#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Biden plan to decrease black/white wealth gap; TX voting bill "typo"; VA Seminary to pay reparations

Episode Date: June 3, 2021

6.2.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Biden plan to decrease black/white wealth gap and cancel student loan debt; Alleged TX voting bill "typo" causes drama; Virginia Seminary to pay reparations; City of Columbus gets its first Black woman police chief; Illinois passes bill banning cops from lying to kids during interrogations; Crazy a$$ man waving a confederate flag taunts black county commissioner in MemphisSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

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

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

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Martin! Today's Wednesday, June 2nd, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, President Joe Biden announced his plan to decrease the black-white wealth gap while he was in Tulsa. We'll talk with the NAACP President Derrick Johnson. They say it doesn't do the job if it doesn't include student loan cancellation.

Also, the Virginia Theological Seminary is making reparations payments to descendants of former slaves who were forced to work there with no pay. We'll talk to a representative from the school about that. Ohio has its first black woman police chief. Columbus also hired its first police chief from outside of the city about that. Ohio has its first black woman police chief. Columbus also hired its first police chief from outside of the city in Illinois. They're the first state to pass a bill banning police from lying to kids during interrogations.

Plus, we'll talk with a elected official in Memphis who had to contend with a news conference where crazy-ass white men walking back and forth behind her waving the Confederate flag, because she is against a Confederate monument. Also, voting rights. Biden also said in his speech that voting rights groups should redouble their efforts

to pass legislation. I'm sorry. You need to deal with Joe Manchin and Kristen Sinema. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on the filter. 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 Roland. Best belief 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-royal 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. Martin. Folks, Republicans in Texas are dancing around the issue of voting rights there. Now remember, Democrats walked out of the legislature in Texas, preventing them from having a quorum to pass one of the most extreme voter suppression laws in the country.

One of the issues dealt with Sunday voting. It would restrict Sunday voting before 1 p.m. Now Republicans are saying, ah, that was a typo. We didn't mean 1 p.m. We mean it 11 a.m. Listen to this. But first of all, I was on NPR and it was hilarious, y'all. So now all of a sudden they're Listen to this. First of all, it was on NPR, and it was hilarious, y'all. So now all of a sudden they're trying to say, oh, we're going to make those changes in a special session. Now keep in mind, they're only saying that because Democrats walked out.

Now Governor Greg Abbott, he also is trying to defund the legislature because he's pissed off how they voted. Scott Bolden, former chair of the National Bar Association Political Action Committee. Robert Portillo, executive director for the Rainbow Push Coalition, Peach Tree Street Project. Monique Presley, legal analyst and crisis manager. All glad to have all three of you folks. Let's get right into it. I'll start with you, Monique, being from Texas. Give me a break.

It was a typo. We didn't mean 1 p.m. We meant 11 a.m. Y'all shouldn't have gotten up that upset. No. So now in my home state, unfortunately, the white supremacists are trying to oops and uh-oh their way into voter suppression 3.0. I mean, that's where we are. Like, we'll do as much as we can get away with. When we get found out, we'll double down, triple down. When it seems like we're taking some bad press about it, then we'll say, I'm sorry. That's not what it was. I mean, it is absurd. It's insulting. It's ridiculous. And I am just thankful for the work of people like LaTosha Browncliffe Albright,

Black Voters Matter Fund, the groups that they've partnered with on the ground in Texas who worked with state legislators to get to the point where it came down to it and they had the willpower, the spine to walk out and to prevent quorum so that at least for this session, the worst could not happen. But it's just a reminder that it's not even about being vigilant. We have to be active. We have to be proactive. We have to be offensive. We have to be assertive because it is a dire situation. Bottom line here, Robert, they're liars. They're liars. It's undemocratic. It's un-American. They are trying to, again, they are using their power to try to change this country. And Democrats must use everything at their disposal to stop them. Everything.

Well, to that point, I find it very strange that every few weeks we have a news story where there's a oops situation that affects black people negatively. I remember the officer around Minneapolis who shot the young man said, oops, I meant to grab my taser. Now it's oops, I meant to do voter suppression a different way. And I think also what we're seeing often is the side issues in many of these voter suppression laws are what become the headline versus the main meat of it. We saw here in Georgia there was a big push about not being able to hand out water and food to people in line. The bigger issue was the state legislature robbing the secretary of state and local boards of elections of the ability to oversee the electoral process. In Texas, similarly, they're trying to take the power away from, take local control of elections away, invest it in the state legislature so they can basically rig the 2022 and 2024 election. So while on one hand they're pretending to fight for election

integrity, what they're actually doing is broad in your face, in broad daylight, the stealing of future elections from the American people. And when you talk about the fact that why they're doing this, let's remember, there's a 17-year-old watching right now, they have never seen a Republican win the popular vote in a national election. That's how long it's been since they've been able to get the majority of the American people on their side. In the Senate, you've got 50 Democratic senators, 50 Republican senators, but over 50 Republican senators represent 41 million fewer Americans than the Democratic senators do. That's the equivalent of the state of California missing. So they have no interest in actually winning the popular vote. They have no interest in doing what

the American people want. All they want is to hold on to power to be able to centralize and make themselves and their contributors rich. And we've got to do everything we can to fight against it. Scott? Well, because they're certainly doing everything they can to hold on to power when they simply don't have the votes. You know, when Rodney Ellis was in the legislature in Texas, they shut down the Texas legislature about 10 plus years ago, I think over another voting rights issue. But the real strategy here is, what do we get out of this? How do we get back to the legislature stronger, even though we're in the minority, and give them a quorum to move forward? I guess they're going to negotiate their behinds off and cut a deal in order to get a quorum because they can stay out. But when they come back on the next legislative session,

they can still walk out again. And so this might be our greatest argument or our greatest leverage before coming back into session. The next best strategy is obviously the federal courts, which is going to certainly follow whatever legislation is passed if it continues to be suppressive to black folks. And so we should keep an eye on this. Look, at the end of the day, this comes down to power. Either you use it or you don't. Republicans have no problem wielding it, beating folks upside the head with it.

That was one of the reasons why yesterday President Joe Biden made his remarks calling for groups to redouble their efforts. I find that a bit baffling considering voting rights groups are doing that. Joining us right now is Derek Johnson, president of the NAACP. Derek, glad to have you back on the show. Derek, I was sort of, I was sort of, it was, I got the president's point, but voting rights groups, they've been doing their job. The problem is, it get past the House. The problem is,

it's two Democrats in the Senate who are hell-bent on keeping the filibuster. Well, at the end of the day, we cannot move public policy unless you have 50 plus one of the members of the Senate who would agree to do away with the filibuster and then adopt policy to protect themselves.

Right now, we are looking at the reality of members of Congress trying to hold on to traditions, despite the fact that they are about to be taken out if they hold on to those traditions. Thank God Christian Clark was confirmed last week. So now we have someone heading up the Civil Rights Division who understand voting rights and can begin to pursue a course of action to deal with these states who are seeking to create a 1940 reality. Because civil rights groups, we're playing whack-a-mole. We're filing lawsuits state by state. But what we really need is policy change to push back this tide of illegal activity to suppress the black vote. You, NAACP announced you're going to be meeting with Senator Joe Manchin next week. He has been pushed and prodded by the Poor People's Campaign, Reverend

Dr. William Barber and others. What do you hope to accomplish? He's written. He is adamant there is nothing that can get him off this position. You know, it is not just NAACP. It's civil rights leaders. We're going to meet with Senator Manchin about several issues. That's not one particular issue because at the end of the day, it's not only voting rights. We have an infrastructure bill that has to come through here. We have police reform that needs to be addressed. We have so many issues that this administration must deliver on, and they cannot do it unless they have both the House and the Senate to adopt policy change,

and segregation rules like the blue slip and the filibuster should not be barriers to our progress. One of the other issues that was a big part of yesterday's speech dealt with the issue of the wealth gap. President Biden talked about home ownership. He talked about a number of these issues. But I got to get your thoughts on that because even, you know, increasing from 10 percent to 15 percent for disadvantaged businesses. But there are others who said that, frankly, they wanted to hear more from the president, stuff that was substantive from him to address what I would call an economic calamity that exists in this country. Well, what we're looking at is a systemic problem that's decades long of impeding black folks from building wealth, from the creation of the FHA home mortgage program, where they allow for local developers

and bankers to decide who qualified for homes and who didn't, allow for local court ordinances to redline blacks into ghettoized communities, devaluing the property. And then you look at today where student loans is the new barrier to home ownership because your income debt ratio is too high as a result of student loans. And for African-Americans, the largest employer in our community is government. So we are underpaid, over-borrowed in student loans, and no real trajectory out of being able to get into home ownership so that we can build wealth because the number one vehicle in this country of wealth creation is home ownership. That's on top of the lack of business opportunity and development, on top of the lack of access to capital, on top of, on top of, on top of. So if you're going to have a chart of course forward

dealing with the wealth gap, you have to look at the systemic issues from its core and build up. I am glad in the plan they're looking at at the bias that has existed, gone unaccounted for many years in terms of home appraisal, but now we have to get people who can qualify for the mortgages to purchase the home.

