#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Black joblessness spike; House Armed Services vote to rename bases; COVID update; #CROWNday kick off

Episode Date: July 6, 2020

7.2.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Trump touts drop unexpected drop in unemploymemnt, but Black joblessness rate spikes; Catholic Priest suspended for comparing BLM activists to maggots; House Armed Services vote to rename bases; Blacks 45 to 54 years old are dying from COVID-19 at seven times the rate of whites; Discrimination against Black and low-income renters in a new study hits new high; Investors call on Nike, FedEx and PepsiCo to cut ties with the Redskins; Maya Moore, a star Minnesota Lynx player in the WNBA helped secure the release of Jonathan Irons #CROWNday kick off + special guest Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartcinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partner: Ceek Be the first to own the world's first 4D, 360 Audio Headphones and mobile VR Headset. Check it out on www.ceek.com and use the promo code RMVIP2020 - The Roland S. Martin YouTube channel is a news reporting site covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today is Thursday, July 2nd, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, folks. Also, today is the 56th anniversary of the signing of one of the most important civil rights legislations in American history. Also, the Giles report came out today. Donald Trump is claiming victory. Yeah, what about black male unemployment? White House has nothing to say about that. The House Armed Services Committee has voted to make the Pentagon rename Confederate named bases,

even as Senate Republicans try to stop it. A Catholic priest has been suspended in Indiana for comparing Black Lives Matter activists to maggots. Also, Black folks who are 45 to 54 years old are dying from COVID-19 at seven times the rate of white Americans their age, according to a report from the Brookings Institution. Speaking of COVID-19, Herman Cain in a hospital with it.

And just 21 hours ago, he was tweeting about why wearing masks is a bad idea. Researchers find high levels of discrimination against black and low-income renters in a new study out of Boston, and investors are calling on Nike, FedEx, and PepsiCo to cut ties with the Washington Redskins due to their name. Wait till we show you this black sheriff in Florida who literally has issued a threat to Black Lives Matter protesters. Plus Maya Moore, a star WNBA player who set out for a full

year, was there when Jonathan Irons got released from prison on yesterday for a crime he did not commit. As we said, folks, it's a jam-packed show. It's time to bring in the funk. Plus, I'm sorry, today's also, we're going to celebrate the Crown Act. Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary. We have a phenomenal lineup including a special, a special tribute by India Arie.

All of that on Roller Mark Unfiltered. It's time to bring the funk. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the biz, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling.

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

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Rollin' Martin Now Martin Alright folks, Don Farm payroll soared by 4.8 million in June. The unemployment rate fell to 11.1 percent as the U.S. continues to reopen after the, well, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Now, Donald Trump took a victory lap at news conference today, saying today's announcement proves that our economy is roaring back. And also, they touted black unemployment falling from 16.8% to 15.4%.

Ah, but you might want to slow that down a little bit. How University economist Bill Spriggs, who's also, of course, the top economist with the AFL-CIO, put this tweet out. Not sure what Trump is crowing about to the black community. The unemployment rate for adult black men rose to 16.3%, its highest level in nine years. When he took office, he inherited the lowest unemployment rate for black men any incoming president ever started their term with. Isn't it amazing what happens when you actually have the details? Joining us right now is Dr. Greg Carr, Chair, Department of Afro-American

Studies at Howard University, Recy Colbert, Black Women's Views, and Erica Savage-Wilson, host of the Savage Politics Podcast. Greg, I'll start with you. Again, I got a cute email from Paris Denard just crowing about these numbers, but then I responded to him and the White House,

do you have any comment about the unemployment rate going up for black men? No response. Well, of course. I mean, Paris is doing his job. You don't get paid to do anything other than promote Donald Trump, who didn't talk about the pandemic, the surge, who didn't talk about the 10,000 new cases in Florida today. Greg, hold tight one second. Greg, do you have a fan on?

We can barely hear you. There's a loud buzz. Let's do this here. I'm going to go to Reese. We'll come back to Greg. Let's you guys take care of that loud buzz. We can barely hear Greg. Reese, go ahead. Your thoughts. Yeah, I think that the covid-19 pandemic has exposed the great systemic institutionalized racism that we have in our economy and in our country. And it's no surprise whatsoever that even as jobs are being added back, Black people are, and particularly Black men, are being left behind. So we have nothing to celebrate yet.

These are not new jobs. These are jobs that were furloughed or that were shut down because of the pandemic returning back to normalcy. But guess what? We have another shutdown coming down or at least another scale back coming down. And so this is a temporary reprieve. But we also have the unemployment insurance, $600 a week that's going to be running out that Mitch McConnell has signaled he has no interest in extending. So there are many, many more problems over the horizon, not just for black men, but for the country in general. Erica. Yeah. And then we're also looking at reporting from places like Queens, New York, where folks who were impacted heavily by the coronavirus are having a most difficult time

reengaging the economy again. We're looking at where investments were and where they weren't placed. And then we're also looking at moratoriums expiring for people that are living in apartments and they're facing eviction. So there is a lot more work ahead. And even when we look at the Great Recession, which is something that we can kind of look back at that was most closely to a real, real issue, economic issue, we saw that black people, black men, black women, had the most difficult time of being able to restart being back into the economy again. So him celebrating is really par for the course. It's classic Donald Trump. And I don't think that anyone should expect anything more from him than what we saw today. Greg. All right. We're trying to we're trying to reconnect with Greg.

And so we'll do that in just a second. Trying to get his audio straight. Look, bottom line is this here. When you look at these economic numbers, they can play the game. But they have done an awful job when it comes to the coronavirus response. In fact, we're actually seeing how that is still impacting because in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott, what he did was he opened the state. They were touting this whole deal. Now he issues an order today ordering everyone to wear masks.

See, now had he listened to the Latina, Hidalgo, who's the county judge in Houston, he overrode her. He overrode Sylvester Turner, the mayor in Houston as well. And so these, the shameful actions of these Republican governors in Arizona and Texas and other states, they are going to cause all that progress with the shutdown. They're about to wipe it all out because they were so stupid trying to reopen states. Absolutely. And then even when we look at there was the principal deputy director at one of the hospitals in Houston put out a front page ad around people telling them not to celebrate this freedom holiday weekend in the way that they would normally do that. You're talking about not someone who's an executive

leader, but you're talking about someone within the business community that also has executive leadership within a hospital. In Texas right now, you're talking about ICU numbers that exceed 100 percent capacity. I've also seen and read reporting where doctors are saying that, listen, we have folks that are young and that would otherwise be healthy that have been impacted by COVID and that if they're not intubated, that they will die. And so the 18 to 29 group, the 30 to 45, the 46 on up, this novel coronavirus is not discriminating. And what people would normally do, we would normally, a lot of people would normally be, myself included, at Essence Fest this week. This is not a moment to try to recreate what won't happen. What we do need to do is we need to wash our hands thoroughly throughout the day. We need to wear a damn mask, socially distance,

and sit our asses down somewhere so that we can, as a society, get a better handle onto what the CDC's principal deputy director is calling the coronavirus a stealthier virus than what they expected and essentially being out of control because of society behavior. Reishi, go ahead. Yeah, I think people have to understand that just because it's not round-the-clock coverage on CNN or some of these other news stations, you know, screaming about how big of a crisis it is, it's an even bigger crisis than when we started the shutdown. Just look at what's happening. We have D.L. Hughley, who was asymptomatic. He made a video last night saying that he's infected his co-workers and his son because he didn't realize that he had the virus. Nobody was wearing masks. Then you look at, I don't know if we're going to talk about it today, Roland, but Herman Cain is in the hospital right now. Just eight days.

Yeah, we're talking about that. Because, guys, show the photo, please. Herman Cain is now in the hospital for COVID-19. This was a photo when he was at the Trump rally just, what, a couple weeks ago. It took place June 20th in Tulsa. Guys, show the photo, please. And it speaks to exactly what we're talking about. In fact, okay, I don't know why we have the photo.

I sent it in. All right, fine, I'll pull it up. We, in fact, what's interesting is that he sent a tweet out. He sent a tweet out about 22 hours ago, a very arrogant tweet, again, against wearing masks. And so this is the nonsense that you're seeing. You have Republicans out there who throw this stuff out there, who they've got people all riled up like this is wrong. This is unfair. We shouldn't have to be

doing these things. Well, this is kind of what happens when you ignore the scientists. And again, Herman Cain, of all people, you owe. Herman Cain is old and he's sitting here. And my fact, hopefully it comes up real quick. Here's a photo right here. OK, from the Trump rally. OK, you see all these black Republicans sitting there. So guess what? Every single person in that photo, they better go to quarantine, including Paris Denard, who's right behind them. That's what happens when you don't listen to the experts and you sit there and run your ass out there talking all this trash about masks and not wearing masks. And you listen to a fool like Donald Trump. Here's the statement they put out. On Monday, June 29th, Herman Cain was informed that he had tested positive for COVID-19.

By Wednesday, July 1st, Mr. Cain had developed symptoms serious enough that he required hospitalization. He spent the past night in the hospital. And as of today, Thursday, July 2nd, he is resting comfortably in an Atlanta area hospital. Mr. Cain did not require a respirator, and he is awake and alert. There's no way of knowing for sure how or where Mr. Cain contracted the coronavirus, but we do know he is a fighter who has beaten stage four cancer, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's why you wear a mask. That's why you have safe distancing. That's why you don't sit next to people

at rallies like the fools did there in Tulsa. That's why. Yeah. And we're seeing more cases of people... Hold on one second. Go ahead, Recy. Go ahead. I was going to say, we're seeing more cases of entire

families getting infected. It's anecdotal from what I've seen, but I'm just seeing a lot more cases where an entire family gets infected. They don't know exactly who gave, you know, who was the first person in the family to get the virus. And, you know, this has a disproportionate impact in terms of the deadliness and the severity of this disease when it comes to Black people because of pre-existing conditions. So Herman Cain, as a stage four cancer survivor, should have known better. And you cannot follow a fool. Like some people say, you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes. And COVID is not the prize that you want to win.

Go ahead, Erica. Absolutely. And then looking at Tulsa County, they've seen an increase since the Klan rally of 15 percent in their COVID numbers. You're talking about well over 900 people since June 20th that have the virus. And that's what we know thus far. And so the irresponsibility and arrogance of other people should not be a life or death scenario for other folks. People have to exercise wisdom and wear a mask, social distance and wash their hands often and stop gathering. This is the thing right here, Greg. Real simple. Again, go to my iPad. This is a tweet sent out literally 24 hours ago as he was commenting on this big Mount Rushmore Independence Day event.

