#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Chauvin murder trial day 4; Stacey Abrams rips Ga. biz over voter bill response; Amazon union battle

Episode Date: April 2, 2021

4.1.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Derek Chauvin murder trial day 4; Stacey Abrams rips Georgia businesses over 'mealy-mouthed' voter bill response; Texas Senate passes restrictive voting bill; Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation announced a five-year, multi-million dollar grant; Amazon union battle rages on; Greenville County, South Carolina Sheriff's Deputies are being sued for excessive force in the case of Stephon HopkinsSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

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

You say you'd never give in to a meltdown. Never let kids' toys take over the house. And never fill your feed with kid photos. You'd never plan your life around their schedule. Never lick your thumb to clean their face. And you'd never let them leave the house looking like, uh, less than their best. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it.

Never let them stay up too late. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. We have one aisle six. And aisle three. So when you say you'd never let them get into through the grocery store. We have one aisle six. And aisle three. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out.

Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Today's Thursday, April 1st, 2021, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, General Motors says they're going to double their annual spend to black-owned companies. But why are they waiting four years to go from 4% to 8%?

We'll discuss that next in our Where's Our Money segment. Also on today's show, day four of the Derek Chauvin murder trial, more gripping testimony, folks, we'll show you. Fair Fights' Stacey Abrams has a message for everyone fighting Georgia voter suppression. We'll show you what she had to say and where she stands. In Texas, the Senate passes a voter suppression bill. We'll tell you about that. Also, Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation

announced a five-year multimillion dollar grant today. They'll talk to us exclusively about where it's going. We'll also talk to some black Amazon employees who voted against unionizing. They want to say, they got a say in this too. Plus, two Greenville County, South Carolina sheriff's deputies are being sued for excessive force in the case of Stephon Hopkins.

We'll show you exactly what happened. The decorated vet is at risk of being reincarcerated in Alabama because of a paperwork issue. What the hell? It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the mess, 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 Yeah, yeah

It's on go, go, go, y'all Yeah, yeah It's rolling Gro-Gro-Yo It's Rollin' Martin Rollin' with Rollin' now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rollin' Martin Martin We've been frozen out. Facing an extinction level event. We don't fight this fight right now

You're not going to have black on you Now y'all know of course we have been focused on this whole issue of black owned media And what is happening in this country And how black owned media is being frozen out of the advertising dollars. Well, we told you the other day where Byron Allen and others, including myself, signed a letter that was published in the Detroit Free Press. It also was published, a full-page letter in the Wall Street Journal and other papers, highly criticizing General Motors

for their refusal to meet the CEO to meet with black owned media CEOs. That led to a meeting on Monday with the head of the chief marketing officer for General Motors. We were supposed to have a meeting today with the CEO of General Motors, Mary Barra. Yet last night, they canceled that meeting. Why did they cancel that meeting? Because we ran that particular ad in the Wall Street Journal. They also said that our numbers were wrong and there was other faulty information.

We said, fine, provide us with the actual numbers. They said, no, we can't do that for competitive reasons. Really? That's strange. So we've been making the case that, look, if we're talking about this whole issue of black-owned media, and if you're General Motors, and you're getting 11.4% of the dollars that black people market share, African-Americans are buying 11.4% of the cars from General Motors.

They sell 7.7 million annually. So right now, they went from 1% to 2%. Now they announced today that they're actually going to do 4% by 2022. And in the announcement, what they also said, I'm going to pull it up on Ad Age for you. They also announced that by 2025, they'll be doing 8%. Interesting. This is the headline right here, folks, in Ad Age. If y'all could go to my iPad, that'd be great. I want to show this. GM says it will increase spending on black-owned media. The automaker said it plans to dedicate 4% of its advertising budget to black-owned media by 2022 and 8% by 2025.

Hmm. Interesting. Joining me right now is Todd Brown. Todd was one of the signatories of that particular ad. Todd has HBCU passed. He, of course, was a group publisher at Ebony, also was a top exec at the Griot and Comcast as well. So,

let's deal with this, Todd. So, here's what's interesting. Now, all of a sudden, we had this meeting on Monday. You were on the call. I was on the call. Byron Allen was on the call. Butch Graves from Black Enterprise, Junior Bridgman, who bought Ebony, was on the call. We're all on the call.

And General Motors tells us, hey, we doubled our spend. Okay? You doubled the spend from 1% to 2%. Now, now they're announcing we're going to go to 4%. And by 2025, we're going to go to 8%. Why in hell can't you go to 8% now? Todd, your thoughts. Yes, interesting, Rowan.

I think the big thing is a conversation about a numerator and a denominator. So if you believe what is published in the same magazine that they ran the headline in, the number at the macro level feels like 3 billion. And we have canvassed and talked, and unfortunately, we can put our hands on 99, 95% of Black-owned media, and the numbers we come up with are far below half of a percent. And as you say, we represent 11.4% of their buying. So if you start to play

the game of doubling small numbers, you can have 100% growth year on year of a small number and still not be to a full 1% of what we think their spend is. 1% is $30 million. What we see is closer to 10% of that. So the notion that we're fostering here, and what's key is, and I think what people should understand, is General Motors represents a reality of Black-owned media, that it's on its way to being extinct, that it's largely not invested in, and that we're positioned to fight over scarcity, which is crumbs. And I think the idea that they now are using the terminology black-owned media, they're also using the terminology four and eight percent. I think those things are good, but we have to get the math and we have to have transparency. Otherwise, let's be blunt. I was running Ebony and Jet as a group publisher when Jet was sunsetted. I was at Ebony when we were in a position where we could not afford to run the ads when indeed we got ads at the prices,

which were up to 80% versus our competitive set. And the volume was 70, 80% versus our competitive set. And Roland, what that really means is I can't afford to print the magazine. I can't afford to pay writers. I can't afford to pay publisher. I can't afford to print the magazine. I can't afford to pay writers. I can't afford to pay pubs. I can't afford to pay a publisher. I can't afford to pay mail.

So at the end of the day, the conversation about $1.7 trillion potentially of spend coming from black people happens to mirror in a very interesting way with $170 billion of advertising per year, which in 10 years, ironically, Roland, is $1.7 trillion. So we're asking for our pool to increase from $100 million in a very macro way around Black-owned

to a number that starts to look like $2 billion to $3 billion to $4 billion, with a goal toward getting to $10 billion of the overall spend, which gives an ecosystem. And that's what I'm excited about. It's not just a seven. It's everyone in black media on the ownership side is suffering from this scarcity model. So when we start to get economy, it starts to all boats rise. If that's clear. So for everybody who's watching, so let me just, I want to lay the groundwork for you

so you can understand why we ain't playing games. 1990, the first job in media where I got paid a check was at the Houston Defender. In 1992, I'm working for the Austin American Statesman. I go to the Fort Worth Star Telegram in 1993. I'm writing columns for the Houston defender at the same time. In 1995, I leave the Fort Worth Star Telegram and I go to KKDA radio, black targeted radio station. Top radio station on the AM side, on K104, tops on the FM side. Then 1999, 98, I'm writing for the Dallas Examiner, black-owned newspaper. 1999, I start writing for and I become the managing editor of the Dallas Weekly.

Excuse me, 1998, black-owned newspaper. In 97, Dallas Examiner. 1999, I become managing editor of the Houston Defender, black-owned newspaper. In 97, Dallas Examiner. 1999, I become managing editor of the Houston Defender, black-owned newspaper. 2001, lead top editor at BlackAmericaWeb.com, owned by Tom Joyner, black-owned.

2004, take over the Chicago Defender, later become general manager, black-owned. Did some work in 2000 for major broadcasting cable network, black owned cable network. Of course, joined TV One in 2005,

black owned. Vanguard Media, news editor, Savoy Magazine, black owned. I'm laying all that out because I've done black owned in newspaper, radio, television, digital, all the platforms.

And Todd, the reality has been the same. Black-owned media has gotten 20 cents on the dollar, has been left begging, has not gotten a fair share of political advertising dollars, dollars from major corporations all across the board, pharmaceuticals, take the category. And so what we're doing by calling these people out, what we're simply saying to folks that what y'all have been doing, matter of fact, I'm going to let Malcolm X, I'm going to let Denzel as Malcolm X speak for us. This

right here, y'all, is really the position that we're taking. Break it up. You got what you wanted. No, I'm not satisfied. That's it. No, we're not satisfied. General Motors, with this announcement right here that y'all have made,

we're still not satisfied with 4%. Roman, what I would say to you is that when we don't control our means of communicating our issues because we can't afford to, then somebody else is going to define us. We have to tie group economics as a collective to the amount of spend and impact we have on the economy.

And we have to call on that spin as an opportunity for equity when it comes to our fair share of the marketplace, which we, by and large, drive in the news cycle, the entertainment cycle, the sports cycle. And then, frankly, Roland, what really angers me is that we don't get a chance to experiment at all. You can see new mediums come up like Refinery29. I was at Viacom when we launched the Logo Channel. They can experiment and get a forward investment into those mediums, and then they get a chance to build. We get a chance to die, and we're on a survival capital, and it just doesn't work. So we have to have this conversation, or I promise you we're going to be in a similar fate to most of our Black-owned newspapers, what we're seeing in the

magazine business. And by the way, Roland, it's not just that they didn't keep up with technology. They couldn't afford to invest in technology. Last thing, you and I always talk about this. If I could afford to put $10 million into an idea for talk radio and the party line, we could own a $2 billion franchise today called Clubhouse, which is largely excitable by black voices. This is why we have to do this, because we have to create a space for ourselves and we have to create a space for our children. And I want everybody to understand what we face when we go to these ad agencies and companies who then demand, what are your numbers? Prove to us that you can deliver an audience.

Go to my iPad. Quibi. Quibi, y'all. Short form media. They announced. They announced that they were launching this app. They raised $1.75 billion. Jeffrey Katzenberg, of course, the former CEO of eBay.

Y'all, no, no, go back. Please, go back. They raised $1.75 billion. Y'all, they lasted six months before they went out of business. Now, what y'all don't realize is they had guarantees. They had guarantees. They locked up millions of dollars in advertising. Y'all, they had no proof of their model.

So, Todd, what's crazy is there's no way these same ad agencies and these companies would give me or you two and three and four and five hundred million in advertising up front for a product that could not prove its concept. Exactly. The math only works, Roland, when it's a hammer. And I've seen this with major corporations and CPG. I've seen it with most people that were advertising in the books I was running with Ebony and Jet. Every time we're below the threshold or can't afford to pay the auditor on the rate-based audits, then we are penalized where we end up owing a make good that pretty much puts us out of business. And I see Ford investment for years into Facebook until they figure out what their ad model is. In fact, hold on, Todd. Hold on, Todd. Here's a paragraph. Y'all, please go to go to my iPad.

Look at this right here. Tribi booked $150 million in advertising, selling out its first full year of inventory months ahead of launch. Now, are you saying they were invited to an upfront and someone bet on their potential? That sounds like what you're saying. Yes. And here's what I know. I know for a fact that it took TV one 12 years. I mean, everybody listen to me right now. years to hit $100 million in revenue. Quibi booked $150 million in revenue before they opened on day one. And oh, by the way, Roland, that's advertising and subscriptions in the TV one number. So that's two models. The other thing I would say that would quickly, if I'm not mistaken,

Meg Whitman was one of the key principals. She just became a board member at General Motors. See, and again, the reason we are spending this amount of time on this for everybody who's watching. It's because y'all need to understand when y'all say, well, why can't y'all do this? Why can't y'all go here? Why can't we have this? If you don't have the money to do it, you can't do those things. The reason you do not see a daily national black newspaper is because of this. It's because major companies, what they do is they say, oh yeah, you white?

You upstart? Oh, we're going to better your prior success. We're just going to lavish you with money. I'm betting on your potential. Roland, I was at Ebony and Jet as a group publisher. We could not afford to have a White House correspondent. We never got invited to the correspondent's dinner. I could not afford to have a reporter from Ebony and Jet on the Air Force One. All those monies come from investment through advertising and subscriptions.

And the largest part of that, because subscriptions was really driven in order to drive the rate, was advertising. And when we were locked out systemically from that, therefore, there's no chance to expand onto other mediums, to experiment and to deliver value and even credibility around the stories we could cover, which again, all driven through the consumerism of our people and never coming back to the group economics that impacts our ability to build a better life for our children and our community. See, what folk don't get, what people don't get is, and again, this ain't just General Motors.

