#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Confederate statues removed in VA; GOP govs balk at Biden vax mandates; Roland scorches Megyn Kelly

Episode Date: September 11, 2021

9.10.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Ten confederate statues taken down in VA; Republican govs vow to fight Biden vax mandates; Florida judge reinstates ban on mask mandates; COVID explodes in Florida; 130 Black morticians have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic; September is National Sickle Cell Month; Studies show young black men are more likely to die by suicide than any other demographic; Roland scorches Megyn Kelly for outrage over Black National Anthem at NFL games; In this week's Education Matters segment we'll take a look at the "Call Me MISTER" initiative#RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: CEEKCEEK is a streaming platform for virtual events and Virtual Reality experiences featuring the biggest names in music, sports, and entertainment from around the globe. Check out the VR headsets and 4d headphones. Visit http://www.ceek.com and use the discount code RMVIP21Support #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. Today is Friday, September 10th, 2021. Coming up, a Roland Martin unfiltered in the Black Star Network. Virginia has removed over 10 Confederate statues across the state. Tonight, we'll have the first black governor of Virginia, Governor Douglas Wilder, and Davon Henry, CEO of the company that removed the statue. Nothing like a brother getting rid of Robert E. Lee.

Republican governors are threatening to sue President Joe Biden's COVID plan. President says, have at it. The country's second largest school district is requiring all students over the age of 12 to be vaccinated. A Florida judge reinstates the ban on mandatory mask mandates,

and since the start of the pandemic, about 130 black morticians have died from COVID-19. The president, the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association will join us to talk about how COVID affects morticians across the country. It's National Sickle Cell Awareness Month and we have the medical director

from Michigan's chapter of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America to talk about how it impacts African Americans. Plus, it's World Suicide Prevention Day. Studies show young black men are more likely to die by suicide than any other demographic. We'll talk about trauma and mental health. Plus, in our Education Matters segment,

we'll highlight the Call Me Mister program, an initiative that's creating a pathway for young black men to become teachers. It is time to bring the funk on Bullet Mark Non-Filtered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it, whatever the piss, 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, it's Uncle Roro, y'all. Yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roro, y'all Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Rollin' Martin Now A Florida judge hands Governor Ron DeSantis a victory by reinstating the ban on school mask mandates. The First District Court of Appeals ruled the Tallahassee judge should not have lifted an automatic stay two days ago, halting the mask mandate ban. Now the state can resume imposing financial penalties on the 13 Florida school boards that have mask mandates in place.

The U.S. Department of Education has a grant program for school districts that lose money implementing anti coronavirus practices. Now right now, Florida is reporting more than 3.4 million cases and over 48,000 deaths in the state. Now, in addition to that issue, the second largest school district is requiring its students over the age of 12 to be vaccinated. Let's go to Los Angeles, where the LA Unified School District says there are 630,000 students must be vaccinated by January 10, 2022. Student athletes and those participating in extracurricular activities

need to be vaccinated by the end of October. The school boards vote to protect students and staff while keeping the classrooms open for in-person learning. Let's go to my panel. Michael Inhomtep hosts the African History Show. Amisha Cross, political commentator. Kelly Bethea, communications strategist. All right, glad to have all three of you here.

Amisha, I'll start with you. Let's talk about Florida first. Here you have, of course, here you have the courts first handing DeSantis a loss, now a victory. It is still utterly irrational to sit here and watch

how adamant DeSantis is against these school mask mandates when the school boards are electing people who are trying to protect their students, faculty, and staff. And we are seeing numerous teachers and support staff who are dying due to COVID. Exactly, Roland. At this point, it makes absolutely no sense.

But in Ron DeSantis' head, he is running a national election. This is him campaigning for president or at least a nominee for the Republican Party in 2024. It does not matter to him that school teachers, school staff, support staff, bus drivers, all of those individuals are coming down with COVID and many of them are dying. Those numbers do not matter. He knows what the hospital bed crisis is. He knows that even though, you know, originally just a few months ago, he was being heralded as someone who did COVID right. And then the Delta variant hit and he

decided to ignore everything that the CDC said. He decided to ignore everything that doctors in the state of Florida said. He decided to ignore the science. He is literally raging against the machine at this point because his understanding is that Donald Trump is still the leader of the party. And as long as Donald Trump is touting everything anti-vax, everything anti-mask, he feels as though he has to come trudging right behind him, being louder, being stronger, being prouder in this, even though it is literally marching Floridians to their graves. Why these people are following this man is crazy. But Kelly was even more stunning. His poll numbers are dropping big time.

This is not popular among citizens. He's up for reelection next year. And so he's trying to run a presidential campaign. You might want to focus your 2022 race first. I mean, I would focus on just saving his constituents' lives first, period. Like Amisha was saying, he's acting as though Trump will help him in the next election cycle. And as history has shown in the past couple of years alone, Trump doesn't help anybody but himself. And the cognitive dissonance with people within the Republican Party regarding Trump is just so it's so great to the detriment of not only themselves, but their constituents. Floridians are dying, specifically Floridians who are unvaccinated and children specifically are dying.

And it's almost as if they do not care for the sake of their own political party, their own political standing within that party. And it is just incredibly unfortunate that we are going to see it get worse before it gets better just because people are hardheaded. Simple as that. The Republican Party has made a calculus, Michael, and that is they think they can win by opposing mask mandates, opposing President Joe Biden when it comes to vaccinations. This is a political calculus that they have made. It has nothing to do with public health. It has to do with politics. Absolutely. And, you know, a lot of the people they're listening to have been vaccinated. Donald Trump got vaccinated. Their Lord and Savior, Donald Trump, you know, a lot of the people they're listening to have been vaccinated. Donald Trump got vaccinated.

Their Lord and Savior, Donald Trump, got vaccinated. OK, Fox News, where they get a lot of information from, Fox News has a vaccine mandate. If you want to work at Fox News, you have to be vaccinated. Just maybe two months ago, you had Republicans, some Republicans from the House of Representatives that had a press conference that were encouraging people to. Steve Scalise was one of them from Louisiana that were encouraging people to get the vaccine. So these are cultural wars. And Ron DeSantis, as Amisha said, Ron DeSantis wants to run for president. He wants to win the presidency. Maybe he forgot he has to run

for reelection in Florida. Hopefully he loses. Hopefully he gets crushed. But then, you know, so, you know, when we look at this, brother, this is the difference between a religion and a cult. In a religion, your savior dies for you. In a cult, you die for your savior. If you look at what's taking place in Mississippi, I was reading an article from the Clarion Ledger from August 24th. 30,000 students, staff, and teachers have been sent home to quarantine within like the first two weeks of school opening because of coronavirus. There's about 5,700 students in Mississippi schools that have been diagnosed with coronavirus. So what's going to happen is I think some of these white people are going to turn on