Trump has been touting the South Dakota governor. We will not be social distancing. This is what Herman Cain wrote. Mask will not be mandatory for the event, which will be attended by President Trump. People are fed up and you're in the hospital with coronavirus. That's dumb. The Black Hills are sacred in South Dakota. And shout out to the Dakota Sioux who have said, you're not welcome on our territory. And Herman Cain would do well to revisit his old slogan when he was running for president, 999, except the number nine, maybe nine as in German. No, no, no, Herman. No, no, no, brother. Now you are in the hospital because you were one of those renegroes that showed up out there in Tulsa. I mean, at some point, we have to decide whether or not we are going to protect the lives of human beings

or play politics until people literally die. I mean, the governor of Florida now trying to close stuff, 10,000 people in the last day have shown up, tested for COVID. In Texas, the lieutenant governor has lost his entire mind. And now Herman Cain thinks that somehow scoring political points is more important, when in fact, even there in Texas, Lieutenant Governor, has lost his entire mind. And now Herman Cain thinks that somehow scoring political points is more important,

when in fact, even there in Texas, you saw what happened with Mike Pence in that church. The choir singing behind him. Several of those people had contracted COVID, and they're up there singing away with no masks, even as the vice president has his mask on. I mean, you know, at some point, this thing has to really come down to whether or not we're going to stand on the side of protecting people's lives or we're going to continue to abet this type of political foolishness. Folks, according to the Brookings Institution, black Americans, specifically between the ages of 45 to 54, are dying seven times the rate of white Americans who are the same age. For ages 45 to 54, the death rate per 100,000 is 28 for blacks, 24 for Latinos, and 4 for whites.

For ages 55 to 64, it is 76 per 100,000 for blacks, 60 for Latinos, and 13 for whites. For ages 65 to 74, it is 196 for blacks, 135 for Latinos, and 38 for whites. So for ages 75 to 84, it is 443 for blacks, 290 for Latinos and 120 for whites. For 85 and over, 880 for blacks, 573 for Latinos, 436 for whites. In every age category, black people are dying at a higher rate of coronavirus than anybody else. So listen up. Stop listening to these crazy white folks. If you're black talking about coronavirus, because you are likely to, if you're black to die at a higher rate. So wear a damn mask, stop being stupid, wash your hands. And I'm getting all kinds of reports from black people. I was talking today to Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton.

She was in her home state of South Carolina, and she was telling me these black people are not wearing their mask. Look, if these other folk want to kill themselves, fine. But the reality is that's their business. But black people, we are getting hit harder than anybody else with this. Don't listen to those fools. Don't listen to them fools on those fools. Don't listen to them fools on Fox News. Don't listen to any of them and wear a mask. If you get it because you

chose not to wear a mask, that's because you were stupid as hell and you should have listened to common sense trying to explain to you what in the hell is going on. Sorry, I put it just like it need to be put because somebody got to say it the way it's supposed to be said. All right, folks, let's go to our next story. And that is these one talk about stuck on stupid. The House Armed Services Committee have approved an amendment in the defense policy bill that requires the Pentagon to rename all Confederate named bases and other properties within a year. This committee vote comes after Donald Trump threatened via Twitter to veto the defense authorization bill if it includes the requirement to rename the bases. Now, over in the House, excuse me, in the Senate, Josh Cawley of Missouri, he actually tried to put in, tried to strip it from the bill.

The senator said no. But what's crazy to me, Greg, Senator Tim Scott actually gave an interview where he said that we should have a study as to how these bases somehow got named after Confederate generals. We don't need no damn study. We know exactly how they were named and who cares how and why they were named. We know what the real deal is. Take them damn names off. Joseph Rainey, Robert Smalls, just two of the many incredible black elected officials, congressmen, state legislators, local elected officials that came out of the Civil War and into Reconstruction. Tim Scott is an embarrassment to every person of African descent in the state

of South Carolina who struggled during Reconstruction, who fought their way out of enslavement, and everyone since, from Septima Clark all the way through to the current members of the United States Congress, in which he serves, from South Carolina. At some point, brother, you have to decide whether or not—forget the right or wrong side of history—you have to decide before your head hits the pillow every night whether you can stand defending traitors not only to the United States of America, but more important people who, if they had had their way, you wouldn't be in the United States Senate. You have your shirt off chopping indigo or cotton or rice in a rice paddy in your native state of South

Carolina. Not only is that indefensible, I understand Josh Hartley. I understand Hartley from Missouri. I understand Hartley, an unreconstructed white nationalist who is saying, well, why don't we listen to military families and why don't we have public hearings? But when Tim Scott says it, this goes beyond politics, brother. Now you are on the opposite side of your race, and that's indefensible. Simple as that. Simple as that. Folks, again, you're seeing what's happening here. Now you talk about pressure that's being applied as well. That is a number of companies, a number of investors representing six hundred and twenty billionEx, the ones who pay the field rights, stadium rights name, they issued this statement. Go to my iPad. FedEx has asked the Washington Redskins to change its name. Here's the statement.

We have communicated to the team in Washington our request that they change the team name. Recy, I keep trying to tell people money talks. And as Richard Pryor said in Car Wash, bullshit walks. Bullshit walks. Exactly. That is how you have to hit it. We live in a capitalist society for better or for worse. The better part of it is how we can apply pressure to these companies that won't do it out of altruism, that don't want to do it out of being on the side of ethics and morality and decency, that's where the money talks and the bullshit walks. And at the end of the day, these companies are seeing that to be corporate, you know, the whole notion of corporate responsibility is a thing that they have to be much more conscientious about

and they have to be a lot more consistent about in terms of not just saying these things, but actually putting their money where their mouth is. And so this is really incredible pressure that's being put on Snyder. And he's going to have to make the decision if he's going to side with white supremacy, if he's going to side against the long, long standing demands from the Native American community to change this just racist name and do the right thing. Erica, while this is huge, 87 investment firms and shareholders worth a combined $620 billion, they didn't send letters to the Redskins. They sent letters to Nike, FedEx, and PepsiCo saying cut ties. Those companies are afraid of those investors pulling their money out of their stock.

That's why FedEx sent that letter. Yep. And we're in a great moment for letters like those to be fired off. People are now understanding the moment that we're in and that the incredible public pressure is really being felt, not just in those big corporations, but for those that really do help to kind of prop those up. And if I could just go back to the Pentagon piece to kind of thread it all in, where we're talking about renaming these bases, specifically those 10 bases, Army bases that are named after Confederate generals, treasonous folks, is that also the Pentagon is talking about that there needs to

be an advisory panel, not the Pentagon, but there is also within that provision that the Pentagon actually report out in 90 days how they're moving through that process. And then also creating an advisory panel. We're looking at the military being about almost 50 percent Black. And then we're also looking at that less than one percent of the actual nation is in the military. When we think about the moment that we're in for incredible public pressure, that we're seeing it not only with the naming, renaming of these bases, but then we're also seeing also with this whole Washington redskin business that has been going on for decades.

This is really a moment where we're going to be able to see where people are standing in their hearts. For Dan Snyder to say that he's not really, that they're not really offending the Native American community and then actually, you know, sing out the words of the song, it is offensive to the Native American and indigenous population. And so people are going to have to make not just decisions for their dollars, but historical decisions as well. Real simple, real simple, great money. Again, money talks. The reason you're seeing the changes in the five and a half weeks after the death of George Floyd is because people begin to press the money levers. That's what I keep saying.

In fact, I've been making the arguments to other people. They keep saying, well, how can we change the VC culture when it comes to investment? I said, no, what you do is you have the very, I said, you have the VCs at the top. They're the ones who are sitting here investing in all these companies. But where are they getting their money from? They're getting their money from these pension funds. Well, there are money managers who control these pension funds. So now you have to then ask, okay, well, where are they getting the money from? They're getting their money from these pension funds. Well, there are money managers who control these pension funds. So now you have to then ask, okay, well, where are they getting the money from, from public workers? The largest, the largest percentage of black wealth in America

rests in the hands of public workers. And this is what I had been saying. And I think everybody who's watching me, if you are black and you are a city, a county, a state, a federal worker, if you work for a school district, it doesn't matter if you're a public worker, your pension dollars, your pension, your money is being pulled together great as a collective. And in those pension funds are the largest investors in Wall Street. So if you want to change Wall Street, if you want to change how venture capitalism look, if you want to change how those white led investment firms look, all needs, all it needs to happen is these black public workers need to rise up and say, hmm, who is the investment fund controlling our money? Where are your black partners? What the companies you're investing in, where are their black board members and black senior execs?

If you don't change your policies, we're not going to invest in your companies. That would change the entire structure, Greg. That's exactly right, Roman. And it's clear that business people can count. And as you said, they're following the money. And the irony is that even as we see the attack on public unions in this country, which has spanned the last several generations,

we see whether it be Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook or whether it be Snyder soon with this Washington football club, they're looking ahead and trying to gauge the momentum of this general strike that's in the street. Even as we need to organize better to express ourselves, the simple fact, the matter is that these companies are realizing that their consumer base is increasingly non-white. You have another element of whites who are now saying Black Lives Matter and may be inclined to spend their dollars elsewhere. And as you said, when you see the rates of which people are getting sick and dying with COVID-19, we know we're essential personnel. We know all the other factors. But one of the factors that the Brookings report reveals as well is that the younger this country is, the more non-white it is. We're not going to be talking about minorities in the same way in the next 20 years.

And so as a result, these companies are trying to get ahead of the thing. And when it comes to the Washington Football Club, the D.C., the mayor, the city council made it very clear several years ago when they're trying to angle for a new stadium in the district. You're not coming back into the district until you do something about their name.

Right. And first of all, the reason they even got the first black player they got because the head. Right. And the first of all, the reason they even got any black, the first black player they got because the head of the Department of the Interior told that racist owner, oh, we own the land your stadium is on. You're going to go get you a black ball player. Folks, I do want to talk about this here. Today, of course,

in 1964, the Civil Rights Act was signed. Obviously, one of the most momentous laws in American history. The reason I'm stating that is because you're seeing what happens today as a result of that in terms of what is happening. This study out of Boston shows how we are still being impacted. Of course, this dealt with public accommodations, not housing. But this new study from Suffolk University Law School finds that landlords and agents in greater Boston are discriminating against black renters and those with vouchers for Section 8 housing. They have been illegally shutting out qualified renters.

And the discrimination testing study showed that majority real estate brokers show black testers half the number of apartments than white testers. The testing also revealed a high level of discrimination against people that have Section 8 housing vouchers, regardless of race. Even though here we are today, on July 2nd, after this bill was signed in 1964, Recy, the reality is to white folks in America, here is more of your evidence of what it means to be black in America. Absolutely. I mean, if you're a realtor, then your incentive should be to get the stuff rented, not necessarily to try to steer white people or black people into certain areas.