Amen. Every single one of these companies. Todd, explain to people how much is spent annually in advertising in the United States by the very company that black people buy products from. The notion of the math is clear. One hundred and seventy billion billion is being spent. And $100 million is going towards Black-owned, not Black-targeted. And they could buy that as a surrogate for spending money with a platform that can tell our stories in an authentic way that comes from us by us. So when you talk about $170 billion across the Fortune 500, you're talking about budgets from $500 million to $3 billion to $6.6 billion is the last number I read at Amazon. So you're talking about Facebook that's north of four to five billion. You're talking about major, major players that harvest Black analytics. They harvest Black consumption. They sell products to Black people, and they do not

invest or do business or create a commerce opportunity where Blacks can participate. And systemically, and we keep using that term, Roan, it's set up that we cannot play. And that's why we're asking for a forward investment in the landmark of storytelling for the black community, because it's about to go extinct. The thing that we were seeing is called by choking off the advertising, you're choking off your future. Bottom line is this here, Todd. There's no media company that survives without advertising. None.

Roland, we'll be remiss if we didn't talk about the tactic of how do you break up a collective action. If we don't talk about the fact that folk are so hungry for survivability, and I was in a company that was on his lifeblood when I was an equity owner and CEO of the DREA. We could not, with 6 million monthly average viewers, convince anyone that they should buy ads with us because they went with the tonnage of black aggregated white owned mediums. And so if we don't have the ability to tell our story and to pay our bills, we're forced into extinction. How about this?

Todd, hold on. I want you to explain because the reason we're walking through all of this is because our people need to understand you and I on the inside fighting this thing, and the people on the outside don't realize it. Tell folks what Ebony was charging for a full-page ad compared to magazines that were not as big as Ebony. Well, when I got there, Jet, which, by the way, had an audited distribution of $800,000 in a slow month, 700,000.

Esquire magazine had a 500,000 audited base. Their ad rate was close to $200,000. On average, Jet was getting $7,000 per ad, and we could not get 20% of the ad potential in that magazine. That means that you're getting less than 20 pages at 7,000. They're getting 50 to 60 pages in Esquire at 150 to 200,000 a page. The economics on that destroy you. So that's low volume and the lowest rate. Frankly, it was consistently 80 percent less on jet on Ebony, which was our big book with one point two. We pass it to the barbershop. So the readership was 10 million. And our book rate when I got there was closer to 25K. And I was able, after I got shut down, to get it to 60K a page. I got Apple to run in the book. And when they started running

at that number, the advertising industry turned off the spigot. We couldn't get 30 pages at 50K. So that is a going out of business. And by the way, Lightbook's Vogue, Lightbook's Oprah Winfrey's magazine that was running in the Hearst infrastructure are getting in the hundreds to 200 a page, and they're getting the front and the back. So you're in a position, Roland, with the same kind. And by the way, blacks are the most impressionable, meaning that the ad that are sent to them, they actually take actions. We actually support the people

that support us. And it was consistently impossible to get a reasonable rate. So you asked... Literally, somebody named Beloved on YouTube said, how did O Magazine make money, just as you were mentioning it? And it's very clear.

Folks, listen to me very clearly. Hearst owned O Magazine. Almost 100 labels. Hearst ran O Magazine. What we're trying to explain to y'all is the advertising industry and major companies has no problem paying full market rate for products that target black people. They don't like it. They will not pay full rates if it is black owned. Somebody did not

listen to what I just said. If you have a black... If you get a black targeted publication that's white, that's white agencies, white companies dealing with white sales exec,

they'll pay the full rate. They will not pay the full rate if you're black owned. Go ahead. Roland, I just wanted to say, this is not just about the modality. So that's just not the print and the magazine and the newspaper business. We had a robust digital business called the Griot. I sold it to Byron Allen, who is now invested heavily in making sure that that platform is available to tell our stories. So the reality of it is, even when we were able to get a clear density of an audience, most in the right demographic and female, I still could not get them to do a direct buy at any consistent rate for those eyeballs and impressions. So it's not just, oh, you're crying, trying to take us back 50 years into the print world. I'm talking about the digital world. No matter what the modality was,

we face the same extinction reality. That's why we're having this fight, Roland. So for everybody who's listening, I want y'all to understand. Essence magazine does not make money. 90% of the money is made from the Essence Festival. Black Enterprise, when the last time y'all seen a hard copy? When the last time have y'all seen a hard copy of Black Enterprise? A magazine of Black Enterprise?

Been several years. Butch Graves said, told me point blank, Black Enterprise does not exist if they do not have conferences. That's why every time you turn around, there's a new email about a Black Enterprise does not exist if they do not have conferences. That's why every time you turn around, there's a new email about a Black Enterprise summit. That's the only way they even survive. They're not funding us.

I'd like to add one more thing. But hold on, but Todd, but if we were Black targeted and white owned, and again again, y'all, I'm just walking y'all through the facts here. iHeartRadio launches Black Information Network. I have a commentary on it. That's black-targeted, not black-owned. They were able to sign up

major advertisers before they even launched on day one. You have Spotify announces these new podcasts for blacks with Jemele Hill. Spotify not black owned. The Black News Channel, the Pakistani American, Shahid Khan, who owns Jacksonville Jaguars. He owns a majority of that. Black news channel is not black owned. It's black targeted. Complex is considered to be the number one digital brand to reach black consumers. Complex is owned by Hearst. Bounce TV is not black owned. They are black targeted. Also, I need y'all to stop

saying that Magic Johnson owns Aspire. He does not. Aspire has been sold. Aspire, a black targeted network, is white owned. But they are able to go in and get significant

dollars from companies by being black targeted and not black owned. So what I'm saying, Todd, and I've been saying is everybody gets to monetize blackness and benefit from it except black people. Well, Kierna Mayo, our former editor in chief, made a statement which I think resonates very well, Roland. And her statement was, everybody loves Black culture, but not everybody loves Black people. So if you can love my culture and be comfortable with me getting less than half a percent of an opportunity to tell my own story, but you count on, and I like to say the phrase because it's true, blackface on white-owned media. That means, Roland, that if they are selling me

to the general market, the rate works. If it's me selling, the scales are imbalanced. That's what this conversation is about. That's what this conversation is about. Some of y'all are asking me about Revolt. Diddy owns that. They can't get the money, which means they can't grow. I told y'all pre-COVID in black America, there were 2.6 million black owned businesses.

2.5 million of them had one employee. They were doing an average revenue of $54,000. That means out of all the black, so truth be told, we don't have 2.6 million black-owned businesses. We don't. Truth be told, we have 100,000. So, Roland, if you're black-targeted and I have a good job, why are you so angry about black? Oh, you want equity and wealth and generational and community.

So everybody is happy when one of us gets a great job. Stephen A. has a great job if I'm black owned, I create the number of employees and opportunities. And I reimagine what an investment would look like in our community using our culture with our people. That's how we lift from a wealth gap of 700 percent for them and almost nothing for us. Somebody said Vibe magazine. Yes. Quincy Jones was a founder, but y'all, Eldridge Industries bought the company Spin Media. They're not black-owned.

The Root is not black-owned. The Root is owned by a white private equity firm. Y'all, I'm trying to get y'all to understand is that Black Voices is not Black-owned. Huffington Post owns Black

Voices, which is now owned by BuzzFeed. Sir, can I speak to a root cause issue yep less than two percent of african americans are carrying a vp title in corporate america so we're not getting hired and we're not matriculating and we're not getting to the decision point to actually allocate resources i'm not talking about chief diversity officer i'm not talking about community relations i'm not talking about chief diversity officer. I'm not talking about community relations. I'm not talking about respectfully HR. I'm talking about P&L and decision-making. So if we're not matriculating in these companies and we can't make decisions inside of them,

and we don't have a supply chain equity conversation in the areas of our commerce cycle, then you're setting me up to continue the gap. I keep going back to the point. If there's no wealth to be poured into the bets on ourselves and we don't make any demands, we will continue to be eliminated from the marketplace. That is why we're fighting this fight. Folks, Marjorie Donat just said this, Suntai. I want you to answer this question. She said, most of us here in this fight. Folks, Marjorie Donat just said this on time. I want you to answer this question. She said, most of us here in this chat room aren't in media or marketing. Good information, but I can't do much with it. She's wrong.

She's absolutely wrong. Because when we don't show up and start asking the question, which you asked on an interview today, Roland, you asked the CEOs to answer the question, what is your black spin? What are you doing inside this company on hiring, on decision-making, and you have the right, especially in this current climate, to ask that uncomfortable question.

What is your strategy? What is your plan? And what are you doing, especially when we know that $1.3 trillion is being spent in this economy. It is the time to ask the question. Because by the way, we believe that the same gap exists in other areas of acquisition, not just media, in other supply chain areas. But we're starting with what we control and the stories that we can tell. Because when you fix media, you can then retell your story about the other

stories. But if you don't have media rolling, somebody else will be telling your story. So for the people who are watching, the people who are saying, you know, I can't do anything with this. This is what we're trying to get you to start doing. You're in organizations. You're actually buying products. You need to start asking the questions. Oh, said company, who I keep giving my money to, not only do I want to know, do you have blacks on your board of directors? Who are your black senior executives? And what is your black spend? Are you spending money with black advertising agencies? What is your marketing budget? How much of your marketing budget is going to black-owned companies? Do you have events where you cater? Are you using any black catering companies?

Do you have transportation in your company? Are you using black transportation companies? What we're trying to do here Todd is to get our people Is to get our people to start asking these questions up front before we make moves and stop falling for the okey-doke of Companies telling us how much they are going to give in charity. For instance, General Motors had announced, and if I can find it. One second, y'all. I want y'all to understand.

The foundation. They're going to bring the foundation and tell us what they're doing with their foundation. I want y'all to understand. Roman, one of the prices. It is right here, y'all. I want y'all to understand. Roman, one of the prices. Here it is right here, y'all. I want y'all to understand. This is June 5th, 2020. This is June 5th, 2020.

Let me see if I can switch. It's on my computer. This is June 5th, 2020, where you should be able to see it now. General Motors designates $10 million to support organizations which promote inclusion and racial justice. $1 million was going to go to the social justice than Black-owned media was actually getting in advertising. Well, unfortunately, Roland, that approach to social diversity, equity, and inclusion statements and photo ops lack intent, they lack impact, and they lack investment. And when you're having a business-to-business conversation, only when it comes to Black people do you have a conversation about foundations and advocacy. And I had this conversation

in a public forum. No other interest group has their advocacy group as a competitor for their commerce transactions. I don't see it in any other group. I don't see it with GLAAD. I don't see it with the Jewish Defamation League. I don't see them competing for commerce transactions. They're truly fighting for advocacy. And when they get investment in their organizations, it's not as a substitute for a business transaction, which creates generational wealth and opportunities for that community.

And we just got to be frank about it, Roland. We have to stop allowing advocates to act as business professionals when their job is to advocate, highlight and represent our ability to tell our story. And then we have to do business to business with a clear ask. So what we're talking about here, folks, and again, to set this whole thing up, we began the show. We were supposed to, Todd and I, along with Byron Allen and others, were supposed to be meeting today with General Motors to talk about spending. And let me tell you what the ask was, because I want you to

understand we're very clear. Matter of fact, Todd, so explain to everybody. So, OK, let me reset it. I just told y'all go back to my computer. I just told y'all I just told y'all that on June 5th, 2020, General Motors announced that they were going to give 10 million to support organizations which promote racial, which promote inclusion and racial justice. Based upon our research, and we've told General Motors, if we're wrong, present us the real information, that General Motors was spending less than that

with black-owned media. So today, so first of all, so Todd, explain to people, explain to people what we asked General Motors for. Roland, we were very clear. We asked for a conversation with Mary, their CEO, to have a dialogue about what they're doing with their media spin on Black-owned. And we wanted to begin a conversation so she could get to know us and we could get to know her because we were excited that she's made

some really wonderful statements. And we think her intent around wanting to make this happen is important. But we think it's important that we build a game plan with the principals who represent black-owned media. And once you do that, we can begin a dialogue about how to fix what we know is an economic gap between how much money we spend with them and how little business they do with us in the media space. But explain to people what our ask was.