But you also got to deal with also contracts. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, at the behest of the NNPA in 2018, released a report where a survey was done, and it showed that $5 billion spent over five years by the federal government for media advertising of the $5 billion, $51 million went to black-owned companies, black-owned media outlets. When you look at contracting under Trump, they went back to bundling those contracts, meaning if you were a small business,

a black business, you could not actually compete for the larger contracts as opposed to breaking them up. And so we also have to look at that system, the billions and billions of dollars that are spent by the federal government every year that black businesses cannot compete for. That's taxpayer money that's frankly going to white America and not coming back to black America. Well, I mean, when I say on top of, on top of, on top of, that's exactly what I'm talking about. It is a compounded problem that's structural in nature and can only be fixed with systemic policy that's targeted, focused, and clear. You can't have a policy that says it's for all of America,

think it's going to help black people because black people are disproportionately impacted. You have to have targeted programs to address the systemic problems in all walk of life, whether it's contracting, home ownership, or access to quality education. It is all a part of the same cycle of structural barriers that have been in place for decades. The president also, according to Politico, Biden proudly tells lawmakers not to expect much of reparations legislation. I talked to Congressman Jim Clyburn last week when I was in Tulsa. He said on Democratic side, he's the one who counts the votes. They don't have 218 to pass H.R. 40.

Well, here again, elections have consequences. One election cycle is not going to change decades of problems. And so for the African-Americans, we have to be even more vigilant, even more focused, increase our enthusiasm. So as we get out of what we just had to something better, what better it was necessary for us to do, but it's not sufficient. And understanding that every time we get to a step that's necessary, we have to also realize it won't be sufficient until we get to that place where there is equity that's true, systemic, and lasting. And we're not there. We're not even close to there. So midterm election, once again,

it's going to be really important. So I said, well, I just voted. Well, one vote election cycle is not the panacea. The House will be lost if we don't step up our game because of redistricting. The Senate, it was paralyzed now, and so we need to accelerate to get to 60 votes. That is the reality of this democracy. Unfortunately, it takes a long time, but when we fight, we win. I talked earlier about voting, and so I'm going to ask you this here. Black voters matter. They plan on having a caravan beginning on June, teeth traveling from the South to Washington, D.C.

June 21st is when Senator Chuck Schumer says he is going to put the For the People Act up for debate. What role is the NAACP going to play? Many have called for, and myself included, a mass demonstration on Capitol Hill while they are here to put public pressure on Democrats to move on these voting bills. Otherwise, Republicans could be locking themselves in to major gains over the next decade. And so what role is the NAACP going to play in direct action, protest? Are you going to be dropping thousands of members on the halls of Congress, visiting every single senator, every single House member? Well, last time I checked, the black community don't make up a large percentage of West Virginia. So we got to play the numbers.

I think it's great. That's great energy. It gets people riled up. But I like to play for the outcome. And the outcome is we have two senators in the Senate where we have to figure out how do we get those black folks to hold them accountable from their state. Well, well, well, well, well, well, well. Because at the end of the day, what Manchin is playing to, you know, unfortunately to his credit and our disadvantage, is West Virginia. And so how do we localize that demonstration?

How do we localize that energy so we can move him and then get to cinema? And that's not to criticize what's about to take place. I think it's great. Before the NAACP, I'm focusing on how do we move the numbers with the members that matter? Because 48 members in the House and the Senate, probably we can move is the two that we have to focus on. Right. I mean, look, I understand Sinema and Manchin both are Democrats, but you also have Toomey and Pence.

Granted, they're Republicans, but you got Toomey in Pennsylvania who's not running for re-election. That's going to be a competitive seat. You've got Burr in North Carolina, significant black population in North Carolina. You've got Senator Tim Scott up for reelection in South Carolina. So what I'm also saying is, what about also going to those Republicans who are representing lots of black people? Now, granted, they may say, hey, thanks, but no thanks. I don't care what you have to say, but they still represent a lot of black people.

Oh, absolutely. And if you if you could show me the magic, magic ingredients to move a Republican member out of North Carolina to vote the right way. When he just tried to get confirmed to racist judges out of North Carolina. I'm a part of that magic trick. But the reality is, is what the reality is. And we have members in the Senate side who was too afraid of Donald Trump, who's not in the office, to vote for a commission to investigate an insurrection on the Capitol. When many of them had they been caught, they would have been harmed themselves. So if they're not willing to save their own ass, I'm not looking for them to try to save black folks.

Well, absolutely that. But I'm also looking towards the next midterm election as well when these issues are going to be coming up. And it should be an issue that should be driving turnout because you look at Wisconsin with Ron Johnson, the Toomey seat, the Barr seat, the Rubio seat in Florida. And so you got four or five

where a massive black turnout could play a huge role in what happens in those states. And that's where the energy needs to be. That's where the focus needs to be. And that's the point I was making. How do we get the folks in the states that can have the impact for the midterm election, whether it's in West Virginia to move that or in Wisconsin, which I think we can take Wisconsin by energizing and organizing the black community, getting them

trained now for 2022. That's where the focus has to be in our calculus. And with that, that's not to say that energy in D.C. is not important because all motion towards freedom is good and we all have individual roles to play. All right. Derek Johnson, president of NAACP. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Thank you. Good. I'll panel on that. Robert, I want to start with you. Look, you hear the phrase pressure bust pipes. Your thoughts in terms of what is needed. Obviously, Sinema and Manchin are critical. But the push for a public push,

a raising of voices does play a role, I believe, in getting folks focused on 2022, getting them energized as well, and not just waiting for the election season to start next year. I think you're correct. I think Democrats have to start being just as aggressive as Republicans are. Republicans started planning on winning the 2016 election as soon as the 2012 election was over. Mitch McConnell made it very clear he wanted Barack Obama to be a one-term president, then thereafter ensured that he would stop any legislation, knowing that at the end of the day, the American people blame the person at

the top, not the people in Congress. And right now, Republicans have a view that Mar-a-Lago is going to be Elba, not St. Helena, as in the polling will be coming back in a couple of years, and they're preparing for that. So it's going to be very difficult, not St. Helena, as in the polling will be coming back in a couple years, and they're preparing for that. So it's going to be very difficult to move them in any way towards progress, and that means Democrats have to make sure they whip their people into shape. You can get Joe Manchin, you can get Christian Sinema,

but you're going to have to play hardball with them. What highways are going to be going through West Virginia? What military spending or what infrastructure projects are going to be going through there? What bases might need to be closed in those states? What committees does Joe Manchin need to not be on? If you want to get it done, you can get it done, but Democrats are afraid to play the type of hardball that is needed in order to force people to bend to their will. Go back to the playbook of LBJ when he was trying to get the Civil Rights Act pushed through. He was

using every means necessary because he knew it meant that that would be whether or not he could continue the Vietnam War. So when you want something, then you can get it done legislatively. You've got the will to do so. Monique, you participated in a number of mobilizations with folks at Black Voters Matter. Texas is a red state. Democrats do not control the House or the Senate. But that mobilization, that protest, that mass action played a role in energizing the people that actually led to what Democrats did by walking out and keeping them from a quorum. So that, you know, I just fundamentally

believe, look, I get those two. But I do think people have to see that that that that outward activism to say, look, this is not just an inside game. You've got to have an outside and an inside game working at the same time. What Black Voters Matter Fund has been doing, not just in the past five months since November or in the three months prior to November, but for the past several years, is frankly why we are in this position in Texas, the electeds there are looking at what happened in Georgia, and they understand fully that Texas is next. And I came to Black Voters Matter, like October, September last year, saying, turn Texas blue, turn Texas blue. It can happen. I don't smoke crack. I really believe that this can happen. I know that it can be in trying to inform and educate people that Texas history is blue longer than it's been red. And so we can't look at what's happened for the past decade or so and think that that is

really the nature and the character of the state. And so that's why I commend LaTosha. I commend Cliff. I commend all the people they've been working with and we, you know, working with Attorney Crump and with the rallies for Pam Turner. And you were there for that. Thank you for your show covering it. Black Voters Matter showed up. People showed up who were signing people up and registering them to vote because it's not, as LaTosha always says, it's not a national election campaign. It's not even a local election campaign. It's a day-to-day campaign. And if we keep it up, I agree with Derek, when we push, we win. And so they see what happened in Georgia and they know, they know that they are fragile, that they are on the cusp and that they are browner and browner every single minute of

every single day. And so we have to put pedal to the metal. I, I, it doesn't even matter to me what the naysayers are saying, because, you know, I've seen them do it. Whose song is that? I can't even remember right now. But before I get preachy, I'll just say it's happened before and it can happen again. And we are there. We're there right now. Scott, this is the nonsense that we are hearing from folks like Arizona Senator Kristen Sinema with regards to the filibuster.