But that is how this white supremacy is perpetuated. It's institutional to a certain degree, but it's also perpetuated by people who are doing this work every single day and making these decisions, whether they're conscientiously making these decisions or not, it's still having the same impact of being discriminatory. And it's really appalling because one of the things that they talked about is that people expect this kind of discrimination. And that's just what's really so disgusting about it, is that Black people already know that they're going to be discriminated against when it comes to these things.

And even with the advances we have in technology, with being able to screen these things online, having access to more information, we still see this discrimination persist. Erica. Right. And we saw the current occupant of the White House really demonstrate this back in 1973 when the Justice Department sued him, his father, Fred Trump, and Trump management for doing the very same thing. You had a tester because a black man wanted to rent a place out in Brooklyn.

He talked with the super, and the super said it was already rented. When he reported it back, it was found out by a tester that went out that the very same thing that is coming up in this report was the very same thing that happened back in the 70s and it was the reason that uh donald trump and his uh folks were sued and then we saw the advent of the 80s of ronald reagan uh describing what was the welfare queen and so then for the folks that are uh people who do have 8, kind of like the myth around people who are receiving those benefits is that they're irresponsible. They're taking up space. They're taking your money. When in essence, you're looking at that particular voucher is

guaranteed money through the federal housing authority. So we're really seeing par for the course. And so this is not something that is of surprise, that it is still happening is really just kind of what we've seen throughout history. Greg, you had those black baseball players who talked about the racism they faced in Boston, all these white folks living in denial. Another example, exhibit 1,336. Exactly, brother. You know, and it's interesting because on this anniversary, another example. Exhibit 1336. Exactly, brother. You know, and it's interesting because on this anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,

I mean, we realize that the black struggle has laid the foundation for every other equity victory in this society. Two weeks ago in the Bostock versus Clayton County case, that was the case where the Supreme Court two weeks ago in the Bostock versus Clayton County case, that was the case where the Supreme Court two weeks ago said that the definition of gender or sex includes gender.

That was Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as you said many times on this show. But at the same time, when we deal with this question of housing, we're facing a looming housing catastrophe. Yes, people are forestalled from evicting folks, landlords. However, they're still filing eviction notices with the courts. And so if people are displaced from their homes, then this discrimination by race takes on an added dimension of catastrophe in the fall of this year. We're facing a ticking time bomb, even as other folks have used Title VII and other elements of the Civil Rights Act of 64 to advance causes that we all support. But never

forget, black people are at the foundation of that discrimination. Folks, Black Lives Matter is scaring the hell out of these white folks. A suburban Indianapolis Catholic priest has been suspended from public ministry because he decided that comparing the Black Lives Matter movement to maggots and parasites in a recent online church bulletin was okay. Reverend Theodore Rothrock of St. Elizabeth's Seton Catholic Church in Carmel, Indiana wrote this, the only lives that matter

are their own and the only power they seek is their own. They are wolves in wolves clothing, masked thieves and bandits seeking only to devour the life of the poor and profit from the fear of others. They are maggots and parasites at best, feeding off the isolation of addiction and broken families and offering to replace any current frustration and anxiety with more misery and greater resentment. Now, that's a Catholic priest. Now, check this out. Here is this brother. This brother. A sheriff in Florida named Darrell Daniels, the first black sheriff in Clay County's history.

Listen to what this yahoo said about Black Lives Matter. Hey, folks, me and the men and women of the Clay County Sheriff's Office just want to weigh in on what we're seeing going on, played out across the media or mainstream media in this country. victim to subjecting yourself to this. This is. All right, folks, not sure what's going on. I'm going to go ahead and play this here from my iPad. So go ahead and take it here, please.

Played out. Hey, folks, me and the men and women of the Clay County Sheriff's Office just want to weigh in on what we're seeing going on, played out. Hey folks, me and the men and women of the Clay County Sheriff's Office just want to weigh in on what we're seeing going on, played out across the media or mainstream media in this country. Look, folks, don't fall victim to subjecting yourselves to this conversation that law enforcement is bad, that law enforcement is the enemy of the citizens that we're sworn to protect and serve, we swore an oath. And in that oath we swore to support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States

and the government. And that we're duly qualified under the state's Constitution to hold office. That is for me as a sheriff, for these men and women as deputy sheriffs. And we end that with, so help me God. But God is absent from the media's message or Black Lives Matter or any other group out there that's making themselves a spectacle, disrupting what we know to be our quality of life in this country. In Clay County, we have a great quality of life. We have a great relationship with our community, but across this country, not so much.

I just wanted to take a stand with these men and with these women who feel the same way that I do. Lawlessness, that's unacceptable in this country. Lawlessness, that's unacceptable in Clay County. And if you threaten to come to Clay County and think that for one second that we'll bend our backs for you, you're sadly mistaken. I know what happens when lawlessness prevails. And then this day and time, God is raising up men and women, just like the folks you see standing behind me who will have strong backbones and will stand in the gap between lawlessness and the good citizenry that was sworn to protect and serve so you can threat all you want you can say hey let's go to clay county

or let's go to some other peaceful county where their problems don't exist or not so much like across this country, where relationships are great and not strained, and where the people support their sheriff and support the men and women who wear the uniform. And you'll have something waiting on you that you don't want. Yes, we'll protect your constitutional rights as long as you remain under the umbrella of peaceful protest or peaceful march. But the second that you step out from up under the protection of the Constitution, we'll be waiting on you, and we'll give you everything you want.

All the publicity, all the pain, all the glamor and glory for all that five minutes will give you. Is it a threat? Absolutely not. But somebody has to step up in front of the camera and say, enough is enough. Tearing up Clay County, that's not going to be acceptable. And if we can't handle you, you know what I'll do? I'll exercise the power and authority as a sheriff, and I'll make special deputies of every lawful gun owner in this county. And I'll deputize them for this one purpose,

to stand in the gap between lawlessness and civility. That's what we're sworn to do, and that's what we're going to do. You've been warned. Greg Carr, what the hell was that? Well, I kind of feel bad for Brother Daniels. I don't know, you know, you probably saw this. The state attorney in Florida is looking for an independent. They stepped down looking for an Daniels. I don't know, you know, you probably saw this. The state attorney in Florida is looking for independent, they stepped down looking for an independent prosecutor because

they have an investigation. Apparently some couple of years ago or last year, he ordered one of his deputies to arrest a sister he used to have a relationship with who he accused of stalking. So he's used to, he's used to kind of that kind of overhyped masculinist use his gun and that big hat as an excuse to search for his masculinity approach. To see those guys standing there gap legged with that kind of, you know, posturing look. I mean, this is this is the worst kind of practice of patriarchy. I mean, they're in the Jacksonville area. And so he says, you know, we'll be waiting on you, brother. You do a little bit of your history over there in that little county because you'll find out that one of the natives

of Jacksonville, James Weldon Johnson, he's the one who coined the term the Red Summer in 1919. Meaning what? You don't want to deputize. You know, this cat said he'd deputize everybody in the county if you don't have enough deputies. Well, if you deputize everybody, a bunch of them guns gonna be black. You don't want it, Daniels. And in fact,

you better go check that thing about that stalker you say you got, brother, because you got other problems in your own personal life. Racy Gray talked about all those guys. I didn't see a single woman standing there. No women on that sheriff's department? Yeah, I didn't. It was just so ridiculously macho

and disturbing. And I think that they need to open up a pattern and practices investigation on that department because clearly they got it completely messed up in terms of what their objective is. There is no once the constitutional right ends, that's, there is no end to your constitutional rights. That's kind of the whole point of the constitution. And so this whole machismo as, as, um, as Dr. Carr put it, this, this perceived threat that doesn't actually exist. It doesn't sound like they've had any issues. This grandstanding, it's really pathetic and insecure and it's dangerous. And, you know, deputizing people is absolutely never a good thing. And he

will have blood on his hands if people take him up on that offer. So they need to investigate him and everybody behind him because something is really really wrong and demented and almost demonic, I would say, about what we just saw. All this stuff, Erica, God this and God that and they are not this and all this.

Oh, it's not a threat. That is shameful conduct. That's a fake. You know what? That's a fake as John Wayne racist. And then, of course, he looks like he looks like he looks like a broke ass share of David Clark. Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. As we say in Texas, all hat, no cattle. Yeah. Yeah. Uncle Ruckus has added another one to his fold. And along with Dr. Greg Carr is talking about there is an open criminal investigation because the young lady that he'd been having an affair with for six years was a direct report. And he's talked about,

you know, having all of this media publicity. Well, he definitely does not need it. He himself after having his marriage fall apart after this as well. And so listen, you know, all of this slave patrol talk that he's talking about, you know, Clay County was named after a U.S. senator who did, in fact, have slaves. He's in a county that's about 81 percent white and he's running for reelection. And there are six other names on the ballot. So this failed attempt to appeal to the trump voter with the uncle ruckus crew um it's you know it's not going to work out for his favor he definitely has uh other and bigger problems that lay ahead of him uh past this reelection

season all right well let's talk about a story of substance and that is maya moore this sister wmba star college star sat out an entire year in order to fight for the release of Jonathan Irons, a black man sent to prison at the age of 16, sentenced for 40 years for burglary and assault that he had nothing to do with. Well, folks, yesterday, after all the hard work of many others,

including Maya, this happened. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh, that's good. That's good. All the time. Yes, yes. Catherine.

23 is a change. Okay, 23. Oh, okay, okay. Oh, that's, that's. Oh, I got a little clown right now. Okay, okay, okay.. . . .

. Give me some love. Thank you baby man. I wish you had because I'm gonna go ahead of you. Okay. What's up y'all? We made it. What's up baby? I think we're good.

That's it guys, it's done. I'm just checking. Okay y'all. How's it feel? Come can live life now. I'm free. I'm blessed. I just want to live a life worthy. I want to live my life worthy of God's help and influence and just provision in my life and be made this possible.

I thank everybody that supported me, my family, and just to be home, to have somewhere to be home. I'm so grateful. I hope I got the cheer for the guys in the prison made this for me. It says hope, cuz they need that. The things that they're doing here in the prison, they've been trying to do positive changes and trying to help people. All my friends back there that I left behind, I feel like they got locked up. But I love them and I'm not gonna forget them and I'm gonna help the ones that I can. So I'm gonna thank y'all for coming, I appreciate it help the ones that I can. So I want to thank you all for coming.

I appreciate it. Hey, Joni, why didn't you come see me? Come here, Joni. Come here. On that note. Erica, for all the praise that folks give LeBron James for what he does, for what they give the likes of other athletes, even Colin Kaepernick. Nobody, this sister literally put her career aside to fight every day for this man's release.

Yeah, that video gets me every time because that is exercise of platform. When people talk about having a return to sports, we are in a moment that really does require that we actually look outside of ourselves and see what it is that we can be doing to improve the lives of our community. And that community extends to incarcerated bodies, those incarcerated bodies, even as relates to the census, when we look at the census, that there is a counting of those bodies to the facilities where they're housed, which are usually rural white communities. So there is a real fight of justice that we can all be doing and that Maya actually gave her career and actually not only talk the talk, but walk the walk. And she did not do it with a lot of fanfare. She moved in silence and she moved stealthily. I so applaud. And it just reinforces to me that, you know, black people are amazing, but absolutely black women do lead.

