Protesters were yelling, get your knee off of his neck. And the other officer who was trying to arrest him grabbed his partner's knee and shoved it off of his neck to his back. What that said to me also was that when you are an officer and you are in the middle of of engaging someone, you need to be also be mindful of what the fellow officer is doing. And so doesn't this also say that fellow cops need to check one another at no point?

And again, you've seen the body cam. Did at any point did one of those cops say, hey, guys, back off. This is too much. It appeared to me as if they were all just converging on that car. Well, Roland, your insight is so great because and this is something that is not known to the public. On one of the videos, the body cams, we were able to see across from the passenger side of the vehicle to the driver's side. At the driver's side, one of those officers had a gun in his hand. So we then saw another officer's video, and that same officer was the officer who drug

the Morehouse student out of the car. Roland, as he was dragging him out of the car, one of his fellow officers said to him, put it down, man, put it down. You could not see the object from that videotape, but when you were able to see the second videotape from across the car, what you were able to see that it was a gun. And his fellow officer said to him, put it down. You were exactly right, Roland, because the responsibility is not just with the single actor. It is the responsibility of all of those officers there to make sure that things are under control and that they are lawful. I'm playing the video right now. And literally what I don't understand is that the car wasn't speeding.

The car wasn't going fast. They stopped, and I'm literally watching them surrounded what appears to be about 20 police officers. One car. I'm looking at the young man and the young woman inside. They're not fighting them. And I'm just trying to understand it took that many cops for one car. Well, Roland, let me tell you, I've watched this video dozens of times trying to figure out what was going on. What what got these officers so upset? I don't know

whether or not you were able to see it from the video shot that you're watching, but at the very beginning of the incident when this young couple was simply riding along the street, they had planned to get something to eat in downtown Atlanta. They were caught up in the traffic. They weren't

even involved in the protest at all. Then I'm seeing one guy, he's puncturing the tires. Right. He's puncturing the tires. And it grew out of the fact that on the outside of the car, another young student from Morehouse was standing on the outside of the car and the police came and they grabbed him and when they

did this young man started crying like a young child and the driver of the car Messiah young asked the policeman could you just let me put him in the car he begged him he said hey why don't you just let the guy put him in, let him get in my car. The policemen seem to take offense at his continuing to ask them to release this young man so that he could get in the car. So you're correct. As the car starts to move, there's no place for the car to go. It's hemmed in by the traffic. And why do you need all of these officers with these two young people? One of them, the young lady, Tania, our pilgrim, was never even charged with any offense during this whole period. So she was tased, she was pulled out of her car, put in detention, and never even charged with any kind of offense.

That is, um, that's stunning, that's shocking, and certainly, and unfortunately, the point that we always make, those two people, they now are going to have that traumatic experience for the rest of their lives. Well, Roland, I'm going to tell you that video is very difficult to watch. I had seen it several times, but today we displayed it on a large Mundo board and just watching it, I couldn't help but feel her terror when these officers were trying to yank her out of the car.

It has a tremendous effect, I believe, on almost anyone who gets a chance to watch it. And you're right. I hope that these two young people can move forward normally. But that is a very terrible consequence to try to figure out how to get beyond. And the last thing that gone out, luckily nothing happened. But the reality is somebody could have died. And this is these are what you what what you're charging them with. These are the type of incidents that spark protest, that spark what's happening out the streets right now across America.

Well, one of the things I pointed out as we viewed these tapes at the very end of the tape, when the officers were returning to their normal stations, one of the officers who was not involved asked the question. He said, what was this about? He said, what's going on? And one of the officers who was fired by the mayor, and rightly so, that officer who was charged today by our DA's office, this is what he said to that other officer. They pulled out guns on us. And you've seen the videotape. He said they pulled out guns on us?

That's what he said. That they, meaning the two people in the car, pulled out guns on us. And anyone who watched that tape can tell you there weren't any guns involved. And so what you're saying is absolutely right, because if something had happened to those kids, I believe that we would have heard this same refrain that somebody pulled a gun out,

and that simply did not happen in this case. And the only and thankfully, yes, body camera video and then that television station was shooting if that was not the case. What always happens, what the officer's version is, what becomes the official story and people would have the impression that one of those two students pulled a gun out. That was a flat out lie. Well, Roland, I'm hoping and I know you're going to be talking to our presidential candidate, Joe Biden. And I really want to hear the Democratic Party right now. I want to hear them say right now that as soon as we are in office that we will pass a provision nationally making body cams required for all law enforcement

officials, federal and state. That's what we need in this country. We have not had a significant change in the laws involving police misconduct. We haven't had a significant change since Dr. King talked about it in his I Have a Dream speech in 1963. There's been no significant change. We need a change. And as you pointed out, this incident would have been lost had it not been for the videotape. We need it nationwide. And I'm a firm believer that like in Louisville, if a cop does not turn their body camera on, they should be fired. That should be absolute procedure. No zero tolerance. The moment you get your assignment and you walk out and that camera is not turned on, you should lose your job. Well, Roland, I'm just wondering, those incidents have happened.

George Floyd has happened. I hope that the dialogue continues. We cannot allow our country to move forward without making changes in our laws and changes in our policies. We've seen it happen over and over and over again, and nothing gets done. We can't allow that to keep happening. Our children are losing faith in us. That's why they're out on the streets. They don't believe that we're going to do anything. And I'm hoping with voices like your voice, we can get this change made.

Well, we're going to keep pressing it. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard, we appreciate you joining us. Thanks a lot. All right, Roland. Thanks a lot. Man, that's I'm speechless, Bob, because again, we've been covering these stories. We've been talking about what this stuff means. Let me bring in my panel, Kelly Bethea, communication strategist, Joseph Pignon, Republican strategist and political commentator. And then in just a moment, we're going to talk to Dave on love, director of public policy leaders of a beautiful struggle

out of Baltimore, Joseph. There are no words. If we do not have that body cam footage and the television station was rolling, those cops were going to knowingly lie and make up a story that those students flashed guns at them. I mean, I'm about as speechless as you are. I think the problem is that we've heard this story and experienced this far too many times in our community. And it starts always with little things.

How many times you have somebody who's had a random traffic infraction that somehow the police report doesn't match up or somehow they've got some type of summons for some citation on the boardwalk where the police report does not match up. And so I think what happens over time is that we have so many people acting with impunity. You know, these are legal documents, right? If the officer, for whatever reason, can't make it to court or for whatever reason is deceased or retires, you know, those police reports can be submitted as actual evidence, as testimony. Right. For what actually occurred.

And yet somehow when the testimony that they have submitted fails to measure up or match up what actually occur, there is no actual consequence. And so I think on some basic level, as horrific as that is to watch, to imagine myself as a young person in college or imagining other people thinking of their own children out there just driving down the street trying to get something to eat, I think we have to have the ability to drill down on the actual problem that's been festering for far too long, which is a lack of accountability when the people we've entrusted to enact it, to enforce the laws, fail to actually live within the bounds of those laws and willfully go out of their way to mislead the public and to mislead the criminal justice system

and thwarting the outcomes. Kelly, this is precisely why folks are protesting. Exactly why people are protesting. I did not hear the rationale. I might have missed it, but I didn't hear the rationale behind the cops pulling this particular car over in the first place. They've offered. No, no, no, no. What they offered no no no what they said was what they said was one of the the cop who pulled the gun out told the other cop they uh pointed weapons at us and it was a lie of course it was like and i i see that but my thing is they're right at the beginning of the video you actually see a car right in front of them, like, hooping and hollering and the like.

And then you see a car behind them pulling up as well. So it just frustrates me how they just picked this particular car because it had black people in it. Because the car in front of them did not. And you see that in the footage so when people are protesting and the like this isn't just about white officer right this is about police enforcement in general this is about police brutality in general because you can still uphold whiteness and be black that is a very real thing. White supremacy doesn't just live within white people. If you

uphold whiteness and you are not white, you are just as big of a problem as white people who hold up white. Well, first of all, again, to your point that people have to understand, guys, go to my iPad. This is a cop thing.

Five of the six cops that they are filing charges against are black. They're black. And it's because, you know, again, they're upholding whiteness. And you see that in their actions. And that's what's so frustrating to me. It's not just a black versus white thing anymore. It's a black victim versus white supremacy thing now. And that's what people are protesting about. That's why black lives matter. Because even black people like these cops didn't think that black lives matter. That's why people are out on the street. That's why I have to be home before the lights even cut on in D.C. at 7 p.m. That's why all of this is happening. People are frustrated. It really was the perfect storm for these protests. You have people with no jobs,

nowhere to go. You see all of this on your social media. I promise you at least one of, you know, you know, at least one person who has had, if it's not yourself, got it, who has had a, an experience with police that is, that is adverse to your entire being, to your entire life. And when I heard the district attorney saying, yeah, these tapes are difficult to watch, it's even more difficult to experience. Got it. It's more difficult to live. This is Davon Love. I'm bringing you in. We just finished talking of course. Davon, did you hear the interview with D.A. Paul Howard out of Atlanta?

I did not. Okay, so basically we interviewed him. They announced today they're filing charges against six of the cops who were involved in snatching and tasing those two black students, one from Spelman, one from Morehouse. And what he said in the interview

that with the body cam footage they saw they were going across students, one from Spelman, one from Morehouse. And what he said in the interview, that with the body cam footage they saw, they were shooting across the car. One of the cops on the driver's side had his gun pulled. And one of the other officers said, put the gun down. And then later, the guy who pulled his gun, another cop said, why did y'all stop the car? And he said, because they pointed guns at us.

That was a lie. And it goes to show you how cops, I keep telling people, they will make up a lie in a heartbeat to save their ass. And if there was no body cam footage and their TV station was not shooting, their version of the story would be considered infallible. Right. I mean, I think that's part of it. When you think about the culture of policing, I think what a lot of the mainstream public

is now getting a taste of is the extent to which law enforcement, the policies that govern policing, allow them to know in many cases that when they lie, they won't get caught. So, for instance, you think about, for instance, the Law Enforcement Office of the Bill of Rights. There are about 16 states that have those, you know, Minnesota

being one of them. And in many of those agreements, what you have is that officers, when they've alleged to have engaged in brutality, they have a certain amount of time. In Maryland, it used to be 10 days. Now it's five business days before they have to make a statement on the

record. So they're used to being able to construct stories and be able to kind of backtrack to be able to cover the record. So they're used to being able to construct stories and be able to kind of backtrack to be able to cover their tracks. And in fact, some places, they get to look at the body cam footage. Sure do. They get exposed to all the evidence that is made against them. And so in the internal, particularly when they have internal administrative processes for making determinations of what should happen with the

officer. That, as you mentioned, in many of these agreements, many of these law enforcement Bill of Rights procedures, it allows the officer, in addition to seeing the body cam evidence, they actually get to see all the evidence put before them. And so that's a pretty unprecedented level of access to information against you, more so than the average civilian gets. Folks, earlier, the protests continued all across the country, including here in Washington, D.C. Yesterday, Donald Trump pulled his little stunt. I'm not going to even show that crap. Well, they cleared the crowd out to allow for him to be able to walk to St. John's Church.

The church leaders have been blasting him for that. But the folks are still out there today. Just a little while ago, actually, I went outside. You can go ahead and roll some of that video. I mean, thousands were out there. Thousands were out there. You can go ahead and pull the audio up, please. Thousands were out there chanting. They're still protesting. And this continues. And I keep making

the point that is I keep making the point, folks, this is not going to go anywhere. I just want to let this roll for a bit. What do you want? Justice! What do you want? Justice! What do you want? Justice! What do you want? Justice! What do you want? Justice!

