#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Banks fight $4B Black farmer debt relief; Lightfoot & Black media; Cop's racist texts revealed

Episode Date: May 22, 2021

5.21.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Banks fight $4B Black farmer debt relief; Ex-cops face assault charges for their role in arresting a 73-year-old woman with dementia; Family of Atatiana Jefferson files a wrongful death lawsuit against the cop who killed her; Chicago Mayor Lightfoot to ONLY talk with Black media; Cop's racist texts about St. Louis DA Kim Gardner revealed; Judge tried to hit several BLM protesters with his SUV + We'll breakdown the State of HBCUsSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Martin! Today's Friday, May 21st, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. What the hell is going on when it comes to banks fighting black farmers who've been discriminated against? With loans? I talked with the agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, about that. Also, folks, in Colorado, former Loveland police officers face assault charges for their role in arresting a 73-year-old woman with dementia. In Texas, the family of Aniata Jefferson is filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the cop who killed her. In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot says she'll only talk with black and brown media reporters. While a fraternal order

of police issued a unanimous vote of no confidence against her and the black police chief. In St. Louis, racist text messages about D.A. Kim Gardner sent by a cop have been uncovered. Keep telling you about the racism in St. Louis. Plus, in our Education Matters segment, we'll talk about the state of HBCUs with Civil Rights Attorney Alvin Chambliss. He's the one who led the HBCU,

the successful HBCU lawsuit in the state of Mississippi. It is time to bring the funk on Rolling Mark Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the biz, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling.

Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks, he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's on go, go, go, y'all. It's rolling, Martin. Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best, you know he's rolling, Martin.

Martin. The Department of Agriculture is clearing the way for nearly 13,000 black and other minority farmers to see thousands of dollars in loan forgiveness beginning next month. Nearly $5 billion in the American Rescue Plan is allocated for debt relief for disadvantaged farmers of color in hopes of remedying centuries of government discrimination. But the relief plan for disadvantaged farmers, touted by Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock has been delayed for months. Today, the USDA began notifying eligible applicants that the money is now available. The new program aimed at repairing the department's discriminatory legacy faces backlash from white farmers who are suing the USDA to stop it. They're claiming it's reverse discrimination.

Y'all, seriously, seriously? Today, I spoke with the agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, about the program, about the lawsuit, and also about his tumultuous relationship with the National Black Farmers Association. Here's our conversation. Secretary Vilsack, glad to have you on Roland Martin Unfiltered. We talked when you were Secretary of Agriculture under President Barack Obama on my old show, so glad to have you back. Nice to be back with you. Like the T-shirt. Well, I started this segment called Where's Our Money?

A few years ago, I spoke to a group in Cincinnati, and I was a keynote speaker. Then a whole initiative where they were focused on economic inclusion, economic apartheid, building financial freedom for African Americans. And so we created this segment, and this ongoing battle with Black farmers has been a part of that. Five billion dollars was in the American Rescue Plan, and it's not solely for black farmers. So explain to us exactly where that is. I know there's a lawsuit. Has any money been dispersed? Exactly what is going on with that particular five billion dollar allocation? Next week, the Federal Registry will contain a notice of funds availability which is a technical term indicating that we've received permission from the office of management and budget to begin the

process of paying off the debts of socially disadvantaged farmers these are farmers who have been discriminated against based on ethnicity and race so defined by a 1990 piece of legislation. What we're going to do now, a letter is going to go out to each farmer who has a direct loan with the United States Department of Agriculture. These are farmers that borrowed money from the USDA either to purchase a farm, to operate a farm, or to have farm storage facilities built and constructed. These letters will go out and they will essentially say, we have calculated the amount of your outstanding balance, principal, interest, and fees. This is what we calculate the debt to be. We're going to pay that debt off. And if you agree with this

amount, we will also ask that you sign a copy of the letter, return it to USDA, and when you do, we will send you a check for 20% of the amount of the outstanding balance of the loan. Now, the reason we're sending that 20%, Roland, is because these farmers, once the debts are paid off, will have a tax responsibility, a liability, and the 20% is designed to help them pay that tax. We're focusing on direct borrowers initially because they represent roughly 85 percent of the entire borrowers that are affected by this piece of legislation. The other borrowers are called guaranteed borrowers. These are people that went out, borrowed money from a bank, and we at USDA guaranteed the loan. A little more complicated because you got a bank involved. We're asking banks to give us

understanding of what the prepayment penalties are so we can include those in the payment to the bank so that the farmer is not responsible for paying off any prepayment penalty. And then we'll obviously get them the 20% as well. One other aspect of this is we're going to provide assistance to farmers so that they understand about this tax circumstance and situation. If they're still farming, it's an opportunity for them to average their income over a three-year period and lower the tax liability. They may need technical assistance, so we're going to encourage them to talk to their accountant or their tax preparer, or if they don't have one, to provide information about where they might be able to reach out to a community building organization that will assist them with that advice how do you how do you respond to um a group of white farmers who filed

this lawsuit who say oh this is unfair this is reverse discrimination in fact senator tim scott the only black republican united states senator went on to face the nation and criticized this inclusion as if he didn't understand the years of Agriculture operated to exclude and to prevent or to limit access to programs for black farmers and socially disadvantaged farmers. So for a period of 100 years, things have been skewed against these socially disadvantaged producers. And the result is a gap has existed between those producers and white producers who had the full array of benefits at USDA. What is that gap? Well, white producers were able to grow their farms. They were able to increase the size of their farms, be able to purchase more, better equipment, put their crop in the ground in a more timely way so their yields were greater. How does that impact and affect things today?

Well, it creates a gap between those who had full access and those who didn't. How do I know there's a gap? Well, when we did COVID relief and we made payments to farmers, about 25% of those farmers were self-identified as either white those farmers, Roland, self-identified as either white, black, Hispanic, whatever. Of that 25% universe, white farmers received $5.5 billion of relief. Black farmers received $20 million of relief. Wow. It's a significant gap there, right? So this program isn't taking anything away

from anyone. It's simply providing a resource to begin a first step in closing that gap. The second step is to take the additional resources from the American Rescue Plan and begin a process of figuring out how better to provide technical assistance to socially disadvantaged producers so they access more programs at USDA, filling that gap in. How do we provide more market access, create market opportunities for these farmers so that they actually have a profitable venture? That closes the gap. And how do we also address the issue of land access so they are able to grow their farms over time? Now, part of that is the heirs' property issue, as you know. The title to farms can sometimes be difficult based on the fact that many Black farmers didn't have wills,

and so over a period of time, their land became fractionally owned by a lot of folks. Well, we're now going to set up a process where we'll allow folks to clear the title, if you will, of that land, which will also make more programs available to folks. So the whole goal here is to try to begin the process over time to fill the gap and to make sure that USDA is a department that's available to all producers, not just a select few. I would also say what's important to say to Senator Tim Scott and these white farmers who are complaining. Also, you have white nationalist Stephen Miller, who's also whining on Fox News about this, is that these white farmers have benefited billions of dollars from taxpayer money.

Black folks also pay taxes. Black folks have been investing in this. And so this whole notion that somehow black farmers are getting a leg up, the numbers don't lie. No, no, there's no question about this. And it's important for folks to understand. In the past, there have been specific acts designed to compensate individual farmers for specific acts of discrimination that were directed at them personally. The Pigford cases, for example, the Keepsiegel case for Native Americans, the Hispanic Garcia and Love cases for Hispanic and women farmers. But in this circumstance, this situation is not about individually compensating individual farmers for discrimination. It's about a reflection that as a group, Black farmers, Hispanic farmers, Native American farmers, men and women both, have been discriminated against over a period of time.

And their capacity to access programs at USDA has been limited. And because of that, over a period of time, as a group, they've had fewer opportunities to expand, fewer opportunities to be profitable. And so this is really designed to respond to the cumulative effect of discrimination as opposed to a specific act of discrimination. And I think it's reflected in the COVID money, $5.5 billion versus $20 billion. I mean, it's pretty clear here that the system is designed and set up to benefit those who have large farms and those who have significant yields. Well, who are those people? Most often they are white farmers. New York Times reported this, that you have these three banking groups,

the American Bankers Association, the Independent Community Bankers of America, and the National Rural Lenders Association, complaining that this program is going to cause folks to pay off their debts early is going to hurt them. I mean, I mean, geez, I mean, black farmers, we've seen a dramatic decrease in the land of black farmers. We've seen what they had to deal with. And now you've got these banking groups whining about them getting relief. Well, here's what's really interesting about this. Banks, as you know, put into the contract, into the loan, a prepayment penalty. It basically says, look, if you're going to pay us off early, you're going to have to pay us more money. You're going to have to pay us 3%

of the loan or 4% or 5%. That prepayment penalty is calculated by banks to make up whatever theoretical loss they may incur by having the loan paid off early. And number one, we're going to pay the prepayment penalty. We meaning the USDA. Farmers are not going to pay it. The USDA is going to pay it. So banks are going to get that three additional three percent or five percent. Plus, they get to loan. They obviously get to loan the money back out again.

And they may be able to loan it at a higher interest rate, which means they'll probably make more money. And then finally, with any outstanding loan, there's always the risk that the loan doesn't get paid, and there's foreclosure actions and expenses involved in that, and there's actually a loss that often occurs. Well, we're eliminating any risk of foreclosure here because we're paying off all of the loans. No one is going to be foreclosed on. No one's going to eventually have to go into bankruptcy. Those are expenses the banks have to incur. So frankly, I am surprised. And I'm actually, you know, I think it's incredible that some banks have suggested, well, geez, if you pay us off, that may mean that we may not lend money in the future to socially disadvantaged farmers. I mean, seriously? I mean, it's just shocking to me that people would even make that argument, given the prepayment penalty, given the fact that there's no risk of foreclosure or loss, and given the fact that they

can lend the money out, maybe at a higher interest rate. I mean, it's just incredible. So there's been a lot of friction between you and the National Black Farmers. I've had John Boyd on my show many times. They were very adamant against you being reappointed as Secretary of Agriculture. How have y'all come together, sat down to mend the relationship, build a relationship, repair relationship in order to move forward. And what are you also doing to go through the

Agriculture Department and deal with the systemic racism? Because look, you control a significant budget, a huge budget. And the USDA goes way beyond just farms. A lot of people have no idea about that. And so, you know, what are you doing to to ensure that we're seeing black economic social justice take place in the USDA? So first, the relationship with the Black Farm Association and also your plans to revamp this department and really make it accessible to African Americans? Well, I have been in touch with John Boyd as I was during the previous Obama administration, and we actually worked collectively, collaboratively together

on the Pickford settlement. We were working together to get more money. I went to President Obama and asked to increase the level of Pickford payments from $100 million that Congress had authorized to $1.1 billion. So we were able to secure an additional billion dollars. I have reached out to John. We've texted back and forth. Dwayne Goldman, who is the first ever senior advisor for racial equity in my office, directly reports to me, has also been in touch with Mr. Boyd. And we have made an effort not only to reach out to his association, but to all the associations to get input first and foremost about how best to organize and operate this debt forgiveness program. And I think we've

taken into consideration the input that we've received from that outreach. We've had a call center. We've put frequently asked questions on the website. And we've received from that outreach. We've had a call center, we've put frequently asked questions on the website, and we've also had meetings with these groups to solicit their input. In fact, I just got off a call that the White House organized with a number of these groups to give them a heads up on what's happening in terms of the debt forgiveness program. So there's been significant outreach, and that's going to continue. Now, why is it going to continue? For two reasons. One, the President of the United States, President Biden, has directed every department to do an internal investigation

and review of the services, the benefits, the procurement practices to determine whether or not there indeed exist systemic barriers, and if so, to remove those barriers and to improve the services, the benefits, the procurement, to make sure that we are treating everyone fairly and equitably. So there's an internal review process. We have working groups that have already been set up that are already beginning that work across the board. As you say, we have quite a number of mission areas, so it's going to be a complete review internally. But we're going to go one step further. Congress has instructed us to create an equity commission.