Riti. Absolutely. I mean, and lead with knowing that there's no cookie at the end of the tunnel, right? I mean, when you have people like Kim Kardashian who are lauded for their work and you have other people, other athletes that are lauded for their work and the black woman that really power, even in the Kim Kardashian advocacy that she does, black lawyers, several black lawyers power those cases that she's the face of. And so what Maya did is absolutely incredible. And to Erica's point, they had had a long-term friendship. This wasn't something where, you know, a publicist handed her a case and said, hey, this will look good if you take this on. She actually had a long-term, decade-long friendship with Mr. Irons. And it's a heartwarming story, but also a tragic story because of the fact that the case was flimsy to begin with. He was misidentified. It was circumstantial. And the sentencing for somebody who was 16 years old

at the time for 50 years, I mean, when the case started for 50 years is excessive. And we know that that kind of sentence would never have been given to a white child, essentially, if that were the case. So there are so many reforms that have to happen so that we don't have to have these heartwarming cases where it's a happy ending after a decades-long incarceration. We need to reform the system so that we don't have these cases at all. Greg, Rishi is absolutely right. Brother Irons, I mean, you spend that many years behind some bullshit, come on. And his story is not an outlier. It's not unique. And in Maya Moore's case, you're right, Erica. I mean, Maya Moore is a two-time national NCAA champion in basketball at UConn. She is a league MVP. She won league and the finals MVP.

She's a four-time WNBA champion. She got two Olympic and FIBA gold medals. This is the top player in her sport and one of the top athletes in the world. So when Cheryl Reeve, her coach at the Lynx, said, compared her to Muhammad Ali, that's not an outlying comparison. In fact, if she were a man,

she'd be LeBron James, and if LeBron James had done that, we'd be talking about nothing else. Maya Moore, this is really part of her ministry. When she first did this, and remember now, this is the same Maya Moore who joined with her co-captains on the links when Philando Castile and Alden Sterling got killed and wore those chain starts with us shirts. But when she first stepped away from the game at 28 years old, understand she's in the prime of her career as the best basketball player in the world, woman, and arguably, period,

she used to quote, she did quote Colossians 323, because she has a deep Christian faith coming out of North Carolina, coming out of Georgia, Atlanta, where she was raised. She said, whatsoever we do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto man. Maya Moore is the real deal. Young people, women, men, anybody, sit your children down and look at that sister right there because she's got her priorities in order. Folks, you want to talk about bringing you the tears. I was driving in and then, of course, I got an alert. And my man, Reggie Hutland, said, man, this ad hit me hard.

And you want to talk about what we've been arguing about the importance of this election. Watch this video. I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States. So help me God. Let the television burn, babe. There's a riot in the street. If you have been waiting to break glass in case of emergency, we are there. You know what I am? I'm a nationalist. I will teach my grandkids to hang a flag. Can anyone on the Republican side say unequivocally black lives matter. You and me, brother, we're the dangerous ones. You and me, brother, we're the dead.

You should have known from all this. I got a daughter right here. She's 18 years old. 18. She's the first half vote. And I'm very first. So let it burn, let it burn. Let the motherfucker burn.

It's election day. We have to fight until the end, no brother, we gotta go down swinging. We are the first generation to be able to say, I guess it's gonna burn either way. You can't tell me nothing. Well the shots been fired, but the war ain't won, these white boys with money better learn how to run. Oh, I'll hit you back, but hit you done. You and me, baby, we're the dangerous ones. You and me, baby, we're the dangerous ones. My daughter said if I was 18, I would have been out there doing it.

So get your butt out there and vote. She's 17. She's telling me what to do. So I had to do it. Black voters matter. That fed my spirit. You know what? I'm grateful that I came out. Because I matter. That, Reese, is a powerful ad. It is. I think that we've seen the media outside of, obviously, your show, Roland,

which is why it's so valuable, kind of lose interest in this, just the fight of our lifetimes. And, you know, people are still out there in the streets. People are still fighting. And just new injustices are still occurring every day. We're learning about cases that are even a year or so old or, you know, months old, like Elijah McClain. And so we cannot let our foot up off the gas. We cannot take our eyes off the prize. We have to remove the white nationalist in chief from the office if for no other reason, because COVID-19 is not letting up off of us. And he has no intentions whatsoever to do a damn thing about it. We have to remove him.

We have to remove Mitch McConnell. We have to make sure that the Republicans do not have a majority. We have to make sure that the House hold, that Democrats hold onto the House. We have to remove Mitch McConnell. We have to make sure that the Republicans do not have a majority. We have to make sure that the House hold, that Democrats hold on to the House. We have to get as many Republicans out across the country as possible because they have abdicated their duty to put Americans first, Americans of all backgrounds. And so please stay motivated. Please stay safe. But please keep up the fight. Erica, you were crowned my more deal. That video there was certainly a cause to be teary eyed. Yeah, I mean, it really does kind of capture when we just think about even from May 25th to where we are now, but largely where black people have been for a number of years. And along the point that Recy made around really voting and really just keeping

that at the forefront, one of the things, kind of these discussions that are kind of springing up around the lesser of two evils and looking at Biden's record. When we look at those folks that are in executive leadership, particularly in the South and other states, look at what they're doing. Look at what the hell is happening in Georgia. Look at what is happening in Arizona. Look at what's happening in South Dakota. These Republicans have been very clear and they keep telling you from their places on Senate intelligence committees, they're telling you this as we have learned around Donald Trump knowing about the bounties of Afghanistan soldiers, where we know now at least three Marines were killed as a result of this and not doing a damn thing about it, that Republicans do not give a damn about you.

It does not matter if you're black, white, or other. They don't give a damn. They care about power and money and making appearances on Fox News. And so if people want to live beyond this COVID time, beyond summer, beyond November 3rd, we have to exercise that very, very sacred power that we all have, and that is at the ballot box. Bottom line, Greg, it's real simple. You can sit here and yell, complain all you want to, but if you don't vote, you cannot change what's happening. That's right, and it's not either or. Erica just laid it out. I hope everybody heard that

loud and clear. I tell my students all the time, there is no such thing as the United States of America as one nation. It is a state with a lot of different competing interests in it. And that was a very powerful ad. But, you know, I love how they really try to salvage that American flag. But as the lyrics of the song said, as the guy was singing, let the motherfucker burn. I mean, the sister said, you know, our generation is the one to say, no, no, no, no. Every generation has said that, sis. And so when that little message at the end said we're almost there, that is not true. We are not almost there. They're going to the Supreme Court to attack Obamacare because they realize that if COVID, when COVID surges again, these insurance companies can throw, can say they're not going to give you insurance because

you have a preexisting condition. They just took $25 million out of the school police. LA Unified today and the police chief of the school police resigned, said, I can't defend people. Let's be very clear. This is July. Donald Trump isn't guaranteed to be the person to run for office. What if the Republicans decide, you know what, let's throw him overboard. He's unsustainable. And they put Mike Pence in. Pence said, I'm a Christian, meaning I'm a white nationalist. I'm a conservative and I'm a Republican in that order. There is no United States except in this fantasy of a unified place. But Roland, as you had us do last year, what to the slave is the 4th of July. Frederick Douglass called it in 1852. The only thing you get in this society is what you

fight for. And that sister in Louisville with her daughter standing there, she said, the mother was kind of near tears, but you see that look on that young sister's face? That's the look of somebody who's going to get free. No, we are not almost there. And we've got to press this down. This gas has got to go all the way to the floor. Otherwise, there won't be a there

to get to, almost otherwise. Before we go to a break, Lamar Oren Collars, the only HBCU in Memphis, Tennessee, has been named the beneficiary of an endowment of $40 million, one of the largest gifts to any HBCU and the largest for the school in its 158-year history. The endowment was created from assets from the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, an organization that works to strengthen the community through philanthropy. The college is located in one of the poorest zip codes in the country. Without it, many residents in the surrounding community

would not have a college education. The first black mayor of Memphis, Willie Harrington, held this, first of all, of course, he held the seat for 16 years, graduated LeBron on, and in fact, also gave a commencement speech to that school. So that is absolutely great. And it's what I keep saying to people. If you want change what's happening, we've got to be demanding these various foundations and these corporations give these type of

investments to our HBCUs. I'm not interested in 1 million, 2 million, 5 million. No, I'm talking 40, 50 million, 100 million, 1 billion. We're going to talk more about that next week. Got to go to break right now. We come back. The Crown Act, which outlaws hair discrimination in California. That law is spreading across the country. The one-year anniversary is tomorrow. In the next hour, we're going to talk to the

woman who sponsored the bill out of California. Also talk to former Miss America. Talk to others who have been impacted by hair discrimination. And a special tribute from India Ari, exclusive right here on Roller Martin Unfiltered. We'll be right back. You want to support Roller Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club.

Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered Daily Digital Show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUniltered.com We'll be right back. Folks, the Crown Act was created in 2019 in California to ensure protection against discrimination based on race-based hairstyles by extending statutory protection to hair texture and protective styles such as braids, locks, twists, and knots in the workplace and public schools.

You heard countless stories about black folks who are harassed, ridiculed, suspended from schools, and fired from their jobs because of their hair. California State Senator Holly Mitchell introduced the Crown Act in January of 2019, and it was signed into law last summer, making California the first state to ban discrimination based on natural hair or styles like locks, braids and twists in workplaces and public schools. Well, the next hour, we'll talk about hair discrimination and celebrate those who have been able to overcome hair discrimination. And my first guest, I want to talk to her right now. Of course, this is just so you understand, folks, how significant this is. And that is I remember reading a few years ago,

it was a story, actually about four or five years ago, a black woman who applied for a job in Virginia with the VA, impeccable credentials, goes to the interview, nails it. When she leaves, a white guy on the panel says, I'm not comfortable hiring her because of her hair. She finds out, she sues, taxpayers have to pay more than $70,000 and back wages, and she got the job. Had nothing to do with her credentials. It was all because of her hairstyle. Joining us right now is A.C. Egglestone Bracey, who is quite familiar with this as well. A.C., glad to have you on the show.

How critical is the Crown Act? And granted, it was in California, but many folks are saying this has to go across the country. In fact, there should be a national Crown Act. Amen, amen. How are you rolling? Doing great. So it's super important because hair discrimination is discrimination. When you discriminate against us because of our hair, our textured hair, which is a natural trait and how we wear it and locks or braids or bantu knots, you're discriminating against us. And that's not OK. That's why over a year ago, a year and a half ago, on behalf of Dove, I run the beauty and personal care business for Unilever.