You want to hear some BS? Listen to this. Well, as folks in Arizona know, I've long been a supporter of the filibuster because it is a tool that protects the democracy of our nation rather than allowing our country to ricochet wildly every two to four years back and forth between policies. The idea of the filibuster was created by those who came before us, the United States Senate, to create comity and to encourage senators to find bipartisanship and work together.

And while there are some who don't believe that bipartisanship is possible, I think that I'm a daily example that bipartisanship is possible. Not just this trip today and tomorrow that John and I are doing, but the work that John and I and I and many other of my colleagues in both parties do on a regular basis. So to those who say we must make a choice between the filibuster and X, I say this is a false choice. The reality is, is that when you have a system that's not working effectively, and I would think that most would agree that the Senate's not a particularly well-oiled machine, right? The way to fix that is to change your behavior, not to eliminate the rules or change the rules, but to change your behavior.

So I'm going to continue to go to work every day aggressively seeking bipartisanship in a cheerful and happy warrior way, as I always do, and showing that when we work together, we can get things done. A lot of folks say that the filibuster is a relic of the Jim Crow era. happy warrior way, as I always do, and showing that when we work together, we can get things done. A lot of us say that the filibuster is a relic of the Jim Crow era. And my sense is you don't support those things from the Jim Crow era. So why would you support the filibuster? Well, the filibuster was not created as a tool to accomplish one thing or another. It was created as a tool to bring together members of different parties to find compromise and coalition. And when you think about our founding fathers, when they created the Senate with two senators from every state, regardless of population size, with elections staggered every,

you know, six years so that only a third of the body is up for election each cycle, it was designed to be a place where you cool the passions of the House, where you work together to find that compromise, and importantly, where you protect the rights of the minority from the majority, regardless of which party is in the majority at the time. What? What? You going to let me go or you wanna go first? Gone. He said gone.

You know, I think her and Manchin are willing prisoners of the Republicans. They're not unwilling prisoners with this bullshit. First of all, let's analyze, as you would do. You would break down her statement, clip by clip or answer by answer. First of all, you've got to have two political parties in order to believe in the filibuster.

And there's only one political party and one political cult. And the leader of that political cult says, my job is to block anything and everything the Democrats try to do while they're in power. That's the first thing. The second thing is that somehow this bipartisanship effort is going to change the behavior of others. No, we need your behavior changed and realized their behavior is not going to change no matter what you say, no matter what your goals and objectives are. And you've got to give up the goats because you sound like an idiot when you're talking about the GOP and the political gangster leadership that makes up the GOP.

And so it's not going to happen. And give me one example, one, since this new Senate came into play, of significant bipartisanship that has worked where the Dems have convinced the Republicans to somehow side with them and give the country a victory. Name one significant piece. When you can't agree on a commission to investigate the insurrectionists that were attacking the Capitol, and had they gotten to the individual members, hell, they killed police officers. Who knows what they do to the Republican and Democrats on the Senate and House of Representatives, when they don't want that investigated, there's nothing more American than protecting the democracy. How can you argue that there is hope of a viable bipartisanship and to keep the filibuster in place with 2022 coming up?

It's moronic. It's moronic, if you will. And so you can break it down further, Roland, but those are the two or three major takeaways from that video that is just completely unrealistic. And I think that they're willing prisoners of the Republicans because for some reason their constituencies are more Republican than Democratic. And Derek Johnson is right. We've got to go to where they are and get their people to try to turn this around. That's persuasive, but it's not going to get done in 2022 after the midterms because we got to hope and pray that black people are as agitated and motivated as they were in 2020. And that's a hope and a prayer and a lot of work. But we got to hope and pray for that. But in the interim, those

Democrats, too, need to be reminded that they're Democrats and they're dealing with political gangsters on the side, not a political party. Robert, I sat there and just laughed because, I'm sorry, did she not see when Mitch McConnell ditched the filibuster to get Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court? Did she not see when he ditched the filibuster to get Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court? I'm sitting there going, fool. They don't care about ditching the filibuster to get what they want. Only you dumbass Democrats are you two trying to follow

the rules. Well, in addition, my gripe is that she's factually incorrect. She just kind of made up history to fit her point. One, in Washington's farewell address to the Congress,

he specifically stated the dangers of factionalism. The founding fathers never said they wanted to be bipartisan. They said they did not want to have political parties because Aaron Burr had just got done shooting Alexander Hamilton, and they thought it was a bad idea to have two competing factions in government. So there was never an intention to have bipartisanism. They're supposed to be a unitary, independent-thinking body, not something that's controlled by two parties.

The two-party system is nowhere in our Constitution. It's nowhere written into law that we have to have two parties. So her conceptualization that our founders wanted to have two parties and bipartisanism is factually incorrect. Secondarily, the filibuster is not in the Constitution. It's not in the Constitution. It's not a law anywhere. It's a Senate rule that was created by fiat and by Senate tradition. There's nowhere that it has to exist. There's nowhere in the Constitution that says we shall have a filibuster.

It is simply created by the body as almost Robert's Rules of Order. It's the same thing as you write down rules for a card game, and everybody has to follow those in the card game. That is what the filibuster is. So it's nothing that the founders put into the Constitution. Tertiary, the one she says that the founders set it up where you had to have elections for senators in order to stagger it. No, up until the early part of the 20th century, senators were appointed by state legislators. They were never intended to even be elected by popular vote by the American people. So none of that is correct at all.

And my ninth grade AP history teacher, Ms. Banks, God bless her soul, I'm sure she had solved that, would have had a stroke and fell out because our education system has failed us. And a sitting United States senator does not know basic high school civics when it comes to the way that the Senate works. Monique, somebody said the only difference between Kyrsten Sinema and Marjorie Taylor Greene is Sinema knows how to do long math.

Hey, but watch this. Oh, no, Scott. Hold on, hold on. Monique, go ahead. He said tertiary. Monique. I was going to acknowledge Robert's big word. Thank you, Scott, for putting it at the beginning.

Robert is very fancy tonight, and he is correct on all fronts. So I will definitely say firstly, secondarily, and tertiarily. But point being, yes, Robert, yes. Yes, Scott, yes. If y'all keep it up, y'all going to have Michael Eric Dyson calling in. Monique, go ahead.

She was so wrong. Like, wrong on the facts, wrong on the law, and sounding smart. And let that be a lesson to everyone who's watching and listening. You can sound smart and be dumb every day of the week. Don't let the fact that something is persuasive or convincing are put together in what seem to be coherent sentences, convince you of anything. Because the very man Robert just mentioned, Aaron Burr, who was shooting folks, was the origination of the filibuster. It was his idea. Was it a big, grand idea in order to move legislation forward? No, it was like a simple housekeeping measure idea because they got tired of not being able to move things forward. Who came and supported it?

Andrew Jackson, the famous, like, favorite president of our most recent former president because he didn't want his censure by the Congress to stand. That is the basis of this. And I'm not saying, I'm not necessarily opposed to a filibuster. I'm opposed to when you don't even have to filibuster. You can use closure. You can just forget about something because you know you want to survive the filibuster. If they're going to filibuster, I want them to be on the floor 7, 9, 12, 15 days, as our president said, and actually have to show the American people how violently opposed to democracy they are, that they are willing to around the clock, 24 hours a day, make arguments to prevent us from doing things like having fair voting. So she's not a Democrat in name only. I'm not going to say that the way that others would call some rhinos, but whatever it is that's motivating her, it's not the purity of the filibuster. And all of this talk about what our founding fathers intended, listen, is three lawyers on this panel tonight, and they

can all tell you our founding fathers were not the most brilliant people to ever live. They spent half of their days high. They owned slaves. They had hideous just proclivities. They they they weren't brilliant like Einstein. Let's just stop it. Yes, we need consistency in government. Yes, we need consistency in law. Yes, we need foundational things that don't change. But let's not go back to the founding fathers and act like those 14 white men are better than the five generations of people who have come behind them, including the people on this panel. Robert could think up better laws than our founding fathers did, and they would make sense. I'm done. And another thing.

Now she said done. All right, y'all. Got to go to a break. We come back. We're going to talk about a seminary paying reparations to descendants that actually were forced. Those people were forced to work. Forced to work at that seminary. We'll talk about that. Also, we had the mayor of Columbus.