This is a commission that has to be set up according to congressional rules. So we are in the process of finalizing the charter for that commission. We will then open it up for nominations for people to serve in that commission. And those folks will be experts who will look at USDA from the outside in. So we have an internal process of review. We also have an external process. And the expectation is both of those processes will identify barriers and problems and be able to make a set of recommendations.

And then we'll go through the process of figuring out how best to implement those recommendations. So at the end of the day, we have a USDA that is far more fair and equitable to everyone. That's the goal. And the second piece of this is to make sure that our senior executive team, our leadership team, is reflective of the diversity that we represent at USDA, the diversity that we serve at USDA. And so if you take a look at our appointments, Dr. Jo Bernal, first African American woman to serve as deputy of the Department of Agriculture, former commissioner in Virginia of Agriculture and Consumer Services, someone who has a historic black college

background. So she has connections to that important universe that we want to work with. So that is a representative of many, many appointments that we're making that reflect a commitment to diversity and inclusion. So between our senior executive staff, our internal review and our external review, and our outreach efforts generally around the debt relief efforts, all of that, I think, reflects a genuine good faith effort to try to get things right at USDA. And then finally, we do have the additional money in the American Rescue Plan that basically directs us to figure out ways in which we can improve access to technical assistance, market access and land access. And we'll be implementing that effort over the course of the next six to eight months. Last thing I would say as a part of that might be a little bit selfish, but I've been as a part of this segment, really also pressing the Biden administration to deal with the issue of equity when it comes to also media advertising. There was a survey done three

years ago. The federal government spent $5 billion over five years and only 1% with the black owned media. And so I would also say as a part of that, you also look at the folks who handle the advertising for the USDA, who has that contract to ensure that they're also doing the exact same thing, and that is working with black-owned media, because we see the exact same problem. So what black farmers have been dealing with, we in black-owned media have been dealing with,

not only in major corporate America, but even with the federal government. We did that in the last time I was Secretary, and that's a very good suggestion. And it goes to President Biden's direction for us to take a look at our procurement practices. He is very, very serious about this, and he recognizes the importance of making sure that we're equitable across the board. All right, Secretary Tom Vilsack, I appreciate it. I look forward to having you back. Take care. So, folks, you heard me reference Senator Tim Scott on Face the Nation. He was on May 2nd, and this is what Senator Tim Scott, the only black Republican U.S. senator from South Carolina, had to say about that money in the bill for black farmers.

Listen to this nonsense. When you say one side is talking about taking from one side to the other, I mean, this is, you know, people pay taxes, and there's an argument that the taxes that are paid should go to communities that we've seen, especially under COVID-19, have been disproportionately affected and that that's laid bare a lot of the inequities. So you're not saying that making sure that there's money that goes to those black communities is a bad thing? Well, John, let me say it differently. When you pass a COVID package with $2 trillion

of spending and in your package, you hide in there. If you are a black farmer, we will give you resources. But if you are a white farmer, you are excluded from those same resources. That's taking from one to give to the other. It's one of the reasons why in the 1990s, the USDA had to pay out the Pickford settlements to black farmers for taking from them to give the white farmers. So we're going to reverse that and call that a way of creating fairness in our country. That doesn't really work. Let's go to my panel. Bernardo Avila-Lona, Senior Trial Counsel, Joey Jackson Law Firm, Michael M. Hotep,

host of the African History Network, Brittany Lee Lewis, political analyst. Brittany, I want to start with you. It really pisses me off when I play that sound by the Senator Tim Scott. You heard Secretary Vilsack lay out the billions that went to white farmers in the last four years, but actually the last

50 to 100 years and how black farmers got screwed. And all of a sudden, money gets put in a bill to rectify the problem and he's like, well, it's not fair. I'll take your money away from white farmers. And it's like, damn. So the white farmers got 50 billion.

Now disadvantaged farmers got to share five billion. And the white folks. Well, can we get a can we get a piece of that, too? And the House Senator Tim Scott sitting there saying that BS. I mean, that's just pathetic. I mean, Roland, I feel like it's very on brand for our buddy, Senator Scott, very on brand for him. And like you said, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture laid it out plain as day regarding the historical inequalities that black farmers have faced. And with Senator Scott, I'm like, is this man really that dense? Or is it just truly to live up to his image and his role in the GOP? Because it literally doesn't make sense.

He cannot be that dense. The thing here that just really just chaps behind Bernarda is that these black farmers, I'm talking about the numbers. We used to have a million black farmers. It's down to 40,000 in this country. The land we own has gone down dramatically. They have documented, confirmed

racism for decades in USDA. And here are the people watching have to understand. USDA has the second largest budget behind the Pentagon. Folks,

number two. And Bernardo, the thing is, and people also don't realize, the USDA has the largest federal bank out of any department. A significant number of things in America have been built in rural America that was funded by the USDA bank. So white farmers have used the Department of Agriculture taxpayer money as their personal

piggy bank. And you got these white farmers and Senator Tim Scott whining and complaining because finally we're trying to rectify the problem. Oh, and I think Senator Tim Scott, in his mind, he thinks that he's actually sane and normal. Obviously, he's been drinking his own Kool-Aid for too long that he doesn't realize what he is saying, how it actually affects people, because he's doing a bit too much in order to satisfy his GOP

in order to move forward to continue getting the votes and being the person that he is. For me, I'm just embarrassed. I am insulted by his comments. And, you know, it's just ignorant. Michael, your thoughts? Yes. Well, brother, you know, I've been talking about this, man, for a few months now. And, you know, on my show, I shared the May 2nd interview that Tim Scott did on Face the Nation. This ties, I cannot stress this enough, Roland, this ties directly into the GOP rebuttal speech that Tim Scott gave Wednesday, April 28th. Because in that speech, right after he said America is not a racist country, the next thing he said was it's backwards to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination. And the $5 billion that he attacked on Face the Nation, this is how Republicans think.

This ain't just Tim Scott. I understand you playing that segment. You have to understand, this is how Republicans think. This ain't just Tim Scott. I understand you playing that segment. You have to understand, this is how Republicans think. Senator Lindsey Graham has been attacking the $5 billion, calling it racist and calling it reparations. He was on Fox News attacking this. I'm glad you did an interview with

Secretary Vilsack. I'm glad also they're going to focus in on Ayers' property. I've been studying the ways that African-American farmers have lost their land, 12 million acres of land over the past 100 years. And Ayers' property is one of the ways that was used to steal our land, as well as over-assessing the tax liabilities on these lands as well, brother. So this is an example of how elections have consequences. I can't stress this enough. And lastly, Roland, not a single traitorous Republican in the House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate voted for

this $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that has the $5 billion in it going to farmers of color, including African-American farmers. You know, it's very interesting, um, Brittany. You know, I've had to deal with all of these nincompoops

on social media. The Asians got a bill. The Asians got a bill. We ain't got no bill. Five billion. Wasn't five billion in that COVID bill an anti-hate bill? And first of all, it wasn't the Asian bill. Right.

Okay? Any fool who could read the bill would know it wasn't the asian bill right okay any fool who could read the bill would know it wasn't the asian bill was it as result of people raising the issue on asian hate crime attacks yes but the bill is not asian specific but it's amazing i've listened to a lot of fools my name done nothing the democrats ain't done lot of fools. Biden ain't done nothing. The Democrats ain't done nothing. The CBC ain't done nothing. Well, how in the hell the five billion got in the bill? Yeah, Roland, I mean, it's really just silly.

And quite frankly, if anyone is actually taking a look at these bills, they know that they're useful to all of us across the board. Right. And I think one of the things that's been, I've actually been rather impressed when it comes to Biden and the Democrats is we have seen the move left and do things particularly that would support our community as black folks time and time again. I mean, even when we're talking about

his plans to attack major corporations, that has to do directly with us. He is doing the necessary work. And quite frankly, I think that bill was an important piece of legislation. You know, but it's just, it's as if nothing actually happened with the black farmers, Michael. It's as if, I mean, I'm just trying to understand. All the folks who holler reparations, what the hell is that?

Well, you know, brother, you can't make sense out of nonsense, first of all. All right? I would encourage people to go to WhiteHouse.gov and actually read the 45-plus executive orders. See, people don't want to read. That's part of the problem. Go to WhiteHouse.gov. Every executive order that a president people don't want to read. That's part of the problem. Go to whitehouse.gov. Every executive order that a president signs is at whitehouse.gov.

You can read it for yourself. A lot of these executive orders impact African-Americans. He did one January 26th. I talked about this yesterday on my show that deals with redlining, okay? And redlining historically has locked African-Americans out of wealth creation. When you deal with reparations,

you just had the hearing, and you covered it on your show, I did it on mine, Tulsa Race Massacre. But what people have to understand is if you don't get 60 votes in the Senate, which means 10 Republicans need to vote for it if Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema vote for reparations, which they're not going to do.

If you don't get 10 votes in the Senate, H.R. 40 or any reparations bill is not going anywhere. So a lot of... If you look at the American Rescue Plan, if you look at the infrastructure bill, if you look at the American Families Plan, all these policies impact African-Americans. The American Rescue Plan, the tax credits for children,

is going to cut child poverty in half. Do you know any black children? This is going to... See, this is stupid-ass nonsense, okay? All you got to do is read. Proper documentation ends all conversation. And the COVID-19 hate crime bill, it's not called an Asian hate crime bill.

The actual name of it is the COVID-19 hate crime bill. You can read all bills at congress.gov. You can read all bills at congress.gov. You can read all bills at congress.gov. I was reading the text of the bill yesterday. If you actually read the bill, it applies to COVID related hate crimes against everybody, not just Asian Americans. Yes, it was spurred by a 150% increase

in hate crimes reported by Asian Americans, but it's not specific to Asian Americans. Now, what they should do is go ahead and push this anti-lynching bill again that they tried to push in the race call Republican. They should push that again now and then expose the Republicans for their hypocrisy when they vote against them. I'm all for the anti-lynching bill. But the COVID-19 hate crimes bill is what it's actually called.