And Dove is one of my businesses. I went out and talked to legislative officials, NOBLE, National Organization of Black Elected Officials, and said, you know, beauty should be inclusive. We should not be discriminated against. And look at us, we can change this. So we set out to make the change. And with that, in the audience at that time was Senator Mitchell, who is amazing, who you just talked about, who said, you know what, let me look into this. I did not know this was legal, that we could have this kind of action today. At the time, it was 2018. And she decided, she stepped up in February and said, you know what, I'm going to champion this act. And she called it the Crown Act. Crown is creating a respectful,

open world for natural hair. And like you said, it should be federal legislation. So it's passed in California, thanks to Senator Holly Mitchell. Dove co-founded something called the Crown Coalition with four other partners, the Color of Change, Western Center on Law and Poverty and the National Urban League. And we've been championing the Crown Act. So Holly got it done, Senator Holly Mitchell, July 3rd, just last year. And we've got six other states that have passed it, which we're excited about, two municipalities. We've got federal legislation introduced, but we got 43 more states to go. So I'm with you, Roland. It should be a federal law.

You see, even within Dove, even within Unilever, were there non-black folks who didn't understand how serious this issue is? And was there an education there as well? And then when you also begin to talk to these lawmakers, were they even understanding of how significant this problem is when it comes to black folks being discriminated against? Got all the talent in the world, all the education in the world, but other folks mad about their hair. Yeah, you know, we all witnessed some of these things that you talked about, right? Andrew Johnson, more than a year ago, who was attacked, basically. He was the wrestler, remember him, in New Jersey? Yep, yep.

He had to forfeit the match or get his life cut so we all have seen these and then one of those coaches literally cut his hair they literally attacked him and cut his hair and there's this young woman that we work with with dove uh faith who would sit home in the seventh grade she shows up the first day of school with her braids and they say honey come to office. You have to go home because that's not acceptable here. So we saw all those cases and said that can't be. But a lot of people did not know that was legal. And so we've had a lot of education to do to recognize that it is not only legal and shouldn't be, but that it's not superficial. It's not a matter of changing our style. This is about changing who we are, and that's not okay.

So we've had to do a lot of education. And when we do that, I would say generally, I'm really pleased people get it. People recognize that isn't okay. And I think that's why we've had so much momentum in getting the Crown Act passed in the seven states. If it weren't for COVID and the quarantine, I think we'd have even more,

because as you know, a lot of Congresses are not in session. So I'm hopeful that we will get to the 50 states and the federal legislation. Obviously, this is Dove's partner is a part of this. You talked about those partners as well. And so what role have they played and what kind of things have you been doing? Obviously, trying to get legislators to sponsor it. But what else has been going on to raise awareness on this issue? Yeah. So what the Crown Coalition does is a couple of things. We support the Crown Act by building awareness of this, these issues. So we're able to put resources against driving awareness that is actually legal to do this discrimination and to share the progress that we make.

We also help support ways to get the Crown Act legislation moving forward. So for instance, we sponsored the Crown Research Study that showed how many of us are actually affected by the hair discrimination. We found that the majority of black women agree that we have to change our hair from our natural state to fit in in the workplace. And a number of other findings from the study. So those are the kinds of things that the Crown Coalition with Dove and our partners do together to build awareness of it.

And that really helps make a difference. We have forums, like I mentioned before, when I went and talked to noble national organization of black elected officials to get drive awareness and gain momentum for more crown acts getting passed. All right, then AC, Eccleston Bracey is certainly a great thing. In fact, if you see here, these are actually images of my nieces. I have nine nieces wearing natural hair. And look, it's something that people, again, don't understand. They don't realize how this impacts African-Americans because you've done all you can to get a job, get your education. But then somebody says, I don't like your hair. So therefore, we're not going to hire you. That is a fundamental problem in this country. It is, and that's why

on Crown Day tomorrow, we celebrate. We celebrate the freedom we've gotten, and we celebrate our beautiful crown. So please go to thecrownact.com, sign the petition. We're going for 100,000 signatures. We have 70. So let's make Crown Day a

huge surge in those petitions. That helps get it passed in more states oh to celebrate your crown tomorrow you need 30 oh we can send that tweet out trust me we'll get those 30 all right the crown act let's get that 30 all right az edwardson bracing we appreciate it thanks a lot thanks for the time thank you very much i'm gonna bring my panel back in um and uh i mean look this is uh erica something that, again, people don't understand. But if you go to the EEOC website, you will see the cases where people have been discriminated against because of their hair. We talked about what happened when it comes to the school, the brother

in Texas who couldn't graduate. I mean, you have these people who, again, are attacking black folks because of their hair. And white folks can walk around with mullets. They can walk around with all kinds of other hairstyles. Ain't nobody got a problem. Right. It's almost like in this country and around the globe that default is white. Right. I remember from my days in the military, this has been 20 plus years ago. But the military, I know, I think the Army is the only one that has started to allow some level of locks to be worn. But I was not locking at that time. But I did start wearing my hair in braids because I wanted to do more natural. And I can remember getting in trouble because I was wearing my hair braided because, listen, I mean, the, you know, the different kind of varieties that we have as black people to do our hair are endless.

But it really is profile default to white leaning. through a federal career, and now I'm in the private sector, that that was one thing that I've been talked about around my hair being a stumbling block for me to be able to move onto these different parts of my life. But I've been very adamant about this is the way that my hair grows out of my damn head, and I am not going to acquiesce for somebody else's comfortability and that this has to be made into legislation so that black people, whether or not they want to wear their hair in a natural style, if they want to relax it, if they want to weave it, whatever it is that folks want to do with their hair, but specifically for black people, there has to be legislation passed

in order for us to wear our hair the way that it naturally grows out of our head is very much so telling in these United States of America that's very much so centered in anti-blackness. Greg Carr, look, you are, of course, a historian. It's real simple. When you look at these type of things, the reality is that this is about forcing black people to conform to white European standards. Absolutely. And, you know, this particular bill really is something very near and dear to my heart. My sister, for decades, Adjua Batwe Asmua, has been one of the leading drivers of the Crown Act. In fact, she's been talking about this for the last several years. In fact, she sent me a picture of she was standing there with Gavin Newsom and the other sisters when

he signed it a year ago tomorrow, and she was coordinating then with New York. And so one of the things Adjua always talks about in this work to get this Crown Act passed is that the bill itself expands the definition of race to include those traits, characteristic traits like hair that we have. So really what that Crown Act is doing is doing exactly what you said. It's kicking the door in on standards of how we are in the world. And so, again, I mean, I have no doubt that there will be federal legislation because OJWA is very close to Senator Cory Booker, to Cedric Richmond, you know, our brother on the House side and the CBC. They are going to get this legislation.

And as and finally, as Erica said, I remember some of the young sisters who were in ROTC, Army ROTC, Erica and Howard, and that battle they used to have to fight just to wear braids. And to hear you say that that's still the only branch that has kind of evolved means that there's a lot more work to do even on that side.

Recy, the reality is this here. People love talking about, oh, we're Americans. We're all free. But black people still have to get bills passed just to be black. Absolutely. And really what's so disturbing about

this is the children, the students. I mean, we've seen several instances that one was mentioned about the wrestler, but there was a young gentleman who wasn't allowed to walk into graduation because of his hair. We've had little black girls who have, you know, been sent home and traumatized. And it's sending the absolute most disgusting white supremacist message that your hair, as it grows out of your head, is not acceptable by societal standards. And so I'm very grateful for this kind of legislation. I want to shout out State Representative Leslie Harrett down in Colorado. She was very instrumental in pushing

that in passing the Crown Act in Colorado. There are so many Black women and men across the country that are really championing this cause. And as Dr. Carr mentioned, in the Senate and the House, the Crown Act has been introduced. And so this is one of those moments, as we're having this racial reckoning, this is one of those moments where we can tackle this specific issue of hair discrimination. Absolutely. Absolutely, folks. Going to go to break. We come back. We're going to talk to Miss America 2019. She made it perfectly clear she had the right to wear her hair the way she wants it. She's next on Roller Mark Unfiltered. You want to support Roller Mark Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club.

Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered daily digital show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans

contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com All right, folks. In 2019, this happened. When Nia Imani Franklin was named Miss America 2019, traveled around the country for a year. And while doing so, she made it perfectly clear,

I am going to wear the hair the way I choose to do so. She joins us right now. Nia, how you doing? I'm doing fantastic. How are you? Been a while since I seen you at NABJ in Miami. And so glad to have you here. Let's talk about, again, this being the one year anniversary tomorrow of the Crown Act. How important is that for you as a black woman? It is paramount that this was passed into law and that we're celebrating a

year of this amazing law that is well overdue. You know, as a Black woman that has worked in corporate America, that has worked in the professional settings, it's always been a challenge. It's always sometimes felt like, you know, what we, I naturally been given is not what the standard is or what the, the normal, um, the normal is and what's accepted. So to have this be something that's a law, I think it just sends a message to, uh, to people who don't accept black people's hair, the way it is and the way it grows naturally and who want to suppress, um, our blackness. I think it's a clear sign that no, we no, we are exactly who God made us to be, and we're happy to look the way we look, and we're proud of how we look.

Did you have to deal with folks while you were Miss America as you traveled around the country who were like, ah, you really shouldn't wear your hair like that? Well, you know what? I didn't deal with that so much. But what I did deal with and what I do think is so disappointing for so many people in the entertainment industry, people that are on camera, who, who are in front of people speaking and need to look presentable and look a certain way, look professional. What I think is kind of sad is that because, um, you know, we are the minority, there are not a plethora of stylists that know how to do our hair. And so if anything, I dealt with going to photo shoots with my natural hair or with braids,

or even with extensions, and people wouldn't know what to do. And, you know, being the first Black Miss America since 2011 or 10, you know, they weren't ready. I don't think they were ready for someone who looks like me. They didn't have the sponsorships set up for, for a black person to do my hair. Um, you know, it was just kind of like figuring it out on my own. So if anything, that's something that I know, um, a lot of actresses as well deal with and, and performers, you know, not having someone to do their hair when they get to set models too. Um's and that can be very frustrating and it makes you feel like why don't you have somebody that can do it all if they're good at their job they should be able to do it all well in fact a lot of television anchors have talked about that and we're now seeing more uh black women who are

on the air choose to go to natural styles but i remember there was one anchor out of houston she talked about how she went to her general manager to ask permission. I mean, that's crazy. It's crazy. We should not have to ask permission to look the way we naturally look and we choose to look more importantly. So we talked about this, of course, we're seeing it in some states. But I assume you absolutely believe that there should be National Crown Act. This should be first of all, you shouldn't even be damn discrimination because of what the hell's house money hair looks like. But the reality is we're used to having to pass laws today, the 56th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.