When do you want it? Now! What do you want? Justice! When do you want it? Now! What do you want? Justice!

When do you want it? Now! What do you want? Justice! When do you want it? Now! What do you want? Justice!

When do you want it? Now! What do you want? Justice! When do you want it? Now! What do you want? Justice! When do you want it? Now! What do you want? Justice! When do you want it? Now! What do you want? Justice! When do you want it? Now! When do you want it? Justice! When do you want it? Now!

When do you want it? Justice! When do you want it? Now! When do you want it? Justice! When do you want it? Now! When do you want it? Justice! When do you want it? Now! No! Justice! No! It was, again, a powerful situation. Folks continue to protest across the country, unfortunately. Also folks are dying.

We told you yesterday about the barbecue owner in Louisville, Kentucky, shot and killed by cops there, not when they're by the cam footage, so we don't know exactly what happened. In Omaha, Nebraska, Douglas County Attorney Don Kline announced that there will be no charges filed against Jake Gardner, a white bar owner, in the shooting death of 22-year-old James Scurlock, a black man who was killed amid protest in the Old Market on Saturday night.

During the protest over the weekend, Scurlock had been killed by Gardner. The county attorney said the shooter would not face charges because he was, quote, defending himself. Folks, let me know when we have Reverend Gerard Parker on the line. He is a senior pastor

at St. Mark Baptist Church in Omaha. We're going to hear from him in a second. As I said, the shooting yesterday of David McAtee in Louisville took place as well. We had the Louisville with Louisville City Council President on yesterday. The police chief was there fired. And so here's what we have here. Here's what we have here. We just had two black men protesting the death of George Floyd. Now they're dead. Now they're dead. That's the reality, Davon, that they gave their lives fighting for justice for someone else. Actually, let me go to Joseph on that one.

Joseph, go ahead. Yeah, I mean, I think the unfortunate thing that we have to confront is that obviously there'll be a lot of talk about the riots. You know, as Dr. King talked about the fact that there were more people complaining about broken glass in Memphis, Tennessee, than the intolerable wages. So we always have this dichotomy of what people choose to focus on. And so I think that's important to understand that, yes, the riots must end, but the protests must continue. That it cannot be like every other time, that we cannot tell people to go out and run a couple of miles in the name of Ahmaud Arbery and then go to bed at night and sleep better. That we can't tell people to go out there and post a black square on their Instagram page and then go to happy hour because they feel better. I think the inherent flaw in engagement in a post-civil rights America is that somehow we have engaged in tactics that absolve people of responsibility to keep going, to do more,

to demand action. And so I think in this moment, we have to actually have a new covenant with Black America, a new covenant with America as a whole to say that what does change actually look like? What is embodied in that change? And I think until we do that, if we are not collectively engaged in that effort to go from reacting to results, I think that's what we need to be focused on in this moment. We now have Reverend Gerard Parker. Reverend Parker, welcome to Roller Martin Unfiltered. Thank you, Roland. How are you? Doing great.

We were talking, of course, about the case of the young man, James Spurlock, shot and killed. James Spurlock, you have had conversations with leaders in Nebraska. How have those conversations gone? What did they say for this bar owner not to face any charges whatsoever? Well, that's what was unclear when we met with the governor, the mayor, and the police chief, unfortunately, with the absence of the Douglas County attorney who declined to meet with us. We wanted answers about the charges. Of course, we're dealing with a volatile situation in Omaha, like most cities are. But again, another black man shot by a white man with no charges really threatened the unrest of this city. So we wanted to see if there were any other charges that could be brought.

Obviously, we've learned that the man who shot him, the white man, did not have a carried and concealed license. It was expired. Plus, he fired a warning shot before, which was in violation to city ordinance. So we're hoping, we're pressing for other charges. We have begun a petition, a 35,000-person petition, to at least call a grand jury for further investigation. So the district attorney wouldn't even meet with y'all? No, he wouldn't. And the governor was very clear that the governor did not invite him in that meeting. It left the police chief kind of thrown under the bus, you know, trying to answer legal questions that only the district attorney could answer. But he failed to meet with us.

So what I'm still just confused by. Sure. Like, first of all, how did this happen? Was Scurlock running away? Was he engaged with this man? What actually went down? Well, all of the video, there seemed to be some audio missing.

Some of the video was unclear. It seemed like the Gardner's, his last name is Gardner, had his father had begun kind of an altercation. And when Gardner came over and showed his gun for people to kind of back off, it seemed threatening to Spurlock and some of his friends who tried to disengage him. And then you see Spurlock jumping on his back, trying to take his gun, and that's when the shot went off. Of course, this is a video right here of a protest today in Old Market, protesting the lack of charges against that bar owner who shot and killed James Spurlock.

And so, again, this gets added to George Floyd, to Breonna Taylor, and not just this, David McAtee in Louisville. I mean, this is the sort of justice that people continue to demand needs to be in place. It is, it is. And it's just another, Roland, it's just another white man kills black man, no charges, no verdict, no indictment, no grand jury, no anything. And what has happened in Omaha is it's been a dog whistle to white supremacists and nationalists that, again, you can do what? Shoot a black man and claim self-defense. defense. And so the very thing that we didn't need in the presence of the protest in Minneapolis, plus not the coronavirus pandemic, is for that to happen and then have it communicated the way it was to us from the mayor and the governor and the county attorney. Amazing. A GoFundMe page has been created on behalf of the family.

I'm trying to pull it up right now of James Spurlock. Folks, this is the GoFundMe page. Go to my iPad, please. Already 173,000 of the 175,000 gold has been reached just in two days. And so certainly condolences go out to the family of James Gerlach. And Pastor, we appreciate your leadership on this. Certainly keep us abreast of what happens. Thank you. And listen, admire you. It's an honor to be on your show, man. I appreciate it, Pastor. Thanks a lot.

All right. Thank you. Folks, protests again continue all across the country. California, Chicago is taking place everywhere folks go ahead and roll that video if we have it also one of our producers she is actually out on the scene of the DC protest folks let me know once we have her connected so we can go ahead and and talk with her the the thing here Kelly is that I'm telling you, Kelly, this is not going to end. This is not going to end.

I mean, it will end when people stop, when white people stop killing black people for no reason. When white supremacists, no matter what race you are, white supremacists stop killing black people for no reason. That's when it's going to end and unfortunately i don't necessarily like you said i don't necessarily see an end in sight anytime soon because we have somebody in office who would literally rather kill everyone than to save black lives and that was evident um in in his uh actions and his rhetoric for the past couple days, but certainly his entire presidency. So I don't, like you said, I don't see this ending. I frankly do not want it to end.

I echo the sentiments of the other panelists where the riots should end, but the protesting needs to continue because it's the protesting that keeps the narrative going. It's the protesting and having it in people's face that keeps the narrative going. Like Blackout Tuesday today. Juneteenth is coming up. I don't know what's happening with that, but something needs to happen on that day.

That's a very profound day in Black history. You know, we need to keep the narrative going. The protests need to continue. But as far as the stupidity of whiteness and white supremacy ending, anytime soon, I don't see that happening. Davon, I was out there in D.C. Guys, go to the video, please. Go to the video, please. Overwhelmingly white crowd there and out here in D.C. And again, I think that the thing here, Davon, that we are witnessing and seeing and I keep telling people the death of George Floyd, the fact that we saw the man's life snuffed out before our very eyes speaks volumes. And I'm telling you right now, this is not going to go away in a few days.

Devon? I think a couple of things. You hear me? Yeah, Devon, go ahead. Guys, pull the audio down. The protest. Devon, go ahead. Yep.

So I think a couple of things. I mean, I think the first is, is that I think you're right. I think the video played a big role in just having people see up front what I think a lot of mainstream America didn't want to believe. You know, I think there is a socialization that many of us get that police are supposed to be inherently good. I mean, that's a part of the collective American narrative is that police are supposed to be about, you know, doing the righteous thing. It's supposed to be an honorable profession. And I think what we're seeing is a fiction of this whole kind of, you know, police being sacrosanct, you know, kind of crumbling before our very eyes. And I think, you know, again, America tried, you know, all this time to try to deny the fact that it's reality. I think the other piece that's also really important, because you mentioned, you know, a lot of white folks in

a lot of the crowds. And I think it's important for people who are talking about, you know, some of the disturbances that folks have seen, some of the acts of, you know, recklessness of some of the white folks that are there. I think it's important that we don't overstate. And Washington, D.C., clearly, it's a population that's changed pretty dramatically over the past 15, 20 years. But I think it's important for folks to know that we have a lot of people in our community, Black folks who are upset and angry and have a confrontational disposition towards law enforcement, that in many respects is a natural human reaction. community, you know, black folks who are upset and angry and have a confrontational disposition towards law enforcement, that in many respects is a natural human reaction. Like, I think we've been

socialized to, you know, be maladjusted to this state of perpetual dehumanization. And so I think it's important, and I'm concerned because a part of Trump's talking points about, you know, criminalizing Antifa or calling Antifa a terrorist group. Like the political use of the term terrorist is often used as a justification for the exertion of excessive state violence. So we want to make sure that even though there are, and I've seen it myself in Baltimore, like I've seen, you know, white folks who we don't know, never seen before, you know, jump to the front and be confrontational. But it's important that we're clear that a lot of our people are doing a lot of that stuff too.

And they're doing it out of a very natural human reaction. That's important for us to not criminalize in the sense that we don't provide Trump the talking points he needs to activate the military response that it's clear to me that he's trying to deploy. You make a great point there earlier, folks. Go ahead and go to my iPad. The video is not great. I actually was streaming earlier. I was outside. Go ahead and if you can, turn the audio up. I want you to hear what was being said. We need change. I can see in every last one of your eyes you want to feel what you guys want because I want it just as bad as you do. You gotta want it so bad that you taste it, that when you sleep you dream about it.

You gotta want this so bad that it affects every game of you when you see something that's going on that's never- when you see somebody destroy your city, you go and fix it. You go say, hey, that ain't the way to go. If tearing up the city ain't gonna help y'all, tearing up the city gonna mean nothing but destruction. You gotta go stop at your stores.

You gotta feed your children. You gotta feed your grandmother. You gotta feed your brother and your stores. You got to feed your children. You got to feed your grandmother. You got to feed your brother and your sister. You got to do it, y'all. You got to take care of your family first. And this is your family. Look around you. The person right next to you, the left is in the right. We are no longer the

Biden nation, y'all. All right, Judy, let's go live to the, do we have our feed from where Camellia is in front of the White House? Pull it up, please. Pull it up, guys. Come on. Pull it up.

So this is a live feed right now, folks. In front, that's a, we should be able to have the audio there. Okay, fine. For some reason, we're not getting the audio. This is a live feed. Yep. Yes, we are getting the audio. Are we getting the audio, guys?

Okay, so we... All right, so this is a... We should be getting audio. This is a live feed. One of our producers, Camila Tom, is there. This is what's happening right now in front of the White House. So let me explain to y'all what's going on right here. Now, first of all, you see the White House there in the distance. The grassy area is Lafayette Park. Normally,

that's where people are able to assemble. After what happened last night, what the cops did was they erected those fences to keep people out of Lafayette Park. I think Camila is talking. Go to the audio, please. A ton of anger, rightfully so. A ton of love as well. So guys, they rented that fence there. Now here's what happened. A little bit

earlier, if you actually, a little bit earlier when we were out there, and we're going to show you in a second, go to my iPad, please. This was actually shot earlier. And so what they did was, there were thousands of people out there. What they did was they actually marched to the Lincoln Memorial. And so they wanted to actually, they said, we're going to get smart.