Go to Congress.gov and read it. It's not specific to Asian-Americans. People just want to complain about BS and they don't read. This is part of the problem. If you want to see stupidity, here is sheer stupidity of Tanya

Smith on YouTube. T-A-N-I-Y-A Smith. You stupid. This is literally what she tweeted, Bernarda. Roland, what the hell is $5 billion? What? This dumbass. She literally tweeted, Roland, what the hell is $5 billion?

Biden hasn't done nothing for blacks. I ain't say $5. I ain't say $5,000, $500,000, $5 million. We talking $5 billion. This dumbass, Tanya Smith, $5 billion ain't nothing. Tanya, tell that to a black farmer who's behind on a loan. Tell that to a black farmer who got screwed with Trump's tariff war, who's been out there struggling.

And you sitting your dumb ass on YouTube talking about $5 billion ain't nothing. The black farmers have been fighting for this money. And then when it got approved, when it got approved, they got sued, and you sitting your Indian ass on here talking about five billion ain't nothing.

But now go on ahead. It's so upsetting. You know, one thing is, like, I'm from the Dominican Republic. I'm from the island. So one thing is that when my family immigrated from here, immigrated to the U.S., is that in the country, the way that we survive is by the farms, by growing our own food, growing our own produce. So the farmers, this has such a huge impact. Do you know $5 billion,

how many families it would affect? I mean, it will go down generations, this amount of money, that it's about time that these farmers got. We've been talking about this for years. Look at the huge decline of how much farmers are now in existence. So it's about time that it finally came here. So, Tanya, let's not even give us some time a day. Move on, Roland. Well, and again,

there's a reason why the three banking institutions who we talked about are trying to fight it, because they mad the loans are going to get paid off early. No, no, no, no. Y'all need to understand, we ain't playing games here. We know the okie doke. And so at some point, you know,

we need to stop dealing with just stuck-on stupid people who, folk like Tonya, they going to whine about everything. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they put $20 billion in for black, that impacted black people, and she'd probably say, $20 billion ain't nothing. I mean, that's what we're dealing with. And so, and I'm telling you, folks, it's a lot of people who know nothing, who know nothing, nothing about stimulus, nothing.

And then I had one dude who was sitting there going, well, I don't understand why we're sitting here. They're putting this in, and they ain't done this, they ain't done that. And why we got to push them to pass stuff? I'm like, you do know that's what people do every single day. And then I had one person get mad at me saying, well, I don't understand why they couldn't put the John Lewis bill

and put it in together with the COVID anti-Asian bill and pass both at the same time. And I'm like, so you pay no attention to the fact that Republicans do not want to pass a voter bill? This is easy, y'all. The so-called anti-Asian hate crime bill got 94 votes. That's why it passed. You need 60 votes. Because you got, then people say,

well, Democrats ain't doing anything. No, there are 48 Democrats right now in the Senate who would love to pass H.R. 1, who would love to pass, who would love to pass the John Lewis bill. But you need 60 votes. Ain't 10, ain't with 10 Republicans. Now, if the two Democrats, Chris in the cinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin in West Virginia, if they stop blocking,

cut in the filibuster, y'all, all these get passed. So when all y'all fools come at me talking about the CBC ain't done nothing, guess what fools? It passed the House. So the CBC did their job. Guess who's a member of the CBC in the Senate? Senator Cory Booker. He wants to vote for it. The holdup for everything we're talking about, there are two people stopping it. There are two Democrats.

Kristen Sinema of Arizona, Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Two. Not Virginia. Two. Not 50. Two. There are 48 ready to end it. Two want to keep the filibuster. So if y'all gonna sit here and whine and complain,

what you should be doing is calling those two. You should be calling Sinema's office every day, blowing up her phone lines, calling Manchin every single day. Then you'll understand what's going on. Excuse me, because I actually paid attention

in civics class, and I understand how these things work. Folks, two years after killing a black man following a high speed chase with Louisiana State Troopers, authorities have released the body camera footage from that

night. The video shows the moments leading up to the deadly arrest of Ronald Greene. Folks, no video, there's no audio here, but just watch this video y'all. In this video, the state troopers are seen tasing, punching, and dragging Green as he apologizes for driving off. Green's 2019 death is now under a federal civil rights investigation.

The decision by Louisiana State Police to not release the footage until now has led to accusations of a coverup. You're gonna watch the remainder of this video. Okay. Thank you. um bernarda watching that video uh it is shocking and um i'll go bernarda in a second but what really was just awful here uh britney and michael uh is that this unwillingness to release it because they knew what was going to show britney they knew it was going to show their contempt for ronald green It exposes what we're seeing. And guess what? We just keep seeing it. Cop after cop after cop after cop after cop. But people want to keep saying that just a few bad apples. Really?

Yeah, we know that's not the case, Roland. And I think particularly with this incident, it's just the sheer embodiment of all that's wrong with policing in America. Because, Roland, we know this was a cover-up. Between the fact that they wouldn't release the body cam footage immediately, how many years did it take us to get the body cam footage? And then I read somewhere that even a doctor noted that the original police account had said that this man crashed into a tree, but the doctor said that that didn't add up because there was two stun gun prongs on his back. So we know how this goes. If the officer's behavior was actually lawful, they would have released that body cam footage right away. They would have also told the truth about what happened

if they thought their actions or beating him bloody was justified in any capacity. You know, quite frankly, this case honestly reminds me a bit about, a bit, it's similar to George Floyd. And I guess so many cases that we've seen month after month after month, you know, instead of rendering aid after they basically beat this man to death, the troopers left him laying there for nine minutes as they were wiping his blood off, complaining that they hoped that they didn't get AIDS. I mean, how can you possibly say that they are servants of the community? I honestly just pray, Roland, that once the civil rights investigation is done, that the remaining officers are held accountable. Because I know that the main gentleman that beat him died shortly after

he was found. He would be let go after the situation came to light to the general public. Bernard? Well, I'm definitely looking forward to the federal government issuing their findings, because the federal government definitely has to bring charges against these officers. I mean, the way that they savagely beat him, had him there like if he were an animal, and then you try to cover it up. You are charged to protect and serve the community, and this is how you treat us? For me, when I look at this, I look at this as a hate crime. You can tell that it is

intentional because of who he is and how he looks. And for those officers just to stand there and not even offer assistance, no, I want to see federal charges. And guess what, Louisiana, if you need a prosecutor to step back in, I'll go back in as a prosecutor and handle that prosecution for you. Michael. Yeah, you know, brother, this is another troubling case. And then they lied. Apparently they lied to the family and told the family that Ronald Green died from the impact of a crash. OK, but then the other thing is, is that they're saying the cause of death, the medical examiner, if I remember correctly on this case, is saying the cause of death has something to do with something like

excited delirium, okay? What was the exact term that they used? It was something like excited delirium. Oh, yeah, yeah. They love using that one. They said that black folks can somehow get superhuman strength when just men gone. But see, that's what they tried to use

in the George Floyd death, okay? The defense attorney tried to use that as well. But excited delirium has a history tinged with racism trying to explain the deaths of African Americans in police custody and said it was because of their cocaine usage and the effect that cocaine had on them. This goes back to 1985.

So here we see this again, but this is from 2019. This video's from 2019. And then the Associated Press releases the video, and then the Louisiana State Police Department, they're saying, oh, the release of this video taints the investigation. You've had two years to investigate this. How much more are you investigating?

Yeah, it's kind of basic. This is from 2019. It's kind of basic, but that's what happens when you, again, when you have lots of excuses. Let's go to Colorado, folks, where two former Loveland police officers are facing assault charges for their role in the arrest of a 73-year-old woman with dementia. Folks, remember this video here?

Body camera footage shows ex-officers Austin Hopp and Daria Jalali tossing the elderly woman to the ground, hog-tying her and dislocating her shoulder. Before resigning, Hopp and Jalali were placed on administrative leave when the investigation began. Hopp faces two felony charges, including second-degree assault and attempt to influence a public servant, as well as a first-degree official misconduct misdemeanor charge. Jalali faces an official misconduct charge, along with two misdemeanor charges for allegedly failing to intervene and to report use of excessive force. Bernardo, I'm going to say this, and I think people don't get it.

Y'all can go back and show that video. Keep showing that video, please. Y'all see, and we'll just talk over it. Bernard, here's the whole deal here. Folks, Black Lives Matter, the protests and the action in the streets over the last several years is what. That that was the impetus that was that that has been the driver for police all of a sudden being held accountable. The drive for body camera footage. The drive for the home accountable.

That's it. You have seen, now again, we've got numerous cases where people have not been held accountable. But we have never seen this number of officers who are being disciplined, who are being fired, who are being indicted as a result of their actions than what we've seen, I dare say, in the last three to four years. Well, Roland, you got to think that the pressure is on. All eyes are on you. So once one of these cases make it to the media, whether it's social media or to the news outlets, guess what? There will be a movement. There will be a cry when you see things like this happening. You know, it's not focused as to a certain race or a certain age group. The reality is, is that police, you are supposed to protect and serve. You are disobeying.

You are, I mean, what are you doing to the badge is exactly why people have mistrust for the police. So all of this, I am glad for the body camera. I am glad that people are putting it out there because accountability is so important. For there to be any trust in the criminal justice system, there has to be transparency. And that body camera footage, body cameras of officers wearing it, it's given us exactly that. Now we just need prosecutors who have the courage to step forward and take action and actually open investigations and prosecute these officers. Brittany, again, the thing here is this here, and I loved the fact that that other officer is also being indicted because you got to hold the cops accountable who stood around

and watched. That was the case. If any one of those officers in Minneapolis had intervened, Brittany, George Floyd would be alive. Absolutely, Roland. All those that are a part of this, you know, the systemic issues need to be held accountable because it's not a matter of bad apples. It's not a matter of reforming. We know the history of policing in this country is grounded in a certain level of power, violence, and racism. And I think what's really interesting with, you know, with these cases, especially this one we're talking about, this white woman, is you know there is a major problem with policing when even with body cameras and literally the eyes of the nation on policing, this behavior continues. I think, you know, what's even more interesting about this case is that I

think, correct me if I'm wrong, that, you know, this, all of this happened because she stole $14 of merchandise from Walmart. Walmart, the place that makes billions of dollars, right? And this is what happened. She's got all this damage done to her body. It almost makes you wonder, how can you hear stories like this and still honestly believe that officers are here to protect and serve the community? Again, it's just unfortunate that the culture of policing is just so grounded in violence and power. The fact that even after all this unnecessary brutality is done, that you can sit there and laugh and joke about whether this elderly woman, right, if they heard her, if they heard her shoulder pop as she was being injured, laughing about that. I mean, if that doesn't tell you anything about the culture of policing,

I don't know what will. Michael. All right. Looks like we lost Michael and we'll be sure to get Michael back. Folks, again, it's just shocking video to see, but that's the sort of nonsense that you see. In Minnesota, Court of Appeals heard arguments earlier today on whether the three former Minneapolis police officers involved in George Floyd's death should face additional charges. Folks, these prosecutors in the case argued Thomas Lane, Jake Keend, and Tal Thao deserve an additional count of aiding and abetting third-degree murder on top of the second-degree murder and manslaughter charters they're already facing. Based on a related ruling in the case of Derek Chauvin, the judges could rule in favor of the state in seeing the case back to the lower court to add the charge. The three-judge panel has 90 days to make their ruling.