DeSantis, turn on Governor Abbott in Texas, and some of these other ones. When their children start dying of COVID, and their nieces and nephews, things like this, I think it's really for some of them, not all of them, some of them just stuck on stupid, but for some of them, it's really going to hit home, and I think some of them

are going to turn on them. Well, you would certainly hope on stupid, but for some of them, it's really going to hit home, and I think some of them are going to turn on them. Well, you would certainly hope so, and it's just the obstinance, Anisha, that we're seeing in Florida, that we're seeing in Texas, that is just astounding, and I'm trying to figure out what the hell are they waiting for? Turn on them now. Absolutely, and I'm not convinced to the point that Michael just made. I'm not convinced that they're going to turn. One thing that these Republicans have learned and have dug their heels in the sand in very well is consistent messaging, even in crisis mode, even against a backdrop of

massive death, even in cases like what's happening in Mississippi, where you see all of these pregnant women who are dropping dead and doctors are trying to save the babies because they refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine. There's so much information out here about the efficacy of the vaccine, about the strength of the vaccine, about its saving lives, debunking a lot of the myths that we've heard spread, many of which came from the anti-vax crowd, as well as many Republican leaders across various southern states. Yet you don't see Republican voters honestly giving a damn. I don't think that's going to change. They have turned this into a culture

war. They have turned this into a us versus them. They see this as a Biden vaccine. They see this as a Biden initiative. And they are fighting tooth and nail against it, largely because they drew public health down partisan lines. They see taking a vaccine as basically surrendering to the Democratic Party, surrendering to a socialist agenda. They do not see this as a public health crisis. They see this as some type of man-made government trying to force you into taking away your rights. This is completely ridiculous, and it's a lot bigger, I think, than sometimes what the argument is drilled down to, because the information is there. The access is there.

These are individuals who have chosen to dig their heels in the sand and are willing to die for it, literally. And they're also going to go to the polls, and they're going to vote red. They're going to vote with the R in front, up and down the ballot like they always do. I don't see this changing in those states at all. Yeah, I mean, it's just absolutely crazy what we're seeing. And it makes no sense whatsoever. And again, Michael, I don't have a lot of faith in Republicans saying they're going to sit here and turn their backs on Ron DeSantis or Greg Abbott.

Greg Abbott in Texas is sitting on $55 million in his campaign war chest. Granted, his numbers are way down. But I think you're going to see a lot more of this as we move towards 2022. And, yeah, I think that the problem, like right now, one in four kids have gotten COVID. Look, if you see deaths increase among children,

then you might begin to see a change of attitude. That's what I was saying. That's what I was saying. I said when their children start dying, not all of them, some of them are just stuck on stupid. Seriously, some of them are just stuck on stupid, and we see stories of them dying every day. I'm talking about adults. But, see, we're at the beginning of the school year. And in the South,

a lot of those schools, they went back to school sooner than schools up North. So when you start having a lot of these white children dying, okay, of COVID, and they've been in the hospital for days, things like this, not all of them are going to change, but

I think it's going to change some of these people. They're going to realize, you know, because you've got to understand a lot of these people in the South are stuck on stupid. A lot of them are going to change, but some of them, I think, is going to change some of these people. They're going to realize, you know, because you've got to understand, a lot of these people in the South are stuck on stupid. A lot of them are dumbed-down voters, not all of them, but a lot of these people that keep voting for Republicans are dumbed-down voters, anti-science. The information is there. Half of them can't read. Let's be honest. The information is there. Half of them can't read. But when it starts hitting home and your daughter, your son, your nieces, your nephews, things like that are dead because of COVID,

then it's going to slap them upside the head. Some of them. Yeah, some of them. We shall see a little bit later in the show. We're going to talk about how black morticians are dying due to COVID. How are they protecting themselves. We'll talk about that a little bit later in the show. Let's now talk about what happened in Virginia where a Robert E. Lee statue was removed. This massive six-foot statue was taken down.

And, oh, the whining and the crying of Donald Trump and all of the Confederate lovers continues. It was, of course, a great sight to see. Again, taking this 61-foot statue, folks, six stories tall, six stories tall. And it finally came down. You have, of course, Virginia is one of those places where you have lots of confederate memorials all across the state.

Also places like Mississippi as well as Alabama. On Tuesday, a number of Richmond residents, they watched and cheered as the monument was taken down from the former capital of the Confederacy. Now, what was so great about that? It wasn't just that it was taken down. It was taken down by a brother. Joining us right now is Davon Henry. He is a CEO and founder of Team Henry Enterprises, LLC. Glad to have you joining us here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. So I got to ask you, first of all, how was your construction company selected to be the one to remove the Robert E. Lee white domestic terrorist statue.

Hey, Roland, how you doing, man? Thanks for having me. Believe it or not, this process actually started over a year ago when all the unrest was happening in Richmond with the George Floyd murder. The governor of Virginia decided that he wanted to take this statue down that had been up for 130 years. And when he started calling folks and his staff started calling folks, there was no one in the vicinity, in the Richmond, Virginia, metro area, including the mid-Atlantic, that agreed that we want to do it. And so ultimately, someone new within his circle, actually his chief of staff, said, hey,

Devon Henry has a construction company. How about you give him a call? And when others said no, I was the only one that said yes. And that's how the conversation and the process started. So just tell me, we've seen the photos circulating of you hugging your mother. Just tell us, you know, again, what was going through your mind to be a black construction company owner and your company the one taking down that massive statue of this traitor to America and this white domestic terrorist? You know, I like all the words you're using to describe the statue. You know, my mother, who, you know, I grew up single mother household. She's done a lot for me and my brothers. And she was there at the at the uh at the event and you know when she when i came down she was screaming hey hey hey hey and i first thing i did was run over there and then and give her a hug i'll admit i'm a mama's boy but like i said this process has started for over a

year in the planning process and um every time I started thinking about what we're doing and going through what we needed to do, there's a quote by John Mitchell Jr., who was with the Black Planet. It was a newspaper here in Richmond back in that time. And he quoted, his quote was, black folks put up this statue, and when the time came, it would be a black man to take it down. And that quote resonated with me, stuck with me for over a year. And so when the time came, it was extremely emotional, extremely, it's bigger than me. Like Nino Brown said in New Jack City, this is bigger than Devon Henry. There were so many people that have worked over decades to try to get this statue down. And I was just pleased and honored to be the person that was able to fulfill a lot of people's work.

Tell us how difficult the process was because you couldn't just take it down. You had to basically cut the head off. Yeah, we put together a team and we studied it. We understood exactly where we needed to make the cuts to actually lift the statue off of the granite. It's 60 feet in the air. The statue itself is 22 feet from top to bottom, and it weighs about 24,000 pounds. So when you think about something that size in the air that hasn't been touched in over 130 years, you know, there's a lot of due diligence, a lot of

planning that had to take place. The reason why we cut it was just for safety reasons. When you're transporting something that size, you need to be within code and compliance and make sure that on the roads that it can be safely transported. So just going through all that process of understanding how things were built back then, which is miraculous that black folks were that crafty to build something like that. It's massive. And so just coming together with our team and putting together a solid plan that everyone agreed upon, it just really took a lot of time, but as you can see, was executed flawlessly. The thing that is interesting here when you look at folks who fought to keep these things up, and I have to, I'm constantly reminding these folks that is, if a robbery lease succeeded, they didn't want you to own a

construction company. They didn't want me to be owning my own media company. In fact, they didn't want us working for ourselves. They wanted us to be in bondage. And it's amazing how that just continues to get overlooked by these folks who celebrate and hail these individuals. Yeah, it's, you know, there's a lot of emotion on both sides. And you're amazed when you hear folks try to justify and try to defend the position of the Confederacy and what these statues will put up to actually do. I mean, these statues will put up years, years, decades after the Civil War, after these folks had already lost.

So what are you putting these things up for? And where do you celebrate second place in America? I've never seen it, don't understand it, but these folks were glorified. And to your point, they were hailed, you know, that the reason that they succeeded was because of their rights, their southern rights. But we all know what the real deal was, and that was slavery. Explain this time capsule. Were y'all told that it was there? I mean, what was the deal with that?