We said... A meeting. We said two... No, no. We said $200 million a year. Let me explain that, Roland, because the conversation immediately started around a goal as a percentage of spend. Since there was no clarity and no agreement on their side

on what their spend is, even though Ad Age and others are pretty clear and been consistently clear about what they think their spend is, even though Ad Age and others are pretty clear and been consistently clear about what they think their spend is. We said that what we need is a minimum of $200 million a year with 5% escalators and we need that

for a 10-year time period. So, we were saying we want to sign a 10-year contract that minimum is $2 billion going to black-owned media companies. This is solely with General Motors. $2 billion over a 10-year period. Rose, you have to contrast that.

You have to contrast that with the total amount of spend in all of corporate America today on black-owned. It's $100 million. And we've allowed that to happen. So for everybody listening, for everybody listening, Black-owned media gets $100 million annually out of what? The $170 billion they spend? $170 billion. And so when we start to ask about, and Byron likes to say this,

when we start putting water in the ocean, all boats now can float. Most of the boats are actually trying to sail on sand, if not have gotten out of the boat altogether. So the reality, Roland, when General Motors starts to spend, not to the level that we spend with them, 11.4. When they start to spend directionally with us, it changes the landscape of black media, black-owned media, materially, one company. And we do plan to have this conversation at least a thousand more times. So this is what folk don't need to understand. So this is what we're walking through. This is what we're trying to explain to get people to understand and why we're making the point. And so, again, I appreciate General Motors announcing it is wholly unacceptable to get to 8% by 2025 when you can do it now.

You do not have to wait four years to increase to 8%. You should be spending 8% right now. So, Roland, if they spend 8%, you're saying they have another potentially $2.8 billion to keep doing what they do with ads and directional. So you're actually asking that they spend a couple hundred million out of $3 billion. So I just want it contextually, because sometimes as people of color and black people, we tend to get excited about numbers, but the wrong numbers. 200 million in one company,

as opposed to us fighting and damn near killing each other, over one to 10, depends on who math you want to have. That's the problem, sir. That's the problem. Now, again, last point here. I need people to listen to me very clearly, and I'm going to say this very slowly.

African Americans account for 11.4% of all cars sold by GM annually. So what GM is saying is, Black-owned media, you were getting 1%. We went to 2%. Now we're pledging to go to 4% by next year. And by 2025, we'll get to 8%. So Black people, 11.4%, 4 is right here.

They're saying by year 4, we'll get to 8. That's still below the percentage of cars black folks buy every year. I'm sorry, General Motors. 8% by 2025 is completely unacceptable. We are not satisfied. Final point, Todd. Roland, I've seen companies like Refinery29 get investments of up to $450 million on a venture side, which has largely been closed to black folks, venture and private equity. I see those companies be worth and valued at $4 billion that have started 15 years ago that focus on a crowded marketplace called women. I've seen

discrimination statements made by employees about how they felt about being treated in those ecosystems, specifically black women. And then I see us struggling to have a conversation to tell our stories and not getting any forward investment and frankly, recompense for the money that we put out to tell our stories. And here's the thing that people don't process, Roland. When you invest in black media, when you invest in black people, you get even a higher return in loyalty and creativity and brand connections, as opposed to having people who don't understand us try to tell our stories poorly. So this is really about fair play, equity, and the right thing to do at the right moment. Todd Brown, we appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you, sir.

Dr. Greg Carr, Chair, Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University, joins us right now. Dr. Carr we appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you, sir. Dr. Greg Carr, chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University, joins us right now. Dr. Carr, how you doing? Doc, you there? Yes. All right. You heard that conversation, Dr. Carr. You heard that conversation there. I did. And again, we're trying to walk people through what we're talking about. This is black economic social justice. This is exactly what Dr. King was talking about when the march on Washington for freedom and jobs. This is exactly what he was talking about with Operation Breadbasket. This is exactly what he was talking about the night before he was assassinated. This is is, this is it. If you do not deal with the money, then you're getting screwed. Well, if you don't deal with the ownership, as you say, Todd put the point with Stephen A.

Smith, guy's got a great job, more power to him and his family, but that's not ownership. When this settler colony was created, it was created around the idea of property. If you read the federal constitution, it's really a property document. That's why they had to add the Bill of Rights. And the time to correct this was right after the Civil War. And when land was not redistributed to the formerly enslaved, you set us up to basically be labor in a hierarchy that can't be displaced without serious policy fixes. And a lot of that is government, because private industry is not going to do it. You know, listening to you all, and everyone listening, please understand, you know, you need to show this to your children,

show it to your college students who are in schools of businesses, at HBCUs and other places, to help them understand. We talk about entrepreneurship without ownership and collective capacity. We are then forced to organize ourselves outside of the structure, which means our bodies. We have to engage in withdrawing our dollars. Now, you know, when Todd said, for example, it's set up for us that we cannot play, he's talking about the way the economic system works. You know, today in my hip hop class, we were walking through the history of the Source magazine. I'm glad you mentioned Vibe and Quincy Jones. The Source is created. They begin to drive ad revenue. And as they're driving ad revenue, they blow up. Quincy Jones, Russell Simmons and

them approach Time Warner and say, loan us some money to get in this game to start Vibe magazine. So they get the initial capital because they initially went to the Source to say, we want to buy you. And the offer was low and this kind of thing. But we had an interesting conversation because these young people often don't know the history, even of the culture they consume. And finally, it led to this, a fascinating conversation about how, and I love the way Todd said, they harvest black analytics. They harvest black consumption. When SoundScan appeared, we talked about this today, when SoundScan appeared and they realized that the leading sales based on purchases that had been scanned in were country music, punk rock, hard rock, and hip hop, they realized that these genres, these micro genres are very popular. That spun their thinking. Fast forward 40 years to where we are today. Now, instead of just genres and music, we're

talking about niche markets. And in niche markets, what you have is things that are being curated by algorithms and they are mining data, meaning they hire black targeted media and not black owned media because they don't need black institutions. And so what you're doing, what you're talking about, what you and Todd are talking about is really black institutional power. When ad revenue goes to black media, that means black institutions are empowered and we can make independent, self-determining choices. They are not interested in that. This little concession here from Jim, this is crisis management.

In other words, of the fear that our people might get organized and begin to withdraw and buying power. But that only works if we at some point exercise that ability. And that's why media is so important to get that message across. And that's what Dr. King was talking about. This is a very powerful conversation

y'all were having, brother. Brittany Lee Lewis, political analyst, I want to bring you into this conversation and I'm framing this because what we are discussing Brittany, also applies to politics because what people don't understand is every single one of these political

campaigns, Brittany, guess what they do? They hire white ad agencies. And those white ad agencies do the exact same thing corporate America does. And so what we're talking about is, and what all these people don't realize out here, Brittany, is that there are numerous radio stations,

TV stations, and newspapers that project and predict the kind of money they are going to earn during the political season. Every two years, they like, ooh, we about to get paid. Georgia, they bought so many ads in Georgia that if you own a radio station or TV station, you are 30 and 40 percent

higher in your projections. They made off like bandits. Black media wasn't getting that money. What people have to understand, Brittany, that then means you're not having black wealth. They got no problem giving black people checks.

The problem is when black folks start writing checks. Absolutely, Roland. I mean, I can't really state it any better than you, the previous gentleman that was on and Dr. Carr. I mean, we know this is about institutional power. We also know it's about controlling our own narrative. If we don't have control of the media, we don't have control of what type of information is going out to our communities. And the information that goes

out to our communities depends so heavily and is deeply connected to our politics, our ideologies, the information that we consume. There's so many people that rely on their information via the media. So this is an extremely important conversation that we all need to care about and that we all need to be a part of. So, you know, you've hit the nail on the head, Roland. And the reason we keep hitting this, Greg, and you laid it out, I mean, the reality is

the only reason we're at this point of GM even going to 4% because of the pressure that we put on them. And then what they have been doing and what companies try to do, Greg, this point of GM even going to 4% because of the pressure that we put on them. And then what they have been doing and what companies try to do, Greg, they try to pick black folks off individually. See, we came as a collective. We came saying, uh-uh, the number is 200 million. Y'all spending $3 billion a year.

They keep saying that number is wrong. Fine, give us the correct number. Well, no, we can't give the correct number because that's a competitive disadvantage. Well, don't tell me my number's wrong if you can't give me the right number. So I'm going to go with publicly available information. So when we say the $200 million,

what we're really saying is don't try to throw an extra $50,000 or $100,000 at this black media company when they really should be getting an extra million or two million. We are trying to operate like OPEC, the collective. When you operate as a collective,

you actually have more power because by bringing the collective, you can demand more. Absolutely. I'm glad you used the OPEC metaphor, Roland, because OPEC has control of oil. And in

the metaphor, then, what would the example be for us? We are the oil. We are the resource. But the oil's in the ground. It's going to respond to whoever goes and gets it. Our people have to be educated, which ironically, as Brittany just said, is a function of the media. You know, W.E. Du Bois was working at Atlanta University for about a decade and a half when he said, you know, I just thought the world was thinking wrong about race primarily.

And then they linked Sam Holes and they had his knuckles on display in downtown Atlanta. And I said, you know what, this is a war of propaganda. And so part of education is about propaganda. You know, another subject, young people, we were talking about on Tuesday in class was this Lil Nas X phenomenon. Now, Lil Nas X is in partnership with a company. They dropped some sneakers, allegedly with a drop of blood in the soul or something. He releases this album, I mean, this single with all this demonic stuff in it, and he's keeping everything going. John Caramoc in the New York Times on Tuesday said, Lil Nas X is a master troll. He got all y'all. What is he doing? He's burnishing his brand.

How does that relate to what you're talking about now? Nike sues the company, but they don't sue Lil Nas X because, like Kanye, they might want to go into business with him at a moment. He will be a high-played employee. People will buy the shoes. People will say it's for the culture. And Nike makes all the money. The only way—and by the way, Lil Nas X started by having Nicki Minaj stand accounts on social media and really blew up with Old Town Road, his monster single on TikTok. Another, give your talent for free. To use Todd's example, they harvest black analytics. They harvest black consumption when you upload, when they curate you on Spotify, you drop your stuff on SoundCloud. They're just sitting back picking winners and looters. And next thing you know, you looking at the award shows like this is black power.

It's not black power. It is white power with black employees. And the only way you break that cycle is to reeducate our people. And again, as Brittany said, finally, you've got to do that through mass media. That's why mass news media is so important. So if you're the only game in town, Roland, and you're not, but in forming partnerships with other independent black media, in forming collective, and then in us supporting you, we slowly build that self-determining power. And that is not the only thing we have to do. We have to, as Dr. King said, redistribute the pain.

Y'all ain't giving us pennies. You can mine our analytics all we want. We're not buying those shoes. We're not listening to that music. We're not supporting any of that until our platforms are put in a position to compete with you. And we know in a capitalist society, that is simply never going to happen. We got to get organized and redistribute the pain. The final point here, Brittany, before I go to a break, and that is this. What we're arguing here shows how we then are able, when we own, to then to impact our community. So a couple of weeks ago, I announced I can get a check from somebody else. But the reality is when I own, I can actually do more.

I'm going to throw this out. If my company was a 50 or 100 million dollar a year media entity. I would do this. I would literally choose

two HBCUs to create the Roland S. Martin School of Communications, give three to five million for the creation of the school, would do this in regions of the country. You've got the Kathy Hughes School of Communications at Howard. So I would study the map and say,

okay, who's in the southwest? Who's in the south, in the southeast? Who's along the eastern corridor? Who's in the South, in the Southeast, who's along the Eastern Corridor, who's in the Midwest, and literally create school communications all across the country targeting black students. None of us will live forever. But if we can create the mechanism

to create a thousand more Roland Martins and funnel them through these schools. That only happens if we're able to build companies to fund those initiatives. I'm not interested in going to a company, could y'all please set this up? No. If they were paying us fairly,

and we ain't got to ask them, we could set it up ourselves. That's what I'm trying to get our people to understand why we're making these demands. Final point. Roland, you hit the nail on the head. You know what? They don't want a bunch of Rolands. They don't want a bunch of Rolands walking around telling the truth, giving the black community and the broader community that listens to you, the actual facts of what is happening, they don't want us to have ownership.