So we certainly will see what takes place. Attorney General Keith Ellison is set to lead the prosecution for the former police officer responsible for the death of Daunte Wright. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman reached out to Ellison to request his office take the lead in Kim Potter's trial. Ellison plans to work closely with Wright's family during the trial proceedings. His office oversaw the conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Dick Chauvin for killing George Floyd. Potter is charged with second-degree manslaughter. Her trial is set to begin on December 6th.

Also, folks, in Texas, the family of Antiana Jefferson is filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the cop who killed her. Jefferson's sister, Ashley Carr, is seeking more than $10 million in damages from the city of Fort Worth. Retired police chief Ed Krause, Mayor Betsy Price and former officer Aaron Dean. Her lawsuit claims the Fort Worth Police Department failed to properly screen Dean before hiring him in 2017. It also mentions a 2004 assault citation where Dean touched a woman's breast. Fort Worth Police Department claims it took Dean's misdemeanor assault charge into account during the hiring process and that his training records show he performed well dean family shot

jefferson in her home after a neighbor called a non-emergency number reporting jefferson's front door was open dean resigned shortly after the fatal shooting a grand jury indicted him on a murder charge in December 2019. A judge has tentatively set trial for August of 2021. Alright folks, when we come back we'll talk about these racist texts uncovered

in St. Louis from a cop. And what's interesting is he's trying not to allow them to see the light of day. Aww. Yo, Jim Crow white supremacy, you don't want getting out. Too late. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered.

We'll be back. Racial injustice is a scourge on this nation, and the black community has felt it for generations. We have an obligation to do something about it, on this nation, and the Black community has felt it for generations. We have an obligation to do something about it. Whether it's canceling student debt, increasing the minimum wage, or investing in Black-owned businesses, the Black community deserves so much better.

I'm Nina Turner, and I'm running for Congress to do something about it. I believe that it's movement time again. In America today, the economy is not working for working people. The poor and the needy are being abused. You are the victims of power, and this is the abuse of economic power. I'm 23 years old. I work three jobs. Work seven days a week, no days off. They're paying people pennies on the dollar compared to what they profit,

and it is time for this to end. Essential workers have been showing up to work, feeding us, caring for us, delivering goods to us throughout this entire pandemic. And they've been doing it on a measly $7.25 minimum wage. The highest check I ever got was nearly $291. I can't take it no more. You know, the fight for 15 is a lot more than about $15 an hour.

This is about a fight for your dignity. We have got to recognize that working people deserve livable wages. And it's long past time for this nation to go to $15 so that moms and dads don't have to choose between asthma inhalers and rent. I'm halfway homeless. The main reason that people end up in their cars is because income does not match housing costs. If I could just only work one job, I could have more time with them.

It is time for the owners of Walmart, McDonald's, Dollar General, and other large corporations to get off welfare and pay their workers a living wage. And if you really want to tackle racial equity, you have to raise the minimum wage. We're not just fighting for our families, we're fighting for yours too. We need this. I'm gonna fight for it till we get it. I'm not gonna give up. We just need all of us to stand up as one nation and just fight together. Families are relying on these salaries and they must be paid at a minimum $15 an hour.

$15 a minimum anyone should be hour. $15 a minimum. Anyone should be making this a bit of a stay out of poverty. I can't take it no more. I'm doing this for not only me, but for everybody. We need 15 right now. Hi, I'm Kim Burrell. Hi, I'm Carl Painting. Hey, everybody, this is Sherri Shepherd.

You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Oh, and St. Louis prosecutors want to use racist text messages sent by a St. Louis police officer accused of violently beating a black undercover cop in 2017 in his retrial. Dustin Boone is accused of sending text messages containing racial slurs and suggestions of drug use and theft to other St. Louis police officers and his family. Y'all, in one message, he refers to Kim Gardner, the city's first black circuit attorney, plate lips and another text with his family. He wrote, what city are we in? These fucking niggers are the same as St. Louis niggers.

Boone's new trial is set for June. He's charged with deprivation of civil rights under color of law for beating Detective Luther Hall. Boone's lawyers have filed a motion to exclude the text messages. See what's done in darkness, Michael, will come to light. And what we know, I'm sorry, we don't have Michael. Bernard, I'll start with you. What we're dealing with here is just consistent racism by St. Louis cops. We were there with Tashara Jones when she was running for mayor. She won. And we've had the Ethical Society of Police Officers on here,

which represents black officers there in St. Louis. I mean, the racism from St. Louis cops is absolutely stunning. And it's so disappointing that these are the guys that are supposed to be watching for us, taking care of us, making the streets safe, when it's these exact people, these exact officers that have these mindsets that are the ones

that are making the streets not safe for us. But those messages definitely should be coming in. I don't see a judge saying no because it goes to his state of mind as well as to his intent. Brittany. Yeah, Roland, I mean, I bet he doesn't want to, I bet he does want to exclude those text messages.

Obviously, they're damning to say the least, and they speak to a pattern and a state of mind that's certainly unbiased. You know, his remarks speak to just the historical nature of dehumanizing black folks by turning them into racist caricatures. And I think, you know, how can you possibly serve your community or argue that you're doing things unbiasedly when it's very clear that you actually just believe black and brown folks are niggers and we have plate lips? I mean, I'm not surprised that he wants that information excluded. Otherwise, you know, the man is going down. Well, you know, again, that was a mistrial the first time, and hopefully there will be conviction the second time.

All right, y'all, this is strange. In North Carolina, a judge must appear before a criminal court for allegedly trying to hit several Black Lives Matter protesters with his SUV. North Carolina's Court of Appeals Judge John Tyson is charged with misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon. In the video released by Fayetteville police, Tyson's SUV is seen entering the turnabout and coming back around in the lane marked with Black Lives Matter. Protesters were in that lane. It's not clear how close the vehicle came to the demonstrators. Judge Tyson is scheduled to appear in a Cumberland County court next month. That's a pretty interesting one there, that a judge, he's going to have to face the music then, Brittany.

Absolutely, and he should. Roland, this is insane. These are, I mean, it's literally the whole culture of criminal justice, essentially. These are the same folks, a judge, making decisions about Black and brown lives on a daily basis. And he had the audacity.

This wasn't an accident. This man purposely and deliberately came around. He could have injured someone. He could have killed someone. I hope they prosecute his fine to the fullest extent of the law. He deserves it. Rihanna?

Absolute shame, and I hope that the prosecution as well as the other judges are looking into his past cases to see how did he administer justice according to him based on this act, because this shows a lot about his character.

Indeed. Our Black Lives Matter activist has been convicted of anti-riot charters for breaking a police car window. Last May, Tia Pugh was arrested on federal charters at a George Floyd protest. An Alabama federal judge ruled the federal anti-riot law Pugh was charged with is constitutional. Her lawyers argue the law is aimed at stifling First Amendment, and has racist origins. Her lawyers also argue that she was charged under the Civil Obedience Act, which focuses on charging civil rights leaders who advocated for civil disobedience in the 1960s. Let's go back to Colorado, where a school bus driver is out of a job for hitting a child who refused to wear a mask.

When two students stepped on the bus not wearing their mask properly, Bertram Jacquez told them to fix them and tried to adjust one of their masks himself. One of the students says she moved the mask below her nose because she wasn't feeling well. As she continued to refuse Jaquez's order, they argued and Jaquez slapped the child across the face. She also says the driver then tried to place the mask back over her entire face. Jaquez is charged with harassment, assault causing injury, and child abuse. The Fremont County School District released the following statement. Our goal every day is to transport students safely to school and back home,

but that can only happen when everyone, including students and staff, follow the rules. We are currently working to identify next steps to help our drivers with strategies designed to support a safe ride to and from school. So, Bernarda, how would you respond if a bus driver just smacked your child in the face? Now, Roland, you know we on air right now and this is being recorded. So, unfortunately, I will have to leave it to the courts to handle. Brittany. Bro, that's a hot mess. I don't even know what

to think. Maybe he has his own kids and he's used to just slapping them if something goes wrong. I really don't know, but I'm glad it wasn't my kids. To be honest, I don't really know what I would do with that bus driver. We are on air, but

that's a shame. It's a mess. Well, I'm telling you right now, hashtag team whip that ass will be showing up. I'm just letting you know. As they say, there'll be furniture moving. As Bernie Mac said, there'll be some furniture moving if that took place.

All right, let's talk about this drama out of Chicago where Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is being heavily criticized for refusing to do one-on-one interviews with journalists who are not people of color. She took to Twitter to defend her decision. She said, quote, I ran to break up the status quo that was failing so many.

That isn't just in City Hall. It's a shame that in 2021, the City Hall press corps is overwhelmingly white in a city where more in 2021, the city hall press corps is overwhelmingly white in the city, where more than half of the city identifies as Black, Latino, AAPI, or Native American. Diversity and inclusion is imperative across all institutions, including media. In order to progress, we must change. Now, this is exactly why I'm being intentional about prioritizing media requests from POC reporters on the occasion of the two-year anniversary of my inauguration as mayor of this great city.

This is an imbalance that needs to change. Chicago is a world-class city. Our local media should reflect the multiple cultures that comprise it. We must be intentional about doing better. I believe that when running for office. I stand on this belief now. It's time for the newsrooms to do better and build teams that reflect the makeup of our city.

Now here's what's interesting. Ooh, Lord, white folks been losing their mind. I mean, they been losing their mind. Upset. What's wrong? Oh my God, she's racist. Oh my God god what are you doing i mean they

have really been acting a fool a plum fool black media in chicago released this statement yesterday mayor laurie lightfoot stood on the public with an insightful and thought-provoking stance on Chicago media. She provided exclusive interviews to BIPOC media outlets beginning on May 18th as she approaches her midterm. In doing so, the mayor shined a spotlight on Chicago's press,

stating that white males dominate many of the major newsrooms which are absent of women and people of color, including at City Hall, where there are zero women of color assigned to the City Hall beat. Mayor Lightfoot addressed racism in an unprecedented open letter to the press. As black media owners with independent outlets, we share her concerns. Too often, white media coverage is biased and sometimes racist in its depiction of the black community in Chicago. This is a result of the lack of black, brown, and women

representation in our newsrooms and in positions of power, which could help shape the narrative. Black media's vantage point is often different than mainstream. Our niches represent authentic voices of diverse black audiences who are often seen with a stereotypical lens. Too often, white coverage focuses on violence, deprivation, and negative behavior, which represents a small percentage of Chicago's black community, yet dominates news coverage. We recognize that black politicians are held to a different standard. We have witnessed white media's relentless scrutiny of past black politicians like Harold Washington, Eugene Sawyer, Todd Stroger, and more recently, of state's attorney, Kim Foxx.