Yeah, so part of the contract was also to pull apart the pedestal, which, you know, weighs over a million pounds, and try to disassemble it in a manner that it could be preserved for whatever they want to do with it at a later time. But there was some intel that there was a celebration of a time capsule that was placed in the northeastern quadrant of the pedestal, and they asked us to go look for it. And so we spent the better part of a day yesterday and today trying to find that capsule. And we just came to the conclusion that it wasn't in the place that they said it was. But, you know, at the end of the day, it's civil rights

memorabilia. But one of the things that folks were really interested about was the supposedly a picture of Abraham Lincoln lying in a coffin, which was only supposed to be one of two pictures in the ever taken. And that was supposed to be in this time capsule. But again, no one knew for sure there was a time capsule. That was an assumption, correct? That was an assumption for 133 years ago. And y'all couldn't find it? We looked. We didn't find it. Questions from our panelists.

First, Amisha, question for Davon. Absolutely. Thank you. But as we continue going down this path and get a better understanding of, you know, just the size, I was kind of shocked by that, the size of the weight of what you had to take down. Getting to the root of this, and you talked out here, of any type of retribution from the crazies, honestly, who are very upset that this monument of white supremacy actually came down? Yeah, you know, that's a great question. But, you know, this isn't our first rodeo. And quietly, as Kev, we did, this is our 22nd statue, Confederate statue that we've removed. Some folks don't want it to be as public. Some others do. But the one that we just previously

done before this was in Charlottesville. And everyone know about the Unite the Right and the young lady who lost her life and just the commotion that was caused in that town. So this wasn't our first time around. We knew exactly how to handle a statue of this size and this stature. So when you talk about fear, when we first started this process a year ago, July 1 of 2020, my daughter's birthday, we took down the first Confederate statue in Richmond. And sometimes thereafter, someone leaked my name. We did it in a way that we were trying to protect my family, the staff, our team, you know, because everybody's not willing to be in front of this thing. And they have some serious and legitimate concerns about having their name out in public doing this type of work. And so they leaked my name and then tried to tie me to the mayor and all this nefarious stuff.

But ultimately, you know, when I do this work, I'm wearing a bulletproof vest, extremely aware of the surroundings, making sure that there's law enforcement around. But yeah, there was a really significant backlash from death threats to folks that in our area who said they would never do work with my construction company again. So, you know, we had to go through quite a bit of adversity, quite a bit of BS in doing this type of work. Michael. Hey, Davon. First of all, congratulations, brother, on this. This is fantastic what you're doing.

And you've taken down 21 Confederate statues? That's right. Is that 21? Okay, that's excellent work. What is, when we look at these Confederate statues, you were correct, these were built long after the civil war ended. Uh, this one here was built in 1890. Um, what is, what are people talking about putting in place of this Confederate statue of General Robert E. Lee, who by the way, was against Confederate statues and against

Confederate monuments, even those of him. He didn't think any of them should exist after the Civil War ended. Are people talking about putting something in its place to talk about this history? Because this history needs to be taught. One of the reasons why we're still dealing with the issues today is because we don't understand the history of the Civil War. Yeah, well, let me first acknowledge that pen on your lapel. That looks like a mighty nice pen. blue fire but um hey go my friend the um the governor

and the folks in in virginia have established a commission that they're trying to reimagine because it wasn't just general lee there it was, can you hear me? I'm sorry? So there was five other statues along Monument Road, is what they call it, Monument Avenue. Wow. Five different Confederate statues. But there's also a statue of Arthur Ashe at the end of Monument Avenue now, which is the only statue that still stands on

Monument Avenue now that General Lee is down. But to answer your question, there is a commission put together that's going to take us some time to study what do they want to do with that area, with the pedestal, and they call it the reimagining the Monument Avenue commission. Okay. All right. Thank you. So, first of all, Davon, you already cut that Sigma crap out. This is an alpha show.

So, you know, don't nobody want to be a Sigma at all. You know that. Kelly, what's your question for Davon? No. Y'all are funny. What exactly, how exactly do you dispose of it? I'm just curious how exactly you dispose of it. I heard that you, you know, you cut it up bits by bits, but do you, do you reuse the concrete at all? Is there a way to, I don't know, like reuse it for, um, a better purpose, such as a monument that would actually reflect America and not the

traitors of America? And to piggyback off of the sentiment of the commission to reimagine Monument Row, what would you like to see there? Yeah, that's a lot. So I guess the first part of your question was, can it be reused? And there are some folks, if they had their way, they would melt those suckers down and do something else with it or just melt it down and be done with it. But I don't think anyone wants to use the bronze to kind of honor anyone else. I think they just want it to be what it is. But me personally, I don't have a say in what whoever my client is, whether it's the city or whether it's the state or it's a university, they all have their own folks and decide,

hey, we want to put this over here and we may, you know, do an auction. We may put it in a museum. We may, you know, do whatever. But that's ultimately up to, you know, those entities, the client of what they want to do. You know, for me personally, I think my frat brother, mighty man of Sigma, he said, there needs to be some sort of history marker, there needs to be some sort of maybe a placard. But what I'll tell you is my company also built a memorial. So at the University of Virginia, they wanted to do something to acknowledge the contribution of the enslaved labor at the university it gives you a timeline of how slavery happened in that area. It also has the names of folks that were enslaved and worked at the

university. So I think there's a way to kind of get rid of these bronze old statues and find a way to show what happened, but also acknowledge the contribution of black folks to this country. Well, I'll say this here. I say melt the son of a bitch and turn it into statues of black civil rights heroes from Virginia. That's what I say do with it. All right, Davon. Thanks a bunch. I'm sorry you had to pledge that youth group.

But you always you always go in there. What? You don't want to do that. Everybody everybody couldn't be alphas. But I'm between you and Michael. I'm just shocked to actually meet Sigmas under the age of 55. And you know, my chapter brother, Jonathan Mason.

Huh? You know my chapter brother, Jonathan Mason, our previous president. Oh, yeah, he know. And he ate you up, too, the last time he came on your show. Actually, you know he didn't. You know he didn't. See, right now, even you know he would tell you, brother, stop lying. No, no, no.

It's all love. All right, Davon, thanks a bunch. Great job. Great job on the retreat of Robert E. Lee for a second time. Thanks a lot. You got it. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Folks, imagine being born in Richmond, Virginia, serving as lieutenant governor of the state, serving as the first black governor since Reconstruction of Virginia, and then later becoming mayor of Richmond and living long enough to see the statue of that white domestic terrorist come down. Joining us right now is L. Douglas Wilder. Always glad to have you on the show. And yes, you're an Omega man. I know, I know. Glad to have you here. So I gotta ask you, you know, man, you've lived a long time. Did you ever think you would live to see that massive statue of that white domestic terrorist come down? Yes, I did. And I hoped for it. And as you know, most of what we had to rely on when we were coming up was hope and dreams and belief. And one of the things I did, Roland,

and you know about it because we've talked about it. Sometime after I had become governor, I did a radio show, WRWA, and on that show I had advocated that a statue of Arthur Ashe should be put on Monument Avenue. And you'd be surprised at the objections that came forth. They were not the objections that you ordinarily would have thought were coming forth. They were objections from people of color, some civil rights leaders, some people that you know well.