He said he was going to hire a police chief for the first time outside of the police ranks there. He's done so. It's a black woman. We'll tell you who she is. All that next. Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Don't leave. We got some great stuff for you. When I managed a team of 5,000 as vice president of AT&T,

I led by empowering my people. I'm Deborah Peoples, and that's exactly what I'll do as mayor of Fort Worth. Together, we'll get small businesses moving again, invest in our neighborhoods, and we'll support our schools to help kids catch up after COVID. On Saturday, June the 5th, I'm asking for your vote. I'll be mayor for all the people to build one Fort Worth. 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. 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. Before Till's murder,

we saw struggle for civil rights as something grown-ups did. I feel that the generations before us have offered a lot of instruction. Organizing is really one of the only things that gives me the sanity and makes me feel purposeful. When Emmett Till was murdered, that's what attracted our attention. When I managed a team of 5,000 as vice president of AT&T,

I led by empowering my people. I'm Deborah Peoples, and that's exactly what I'll do as mayor of Fort Worth. Together, we'll get small businesses moving again, invest in our neighborhoods, and we'll support our schools to help kids catch up after COVID. On Saturday, June the 5th, I'm asking for your vote.

I'll be mayor for all the people to build one Fort Worth. Hi, my name is Latoya Luckett. Yo, it's your man, Deon Cole from Black-ish, I'll be mayor for all theBLE TO TALK ABOUT THIS. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. This is my calling to serve my community and be a positive change. I face many obstacles in my journey, some because of my gender and some because of my race. I never let these obstacles stand in my way. And I'm determined to assure that issues of gender and race do not negatively impact our recruits, our officers, or the residents of Columbus.

Earlier today, I sent a message to the division, letting our officers know our first order of business needs to be trust. I need to earn their trust, and together, we need to rebuild the trust of our community. Because without trust and cooperation, we can't do anything. We need that to tackle the biggest challenges facing this great city right now. We have a lot of work to do, and I emphasize the word we. No one person can make these changes. We need to have everyone involved to change a culture, rebuild trust, and restore neighborhood safety.

This is going to take all of us, police officers, residents, faith leaders, business community, elected officials, and even you, the media. She's a 21-year veteran of the Detroit Police Department, where she previously served as the Deputy Chief of Police. She was chosen from a pool of 34 applicants and rose to the top after extensive interviews in a community town hall. The mayor previously said he wanted an outsider to change the department after multiple police shootings of black residents, including Andre Hill and Makia Bryant. Keep in mind, this is, THE MAYOR PREVIOUSLY SAID HE WANTED AN OUTSIDER TO CHANGE THE DEPARTMENT AFTER MULTIPLE POLICE SHOOTINGS OF BLACK RESIDENTS, INCLUDING ANDREA HILL AND MAKEIA BRYANT. KEEP IN MIND, SHE IS THE FIRST

CHIEF IN HISTORY TO BE HIRED OUTSIDE OF THE COLUMBUS POLICE DEPARTMENT. WHAT THE HELL TOOK SO LONG? THERE'S NO WAY IN THE WORLD YOU CAN ONLY HIRE PEOPLE INSIDE. THAT'S PROBABLY WHY THEY KEPT HAVING PROBLEMS IN COLUMBUS, BECAUSE THEY KEPT HIRING THE There's no way in the world you can only hire people inside. That's probably why they kept having problems in Columbus, because they kept hiring the

same people over and over and over and over. All right, folks, let's talk about Illinois, what's happening in that Midwestern state when it comes to the issue of voting. Now, Illinois lawmakers, what they have decided is they're taking steps to improve the criminal justice system by reducing the chances of getting false confessions, leading to wrongful convictions. Now, they're the first state to pass a bill

banning police from lying to kids during interrogations. State officials recently uncovered at least 100 wrongful convictions based on false confessions. A third involved people under 18. While it is currently legal in all 50 states for police to lie during interrogations, Oregon and New York will consider similar bills passed in Illinois.

Senate Bill 2122 will be signed into law by Governor J.B. Pritzker in the coming weeks. Scott, smart bill? Hmm. I'm looking at Monique. Scott, smart bill? I'm looking at Monique. Listen. I didn't ask Monique. I asked you.

I'm looking at her, though. That's what I said. Stop looking at her. What, you scared she's going to smack you when you say something? That's what I'm looking for. That's what I'm looking for. The bill doesn't go far enough. It doesn't penalize the police officers for lying. And the other thing I think is if you're going to make it for kids,

you ought to make it for adults, too. I mean, if you didn't do it, unless they beat your ass and make you admit it, and that's what we're dealing with, then it's a good bill. But it doesn't go far enough because because again, it's not hitting the pockets of those police officers who break that rule. So I'd like to see it extended to adults too. I've never really understand why the police can lie to an individual to get them to confess because it's based on a presumption that you did it. That's a problem if the police just presume you did it because you're backing into a crime committed when you don't know because you weren't there as the police officer.

So good bill, but that doesn't go far enough. Monique? I don't know what Scott just said, but... Let me say it again. Damn, she gave you the Kristen Cinema business. Don't do it, Scott. Don't do it. So on the one hand, sure, where children are concerned, I think that this is appropriate legislation

because the rest of our laws, federal and state laws, in terms of being able to serve in the military, when you are able to drink, when you are, be able to manipulate, which is another form of coercion, a juvenile witness when they are not fully formulated as adults. And, you know, I feel the same way about trying 16-year-olds as adults, et cetera, so on. So I'm consistent with that. The other part of what Scott said, though, where it's like, well, if you didn't do it, you didn't do it. So why would you lie about it? I mean, OK, so it's 10,000 wrongfully convicted people or more a year of color. And they are they are they are confessing to crimes that they didn't commit because they don't believe that they will get a fair shake in our justice system. They believe that they will be found guilty and served more time.

They believe that if they don't pass up the snitch deal, they won't get a better deal. They believe that they are going to be abused or that they're going to be set on the streets and that the prosecutors and the police investigators are going to put the word on the street about them being snitches when they didn't snitch. So they take these deals and they go inside. And that happens more times today than I even want to count. So there are all these reasons why these things happen. If adults, it is still a necessary tactic if employed correctly for police to be able to tease out theories of a case and to be able to say things that frankly are not true. Like the person in the other room just said you did it because with an adult, they are expected to hold to their convictions. That doesn't mean you can beat them and lie to them. It means that the current law that's in place,

I believe, is a necessary one in order to be doing the job of truth finder. But I'm in favor of what they did where children are concerned. Robert, if the kids are scared of all of that, you're proving my point. Why would they take... Why would they admit to something if they're scared of all of those issues that you delineated in your answer i was talking about why you don't

need to build what i'm saying is don't manipulate children i'm saying that children are not yet mature enough they're just just a matter of of physiology of of biology i I'm 17. I know what a lie is. Not yet. And if I didn't do it, I didn't do it. You, you, with your best brain working, ought to be able to get the jump on a 17-year-old in terms of what you were able to convince them of. Maybe. I mean, it's your best brain, right? Maybe.

Robert, maybe. But where it's a 23-year-old, then that's fair game. That's all I'm saying. Somebody's kids ain't that immature. That's what they're doing wrong. Robert, go. I think that this goes to show that every single part, from the beginning,

middle, to the end, of our criminal legal system in this country is broken. It is broken. It is decayed. It is created not to find the truth. Because remember, what we'reed. It is created not to find the truth. Because remember, what we're supposed to be trying to do is find the truth, find veracity, and send the right people to jail and allow the people who are not guilty to go free. I don't know how many people who are listening at home have ever had to explain to a 16 or 17-year-old to take a three-year

sentence that has a first offender on it, as opposed to a two year sentence without a first offender, because that changes the entire outcome of your life. A 16 or 17 year old just hears two years versus three years, and they're ready to hop on the two years because they don't understand the trajectory and the outcome that happens. We do not have that conviction come off your record in X number of years. Similarly, when police officers are able to lie to a youthful offender, somebody who is 16, 17, 18 years old, then they can get them to admit to things that they have never even considered doing.

I have had cases where my client has confessed, and they weren't in the state at the time that the crime took place. What happened was, they got them in an interrogation room. They were scared. And they were just like a kid will lie to you when you catch them red-handed trying to take your car out. They will lie to police because they think it's what will get them out of trouble. So we have to start rooting out legislatively many of these tactics have been used because there are people sitting in prison right now in their 30s, 40s, and 50s

who confessed to things that they didn't do, and they're teens who haven't had no recourse. So when we talk about the broken nature of the criminal legal system, we have to look at what is most needed to put fairness in to ensure that we are convicting the right people and not that we're tricking people into taking life sentences so we can get the right quota for the DA's office. You talked about fairness. That was an issue that the Virginia Theological Center already brought up where they had decided that they're going to actually pay the descendants of black Americans forced to work there with too little or no pay.