Some of the attacks have been unmerciful, unfair, and yes, even racist. Mayor Lightfoot recognizes a new day should have a new way. We applaud Mayor Lightfoot, Chicago's first black female gay mayor, for standing up to the status quo and recognizing that granting black media with exclusive interviews is customary in the profession of media coverage. As I said, folks have been very upset. That was a, first of all, I'm sorry. In this era where the streets are filled with Black Lives Matter marches and issues on social justice and equity are the topics of the day, we hope that diversity and inclusion become a part of every media company, from the boardroom to street reporters.

Perspective, insights, and opinions of all stripes are important to making the city by the lake with big shoulders work as a global world world-class place where all 77 of Chicago communities thrive. At this time, we stand with Mayor Lightfoot as she says she is the spotlight on major media institutions that shape opinion in our city. We understand the mayor is a public official and is not above reproach, but my oral coverage should be done without bias and with fairness the news media is changing right before our very eyes on a daily basis we're all trying to keep up with the changes and the impact that they bring while our various audiences share varied opinions of the city our communities face issues head-on with the goal of growing chicago into a better place for all the mayor's challenge to the media will help erase stereotypes and move us further from the distinction of being America's most segregated city.

We, as black media owners, represent more than 800,000 black Chicagoans. It is contingent on us to join forces with the mayor to challenge inequities in newsrooms and in news coverage. We remain vigilant, excuse me, diligent in our task to provide authentic coverage and build wealth for our companies as we raise our voices for social equity for all of Chicago. And signing that particular letter, folks, we should have had those names up, folks, but signing that letter, Tracy Bell, the IBM Company 95.1 FM,

Melody's Vancouver, Midway Broadcasting Corporation, WVON and WRLL Radio, Janice and Darrell Garth, Citizen Newspaper Group, Hermine Hartman, Hartman Publishing, Raelle Jackson, South Shore Current, Dorothy Lavelle, The Chicago Crusader, Diana Lewis, Real Times Media, The Chicago Defender, Yvette Moyo, South Shore Current,

Jamil Muhammad, CROE, Munson Steed, Media Rollout, Carl West, TBT News. Let's see, here's what I find to be real interesting here. And I'm really laughing about this, Michael. There was a Latino reporter for the Chicago Tribune who had an interview, but he declined, said this was grossly unfair.

But all these folks are mad and upset at the mayor. But what I find to be interesting is that this ain't new. October 29, 1992. This is the New York Times. Go to my computer. Spike Lee's request, black interviewers only. When Spike Lee was doing Malcolm X, Spike Lee said he would only do interviews with black journalists from newspaper, TV magazines, and TV stations. Now you see right here, Mr. Lee's request was rejected yesterday by the Los Angeles Times, but met with approval by Premier Magazine and some other journals. Warner Brothers, which is producing Malcolm X, emphasized that it supported the often provocative Mr. Lee and insisted that he had not set down a

rigid rule barring whites from interviewing him about the movie. This is what he said. I'm doing what every other person in Hollywood does. They dictate who they want to do interviews with. Tom Cruise, Robert Redford, whoever. People throw their weight around. Will I get many requests now for interviews? I would like like for African Americans to interview me. Hmm. The reason folks, I find this to be interesting because Michael people are trashing mirror light foot. Well, how dare you? But they're not trashing the racism she's talking about. Exactly. See, she is speaking about the racial

inequities in Chicago. I worked there six years. Y'all, the racism is real. So, you mad at the person who calls out racism.

Right. And you mad with her challenging you. And I read a column, somebody wrote, well, she should have went about it a different way. She should have reached out to the media outlets first. Damn that. No. She did exactly what she should have done by saying

y'all have been too white for too long, and somebody is going to expose your nonsense. I'm with 100%. Absolutely. Well, you know, Roland, see, the three past stories that we talked about,

the $5 billion for African-American farmers and farmers of color, this story right here, okay, and then Tim Scott and Republicans attacking the $5 billion, they're all connected. When you call out the racism and then you try to address it and put policies and remedies in place to address the racism, you have people like Tim Scott or Lindsey Graham who call the remedy racism and ignore the past 100 years of discrimination and racism against, for instance, African-American farmers. They don't want to deal with why you need the remedy.

This is also tied to the anti-lynching bill. Because for them, if Republicans vote to pass an anti-lynching bill, then they got to explain and talk about the history of lynching in this country. The only reason why you need an anti-lynching bill is because the white people lynched African-Americans. That's it. Now you got to deal with that history. When you try to deal with the remedy using policy to address racism,

you have people that want to call it a remedy racism. So I agree with what she's doing. I may not agree with her other policies, some of her other policies, but I definitely agree with this. And this reminds me of the story that you covered with Halle Berry when Halle Berry was at some function and she went out of her way to speak to the African-American journalists and do a quick interview with them when the white people, her publicists, were telling no, we can't do this. She said, no, I can't pass up my brother and my sister. See, so this is powerful. This helps open doors, and this is powerful

for African-American-owned media as well. So, you know, I agree with her on this. See, the thing is, again, I get a kick out of these people. I get a kick out of these people, Brittany, who... Why are you always talking about race? Why racist stuff always happen so I can talk about it? I mean, if you stop doing racist stuff, I-I stop talking about it.

And the thing is, um, media... I need people to understand, media hates being called out. See, nobody calls out media. See, you got all these white media institutions love talking about, oh, oh, diversity in this company, and what are your numbers? And I'll never forget, I worked for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

I was a city hall reporter. And they wanted me to do a story on procurement for the city of Fort Worth. And I think the woman who I was talking to, I was a procurement officer. She was a diversity person. I can't remember what position it was. And I went to her, and she said, well, I'll give you the numbers when you give me the diversity supplier development numbers for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

I was like, I ain't got a damn thing to do with Roland. I'm in the newsroom. So when I came back and I told them they were pissed, I said, well, y'all, she got a point. I said, who are we to demand diversity from someone else if we don't practice it?

And that's the real deal. Media don't like getting called out. That's why they mad at the lower life foot. Yeah, you know, media doesn't like getting called out. And we've seen this time and time again. I feel like media has been able to go, you know, when it comes to dealing with like these racist newsrooms, almost entirely unscathed until recently. And it's about time that we're holding them accountable, just like any other industry. And we know as a country, we absolutely need to address the historical and systemic inequality that journalists and reporters of color face. And I hope with Glory in Lightfoot, I like this effort, but I do hope that this is part of a larger, more robust plan, Roland. I mean, I'm excited about the single-day event, but I fear that people are going to say it's surface level at best if she doesn't really continue to push forward with this type of behavior. I hope she can make it so that many of those smaller outlets that

are owned and operated by publishers and publishing houses of color have equal access to her moving forward. I think it's a step in the right direction. And quite frankly, I don't think we owe any white person or any white media outlet an explanation. You know, the thing here, again, I need people to understand, Bernarda, that you have to force change. I call them out and force it. And to Brittany's point, I think what the mayor should do, she should make sure that her communications people are bringing folks in.

I'll give you an example. You know, because of the lack of daily news shows, whenever the president, the president will always have these meetings with TV anchors. Lack of daily news shows. Whenever the president, the president would always have these meetings with TV anchors. And it would always be the main networks. It would always be the evening news anchors. And then they added a cable host.

And so when I had a Sunday show on TV One, we got invited to a couple of those meetings with President Obama. Then when we had News One Now, I got invited to what we called the big meeting. Then I was invited to one with Vice President Joe Biden. But in the big meeting, there was always a luncheon that took place before the State of the Union Maybe the anchors at ABC NBC CBS CNN MSNBC Fox News

And then they started expanding it started expanding it now But typically is television typically is just television Then but typically it's television. Typically it's just television. Um, then, um, they at PBS and some others, um, uh, the Trump folk,

I got invited to two of those. That's it. There was only two. I didn't get invited to the other ones. Um, I invited you to, and what was interesting is they expanded it further. They brought in some digital folks and others as well.

And I got invited. The first one I had, I actually had two seats. They actually gave me two seats. And I invited Derek McGinty. And it was too funny because Derek, I told Derek, I said, yo, man, we got this thing in the White House. I said, you want to go? I got an extra position. And Derek was too funny because he was like, I told him.

And so he came. And then he was like, man, you ain't tell me. This was one of those off-the-record meetings with the president. I was like, well, damn it, Derek. Did you not read the email? And so we went there. And the reason this is important for people to understand, we got to be at the room.

We got to be in the room at the table. See, here you have, and I'm telling you, it was in. It wasn't the East Room. to be at the room. We got to be in the room at the table. See, here you have, and I'm telling you, it was in, it wasn't the East room. It was in the room opposite the East room. It was a huge long table. This was under Trump. Under Obama, it was a smaller table. So Trump actually increased the people. I think we had probably had about 20 or some odd people who were in there under Obama. It may have been 12 or so. So it was in the smaller dining room. And what was interesting about that is, and I'm sitting there and I'm going, not as I'm sitting there, as I'm at the

table, I'm thinking how many times have they had these over the years and wasn't nobody black in the room. See, Max Robertson was the first nightly news anchor at ABC in 1978. He died in 1988. The next black main anchor wasn't until Lester Hoda, NBC. You had no black main anchors at any of the other broadcasts or the cable networks. So the reality is when they had those meetings, there were no black people in the room. I was in the room because at TV One we had a Sunday show and a daily show.

And so, one of the things that I said clear to the Biden people, I said, once COVID, we get past COVID, and y'all start resuming these meetings, I don't give a damn if I got a digital show at the table. We get past COVID and y'all start resuming these meetings. I don't give a damn.

I got a digital show at the table. And so this is what Lightfoot is talking about. When you have black anchors at the table, when you have black journalists able to ask questions of the mayor. Our perspective is different. We are seeing things in a different way. We're going to ask questions that others are not going to ask. I can tell you as somebody who sat there, I would sit there and they'd be asking questions. They'd be talking about, you know, immigration.

They'd be talking about, you know, the same old stuff. I come to the black stuff. If I'm not at the table, Bernardo, ain't no black stuff getting asked. We got to be in the rooms where the decisions are being made. And that's all across the board when it comes to media, when it comes to news,

when it comes to any type of other subject. We have to be in the rooms where the decisions are being made. And the most pressing thing when you're talking about media and the news, you got to think that the news and the media, they have so much of an effect, so much of an impact on society. You're creating the narrative. You're creating images for people to actually follow. You're creating stories. So this is so important for us to be in the room where decisions are being made and have our point of view put on the record. You know, again, life was taking a whole lot of heat for it. But here's what I would say to mainstream media. Don't just lighten up. Don't whiten up. Y'all need to sit here and get some color. You should be examining your

newsroom saying what's going on here. What's happening? What are we dealing with? And this is all over. This is all over the country because America is changing, whether y'all like it or not. The state of Chicago, where as a result of police officers growing frustrations over working conditions, Chicago's Fraternal Order of Police issued a unanimous vote of no confidence in Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown, and First Deputy Superintendent Eric Carter. Now, okay, all right. So, Bernarda, let me all right. So, Bernarda, let me ask you this question,

Bernarda. Looking at that graphic right there, what do you find to be the most consistent thing you see in that graphic? Well, it speaks for itself, Roland. It speaks for itself, Roland. And of course, everyone is going to start pointing fingers. This happens in every city, every city. The

prosecution blames the police. The police brings the prosecution. So it's just ongoing. It's the same story no matter the city. Crime doesn't go down. You're not doing anything about the crime, but you need both departments, law enforcement, as well as a prosecution, in order to bring crime down and to work with other divisions as well. Because it's not just about reacting to crime. It's about also preventing it. I mean, it's a whole—go ahead and pull it up again, Brittany. It's a whole lot of chocolate in that photo. So I kind of got the sense, Brittany, that maybe, just maybe, just maybe, they ain't happy with that much color being in charge in Chicago.