And what they did was they broke up the protesters. So there's a group of thousands of people are in front of Lafayette Park. There's another whole contingent who's actually at the Lincoln Memorial as we speak. And what they did was they, so they marched there. And so in a moment you'll see when they get up. Turn this up, please. No justice, no peace. No justice, no peace. No justice, no peace. No justice, no peace. No justice, no peace. No justice, no peace. So what you're seeing right here, again, what happened was the folks began to make a move. So a part of this group started walking down K Street to the Lincoln Memorial. Another group began to walk towards

the White House. Those two protests are happening simultaneously, and that is what's going on right now in the nation's capital. Let's go back to the live feed where Camila is to see what's going on there. All right. Okay, folks. So here's the deal. In 10 minutes, the curfew begins here in Washington, D.C. The mayor announced again that particular curfew. What's going on? What's that? What's that fee? OK. All right, folks, send me the link. So what's happening, folks, they are tear gassing right now in front of the White House. We're going to try to go ahead and pull that feed up to show you what's going on. I told folks, I told you that folks were not going to back off. And so, again, what's going to happen, y'all send me the link so I can pull it up on my phone to give folks a sense of what is happening.

This right here, that's not the feed right there. And so a lot of things are happening. Again, you see these clashes with police all around the country. And so we're staying on top of this. We literally, folks, where our offices are, we literally are two blocks from Lafayette Park. If I step out of these doors, we go up 16th Street. We're two blocks from Lafayette Park. And then once you go across Lafayette Park, you're standing right in front of the White House. And so they have stepped up security all around the White House. They've actually extended the perimeter several blocks in all directions to keep folks from even coming near the White House since these protests began. As I said yesterday, Donald Trump looked

like an idiot going in front of St. John Church. He is being grossly criticized for that. Davon is interesting. Say it again. All right, folks. So Davon is interesting that Trump supporters are hailing him for the actions that he took. But let's just be real clear. Donald Trump ordered police and the military. And in fact, he marched with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other military leaders. Donald Trump fired tear gas. It ordered the firing of tear gas and rubber bullets against American citizens

so he could get a photo op? Yeah, I mean, I think I think what we're clear about is that when we put it in historical perspective and we think about, you know, 1968, you think about, you know, Richard Nixon, you think about about you know the the law and order um call that was a big part of the kind of framework of how he understood even if you think about ronald reagan in 1980 how he started his campaign um in philadelphia mississippi um you know there there is the the fundamental anti-blackness of American civil society, an anti-blackness that sees black folks as inherently criminal. That inherent notion is what animates the drive towards this military response. It also drives what I think, and I have to bring this up,

when you think about many of the municipalities where policies are such that law enforcement is given the advantage. We're talking about Democratic Party majority municipalities that have allowed these laws to stay in place, the laws that, you know, people are protesting about. And so I think it's important that as we're criticizing, you know, Donald Trump and the Republicans' militaristic approach to dealing with protesters, and I've even seen on mainstream corporate media the turn where, you know, yesterday and a few days ago, there was talk about we need to deal with the structural issues. And now most of the conversation on mainstream media is about property destruction, protests going violent. And so for me, it concerns me because I think we have to stick to the fundamentals of the issue,

which is how do we equip the community with the structural changes necessary to protect us both from the militarization coming from Trump Republicans and the kind of willful criminal neglect of the Democratic Party and the policies that have been left in place that precipitated this crisis in the first place. In a moment, we're going to be talking to Rashad Robinson, of course, the executive director of Color Change. He's on right now. Rashad, civil rights organizations, you participated in this. You had a meeting with the folks at Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg is defending not taking down or saying anything, frankly, with these violent Donald Trump tweets.

We saw his action yesterday. These are simply not words. Donald Trump will unleash the military against American citizens. And so what the hell did Facebook have to say in saying, hey, hands off, he can say whatever he wants? Yeah, there seems to be sort of a lot of just explaining, going around the bend. And, you know, Roland, because I've been on here talking with you about this for a while, and some of this is just asking

Facebook to enforce the policies that we fought them to actually put in place. And some of the policies, and when they had some things that were connected to the exemptions that they might give politicians, we got in writing from Facebook that, you know, we were wrong in terms of saying that it was going to exempt Trump. You know, in essence, what Mark Zuckerberg, I think, was trying to say to us is that it's not illegal for the president to say that he's going to use the tools of the state to stop things from happening. And so, in essence, he was basically saying that the president has a right to do this. What's really challenging, right, is that he talked to the president right before he then decided to keep that post up. Twitter decided to pull the post down.

And instead of even talking about the issue and talking about the complications, you know, on CNBC, he went on and talked about why Twitter made the wrong decision. You know, Mark Zuckerberg has a platform that has 2.3 billion users. He has 60 percent of the shares. This is the exact reason why public squares, because Facebook is the largest public square kind of we have. People, private citizens should not own public squares. And in essence, we need new rules for Facebook because what we know is that whether it comes to the elections, whether it comes to violence, we can't trust Facebook to actually stand up

for any type of real principles. So you're saying that Facebook has reached the point of being a public utility? It absolutely has reached the point of a utility. The amount of data that we act, that they actually have access to, the way in which they have they actually operate basically almost 80 percent of the messenger market media platforms and media outlets because of the ways that they can change around their algorithms and their services and the ways

and how they allow you to reach your own people. You know, Color of Change has hundreds of thousands of followers on Facebook, but we really have to pay each time we wanna reach all of them. These are all sort of decisions that can be unilaterally made. But the question is, is when it gets into how it impacts our democracy, when Mark Zuckerberg will leave up a post by Donald Trump essentially saying that the state

of Michigan and the state of California are doing something illegal when it comes to mail-in voting, and in fact they aren't doing something illegal, that is tantamount to suppressing the vote. And the fact of the matter is, is we actually got a plan with them to stop voter suppression on their platform. If you look at the four corners of that proposal, Donald Trump has violated it, but Mark Zuckerberg seems to be unwilling to hold him accountable. And it speaks to all of the ways, once again,

that when a private person owns a public space and owns it outright, right? I presented at the Facebook shareholders meeting last week. And when I presented in the shareholders meeting, I actually presented about the lack of diversity in civil rights expertise on their board and in their leadership. Ken Chenault, the former head of Amex and others, you know,

have have left. Yeah, I mean, he quit because he said that essentially it was reported Zuckerberg refused to listen, refused to listen. And this is Ken Chenault, one of the top corporate execs in the country. Yeah. And Mark Zuckerberg knows best. And I, you know, while I haven't talked to some of the other folks that have left, you know, you've got to imagine that people who are used to being able to be heard, who know, who have a lot of understanding of these issues to be sort of have their name and their face and their brand be used as window dressing while, you know, Mark continues to make decisions. You know, I sat in the room with, you know, my colleagues, Vanita Gupta of the Leadership Conference of Civil Rights, as well as Sherilyn Eiffel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. And as the three of us talked, what I, and asked questions, and, you know, my colleagues are both lawyers, I'm not the lawyer, I couldn't help but think about how little Mark Zuckerberg knows about human rights and civil rights, how little he knows about the history of voter

suppression. He gets to be an expert and make all these decisions, but he knows about as much or probably less about civil rights and human rights than I do about designing the sort of intricacies of the back end of a tech platform. And this should scare all of us. And so part of the work that we are going to have to do with Color of Change and Beyond is recognizing that as much as we're going to be continuing to demand things from Facebook, we have to change the rules for tech companies. They are operating under a set of legislation and rules that were written basically before they existed. And they get to sort of set the terms of engagement and then the rest of us have to follow.

And in so many ways, Facebook has become one of those resources that because they have access to all of our data, because they dictate the terms in so many ways of media, because they have so much sort of ownership of Messenger and so many other platforms, they actually have to have rules. And the final thing I'll say about that, Roland, is that you probably remember a couple of years and some of the viewers probably do, is that Color of Change led this campaign to force corporations to divest from the RNC convention, the Republican convention back in 16. And we did that because of the threats of violence that Donald Trump was talking about. And we went to corporations and we got folks like Coca-Cola and Microsoft and others to divest. And it was, you know, a pretty successful campaign, except Donald Trump got

elected. And so we were able to get divestment. When we went to Facebook, Facebook said to us that they had to go to the convention and be at the convention as a sponsor because they are a media platform and that they had to cover both sides, right? That they had to cover both the RNC and the DNC. You know, I've seen you at both conventions as a media professional and a journalist. And so we were like, okay. And then Mark Zuckerberg goes before Congress and when he's challenged about the rules of media and having to be accountable to some of the ways in which media is held accountable and regulated, he said, no, no, no, we're not a media platform. And so on one hand, you get to have the rules set for you this way, and then on the other hand, you get to have it the other way. He offers up $10 million to the racial justice movement as a billionaire and thinks he can walk away with allowing Trump to make us unsafe and take away our vote. So what's next? What do you want the audience to do?

What's next? So a couple of things. Right now, the Facebook employees are mobilizing. And actually, we are hearing that, you know, we might be they might be coming back with some new changes. We're continuing to press and push. You know, I would I could come on your platform and tell everybody to turn off Facebook. And if you want to turn off Facebook, you go right ahead. But the thing about monopolies, the thing about concentrated power is because they have all of our data, because they kind of control so much of the marketplace. They have 2.3 billion users. That's more followers than Christianity. And so

we can't simply tell people to turn it off and walk away because it still has a deep level of impact over our democracy and over our economy. And so we have to stay and fight. We have to right now raise our voices about the issues. We have to highlight the concerns. We have to make sure that Joe Biden and that campaign has a true sort of policy platform around tech accountability. We need to make sure that our champions in the Senate and the House are ready to actually hold these tech companies accountable and will push back when they get offered tons of money from companies that will offer them tons of money. And so while we will certainly probably get a couple of tweaks and changes to the proposal because they are under heat, and whenever that happens, I sort of get a call from Mark Zuckerberg or Sheryl Sandberg,

and they want to sort of offer up minor pieces. And along the way, we may have to sort of have them put some things in place that are about harm reduction. But the path forward is really a new set of rules for tech companies, a new set of rules that allow them not to harm Black media, to make sure that they're not allowing racists and white supremacists to use their platform in all sorts of harmful and hateful ways, to make sure that people aren't able to use it to suppress the vote and to suppress our ability to earn a living. There are so many ways in which we need new rules of the road, and that is what we're going to be

fighting for over the next several months and beyond. All right, then, Rashad Robinson, color change. We appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you for having me. All right, folks, a few days ago, the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, Randall Woodfin, went to Lynn Park, where there's a massive Confederate statue in Lynn Park. It's been there for 115 years. Protesters were trying to take it down. This is what he had to say. I'm telling you to disperse. I'm telling you simply to leave the statue alone. I gave you my word Tuesday at by noon. Okay. Thank y'all.

Well, he said, he said Tuesday by noon, please give me that. And the statue is going to be down. Well, folks, last night, beginning around 10 a.m., that actually began to happen. Now, you have to understand the back story here. The state of Alabama passed a law that said that no local government could remove any Confederate statue. They would be fined $25,000. Well, Woodfin made the argument that it would be unsafe to allow that to go on because people were going to continue

trying to tear it down. So last night around 10 a.m., cranes began to roll up to Lynn Park and they began to dismantle that very statue. The folks at Alabama at AL.com, they actually were live streaming this. And folks, you can see it. Give me one second. I'm going to pull it up right here. You can actually see them. Go right ahead. Go to my iPad. This is them removing, beginning to remove that particular massive statue, a 52-foot tall statue.

Got to say, Kelly, it was great seeing this thing down. I've been to Birmingham. I've been to that park. I actually stood in front of that statue shooting a video. It is massive. But the mayor said, y'all want to sue me? You want to fight me? Fine. Go right ahead. The statue is coming down. And we're seeing more of this happen across the country.