I love Dr. Carr's point. It's about white power and white owners with a bunch of Black faces and Black employees. And at the end of the day, I also like this point about the fact that this allows for propaganda to happen, for the systems and institutions that we have in this society, whether that be capitalism, whether that be patriarchy, whether that be all of the isms that negatively affect whether that be, you know, all of the isms

that negatively affect and oppress us, in order for them to come down, we have to be able to talk about them freely to the public. We have to be able to reach the masses. And as long as we don't own our own media institutions, we won't be able to do that. One just posted, Beloved, I still don't understand why all these black millionaires in this country

are not supporting black media that speaks volumes. Beloved, what we're trying to say is if we get our fair share, we're creating more black millionaires. Listen to what I just said. We've got the black people. We've got to stop saying, why aren't these few black millionaires and black billionaires supporting you, Roland? No.

What you should be realizing is if the corporations that black people are supporting pay fair share to black-owned media like me, we create more millionaires. Black enterprise, excuse me, BET, BET created multiple black millionaires when Bob Johnson sold it, when they were publicly traded. Y'all didn't hear what I just said. BET, when they were once publicly traded, there were multiple black millionaires. Folks, that's how you create more black millionaires, when you end the systemic racism and bias, and you demand fair share.

As Denzel said in Malcolm X, no, I am not satisfied. General Motors, we're not waiting until 2025 for 8%. We want 8% now. When we come back, Black Lives Matter leaders join us right here on Roller Martin Unfiltered for an exclusive on a new initiative that they are launching. That's next on Roller Martin Unfiltered. Hi, I'm Stacey Abrams. I wanted to take a moment to update you on what's happening in Georgia and across the country. Thanks to the efforts of activists like you, we stopped Georgia Republicans from passing key parts of their voter suppression wish list.

Weekend voting and specifically, souls to the polls, disproportionately used by black Georgians remain in place. Georgia voters will continue to be able to vote by mail regardless of their reason for doing so. And eligible Georgians will continue to be automatically registered to vote when they obtain their driver's licenses, unless they opt out. Unlike some, though, I won't sugarcoat this. Senate Bill 202 is a power-grabbing and voter-criminalizing suppression bill that is nothing less than Jim Crow 2.0. This Republican-passed legislation was rushed through with an unprecedented speed to avoid public scrutiny. The bill makes it a crime to show compassion by offering a bottle of water or a snack to a voter or their child waiting in line. And the bill makes it much easier to challenge Georgians' right to vote. State House Republicans seized power over the

state election board and gave themselves the authority to remove county election officials who don't do their bidding. They placed limits on access to drop boxes, shortened the time frame to request a mail ballot, and more. At a time when Georgia ranks as the worst state in the nation for COVID vaccination rates, Georgia Republicans instead were laser-focused on reviving Georgia's dark past of racist voting laws. Their efforts, based on the lies of conspiracy theorists and capital insurrectionists, are shameful.

Sadly, as they learned from Jim Crow voting laws before, you don't have to explicitly exclude voters by race, but you can make sure people of color are clearly the target. It worked before, and they're counting on it working again. But we know from recent elections in Georgia that the way to overcome voter suppression is to vote. We must hold Republicans accountable by voting them out. I understand the passion of those calling for boycotts of Georgia following the passage of SB 202. Boycotts have been an

important tool throughout our history to achieve social change. But here's the thing. Black, Latino, AAPI, and Native American voters whose votes are the most suppressed under SB 202 are also the most likely to be hurt by potential boycotts of Georgia. To our friends across the country, please do not boycott us. And to my fellow Georgians, stay and fight, stay and vote. Make no mistake, though, we must also hold corporations accountable for their silence in this debate. We must demand they speak out against the more than 250 voter suppression bills in 43 states across the country. Let me make it plain. We see three steps companies should take to ensure the constitutional right to vote is real for all Americans, especially voters

of color. First, corporations in Georgia and across America must use their full clout to support the voting rights protected in the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. This is vital to ensure that Americans have access to our democracy and that that access doesn't depend on the state in which you live. Both of these bills are critical and not interchangeable. Second, companies must help address the lack of photo ID in our state and anywhere else where it comes up. It is estimated that 200,000 Georgians do not have a photo ID. And the so-called free state ID is not free.

When the hours to access it are limited, transportation is difficult, and the documents needed are expensive for the poor and they're hard to find. Companies must fund verified efforts to get these Georgians a photo ID. Third and finally, companies should be honest about the reality of voter suppression in Georgia and around the country. Long lines are just one example. Numerous studies have shown that these lines

are in predominantly black and brown communities. Likewise, limits on vote by mail, early voting, and registration are being proposed right now across the country, emboldened by Georgia to do whatever they like to voters they don't like. We need corporations to get off the fence and speak up in states still considering this coordinated attack on voting rights. We need Congress to take federal action to fix these harms through the For the People Act. And we need them to ensure that Georgia and other states must pre-clear attacks on voting rights with the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

Together, these actions will mitigate the harm of the horrible bill here in Georgia and the onslaught around the country. This is what corporate responsibility looks like in the insurrection era. The big lie fomented by a major political party that is nothing less than a contemporary Jim Crow. We cannot stand by. We must take action. So let's keep supporting Georgia voters and Georgia workers.

And as we do, corporate leaders can show that they stand with us, the voters. Please go to stopjimcrow2.com to find out how you can continue the fight for free and fair elections in Georgia and around the country. Hello, everyone. It's Kiara Sheard. Hey, I'm Taj. I'm Coco. And I'm Lele. And we're SWV. What's up, y'all? It's Ryan Destiny. And you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Black Lives Matter started as a hashtag on social media

in 2013 in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin. Since then, it's grown to be a global network with branches in the cities across the United States. Today, Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation announced a five-year multi-million dollar grant to Love Not Blood campaign. The organization has an ongoing campaign

called Families United for Justice Network, which is a collective of 320 families from across the country whose loved ones were killed by the police. Joining me for an exclusive discussion about this is Patrice Cullors, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Malina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives

Matter Los Angeles, and Cephas Uncle Bobby Johnson, co-founder of Love Not Blood Campaign. Glad to have all three of you here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's start here. Thanks for having us, Roland. Yeah, thanks for having us.

Thank you very much. Let's start here. The last several weeks, there have been a number of accusations that have been leveled at Black Lives Matter at Hugh Patrice Molina, by Samaria Rice, by Lisa Johnson,

the mother of a young man who was killed in Los Angeles, alleging lack of support for families, alleging raising money on behalf of families. You all have, for the last year or so, and we had you on before, Patrice, about this, other groups have been complaining, saying the Black Lives Matter Foundation, the movement is not supporting local chapters,

things along those lines. So how did this particular grant here come about? How did this, in terms of supporting this initiative and supporting these families, because since y'all put out the story of receiving $90 million, there's been a bullseye in folks demanding money and other things from Black Lives Matter. So how did this all come about? Thanks, Roland.

I'll take that question. And thank you so much for always being a platform where we can have these types of discussions. I'm really grateful to be supporting the Love Not Blood campaign, specifically the Families United for Justice, as we've actually been working with Uncle Bobby for years since the murder of Oscar Grant. But also afterwards, we've been partners in fighting for black lives for almost a decade plus now. And we've supported their work, even when we were a small, scrappy org with very little resources. And the minute we received resources, we knew that

we needed to get those resources back onto the ground. And so alongside this multimillion dollar grant that we are providing to Love Not Blood, we've also provided millions of dollars to other organizations as well, not just chapters, but Black-led organizations. And that feels really important to me. And I'm honestly really proud of the work that we've done. It's not been easy these last couple of weeks, but I'm proud that we came out transparently and that we are showing for our work, all the work that we've done for the last eight years as Black Lives Matter. Are you revealing, it's a five-year multimillion dollar grant, are you revealing exactly how much it is?

Not just yet. We're working out the details with the Love Not Blood campaign to really figure out which programs they want to specifically support. We don't want to have hands in how they use their dollars. We know the work that they do. We've been supporting them for years. So we just want to make sure that those resources get into the families' hands, and they get to decide how they continue to build power for communities impacted by state violence. Uncle Bobby, I'll go to you. Share your thoughts about this, your work with Black Lives Matter.

Again, Patricia and others, they've become under withering criticism, folks saying they're not being transparent. Your thoughts when you look at the criticism that they have received? Well, Roland, I can only speak to our personal experience in working with, of course, Black Lives Matter and specifically Dr. Molina. And I can even speak specifically to Alisa Garza. Even prior to Black Lives Matter coming into existence, Dr. Molina has been on our side working with us during the Justice for Oscar Grant movement. It was from there where we built a relationship. And of course, you know, from 2014, when we created the Love Not Blood campaign, we had a event where we invited families from

across the country to come and they came. And it was from there where we saw that this extended arm of creating this idea of having families come together under this idea of families being united together. And it was from there where, of course, we put together various conferences, healing circles, events that brought families together. And I have to say, you know, thank you to Black Lives Matter, you know, again, specifically to Dr. Molina, of course, Patrice, for helping to support these events that we were able to bring these families to. Molina? been said, but we've been involved and in relationship with Uncle Bobby and the

Struggle for Justice in the name of Oscar Grant before there was even a Black Lives Matter. And we've always felt and continue to feel that directly impacted families have the best solutions. They have the best ideas for what they need. And so this support, this pledge to resource the work that Love Not Blood is doing beyond just the conferences is a recognition that we need to be in partnership, but also Patrice and I and all of the hundreds and even thousands of organizers within Black Lives Matter, we're there to support but not to lead the family-led work. And so that's what this commitment is about.

It's about forging and formalizing a partnership that's been there since day one. So this is a five-year initiative for these particular families. Patrice, when it comes specifically to the criticism that has been leveled by Samaria Rice, the mother of Tamir Rice, by Lisa Johnson and others, how do you respond to that? They put out the list of demands they want to see happen. And others who say that y'all are, frankly, profiting off of black death. And you're not in the streets.

You're not out here fighting on behalf of folks. In fact, there are critics who say you're lavish spending taking vacations and going to conferences and things along those lines what do you say to those critics well first thing i want to say is that i myself am a black queer woman who grew up in Los Angeles, who also comes from a directly impacted family. I have experienced firsthand the viciousness of the police and the sheriff's department, both inside the streets of Los Angeles, but also inside of our jails. I cut my teeth in early organizing and stopping two jails from being built in Los Angeles and have been a part of our collective protest movement before BLM. I also think it's important for people to know that Black Lives Matter is a power-building institution which is different than a charity and I

understand how that can be confusing. Charities while also important are there to put a band-aid on the wound. Power-building institutions are here like Black Lives Matter to change the systems of violence that we've experienced. And many of us as black organizers have been on the front lines for a very long time to ensure that black lives actually matter. And the last thing I'll say on this is black organizers are really critical. It's been black organizers who've been able to change the very conditions that we have lived in, the suffering that we have lived in. Fred Hampton was a black organizer. MLK was a black organizer, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker. And so black organizing is a central part of American history and the present of America as well.

Melina, again, there's been a lot of back and forth on social media, a lot of charters being leveled in terms of, and folks still saying that you and others are not being upfront, not being transparent. How do you respond to that? And how do you respond to the folks who say that you should be even more transparent, that you should be revealing more information? We've seen stories in Politico and others where chapters are critical.