Absolutely, Roland. Come on now. I mean, that's a no-brainer. We can look at the picture and we already know the problem here. We already know. I mean, I'm sorry. It speaks for itself, does it not?

They're not happy. They're not happy. There's too many of us. There's too many of us in charge. Yeah. And I just get a kick out of the whiny fraternal order police because they don't want to deal with their own stuff, Michael. But they always got something. How about this, FOP? We got a unanimous vote. OK, so let me do it.

We'll take a vote right here. So raise your right hand if y'all have one issue, a vote of no confidence to the Chicago Attorney Order, please. FOP Nationwide. See? Unanimous. Michael, go ahead. You know, when you have instances of gross police brutality, the FOP still stands behind the police officers usually. That's what I just find interesting in all this, man. The FOP usually backs the police regardless of what. So here it appears that it's because of the African-American leadership in the city of Chicago that they're against. Now, I know they say things like, you know, they're forced to work a certain number of days

and they're not getting the days off, and they're complaining about the 12-hour shifts and different things like this. But, you know, did they complain about it when you had like more white leadership in the Chicago Police Department? You know, so I think this has something to do with all those black faces up there that they that they really don't like. Yeah, just a little bit. That's just a little bit. I'm just saying there are y'all got'all. Got to go to a break. We come back. Our Education Matters segment.

And one of the things we're going to talk about is the state of HBCUs. In Tennessee, they determined that HBCUs have been getting gypped in Tennessee, underfunded to the tune of nearly $500 million. Yeah, half a billion. So we'll talk about what's happening with one of the top legal scholars in America. That is next, right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Don't move. three bones. The wishbone to keep you dreaming, the jawbone to help you speak truth to power, and the backbone to keep you standing through it all. I'm running for Congress because you

deserve a leader who will stand up fearlessly on your behalf. Together, we will deliver Medicare for all. Good jobs that pay a living wage and bold justice reform. I'm Nina Turner, and I approve this message. If you go back before that horrible day, you realize one important thing. George Floyd did not die on May 25th, 2020. He died 19 years earlier when Derek Chauvin became a cop and was given a badge, a gun, and power.

Derek Chauvin had 18 complaints against him before he was charged with the murder of George Floyd. 18 complaints in 19 years. All but two of the complaints ended without disciplinary action because Derek Chauvin was protected by his police union, their lawyers, and his fellow cops who knew Chauvin did not belong on the street. George Floyd died over 19 years as Derek Chauvin's police union and fellow cops covered up his crimes. Police unions have massive war chests to defend corrupt officers like Derek Chauvin.

They use these war chests to keep dirty cops on the streets. And when they do, people die. And they're almost always black. Somebody kicked in the door inside my girlfriend. Put your hands up! Put your hands up! If you want to help stop these deaths, if you want this to change... Get us several more units over here. There's going to be a problem.

Start with these three steps. Number one, abolish police unions. Number two, abolish law enforcement qualified immunity. And number three, make convicted police officers pay court judgments with their own pensions. No promises or threats, Your Honor. If we don't make these changes, nothing will change.

And if anyone tells you differently, they are either embarrassingly uninformed or completely full of shit. When you study the music, you get black history by default. And so no other craft could carry as many words as rap music. I try to intertwine that and make that create

whatever I'm supposed to send out to the universe. A rapper, you know, for the longest period of time, has gone through phases. I love the word. I hate what it's become, you know, to this generation, the way they visualize it. Its narrative kind of, like, has gotten away and spun away from, I guess, the ascension of black people. Hi, my name is Latoya Luckett.

Yo, it's your man Deon Cole from Black-ish, and you're watching... Roland Martin, unfiltered. Stay woke. Cool, thank you. In Massachusetts, a conservative education advocacy group filed a federal civil rights complaint against a local school district hosting safe spaces that excluded white students. The Parents Defending Education complaint says Wealthy Public Schools is violating its white students' civil rights by inviting its Asian, American, black and brown students See, this is going back to the whole deal. The concerned parents gripe also alleges a form of racial discrimination prohibited under the 14th Amendment. See, this is going back to the whole deal. I think we're talking about the farmers deal here, Brittany.

It's like, you know, no, no. We want to be in all your spaces. How dare you? Roland, I'm really lost. Like the sheer inability for white folks to even attempt to understand our plight as people of color is just truly mind blowing. Like this concept of like, no, but if we're not there, it's reverse racism and it's racism as if they don't understand why we need our own spaces in the first place. It's because you've historically excluded us, right?

It's truly mind blowing. The simple fact that they decided to invoke the Civil Rights Act of 1964, I mean, where is the historical context? Do these people even understand how the Civil Rights Act of 1964 came about? These folks are not being discriminated against, and we know that. Yeah, I have to laugh. I have to laugh. And I'm glad to see, I will say this, I'm glad to see leadership standing their ground on this, as they continue to argue that hosting those affinity spaces is not only part of a, it's long-term and evidence-based district strategy that not only supports the students, but the faculty's voices in terms of issues that are deeply affecting us in this racist country. Bernardo, you're a lawyer. Do you believe that the creation of these spaces is wrong by the school district?

So when we're looking at it from a legal lens, Roland, it's going to be a problem. It's going to be a problem because it's a public school. It's a public institution. So it is going to be an issue because, you know, of Title IX and also of all the federal funds that these schools actually get. So I can see some liability of the public school, of also the teacher acting as an agent of the school. So there's going to be an issue. I'm not going to be surprised if for some reason she gets fired or she's forced to take a leave.

Michael? Yeah, you know, my thing is, why would the white students want to be in the space? This is, you know, I understand what the attorney is saying. I totally understand that. And understanding public school systems and they have to deal with the law and everything like that, I understand that. But my question would be, why would white students want to be in the space? It's a space for healing. So unless you think maybe that the non-white students are going to be plotting against you.

So why would you want to be in that space? Why wouldn't you step back and give them some space to deal with these issues and to heal? So, yeah, brother, but this is something else. And a minute ago you said people need to stop doing racist things. Actually, the problem is racism. See, racism is a system of advantage and privilege distributed based upon race. The problem is not necessarily race, as many people think. The problem is racism, which is the power structure. But yeah, brother, this is another example, man. And it's like, well, you know, sometimes white people feel they just have to be involved in everything. Sometimes they're doing too much. Indeed, indeed, indeed. Folks, let's talk about when it comes to money. All right. Let's talk about money. All right. We have seen and we've been reporting on HBCUs and the funding issues. For years, we covered the case in Maryland that was recently dealt with where the legislature finally approved more than $500 million for the four HBCUs in Maryland that had been impacted when the state allowed duplicate programs to be created at largely white institutions, hurting those HBCUs.

We've covered this in North Carolina, where they were trying to target those HBCUs. I'm from Houston. I've been covering the issues at Texas Southern University and Prairie View A&M University. My next guest was very much involved, the lead attorney for the successful lawsuit in Mississippi that led to a massive multi-million dollar settlement for the HBCUs there as well. So now there's a new initiative called March to Save Our HBCUs. It will take place on August 14th. One of the folks who was, of course, the leader in that is Attorney Alvin Chambliss.

Doc, how you doing? How you doing, Doc? I'm OK. Correction. $580 million for three schools. And I. That's Mississippi. That's Mississippi.

Got it. Sorry. $580 million. And in Texas, I filed a suit against the state of Texas, and we got $200 million for Prairie View and $200 million for Texas Southern. That's how Texas Southern got the renovation of law school and all this stuff. So $400 million, you know. So suffice to say, you've been successful at battling these states in the courtroom. The Tennessee state story we just read where we had a state official on last Friday talking about that state

where a committee determined that Tennessee state had been underfunded almost to the tune of between $150 million up to more than $500 million. At no point was there equal funding going to Tennessee State University. When it comes to these public HBCUs, is it your perspective that that's been the case for all of them? Yeah, well, see, you're talking about the Gaia case. It was four cases. And let me just, for the record, say that there are 19 states and the District of Columbia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. All right. So that means right now 15 states in the United States are in violation of Brown and Fordyce because they have not desegregated higher education. But it's very difficult to do those kind of cases

because you're going to take at least 10, 8, 9, 10 years. That's why in Maryland they probably could have gotten more, but they ran into the issue of traceability, and

traceability, there was a point for Maryland issue of traceability. And traceability, there was a port per Maryland was in compliance, and then it went out of compliance. And so once that unbroken line, that broken line, you can't deal with traceability. Then you have to go with intent. You have to file a lawsuit and you have to prove they intended. But see, if you can trace it from Brown, 1954 to right now, an unbroken line, then you'll have no problem. Because the intent was there when they passed the law. And Alvin, you have the state legislators who were like, oh, no, no, no.

We see things now as equal. But the bottom line is I keep telling everybody, I'm wearing this shirt, where's our money? If you're going to talk about America, you've got to deal with the money. We can talk about community. We can talk about all these other different things. No, in America, if you don't deal with the money, you ain't dealing with the real issue. You're absolutely right. That's why we're calling for this March on March the 14th, 2021, in Jackson, Mississippi, two weeks before the March on Washington, August 28th.

And let me just give you the three. Let's talk about the money. Alcorn State University this week celebrated its 150th anniversary. It was the first black law land grant in the country. And it was the seventh land grant coming out of the Land Grant Act of 1862. And of course, let me just tell everybody what land grant uh coming out the land grant act of 1862 and of course let me just tell everybody what land grant means it means poor white folks can go to college prior to the only the rich people went to college they didn't have no poor colleges and so they during the civil war they passed in 1862 the land grant act and Act, and they subscription, you know, the whole GI Bill kind of situation, but you could go to school, and then once you finish,

they would give you so much land so you can, you know, et cetera. Now, at Alcorn right now, let's talk about the budget. The budget for Alcorn is $15 million. The budget for Mississippi State University is $265 million. Let's talk about cooperative extension. There are 17 cooperative extensions in the state. All of them are under the jurisdiction of Mississippi State University. As a matter of fact, the one on campus for Alcorn is run by Mississippi State. So

with a stroke of the pen, if we bring about 30,000 or 40,000 people to Mississippi, with a stroke of a pen, Alcorn could get maybe $75 to $100 million because they don't have the matching funds.

Now, that's one. Jackson State, you got a serious problem there. The way they intend to try to get rid of Deion Sanders, let nobody fool you. Paul was a mom and all them other people. They are angry with Deion coming up and getting them ball players so they don't take the stadium.

Mississippi Medical School... When you say they're trying to take the stadium? Okay, excuse me. All right. Without getting into a lot of detail, when we tried the Ayers case, two days before Dr. Lyons of Maryland testified, uh, it was a big thing in the paper.