I'm actually pleasantly surprised that he kept his word because I know I'm sure of the pressures that he was facing from higher ups and other white constituents to preserve that statue and the fact that he was, you know, he kept his word how and why these statues are still, you know, in existence throughout the country because they uphold a traitor. You know, the Confederacy was anti-America in every sense of the word. Like they literally went against the U.S. government in order to perpetuate their agenda. So for people to uphold, you know, General Lee as a hero and other Civil War Confederate soldiers, thank you, they're holding them in such high regard. I mean, how is that not akin to traitor to being a traitor? How is that not akin to betraying your country? How is that not something that is that is an offense that how is that not anti patriotism?

Again, look, look, look, I'll tell you, Robert, to see, again, this is a massive, massive statue. Go back to the iPad, please. And they took several hours to do it, but look, to me, if you're talking about George Floyd, guess what?

These damn Confederates, this is a part of white supremacy, it's the games being played. And you know what? Absolutely, positively, what should happen is they should be all coming down. Yeah, I mean, I think for me, you know, one of the issues that we've had as a nation is a refusal to engage in the investment of emotional equity to deal with the vestiges of racism, and in some cases like this, the physical manifestation of that legacy. So I think, you know, I never want to forget that George Wallace stood in a schoolhouse

doorway and said segregation now and segregation forever. And so I think the opportunity that we have in front of us, which is in many ways in tandem or parallel to the legacy of pain that brought us here, is for us to finally tell the whole story, for us to talk about the contributions that people of color have made in spite of all of the things that were up against us. And I think that when you go from, you know, things that happened with Colin Kaepernick to what you're talking about now with George Floyd, irrespective of how anyone chooses

to feel about the protests, I think what black people are crying out to say is that we are weary, but at the same time we are still here, that there are people on their knees because they are tired, but they are still here present for their country and they're still present for justice. So I think that is what we need to focus on. Like my co-panelists have said, that now is the time for us to not get distracted. I think we look at why now. The fact is there is no NFL minicamp. There are no baseball games to watch. There are no NBA playoff games to watch.

No LeBron James highlights to keep you distracted. And that people actually are forced to sit here with the pain. NBA playoff games to watch, no LeBron James highlights to keep you distracted, and that people actually are forced to sit here with the pain. The bread and the circuses are gone. And all that's left is the ravages of the pain, the images of a man literally defecating on himself as a man had his knee on his neck, draining his life away. And so I think that's why it's different. And I think that's why now more than ever, it's time for us as Americans to tell the full story of how we got here and where we want to go. I want to go to Dave Vaughn and then I'm going to go to Howard Bryant of ESPN.

Dave Vaughn, it was perfect what the mayor did yesterday in Birmingham because it also happened to be the state holiday in Alabama where they celebrate the birthday of the greatest traitor of American history, Jefferson Davis, his 212th birthday. Congressman Terry Sewell says it's time to abolish that state holiday, which is devoted to a Confederate leader. This speaks to white supremacy where these white folks in Alabama today in 2020 want to celebrate the birthday of a traitor? Yeah, I mean, so three points on that. I think the first is that I think there is some political utility in striking a blow at the heart of the Confederacy, the political culture of the Confederacy that still exists in many parts of the South. And so I think it's important to strike, you know, in some measure, the symbolic

blow to that culture. I'd also say, though, I just think it's important to note here that the Confederacy is as much of a part of America as America is America. And what I mean by that is, is that what we're seeing, you know, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, the instances of police brutality against Black people, you know, the lack of value to the humanity of Black people. I mean, as a matter of fact, Jefferson Davis once said, or described enslavement of African people as doing us a favor, as taking us out of the uncivilized jungles of Africa, right? And so these are folks who, when you think about that logic, that logic animates much of mainstream, contemporary American society. And so I would say that it's important for us to keep in mind that while, as I mentioned a moment ago, the kind of symbolic blow to the Confederacy

and to the culture of it politically in the South, it's important to know that it's still a part of the fabric of American society. And it's important for us to also take note of the fact that the symbols, let's not let people get off the hook. The symbols are good, but we need to make sure that we're delivering on policy as well. Folks, got to go to a break. We come back. Everybody hold tight on YouTube, Facebook, Periscope. We're gonna come back and talk with Howard Bryan of ESPN. Athletes are really sounding off in the wake of the death

of George Floyd. White athletes as well. But what's up with the NFL and some of these teams? What they have to say. Tiger Woods released a statement today. If you want to call it a statement. That's next on Roller Mark Unfiltered. you want to call it a statement. That's next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. You want to check out Roland Martin Unfiltered?

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All right, folks, let's talk sports, and that is the sports world is very much involved in the aftermath of what happened to George Floyd. Steven Jackson of the 14 years of the NBA, very good friends. They even called George Floyd his twin because they looked so much alike. A lot of athletes have been speaking out. The Los Angeles Lakers spoke as a team. Go to my iPad please. LeBron James posted

this. If you ain't with us, we ain't with y'all. All of the, first of all, the NBA's been speaking out. NFL, all the people have been speaking out. What's quite interesting is that Greg Popovich, only two NBA teams have What's quite interesting is that Greg Popovich, only two NBA teams have not released a statement,

but Greg Popovich actually released a statement which actually spoke loud, and so as far as that, that's the Spurs. The thing that strikes me is that we all see this police violence and racism, and we've seen it all before. Go to my iPad, but nothing changes. That's why these protests have been so explosive, but without leadership and an understanding of what the problem is, they will never be changed.

And white Americans have avoided reckoning with this problem forever because it's been our privilege to be able to avoid it. It also has to change. Now, the New York Knicks are the only NBA team that have not released a statement. What they sent out internally was a joke, irking a lot of the players for the Knicks. I'm trying to figure out why in the hell don't y'all say something. Now, today, Tiger Woods dropped this statement. This is what he wrote. My heart goes out to George Floyd, his loved ones, and all of us who are hurting right now.

I've always had the utmost respect for our law enforcement. They trained so diligently to understand how, when, and where to use force. This shocking tragedy clearly crossed that line. I remember the L.A. riots and learned that education is the best path forward. We can make our points without burning the very neighborhoods that we live in. I hope that through constructive, honest conversations, we can build a safer, unified society. Hmm, can't wait to hear what Howard Bryant of ESPN has to say.

Howard, of course, the author of a number of books. I'm going to read those in a second. Okay, Howard. First of all, take it away. Tiger. Well, the first thing, and I saw it when you posted Tiger, I think it was this afternoon. The very first thing I saw was the second sentence where it brought me into thinking, why is it so important to constantly protect law enforcement while criticizing them? You don't understand the deal like for every other industry that we talk about.

When there's accountability, you deal with what took place immediately. You deal with the infraction. You deal with the infraction. You deal with exactly what happened. But here, when you deal with police, always this conversation about how to qualify and talk about how much you can expect police, all of these different machinations that you have to go through, when really the question is simple, basic accountability. Arrest the perpetrators, charge them, try them, convict them. And instead, I hate to say it, Roland, but it almost feels like we use racism or they use racism as sort of the red herring here, where instead of talking about arresting these guys

and going through the process, because there are plenty of processes when it comes to accountability, instead we talk about we have to change people's hearts and we have to abolish racism. No one's talking about that. Just do your job and arrest these officers they broke the law the same way you would arrest anybody else for talking about this here uh you have grant napier uh sacramento king's announcer uh posted

an all lives matter tweet pissed off a lot of uh sacramento king's players. They call him a closet racist for that. Sacramento Kings suspended him. Well, guess what? There's a new talk show opening. There's a new opening to be announced for the Sacramento Kings because he has been fired as a result. When you cross in. He's not a closet racist anymore.

Huh? He's not a closet racist anymore. But again, this was this was boogie cousins and other players calling him out and the kings had to pay attention well and they have to pay attention because once again when we talk about this and let's remember something about the nba and about sports in general why do we talk about sports differently than we do any other industry because it's so dominant because the labor is so dominantly run by African-Americans. So do they have some say? And especially in the NBA, when you're dealing with an 80 percent black league and real superstar players who have unbelievable levels of influence, do they have some say? As they say, I'm actually watching that Donald Sterling, Dr. Chris Paul documentary on Quibi right now.

When they exercise their power, when they decide to say something, you do have to listen. And so why this industry is different. What's also interesting about that is that the NFL has been under a heavy, heavy criticism because of the statement that they released during full well that they, well, have whiteballed Colin Kaepernick out of the NFL. This is what they sent out. The NFL family is greatly saddened by the tragic events across our country. The protesters' reactions to these incidents reflect the pain, anger, and frustration that so many of us feel. While our deepest condolences go out to the family of Mr. George Floyd and to those who have lost loved ones, including the families of Ms. Breonna Taylor in Louisville

and Mr. Ahmaud Arbery, the cousin of Tracy Walker of the Detroit Lions. They have some other stuff in there from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. You can read it on folks on social media. Man, if you go to that tweet and read the comments underneath it, they got vilified because the reality is the NFL, for all this little talk, they're still whiteballing Colin Kaepernick, who four years ago kneeled for this very reason. For this very issue. And on top of that, you're going to put out that release, not mention police at all.

How are you going to put that out? What did he? He just died by himself? He just died because of racism? No, he died because the police killed him. And that's what I mean about this sort of observation of the actual facts. Why is it so difficult to avoid facts? Yeah, yeah.

I mean, literally nowhere in here. No, yeah. I mean, literally nowhere in here. No, no, none of this. Of course, I think the only one was, I think, Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner. He put out a statement that actually mentioned police brutality. But nobody deals with the fact that the police killed this man. And so but we understand the reason. And I think these are the things that actually do have to get talked about. The business relationships that these sports have with these teams. Also, the fear, once again, as we saw with Beyonce in Miami, as we saw with the Cleveland Browns, as we saw with the St. Louis Rams with Hands Up,

Don't Shoot in Ferguson in 2014, if you criticize the police outright, they are going to come after you, as the St. Louis Police Union did going after the Rams trying to get those four players disciplined. So we also see one, you've got a business relationship, but then the other part of it too, is that they don't want the criticism. And I think where this really affects black people the most is what they're really saying to all of it is that you as a black consumer, you as a consumer of the NFL, you are nowhere near as important as the white fan base that we feel like we're going to offend if we actually challenge the police. So we have to sort of walk this line here.

We have to let you know we care so you guys don't go out and kneel and demonstrate and do things to upset the business. But at the same time, we're not going to make it plain. We're not going to say exactly what took place because we don't want to offend the police and we don't want to offend our white. They should take a page from Ben and Jerry's. We've also seen players being actively involved. And that is I mean, and this is I think that if you start talking about you start talking about Colin Kaepernick and others,

but look at this here. Guys, go to my iPad, please. This is Jalen Brown of the Boston Celtics. Megaphone leading a march, involving a march. I mean, this simply, you know, we just saw that documentary of Michael Jordan. Yes, Craig Hodges was on that team, actively involved. This is a different generation of players.

Completely. It's a completely different generation. And it's a generation, as we were talking about, and you and I were talking about this last night, is that you also have this generation, 2008 election, seminal election for them, seminal moment for them, and people of voting age. And those kids, what's really kind of interesting, if that was your first election, you're 30 years old now. And you're looking at this very, very differently than we look at it, that you believed in this promise. You believed in this post-racial America. Now you feel betrayed.