So far, 15 descendants have received $2,100 checks, which will come annually. The number of recipients is expected to grow as genealogists find more living descendants. Money for the payout comes from a $1.7 million fund. Many believe the descendants should be paid through housing grants or scholarships. Many donors are against reparations and against withdrawing from their annual contributions to the seminary. Some have requested to be removed from the seminary's mailing list.

Reverend Joseph Thompson, he's Director of Multicultural Ministries at Virginia Theological Seminary. He joins us now. Reverend, is Virginia Theological Seminary concerned about that, concerned about these donors who are pulling their money out? Well, you know, good evening. It's good to be with you. I'm sure that this is something that our financial folks are keeping their eye on. But I also think that at the same time, there are individuals who are giving now and more interested in the seminary because they're seeing this go on. And so, you know, I'd like to think that for all of the people who step away,

that some others will now step up. How did they arrive at this decision? The story there is one, I think, that goes back quite a ways. I won't try to tell you the whole story, but I will say, first of all, that there have been generations of black Episcopalians going all the way back to the beginning of the Episcopal Church who have been trying to get the church to live up to its creed, to everybody, and to see everybody as made in the image of God, both in terms of the people, the members of the church, but then also in terms of what the church does in the world. But some of the specific things that led to this can go back to the early 2000s, when the Episcopal Church as a national church passed a resolution in 2006, requesting that churches across the nation,

Episcopal churches across the nation, would look into their history with slavery and with racism, that they would do historical work. And the church apologized for its role in slavery and in Jim Crow segregation. And so as a part of that, the seminary, our president, who is still the president, apologized to alumni and faculty, former faculty, on behalf of the seminary for its role in slavery. A book was published not too long after that in 2009 called No Turning Back by the Reverend Joseph Constance that detailed the experiences of black people at the seminary. And then from there, I just kind of fast forward as we were coming up

closer to present day, we're about to come up on our bicentennial. The seminary was founded in 1823. And so as part of, you know, telling the official history of the seminary and trying to think about the past and to be more truthful about the past, our leadership felt that it was very important to dig deeper into this historical work. And one of the results of that was that it was so, you know, it's one thing to just dig into it. It's another thing to actually try and do something about the sins and the crimes of the past. So you guys have identified 15 people. Will these be monthly checks or annual checks? We could set it up monthly if they really wanted it to.

But right now, people have just received one annual check. And that's what our intention is. But we give them a lot of leeway to tell us exactly what it is that they want to do with this, who they, whether they want to just take, excuse me, take this themselves, whether they want to give it to another organization, a church, a charity, whether they want to give it to their children or grandchildren. They have a lot of leeway to decide on those kinds of issues. I know Georgetown also had to deal with this issue and offered opportunities for descendants as well,

because if it wasn't for the sale of those slaves of African descent, Georgetown wouldn't be a university today. Right, right, right. And, you know, there's a lot of really good actions, I think, that are being taken by educational institutions, by churches. Certainly there are a lot of dioceses in the Episcopal Church that are starting to take these kinds of steps. And so I think we're part of kind of a groundswell at this point. Okay. Reverend Joseph Thompson, we so appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. Thank you very much. Have a good evening. All right, folks. California First in the Nation Task Force has officially started looking at the reparations for black Americans. The nine task force members appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom met virtually for the first time yesterday, launching a two-year study to inform Californians about slavery and explore ways the state might provide reparations.

The group will craft an apology, recommend to the state legislature who will be eligible to receive reparations and how they will be rewarded. So that just started yesterday there in California. Now, in Louisville, Kentucky, a local nonprofit says it's received a six-figure reparations payment. Changed today, changed tomorrow, says a white graduate student who had recently inherited money after her 25th birthday reached out to them. After learning her family's wealth could be traced back to her great-grandfather who enslaved six people the donor wanted to support, the work changed today, changed tomorrow does for Kentucky's black community. The undisclosed amount will go towards funding support for staff, sustaining community outreach efforts, and 20% will go into the organization's reserve account. All right, folks, let's talk a couple of huge sports stories. Naomi Osaka withdrew from the

fridge open to prioritize her mental health. Then you had a number of Grand Slam tournaments saying that if she tries not to talk to the media, they will actually ban her. And the NFL today said it would stop the use of race norming. That's assuming black players have a lower cognitive functioning when it comes to the $1 billion settlement of brain injury claims and review past scores for any potential racial bias. Joining us now is the University of Maryland professor, my man Kevin Blackstonestone, is the professor

of the practice at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism. I want to start first with the NFL story, Kevin, because a lot of folks were like, what the hell? Race norming? Are you serious? The NFL initially tried to defend it, but it was a whole lot of negative press. They had to back off of that. Yeah, not only that, you know, this story

really started about, I would say about seven or eight months ago. That's when I first caught wind of it. And quite frankly, I didn't really understand all of it until recently. And I wasn't expecting this announcement today. But, you know, this is

some next level racist stuff here. And basically, it assumes that the black male football player is not as intelligent as his white peer. And that when it comes to the concussion lawsuit, they therefore are not as, it is not as easy for them to get compensated for their brain injury as for their white peer who suffers a brain injury. But you know what? Even more than that, Roland, when you really read about what race norming is, it's not only football players who get impacted by this. It's black people in general in every walk of medical life. So race norming is a big part of the medical industry,

which is why it came up in this concussion lawsuit. And so if you are black in this country and you are suffering from diabetes and it has wrecked your liver, your kidney, and you are in need of a transplant. This impacts you negatively because you are looked at further down the rung than a white person who is suffering the same ailment. So we can focus on the NFL today and what it says about the NFL and the fact that Roger Goodell and everybody who runs the NFL was very disingenuous when they were talking about Black Lives Matter and supporting black athletes, while, as you pointed out behind the scenes, they were fighting this particular issue, which affected the life, the well-being of former players, this impacts us all. And that's what's really, really frightening about it.

And I'll point people, I put it on my Twitter account, at Prof Blackstone, but Lucia Trimbar, who's a professor at New York University, she's written about this rather extensively. And I urge people to go read her writings about it. And look, it was the players being quite vocal about this and going to the media that really made this blow up. Yeah, absolutely. Had they stayed silent, we may not have heard about that. Had they not had the audacity to file a lawsuit against the NFL on this, it may never have come to light, which is why voice is so important. It doesn't matter if you're an athlete. It doesn't matter if you are someone who

cleans the clubhouse or the locker room that the athletes perform out of. It's important for us to have voice on these critical issues. Osaka, this is just, you know, she withdrew from the French Open because she said she was protecting her mental health. That pissed off a lot of people. They felt, oh, how sensitive are you? And a lot of other tennis folks have been coming to her defense. What do you make of this relationship where, look, you

and I are journalists, and there's this view that we have the right to ask any athlete any question, but do they have the right to ask any athlete any question, but do they have the right to also say, I want to do interviews? Yeah, so, you know, from a journalist standpoint, we absolutely have the right to ask questions. And there's nothing more basic to journalism than asking questions of people in public life, in private life, in power, or not.

That is absolute. What is not absolute is that those who don't wanna ask, answer our questions, no matter what the forum, should be penalized for not doing so. Now, having said that, and you've covered sports as well, you know that sports has a little bit different relationship to athletes and the other personalities that we cover. And quite often they are mandated to show up and to speak to us or answer our questions.

Otherwise, they do wind up running the risk of being fined. I don't know if people know, but if you cover the NFL, for example, the coach and the coordinators are mandated during the week of the regular season to show up and answer questions from the media. And so is true of tennis. And it's true for a number of reasons. But in this case, we have a player who is not comfortable with this environment. And it's understandable. And it's not the first time it's happened. It's not the last time it's happened. And we need to take that into account. I forget when you departed Texas, but at the end of Ricky Williams' career as a Longhorn, he started to do his post-game interviews wearing his helmet with a shield on it. And we thought, what is he doing?

This guy's strange anyway. He's just acting stranger. Along the way, after he turned professional, we learned that he was fighting some fears. And he was one person who had some mental struggles with going through interaction with the public like that.

You have the Houston Rockets who drafted Royce White who could not fly. And that virtually derailed his career because he would take buses or cars to places. And in the modern NBA, the way they have back-to-back games, stuff along those lines. And the Rockets struggle with that. And so I think what this says is that the sports world, I think there are a couple of things going on here. And three different things going on here. I think one, the sports world cannot handle mental health.

The sports world has projected this whole thing amplified by media and by fans, oh, all y'all are tough. You can get through anything. How in the hell you say you can't just answer a few questions? That's one. Right. But the fans also, oh, we're paying millions to see you. Like, what's wrong with you without understanding that just because they play sports doesn't mean they're not human?