This is the reality of being black in America. It is a reality, and it's sad that it does have to be that way. We should not have to pass laws to look the way we want to look and especially to look the way we look naturally when it doesn't hurt anyone it's not harming anyone so it's very disappointing that this even has to be a law but we have to do what we have to do and we have to look at the reality and i absolutely 1000 believe that this needs to be a national law because people are dealing with it all over and not even in just america we see this globally and, you know, wanting and the desire by European people to want us to look like them, to want us to conform to what those European standards of beauty are. And that's just not acceptable. All right, then. Nia Amani Franklin, Miss America 2019. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Thank you. All right. You take care. Here's the thing here, Recy, that that what she just said, we've heard Gabrielle Union talk about this here. The difficulty of finding folks who can actually do black hair. Now we're talking about economic opportunities. Now we're talking about being frozen out of that. I mean that. So when you so on one hand, the Crown Act deals with discrimination, but now we're talking about even in these spaces where we are supposedly getting opportunities,

we still are dealing with that because you got folks who are kind of like, I'm not used to this hair. And what that says is the industry are used to white women. Right. I mean, there are institutional barriers

even for black stylists who would obviously know what to do with a Black woman's hair, even getting the ability to go on sets. That's another thing that actresses and Black women in particular have talked about. And so there are institutional barriers that prevent Black artists from the same access to who could do white people's hair, too, by the way. They don't just only do black people's hair. But there's also this notion that the value of black women and our hair and our appearance isn't as valued as a white woman. And so if you are an acclaimed makeup artist or an acclaimed hairstylist,

you don't have to have that range in order to actually do your job, regardless of what the texture of a person's hair is. And that's certainly something that, you know, adds additional burdens on these actresses of having to either do their own hair or having to bring their own people on that other white actresses do not have to experience. Look, that's just real. And now what we're getting into here, Greg, is economics. And again, we're talking about with the Crown Act, we're talking about,

again, preventing black folks from making a living. We talk about so you're making a judgment on the hair of black people. Then even if they do get to wear their natural hair, you've been locking out people who know how to do hair. And so really what you should be saying is, wait a minute, if you got black women or black men, or if you're a hairstylist who can do black hair, white hair, so you got white women who can't do black hair, that means that you don't have a skillset. Well, we know one thing about capitalism. Watch how many non-black people, watch how many white people, watch how many white people go out and learn this skill when this thing becomes, the demand exceeds black community.

Let's be very clear. Number one, black people been doing their hair since the first people on the planet. I love the way my brother Kwame Ture when we would see Kwame Ture would be sitting around with it. He said, I don't understand why y'all keep calling this thing a perm when you straighten hair. No, the perm is the hair that you came out of your mother's womb with. That's a temp. In other words, black people have been doing our hair since we've been on the planet, which means we're the first ones to do hair. And we were doing it on plantations. We were doing it in the palaces.

We've done it everywhere. That's number one. So when you get to Annie Trumbo Malone, when you get to Madam C.J. Walker, you're talking about black women who not only did hair, but who built businesses. Black hair is the huge businesses. Asked our friends from Southeast Asia how big the business is in black hair care. So what's going to happen now as we see women and men returning to this natural thing,

it's not going to be just the celebrities who demand black stylists, like Solange, for example. One of my dear brother Larry Crow in Ohio, his daughter Shani. Shani Crow travels with Solange from time to time, does her hair. But these celebrities, these entertainers are like, no, my people come with me. It's not going to be just that. To your point, finally, Roland, it's going to be attacking these laws that exclude black people, mostly black women, from doing other black women's hair. The braiders from the Caribbean and West Africa, who they try to license differently now

all over the country. The high school students who they say, you got to get a cosmetology license. You've been braiding hair since you were six years old, and now you got to get a piece of paper from somebody. The real war is going to be, as you say, the economic war. And that's where we're going to have to press the pedal to the metal. Absolutely. All right, folks, we talk about again how this impacts us. I want to bring in my next guest, Montrell and Faith Finity. They've had to deal with this issue in terms of this battle over hair. Glad to have both of you on the show. Montrell, as well as Faith, how you doing?

We're doing good. Faith, you got a pretty good name. So I'm trying to see right here, where is it? So my niece right there, that's Faith Gabrielle. So get a shot here. So I got a Faith in my family as well. So the one right there,

who actually a student at Howard University who I had to make sure she took Greg's class in her freshman year. So they had her assigned to somebody else. I was like, mm-mm, mm-mm. Nope. I need y'all to handle that. So let's talk about it. Montrell, what have you and your daughter, I mean, what have y'all had to face when you talk about hair discrimination in this society? Yes, Faith was at school wearing her braids for two years and over the summer, the school implemented a policy to stand in your braids.

Hold tight, hold tight, one second, hold on one second. Hold on, so we're getting some feedback. So guys, if y'all can go ahead and fix that and then let me know to make sure we're not getting that. So I think what's happening is their audio is up. So just let me know once that is fixed. Uh, and okay. Uh, and so I want to bring up, um, I want to bring up another guest. So let me know when that is fixed. Staff Sergeant Chauncey Logan, U S army, uh, fought the military to keep her law, keep her locks. Uh, and she lost her rank

because she refused to cut them. Sergeant Logan, how you doing? I can't hear you. I think you're on mute. Just take it off of mute, please. There we go. Hi. There we go. So you lost your rank because you refused to cut them?

What happened? No, no. I actually didn't lose my rank. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. My punishment was to lose my rank and be expeditiously separated from the military for not cutting my hair. And I actually end up fighting that because at the time I was actually okay with leaving the military,

but I had been in for 15 years. And my fear was that after these 15 years, if I get kicked out of the military for this, I'm going to lose my GI Bill. And that was my reason for fighting. I actually, more of my fight was to keep the benefits that I had earned for 15 years. I remember this because I had a general on my News 1 Now show who was trying to deal with the Army on this. And so how long ago was this? This was in 2015. 2015. And so how long was this fight that you had with the U.S. Army over your hair?

This lasted about eight months. Eight months. And so over the eight months. So what did they threaten you with? And then what was the resolution? Officially, I was threatened with with being reduced in rank and being put out of the army. And unofficially, you know, there was the harassment that came because I wouldn't cut my hair. The disrespect, the ostracizing by my senior leaders because of this decision I made that actually had nothing to do with them and everything to do with me and this crossroad that I came to with the military.

The resolution was, I ended up putting my hair in rope twists, my locks in rope twists, and that was determined to be within regulation, which blew my mind that it was sort of me showing them, look, my hair is in locks, but my hair is not messy.

It presents a professional appearance and it looks exactly like these authorized weave styles that so many female soldiers are wearing. Wait a minute. Hold up. So you're wearing locks, but what this other, so essentially a weave is fine. A weave, Senegalese braids, micros, all of this is fine. But my rope twists with my locks that looked exactly like it by regulation

weren't authorized. So like I said, it blew my mind. And so when you so when you so it got resolved by when you change it to that, it was like, OK, then you're fine. Yes. And when that happened, were there other black women in the military who were fighting with you or did they say you know what i i can't fight this i'm just gonna go ahead and change my hair uh the the majority yes the majority cut their locks off and and in this fight i was like look we have to stand together you know you cutting your locks off this blind conformity which i understand others reasons for doing it that it. They have families they have to

support. At this time, it was just me. I didn't have anything, anybody that I needed to support. So it was easier to stand in the fight. Were there, so you're going through this, and first I want to bring in Erica. Erica, you served in the military. And so you got a question for Staff Sergeant Logan? I do. So I've read about your story and I just want to salute you, sister. I'm a veteran from the Air Force, but definitely want to salute you. Can you talk about, so you talked about kind of like, for those people who don't know about the UCMJ, the military code of justice, can you talk about outside of the front facing reprimand that you face? Could you talk about that intimidation and sometimes not being able to go up for promotion zones?

Some of those things that people really don't see or hear about because the military is very much so clothed in very much so keeping those matters very much so contained inside of their military installations. Can you walk the viewers through that? And while you're doing that, while you were doing that, we're actually showing a photo that the root ran that showed your hair being in compliance. But go ahead, Sergeant Sergeant Logan. Absolutely. Like I said, I had my official charges, which were disobeying a military order to cut my hair, which is actually not a legal order to give for a female soldier to cut their hair. But that was the order that I was given, and that was the order that I refused because it was an awful order. I think the problem most leaders had with my decision was that they felt that I was throwing away 15 years and when I can just cut my hair and that's what I kept hearing just cut your hair just cut your hair

and I'm like it's it's bigger than me this won't change if we continue to just cut our hair when we are in regulation if you look at us face on it in, we look exactly like everybody else with these authorized uniforms, the women with locks in their hair. And as far as that hurt me, it hurt me for promotion and that is my biggest regret from fighting this is that

the Article 15, which I was found guilty of the Article 15, so therefore it's in my record. And so each year, including that year 2015, that was that was my first look to be promoted to E7. This is what they see in my record is this soldier's refusal to follow orders. You don't promote somebody that refuses to follow orders. And and that stuck with me each year. They looked at my record. They saw the same article 15 in the evaluation that came from that. So, you know, when when I talk to others about this fight and they thank me for it, I'm grateful for the for the impact that it's had.

But the negative impact that it had on me was that I can't get promoted now. It's coming. It's at a personal cost. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Have you heard from any Congressional Black Caucus members? Have you heard? No, I have not. Recy, you have a question for Sergeant Logan? Yeah. Have you reached out to

any of the Congressional Black Caucus or your elected representatives to see if they could do anything about the situation? Because this is the kind of thing that I would think that they would get involved in if they were aware of it. I did not. During the Art of 15, that was that whole situation was a test of my faith because I had to deal with that alone. Everybody around me kept saying the same thing. Just cut your hair. Just give in. So I was standing alone during this Article 15, during the Article 15 proceedings.

And after everything was said and done, to be honest, I didn't have any more fight in me. It was the biggest fight of my life, of my career. And I had no reserve left in me to move forward with rectifying all the negative blowback from that situation. Yeah. Well, I'm so sorry you had to deal with that. Well, I certainly think that I certainly think that as this effort moves to try to make the Crown Act national, I would certainly hope that CBC members reach out to you and ask you to testify. And also bring military leaders and hold them accountable for why you're being denied.

It has nothing to do with your work ethic. It has nothing to do with, again, what you do as a member of the military. It's all because of your hair. All because of my hair. Only my hair. Staff Sergeant Chauncey Logan, we appreciate you sharing your story with us in Roland Martin Unfiltered in this Crown X special. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. Thanks a bunch.