Can you share with folks what is actually happening there as you are, in essence, putting an organization infrastructure together on the fly based upon really what's happening with the infusion of money in the past year? So I think it's really important to remember that we just got money, that Black Lives Matter had absolutely no money until about 10 months ago. And we were financing it out of our pockets. And, you know, my kids can attest to, we had a beans, bean soup night at the house and we don't go out to eat because we are fine. We were financing it out of, out of our pockets. And so it's really important to think about what it means when people were grateful for the generosity of people who said, let me put some resources into this power building work that you're doing. But we also want to be good stewards of those dollars. We don't want to just be spending, you know, without a plan in place. As Patrice was sharing, you know, we are part of a long line

of Black freedom struggle, and we need to make sure that we do the institution building work that's necessary, as well as the support work that's necessary. The question that you asked about on the ground work, about, you know, being in the streets. You know, anybody can tell you that Black Lives Matter across the country, but especially in Los Angeles, is in the streets almost every single day. We have campaigns where we've won major victories, like ousting the district attorney who signed off on 634 deaths at the hands of police, like blocking Garcetti, the mayor of Los Angeles, from a cabinet appointment, like making sure that the five officers who murdered Keisha Michael and Mark Quinton Sandlin were fired from Englewood Police. And we have ongoing campaigns like confronting

police associations that are paying for the defense of people like Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd, right? So we have an end police associations work that we're doing. We have a people's budget campaign that's saying that major cities all across the country are spending 50 percent of their city's general fund on police when we need those dollars for health care and housing and good jobs. And so we've been doing work on the ground, organizing work, which is the part of the iceberg that's below the surface, but also the on the street work. Like I said, we're out in the streets just about every single day. And so we want to continue to do that work. We are committed to doing that work. And what you're pointing to that happened over just the last couple of weeks also, I don't

think speaks fully to the level of trust and commitment and belief that the vast majority of Black people especially have in Black Lives Matter, which was recently measured to be the most trustworthy organization in the nation. Uncle Bobby, in looking at some of the statements of Samaria Rice and Lisa Johnson, they talked about what should be done for the families. But you also work with a number of other families. Just your perspective, not criticizing any family member who's lost anybody, but do you believe it is unfair for two family members

to make demands on behalf of all family members or have those family members speak for themselves? How do you address that? Because there are a lot of people on social media who said that, oh, that the demands of these two mothers should supersede that of other family members as well when there have been other family members who come out in support of Black Lives Matter

or Tamika Mallory or Ben Crump and others. Well, you know... And I'm specifically asking you that because the situation has created lots of acrimony and pain. There are people who do not want to criticize them. There are others who say, but that's unfair

to make allegations. And folk are like, well, I don't know what side to be on. It's all of that. And so as an organization that's working directly with 300 plus families, I certainly want to get your perspective. The most important thing is us to remain unified in our struggle to, you know, first rid ourselves of this white supremacy and, of course, holding police officers accountable and bringing about

better transparency within the agency in itself. So anytime we have families and we understand where it comes from, you know, there has when you're emotionally impacted. You become very sensitive to various organizations and the way they support you. And so sometimes we can have a tendency to believe that this particular organization or that particular organization has capitalized on our loved one and we make statements that seems to overflow where it impacts all families. But not all families have that exact same sentiment or statement to say. And so from our perspective, the most important thing is that we find ways to make sure that we stay unified, we acquire the same voice, and we continue to move forward in our struggle to get justice for our loved ones

and also to change this issue concerning why police officers are not held accountable. I'm going to go to each one of my panelists, get them to ask a question. I'll first start with Brittany Lewis, your question for our other guests. Go. Yeah. So I would love for you to talk a bit more. You say that you are not a charity and you are actually a power organization. I think that might be where we see a lot of the discrepancy with folks having issues with the organization at large.

I'd love for you to elaborate on that point. Yeah. Thank you, Brittany. That's a really great question. And it's also something that we've had to contend with over the last few weeks. And I think a lot of organizations, first thing I want to say is that we're not the only Black organization that received a ton of resources. Black organizations across the country received a ton of resources. Black organizations across the country received a ton of resources. But I want to say something else. This, it's still not enough. Believe it or not, it's still not enough resources. We have been woefully under-resourced as black organizations forever.

So in a lot of ways, especially from the elders that I've spoken with, this is the first time that Black movement is receiving this kind of financial support and this kind of resource support. With that said, our organization's work and many of the other Black-led organizations' work, is to do a number of things. Number one, help aid protest to challenge issues around state violence, issues around economic injustice, issues around healthcare injustice and school injustice. Number two, help aid radical policy,

such as the BREATHE Act or reparations packages to help really identify the issues at the governmental level and to change and transform government. And number three, to help build a loving community with one another where we are able to treat each other well as we are doing this work to fight on behalf of all of our family members.

And so that is the work of power building institutions. We're not the only power building institution. My hope and prayer and desire is that this experience really also helps clarify to the nation and to Black people in particular what power building institutions do. Black organizing has always been misunderstood and it's always been unseen work. It's the first time that we saw, especially with the film, Judas and the Black Messiah, what Black organizers were doing. For years, we thought the Panther Party was just a bunch of Black men with guns, because that's what they fed us. And then as we started to dig, we

realized, oh, the Panther Party is trying to change and undo the systems that have created Black suffering. And that's what we are trying to do. And that's what we have continued to do for eight years. So my hope and prayer and desire is that we are able to help make that clear for Black folks in particular. Amisha Cross joins us. Amisha, your question. Sure. So my question, and I hear what you're saying about a power movement, and personally, I'm a member of Black Lives Matter in Chicago. I think that one of the things that a lot of the local chapters have in argument is that there have been people on the ground since the inception of Black Lives Matter. And much of those organizations believe that through this fundraising process,

and as was stated earlier, I think that there was a lot of, there was a lot of people at the Black Lives Matter national level working on this, working on this with, you know, basically shoestring dollars, um, putting in a lot of their blood, sweat, and tears from home with the help of loved ones and others. But that's not the case right now. And who knows how long it's going to last? Who knows how long this funding stream is going to be evident?

But in the case that it is today, what we do know is that a lot of local chapters are hurting, and a lot of local chapters are the ones with the boots to the ground, putting their feet to the fire and getting the work done. And the argument from the outside is not really something that I think is as pertinent, at least in my argument, from the Fox News, from the Republican critics, as much as it is those who are black organizers and part of this organization at the local level who have raised some very serious concerns about transparency as well as where they think the money is going. And just an openness about what is going to happen with the structure when we're moving forward. Where do you see your accountability? And what does that actually look like for the future of the organization? Because if your local chapters don't believe in you,

I'm very unsure of how long this could actually last. Yeah, that's a really good question. Um, and thank you for asking that. I'll just start with saying that, um, when we started Black Lives Matter eight years ago, I started it as a young organizer who didn't realize that this was going to be something that became so huge. chapter system in particular, because that's what we're talking about right now. A lot of people call themselves chapters of BLM, but they weren't chapters of the Black Lives Matter that we were building. And so I think it's very important for the audience to know, number one, is there a ton of people that call themselves Black Lives Matter at this point. Not many of them are officially affiliated with the organization.

We realized that we needed to create for a number of reasons, specifically security reasons. We all know very well that black movements get infiltrated, that we had to create a better system of who was inside of the Black Lives Matter global network. And so we created a system where people can onboard as official chapters of that network. And so we created a system where people can onboard as official chapters of that network. And through that process, really did spend a lot of time together, struggling and figuring out what was going to be the next phase of the organization. And much of that process was a ton of transparency. It was showing how much money we had, very little, where we were trying to go, how do we do this collectively and democratically. And what we realized during that process was that not everybody wanted to be inside of the Black Lives Matter global network. Folks know that I'm one of the co-founders, but I'm one of the co-founders that has stayed on. So much of the direction, there was a lot of tension around direction. And we realized that

folks were going to go in different directions. And so we started, I didn't start it, Melina could speak to it, Black Lives Matter grassroots. And so there are chapters that are really excited about the next phase of Black Lives Matter. And I want to make it really clear, this is very normal. It is very normal for people to say, hey, we're going in a different direction. Let's part ways and keep doing the work for Black liberation. All the folks that used to be inside of BLM and that are now, you know, not affiliated with BLM, I send all of my love and gratitude for all the work that they've done, because I am interested in Black folks getting free. And I want to make sure that Black folks get free. And so that was really, you know, in this latest iteration of BLM, Black Lives Matter grassroots gets developed.

And it's a really powerful space with Black Lives Matter chapters leading that. And the last thing I'll say about this is important. It's important and it has been important, especially as part of my leadership, is to listen when people are saying certain things need to shift. Chapters wanted, because they were the ones on the ground doing the work, they wanted to decide the destiny of what that work looks like. And so that is the birth of Black Lives Matter grassroots. And there's a powerful team that is doing a powerful and amazing work across the country. And that's really, that's the story. And that's the vantage point that I want to bring to this conversation around that. Melina, you want to answer that?

Sure. I'll just add, I think everything that Patrice shared is absolutely right. And I'll just share that as Black Lives Matter grassroots, what happened about seven years in was a decision that the chapters who were doing the on the ground organizing wanted to be at the forefront of that work. And those of us who remained in Black Lives Matter grassroots decided that we make great partners with the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. And we also recognize that we don't do exactly the same thing. And so we're appreciative again, that we're now in a space where the grassroots work can be resourced, where it doesn't have to be that everybody's digging in their pocket. And we're also committed to doing the work because we believe it to be our sacred duty to continue to do work that gets black folks free.

Dr. Greg Carr, your question. Thank you, Roland. And again, to everyone, this is the importance of independent black media where these difficult and necessary conversations can be made because you're right, we're all interested, Sister Cullors, in freeing us all. And with that in mind, with you and my friend Malina Abdullah, Professor Abdullah, and Brother Johnson, always all best energies and support to you and your family and everyone affected directly by state violence. Of course, you know, Amisha really has asked a specific question that I think a lot of people have had in mind. challenges to change in the relationship to maybe perhaps begin to dissolve the fundamental contradiction of externally funded revolutionary change. I mean, I think there's a strong argument to be made that perhaps the only time in this country, in the long Black freedom movement,

which begins, of course, when people put their hands on us and brought us over here into this settler state, as you all well know, being deep students of this settler colonial state, this capitalist state, that the only time we really had critical mass to have mass movement for transformative change that wasn't relying upon external resources may have been the Civil War and Reconstruction. And every social movement we've had, whether it be SNCC and the Panthers, you know, there's a pension movement, there's state violence. And then, of course, there's the withdrawal of whatever increments of support that have been

given. Now, given all that, and I ask the question again, you know, how do we deal with this question of externally funded revolutionary change when the folks who we're going to need at critical mass are those the farthest away from what I would say in some ways are an investor class of philanthropists who not only are giving money, but are at some point, if history proves us correct, as Mark Twain said, history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes, at some point will perhaps say, well, listen, we gave you all those resources, but here's something we suggest. And perhaps, how do we get at resolving, if it can be resolved, that fundamental contradiction of externally funded revolutionary change? I want to take on this question. It's a great question and it's a question that I think we all should be collectively in conversation about. One thing is true. Our movements have never been as resourced as they are right now.

That is true. What we do with those resources is critical. And it's necessary as we are building strong black radical institutions to not lose sight and water down our values. Not once has Black Lives Matter stopped calling ourselves an abolitionist pro-black organization. Not once have we stopped shouting out Black Lives Matter. In fact, the resources have only made us stronger because we haven't allowed ourselves to be whitewashed in this process. I know that it's scary. I know that it feels uncomfortable to see a movement that many of us were raised with transition. But I want to say something to the panel, but also to the audience watching. So many of our elders did not get to evolve in their movements because they were assassinated. They were made political prisoners.

So we didn't get to see what they wanted to see, the visions that they had for us. And so I see the work that Black Lives Matter is doing as part of that vision, as part of transforming what our ancestors, what our elders were trying to do. And we're not going to be perfect. We are going to make mistakes. That's a part of being a human being. But we are trying our best. We are trying our best because we believe in Black people. We believe in Black people with all of our heart, with all of our body and soul. It's why we started BLM eight years ago, because we wanted a space where black folks could come together and grieve and be free and laugh and be joyful and protest and to hold our government accountable. And so these resources, we should not be scared of them. The Sierra Club, $900 million budget a year. That's their budget. White organizations

are more than well-resourced. They're overly resourced. So we shouldn't be scared of the resources. Instead, we should ground ourselves down in our values and our politics and try to imagine where we go and what we do with these resources. And that's my interest. And I think we keep ourselves accountable to each other and we listen to one another

as we move this really beautiful and hard struggle together. Okay, Bobby, if you could respond to that same question, what are your thoughts about that, what Greg Carr asked? Well, you know, I didn't mention earlier when we were talking about this disunity that was taking place, I wanted to kind of touch that again. Not long ago, I guess about a week ago, we had a town hall, you know, with many families, close to about 80 families, and of course, Black Lives Matter, Sister Patrice and Dr. Malena, you know, put themselves out there to help families understand who Black Lives Matter Global Network is, Black Lives Matter Grassroots, and how we can make sure that we don't hold these various complaints or disagreements concerning this relationship.

So I thought that would be important to say, you know, and that also was built on, you know, and I didn't mean, you know, need to say this. I haven't done this work by myself. Of course, my wife, you know, Auntie B, has been a major important aspect in engaging mothers and families and helping us build this unity that we have today. And I think more specifically in regards to your question, could you repeat that question for me, Roland? Greg Carr.