Right, exactly. And that's a big part of it. So this is the ethos of sports and sports media. You nailed it right there. There is an assumption of ownership, right, not only of the teams, of the athletes, but also of the fans of the sports that they watch and that they have these expectations. But these expectations can't always be met. And, you know, I look at what Naomi Osaka clarified on day two about how she was feeling as a health-related matter, right? Maybe she can't play in the French Open because she has a pulled hamstring,

and we're accepting of that. Well, she's saying she can't go through it because she is, she's not feeling well mentally enough to go through it. And we should accept that. We have to come to a decision in this country, an understanding, rather, in this country that mental health is health, period. That's the bottom line. And there should be no stigma attached to it. We should not shame people about it. We should understand it. And just a little over a year ago, I was on a forum up in Chicago with Shamik Holeslaw, who has suffered with mental stress that put her at the precipice of life.

Trey Moses, who was a star basketball player at Ball State, was honored by the NCAA for his work around mental health issues as an athlete. And Dr. Parham from the NBA, who is who is in charge of mental wellness for the league. We have to understand that that the athletes that we that we look at, that we celebrate as being otherworldly are just like us. And they go through the same trials and tribulations with family, with their job, with having to cope. And that's all that Naomi Osaka is saying.

And we need to recognize that. Monique, I'll start with you. A question or a comment? Oh, sure. A comment. Dr. Harry Edwards, the revolt of the black athlete. And in his foreword, he talked about Muhammad Ali during a time when he was still Cassius Clay and how people had told him before he interviewed him

that he was nuts and how he realized that he was not nuts. He was verbose. He had an ego. He was iconoclastic. He was supremely talented. And he could not be suppressed. You could not keep him from talking.

And what happened with Muhammad Ali is the world had to, because of his talent, his ability, his ego, his iconoclastic nature, recognize and allow for his talking. But now they're having trouble with my sister Naomi, with her ability, with her talent, with her iconoclastic nature, with her supreme gift and ability. They're having trouble with her refusal to talk. But it's the same dance. They wanted him to be seen and not heard and sit down and shut up. They want her to sit and perform and be performative

and answer the questions and take the humiliation. And it has nothing to do with playing the game. And so, yes, it is a mental health issue for sure. And I agree with you, Roland, that there are failings in the world of sport with mental health issues, but I have to see color and I have to see womanhood. Because when Venus speaks her mind, or when Serena does, they are caricatured in comics as apes jumping up and down. So much so that in the 2018 incident that Naomi talks about, they had her light-skinned and blonde-haired. And they had Venus, 500 pounds, with dark hair and black skin looking like an ape.

Listen, protect black women, protect black men, protect athletes. We have a right to be sick in body, to be sick in mind, to claim our healing. But more than that, all she was asking for is a right to do her job, which is to be the best in the world playing tennis, and for them to respect the fact that she can't do that job well while allowing

herself to be dressed down by reporters who are asking her the same question over and over again. She didn't say she would never do it. She said this time. And it was an utter and complete fail by the Worldwide Tennis Association. And they are the ones who have lost because she did what a true gangster does and said, well, if you ain't going to let me do it the way that protects me, I'll protect me best. Deuces.

Kevin, response? Yeah, I don't, I mean, I don't, I don't quite see it, you know, just like that. I mean, there's a, there's a short history to this and there's a, there's a long history to it. On the one hand, we all, on the one hand, the media had to come to an understanding as to who Naomi Osaka was when she emerged. And I say that because I thought when she first emerged, her blackness was erased. That she was described as a Japanese tennis player,

despite the fact that she was, you know, her mother's Japanese, they lived there for a very short period of time. She's taught the game by her Haitian father and grew up in, you know, in New York and Florida. And then once she, you know, last year during the Black Lives Matter uprising, she was very poignant. And her voice in a very white space was really important, and she affirmed herself as a black woman and what it meant for her to see what was happening to black men and black women in this country when it came to police violence. And so we embraced her for that. But it's also, since you mentioned Serena, it's also interesting to note that in her first piece, before she went further to explain the stress that was upon her,

she mentioned that it was the US Open where Serena Williams became extremely angry at the end of the match, losing to Naomi, that triggered the feelings that she is still fighting today. And it's not easy, obviously, to be so young in a sport where the individual is put in the spotlight, who then assumes a mantle in this racial reckoning, this unprecedented racial reckoning that we had just last summer. And then on top of that, be at the top of the game and be representative of the game and still have to be representative of self. And some of the media criticism you mentioned really wasn't U.S. criticism. It was English.

And many people denounced that from day one. But, you know, at the end of the day, I hope that one of the things I hope we get back here is I hope we get back Naomi's voice. I hope she can steel herself to speak on her terms. It doesn't have to be, you know, it doesn't have to be in these post-game press conferences or even pre-game press conferences. I think she's established herself as having a digital voice. She's using platforms available to her as an individual to make her case known. Right. I mean, and when did she stop speaking? I mean, we don't need to get her voice back. We've got her voice. She's talking. She says she's not talking.

She is talking. No one is arguing that she's not not talking. But I'm saying most of the most people have come to wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Kevin, go ahead. Then, Monique, I'm saying I was just saying that no one I don't think no one in the media. Like I said, I would like to hear her voice because I think she's got an incredibly important voice. She's well thought out. She's on point. You know, what needs to be straightened out now is the way that the Tennis Association, and I think you mentioned this, runs their media relationships and what the rules are of the media. And as soon as I heard about this and I saw that the French Open said that they might default her,

I said that the tennis union needs to get together immediately and have that language erased from the bargaining agreement between players and the association. Because there's no way that anybody should be basically criminalized for not speaking to the media. Exactly. And so it's not that she needs to steal herself, because she has a spine of steel, and that's how she was able to walk away from a gigantic career opportunity that she'd been working and training for

for the sake of a principle, which is, you can't make me dance. And if I know that what happens to me in these rooms causes me to not be able to do the main thing, which is play tennis, then I am not going to be the distraction and I am not going to set myself up. This is self-care. So she's not weakened. She doesn't have to strengthen herself to be available for a press conference. She is available.

She is speaking. Even her silence, even her walking away is speaking. And so I encourage all of us to look at mental health through a different lens, but then just also to look at womanhood, because this is not just about tennis. Um, and I'm just throwing out there a question. I just wonder which white woman could have said, I'm not feeling well enough to do press this time, but I'm still gonna stay in the game, and would have gotten

the same result. And then maybe we can talk and we'll all be on the same page. All right. Well, but, Roland, here's the deal. And Kevin, I have a question. I'm not so sure this is beyond

mental health issues. Because most of us don't understand it. I manage 100 super lawyers at a big international law firm. I work against them at other law firms, and many of them have mental health issues. This idea that we're professional athletes or super lawyers, take any industry. We don't put mental health in that equation.

And so for me, it's got to be a carve-out. Because just because I'm a great athlete or a great lawyer or architect or super doctor, mental health doesn't discriminate in its effect on us. We're either born with it or it's passed on or we develop it through environment, take your pick. And I guess my question kevin is not just because of naomi but because of the of the significance of mental health

and the stress of living whether you black white yellow or brown that there ought to be a carve out in these agreements whatever sport that if i have a physical injury, they don't make me talk to the press. Well, if I have a mental health issue, I'm not talking about a blue Monday. I'm talking about that I'm diagnosed and I'm having some real challenges interacting with the media today that I get a pass because mental health is real. What do you think? And I think, Kevin, what we're seeing is we're seeing that take place in corporate America in all areas where companies are having to now deal with mental health. Kevin, your response, final response on this topic. And I totally agree.

I mean, I've said that. You know, if you're injured, we understand that you might not be able to do the job or show up for the press conference. And that's why I said we should see mental health as health in general and not separated. And I think that that's one of the things that tennis should do exceptions for folks who can't, who don't feel comfortable going through whatever rigor it is in dealing with the media. I think that would be, I think that would be perfectly fair. I think it'd be, I would think it would be respectful. Kevin Blackstone, I appreciate it, brother. Thank you so very much.

Absolutely. All right, folks. Y'all know what time it is. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. No charcoal grills are allowed. I'm not a... I'm white. I got you, Carl.

I'm illegally selling water with our permit. On my property. Whoa! Hey! Give me your address. I'm uncomfortable. In Tennessee, the removal of the graves of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, his wife, and the statue honoring the former KKK leaders,

causing white folks just to be beside themselves. Watch this. Watch this. Look away, look away, look away, Dixieland. He's going to stand behind me. Man, Dixieland, where I was born. I just told y'all that my ancestors picked cock. I'm not making this up. I have slave records. My ancestors picked cock while his ancestors beat and raped my ancestors. But guess what? Dixie is dead!