We're going to bring back in Montrell as well as Faith. I think we got their, let me know when they're back in. We got their audio all taken care of. Greg, I mean, what we just heard, I mean, I think that this is the thing that people don't understand. Black people have to fight for our rights. And what it does is it exacts a personal toll on the freedom fighter. And that's not what she should have to be worrying about. Brother, stay at Sergeant Logan. I mean,

you know, listening to her and then listening to the conversation that Erica and Reese and y'all were having, Erica, as you walk through that military code, you know, this sister took an L the way Kirk Blood took an L almost in Major League Baseball. Everybody's going to benefit, but she

takes the L. And while we were talking, I got a text again from Adwoa who worked on the Crown Act, one of the major forces pushing it to get passed. And she sent me a reminder that in April 2014, Marsha Fudge, her sorority, both deltas, sent a letter to the secretary of defense like, hey, man, what you going to do about this army regulation about this hair? And it seems to me that this is another reason why Roland Martin and the filter is so important. This is something that can be addressed. I see, I'm sure Staff Sergeant Logan can be called to the Hill, and these sisters and brothers in the CBC will put her there. And, yes, we will make progress in all the branches of the military,

but in her specific case, she's not Curt Flood. Fix this, Air Force, because that's wrong. And I'm definitely going to reach out to some CBC members and let them know specifically about Staff Sergeant Chauncey Logan because, again, the fact that her career is still being hurt as a result

of this is shameful. Control room, do we have Montrell and Faith? Okay, we're still trying to get there. Audio straight. All right, folks, going to go to a quick break, and we'll come back. More with our special on the first anniversary of the Crown Act right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. You want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered?

Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered daily digital show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUniltric.com. All right, folks, joining us right now is Felicia Hill.

She's with the Economic Justice Project for the Lawrence Community for Civil Rights Under Law. Felicia, you heard that conversation we just had with the staff sergeant, and I mean, she talked about, she said, I just had no fight left in me. Have you heard this from other black women who have tried to fight employers and other companies when it came to their hair? First of all, thank you for having me on tonight, Roland. I'm happy to be here to discuss this very critical issue with your audience. And it's really important to understand that legislating black women's hair is as old as American pie and its negative effects go back even further than that. Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has fought to eradicate discrimination and racism on a number of issues, including on hair discrimination issues. And the reality is that women have been litigating and fighting to have their hair not be the basis for employment-based discrimination, housing discrimination, education discrimination, and in other areas of public access. So this is not a new issue.

It is an ongoing issue, and it's an issue that we need to continue to fight and push for change in. And I remember a few years ago going on the EEOC website. I mean, how significant is this? I mean, are we talking about a lot of cases and where are the spaces where this is actually happening? So we, there aren't a significant number of cases, but those cases that are being litigated are very impactful because what the courts are doing is they're misinterpreting legislation, particularly Title VII, and they're saying that those protections are not in place for women in the workplace or for Black people in the workplace so that employers can now use

hair as a proxy for race discrimination. So this is a very critical issue to fight and to push against because the courts are essentially allowing employers to discriminate against their employees on the basis of race, but using hair as the excuse to get around that. We also see it in the education space. There are stories that have been circulated around the internet that have made national media headlines about students having to cut their hair off, students not being permitted to march in their own graduations because they wear their hair in a locked style.

We've also heard about children being shamed or put out of classrooms or missing days of school. So it's not just in the workplace. We're also seeing it in the classroom setting. We're seeing it in housing-based discrimination. It's being used broadly in this country. You know what? I'm sitting and looking on Twitter.

I'm looking on our YouTube channel and I got some idiot who was saying, oh, there are more important issues than this. But the reality is this is impacting black people. It's impacting black women. It's impacting our children in high school, in middle schools, in elementary schools where you have white education leaders making arbitrary decisions about the length of hair. And these things are happening. And so I'm sorry. And we're seeing a whole new generation. Because I don't understand. The previous generation operated by white European standards.

I remember when Earl Graves ran Black Enterprise. He made it clear that if you were an intern at Black Enterprise, you could not wear locks. He said, not allowed on Wall Street. It's not going to be allowed at Black Enterprise. But we're seeing a whole new generation wearing their hair differently. And we better be bracing ourselves for opportunities being denied because of that.

So I think it's really important in the conversations that our nation is having around, we're having so many critical and long overdue conversations about systematic racism. And rightfully so, people are focusing on policing and violence against black bodies. But the reality is that there is discrimination in so many other areas and aspects of the black existence in America. And one of the ways that we have seen this perpetrated is against hair. Hair has been legislated in this country since 1786.

And so it's important for people to understand that while this might not seem like the most pressing issue today, it is an issue that has been around since the founding of this country. And if we don't force legislatures to take this issue seriously and to ban hair-based discrimination as race-based discrimination,

then we are going to continue to face barriers to employment, barriers to housing, barriers to education. And it is going to cost the Black community not only billions of dollars in lost opportunities through missed wages, through missed promotions, through lack of access to employment, but it's also costing the black community a loss of dignity. Absolutely. Felicia Hill with the Economic Justice Project, the law is created for civil rights under law. We certainly appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. Thank you, Roland. All right, let's go back to Montreal in Faith. Montreal in Faith, do you hear me? Yes. There we go. All right, so Montreal, you were saying what your daughter experiencing wearing her braids

for two years at a school. Yes, she had been there wearing her braids for two years. And over the summer, the school implemented a policy saying no braids. So when she showed up for school, they sent her with a note saying no braids. And we just could not believe it. She had made the cheerleading team. She was going to play volleyball. She was ready for her sixth grade year.

And they said, because of your braids, you cannot come back to school. And my husband and I just felt helpless. We didn't know what to do. It devastated our family. And we went through. Okay. What was the rationale for no braids? So she wearing it for two years and all of a sudden somebody goes, ah, we rationale for no braids? So she wearing it for two years, and all of a sudden,

the spot goes, ah, we don't like braids. Yes, the conversation with the principal was, she said, well, it's distracting. They're flipping it. They're twisting it. It's distracting. And that, again, blew our minds because other kids have ponytails that hang in front of,

you know, our kids' desks. They flip their hair all the time. And it was really discrimination. And Faith cried. She said, Mom, I don't want to change schools. I want to stay with my friends. I like my school. And I said, Faith, I have to stand up for you.

This is discrimination. There is no way I can allow them to do this to you. Faith, when your mom told you that, I mean, you obviously that that seriously bothered you. But but have you now come to understand why that mattered? Yes. I can just say I understand that I had to go. And also, again, you worked for two years. No issues, no problems. And was it the principal's decision or was it the school board's decision?

It was the principal's decision. They shot with the faculty and made a policy over the summer implementing no grades. And that we just could not understand why they didn't why weren't they proactive in contacting the children that it was going to affect the most about the braids it wasn't any color it wasn't long what was the issue with the braids that they just could not um convey to us what the problem was we just said no no, we just don't want grades here. And that really upset us and just made our family go through so much suffering and pain because of that.

But we thank God for the Crown Act and the Crown Coalition because this is just a blessing for black children all over the world. This is going to end the hair discrimination for them. Faith, when your mom said, thank God for the Crown Act, you started smiling. I did.

I did. I think we're breaking up there, so we can barely hear you there. But look, I hate the fact that y'all have had to go through that. But the reality is we have a whole generation of black folks who've had to fight, whether it was Ruby Bridges going to school, whether it was Brown vs. Board of Education, whether it's you having to battle folks there. And is that hair policy still in place at that school? No, the judge ordered them to take it out and the school

rescinded it. And she's at a new school. She no longer attends school there. All right, then. Montrell and Faith, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a bunch and good luck. Thank you. All right, folks. This is, I mean, let me bring back Recy, Erica and Greg. And this is this is this is the nonsense, Erica. A young black girl should not have to be worrying about going to court just to be able to wear a hair going to school. And this, this is for all these people who don't understand what it means to be black in America. This is what it is. This is the level of stress. This is what hurts black people economically, that we have to literally fight just to be black, just to coexist. Absolutely, Roland. And I'm so glad that

you had that mother and daughter on and you then brought in Ruby Bridges in that, you know, that whole decision around integration was just six decades ago. The aggressions that black people are constantly met with on every end are non-ending. And it is, as you pointed out, and you have just showcased here on Roland Martin Unfiltered, it doesn't just begin at adulthood. It doesn't begin in high school and middle school. It begins from the time that we actually enter into the earth. And I can remember, and I'm sure all of us have stories, being children, we were a military family. So we moved every three years. And I can remember being placed in the back of the classroom, being very adamant about not sitting in the back of the classroom. But it was because I was in a classroom that was largely non-black, and that because I looked opposite of everyone else, the teacher did not want to have to deal with me.

So then you have all of those different issues that are blended into some of the other pieces that we're facing as well. So I think that it is wholly important, particularly that people do understand that the fight wasn't just at one point in time, that it definitely still continues. And that the fact that the Crown Act has given some level of respite for this young child is why we do have to continue to push and fight, even if

something seems as small for other people as the way that we wear our hair. It definitely does matter. Well, like I'm making clear to people what it means to be black in this country is to fight. Joining us right now is California State Senator Holly Mitchell, the person who led this effort in the California Assembly. Glad to have you back on Roller Mark Unfiltered, Holly. Great to be with you, Roland. Thank you so much. It's hard to believe it was just over a year ago we talked about the introduction of Senate Bill 188 in the California State Senate. And here we are celebrating the one year anniversary. Talk about that, because one, it wasn't easy. And what what did you also learn and see?

Did you realize how widespread this was and how many people have really been adversely impacted by hair discrimination? No, to be perfectly honest. You know, as a black woman who's been locked for 16 years now, I was even struck sitting in my loctician's chair, beginning to tell them about the concept of the bill. And everyone in the entire salon had a story i have not met a woman who hasn't stopped me in the airport or whatever when they realized that that we authored the crown act that hasn't had a personal painful story to tell you and i would add i i saw a bit of the show a moment ago where people talked about well it's just here it's not that big a deal it's more than hair hair. It's about power and control.

And other people, you know, there's no other group of women who can be told how to wear their hair in the workplace. No other group. So, you know, people shouldn't trivialize this as it's just about hair and hair can grow back. It's about power and control and dominance. White women out there talking about

no one should tell a woman what to do with her body. Have the folks who are pro-choice, have they aligned with you and others to understand this? And are you seeing those allies also work to try to get this implemented in other states across the country, but also in Congress? So, you know, I think the reality is, and what I chose to use it and the language I used in committee and when I presented it on the Senate floor, was it was an opportunity. It was a teachable moment, as my mother would say. It was an opportunity to teach people for me to stand with pride and help people understand that hair texture is a race-based trait and that a euro standard of beauty and what's acceptable in the workplace was no longer acceptable to me. That as a woman serving in the state legislature, I'm the only black woman in the California Senate, only the fourth since statehood, I was going to use my platform and my bully pulpit to educate and to create a space where we could help people understand. While the bill got no, no votes, we did have an abstention.