Everybody agreed. Uh, Goodman went to the judge and said, Judge, in open court now, we don't want the law school. A big thing in the paper, everybody agreed. Goodman went to the judge and said, Judge, in open court now, we don't want the law school. I mean, we don't want the stadium. It's a lot of repair. They can have the stadium. Well, the judge says, Chambliss, did you hear that?

I said, yes, sir, yeah. He said, well, we don't have to worry about that issue. Two days later, Dr. Lyons come. He say they didn't want to be a part of the medical school. He say they didn't want to be, they didn't want the stadium too many repairs. They didn't want a law school. I mean, what I'm trying to say to that, so they made, in a way, Jackson State would be the primary tenant and would have veto right of anybody else coming in the stadium.

But they did not have the state of the stadium belong to the state of Mississippi. One more thing, Valley State. They closed in Valley State again. At one time, Valley State had close to 5,500 students. They only have 1,409. And they come up with a black tax on Mississippi Valley. They didn't increase it on the other schools, but the president said, will you please give us $100,

let every student pay a hundred dollar activity fee to help upgrade mr vet i call the black tax and because of that we are marching so and i'm gonna go to my panel in a second for some questions here and so do we have because i i know i know the firm that worked on the the Maryland case, and that was a 13-year battle. Do we have a contingent of lawyers, a particular law firm, an entity that's making it the mission to say, we're going to go across, go to every single state to ensure that every single public HBCU is being properly funded, and if not, we're going to take them to court.

What do we need as a community to ensure that we are getting equity for HBCUs? Well, see, you know, let me just make it very clear. I appreciate that's a good question. In the history of this country, going back to 1619 to now, and people don't want to deal with it, but you've never had a black public interest law firm with status. If you start off by dealing with the NAACP and when they did the cases

before Thurgood Marshall, they did not. I went to law school. I wanted to be like Thurgood Marshall. I really wanted to do public interest. I went to legal service two years, and of course I started filing all kinds of applications. The given community will not give a damn to black lawyers dealing with the law. And it's ironic that

$500 million is given. That's how much the endowment for Southern poverty. That's more than Howard University. I mean, lawyers committee, NAACP legal defense fund, controlled by white folks. Nothing controlled by black. I was talking to Crump the other day. I need to say this. And I said, Crump, at one time I was kind of angry with you because, you know, you had to deal with, you know, mortgage to mortgage.

But I understand. You need at least $25 to $30 million investment with 25 or 30 lawyers to tackle this kind of stuff. We just don't have it. Let me go to our panelists here. I want to bring them in now. We just don't have it. Let me go to our panelists here. I want to bring them in now. Bernarda, you're a lawyer. We'll start with you.

Your question for Alvin Chambliss. The money is the money. The money is definitely the issue. I completely agree with counsel that the problem is, is that there are no law firms that are dedicated strictly to public interest and looking into making sure that there's equal education for all of us, or that all the laws are being followed by these school systems. That's why they are the way they are. But the problem is also is that we're not in positions where we can say, even when we graduate from law school, like, yes, I was one of 17 people in a class of 275 at Boston College Law School. So our numbers are so small. And by the time we do graduate from law school, I dedicated myself 16 years of public service. And I am tired of

being broke, rolling, so I had to leave. So that's the same problem that we all encounter, the majority of us, is that even though we want to do so much good, it is very difficult because we also have bills to pay. And if we want to have a family, we need to be able to afford it. Well, let me just say this. The black law school's at risk. Now, you know 316 was passed which basically said that if you didn't pass the bar, 75% bar passes within two years, then you could be defunded or

lose your life's accreditation. What I'm basically saying, there's an all-out assault on professionalism and you need, and I'll be ebonic now. You need to think, because you don't hear a lot of stuff going on, that these people are not doing the same thing to Black colleges

as they're doing to voter suppression and everything else. So everything is being cut, and Black people got to wake up. Brittany. Yeah, well, first off, thank you so much for all of the work that you're doing to support HBCUs. It's important work and it needs to be done. And we'll be sure to be at the march in August. But I do have a question for you. So in addition to the march, what do you believe the public, like the general public can do in addition to the march to support these efforts and continue to ensure the HBCUs are getting their share of the funding? Especially if you're not really familiar with what the issues are related to HBCUs.

Well, there's a lot they can do. Now, let's be honest. Maryland, the way they were able to get that decision was they had a black caucus that insisted that that was their priority. And, you know, in Mississippi, for an example, we have, what, 50-some black legislators, but none of them have really, I'm just being honest, none of them have taken an interest in the ARC. So you need to political force in your legislature, but you all need to... I think Alvin

froze, so let me, hold on Alvin, your Skype froze there, so I want to make sure that we get you, so let me know. Okay, there we go. I think we got him back. Alvin, govin. Your Skype froze there, so I want to make sure that we get you. So let me know. Okay, there we go. I think we got them back. Alvin, go ahead.

You mentioned the Black Caucus. I basically said that you needed the legislature. Maryland had a strong Black Caucus. All of them was for Morgan State and et cetera. That cohesiveness is not available in the other states. I'm sorry. But you also need to have activists, parents, students, the clergy, what they can do. The churches can take the lead. Just think about it, man. I'm going to shut up, right? But let me just think about it. How in the world do you think they're going to have voter suppression?

They're going to have all this voting, but they're going to let you go to school. In other words, do you think people are going to allow you to have a PhD, but then say you can't vote? In other words, they're cutting back on everything, and people are not... Let me just say this too. My son told me not to say this, Roland. I'm going to say it any kind of way.

I ain't never known you not to say... Alvin, Alvin, you are the Paul Mooney of the legal community. You say whatever comes to your mind. So go ahead and say it. The biggest corpus are these black college presidents, okay? Now, let me just tell you.

They... First of all, you got the state legislature. And the state legislature appoints them, all right? Now, in Jackson, for an example, they got a gentleman, you know, I ain't gonna talk about him, but, you know, he went to Ole to talk about him, but you know, he went to Ole Miss Law School. That's

all he did. And they made him president because he went to Jackson State. Now, he talking about he don't want no stadium. What if the stadium was worth a billion? You have not had appraisal. The state give him $250,000 to do another study. This is the

fourth study, all right? And he thought, well, we don't want that state. We're going to build off the state in a land where the stadium law is worth about $350 million. But you don't want it. They will do whatever them white folks tell them to do. And, you know, and I'm sorry. I believe that students have constitutional rights. The state does not have constitutional rights, all right?

The president doesn't have constitutional rights. The constitutional right is in the students. And that's who I represent. So I can say whatever. Now, let me make it very, very clear. Now, I'm a parquet. I've suffered, and it's okay. It's okay. I'm all parquet. I've suffered, and it's okay. It's okay.

I'm all right. But I've suffered. I have not been invited to one black college in this nation, not even Jackson State or Corn Valley. People say I'm toxic because they don't know what I'm going to say. What the hell? Excuse me, Jesus. What the hell?

Okay. Alvin, Alvin, Alvin, let me explain something to you. See this right here? This show is called Roland Martin Unfiltered. You ain't got to be afraid to say what you want to say. The bottom line is this here. The reality is this here. You are one of the greatest legal minds in this country.

And I dare say the preeminent lawyer dealing specifically with HBCUs. It is crazy that a HBCU would not want to invite you. In fact, when I met in North Carolina, Alvin, with the Black Caucus there, when they were trying to fight to save the HBCUs, I specifically gave the North Carolina Black Caucus your phone number. Gave them your phone number. Did Alvin freeze? Is Alvin still there?

Let me know. All right, let me know when we bring Alvin back. Let's do this here, y'all, because I want Alvin to finish this point. See, the Skype machine was too hot for Alvin. I'm going to go to I'm going to go to a break and we're going to come right back. Y'all stay with us. Y'all don't want to miss this conversation because, see, folk, the conversation we having right now, you ain't getting this on them gossip channels that that folk talk. You ain't getting this on them fake YouTube historian channels that just talk stuff.

You ain't getting this on the channels where they're talking about who's the high net worth man, high net worth woman. We got to have real information in black America, and that's why we do this here. We don't spend time sitting here with folk who don't want to appear on camera just talking bad about everybody else. We cut to the chase. There's one reason why we want y'all to support Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Y'all can do so by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar you give goes to support this show. Matter of fact, I got some people on Twitter mad right now because of the Nina Turner ads that are running. And I'm like, oh, so I can't take political advertising money, but CNN, Fox, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, every local television station, every local radio station, every local newspaper can.

Man, y'all can go to hell. Y'all can support Roland Martin Unfiltered, Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal.me forward slash R Martin Unfiltered, Venmo.com forward slash RM Unfiltered, Zellers, Roland at RolandSMarttered, PayPal.me forward slash R Martin unfiltered, Venmo.com forward slash RM unfiltered. Zale is rolling at rolling. It's martin.com. We got Alvin back.

We got Alvin back. Alvin, the point I was making is this here. It's crazy. You said that no HBCU has invited you. Look, when it comes to law and HBCUs and funding, ain't nobody at the top of the game than you. In fact,

I want to let you know, there's a brother who's putting together a legal team specifically dealing with HBCUs, Alvin. And he sent me a text to tell me what he was doing. And I said, you need to call Alvin Chambers. And he said, well, he said, you know, I've enlisted the brother who led the Maryland lawsuit. I said, no, you need to also call Alvin Chambliss. I said, because the Maryland lawsuit's framework was built on the Mississippi case. But not only that, he's talking about, I hate to say it again,

John Britton. John Britton was not lead counsel. He's black. He never was lead counsel. The guy's name is Mitchell. And he was from the Lawyers Committee. John was with the Lawyers Committee. Now, to be honest with you, John took the case to the Lawyers Committee for Richardson.

But once they got the Lawyers Committee, they put this white ball over there. And of course, they went about three, four years. They were getting ready to drop the case because they said it would be bankrupting them. And so they went to Kirkland. And they got Kirkland to finance it.

And that's how they did it. And before I go to Michael with his question, and I did this, and I need people to understand, y'all, this ain't new to me. I knew Alvin, I knew Alvin when he was, Alvin had gone to TSU. He was sitting there doing some work there. We've crossed paths over the years. And Alvin, when I was down in North Carolina helping to stop the Republicans from shutting down HBCUs,

I was in a meeting with the Black Caucus, and they was complaining about funding. I said, y'all need to call Alvin Chambliss. And they were like, who? I said, I need to call Alvin Chambliss. And let me let y'all know how black I am. We in the meeting with the North Carolina people. And they said, who?

I said, hold on. Alvin, I'm about to give these folk your phone number for them to call you to help the North Carolina people. I'm just letting you know. And he's like, all right. And they looked at me like I was crazy. I said, I told y'all I don't play. So it's nonsensical that any public HBCU or the alumni,

or if they were serious about trying to get HBCUs funded, they wouldn't be calling you. But they're not serious, Roland. See, I made it very, very clear. I'm not about making Negro presidents rich. And not just the president, but these faculty people, too. The faculty senate is supposed to be, there's a trinity. It's supposed to be the governor of the state who is, you know, he appoints the board.