Yeah, Brother Johnson. And to be very clear, I don't know that there is an answer. Again, this is uncharted territory. But if the cycles we see, whether it be the NAACP absorbing the Niagara movement, whether it be the women's suffrage movement. I mean, you go back through time, the Negro Convention movement, 1830s and 40s. You know, how do we. You're doing it on here. convention movement, 1830s and 40s. You know, how do we... What are some of your thoughts on how we address the

fundamental contradiction of externally funded revolutionary work? Because we know that the only way we're going to make it is to have critical mass of numbers of people moving in the same direction. And we know that that is diametrically opposed in a

capitalist society to the interest of the very people who are writing these nominal to them checks. That contradiction sits at the heart of this. And I know that it's a challenge. This isn't a criticism. It's an honest question, because I think that's one that we all really have to grapple with, as Mr. Cullors said. How do you, you know, what are your thoughts on that? How do we resolve that contradiction? These are not our friends. Correct. We have to just trust each other. We have to believe in ourselves. And we have to really uncharted territory that we're in when we figure out better ways to believe in ourselves

and work with ourselves and just make it happen with ourselves I want to just address that just quickly because it's my friend Ray Carr asking the 27 questions. Y'all say question. It was 27 questions embedded in that question, Dr. Carr. And a dissertation. Don't forget that.

Right, right. But I do want to address external funding of revolutionary movements. Number one, I want to address that we did not raise this money. We received this money. So nobody wrote a grant proposal and said, give us this money. This is and I'm just being frank. This was white guilt money.

Right. money, right? This was white people watching George Floyd be murdered and trying to figure out how they can absolve themselves of guilt. And they said, let me write a check to Black Lives Matter. And so we received the money, but we didn't fundraise for it, right? Number two, I think that the amount of money is unprecedented, but the idea of being externally funded, as Dr. Carr is lifting, is not really new. When we think about how did white celebrities fund the Black Power Movement, when we think about who supported the Civil Rights Movement, even when we think about abolitionism and how that was funded, there's always been an external component.

I think Patrice is absolutely right. If we are values-driven, if we are clear about our mission, if we are righteous in the way that we move, then that doesn't become as big of an issue as it could be. We're refusing to be bought off. We're refusing to tone down what it is we're saying because somebody white doesn't like it who sent a check, right? If they don't like it, they shouldn't send a check, right? And that's really what we're committed to.

So there's all these complications. And as we share, we don't have the answers to everything. We do trust and consult and love and value each other. And we try to hold each other accountable. And we also have a wonderful team of elders and also a larger kind of ecosystem of black freedom fighters who help us to think through these questions. Thank you. Thank you, Daphne. There are going to be lots more questions, obviously, that are going to be raised for all of you. Uncle Bobby, I want to start with this. How will you respond if people say,

oh, y'all are only doing this because of the recent criticism? That's the only reason this money is going to the Love Not Blood campaign. Mokababi, what would you say to anyone who says that? Our history speaks for us. The work that we have done in the last 12

years in working with families all over this country and even over into Europe, London specifically, will speak volumes to that statement or that question. And so our history is the reason why we do what we do and how we do it. Patrice, how will you answer that? Will people say, oh, y'all are only doing this five-year multimillion dollar campaign now

because you've been hit hard by Samaria Rice, Lisa Johnson, and others? I would respond by saying that we have been in direct relationship with not just Love Not Blood campaign, but many families and communities who've been impacted by state violence. And it was always our intention as BLM to help and support and continue to build the power of black folks, especially the folks who are directly impacted by state violence. So it was always our plan to be supportive.

And as Melina said, we just received the dollars. They just received the resources. And we're grateful that folks feel so engaged and so invested in Black Lives Matter, even if it feels hard sometimes. We're grateful that there's an engagement and investment means that people do believe in this organization. And honestly, Roland and everybody else, we aren't going to stop here. They said that BLM was like Occupy when we first started. And how long are you all going to last? And then two years in, they said, oh, you're still going.

And well, why? What keeps you motivated? And then, you know, Trump came into office and they said, oh, where is BLM? Are they still around? And we were still here. And now we're here. And we haven't left because we don't plan on leaving or abandoning black people, even if folks feel upset with us. We're going to be here. We are we are a family. Families have disagreements and we will stay put and show up and do the work together.

Well, thank you so very much, Patrice Cullors, Melina Abdullah, and Uncle Bobby as well. Certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much for all three of you joining us to share this information with us. And also thank you for doing so because oftentimes when these announcements are made, it's happened with mainstream media. And we, of course, we know the importance of black media

to be able to share the information as well. So we appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you, Roland. Thank you, Roland. Folks, got to go to commercial break. When we come back, we'll talk with Black workers. They do not want an Amazon union. That's next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. was legally elected, which means they don't believe in democracy. They believe an election is only legitimate if they win. That's not democracy. Their plan? Pass voter suppression bills to block minorities from voting. Take back Congress. Impeach President Biden. We refuse. We refuse to accept the end of the American experiment. We refuse to allow anti-democratic autocrats to steal our country. We choose to fight.

And we will not lose. Join us. I believe that it's movement time again. In America today, the economy is not working for working people. The poor and the needy are being abused. You are the victims of power, and this is the abuse of economic power. I'm 23 years old. I work three jobs. Seven days a week.

No days off. They're paying people pennies on the dollar compared to what they profit and it is time for this to end. Essential workers have been showing up to work, feeding us, caring for us, delivering goods to us throughout this entire pandemic and they've been doing it on an easily $7.25 minimum wage. The highest check I ever got was nearly $291. I can't take it no more. You know, the fight for 15 is a lot more than about $15 an hour. This is about a fight for your dignity. We have got to recognize that working people deserve livable wages.

And it's long past time for this nation to go to 15 so that moms and dads don't have to choose between asthma inhalers and rent. I'm halfway homeless. The main reason that people end up in their cars is because income does not match housing costs. If I could just only work one job, I could have more time with them. It is time for the owners of Walmart, McDonald's, Dollar General, and other large corporations

to get off welfare and pay their workers a living wage. And if you really wanna tackle racial equity, you have to raise the minimum wage. We're not just fighting for our families, we're fighting for yours too. We need this. I'm gonna fight for it until we get it. I'm not going to give up.

We just need all of us to stand up as one nation and just fight together. Families are relying on these salaries and they must be paid at a minimum $15 an hour. $15 a minimum anyone should be making to stay out of poverty. I can't take it no more. I'm doing this for not only me, but for everybody. We need 15 right now. Who needs a little love today? Who needs some love sent their way? Who needs love?

Who needs love? Who needs a little love today? Who needs some love sent their way? Who needs a little love today? Who needs a love sent their way? Who needs love? Who needs love? Oh I'm Shante Moore. Hi, I'm B.B. Winans.

Hey, I'm Dolly Simpson. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Powerful day in Minneapolis as more witnesses gave riveting testimony in the Derek Chauvin murder trial. Of course, he is on trial for murdering George Floyd. Here is some of the roundup to what took place today in the courtroom

I met Floyd in August of 2017 and you refer to him as Floyd? All the time. That's how you just refer to him all the time? Yes. And in court we prefer to use Mr. Floyd. So as much as you can do that but I understand Floyd is just how you knew him, right? Sure. Alright. And so when was it that you first met Mr. Floyd? May I tell the story? Sure.

Okay. It's one of my favorite stories to tell. I was pretty upset, and I started kind of fussing in the corner of the lobby. And at one point, Floyd came up to me. And Floyd has this great, deep, southern voice, raspy. And he's like, sis, you okay, sis? And I wasn't okay. I said, no, I'm just waiting for my son's father. He said, um, can I pray with you?

You met Mr. Floyd at Salvation Army. Yes. And then proceeded to maintain a relationship with him. Yes. I have to ask you if your drug use was a part of that him. Yes. I have to ask you if drug use was a part of that relationship. Yes. And what kind of drug use was a part of that relationship? Floyd and I both suffered with opioid addiction.

And do you know how, I mean like for your own self, how you came to be involved, you know, with what kind of drugs and how you became involved? Yes. Both Floyd and I, our story, it's a classic story of how many people get addicted to opioids. We both suffered from chronic pain. Mine was in my neck and his was in his back. We both had prescriptions, but after prescriptions that were filled, we got addicted and tried really hard to break that addiction many times. Your patient's head.

Okay, so what are you doing there? Placing an eye gel airway device. And what is an eye gel airway device and what does it do? I place that in their mouth, it goes near the glottic opening to their trachea, means you can use that BVM, the bag I was talking about, to breathe for them and ventilate them. And why is that important to what you're doing. It's a part of securing the airway to make sure liquid or fluid or vomit or anything doesn't end up in their lungs and also helps us deliver oxygen and

ventilate effectively. And at this point I assume that you're doing this because he's not breathing. Yes. Okay. Meaning no respirations are happening for him, so you're trying to use your equipment to do that, is that right? Yes. And what were the medications that were administered to Mr. Floyd? All of them that we would have given?

Well, I don't know if it's a long list, but what was the primary purpose? What were you trying to give him? Yeah, epinephrine is like a first-line medication when somebody's in cardiac arrest. Okay, so did you give him epinephrine? Yes. And why is that when you say it's a first-line for cardiac arrest? What does it do?

Helps to restart their heart. Okay. I believe the individual to be deceased. I wanted to get off scene, and I would start care in the back. And did you take steps to make that happen? Yeah, we grabbed our stretcher, our poles and canvas, and we were starting to prep to move the patient. And did you have any interaction with the officers in terms of moving the patient?

Once we got the poles and canvas, I wanted to get my patient to my rig as quickly as possible so I could begin my resuscitation efforts. He was standing in between the stretcher, and where I needed to be, he needed to be eliminated from the situation. Were you trying? You said as quickly as possible. Why were you trying to get things done as quickly as possible? For my patient, the patient care. And is timing something important when it comes to someone who's in cardiac arrest?

Yes. And why is that? His heart isn't beating, and it should be. And the longer it isn't beating, the greater the likelihood this individual will not be resuscitated. Brittany Lewis, I want to start with you. A lot of people on social media said, man, it's just too painful watching this testimony. But the reality is, this is what trials are.

This is what happens in trials. And as I said yesterday, it's rare that we even get to the point where a cop like Derek Chauvin, a former cop, goes on trial. And so I understand people who say it's hard to see those photos and listen to the testimony and hear the crying, but this is what happens in trials. Yeah, I mean, it's a tough role,

and it almost feels to re-watch this and to relive this, and not even just necessarily in the trial, but any time one of us dies, to see kind of what we call almost pointographic images of Black death constantly, it has a psychological effect, so I absolutely can empathize and hear from our community. And it's also just outside of just seeing it. I mean, the defense has argued that Floyd's health issues and drug use caused him to die from a, you know,

cardiac arrhythmia. And it's like this video, you know, that exists that we saw that the whole world saw should be enough. The evidence is damning, right? Um, but we know that's not always enough, and that's not always the case, and this man could still get off. So, you know, and I also say it's almost as if we as Black people suffer two deaths, right? The first is the physical assassination,

but the second is the assassination of the character, right? You know, how often do we hear, well, he's a... he or she is a drug addict, they're a character, right? You know, how often do we hear, well, he or she is a drug addict, they're a criminal, you know? There's always some other reason to legitimize why we are being killed the way we are being killed. So it's absolutely devastating to continue

to live in this cycle that almost seems, you know, a changing scene, if you will. It's extremely difficult. Misha? I agree with what we heard from Brittany here. I think that on, and we still have to keep into context that we have not heard from the witnesses from Chauvin's attorneys at all. What we have heard from are, I think, very, very strong, strong case built and witnesses for George Floyd's character, for humanizing George Floyd, for speaking at and, you know, pulling the rug from under when it came

to the drug abuse. Because I think that what was going to happen was that we were going to see, and we had already seen part of it, we saw the defense team basically build a narrative around excessive drug use and the big black man, big scary Black man mantra that police officers and white people in general like to use when they kill an unarmed Black person. I think that what we're seeing here and what we saw today, especially from George Floyd's girlfriend, was someone who was able to talk about him in human terms, someone who was able to explain the fact that he prayed with her. She met him at a Salvation Army where he worked. He was somebody who was kind.