And what's really fascinating about this is that when you look at the demonstration across the cities, across the country, incredible, incredible diversity. And because you've got a lot of these kids of this young generation who feel like, wait a minute, we thought we were here, but we're not here yet. And now they're finding out that they're not free. These white kids, for the first time in their lives, are finding out they're not free either, getting shot with rubber bullets and whatnot. The thing that is quite interesting here, when you begin to talk about what's going on, I'm going to bring in my panel here. So go ahead, bring the panel in as well. I'm going to bring them in. President George W. Bush released this statement. It is a strength when protesters protected by responsible law enforcement march for a better future. This tragedy and a long series of similar tragedies raises a long overdue question.

How do we end systemic racism in our society? Howard, Jamel, Jamel, your former colleague at ESPN, Jamel Hill tweeted, George Bush gave a far better statement about racial injustice than Tiger Woods. 2020 continues to be with the shits. Right. Well, I mean, look at it, right? But still, to me, yeah, you can talk about all the statements you want. You can talk about who's going to outdo who. But the bottom line is you do a real disservice.

This is a state federal. One second. Howard, every other word is breaking up. So we will try to get your line fixed. Let me bring in bring in Kelly Joseph as well as Dave on here. Sports is a huge part of what we do. It matters, obviously, for so many different people. But these are athletes who are saying we're not going to take this.

We're going to use our power and we're going to use our voices. They're not being silent. Well, yeah, I mean, I think, you know, if we're really being honest here, I think what we saw with the, as we mentioned before, with the Clippers, with their ability to get an owner removed by even the threat of not playing. So I think that until we actually have players who are willing to say that we're not going to take the field, that the bread and circuses are going to stop. And until we have a community committed in that effort to say that I'm not going to cross that line, that I'm not going to use this as my opportunity to bootstrap my way to an NFL career or a major league baseball career or a basketball career, that is the type of unity as a community that will be required to give the individuals with the leverage in the sports community the ability to drive home a message in the only way that gets home to most Americans, which is with dollars and which is in their

personal comfort. Because we know that sports are in many ways an extension of people's personal happiness, and it's an extension of people's monetary resources, and it many ways an extension of people's personal happiness. It's an extension of people's monetary resources. And it's also an extension of the tapestry of America. And so when that stops, we are forced to listen. And so as I said before, I don't think it's a coincidence that we're seeing this robust uprising at a time when there are no sports to be found on any television dial. Kelly, what this also says is that these athletes are saying, stop just telling me to play ball and shut up. They're saying you are going to listen to me. I've got something to say. Absolutely. The thing about this is we have a history of our

athletes speaking out. It was just a period of it not happening, either by way of new athletes saying, hey, I have money, it's not my problem anymore, or it's just not in my face anymore, what have you. But now it's in your face, and now athletes do feel empowered to say something again. So, you know, from Ali to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to LeBron James now. And I can think of a couple others that I've seen on TV since Black Lives Matter movement has come up. Tori Smith of the Baltimore Ravens is someone that I think of. But again, these athletes have a voice. And just like us, they're citizens, too. They're Americans, too. Right. More importantly, a lot of them are black men. So I would be hard pressed to think that they're not going to say anything at this juncture.

Because now with everything going on and and what we've seen, not even they are safe. Got it. So I feel like they have an obligation to speak out. Davon, I'm going to howard davon real quick go ahead what i think the test is because when you think about like someone like muhammad ali he was willing to stand up to the american imperialist project of you know neocolonialism and he lost three of the the best years of his career because he was willing to stand up in that way i think as it relates to this issue, and I think one of your other panelists mentioned this, that the ability for the athletes currently to challenge the fraternal order of police, which is the formal organizational

political entity that a lot of these companies are afraid of, that is going to be the test. The extent to it, and again, your panelists mentioned that a lot of them will talk about their sympathies for George Floyd, but aren't really talking about the issues related to policing and the way they need to be challenged. So that's really going to be the test. Howard Bryan, we're showing a live video right now of protesters still in front of the White House. It is 30 minutes after the curfew. They ain't leaving. And Howard, just one of the, just the last point from you here. I just think this is different, Howard. I keep saying this and I'm telling you, I think people better get ready. This thing will not end after George Floyd's funeral on

Tuesday. No, it's not going to end that way. And I think you got to remember, we got a perfect storm happening here. Let's not forget, you're also dealing with three years of Donald Trump, three and a half years of Donald Trump. You're dealing with Charlottesville. You're dealing with with Colin, Colin Kaepernick, SOBs. You're dealing with a perfect storm. You're dealing with him not being there for the pandemic. And in a lot of ways, what's going to happen is that you're seeing you're seeing the George Floyd murder sort of be a springboard to the final, you know, the final fall of Donald Trump in a lot of ways, because when they're standing out in the street, they're essentially defying an order saying, look, the power of the people is greater than

your office. And we're going to see what they're going to do. Are you willing to actually send the military against 300 million Americans or however many are going to be out there. It is, again, it is just absolutely amazing to watch what is going on. And one of the things that also, and this could be the last question for Howard, I was out there a little bit earlier. And what you're seeing is you're seeing the black protest leaders reassert their authority over these protests and telling folks, no, we're not going to give them what they want by sitting here looting. And so I think that's the other deal. Apparently, there's also some evidence that the FBI has uncovered where white supremacist groups have been telling their people to go out there and get involved in these protests as well. That is happening as well. So a lot of moving pieces here, Howard.

And let's not forget part of those moving pieces is how much of this is being manipulated by foreign government, right? How much of this is, how much are we actually being manipulated here as we speak? There's no question when I thought watching what was taking place last week or last weekend, I was thinking that how much of this is actually coordinated and not that it matters too much. But I think it is important that you see that the black activists out there taking control of the movement that they believe is theirs. So when you see that taking place, you can certainly tell that those moving parts are colliding with each other. And like I said, I mean, I think you're right. This we are at a point right now where there are certain movements where things are different,

where they resonate in a way that they didn't before. And this is one of those flashpoints. Folks, get Howard's most recent book. Go to my iPad, please. Full Dissidence, Notes from an Uneven Playing Field by Howard Bryant. Howard, I appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

We'll see you later. Yes, sir. I've got to go to a quick break. We come back. We'll talk with actress Troy Byer about mental health. How do you sustain it during this moment? That's next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. You want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club.

Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. It's 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. Folks, earlier today I got a DM from a friend of mine, a longtime friend of mine,

asking about, just checking on me, asking about my mental state and all that's going on. I told him I'm good, everything is all right. I said, but the reality is that's not the case for a lot of people. A friend of mine out in L.A., I've sent her several texts over the last few weeks and wasn't getting back to me. And then finally she said, I've been going through depression and I don't know what to do. This has happened to lots of people. Not only do we have the impact of COVID-19, shutdowns across the country, unemployment rate being sky high.

Now you throw in what has happened with George Floyd and these protests all across the country. There are people who don't know really what is going on. In a second, we're going to have Troy Bowyer. She is a mind care expert. Many of you have seen her, of course, in various movies, such as The Five Heartbeats. And so great actress. But the real issue here that she's focusing on is getting people to focus on this. And that is their mental health.

Guys, let me know when we have her connected. That's a really important thing. Davon, I want you to speak to this because you were very much involved in the Freddie Gray protest there. And one of the things that people, a lot of young activists, have been discovering is that they were not dealing with their mental well-being, not realizing the trauma that they were having to endure of story after story after story of people being killed. That wears on you as an activist, no matter how young and how powerful you think you are? Davon? Yeah, there you go.

This actually dovetails with a conversation we had earlier about social media. There's a sister named Dr. Sophia Umoja Noble, who's actually wrote some studies about the negative mental health impacts of seeing constantly the images of Black people being killed or brutalized. And I think a part of the issue is that during the early stages of what's kind of broadly understood, you know, Black Lives Matter movement, I think what has happened is that there hadn't been enough attention put to the way that that impacts people psychologically, because I think generally we have been desensitized. And so I think we're now seeing a pivot where now there is more there's more attention paid to things like mindfulness and some of the other things that are necessary to make sure that people are well because I would argue that that's actually one of the things that there is most to learn from this current moment is that people need to do the work to make sure they're taking care of themselves and making sure you have people that have a track record of doing health and wellness that are professionals that can really ground the political work in a way where people can remain whole. All right. Troy Barra, you are an actress, you're a producer, you're a director, but also you're focusing on your initiative being a mind care expert.

Welcome back to Roller Martin Unfiltered. Thank you. It's good to be back. So let's talk about this. I mean, and you know, I was out out there earlier today and you've had people who've been in the streets since last Monday. You've got coronavirus. You've got a lot of the Black Lives Matter activists who've been going hard since the Trayvon Martin case. That was 2012. I've interviewed many of them and many of them have talked about how they've suffered breakdowns and gone through depression and just having a lot of difficulty. And one of the things that people don't talk about is that Dr. King suffered severe depression when they had that

march right before he was killed in Memphis. When the folks in the back of the parade, the young folks began to disrupt it, they literally grabbed Dr. King and threw him in a car or raced him into a nearby hotel and he got in the bed fully clothed, shoes on and just immediately went to

into a severe bout of depression. People don't talk about that aspect of dr king yeah right well because i think people want to see the king in the glorious light you know i think the important thing to always remember is what makes the person a leader not how but how courageous they are and how how often they're willing to go first and come back and teach people. People don't want to hear about the lesson. They just want to understand.

They want to glorify in the glory of God and not around the truth. And I love what Carl Jung said is, you know, you have to be a wounded healer in order to really be able to heal. And those of us who are leaders and who are willing to go first are willing to be wounded and that does include going to your cave and crying you have to go to the darkness in order uh we have some audio issues uh with Troy so guys go ahead and let me know when we have that completely cleared up she's breaking up there uh and so yeah so they're gonna they're gonna just tweak that so guys they're going to let me know. So we're going to come right back to you.

Robert, that point about taking care of what's here, people are inside, they're in the homes, they want to be able to do something. Now you're out there, now you're six feet apart from people and people are risking their lives with COVID-19 to protest right now, that's also wearing on them and their families. Look, I think that this is impacting everyone. I don't have a single black person in my life who

is okay, whether it's my mother having a breakdown because she called me and I'm about to go walk my dog and the sun is down, you know, to my father, who, you know, was born in Louisiana, grew up in. Turned eight, wasn't allowed to vote. You know, he, I spoke to him Sunday evening. I mean, he said that he felt he was watching the worst days of his life on replay and high definition. A lot of Americans are feeling that way. A lot of black people are feeling that way.

And so I think to our, you know, my panelist panelists earlier point, you know, if we end up seeing, you know, you know, the federal federalized, you know, armed forces, if we start seeing an 1807 act reenacted where, you know, we have tear gas being turned on people where this literally looks like a 1968 reenactment. I don't know what's going to happen, but I surely know that this nation will be torn asunder. I want to go back to Troy Beyer. Troy, go right ahead. What advice are you giving people? What do you want people who are watching, people who are out there protesting, what should they be doing to take care of what's between their ears? The most important thing is to regulate their stress right now. I am really, I can't emphasize that enough

because when we are stressed out, recreate cortisol, which is a hormone that actually compromises our immune system. Now, I'm not saying don't be upset, but regulate your stress. And one of the ways that I teach people to regulate your stress is to make sure that when you feel your heart rate elevated

and you feel, which is happening a lot right now, right? And when you feel yourself getting all worked up, you wanna stop and you wanna go from breathing through your nose in your head to breathing through your nose in your heart. I know it sounds crazy, but it works. It's definitely a biochemical response because what happens is when you

start breathing through your heart, you interrupt a cortisol surge and you create the DHEA hormone, which is the vitality hormone, and they both occupy the same receptor sites. So what we don't want, Roland, right now is people walking around surging with these enormous amounts of cortisol because what happens is when we are saturated with cortisol it disengages the frontal cortex of our brain which is responsible for logic and reason and it activates the reptilian part of our brain which is the fight or flight people start acting like animals so yes we have some business to handle right now but we want to handle this business from a place of being reasonable, a place of being logical, a place of being unmessable with.