And we had questions about what constitutes a race-based trait. People asked me about, well, now, what's a conk? I mean, it got deep, Roland, as you can certainly appreciate. But again, it was an opportunity that I took because I was sick and tired of hearing the stories about black girls being sent home from school and suspended because their hair was deemed a distraction to other people. That was unacceptable to me. And so, yes, we are thrilled that California was able to kick this off a year ago tomorrow and that I think now seven states have Crown Acts and we're going to have to take it to the congressional level. But this isn't the first example where the states have to really push the conversation and push the issue to get to the attention of the federal government. Questions from my panel. I'll first start with Recy for Senator Holly Mitchell. Hi, Senator Mitchell. I met you last year, actually, at Essence at the crown event that OWN Network did.

So it's such a good time. So good to see you again. And congratulations on your success with this. You know, Black Women's Equal Pay Day is coming up in August, and it seems like each year it gets later and later. I think this year is 61 cents on the dollar. Hair discrimination is an economic issue. Do you do you see that this bill allows for that kind of particular grievance that people have? You know, a woman can document or can can attest to being discriminated against in their hair and perhaps how that's helped them back in their career.

Do you see any connection there as to protections for that group of people? Absolutely. That's the target group of people that we focus the bill on. We expanded the bill to make sure that we impacted the education codes too, so kids in school would be protected. But that's absolutely who we're protecting. I think we have a new COVID-19 related conversation to have now about those in the field, African-American women who are natural hair practitioners. Yep. Who, because of COVID-19, have had to close their shops and how they are going to now survive in terms of, you know, building that industry and supporting that critical economy in our community. And so I think the conversation has now expanded to not just those of us who want and want the right to wear our natural hair in the workplace, but those practitioners who have built careers over teaching us how to care for our natural hair,

who've developed products that we can use on our natural hair. We've got to make sure that they are supported as well. Question from Erica. Yes, and hi, Senator. Thank you so much for the incredible work that you have done and that you are continuing to do and pioneer. My question for you would be in terms of other organizations

coming into the fold with you, with not only support of their platform with dollars, are there any other of those, what other organizations would you name that really need to come into the fold to help bring this message of the Crown Act beyond the state legislatures so that we can really get it into the national spotlight?

Well, it has been amazing. First of all, the Crown Coalition, you know, spearheaded by Dove, included, you know, the National Urban League, the Western Center on Law and Poverty, a number of organizations. For example, it was important for us to hire black women with natural hair to actually lobby the bill here in California. But it's amazing to me to see how this just took off. The links, international links just had a Zoom event where they talked about it. I've heard at the American Bar Association this year and their HR track around training, they had a whole workshop and a whole track on the Crown Act. And so HR professionals are being trained.

Attorneys who focus on employment law are being trained. And so even though we are making incremental baby steps in terms of expanding the law, the culture shift has begun to happen. And so, you know, we wouldn't have the law if we had understanding HR professionals and academic professionals who didn't write dress codes and school policy and our places of employment that were so restrictive. And so it's been amazing to me that as the bills are beginning to expand, as Congress continues to deliberate, these other institutions are beginning to talk about it and help create the culture shift that will be required to really affect the kind of change we all want to see.

Final question for Senator Holly Mitchell. Greg Carr. Thank you. Thank you, Roland. And thank you, Senator Mitchell. Lord, they asked you about conks. I'm glad they didn't talk about lace fronts and jerry curls. But, you know, and it's good to see you. Let me just say this. The whole point of the Crown Act was about choice. Right. It was about, you know, when I decided to run for public office with my lots, I knew that the constituents in my district were going to vote for me based on what was inside my head, not how I choose to wear my hair. So this is the whole point of this bill and this movement is to not put our sisters down who make other choices. It's empower us all to have the personal choice to do what I deem appropriate for my own hair. Well, that's what I wanted to ask you about. Actually, thank you, because when you talk about

this culture, you know, and it's good to see, as I said, my sister Adjua sent me the pictures, as y'all were standing there with the governor getting his sign. You know, in reading the legislation, when you amend race or ethnicity to include all traits historically associated with race, knowing that the courts over the years, and again, Roland talked about Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, were interpreting it very narrow. They said Afros. No, no, no, no. How much of what this work that you all are doing is about making sure we have the freedom to be who we are in our black bodies while hair is in front,

what you've really done is reverse engineer the definition of race. Or is that really what you're after? Oh, absolutely. You hit it right on the head. Absolutely. We took this opportunity to clearly define hair as a race-based trait, to begin to put a crack in that, as you said, narrowly defined interpretation. That's exactly what our motivation was. And so when people say it's just hair, what's the big deal? It's really more than that. In that picture where you saw the governor signing the bill, one of the first signing ceremonies he conducted as a still very new governor then, in his signing, as he talked, as he signed the bill, he said, you know, this isn't about hair. And he, from a white male's

perspective, talked about his understanding. And what that said to me, and I looked at him and said, you know, I appreciate you. That lets me know you see me for who I am and all that I bring to the equation as a state senator, as chair of the budget committee, all that I do as an advocate on behalf of my constituents and my people, black women. You hit the nail right on the head. That's exactly what our ultimate motivation was. Appreciate you saying that.

All right, then. State Senator Holly Mitchell, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you real much. Congratulations. It's a pleasure to be with you. Yes, indeed. All right, folks.

So we put this. We got a couple of this together. I was sitting there going, how should we end this? We had great conversations. Great guests. So I sent a text to my girl, India Ari. And I said, India would love to have you participate in this. And she said, I got something I want to do.

And here it is. I am India Ali. This is Joe Cross. This is my jam. Little girl with the brass and curl. Age eight, I got a jerry curl. Thirteen and I got a relaxer i was the source of so much laughter 15 when it all broke off 18 and i went all natural february 2002 i went on

and did what i had to do because it was time to change my life To become the woman that I am inside 97 dreadlocks all down I looked in the mirror for the first time and saw that Hey, I am not my hair I am not the skin I am not your expectation, no I am not my hair I am not my hair I am not the skin I am the soul that lives within

Good hair means curls and waves Bad hair means you look like a slave At the turn of the century It's time for us to redefine who we be You can shave it off like a South African bee Pat it on lock like Balali You can rock it straight like Oprah Winfrey If it's not what's on your head, it's what's underneath

Then say, hey, I am not my hair I am not the skin i am not your expectations no i am not my hair i am not the skin i am the soul that lives within does the way i wear my hair make me a better person? Does the way I wear my hair make me a better friend? Does the way I wear my hair determine my integrity? I am expressing my creativity. So consider this for a moment. This song is actually not about hair. It's about self-definition and how we define each other. So there's a difference in identifying with something and identifying as something. And so in this song, I'm saying that I identify with my external characteristics, with my blackness, with my beauty.

But I identify as my soul. And the truth is, racism and discrimination is actually born out of identifying people as their external characteristics. And so we needed legislation to say that people can wear their hair however they want to at work. Sad that we need it, glad that we have it.

So, this is our song. I am not my hair. I am not this skin. I am not my hair. I am not this skin. I am not your expectation. I am not my hair. I am not this skin. I am the soul that lives within.

India texted me and she said, that's called a songversation. See, everybody can't do that, Greg Carr. Everybody ain't able, Roland. Everybody ain't able. Roland, nowhere on the ball, nowhere on this planet is it going to be an hour devoted not just to the Crown Act, but to the idea of being African in the modern world in the way that we just saw. Y'all get this in here and support Roland Martin and Filcher, because not only are you not going to see that anywhere. Everybody look, man, I'm sure your comments must be blowing up.

I ain't on social media. Tears, laughter, everybody, man. Everybody ain't able. That is the case there on YouTube and Facebook and Periscope. And so we certainly appreciate it. Go to my iPad, please. Also a shout out to Kelly, Joy, Richardson Lawson, as well as Orlena Blanchard. They, of course, they over the Joy Collective. They're the ones who worked on this campaign for the last year with Dove and Unilever. And so big shout out to them as well.

Joy, you were talking about Greg. They brought her on to work with this. And so again, Black-owned company. And go back to it. Go back to my iPad. You see Adweek, the sixth fastest growing agency in the world. That's Joy Collective. So great congratulations to Kelly and Erlina as well for their work. Folks, we want you to support Roland Martin Unfiltered, what we do here. Again, we keep it real, keep it black. Nobody else is doing this here, nobody.

And that's why we created our own platform. This is not a black targeted platform. This is a black owned platform. So when Alina told me about the Crown Act, I said, she's like, could we come on the show? I said, they don't come on the show. We could do a whole hour. Why? I don't have to come on the show. We could do a whole hour. Why?

Because I don't have to ask anybody. We do this. And so we want you to support us in what we do. So please contribute. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our followers to contribute 50 bucks or more a year. If we do that, we're completely funded. We don't have to sit here and sweat advertisers and things along those lines. Y'all go to Cash App, dollar sign RM Unfiltered.

PayPal is paypal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered. Venmo.com is forward slash rmunfiltered. You can also send a cashier's check money order to New Vision Media Inc., NU Vision Media Inc., 1625 K Street, Northwest, Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 2006. There are more than 4,000 of you still watching on YouTube. You can give right there on our YouTube channel as well. Again, folks, your support makes it possible for us to do what you just experienced. And what you just experienced, again, the ability for us to be able to have a conversation that MSNBC, that CNN, that Fox News, that ABC, that NBC, that CBS and all those other people not going to have.

All these other black people out here howling about their new black media. They ain't doing it. In fact, in fact, my man sent me this here. I'm just going to go ahead and say it because, you know, I don't really care. And there were a whole bunch of people who were talking lots of trash when we launched Roland Martin Unfiltered on September 4th, 2018. Folks were dogging us in. Y'all ain't going to have nobody watch. Mm hmm. That's real interesting because my man Keenan sent me and he told me that, wow, in the month of June, we did 17.3 million views on YouTube alone

in the month of June. That's more than some of our critics have had in their entire YouTube career. So the next time you try to challenge a brother like me, you might wanna pump your brakes because I'ma embarrass you because this is why we do what we do and so i don't worry about everybody else do we focus on what we do and that's what this is all about so

please support us join our bring the funk fan club uh we're gonna give it up and so uh we're gonna close the show out they're gonna have the slideshow of all these images right here again these are these are four of my nine nieces and so see it's real good where you should shoot their photos so you ain't got to pay for photos. So, you know, it's like, hey, send me that photo. And so just simply go to the slideshow we've been using. And so, Erica, Reese, Greg, I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much.

Folks, tomorrow, you do not want to miss tomorrow. Erica Alexander, she's a producer on that John Lewis documentary. We're talking to her tomorrow. And one hour, me and my frat brother, Dr. Cornel West. I told y'all, we ain't playing. I'll see

y'all tomorrow. A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith.

So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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

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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. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two 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

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