He was somebody who was generous. He was somebody who, like thousands of Americans across this country, had an opioid addiction based on the fact that he had been given pharmaceutical drugs for legitimate back pain. And with that, you know, he, like many others, became addicted to it later. I think that the issue that we have here is that there is nothing that has added up thus far as to why the attack happened to George Floyd at all,

why a knee was ever placed on his neck. As someone who has seen and has had to make a call when someone was in crisis for a drug overdose, I personally have never seen a cop react in that way because that is not what you do. That's not even protocol if you think that someone is overdosing. So I was very confused as to why that was the standard that they decided to use, but also extremely frustrated to the point to where yesterday, I'll be honest with you, I cried hearing that young child, hearing child after child talk about what they saw, how they felt helpless, how they were scared, knowing that police officers pulled out mace and directed them

at the children who were crying and begging them to stop killing this man, hearing from the paramedics, hearing from others on the scene, hearing from the MMA fighter, hearing all of these things from people that literally were saying that this man had lost consciousness. He wasn't moving. He was someone who posed absolutely no threat. And it is a strong juxtaposition. Even the video that we now have seen from George Floyd actually being in the store in Cub Foods, this was a man who wasn't approaching anybody aggressively. This is a man who now, the young guy who was a teenager, is still a teenager, who actually accepted the original $20 bill.

He wishes he hadn't have done anything at all because he feels like there's blood on his hands. This is a young man. This is somebody who had just turned, this year, is just now 19 years old. Nobody should have that type of guilt to lay on them. And I feel like everyone who saw this on the scene cared about George Floyd, saw the humanism, saw that he needed help,

except the people who literally stood there and watched him die or aided in it. And that's extremely frustrating. Greg, to hear the EMT say, how do you not do chest compressions, makes no sense. Well, Roland, I think it's important. And the way Brittany laid it out, say, how do you not do chest compressions makes no sense. Well, Roland, I think it's important, and the way Brittany laid it out is absolutely

right, the double murder that we always go through in these moments. And Amisha, what you just narrated is so powerful. I mean, for me, it was those children, a child saying she's apologizing to essentially an ancestor for not helping and doing more, a child.

And then, you know, Mr. McMillan yesterday breaking down on the stand. We have to understand that there is no reasonableness standard when it comes to the law where race is involved and race is always involved here. So when Black life is involved, what we are seeing every day is the peeling back of what Du Bois might refer to as the veil. And other people are getting a peek at what we experience every day. This is Black life. And those white people who are decent human beings, whether it be the off-duty EMT who said, I want to help, whether it be those paramedics, and then to see George Floyd stretched out there, already transitioned,

it's reinforcing the fact that what we have on trial here is George Floyd. That is Eric Nelson's case, the defense case. So when you saw Courtney Ross, the girlfriend, humanizing George Floyd, as Amisha said, but then you see Eric Nelson sneak in with, well, you know he's Floyd, as Amisha said, what you, and then, but then you see Eric Nelson snick in with, well, you know he's going to buy drugs with that, right? And then she looks at him. See, the idea is, the question that the jury will have to decide is whether a police officer acting in the capacity as a police officer exercised reasonable judgment. But there is no reasonableness clause in a race-based society,

which is why those EMTs giving a reasonable answer for EMT may not translate in our ears as reasonable, but what Jerry Blackwell is doing, again, by saying, believe what you see with your eyes. He's trying to make sure that jury stays together and convicts this police officer. But here's where Nelson's case, and we spent about an hour last night in class at the law school with my students there. I'm just listening to them talk about jury selection and this legal strategy, trial strategy.

Everybody be clear. Eric Nelson doesn't need 12. He only needs one. So what he's doing by opening arguments where you introduce the fact that, oh, Ben, he was sitting on a Mercedes Benz and then trying to drop in the drug, use every question, every question, leaving some witnesses alone. He is talking to one, two, maybe three jurors on that jury because all he needs is reasonable doubt. And reasonable doubt exists in a race-based society when you put your reasonableness under the veneer of whiteness and exchange places with that murderer sitting in that courtroom.

That is the whole endgame of this thing. While we all looking like, oh, my God, he looking like, I just need you, maybe you. I'm talking to you. Now, y'all go out there. This is a dangerous, dangerous, dangerous case we're watching right now. And folks, don't forget, we're live streaming every single day, the George, the Derek Chauvin murder trial of George Floyd. So just simply go to our YouTube channel or Facebook page or Twitter page to see that. Let's go now to Alabama, where efforts to unionize Amazon employees started last summer when a few employees, retail, wholesale and

department store union months of protesting unfair working conditions and Amazon's poor COVID response led to an historic vote on Monday. The voting period for workers looking to form a union at the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Bessemer, Alabama. It ended and the results are still not in. The vote is not as cut and dried as you would think. Of course, we had Reverend Dr. William J. Barber on, who said there are 5,500 out of the 6,000 employees are black. Joining us now are three Amazon employees who voted against unionizing, William and LaVanette Stokes, as well as J.C. Thompson.

Folks, welcome to Roland Martin Unfiltered. Good afternoon. Good evening. How are you? Doing great. I see all three of you are wearing your Divine Nine gear, a.k.a. Sigma and Kappa. So I'll start with J.C. first. Why vote against the union? Well, first of all, thank you for having us. Number one, I don't really think that this union will serve Amazon best at its current state. I've done a lot of research, extensive research with this particular union. And the last contract that they negotiated for their employees that they represented was 30 cent over five years. So I can do that myself.

So that's kind of where I want to hang my head at. I mean, I'm not. It just doesn't make any sense. William? For me, it's just the fact that Amazon is not the monster that they can create out to be. I think that a lot of the things that are going on in Amazon are really just not people being true to themselves. And then, like you said, this union here is one of the worst unions that are out there. When you hear when William says that people are not being true to themselves, we've heard stories of individuals who have been working conditions

and COVID, things along those lines. We've heard others there in Alabama who say that unfair labor practices. Do you disagree with what others are saying about what's happening at the plant there in Bessemer, Alabama? Yes, I do disagree. A person's perception is their reality. The experiences that they've had here at BHM1 may differ altogether different from what we've experienced. I know that this is a new plant. It has growing pains, just like a brand new baby. The baby is a year old. It can talk, but it is not as knowledgeable or independent as a five-year-old. And I think a lot of things are constantly changing. Is it a perfect plan? No, it's not.

But if you equate what you get to the positives versus the negatives, the positives totally outweigh the negatives. And so when you say the positive outweigh the negatives, and so the three of you believe that there should not be a union, you should not have collective bargaining, and that each individual employee should be left up to their own device to negotiate any increase in salary, benefits, and things along those lines, correct? What I believe is that what we have at Amazon now is far better than what the union can give us. The benefits that we have is great you know a lot of a lot of the things that are being said are things um that are not factual so as far as things like i've heard things about we only get five minutes for bathroom breaks i mean that's just crazy that's not true that's just not factual um the problem is that when people go to the

bathroom they go but they stop by the break point, they stop by two or three other different people, then they come back and they're gone like 30, 35 minutes. And that's one of the issues. So you talked about- The union has put out a lot of stuff that's not- Go ahead, I'm sorry. The union has put out a lot of stuff that's not factual,

even to the way that they got here in Bethlehem, Alabama. So, J.C., what would you say that also isn't factual? Back to what Will said, really, the bathroom situation is kind of just hideous. What you got to realize is, that we're dealing with individuals, this is their first real job. They're 19 to 25 years old.

So they're not at the level as my two other colleagues are. They don't have mortgages. Most of them stay with their parents. And so who wouldn't sign a union card if they say, hey, I can get you $25, $20, $25. Who wouldn't sign a card? I would without

knowing what that entails. I have a family. I've been married 20 years. Both of my children now have cars in their mouths, braces, because of Amazon, because of those benefits that I was able to get day one. Amazon puts $2,000 on your health spending account. You don't have to do anything.

They put that on there for us. So the benefits are impeccable. So I don't, you know, it's, as my as, as, as my colleague said, we're only a year old. Um, we are not perfect. There are things, um, that, that definitely need to change. And we are holding our leadership feet to the fire for those things to change. But the things that are out there now are just so outrageous. It's nobody is urinating in bottles nobody is following people to the bathroom the police are not out there to make sure that the union people don't have uh can't say anything to us all of that all of that is untrue all of that is untrue we've had

uh security since july and the reason that we have security, that's a policy of Amazon. We're not the only Amazon that has security. All of our facilities have security. So all of that stuff is just untrue. Levinette, go ahead. You were commenting. Yes. I can piggyback off of JC and the things that

William have said. Yes, there is mechanisms that are in place as people are saying that they're being tracked. It's a computer software program that monitors how you are productive because we are a fulfillment center. And if you leave your station, it's tracking if you are actually in active working or if you are in a passive state, which would be the situation if you left to go to the restroom. And unbeknownst to most people, Amazon gives you 30 minutes. Yes, there is a tracking, but it's not tracking to where they're holding your gavel over your head and saying that

you're gone for 30 minutes or 40 minutes. The problem is the gross negligence of having that privilege to just walk off. You don't have to. I know I only can speak from the shift that I work on. You don't have to go and tell a manager that I'm going to the restroom, I'll be right back. You can leave your station independently, go to the restroom, stop and get you something to drink, talk to someone, use your phone to check on your children, and then come back to your station. You are given 30 minutes of time before they start tracking that time. You're giving two 30-minute breaks during your 12-hour period, plus an additional one after that. So you're

actually getting three in a 12-hour period. And what they're remiss in saying is that when you garner employment from Amazon, you are given the privilege of selecting the shift that you wanted to work on. You could work on a four-day shift, five-day shift, or a weekend shift. And each one of those comes with a shift differential. If you work the weekend shift, you're paid more than if you work the eight-to-five shift

or five days a week. We happen to work the Sunday through Wednesday shift with a MET day on Thursday, which means that we choose, they can ask us to come into work and you don't have to because they give you personal time off, unpaid time off, as well as vacation time that you've garnered weekly it's accumulated weekly and i know for william and i i have 30 hours in each one of those areas and i can take off whenever i like and i choose to keep mine collected like we're here tonight this is voluntarily they offer extra time and we came in to get it. We're trying to secure our bags for whatever reasons that we desire, and so we are here.

And I'm a 52-year-old worker, and I've always worked in public education and retired as a teacher, so I've never worked in a factory capacity until the pandemic came and situations changed to where I had to find other means to be able to support my responsibilities in our household. And I chose Amazon because I saw it was a vehicle for me not only to be able to garner a job, but I would be able to, in the future, use the skills that I've already been educated to do. Panelists, any questions from Amisha, Greg or Brittany? I have a question. It's great to hear from you, from you all. I feel like obviously we've heard a lot about not only what's going are in your plant and who are in many cases out protesting as you speak?

There are a lot of people have the same sentiment as we do. On my shift, my husband is very instrumental in having a relationship with a lot of the youth that are in their 18 to 25. And he has a plethora of people that were willing to rally for the opposition to having a union. And it just never had a groundswell because I think we kind of started a little bit too late. But there are a lot of people that feel the same way as we do. We have enough mechanisms in place in Amazon where we don't need a union. We get a 55 cent raise every six months in Amazon, not the one that JC mentioned that they bargained for 35 cent for a whole year over a period of time. We get that every month. You don't have to ask for it on that exact date that you that six months expires you uh you get that additional

raise and you can see it in your next weekly paycheck and also i think a lot of this politically go ahead uh i think it was greg carl with the quote greg go ahead no jeff wanted to make a point i don't want anyone to interrupt him unless you run out of time bro jeff go ahead. JC, go ahead. JC, go ahead. Oh, I'm sorry. I just wanted to say that one of the leaders of the union movement, let me tell you what his job is every day. His job is to sit in a chair, watch the thermal camera

to make sure temperatures are correct. He sits. Notice I said he sits. Other people are standing. Other people are working. Other people are doing physical activities. And his job is to sit

in a chair for 10 hours to look at the thermal camera to make sure that everybody's temperature is good. So, yeah. Thank you, brother. I appreciate that. I just wanted, you know, so far, I mean, they're close to 6,000 workers in that plant, right? So I have a lot of questions, but I'm just going to limit this to one. National Labor Relations Board told Amazon they couldn't put cameras in.

They are to monitor the ballot box. They are everywhere in the world, and we know globally, anti-collective bargaining. I'll just make one. Why do you think Amazon is fighting so hard against collective bargaining? Forget the type of unions, forget the nature of unions, forget intra-union issues and reform.

Why are they working so hard all over the world to prevent collective bargaining? What y'all think? What do you want to talk about? Me personally, as a business owner I will you're breaking up we can barely I think he's having some technical

yeah yeah yeah yeah William we can barely hear you yeah I'll take you got a week okay go ahead jeff okay um are they really fighting that hard or are they propaganda is it is it is it because here's the thing here's my issue here's my issue my issue is where where was all the press when we opened a year ago when Amazon immediately became the largest employer in an underpoverished city of Bessemer? Where were all the politicians? Where were they then?