And we don't want Arthur Ashe up there with all of those Confederates and Generals on Monument Avenue. Monument Avenue is five, six, seven miles long. He would never have been with all of those Confederate generals as such. I had a radio show right at the corner where the statue was proposed. And you'd be surprised at the people that wanted to see that take place.

Yes, that statue will be the only person, only named person on Monument Avenue now. I saw it then. I believed it was going to happen, and it has happened. I'm more concerned, however, with the removal of those statutes that remain today, not cast in stone, but cast in actions of those persons who said that they are representative of the dreams and aspirations of those at least subjugated, that Stormwell Jackson put to shame, that Stewart and the others were fighting to enslave. Yes, I'm more involved with believing in hopes that can be put into practice. And we're having numbers of people seeing that now when we have elected officials believe that we really achieved when this is symbolic. This is nothing that you can spend tomorrow, nothing that you can eat tomorrow, nothing that you can educate your kids for tomorrow. Those dreams still remain.

And that point, I think, is critically important because the reality is, sure, this robbery lease statute comes down, but when you have the voter suppression bills being passed in Texas, being passed in Georgia, when you have the public policy efforts that Republicans are passing, denying climate change, things along those lines, I mean, you have real life, you have real issues today. And that's one of the reasons why, yes, I tell people all the time, you can fight against both. But if all the energy is into taking down just those statues, as opposed to these current day heroes of these white nationalists, then we're going to have a problem in the next 30, 40, 50 years. But let's do it even better the federal government was made available to Virginia 4.3 billion dollars to spend they've already said they were going to spend 3.5 billion of it

not a dime has been spent nor to my judgment suggested to be spent by any of the persons who are passing the laws, all historical black colleges and universities. Why not? This is 2021. That's the statue that's gone. But who's passing these laws now? It's not Donald Trump. He's gone. It's not Eric Burr. He's gone. It's not Robert E. Lee. He's gone. But who is still there perpetuating the same kinds of things that they were doing against us? Who's speaking for us in those regards? Who's speaking for that money? And you and I have had this discussion before. You follow the money and that's where the politicians are. You follow the politicians, that's where the money is. And you follow the money and that's where it goes to the politicians to do what they want to do for their people and their own. Where are those voices for us relative to them? That's taxpayers' money, $4.3 billion. And I challenge

your listeners to tell you whether any of that money being spent on those persons who've been enslaved through the years and then denied equity even on today. And see, that is the thing that

we talk about. Look, first of all, you're right. Follow the money. I have a segment called Where's Our Money? And a lot of people have gotten mad at me saying, well, you know, you're demanding these advertising dollars. And I'm like, you're damn right. When the federal government spends a billion dollars on advertising over five years and black-owned media gets 51 million out of 1 billion, yeah, I got a problem. I got a problem when millions have been spent on COVID outreach and little has gone to black folks.

And so, sure, there are people who are demanding reparations, that's fine, but that requires a vote of 218 House members. There are billions being spent right now that we should be getting that does not require a vote.

And in Virginia, we can determine whether or not no Democrat is going to get elected to statewide office in Virginia without strong, massive outpouring in the minority community, primarily the African-American

community, the black community, and where is the quid pro quo for that vote? No, you're not buying it. But why do we have to continually have our votes taken for granted? Now, I do want to ask you this here, because, again, I have... Look, I'm born and raised in Texas. I spent six years in Chicago.

I moved to the D.C., Virginia, Maryland area in 2010. Have lived in Northern Virginia for the last few years. And when I saw what was happening with the whole blackface deal with Governor Ralph Northam and then, of course, the Attorney General Mark Herring. Then when I saw the allegations against Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax. And I'm watching all this out and I'm sitting here going, where in the hell are the black political voices in Virginia? And so the point that you're making, where are they in terms of making these demands?

When you had in Maryland, when they had the settlement over HBCUs in Maryland, when I talked to the Black Caucus, the Black Caucus made it clear to the state, y'all ain't going to pass nothing until we deal with this money. And even when Hogan vetoed it, they came back. So, and again, look, you've been in Virginia your entire

life, you've been in the whole political world. I'm just trying to understand where in the hell is a much larger black political courage to stand up and fight. Democrats control the state right now, and you're right. It should

be where you're at. It does not require any courage at all. All you have to do is what the job was created for, for you to represent people. Now, if you can't do that, so what did happen? The people that were in blackface, that were called upon to resign, what happened to them? Oh, one of them is now running with the man who called upon him to resign. And the other is endorsing the person with his request to be the next governor, even though he had called upon him to resign. But who's gone? That one person, Justin Fafax, because within seconds of that announcement being made, Justin Fafax was said by Jeremy Corbyn,

he's got to go because he's guilty. How do you know? And so your point is so well taken. In Maryland, the Congressional Black Caucus got involved. I mean, the state Black Caucus got involved. The NAACP got involved. Black leadership got involved. And where are we and what are we doing?

We are still waiting for something to happen. And we have a gubernatorial election in Virginia this year. Is it an important election? Yes, it is. Will the Democrats control it? Only if black voters turn out and they need to have a reason. Why can't they have a reason? Well, and that's where we talk about, again, being able to make demands and what I also keep saying is, I'm enough with scared Negroes.

There are people, again, who want to criticize me. Man, why are you going after these companies? You going after folks? Because guess what? I'm not scared. And the other deal is here, I keep trying to tell these people, they keep saying, well, you know, things take time. Damn that. Okay? Governor, you 90. I'm 52. First of all, ain, you know, things take time. Damn that. Okay. Governor, you 90. I'm 52.

First of all, ain't no day, no hour, no minute, no second promised. And my whole deal is we got to break down the walls right now so somebody not having to do this, not next 50 years, next 25 years. Hell, I don't want folks to have to go through, have to keep going through the same battles next year. Yeah. If not not now, when? And if a thing is right, the time is always right. And you called on the people. Now, this doesn't mean that people who are not speaking out for this are cowards,

but are they representing the people who elected them? And I can say this to you, Roland. You'd be surprised at the numbers of whites who have that same question. They ask, well, wait a minute, why are the people who supposedly are representing the black interest speaking for these things? If perhaps they spoke to them, they could be educating us, and our votes could change. That is what I learned when I was in the state legislature. I had innumerable people tell me, we never knew this. We never had anyone speak to us at this level to tell us what their problems are.

I've done it when I was in the state senate. I did it when I was lieutenant governor. I've done it when I was governor. I'm doing it now, distinguished professor at Virginia Commonwealth University at the Wilder School of Government. And we teach what we preach. We practice what we preach. And we encourage youngsters and all to take up the mountain and cut away if that morass of indifference still exists in our society to demand what's right and criticize what's wrong.

Well, Governor Wilder, it's always great to have you on the show. I'm going to be traveling down your way very soon. We're going to bring our camera. We're going to sit down for a sit-down conversation, talk about a whole bunch of stuff. We're going to look for it. I'll point to you, Roland, and God bless you. I appreciate it.

Thank you very much, sir. Thank you so very much. I want to go to my panel here, and I want to pick up on that point that the governor made there, which I think is really important. And that is, when we're talking about fighting to tear down these monuments, it's also fighting to ensure future monuments such as restrictive bills don't get passed. Because I keep saying this, and I'm literally turning in the manuscript for the book very soon, what we have to understand, Amisha, that we are operating in this space of white fear. When we see this whole,

the big lie with the election, that's white fear. When we see what Harris, what the Republicans in Texas did, they were really targeting Harris County, which is Harris County is bigger than some number of states in America. They are afraid of black voting power. That's why Republicans do not want to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act. That's why they're fighting tooth and nail. Which also means the Senate, when they come back on Monday, I don't want to hear a damn thing about Biden's $3.5 trillion infrastructure

bill. It should be from the Congressional Black Caucus. Unless you move on the For the People Act and on the John Lewis Act, we ain't letting nothing get through here. There cannot be compromise on this. And the same thing with the George Floyd Justice Act.