And, you know, if you want to be unmessable with, you've got to have a clear mind. So the most I guess the best thing I could say, and I can't emphasize it enough, is please practice breathing through your heart. Now, even when you're not upset, if you breathe through your heart for every five minutes of DHEA that you're creating, it stays in your system for 12 hours. The same holds true for the cortisol. For every five minutes that you are surging cortisol, it stays in your system for 12 hours. That's why if you fight with your wife in the morning, you're still pissed off in the afternoon because you're still fuming. So you can fume with cortisol or you can fume with DHEA. It's your choice. I vote for the DHEA. While you're talking, just so folks, we're going to have the video playing. The protests continue here in Washington, D.C. Troy, these are people who are out here every day, every day, every day.

Yeah. And what do you tell them? Because, look, I tell people all the time Emmett Till was killed August 28th, 1956. Dr. King and others were on a 13 year journey. It never stopped. A lot of people who get involved in protests, it's a short-term thing, but then it turns into a lifelong obsession, and you got to be prepared, and you got to learn how to take breaks when you're involved in this. Well, I think if we continue to do the same thing, we're going to continue to have the same result. That's insanity, right? Doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for a different result.

I think protesting is necessary, absolutely, but I think there needs to be a shift in consciousness. I think it's okay to be upset, but I think when we start getting too angry, we don't produce results that are derived from a place of reason and logic. So I'm thinking, for me and the people that I work with, I say, be upset. But instead of being angry, attach that anger to an intentionality. Because upset is just an emotion that needs to be in motion. So you can let the modality for that emotion be anger or you can let it be intentionality. So I think we need to march for sure.

But I think we need to come together and form a united front and create a game plan and have an intention that we move forward with our upset in tow. Because anger is not going to produce a lot of results. I'm sorry. You're going to become a reptilian person. You're going to be functioning from your reptilian brain, and it's just not going to work. Question from Kelly. Hi.

Just by living in D.C. and dealing with everything that's going on, I am personally in the house, not just because of the show, but I'm not trying to be out there past the curfew. I do deal with anxiety and depression. I've been clinically diagnosed. And these past couple days have been hard for me to be fully transparent. Like I've lost count the number of panic attacks

and just overall shutdowns that I've had. Um, I do exercise a little bit, uh, that helps a lot, but any other, uh, tips for people, especially people working from home, um, that you feel like, uh, would be beneficial. Absolutely. So first of all, if you go to my website, mindologyfitness.com, I have free programs that are designed specifically to support you in dealing with your depression, your anxiety, your stress, your fears, and any other unwanted emotions you have. And all of my exercises are science-based and they're organic ways to heal yourself. We don't have to always take a pill to heal. In the meantime, Kelly,

I want you to start squeezing your ring finger, okay? This is the finger you want to squeeze if you're dealing with anxiety. There's a pressure point on this meridian that correlates with the emotion anxiety. And after squeezing it for about 30 seconds, what you're going to do is you're EASING IT FOR ABOUT 30 SECONDS, WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO DO IS YOU'RE GOING TO UNBLOCK THAT MERIDIAN AND ALLOW THAT EMOTION TO BE IN MOTION. BECAUSE IT'S THE STOPPED AND STUFFED EMOTION THAT CAUSES US DISEASE. OKAY? AND ASK FOR DEPRESSION, REMEMBER, DEPRESSION IS THE BYPRODUCT OF NOT HAVING A FUTURE WORTH LIVING INTO. THAT'S DEPRESSION. NOT HAVING A FUTURE WORTH LIVING INTO. future worth living into. That's depression. Not having a future worth living into. Anxiety is a

byproduct of the inability to control the outcome. So I want you to consider that what you have been considering abnormal is now a normal emotion to be experiencing. It's okay. We should all have a little depression. We should all have a little anxiety. These emotions are indicative of the times. That's okay. You just don't want them to have you. So you have to make sure you know how to self-regulate. You know, stay in touch with your emotions, your feelings. Like I had some depression today. I was like, wow, I'm feeling a little depressed. What's in my future? Oh, that. Okay. Let me squeeze a finger. Let me do one of these exercises and let me bring me back to me. And that's exactly what I did. Robert. And what's the name of your website again? Can you repeat that? Yeah. It's mindology fitness. M I N D O L O G Y fitness. It's a fitness program for the mind. Robert, you got a question? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, we've got a lot of people at home, like Kelly said, who are feeling sad, who are feeling down. You know, we talk about people who are engaged in the movement, you know, who are out there in the streets. But I think there are a lot of people who are really, you know, trying to go about their everyday lives. You've

got people who, again, have very real problems. They don't know where their next meal is coming from because they've lost their job because this COVID-19 crisis continues to impact the people who are the poorest. What do you think they should be focusing on to make sure that, again, they can maintain focus on those core concerns? Well, those are core concerns that are inevitable right now. And I think the only thing that we can actually be accountable for is our mental health, keeping our mind right. And that's meditating, that's prayer. I'm very big on prayer and very big on meditating and just finding that stillness within yourself because the chaos is out there and it's not going to go away. And the resistance, that's where the

suffering comes from. We resist the reality. So I invite everyone, don't resist the reality. Get powerfully related to reality. It is going down and it's going to be going down for a minute. Who are you going to be about that within yourself? So you want to find your time to go inside, pray, thank God for what's working in your life, vibrate at a frequency of gratitude. Let that be your attitude because if not, what's going to be in place of gratitude is fear. And when you start vibrating at a frequency of fear, here comes the stress, here comes the cortisol, there goes your immune system, and here comes dis-ease. Last question, Davon.

Davon? Davon there? Yep, I'm here. I'm sorry. Go ahead. What's your question? One of the things with the pandemic and the issues that have to do with, you know, things we're seeing in the news now, I imagine a lot of people, you know, people's diets have been impacted. And so I'm curious whether, you know, you have some thoughts on what are the ways that people's diets are impacted and what are some of the things people could do to address it? Well, I think for sure people are reaching for comfort food, right? Because they want,

they need comfort. They're reaching for the comfort food. And I think, you know, everything in moderation, if you need some comfort food to get you through the space, go, go for it. I think everything in moderation, for sure, make sure you take your vitamins. You want to make sure you're taking your vitamin C's and your zincs. And I've got a whole slew of stuff that I'm taking. So you want to do that. And also, I think it's important if you're going to indulge in comfort foods, you want to have some sort of a compensation for that behavior, which would include eating a healthy bowl of greens. Just balance. It's all about balance. We cannot afford to corner ourselves and make ourselves bad or wrong about anything right now

because the world is already doing that for us. We got to take care of ourselves in the best possible way. We have to be gentle with ourselves. If you want a ding-dong, eat a ding-dong. Make sure you eat a big salad afterwards. That's my answer to that, you know? You got to be good to yourself, really good to yourself right now. Troy, what's the website again?

Mindologyfitness.com. All right. Well, darling, always good to see you. We appreciate all your advice. Thank you so very much for joining us. Thank you for having me. All right. Thanks a lot.

Also want to thank Joseph, Davon, and Kelly as well for joining us as our panelists today. Thank you so very much, folks. Going to end the show this way. Well, I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Bakari Sellers of South Carolina, also a CNN contributor, talk about his new book, My Vanishing Country, a memoir. I think you're going to enjoy this conversation.

Don't forget, we also want you to support Roland Martin Unfiltered by joining our Bring the Funk fan club, going to using Cash App, PayPal as well, support the show. Alright, folks, here's my conversation with Bakari Sellers. Alright, Bakari Sellers, let's talk about your book, My Vanishing Country.

Why did you want to write this now? So, I'll have to be honest with you, Roland, I set out to write a political book and no one wanted to buy it. I got turned down by nearly 20, 30 publishers because many of my colleagues were writing these books about what it meant to be in the state of Donald Trump. But no one wanted that book from my perspective. And so Tracy Sherrod, who's over the imprint at HarperCollins, Amistad imprint at HarperCollins, sat me down one day and asked me about my story.

Judith Kerr and Patrick Baz gave me an opportunity. The unique thing about this book, though, is that it's evergreen. You know, we're going to be talking about systemic injustices and systemic racism for a very long period of time until we finally address it and have those necessary conversations. And so although I'm only 35 years old, my life has been booked in by tragedy. You see the ups and downs and the trauma in my vanishing country, which is out now. Well, one of the things that we're dealing with, I keep talking about this here, is that we're operating in a space where white folks cannot handle the changing America. Here we are right now, 23 years away from a nation being a majority of people of color.

And that really is what's driving, I think, all of this. When Meghan McCain the other day talked about Obama ushering in the culture wars, I was like, what the hell are you talking about? That happened long before. And so it just made no sense whatsoever. But to me, that's really what's driving where we are today. Well, I think that's a lot of it. It's this fear. I think it's an irrational fear, but this fear people have of, quote unquote, being replaced. But this isn't necessarily new. I mean, many of the things that I highlight is, for example, the lack of giving people the benefit of their humanity. That's not new. I mean, it dates back to Jimmy Lee Dax and Medgar Evers, the 16th Street Baptist Church.

You fast forward, we have Breonna Taylor, we have Walter Scott, we have Ahmaud Arbery. And so when you think about these things, I believe this trauma is not new. However, the political overlay and what Stephen Miller and Donald Trump are definitely afraid of, you're absolutely correct. The browning of America because we're starting to see Georgia, we're starting to see Arizona, even Texas. We're starting to see these places and throughout the rural South become browner day by day. And people are terrified. I think it's a rational and irrational fear, but nevertheless a fear. Well, I think that, again, what we're talking about here is an America that was an America for whiteness.

It was an America that was all about that. And so now this unease, which I think with Donald Trump, zero ends on, the whole issue of undocumented workers and immigration. And so when you hear these phrases, American values and morals and how all these things are changing, what they're really saying is the way white people have seen America is changing because they now have to, they have no choice but to take into account what we think because we ain't going nowhere. Well, that's what we hope they do. And—and they don't look—and there is a question about a level of empathy or compassion for our neighbor. And there are questions about the humanity that many people do not afford us.

And you're right. And I think that what they see and what many folks see is political power slipping away from them. And Donald Trump, whether or not he's calling Kaepernick a son of a bitch or whether or not he is stoking these cultural wars, whether or not he's talking about Haiti, people of color, et cetera, et cetera, these are battles that he believes are the way that he can win. And that's an unfortunate commentary, and it actually proved to be true in 2016. I'm not sure it's going to be true in 2020, but I'm afraid that, you know, I'm afraid of the answer. I dare not give my political opinion on that because I'm the same person who told you Hillary Clinton would be president of the United States.

Yeah, well, the reality is, if you look at the numbers, Hillary Clinton—but here's the piece, though. This is why I keep reminding people, and that is, did Hillary Clinton get more votes? Absolutely. Were there some huge mistakes on her campaign part, absolutely. But the only way it happened, the only way Donald Trump won is because the Republican Party instituted a massive voter suppression campaign in these critical states. And so that's what, unfortunately, not enough Democrats were understanding that. Those of us were yelling, hey, this thing is coming, this thing is coming. But it's still also, I think, dovetail into what's going on.