Is it really about us or is it really about the 5,800 employees that will have to pay $9.25 a week, which is almost $3 million a year. If this vote passes, then for this union, this will be the biggest contributor and dues that they have ever had in the history of their union. So is this really about us or is it really about big money? Because as I emailed my own congresswoman, I asked her a simple question. I simply said I mean, if you knew this area was under

privilege and under province and poor, then why didn't you send any grant money to these places, to this place to open up small businesses for black people? Black lives matter because here's the thing. Everybody's talking about black lives matter. Does it only matter when I side with what the black lives say I need to side with?

Or does my life matter because I understand how companies work? Listen, I say this about Jeff Bezos. He's the richest man in the world. Did he set out to be the richest man in the world? No, he did not. He started the company in his garage. Now, are there some opportunities? Do we need to do some things different as far as

leadership is concerned? And I say this, and I'm going to say this. Listen, you can have all the degrees in the world. I have a few. But if you don't have a degree in people, if you don't know how to treat people, then all of your other degrees cancel out. And so we don't

have a workforce problem at BHM1. We really don't have that. What we have is we have people that are leading in a culture that's different from what they come from. And so here's the thing. Amazon has a culture. The associate has a culture.

The issue is how do you merge those two cultures together? That's the problem. Response, Greg Carr, go ahead. I really don't have one. I know that Jeff Bezos made $73 billion in the last 10 months, and a billionaire in this country made a trillion, I know that Amazon is

staunchly anti-collective bargaining. And regardless of the politics of unions, we all know that that's bad. We also know that collective bargaining has been the only thing that has allowed workers to get collective rights. I absolutely understand what you're saying,. I absolutely understand what you're

saying. And I absolutely understand that in Bessemer, that's double the minimum wage in Alabama. I also know that $15 an hour is less than what the manufacturing jobs that used to be in Bessemer outside of Birmingham used to pay, and that Amazon can't afford to give y'all double or quadruple, and that you won't get it without collective bargaining and that there is no we. When you say we, you simply mean everybody working in the plant because there's no collective mechanism to improve that.

But I didn't want to get into that. I just wanted to know what you are. That's not true. That's not true. That's not true. That's not true. That's not true. That's not true. That's not true. That's not true. That's not true.

Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Hold on. William, go ahead. William, go ahead. The police here were complaining about getting paid every two weeks and wanted to go to get paid, it was put in motion through the employees to management. And guess what?

A month and a half, two months later, we went to weekly pay. So things can happen in here in Amazon when we decide that we want to do these things and band together and do it. We don't need a union to do that. I don't have to. When I had my issue with Amazon, as far as a situation I had with a manager and everything, I went to that manager, didn't get the result I needed. So I went to upper management.

The case was they were going to suspend me or whatever. But however, they didn't because we have a grievance process where even if you are accused of something, they don't just fire you. You have a right to appeal whatever decision you have, and if you don't like that appeal, you go to the next appeal and process. So basically everything that you guys are telling me to do right now for me,

I can do for myself. We as people, employees here can do for ourselves. Correct. And the other thing is that all these politicians and all these people that are speaking up and everything, none of them have come to Amazon and talked

to everybody. They only talk to when you want them to talk. You cannot understand a book with just reading the first and the last chapter without getting the middle context. And some of the problems that are going on are just people not being true to themselves. I keep saying this.

Black Lives Matter, they wanted to really help us and everything, but they could have done instead of just doing this political bandwagon. Get a program started teaching our young people how to come to work to work. How to come to work dressed to work and not dressed for a social party. Because that's a lot of problems that go on.

It's not Amazon. I want to give Brittany an opportunity to ask a question. Brittany, are you there? Yeah, I'm here. So I guess the thing that I'm thinking about, right, Bezos has gotten $73 billion richer during the pandemic alone. This man is worth upwards of $180 billion. A worker making the $15 minimum wage would need to work full time for 5.7 million years and need to not spend a dime

of that money. Do you think your physical activities, your labor, right, because you were talking earlier that somebody was just watching a clock, And when we want to talk about what Bezos does, well, sure, it's not that grueling labor that's going day in and day out. You think that labor is only worth $15 an hour, maybe a little more in some perks, and not the hundreds of millions of dollars in products they sell and the billions of dollars that they're making? That's my first question. And my second thought is this narrative that they keep spinning that, oh, he just pulled himself by the bootstraps to create Amazon, so he deserves all this money. First off, Jeff Bezos got a $250K start from his parents to be able to create that company.

Second off, the reason why we have all of these issues where there aren't jobs in these communities has a long historical context related to capitalist life like Bezos, which is why they don't want the union to happen in the first place. So I'm ranting at this point. I have a lot to say. But going back to my question, do you believe that your labor, right, that physical grueling labor, that labor is only worth $15 an hour in perks and not the hundreds of millions of dollars that they sell and the billions of dollars in profit that they're making. You need one person to answer that?

All right. I got it. I got it. Let me get it. Let me get it. First of all, I believe I'm worth a million dollars an hour. But is that reality? Is that realistic?

Come on. Let's just be honest. I don't know anybody that makes enough money. That's why we continue to come to work. Now, I will say this. Is Amazon physically challenging? Yes, it is. It is not for everybody.

It is not for a person that has physical challenges. It is not for a person that does not like to move. But did Amazon come for me or did I send for Amazon? I filled out the application. I read through. I signed documents to say I could do this. I could lift this, that I could stand for a certain amount of data. They did not recruit me.

I filled out the application. So my thing is this. When we talk about Jeff Bezos' wealth, here's the thing. How did he make $70 billion last year? You know why he made $70 billion last year? Because we were all at home quarantined and couldn't go no damn well. That's how he made his money, because everybody was clicking. And they couldn't go anywhere. So is that his fault?

That's the point. They worked the shit out of his day. No, they didn't work. They didn't work the shit out of me. Because I only work four days a week. That's right. Yeah, I work 40 hours a week. 10 hours. Okay, so I own a restaurant. I own a week. That's right. All right. Yeah, I work 40 hours a week, 10 hours a week.

Okay, so I own a restaurant. I own a restaurant. My restaurant closed down during the pandemic. I came to Amazon, but during the time I owned my restaurant, I paid my employees. I found out what the average wage or cashier was getting. And here, it was

$8 to $9 an hour. I paid my cashier $10 and $11 an hour. Even when my restaurant first started, I was barely making $20,000 a month enough to cover inventory and pay them and maybe put $2 in my pocket. A year later, when my restaurant is getting $60,000 and $70,000 and I can actually put something in my pocket

to afford to do some things with my family, now that I've made that money, I'm supposed to go and overpay my workers. What I can do is give them a bonus, you know, to show my appreciation. What I can do is do other things to show my appreciation. But I don't have to overpay. And I'm not saying that Amazon is overpaying us.

Would everybody like a raise? Sure, you would like a raise on your job. Everybody always want a raise. No question. But I think the problem is we started looking at what Jeff Bezos is making and what he's doing. raise sure you would like a raise on your job everybody always want to raise no question but i think the problem is we started looking at what jeff bezos is looking at what he's doing and not looking at the fact of what it took to get those to those things and then it's not just the bottom wages the hourly workers are the entry-level position to get into the amazon corporation but once you get in there, the possibilities are endless.

Just last night, I talked with an AM. Someone started as a level one employee just like we are. And within six months, that person is already gone, and she's an L4 manager in the Amazon Corporation. And we're talking about hourly workers. For $15 an hour, we're packing boxes in close proximity. We're not having to take forklifts and move the merchandise closer to us on a pallet and then pack it and then walk it to another station. We have conveyor belts that are moving 24 hours a day, close proximity packing to where your boxes and your products are that

you order on Amazon. And we're talking about a job that is not a specialty job. It's a job that does not require a lot of skills to be able to look at the screen, reach across and grab the products and pack them in the box and send them on their merry way. But the beauty of what's in Amazon is as you matriculate through the ranks, the pay increases tremendously. The options increase tremendously. But for $15 an hour and that's the beginning on the ship,

there's some that make more based on the ship that they selected. And we're talking about just like JC said, these people did not ask, did not come and bring you into Amazon. You meandered into Amazon wanting to get a piece of the pie. And you took on the responsibilities. You selected your hours. You selected your shift. You selected everything that goes with that job.

You signed the papers. They told us over and over again that this was a job that you would be standing for long periods of time. If you knew you had back problems before you came to Amazon, you shouldn't be here. 65-year-old person, this is probably not the job for them. I'm 52 years old and physically fit. I don't have any issues with working at Amazon because I matriculated pretty fast from a direct role because I was a fast packer to an indirect role, which is what I've been in since I've been there after about a month or so. But we're talking about people that are going and they're complaining and are documenting the issues and concerns they are having and taking a lot of them out of context. Are there some people that are having issues and

some things have happened or they may have not gotten their money through pandemic, but it was not intentional. And just like with any company, as everyone else has said, it has issues. But what company does not have issues? All right, folks, we certainly will be awaiting the final tally of the union vote. We certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you for having us.

Thank you. Thanks a lot. Greg, I think you were trying to say something there. Greg certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Greg, I think you were trying to say something there. Greg, go ahead. It's heartbreaking, brother. It's heartbreaking. I mean, when you read, there's a brand new book out called Fulfillment by a reporter who talks about everything from the fact that Amazon comes in these little towns where the economy has been pancaked. Brittany was absolutely correct about that. As a result of the political economy, particularly in those southern states where they say they are at-will states, they're not at-will states. They are at indentured states.

And they make deals with desperate local officials for everything from easements to tax breaks and everything else. They basically rent the local police department. They get all the tax breaks, which means if there's an accident in the place and the fire department shows up with the police, Amazon isn't paying a dime because they don't pay any local taxes. And the fact the sister said that the thing is brought to you in conveyor belt, let me explain why it's brought to you in conveyor belts. They have automated every job in the damn place except the job they haven't figured out how to automate yet. And you know the reason it comes to them on conveyor belts?

Because they got to pick it off the conveyor belt and confirm what it is. So when you're pressing click, they can get it to you in 12 hours or 8 hours or 24 hours. Because the robots now serve the function that people used to serve when they would walk literally the place and go look for packages. That means somebody standing in the same place for a 10-hour shift and these 30-minute breaks. Did you hear that? Oh, it's on them. It's on them. And, of course, the sister has now moved from doing that picking job to going, not doing that picking job. That picking job, psychologically and emotionally, particularly since COVID has existed, has come and people have had to distance from each other. When you read this book, go get that book, Fulfillment, and understand that when you sit

outside the parking lot and you see these people speed off in their cars because the damn work in there has driven them damn near crazy, Jeff Bezos is a robber baron. Amazon is a criminal enterprise. And I ain't got no problems with individuals who have negotiated a little space for them to operate, but make no mistake about it. All the problems unions have notwithstanding collective bargaining is the only thing standing between individuals working in situations like that and straight up wage slavery. Absolutely. All right, folks, Greg, Amisha and Brittany, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. We went way over our time. No, we don't go this late.

We started just a little bit late. We had some technical issues. Apparently, our Skype, the Skype was down all across the country, which is why we had to have alternative means to get all of our guests on the show today. So we apologize for all of that. So, folks, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Folks, if you all want to support what we do here at Roland Martin Unfiltered,

please do so by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. Go to cash app, Dallas Sign, RM Unfiltered, paypal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered, venmo.com forward slash rmunfiltered. Of course, you can also support us, Zell Roland at rolandsmartin.com. And so please join us there. Of course, our goal is to get 20,000 of our followers

to contribute, as we say, 50 bucks each over the course of a year. Let me do this here. Go to my computer, please. We have a new member of our family. Go ahead and show it. Y'all, this is, go to my computer. This is the baby there of Black Women Reviews, Recy Colbert.

She, of course, they call her baby girl ABC, her nickname. This is what she tweeted. I'm still a maternity hiatus from social media and media appearances, but just wanted to say she is here. P.S., I can't respond individually to the wonderful outpouring of support, but thank you all for the love. And so certainly congratulations to Reese and her husband on their new daughter. And also Erica has been having some health issues,

and so that's why she has not been on the show. They're normally our two panelists with Greg on Thursday, but we certainly thank Amisha and Brittany for holding it down while they are out. So certainly congratulations, Reesey. All right, folks, that's it. Y'all take care. I'll see y'all guys tomorrow. Holla!

I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. 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 star-studded a little bit, man.

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