Well, I agree with you, Roland, because at the end of the day, we all recognize the congressional calendar is very short at this point. They're going to come up to the budget ceiling very quickly. And we know that if if if change isn't made within the next month, large to large scale change in terms of support of pushing for lifting the filibuster, ensuring that the Voting Rights Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, as well as the For the People Act, actually make it and they pass, then it is all for naught, because there is no time like the present. And what we know is that with the prognostication of what's going to happen with the midterms, there is not going to be another shot or another bite at this apple. The Biden administration and Congress has to ensure that voting rights are actually upheld across this country, or else everything that both him and

Kamala Harris spoke about, campaigned on, is not going to happen. Black people made it possible for Joe Biden to ascend to the presidency, made it possible for Democrats to have control of the House and the Senate. Even though those are margins that we would rather have larger, at the end of the day, we wouldn't be where we are today without the Black voters across this country who got out and made sure that their voices were heard with the backdrop of a pandemic. It is extremely important and vital that the Voting Rights Act, that the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, that the For the People Act actually make it, because at the end of the day, to your point, Roland, we've seen time and time again the results of white fear. And what they've

always done is serve to subjugate black people. They have served to strip black people of rights. They have served to turn black people into second-class citizens. They have served to basically create a hostile environment across this country for those who look like all of us on this panel to actually live. And I think that, at this point, we have to put this in very clear terms. There is no alternative. We either push go now or we end up getting stomped on. And that should not be an option.

We have to ensure that voting rights are actually upheld across this country. It is extremely important because all of the other things that we're fighting for in terms of housing, in terms of economic development, in terms of infrastructure, all of those things are for not if Black people are not even allowed the basic necessity, the basic right of being an American when it comes to voting. And that access is — it is up in arms across this country. It's not just in places like Texas. It's not just in Florida. It's not just in the places that we know that former President Trump threatened in regards to upending the election results. We have seen voter restrictive bills pass in at least 42 states, and we keep seeing more and more pop up every day. This is a threat to our democracy, and we need to start talking about it

in extremely bold terms, as in what would happen, what is going to happen, what is now happening, should those continue to pass. And at the state level, because many of these legislatures are either supermajority Republican or have Republican governors or a large majority Republicans, there is no stopping it there. There has to be a federal action. And right now we're seeing basically heels dug in the sand when they should not be. We're seeing these things teeter on whether or not moderates or progressives are going to get their act together. And at the end of the day, they just have to press go because too much is at stake. You heard what the former governor there said, Kelly, follow the money. You absolutely have to follow the money, but you also have to

track how these congressmen are going to vote, how they've been voting, and how their constituents are going to support whatever they do, because at the end of the day we are approaching another election cycle. And whether you're Democrat or not, all politicians at this point are really just trying to stay alive in their respective jurisdictions, in their respective standings. So for me, it just feels like they need to just do what is necessary in order to preserve the little rights that we still have. Because at this point, to think of anything more, to dream of anything more, just feels like a heavy lift at this point. Every think of anything more, to dream of anything more just feels like a heavy lift

at this point. Every year, every cycle just feels like every, people are just chinking away at voting rights between Shelby Beholder and this past election cycle with the voting restriction laws that have just run rampant. If Democrats do not solidify their stance on exactly what they need to do and recognize, like Amisha said, that Black people are the reason that they are still in office, I don't know how it's going to shape up. I don't know how the landscape is going to be if they do not have as strong of a backbone as Republicans do. Because at this point, it just feels like they are just acquiescing to whatever is on the table, whatever just ebbs and flows, as opposed to just standing strong in their constituents' beliefs to solidify voting rights and everything else that really just needs to be passed at this point. Michael, at the end of the day, when we talk about, again,

follow the money, when we talk about what has to happen, you cannot assume, well, this is what's going to happen a year from now. Bottom line is this here. There's a midterm elections next year. Democrats could lose the House. That means that they'll be back in the minority. That means you won't have Speaker Nancy Pelosi. That means they will not be in charge of the House.

It's a 50-50 right now in the Senate. They could lose the Senate. Absolutely. of the House. It's a 50-50 right now in the Senate. They could lose the Senate. So they could wake up after the first Tuesday of November and face the realization that they only control the White House, which means Republicans will control the legislative agenda. You don't do it now.

You may not do it a year from now. Absolutely. Well, not only would Republicans control the legislative agenda if, God forbid, they take back control of the House and especially the Senate, but Mitch McConnell would block Joe Biden's Supreme Court nominations, like he did with President Barack Obama 2016 with Merrick Garland. He would block Joe Biden's, most likely, his federal judge nominations. Like, he blocked

103 federal judge nominations from President Barack Obama when Democrats lost control of the Senate in 2014. So, you know, we really have to understand this history that just happened in the past few years. But I've said this before on this show. Yeah, I think Democrats have to swing for the fences and I need a Democrat and a Republican, but they have to swing for the fences. But the conversation dealing with the Voting Rights Act, and I know you know this, Roland, and everybody here on this panel knows this. This has to we get this is not just a black issue. If it's just framed, I understand that, you know, we voted and got Biden in office. But if it's just framed to the Senate, there's only three black people in the Senate. Well, two and a half, because half the time Senator Tim Scott don't act like it. OK, there's only two and a half black people in the Senate.

If this is just framed as a black issue, we're going to lose. As I said before, this is a 15th Amendment issue. It's a 19th Amendment issue. before this is a 15th amendment issue is a 19th amendment issue And it's a 26 amendment issue all these white women that are crying about the in Understand what happened in Texas with abortion bills They need to be sticking their foot up Joe Manchin's behind as well as Kristen Sinema's behind because this affects their votes as well This is not just a black issue African Americans only make up 3.5 percent of the population of West Virginia. OK, but there's a whole lot of white women in West Virginia.

All right. So we have to really expand this issue. And there has to be different interest groups, the women's reproductive rights, the disabled Americans. There are 38 million disabled Americans who are registered to vote. When you talk about restricting mail-in ballots, this impacts disabled Americans negatively regardless of race, okay? So I know we understand this here on this panel, but the pressure has to come from all different sectors on the Senate. And it's not just Manchin and Sinema that are against changing the filibuster. There's some other ones who are not as prominent who are hiding in the shadows. OK, so we need to kick their behinds.

Folks, got to go to break. We come back. We're going to talk about the impact of COVID on black morticians. More than 130 have died. How do they protect themselves from COVID. Also, Megyn Kelly was not happy that the Negro National Anthem, it's going to be sung before every NFL game. She said they don't care about average Americans.

Can you define average American, Megyn? Oh, maybe they're the ones who believe in white Santa. I've got a few words. That's later on Roller Mark and Unfiltered, broadcasting on the Black Star Network. Back in a moment. I believe that people our age have lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing.

The challenges, there's so many of them and they're complex. And we need to be moving to address them. But I'm able to say, watch out Tiffany, I know this road. That is so freaking dope. Floyd's death hopefully put another nail in the coffin of racism. You talk about awakening America, it led to a historic summer of protest. I hope our younger generation don't ever forget that nonviolence is soul force. Right. Hi, I'm Vivian Green. Everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond, and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, Unfiltered.