You look at now that the Republican Party no longer has this agreement to basically not be involved in these campaigns. So what do they plan on doing? Dropping 50,000 poll watchers. And look, they're going to be looking at black and brown people because they see us as a threat. Black and brown people are a threat to not all white people, but white way of life because we are changing the face of this country. And the deal is they can't do anything

about it except slow it down. Well, that's true because it is coming. And I think that they're starting to see those demographic shifts. And when you look in places like Georgia and Arizona, I think Stacey Abrams actually beating Governor Kemp is one of the larger phenomenons that many people are just trying to turn the page on, but it's a fact. And many people are struggling with that. And you're right. Voter suppression, I think that there is, since the age of Lester Maddox, the person who probably has been the worst when it comes to, or best from their perspective of voter suppression was Scott Walker in Wisconsin. The things that he did, the voter rolls, the suppression, the limiting absentee ballots is what cost Hillary Clinton that race.

And you're absolutely correct that if we don't if we don't have our eyes open, it will happen again. But one of the things that I also I think is important is that we have to be extremely hardcore and brutally honest, I think, with black people. Stacey Abrams sent a tweet out today where she talked about 900,000. She lost by 211,000 votes, whatever the number was. 900,000 eligible but unregistered black folks in Atlanta area alone did not vote. Yeah. I mean, listen, there are there are, you know, 12 million people who voted. And that was 2016, I'm sorry, when Trump ran.

And so that's what happened there. But there are a number of the same way in South Carolina. The number of black people who could change an election but who eligible but not registered. I mean, just think about the number of people who voted in 2012 but didn't vote in 2016. I mean, think about that drop off as well. And over a third of those are African-American. And if you can get those people to come, if you can get those people to show up in 2020, you'll have an opportunity to win. But, yeah, I mean, we have to talk about this truth that black folk got to get registered and black folk have to show up at the polls,

which is why I hope Joe Biden and the DNC do a great job of getting black people involved and mobilized, not just taking that vote for granted. Black vote super voters are going to vote. The question is, are you going to get those super voters to work for you, do phone trees for you, have links in Jack and Jill meetings, get the Divine Nine activated, have your black churches activated? That's what it's going to take to beat this albatross, which is called Donald Trump. You served in legislature there in South Carolina. Now you're not. Do you regret stepping out of politics? No, no, no, no. I learned some valuable lessons. I learned that I was nowhere near as important as I thought I was. I'm able to learn how to be a good husband and a good father. I'm

going back into politics as soon as that time is right. I'm hopefully running for United States Congress in that sixth congressional district currently occupied by our good friend, Jim Clyburn. So that's my goal. That's my trajectory. And so, no, no, no, I'm not. I ran for lieutenant governor in 2014 before there was a Stacey Abrams and before there was an Andrew Gillum.

I was trying to chip away at that glass before there was a Jamie Harrison, which I hope can shatter that glass. We got 42 percent of the vote and we chipped that glass and it didn't shatter. And hopefully we set the table for others to come behind and do that. Now, when you talk about that, I mean, look at how Harrison is running against Lindsey Graham. You look at the fact that, I mean, look, normally in South Carolina, it's it's it's a-in for a Republican to win. Granted, we're talking about early polls. But I do believe that what Donald Trump has also done, he has exposed the hypocrisy of Republicans who have no integrity, no morals, no values, no principles. And I think people are now responding to that.

So it's a little hard now to try to run on morals, values, and principles when that's the guy who you've given your soul over to. And I think that, and I'm not the person who has the audacity to talk about this. You'll have to have another guest on to talk about this. But what we're starting to see is white people, and college-educated white women in particular, flee the Republican Party. We saw that in 2018. We saw that actually in our Democratic primary. For the first time in a very long period of time, the Democratic primary in South Carolina

back in January or February 3rd, excuse me, was 50-50. It was 50 percent white, 50 percent black. It's usually 61 percent, 62 percent African-50. It was 50% white, 50% black. It's usually 61%, 62% African-American. It wasn't the case then because there were so many voters who were tired of Donald Trump, who wanted to play a role in the Democratic primary process. Those white voters voted for Joe Biden. And so I think especially in these suburban areas in Pennsylvania and a lot of these swing states, Virginia, et cetera, you're going to see a lot of white college-educated women come back to the Democratic Party. Well, and bottom line is when we talk about the notion

of educated versus uneducated, I think the numbers bear out, even those who support Donald Trump. The thing I still think that is important, though, is that Democrats bet not make this mistake. They bet not just all of a sudden do a tilt to the suburban educated voters and ignore your hardcore base.

Because if your hardcore base don't turn out, it don't matter what they do in the suburbs. I write about that. I mean, for far too long, the Democrats and Republicans alike think that rural working class means white folk. And they need to start talking to the base. And they need to start talking to the base. And they have to start talking to black men.

See, what happens with black men, not only do you have that level of misogyny that creeped in in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, but you also had a message void. And because no one else was talking to black men, no matter how asinine and ignorant Donald Trump's message was, he was the only person having discussions with black male voters. We have to fix that disco around and at least message for black vote, black male voters so that they don't choose. A lot of them didn't choose Hillary or Donald Trump. A lot of them chose the couch and we have to make sure that we give them a better option this time. Yeah. I mean, that was a nine point gap between

black men and black women who voted for Obama over Romney in 2012. And number was 13 points with Trump over Hillary Clinton, the white house. I mean, they've told me point blank, they think that they can get 15 to 18 as much as 20% of the black male vote. That's why they're targeting that. But I still think to your point about rural voters. I mean, the reality is media plays a role in that too. And that is every time you see or hear this idea of the heartland, the heartland, the heartland,

I keep trying to tell these white folks in media, which is also part of the problem, because you've got too many white executives. You have C-suites in media that looks like corporate America in the sense that we're nonexistent. Oh, sure, having black people on the air is one thing, and executive suites is another thing. And part of the problem is that we have the messaging. When they say, oh, the middle of the country. Oh, let's see. The middle of the country is Missouri.

You think St. Louis doesn't exist? The middle of the country is Illinois. Chicago doesn't exist. The middle of the country is Minnesota. What? Minneapolis, St. Paul doesn't exist. It's black people in all these places. But the messaging that goes out when they throw those

phrases out, what they're really saying are white people. Yes. And we and one of the things that I wanted to do in my vanishing country is give a voice to all of these people who have they're not voiceless, but they just have gone unheard. And it's as if a whole segment of the population doesn't exist in our political discourse. And we and don And don't just leave it in C-suites and don't leave it with the Republican Party. This is a Democratic problem as well, who simply believe that these folk are represented and are white Americans. No, there are working class black folk every day. There are rural black folk every day. And we have to start tackling those injustices, many of which we see, unfortunately, throughout this pandemic.

You know, we've ripped the Band-Aid off this ugly head of racism in this country. And if you can't see the systemic injustices now, you're just blind to that fact or willfully ignorant. Well, I think I look at the hillbilly elegy, a perfect example. I mean, that that whole thing was, oh, my goodness, he's writing about all these white people. And I'm going, you know, there are black people who are in rural Georgia. There are black people in rural Tennessee, rural Mississippi, rural Alabama, rural Florida, rural South Carolina, rural North Carolina. And so what ends up happening is it sets up this conversation of Republicans go after rural voters, meaning white. Democrats go after urban voters, meaning white. Democrats go after urban voters, meaning black. And then

going, no, no, I need to appeal to folks who are in a city and rule, whether you're Republican or Democrat. And again, media falls right into the trap because the face is who they put out there. Look, when Trump was talking about saving those jobs with Kerry, which was a lie, when he first came in, 50% of those carrier workers were black people. Yes. Yes. I know. And we have to begin to give those people a voice and lift those people up, which is why I'm coming and talking to you about my vanishing country, because we have to utilize the platforms that we have in order to make sure these people have voices and messaging. Because to get to the gist of it, Roland, I have 16-month-old twins.

You probably hear them running around in the background, so I apologize. But those 16-month-old twins don't deserve to grow up in a country where Donald Trump is president of the United States. They don't deserve that. And so what we have to do is make sure that we're activating our base, that we're doing the things necessary. And we have to overcome—I mean, we're just going to have to overcome and struggle through and fight through.

The voter suppression is going to be there. And the only way we can do that is if we pay attention to the base of the party, if we pay attention to black women, give them more than just a head nod and a thank you, actually give them a seat at the table. And also the same with black men, making sure we message for them. That's the only way that this is going to work. If not, we're going to be sitting at home in January, on a cold January, probably wet day in D.C., watching Donald Trump get sworn in for another four years. I think one of the things that you lay out again is the tale of two worlds. I go

back to the Colonel Commission report, 1968. There's America, one white, one black. And that continue, I don't care what anybody says. I don't care what anybody, you can show me all of these polls and everything. The reality is this here, black people simply see this country different from white people. And if you don't take that into account, then you fail to understand how to talk to Black people. And so you go through that when you talk about whether going to Morehouse, when you talk about going with South Carolina, all of that. Look, we just see this country differently. Not only do we see it differently, but we experience different traumas. Now, my trauma may not be your trauma, but you have to understand and empathize with my trauma. That's the only way we can persevere.

When you think about the post post-traumatic slave syndrome, when you think about, you know, somebody like myself, who whose father went to prison, whose father was shot, having a felony for nearly 20 years after you were arrested and shot for protesting segregation, where all the officers were found not guilty. You think about that trauma. You think about somebody like myself, who, when I talked about this in the book, my wife almost died giving childbirth. This is something that African-American women deal with on a daily basis. They're four times more likely to die than their peers. You think about Clemente Pinckney, who was a friend of mine who had a Bible study and allowed what black folk do, show that level of compassion, had a white boy walk in that church they didn't even know from Adam, sat down beside him for the whole service. And after an hour, when they bent over to pray, he opened fire with a nine millimeter. And so when you think about all of this trauma, that is the experience of being black in this

country. And when people read this book, Roland, i want black folk to have a sense of pride and i want white folk who read it to get a sense of understanding and so that way we can have these difficult conversations about race but we have where we're gonna heal but can white people understand dr king talked about this talked about this in his book chaos or community can white people have an understanding as long as they are in denial about the role that they, as well as their ancestors, have played? See, I think part of the issue here, you talked about being 35, what you've seen in your years. I think part of the biggest problem here is that too many white Americans want to isolate where we are. And I'm going to use Meghan McCain as an example. They want to isolate the world to only the years in which they've been living.

And I think you cannot, and you talked about COVID, you cannot talk about coronavirus and who it is hitting unless you deal with the centuries that come beforehand. And I think that seems to be the greatest struggle in this country, getting white people to move beyond the years they've been alive. So I think you can have understanding. I think what you're talking about is atonement, and I don't think they can get to the level of atonement. You know what? I ain't even asking for atonement. How about you just read?

How about you actually go, oh damn, that actually happened. I'm giving you something to read. That's what I'm trying to do. So they can start. I think that's the start. But, you know, we live in a country now where people only seek out opinions. They reinforce their own.

We live in silos. And we have to chip away at that. So it doesn't matter what there is out there to read. I mean, if someone like Omega McCain is only watching herself in Fox News and on Facebook groups that reinforce that very nature, that is what's going to happen. So we have to begin to break out of that cycle. And I can't make people break out of that cycle. But what we can do is for those who do, those messengers who do provide them with resources to take back to their respective communities. Also, I think we have to be, I think part of, I think part of our job also,

and I've been doing media since I was 14 years old. I mean, this is, this is what I chose to do to be a journalist. This is also where we have to be as honest and hardcore about it as well. I think one of the biggest things that we have done is that, and it's actually been a result of white supremacy, is that we've always had to take into account their feelings. And so we sort of couch things in a certain way. I just think we're at a point now where we're generating people who are like, you know what, damn your feelings. This just needs to be said the way it needs to be said. And if your feelings get hurt, well then suck it up.

But at some point it has to be said because we try the other way of just being nice about it and let me qualify this. You know, I don't mean disrespect. I don't mean all sort of stuff where it's like, no, no, no. We just got to go ahead and say some stuff. And you know what? People respect you more for being unapologetically black and unapologetically you.