And it was killed by the descendants of black people. The descendants of black people. Van Turner and Tammy Sawyer and others. We took your hero down. And just like you, he's gone. So we are not post-racial America. We are not post-racial Memphis. This hatred and this racism is not just a matter of

race and gender. We are not just a matter of race and gender. We are not post-racial America. We are not post-racial Memphis. This hatred and this racism is large and loud. I bet you do wish you were in the land of... The remains and the statue will be relocated to the National Confederate Museum at Elm Spring in Columbia, Tennessee. Now, the construction crew, contracted by Sons of Confederate Veterans, put several Confederate flags on the site's fence.

So this is so we can see this video right here. They went out of their way to pile bricks on top of the Black Lives Matter painting nearby and profusely harassed Shelby County Commissioner Tammy Sawyer as she spoke with the media. She joins us right now on Roller Mountain Unfiltered. Commissioner, glad to have you here. So it had to be, I mean, you're watching this and it shows you how these white folks love that racist flag.

Yeah. They love it. I mean, they had it waving, and there were about five flags out there and a large flag. They draw a lot of inspiration for their hatred from it. So, I mean, were you surprised that when you held the news conference, this guy would constantly interrupt you singing Dixie and mocking you at every turn? The thing that was most shocking, because we've encountered him in the past, but what was most shocking was that he had no qualms about threatening my life, about, you know, calling me names,

about singing Dixie with every major outlet in the city and some from the state watching him. It's the audacity that they showed on January 6th. He showed right there. They don't care that their racism is out in the open. It's quite dangerous. Robert Portillo, this is the kind of nonsense, again, that we see. And these are the folks that, frankly, Republicans have been catering to for a very long time. Well, I think also we have to look at the dichotomy of what Republicans are arguing right now. At the same time that they're arguing we can't teach critical race theory in schools, which is not a thing, at the same time they're arguing that we can't change curriculums to be more inclusive. What happened to Native peoples? What included having the African-Americans?

They want to uphold these monuments in order to make sure we don't forget the history that they want to tell us of white domination of the South. And I think what we saw there is another case of white fragility, a white man who wants to hang on to that mythos, that idea that they call the lost cause myth, that the white South was fighting for the glorious antebellum pass that we saw in Gone with the Wind, and that's completely disconnected from reality. So the taking down of these monuments and the de-veneration of many of these places is important for America to heal. And also, let's not proceed with this concept that these monuments were somehow erected hundreds of years ago. Most of them were erected in the 1950s and 60s by the sons and daughters of Confederate veterans in order to reestablish white supremacy during the Civil Rights Movement.

So this is why, Roland, you know I have a gun on me at all times. This is exactly why, because in case people like those wild Confederates get violent, you have to make sure you are exercising your Second Amendment rights. Because after what we saw in January 6th, you can't put anything past them. Commissioner? I absolutely agree. I mean, it was an unsafe situation the entire time. And as I said, you know, he told me if I was a man, he'd beat me several times. And we can't trust it.

Tennessee has just signed concealed carry, permitless concealed carry, and, you know, so who knows what he had on him. And to Mr. Patello's point, CRT was just banned in Tennessee as well. So they're going to breed generations of white men and women who carry this ignorance forth and believe they're fighting this lost cause instead of just breeding hatred and violence.

Monique? No, I agree. I just applaud the commissioner for the way that she maintained her composure throughout, which is what we're expected to do at all times. But this is just another manifestation of the racist nature of this country that some are just unwilling to see. It's not that they can't see it. It's that they refuse to. And look, Commissioner, sorry, I've been telling people, look, and I'm working on a book right now. This is white fear. They cannot handle no longer being the ones

who decide everything. Absolutely. I mean, that's what's driving this. Scott? The part I've never... And, Commissioner, I applaud your leadership and hanging in there

and doing your press conference and being the strong leader that you are who happens to just be black, because excellence is yours. But what I've never understood, and sometimes Roland and I talk about this, we've got to be the only country

where you had a civil war, you're lost, the South lost, right? And we still celebrate their loss. A group of people in America still celebrate the loss and have Confederate flags and statutes and yada, yada, yada. Hell, in Germany, it's illegal to own Nazi material or that wrecked Nazi statutes and what have you, or even paraphernalia. And so I really think intellectually we got this wrong. At least Southerners have this wrong.

And I would hope that at some point when we become enlightened in 2043 or when we become the majority, we would go even further as a country to bar those symbols of a loss of a civil war 200-plus years ago. So... Well, hell, Commissioner, we know how they feel about their guns. Lord, don't just take their little flag. Ha-ha-ha! Right!

Right. That's my point, though. I mean, they had to run around with some Confederate flags talking about a civil war that they lost. They lost! And we still let them do it because of the First Amendment. It's just bullshit. Complete bullshit.

That's your word of the night. Yeah, precisely. Commissioner. Yeah, Commissioner. Commissioner, go ahead. Well, it's embedded in everything that came out of the Civil War, though. And this is why they're so able to still have these gatherings, wave these flags. It's why people who are not Confederates protect them

and allow them to do all this because Abraham Lincoln wasn't pro-black. He wanted us to go back to Africa. He wanted to reunite the North and the South and white people. And so that's trickled down, that's embedded in everything, every law that's been made, you know, since emancipation. It's why Reconstruction was so short. And it's why in 2021 today, a man can stand behind me waving a flag and cussing me out,

even though I'm an elected official and still not be arrested today for threatening my life, because they are a protected class in this country. We've got to do a whole lot more than dismantling to change that. Yep. Thank you. Well, first of all, yeah. Robert, go ahead. I was going to say, get yourself an AR pistol. So you want it in either

.300 Blackout Subsonica or 7.62x39. It fits right under your jacket. 7.5 inch barrel. Get either a 10 or a 30 round magazine. Easy to39. It fits right under your jacket. 7.5 inch barrel. Get either a 10 or a 30 round magazine. Easy to handle. Two hands. And it still counts as a large caliber pistol under ATF

laws. Be in great condition. And then you can get them at a good, you know, 100, 150 yards. You're still good. Well within range. And you can run it suppressed if you get a tat snap. And she'd get arrested and he wouldn't. Exactly.

So, Commissioner, your thoughts on Robert's 30-second gun lesson. I am armed. I do not carry my gun outside of the house, though, because as my friend just noted, they would take me to jail with the quickness.

I'm the enemy in this state. I'd rather be judged by 12 than carried by six. Hey, I like talking to you from the outside. Well, well, I did just get back from Tulsa where Councilwoman Vanessa, she's always packing, had her gun on her hip during the whole workshop. And so, but to your point, you got these Republicans in Texas and Tennessee now saying, hey,

forget a permit, forget even going to classes. Y'all just care for the hell of it. Yeah. Wild, wild west. And you've got these racists out there protesting. But guess what? They hurt feelings because they got to dig them racist bones up and put them somewhere else.

Commissioner Asari, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right. Stay on that wall. Stay strong. We appreciate it. Got to go to a break.

We'll be back. Rolling Martin Unfiltered. When I managed a team of 5,000 as vice president of AT&T, I led by empowering my people. I'm Deborah Peoples, and that's exactly what I'll do as mayor of Fort Worth. Together, we'll get small businesses moving again, invest in our neighborhoods, and we'll support our schools to help kids catch up after COVID. On Saturday, June the 5th, I'm asking for your vote. I'll be mayor for all the people to build one. Hello, I'm Nina Turner. My grandmother used to say,

all you need in life are 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. I believe that people our age have lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing.

The challenges, there's so many of them, and they're complex, and we need to be moving to address them. But I'm able to say, watch out, Tiffany. I know this road. That is so freaking dope. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Hello everyone, I'm Godfrey and you're watching...

Roland Martin unfiltered. And while he's doing unfiltered, I'm practicing the wobble. All right, folks. The attorneys for Derek Chauvin, they actually want him to get probation. The prosecutors are asking for a 30-year sentence. They have filed their documents in court. That, of course, is going to be taking place this month as well.

Of course, he was convicted of murdering George Floyd. Monique, I'll start with you. I mean, obviously, their job is to keep their client out of jail. That boy ain't getting probation. No, he's not. He's not getting probation, and I think that the incentivized sentencing is going to be what he ends up with, but they're doing what they're supposed to do.

I mean, that's not... If they weren't asking for that, they'd be failing, like they failed during the trial. Robert, when Jason Van Dyke was convicted and sentenced, a lot of people were upset, but he only got a few years for the murder of Laquan McDonald. Got a feeling this boy going to jail for a little longer. Well, dude, if I could do that,

I'd be out there sitting in Scott's palatial estate at this point in time. But I do think it is important for them to follow the proper sentencing guidelines. Of course, the state or the defense is going to ask for the lightest sentence possible for their client. No jail time is possible. I do anticipate there will, of course, be jail time in this case. But it is something to watch and monitor to see what factors the court uses to determine exactly the length of the sentence and what are the terms of such once he is released. Often they do tack on things at the end for post-incarceration. So it's something we need to monitor and see

the precedents that will be set for future cases. Yeah, but you know, Roland, let me raise this with you. They're asking for 30. This sentencing will tell us a lot about what this judge thinks of Chauvin and the case. Remember, you've got sentencing guidelines, you've got sentencing memos. They'll take testimony on both sides. But remember, the federal case is still out there. If he takes a plea in the federal case, the question is, and I don't know the answer, is if he gets sentenced to 10, 20 years for federal violations of George Floyd's constitutional rights, when does he serve that?