Folks, COVID has impacted a lot of people, especially those who are in the medical industry. We don't think about, though, morticians. First of all, nearly 700,000 folks have died from COVID. Well, that means that they are going through funeral homes. And the reality is funeral homes, morticians are dealing with this in a significant way. Last year, we talked about this on the show. When we had a black funeral home, they were talking about what kind of PPP they were going to get, the kind of equipment. Well, the reality is many are not fully protecting themselves as a result of this. Since the start of the pandemic, about 130 black morticians have passed away.

Funeral directors implement safety policies to protect themselves and their staff from the virus, but just like doctors and nurses, some have become a casualty of the virus. Joining us now is the president of the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association, Harry P. Close II. Harry, glad to have you here. That issue right there, or has it been the fact that funerals have become COVID super spreaders? Well, it's a combination of about three different things. One, COVID is not on the death certificates at all. And so in order for our members to really function, we have to make sure that we treat everyone like they have COVID. Second of all, yes, the funerals are a spreader, but at the same time, you don't know who has COVID.

Most people don't go to the hospital. It's an airborne virus. It's on your clothes. It's under your shoes. Someone might have a mask, and they cough. If it's caught in the mask, great, but if not, it's spread out. And then the droplets fall on the ground and we're walking in it. Our colleagues were just so inundated with this virus. Now, since the Delta virus, we lost four film directors in the last week with the Delta virus or the Delta variant of this COVID-19. So it is really a major issue that most people don't realize. That's just the funeral directors, 130. We're not talking about the staffs.

And so what are your members, what are your members asking for? Are they asking for assistance? I mean, first of all, do your funeral homes have the right protections and things along those lines? I think that we have. And I want to thank you for the last last year around May we were on and there was a shortage. And because of this segment, we were able to really get inundated with numerous suppliers. So the issue now is not the PPEs. The issue is that we have people in this country not using masks, not taking the vaccine. And unfortunately, we're in a profession that we can't know what that family member has. If someone else has COVID, they're dying of it. Or if it's not an investment, that means that the family is exposed to it,

and the funeral home or the funeral director is serving that family at a time of need. We're the last stage of the health system. And unfortunately, what we're trying to really emphasize across the country is for, particularly in our community, take that vaccine. There might be a less than.001 that might get affected with the Delta variants who've taken the vaccine. But there's still many people, even in my own industry, just like the nurses and doctors, that some of them have not taken the vaccine. And we have a national effort to make sure our members are making sure that they take the vaccine. Last week, I'm in Maryland. Our governor had made it clear that private companies and corporations

can mandate it to their employees. And yesterday, President Biden made it very clear that, as a corporation, a private company, that you can mandate. You know, it's common sense to me. Everyone in this country has had, and even your listening audience has had, someone that died of this, I'll say, plague, COVID-19. And then you have people who are in the same family that saw the suffering, not taking the vaccine. It is free. It's available. We are now working with the White House to try to have an initiative to have funeral homes be a place of

receiving the vaccine. It's kind of like a catch-22. Some will say, oh, you're having a massive group, and that's going to be a spreader. Well, let it be in another room. You can take the vaccine. We're trying to come up. If it's killing the funeral directors, this thing is real. Now, we have been working with the White House in the last four or five months. We are on the advisory committee for the FEMA for reimbursement, which we're glad is working well. But when we really think about why should we be reimbursed for a funeral when we can be able to stop people from dying of this major disease and this virus. And so we're now looking at another point,

letting people know that most people didn't know that many funeral directors have died, particularly in the African American community. And if you go to your vital records, get American Freedom Act or through Social Security, you will find how many have died at that category on that death certificate says occupation, funeral director, mortician and bomber, which means we are more exposed than our colleagues on the front end. But what I'm saying and asking your listening audience, we know we

have family members. I had one of my children. It took me months to get convinced to him, you need to take the vaccine. And, you know, this thing is effective. Wait a minute. Here you are dealing with

this and it's not like you want to sit here and have to bury a child early and you're going through this and you had to convince even one of your own children? Own child. Yes. Yes.

Wow. And I can't use the vernacular that I really use, but I, you know, you just hit it. You know, I'm doing something that I have to do. And you're seeing the results of what I'm doing. And you still question, you know, and it's I had to look at her and I had another son that was ill. And I would just it's it hits home. And I'll just say, like I say at my church, I can't imagine, I can't even wrap my head around how people are seeing what's happening in the world.

And there's an opportunity to prevent it. And we're saying as funeral directors, we don't want this type of business. We just have to do it because we've been called to do the in health system. But we're saying if we can prevent it and there is opportunity for prevention, why not do it? It just seems common sense to me. And we heard all the stories across the country when people who are advocate of not taking it and once they get it, they're saying they wish they could have. That should be a wake-up call. But apparently, it is not. And that's why I'm glad APY came out today, you know, letting them know this is killing the funeral directors and their staff.

So I don't know how real it can be when ministers and funeral directors are dying at a level, particularly in our community. And I'll say to my majority community colleagues, it's affecting them, they just are not as a larger number. But I know of numerous funerals I have gone to for my colleagues across the industry. That is absolutely terrible. Eric Close, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. And again, one certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

And again, one of the reasons why this show matters. I'm glad to hear after you were on last year that people got the message and came to the assistance of these black funeral homes. Thank you. And it's always a pleasure to be around another fraternity man. All right. Thank you so much. I know. Michael Imhotep is a little hurt by that, but he'll get over it. He'll get over it, Harry.

06, brother, 06. It's 08, my friend. We're all under the divine nine. Yeah. Well, I let Michael know it's alpha and divine eight. Well, I always tell them in church, there's only two divine organizations in the Bible, Alpha and Omega. But I'm not ready for Omega chapter.

Yeah, that's right. Precisely. None of us are ready for Omega chapter. That's why we're on today. Thank you so much for this nation. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Thank you. All right, folks. Yesterday we talked about Louisiana, how they've had this report showing how you've had a lot of, frankly, corruption and abuse cases from the Louisiana State Police. Well, today the brother who is the superintendent of the Louisiana State Troopers addressed the media and talked about the reforms that have been put in place in that state. Check this out. I know that we've received a lot of criticism and there's been a lot of heartburn with regards to our agency not releasing body-worn camera footage and or other evidence being requested.

If we prematurely release evidence in a case involving an accused employee, whether it be a trooper or anyone else on a criminal matter or otherwise, it could impede our desire to really achieve the results and justice that we're trying to achieve. I will not have anyone on our agency agency that is going to harm our communities, plain and simple. You have my commitment that I am going to do everything possible to hold them accountable for their actions and for their behavior. We've enhanced accountability in the body-worn camera policy. We now mandate a specific amount of body warrant camera footage that will be reviewed by supervisors over a certain period of time. Every quarter, our immediate supervisors

will review their employees' body warrant camera footage. We've expanded the use of force policy, including a ban on chokeholds, a ban on the use of impact weapons to the head or neck area, and mandated that all of our troopers and DPS officers carry less than lethal weapons. At no time did I ever ask D.A. Belton or any other district attorney or any other official to not pursue charges on any of my employees? I would never do that. I have never done that. So it is, in fact, not true. That, of course, was the Colonel Lamar Davis.