And I have a sit down with T.D. Jakes coming out. And T.D. Jakes is a spiritual father for me. He calls me at 1145 at night. We talk. I love. Jakes coming out and T.D. Jakes is a spiritual father for me. He calls me at 1145 at night. We talk. I love Bishop Jakes. He gets me through a lot of moments when I'm down. And he brought up a good point. He said, you can teach us calculus. You can teach us German. You can teach us English. You know, you can teach us science, but you can't teach us blackness. And there comes a point in time when, you know, we have to speak our truth and be unapologetic about it. And I promise you, Roland, every day that I'm on TV, that's what I'm doing.

Every platform that I have, that's what I'm doing. In this book, that's what I'm doing. And so there are some hard truths that people are going to have to realize because I'm just pushing and challenging not only ourselves, but I'm challenging this country to be a more perfect union. And that, I think, is the only way that we can live. Those people who want to kowtow and tiptoe around issues, I don't have the bandwidth or the time. I need somebody who's going to be honest and not give, you know, not really care about my feelings.

You know, you spoke of Emmanuel AME, and one of the things that just drove me crazy out of that was all we heard was, oh, my goodness, just look at the forgiveness of the people. Just the forgiveness. Look, you know what? One of the things I do appreciate was what's happening after Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. Folks are like, you know what? We ain't about to have that conversation.

Now, I'm a Christian. I totally understand that. And I'm not dissing anyone who did it. The problem for me is that when tragedy happens, when these traumatic situations happen to black people, white America wants us to immediately move to forgiveness. Yes. They still piss with 9-11. They still piss with the embassy getting overthrown in Tehran in 1979. Rightfully so. And that's and you know that the amazing part about this discussion is that black folk are always put in a position where we have to forgive. There never has to be any atonement, but we're just supposed to forgive. And, you know, my generation ain't about that. And to be completely honest, there was a certain element of my dad's generation.

My dad was a member of SNCC. The boys weren't forgiven either. Marion Berry, Julian Bond, Stokely, James Foreman, them boys weren't forgiven either. Black Panthers were not forgiving either. Even we have whitewashed the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. He was a radical revolutionary and he wasn't as forgiving either. A good Christian man, a great Baptist minister. But he believed that forgiveness required some exchange. And I'm with you. In my book, I talk about my friend Malcolm Graham, whose sister Cynthia Heard was murdered in the church. And we have conversations all the time about how other people forgave. And I'm simply not that far along on my Christian journey where I was able to forgive Dylan Roof for taking away Clemente from his family, his daughters, that church, that community. And I'm selfish in that, I know.

And I have to let that go. I'm just not there yet. eyes perspective on Dylan Roof and the Confederate flag. You get a lot of heat from folks on social media for, I won't say defending her, but offering a perspective. When I remember, she was at the NBA All-Star game and was on a panel and made some comments there as well. And I was sitting there seething because what bothered me was this whole deal of how she worked to bring the flag down. And the reason I am still bothered by that is because Black blood brought the flag down. And we checked Nikki Haley on that often. I think

she knows we will because she knows the value of those lives that were lost. And the irony about that, Roland, in a much larger perspective, is that any ounce of political change we've ever had in this country, any time black folks ever— It was black blood. Has been black blood. Right. So that's first. The second thing, though, is that Nikki Haley had to display some ounce of courage in order to get that flag down politically. Now, I think she takes a great deal of credit for that.

But that flag still had to come down even after that blood was shed. And those phone calls that she made, that flag, to be completely honest with you, it goes back. And this is more inside baseball than people want to know. But if Jim DeMint had not retired and Nikki Haley had not appointed tim scott that flag would have never come down if those senators were lindsey graham and jim dement that flag would still be there today trust me on that um and there was some there was some fortune and there was some fortitude um to get that down there was still you know there was an all-night debate about that flag there were still votes against taking that flag down.

Oh, yeah. But I just think that, again, for me, for me, when I hand out courage awards, I hand them out when you did it in the face of opposition, but worry it not. And this is the thing for me, and I can go down

in our history, so many things. If Black Blood, look, we go down in our history so many things. If black blood, look, we talk about the Fair Housing Act of 1968. But everybody forgets. King gets, that thing was filibustered for three years, almost three years. King gets, it was filibustered, it was broken in the Senate. It was still filibustered in the House. King gets killed on April 4th.

LBJ says the House next day saying, let's honor Dr. King and his life's work by finally passing this bill. It's signed to law nine days later. That bill only gets signed because King is murdered. Yeah. I mean, there's no doubt. I mean, the flag doesn't come down if nine people don't die. I totally, we're speaking the same language. I'm just talking about the perspective of your politics. There had to be somebody to do that.

And all the white. Nope. None of the white boys took the lead on that. The attorney general couldn't be found. The lieutenant governor couldn't be found. The speaker of the House was there. He on. So somebody had to take the leadership role. And I'm not saying she deserves a holiday. I'm just acknowledging what I knew to be the reality of the time. But I do give that black blood is something that

it doesn't come out of the soil of our great state. And the reason I'm bringing that up, because I think when you talk about, you know, acknowledging and owning up to where we are and where we're trying to go, I think what black people are constantly saying to white America is don't wait for us to die to do what's right. Amen. We can we can just take up an offering and go home on this one because that is it. That that that is the point that it does.

It should not take our death, even our deaths on camera, for you to do what's right, for you to have outrage, for you to have some type of empathy or compassion, for you to have understanding. We shouldn't have to be lynched on camera. We shouldn't have to be shot in churches. We shouldn't have to be shot in the back by law enforcement. And thank God somebody was videotaping that. And so my vanishing country goes through all of those things. We shouldn't have to live in food deserts. We shouldn't have to go to school in corridors of shame. We shouldn't have to live in states that didn't expand Medicaid. So hospitals are closing.

We shouldn't have to drink dirty water or breathe dirty air. This is the condition and plight and the trauma of being black in this country. And we should not have to do that thing. These things, I should not have to beg for dignity from this country. And so my vanishing country is a love story, but it's also a fist in the air saying, I'm tired of begging for this, watching my country vanish. These are the things I want. And at the end of the day, I want my children to be free. I want to talk about just a couple of more questions. And obviously you were living right now in a moment where you have somebody who occupies the White House. I do not call him president because he doesn't respect the office of president, but he simply occupies the office of president.

And in your book, you write about, of course, getting that phone call where Obama sought your endorsement. consistently hear from a lot of folks is that there was eight years of Obama and what really, how did black people really benefit? Your thoughts on that when you hear that? So you won't find a bigger, you won't find a bigger proponent of 44 than myself. I'm a huge cheerleader, huge fan of 44. I do, I am very critical on a couple of things. One, I'm very critical on his stance in Syria. If you draw a red line, you better keep your red line. And the other thing is I think he failed HBCUs. And I say that with a heavy heart. I think that HBCUs are faring a lot worse under Donald Trump, but I think they could have fared better under Barack Obama if he had that cultural understanding of the value and necessity of HBCUs.

And I just think it was culturally something he was not able to fathom or comprehend or necessarily give as much to as he could have or should have. I think when people qualify or quantify, Barack Obama's meaning is something that doesn't necessarily come down in how many pieces of legislation was passed. I think Barack Obama's meaning actually can be deduced from that picture of Jacob Philadelphia, who is a young black man in his office, this casket sharp with the white shirt on and black slacks. And he asked Barack Obama, how does his hair feel? Does your hair feel like mine? And Barack Obama leans over and Jacob

reaches up. I think that encapsulates his meaning. Policy-wise, the headwinds and the lack of talent that we—Barack Obama, for the latter part of his tenure in D.C., was like Michael Jordan from 84 to 1990, where—and I guess in this scenario, Mitch McConnell's probably the Detroit Pistons. He didn't have much help. Every midterm, 2010 and 2014, we didn't send him a Congress to help him. And so no matter how talented he was, he wasn't able to overcome those things. And so that is the way that I look at it. I think people discount the headwinds that he faced. There was a meeting on the, Kerry Washington, Usher.

And then with Senator Obama, Usher didn't know what to say. And you said, just mention God and praise black women. It's so like the comedian who's struggling on stage when he went, boy, look at the fine ladies in the house. I mean, at the end of the day, you can use that line anytime. I gave it to, I thought I was funny by then because we had been chilling with Chris Tucker for a long time and he is hilarious. And we went out there and the first things

that Usher said was, praise God, I love all the beautiful black women. And you should have seen our faces. We were all like, oh no, we were just joking. We were just joking, Usher. But it was a great moment. Me, Usher, Chris Tucker, Kerry Washington with Barack Obama.

It is a picture that people do not believe until I show it to them. And a little Orangeburg, South Carolina, Roland. Orangeburg, South Carolina. Well, that was quite interesting. But again, the line always works. I mean, at the end of the day, that's all you got to do. I mean, if you struggling, just pivot.

Pivot. Praise God. I love all the beautiful black women here. Crowd goes crazy. That's all you got to do. That's all you got to do. That's how you got to do. Last question for you. I ask all authors this, even people who write books, memoirs or biographies about themselves,

and that is there's always a wow moment when somebody is either doing research, when they're writing, when they remember something, and then they go, wow, I completely forgot about that. So what was your wow moment in writing this book? It was the most powerful line in the book, I believe. And, you know, when I saw there are two wild moments, the first wild moment was just overcoming and coming through. I write in the afterward about my daughter, Sadie, getting a transplant. I had already finished the book and Sadie received her transplant September

1st. And so that was a when you read it and look back at it, that was a wow, we overcame this. But a wow moment in terms of just thinking back on the stories and the legacy of my father. My father used to always tell us this. He used to always say, heroes walk among us. Because my father didn't want me to just believe that it was Martin Malcolm Rosa and John Lewis.

My father really wanted us to pay tribute with our lives to Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hamer. He wanted me to love and respect and adore Marion Barry and Julian Bond, which I did. And so heroes walk among us. For me, when I put it on paper, I was like, wow, my dad is really dope. My mom is amazing. And I have to carry that torch. I thought that last question, this is the last question.

Dude, do Amazon not deliver clippers? What's up with the Jesus and his disciple look? First of all, I am looking like a sexy Pendergrass. No, no, no. You're looking like one of his disciples. And you ain't got a hoodie on. I think you got a tunic on. And you probably got some sandals with a staff.

What's up? I'm just getting in touch with myself. I shaped it up for you, though, Roland. I shaped it up. You shaped it up? I'm looking handsome. I want you to know that that your female viewers are really enjoying this new look on myself i'm just telling

you oh they are oh okay okay all right okay just all right just checking i'm but i'm just saying amazon still delivers i mean prime delivers in 24 48. Can I say something to you? Can I just say thank you, man? Because, you know, coming on Black Platforms is something that I wanted to be intentional about and purposeful about in promoting this book. And you didn't have to say yes, but you did. And I am forever indebted and forever grateful. And I didn't want to leave. And do not cut this out. I want your viewers to all see that. I just want to say thank you for the example you set and everything you do. I appreciate it. Folks,

the book is My Vanishing Country, a memoir by Bakari Sellers. And y'all notice he didn't put his disciples look on the cover. He chose to go with the kid look. And so if you're going to try to sell a book, two things, either you put a woman on it or you put a kid. So the only thing he's going to sell more copies of is if he put a picture with him and his mama on the cover in order to sell books. I'm just saying. I mean, don't think for a second. I don't know what the deal is, especially since you're trying to claim sexy pendergrass. I don't even – I can't get the words out of my mouth.

Bakari Sellers, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, brother. Have a great day. All right, take care. 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.

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