Does he serve that after his 30 years or 20 years? Hell yeah, no concurrent, no concurrent. Yeah, but these are two different ones, federal and one state. I know, I know, I know. Okay, okay. So then he'll be in for a while then. Because if he gets 20 or 30 years, there's no reason for him or the feds to try the federal case.

They may, but there really isn't. I anticipate he'll take a plea and take whatever years the court's going to give him. And he'll be away forever. I want him to get as many as he can. Scott, why are you asking the only jack-legged lawyer on the show? Because it's my damn show.

I was really talking to you all. Because it's my show. He a lawyer with no degree or no bar exam. Because it's my show. Right. And I can, I can, right. Because it's your show, he's nervous. And guess what? And I can click the can, right. Because it's your show, you deserve it. And guess what?

And I can click the end button at any point and your video will shut off. So, so, so, so Scott is, so, so, so it's making a whole lot of sense. He pulled up the Texas code to tell me that Texas didn't have a right to ask this person, this defendant for ID or did have a right to ask him. You were wrong. Didn't have a right to ask this person, this defendant, for ID or did have a right to ask him? You were wrong. You were wrong. You were wrong. It was one or the other. You did pull up the Texas code. You were wrong. And try to correct me. I didn't try to correct you. I can correct you. Well, it was irrelevant anyway. No, no, it wasn't. Waxing on the law. And it wasn't. And you waxing too much.

And Monique, if your ass stray, I'm going to pull your ass back too. Just letting you know. I wasn't straying. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, listen. I didn't want to stray on you. Hey, hey, listen. Listen, ain't no point of orders here. You know, this ain't no Robert's Rules of Order.

Just understand, okay? And let me go my next. We're doing like cinema. We're just trying to filibuster. Yeah, all that. Let me go to my next damn story. I need to get him an honorary degree in law. No, look...

I thought this was our last story. Let me go to my next damn story before I give both of y'all a perm. All right, however, let me talk about this out of Mississippi, y'all, this strange, crazy story. All right, white folks being white in Mississippi. A local high school. Matter of fact, you know what?

Go ahead. Y'all know what time it is. Oh, God. No charcoal grills are allowed. I'm white. I got you, girl. Illegally selling water without a permit. On my property.

Whoa! Hey! I'm uncomfortable. Yeah, illegally selling water without a permit. On my property. Whoa! Hey! I remember. Give me your ID. I'm uncomfortable. All right, y'all. In Mississippi, a local high school faces backlash. Why?

Because two black girls, valedictorian, salutatorian. But guess what? They then came back and said, oh, hold up. We're going to add two more students. Now, I carry a Washington, Layla Temple, valedictorian, salutatorian. Then they decided to say, no, no, no, we got two more. So they said, so then they tried to explain away the new rule. So the new rule is this here. Okay, well, okay.

There's a thing called a GPA and a QPA. Y'all, look at this here. This is, Scott, what's the cuss word you've been using all day? Bullshit. Thank you. This is that statement. The West Point Consolidated School District would like to address the concerns of the naming of the valedictorian and salutatorian for WPHS Class of 2021. There are two methods to determine a student's class rank.

The first is quality point average, that is or QPA. The second is grade point average or GPA. On page 10 of the West Point High School Student Handbook, it states a student's rank in his or her graduating class will be calculated by averaging his or her semester averages. Based on the above statement in the handbook, a student's ranking should be determined

by GPA. However, at Senior Awards Day on Monday, May 24, 2021, the two students who were recognized as valedictorian and salutatorian did not have the highest GPA. Instead, these two students have the highest QPA. The two students with the highest QPA are Ikeria Washington and Layla Temple. The two students with the highest GPA are Dominique Borgioli and Emma Berry. The WPCSD feels it is necessary to recognize all four seniors at graduation.

Congratulations to the following. Dominique Borgioli and Ikeria Washington, valedictorian, Emma Berry, and Layla Temple, salutatorian. We apologize for any confusion and problems this may have caused. The school district takes full responsibility for this misunderstanding. Can y'all please show Ikeria, please, and Layla? Could y'all please show the other two?

Little black girls. Go ahead, all. I think it's abundantly clear, Robert, what the hell went on here? Oh, God. This isn't anything new. This gives me a chance to get a grievance off my chest, too. Back in 2001, when I was in high

school, my school, the majority black school, Kendrick High School in Columbus, Georgia, after a 20-year drought, won the academic decathlon tournament for Muskogee County. Because we won at Hardaway High School, they would not give us the trophy because they could not believe that the black school had finally won. I gave an amazing

speech also, but they couldn't believe that the black school actually won, so they had to go back and do a recount of all the scores and points. So two weeks later, they finally gave up our ceremony in the library at our school and sat on the big stage in front of everybody else. Y'all should have seen me trash-talking, too. Columbus High

School, all them folks. I was killing them. But this has been going on for a long time. I'm glad we're bringing some attention to these young women so that they can have the proper shine and the proper recognition for what they've achieved. Well, it's hard being black in America. It just is. I mean, at every level of our life, it's just hard.

I'm not surprised that Robert was part of an academic decathlon. He's still mad about that shit. I am still mad. I got the picture on my laptop with my screen saver. That's where tertiary came in. And all the other words that he has blessed us with. And I am thankful that this was your therapeutic moment where you could get that off your chest.

But back to these women, young girls, who had something stolen from them. Look, I don't know, Roland. I didn't see where it was a new rule. It seemed like it was the rule rule and that they screwed it up and maybe they had been doing things this way and they went to the senior thing

without knowing who the GPA people were because the final grades weren't calculated yet. It's still their fault. It's still a mess up. And, you know, they told the tale when they completely deleted their Facebook account, like they just couldn't handle it. Like I couldn't take no more. But what I'm saying is if they went by GPA before, they should go by it again. I want to know if the numbers are actually right or not. And what I also want is for the real revenge, the justice in the matter, to be that these two young black women never want for a college scholarship, never want for a job, never want for a dime.

Let's fix it, fix it, y'all. Forget these people in Mississippi who tried to snatch these titles from them. I want for their lives to be a witness to what our communities do when you try to take things from our girls. Scott. In defense of black women and girls. Wish Spelman College when you try to take things from our girls in defense of black women and girls? Scott.

We're Spelman College when you need them. They ought to both go to Spelman. They're here. They're going wherever they want to go, Scott. But I want them to go free and banked. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So in any event, let me just say this. Meaning you, Scott. Say what? I'm not muted. You. No, I'm not muted. But listen.

I said meaning you. Where is your check for the girls? I can't hear you. But anyway, the whole racial balance piece just screams at you in this case, rather than whatever the dynamic is. It screams at you. But that. Rather, whatever the dynamic is, it screams at you. But that's how Mississippi

and those red southern states look at this. So we have separate but equal. We make them equal. It just kind of, it makes it okay. It makes it palatable, if you will. And that's just, what's the word? Bullshit.

Well, that is it for us. And Monique, don't think for a second just, what's the word? Bullshit. Well, that is it for us. And Monique, don't think for a second we gonna forget that tumbling ass phone of yours. Get your ass a tripod, please. Yeah, we saw that. Yeah, we... How come we can't get any Roland Martin paraphernalia like shirts and jackets and hats?

We're regular guests. I keep hearing we're going to get them, but we haven't gotten them. But I see you have a shirt on now. So how come I don't? We don't get paid for any of this. So how can you compensate us with value to goods or services? Just curious. Scott, Scott, Scott, Scott, Scott, Scott, your compensation is that I still even talk to you.

All right, Robert, Monique, and Scott, I appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Folks, if y'all want to support what we do at Roller Martin Unfiltered, please join our Bring the Funk fan club. Y'all can support us every single day, of course, by giving us a cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered. If y'all want to help us buy Scott a hat and a T-shirt, cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered,

PayPal.me forward slash RMartinUnfiltered, Venmo.com forward slash RMUnfiltered, Zell is Roland at RolandSMartin.com, Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Folks, that is it for us. Thank you so very much. I'll see you guys tomorrow right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Ha! See you guys tomorrow right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Holla! I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott.

And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real.

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling, the limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org, brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council.

This is an iHeart Podcast.