You know, Michael, look, brother's in a tough spot, but the reality is this here. When you have this number of cases, and then, of course, this case we discussed yesterday with Ronald Green, where the cop continuously lied, and then there's been no action taken against him, and he still has his job. Yeah, it's a problem. And the bottom line is Congressman Troy Carter is not calling for the DOJ to launch a pattern of practice investigation into the Louisiana State Police. And that should happen. Yeah, yeah, this brother's in a tough position. I also think a pattern of practice investigation into the police department here in Louisiana, I think that should take place as well.

We know there have already been three announced under Merrick Garland. There was only one under the Trump administration. So I think that should definitely take place also. And, you know, it's going to be interesting to see what happens, how all this plays out, how this plays out with Ronald Green, et cetera. And one of the things I would like to know, he's a colonel of Louisiana State Police. What is the racial makeup? Do you have any information on the racial makeup of the Louisiana State Police? Don't have that. OK. OK. Yeah. You know, and this is something that we deal with, you know, each week on the show, multiple times a week on the show also. So, yeah, we're going to see what happens with this. But he's in a tough position as well.

And this is another reason why with these police departments, activists have their job. That's true. But at the end of the day, more of us are going more of us want to do the right thing. We're going to have to become police officers and do it inside these organizations because activists on the outside can only do so much. Three years ago, one in six troopers black, one in 25 are women. They're in Louisiana. The thing here, Amisha, I think it's important, again, you have DOJ coming in, but bottom line is whether it's Louisiana State Troopers or so many other law enforcement agencies, you've got to clean house. And the problem is they are held back by these onerous contracts from getting rid of these folks,

which is why they're built into those contracts, because they pretty much have got jobs for life. You're absolutely right. It's extremely difficult to get rid of an officer for poor practice or pretty much for anything because of the contractual obligations, because that's how many of the unions have actually decided how they're going to be written. But in addition to that, cleaning house also means cleaning house at multiple levels. So that means those individuals, not just the ones who were out on the beat committing crimes or doing things that were against the line of law, but also those who knew about it. That means those who covered it up within the police stations, who honestly weren't out there on the streets at all.

These individuals see body cam footage, and they oftentimes push that footage aside, meanwhile knowing the entire time that the inappropriate protocol was taken. These are also individuals who, in many cases, have done this for years, who have multiple cases behind them of evidence that showcases that they were involved in some nefarious acts. So when we talk about cleaning house, there's a recognition that it's not just the people who are out on the streets who are, you know, brutalizing individuals in arrest or murdering them in the process of an arrest. There are also the people who acknowledged it, the people who covered it up, the people who made sure that those tapes were never seen or held for years until they do finally, you know, leak. But all in all,

I think that because we have such strenuous processes at the local level when it comes to getting rid of these bad apples, as many people call them, but I would call it a structural issue overall, it becomes extremely difficult. And many of them, honestly, not all of them are white. We know that several people who are in leadership and several others who have also been on these beats are also black. And at the end of the day, when we talk about cleaning house, we should clean house regardless of the color of the person who was actually involved. It's just a very tedious process. And when we see a lot of these local levels, particularly across the South, policing entities, the decision is always to basically defend those cops, defend their honor, and to fight like hell to ensure that these individuals stay, regardless of the fact that news has come to light of them doing some very tragic things. Kelly?

No, I agree with everyone on the panel here. My thing is when there is accountability and transparency, there is no issue regarding the release of videotapes. So when the, I think, was it the chief or the officer who was on that tape just now saying, you know, he wants to make sure that nothing is out there prematurely. Well, your officer prematurely almost killed a man. Your officer prematurely assumed that this person was guilty before anything happened. Again, with accountability and transparency, it doesn't matter whether the video is released immediately or, you know or two years from now, so long as transparency and accountability is in play. But further, this notion of cleaning house, not only does it take time and does it take energy and how we were talking about officers becoming incredibly difficult because of contractual clauses and the like, cleaning house to me also includes cleansing the palate of the culture, meaning that you can keep the concept of safety and protection and vigilance in police officer

work and still reject the bias and the conspiracy and the insidiousness of the culture. When you cleanse the palette of the culture, that is what happens here. So I agree. Like I said, I agree with everybody on the panel. But at the end of the day, this all boils down to accountability and transparency. Hopefully the DOJ will be able to come in and actually, you know, implement some modicum of accountability or transparency. But like everyone on the panel said, we have a long way to go. Indeed, indeed. All right, folks, got to go to a break.

Before we go to break, be sure we want you to support us here at Roller Barton Unfiltered by joining our Bring the Funk fan club, where every dollar you give goes to support this show. You can do so via Cash App. Dial the sign RMUnfiltered. Venmo.com forward slash RMUnfiltered. PayPal is PayPal.me forward slash RMartinUnfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com.

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trust me, you do not want to miss that. Coming up next, we'll talk about Sick of Sale, also a suicide prevention education matters segment. And I got a few words for Megyn Kelly, who's not too happy with Lift Every Voice and Sing. I don't really understand, Megyn,

what's your problem? I mean, maybe the problem is you can't sing i mean that that could be it you know so that could be it um but uh you know so she was she's upset that the nfl they're going to be singing this before each game and so it's bothering her and so so she decided to speak out against it. No problem. No problem. I have a few words for her. Folks, we'll be back in a moment. White supremacy ain't just about hurting black folk.

Right. We got to deal with it. It's injustice. It's wrong. I do feel like in this generation, we've got to do more. We've got to do more. We've got to do more.

We've got to do more. We've got to do more. We've got to do more. We've got to do more. We've got to do more. We've got to deal with it. It's injustice. It's wrong. I do feel like in this generation, we've got to do more around being intentional and resolving conflict. You and I have always agreed. Yeah. But we agree on the big piece. Yeah. Our conflict is not about destruction. Conflict's going to happen.

Murder. in. We saw struggle for civil rights as something grownups did. I feel that the generations before us have offered a lot of instruction. Organizing is really one of the only things that gives me the sanity and makes me feel purposeful. When Emmett Till was murdered, that's what attracted our attention. What's up, y'all? I'm Will Packer. Hello, I'm Bishop T.D. James. What up? Lana Well,

and you are watching Rolling Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks. and you are watching Rolling Martin Unfiltered. Alright folks, this month the focus is on sickle cell, of course a disease that is an inherited blood disorder where the red blood cells are shaped like an S or a sickle. This incurable disease causes pain, fatigue, and infections and increases the chances of stroke and heart failure. This affects African Americans more, people of African descent more than anyone else.

Joining us right now to talk about this is Dr. Wanda Cerny, CEO and Medical Director for Michigan Sickle Cell Disease Association of America Chapter. Glad to have you on the show, Doc. COVID and sickle cell, has it been any, has it worsened for people with sickle cell? What has been the impact? Well, we do know that people with sickle cell disease are immunocompromised. So our expectation would be that they would have more difficulty with COVID.

But as it seems that that's not really playing out, the patients that have gotten it have done fairly well. So in terms of this month, the focus, I remember growing up in Houston, there was a national telethon. I mean, we used to go door to door collecting money, but you don't have that same national emphasis. I've done some stuff in the past. I know the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has been very much involved with some research. And so where are we in terms of really having a national effort to focus on sickle cell? So I really, I hear what you're saying.