Then you have the faculty senate, and, of course, you have the students, and the faculty senate, and of course you have the students and the faculty senate. That is the trend. The governor, the president, and the faculty senate. I had a conversation with Carnegie, you know, the new guy by the name of Knowles. He's, he's young. And I just told him, you all messed up this,

or you all over. And they say, they're going to get it back. But right now the ratings and all this other stuff is that, you know, in, in, in,

in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in,

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in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in of university, but they're going to get it back. But black colleges are many times, in a sense, they're like renegades. And when I say

that, God knows I'd love them. But I'm basically saying that you have to have a system. For an example, in Atlanta, one of my good friends, Willer X, Macassar, he's the inventor of black power. Not Stokely, but Willie Ricks. I was there.

Every time Willie Ricks go on a black college campus, they arrest him. He can't even go. And you have the Klan, everybody else going there. And that's not right. You have people, well, the president, I'm going to say it, at Howard, they gave him three votes of no confidence. At Harvard, if they think you're talking about know, in other words, that you resign because you're not gonna let them do a vote of no confidence. How you gonna still be at a school and the faculty give you three votes of no confidence? These black schools

are running raggedy and I just told the congregation, I said, look, you need to come with standards. Douglas at the law school, I talked to him. I said, Douglas, James Douglas, he was the dean and he was the president of the choir. I said, Douglas, you see these bar passengers, right?

These people need four years. I say it takes most black folks who, you know, doesn't, isn't that upper middle class, it take them one year to understand the language of the law. So why can't we have four? Oh, no, we can't have four. Do you care four or three? Look, the Carnegie Foundation can come up with a formula for if some people want to go on a four-year track, go on a four-year track. You know, I mean, these people, they don't want to push the envelope. They don't want solutions. I believe in solutions. That's all I believe in, solutions. I taught a course called Civil Rights cause civil rights enforcement. Right now, we don't need nothing but people to enforce the law. And you have to have an enforcement mechanism, because if you don't do this, this is what I'm going to do.

And the streets is one of the best mechanisms in the world. Michael M. Hotep, your question for Alvin Chambliss. Hello, Attorney Chambliss. attorney Chambliss this is Michael Imhotep thank you for mentioning brother Africa Mukasa Dada I've interviewed him and he's talked about the origins of the black power ideology and the term black power

and the work he did with SNCC the question I have for you yeah that's a bad brother right there man The question we have for you... Yeah, that's a bad brother right there, man. I'm SNCC too now. The question I have for you... What'd you say? I'm SNCC too now. Oh, okay. All right, good.

Oh, yeah. We should call that Ronica 60s crowd. Yes. The question I have for you, you mentioned the Land Grant Act of 1862 and poor whites

and going to college and things like this, right? Can you talk more about that, the Land Grant Act of 1862? Because I remember Dr. King in 1968, early 68, doing a speech on economic empowerment and talking about how the land grants

help white farmers with their farms and recognize their farms. And is that Land Grant Act of 1862, is that related to the Homestead Act of 1862? That's right. That's a part of it. Yeah, Smith leave it later on, the homestead. But here's the thing, man.

It's wonderful. See, when Grant offered the black soldiers 40 acres, and what is it, 40 acres in a mule? That's still going to be 15. They'd already given the white folks that. So what? But they denied it to black folk. And so, you know, let me just say this while I'm here.

Y'all may not call me back, but I'm glad to be here. Alvin, you're going to get called back. You know why? This my shit. I own it. Okay. I appreciate it. But I want to say this so people will understand.

We talk about reparation, and I believe in reparation. But at the same time, I believe that we need to do it in such a manner. If I'm not educated, you go to Brown. Okay, this week, the 17th, or the 67th birthday of Brown v. Board of Education. Now, when Brown first came out, men doing all the...we said, well, we don't need...why we got to go with white folks...you know, I was against it. But then later on, I started talking to these judges, and they said, Mr. Chairman, we got to have a hook. And desegregation, integrate, that's the hook.

And what I guess I'm trying to say is compensatory education. Democratic Party, for example, they're going to talk about free carter fair, but why the hell are you going to give free carter for white folks who are rich? You need to be talking about free carters for those people who need it. And so all these people talk about land grant, for example. Let me just say this. Land grant, you have in Mississippi, there are 17 extension services is in every county in the state or in the nation, okay? Alcorn don't have none of that. It's a pot pie in any body. But now, let me be honest with you now.

As the lawyer, I'm just going for the audience. We had a gentleman, his name was Fong, from the Justice Department. He did the land grant. And after he got about 15 to 20 minutes into questioning

his witness, Judge Biggers said, Mr. Fong, he said, I see that you are talking about this discrimination and you got this witness. He said, but the discrimination was by the federal government. It wasn't by the state. So, I guess what I'm saying is in land grant,

Alcorn is established on May the 13th, 1871. Why the heck you going to make it an 1890 institution? It's ought to be 1862 with the white folk. And we need to force Biden to put it back with the white folk. And we need to force Biden to put it back with the white folk. It needs to have the same, but second-class citizenship. And that's wrong. Brittany, did you finish asking your

question? I know it broke up there. I want to make sure that you finished asking your question to Alan. I was basically just asking what are the various options that we have as the public to continue to support, you know, his work in this effort to ensure that our HBCUs have the funding that they need and to ensure that they continue to live on for another century? Well, the first thing we need to do is try to organize. Now, see, I'm trying to organize the right to bring attention to the—and let me just make it clear, again, that y'all please don't—Lord, please don't have mercy on me. You got international warfare that's going on.

You have what you call the private black colleges, and you got the public black colleges. The 65 to 70% of all the blacks that's in college go to public black colleges, okay? But, you know, they combine them together, say HBCU, and for the most part, most of the private people was over there with Trump. I'm just telling you, all that old money and all. And, you know, I mean, I guess what I'm trying to say is right now, you used to have an organization called NAFEO, the National Association of Equal Education Opportunities.

This young lady by the name of Ledley Bacaville, she's there. But again, there have been some issues. And so now, okay, it used to be the Thurgood Marshall Fund. It's private now. It used to be for public, but they take anybody because they took the Koch brother money and they told Koch we'd do all. So right now, it's not for public.

It's for everybody. And they, and everybody, I do all. So right now, it's not for the public. It's for everybody. And they, and everybody, I'm going to say the truth, that everybody's angry with them because they have gotten $100 million, and they're trying to get the next $200 million. And they want to be self-fulfilled profits. They no longer giving money like the United Negro College Fund. So... we need

Black Lives Matter. We need them to come in and help us. Now, I'm going to tell you right now, a lot of folks don't like them. I love them because they're young folks. And, you know, look, man, how you going the gentleman up there

in South Carolina, well, Jamie lost because defund the police. If they're going to march, they do what they want to do. What typically do you do? He lost because he lost. And, you know, I mean, I love Black Lives Matter. If we can get a coalition with them and some of the energetic people

can help us get together. And I think that we can put pressure on the foundation and the giving. Every black college in this nation ought to have at least $100 million, okay, in endowment. They're giving all kinds of money, but they don't give to black colleges.

And of course, now let me be honest now, with the black colleges, you sometimes, you have to do like they did, that gentleman there, he did a good job in Howard as much as he cut some of these, he had to cut some of them, and then refound

and refinance. My point is, you have to know when to hold and when to fold. You absolutely right on that one, Alvin Chambliss. I told you

when I saw you in Baytown last week, y'all, Alvin was like, man, I want to get this out. He was talking. I said, ah, Alvin. I said, I don't answer nobody. I just put you on the show next week. I appreciate it.

I appreciate it, man. That's why you here. Let me just say to all y'all, I'm happy to be here. And, you know, the thing that come to my mind, please give me two minutes. Go ahead. No, Alvin, you got it. Go. Ain't nobody going to interrupt you.

Go. It's Invictus. Out of the night. Yes. Yes. I thank the Lord wherever he may be. Out of the strange circumstances, I have not cried out loud, but in the plush of reason, I am, my head is bledded, bledded, but unbowed. And so say that no matter how straight the gate,

I am the, and I don't care what punishment you have on the stroll, but I am the captain of my faith. And I'm the master of my soul. And if I had to do it all over again, I would do it the same way on a little time sooner. And that's what a church say. Amen. Alvin Chambliss. I ain't never done this, Alvin. Normally when we do a five box,

normally I'm in the center and I put the guests in the smaller box with the panelists. But you see, you were preaching so much, I had to put you in the big box. You got the big piece of chicken. Alvin Chambliss, brother, I appreciate it. The March to Save HBCUs, August 14th.

Where is it going to take place? What city? Jackson, Mississippi. Jackson, Mississippi. Alvin, I'm going to check the schedule and if it all lines up, we will be there to live stream

in Jackson, Mississippi on August 14th to march to save HBCUs. My brother, I appreciate it. They say it could be done, but we're going to do it. All right. Just Jesus and the spirit. That's all we have.

But that's all we need. Yes, sir. Alvin Chandler, I appreciate it, my brother. Thanks a lot. Thanks, sir. Brittany, Michael, Bernardo, I certainly appreciate y'all joining us on today's panel. Thank you so very much for being with us. That's a hot way to close out a great week.

Thank you all so very much for being with us, y'all. Man, that was fire. I see y'all comments on Facebook and Twitter and YouTube. Y'all lit too. They trying to ask where to pass the collection plate. So we appreciate that. Well, one place you can pass a collection plate is right here, because here's the deal. Ain't no other show going to

give you what you just got with that much heat and that much time. That's why we do Rolling Mark Unfiltered. We ain't asking nobody opinion. We black-owned. We black-controlled. We black-operated. We black-focused. And so y'all can join our Bring the Funk fan club. It's

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Thank you so very much. If you give more, we appreciate that as well. Cash app, dollar sign, RM unfiltered, paypal.me forward slash R Martin unfiltered, venmo.com forward slash RM unfiltered. Zelle is rolling at rolling. That's martin.com and rolling that rolling martin unfiltered.com. Y'all know we always end the show every Friday. But we run the names of the people who have given to our show. If you don't see your name, if it's misspelled, send me an email. We'll get it taken care of. And, man, I just appreciate it, man. It's been a hot week.

And, y'all, what you just saw is why I created this show. When my TV One show got canceled in December 2017, I said, we have got to have a daily show that speaks to our issues that's black-owned. I ain't got nothing against Black News Channel, but a Pakistani-American billionaire is the majority owner of Black News Channel. They black-targeted, they ain't black-owned.

BET, Viacom, CBS owns them. They ain't black-owned, they cbs owns them they ain't black owned they black targeted it's as simple as that ain't nobody else doing what we doing right here and i'm telling y'all right now what i'm gonna drop next month we going higher i can't y'all I just today I just finished going to our new office space wait till y'all see that but what I'm about to drop next month in fact I'm telling y'all y'all gonna be blown away that's why we need your support in what we do I'll see y'all guys on Monday. Holla! A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one.

Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. Small but important ways from tech billionaires to the bond market to yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chaston. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to everybody's business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication.

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I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year,

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