And I think that things are really getting better. My father, Dr. Charles Whitten, was one of the founders of the National Sickle Cell Disease Association, which is now the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America. And I think that, you know, we have really strong leadership now. And because of something called the Orphan Drug Act, pharmaceutical companies are able to do research in the sickle cell space and get certain benefits, tax cuts, and, you know, getting accelerated acceptance of their drugs. And so that is pouring more money into the sickle cell community, which is what we were really lacking. So I think that even though the present

is really pretty bleak, I think the future might be bright. So I'm very hopeful. I'm cautiously optimistic about the future for individuals living with sickle cell disease in this country. Questions with the panel. Mike, you first. Thanks for coming on today. I live here in Detroit also. When we talk about sickle cell anemia, we know that African Americans are disproportionately impacted by it. Are there any things that we can do to reduce the impact of sickle cell anemia, maybe testing for early on? What can we do? I know there's still things we're trying to learn about it, but what can we do to reduce it in our communities? Okay, so I do want to mention the fact that the reason we see sickle cell more commonly in African-Americans in this country is because having sickle cell trait, you know, if you get one sickle gene, you have the trait. If you get two sickle genes or one sickle gene from each parent, then you have the disease, right?

And so having sickle cell trait protects you from malaria. So if you were to look at malaria and look at sickle cell disease, you should see that you see malaria wherever you see sickle cell disease wherever you see malaria. Well, we don't see malaria in the United States anymore, but the reason we see sickle cell disease is because of the transatlantic slave trade. So when they brought us over here to build this country for free, we brought our sickle cell genes with us. And people in sub-Saharan Africa had a real selective advantage to survive from malaria

and then go on and have children. But the point was you were just supposed to get one sickle gene and be protected because sickle cell trait is a carrier state. If you get two sickle genes, then that's when you get into trouble. You're still less likely to get malaria, but if you get it, you're more likely to die from it. But in terms of testing and prevention, every baby born in the country is tested for sickle cell disease at birth. And that's because we learned back in 1986 that giving penicillin twice a day from the time you're two months until you're five years old can dramatically decrease deaths from a serious infection. So we have had newborn screening in Michigan since July of 1987.

Okay, thank you. Kelly. Thank you. When it comes to sickle cell and the pandemic, I don't know exactly the intricacies of how the vaccine reacts to sickle cell. If you could explain that a little bit. And if it is safe enough, encourage people to get it regardless of their sickle cell condition. Yes. If you have sickle cell disease, once again, you are immunocompromised. So we're really worried about you getting COVID. So we really recommend that individuals with sickle cell disease do get the COVID vaccine. Now, one of the problems with sickle cell disease do get the COVID vaccine. Now, one of the problems with sickle cell disease, of course, you already mentioned, is the pain.

But another problem is organ damage. So if you have a very serious condition, if you're on dialysis or if you have a serious heart problem, then you really need to talk with your physician before you get the vaccine. But overall, we recommend that individuals living with sickle cell disease get the COVID vaccine, and they respond well to it. But when you look at the sickle cell community, if you describe them, they refer to themselves as warriors. And I think that's really an appropriate term, because of what they have dealt with this life of being impacted by pain and having a shortened lifespan and your life just being interrupted.

But I think another word to describe the sickle cell community is tentative or nervous or, you know, just skeptical. And so even getting my patients to take the flu vaccine is a problem. So getting patients to take the COVID vaccine is a bigger issue, too, because they're concerned, oh, it was released too fast and I'm not going to get it. You know, but my thing is I'm more afraid of COVID, of getting COVID than of getting the vaccine. So if you weigh the risks against the benefits, it really falls down on the side of getting the vaccine. Amisha. Absolutely. So first off, thanks for being here. My eight-year-old cousin, Kajon, he was born with sickle cell, and he has battled it since

pretty much his birth in terms of being in the hospital almost two to three times a month, every month. His mom has basically taken him to homeschool him at this point just because he goes into crisis so often. When we talk about COVID-19, obviously at eight, he cannot take the vaccine anyway. So there's just such fear around who to have him around, whether or not it's appropriate to even take him out of the house, because at any given point he could get this and it could be a huge detriment because of his immunocompromised state. With that being said, for parents who are

like my cousin, who are trying to do the best that she can with the little boy, but also recognizing that they are not only not able to get the vaccine right now but are also consistently in crisis what are some of your thoughts or advice for people who are basically just trying to make life as comfortable as possible for young people who have sickle cell but are also going through crisis at heightened rates okay so so there are a few things um When I educate parents, I always wanna talk about the fact that all the things that you would do for any child, you really wanna make sure you do those things. Maybe it's a little bit more important

for the child with sickle cell disease to eat a healthy diet, to get regular exercise, to dress for the weather. But you would do that for any child. But in addition to that, when you have sickle cell disease, you wanna go for your regular checkups. You want to get all your regular immunizations. And now we have some medications. And the one that's most available now is called hydroxyurea.

And we know that hydroxyurea decreases pain episodes. It decreases pneumonia. It decreases the need for blood transfusions. And people who take hydroxyurea live longer. But hydroxyurea is a repurposed cancer drug. And so a lot of patients, I'm getting back to that idea that our patients are skeptical, with good reason. And I don't wanna, I'm not gonna put that toxin in my body. I don't wanna take a repurposed cancer drug.

And so only about 10% of the people who are eligible to benefit from hydroxyurea actually take it. So one of the things to explore is that, but just getting routine care. Sickle cell disease is a disease of the blocked blood vessels, right? If you have a blocked blood vessel in your brain, that's a stroke. And that, of course, is a very devastating complication of sickle cell disease. But now we have something called transcranial Doppler, which is an ultrasound. And it can tell us if a child is at high risk for

having a stroke. And if so, we can put them on transfusions and that will protect them from having a stroke. So there are a lot of preventative things. It's really important for people with sickle cell disease to get care from a sickle cell expert. It doesn't necessarily have to be a hematologist. I'm a general pediatrician, but it has to be somebody who's trained and who is keeping up with the literature and knows what's going on and what to do for our patients. And that's one of our biggest problems, especially at the time of transition. When a child with sickle cell disease turns 18, their whole life changes because there are not enough adult physicians who are number one, capable of, and number two, willing to take care of adult patients with sickle cell disease.

So that's one of our biggest challenges right now that we're trying to work on. All right. Dr. Wanda, sure. We would surely appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Where can people get more information on the National Sickle Cell Organization? Okay. You can go to www.sicklecelldisease.org and that's the website or you can go to our website

at www.sicklecelldisease I'm sorry s-c-d-a-a-m-i.org and get all the information and it's Sickle Cell Awareness Month and we have our virtual walk going on through the entire month of September and you can come to our website and join our walk

and get a t-shirt the t-shirt says the pain is real because one of the huge problems with our patients is that even though the hallmark of sickle cell disease is this excruciating, unpredictable pain, when our patients go to the emergency room, they're frequently looked at as drug-seeking or drug addicts. So we want everybody to know that the pain is real

and our patients need compassionate care. All right, then. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Appreciate you. All right, then. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Appreciate you. All right, then. Folks, you know it's always amazing, certain things that just drive some white people

crazy in America. And they just lose their mind. Well, you know, the NFL, they opened the season last night with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Dallas Cowboys. Cowboys lost. Oh, how sweet it is. Y'all knowaneers and Dallas Cowboys. Cowboys lost. Oh, how sweet it is.

Y'all know I'm hashtag hate cowboys. It's probably why Henry Peterson isn't here today directing because he's probably mourning his Cowboys losing. But anyway, so Megyn Kelly, of course, used to be on Fox News. She bombed at NBC. They gave her $69 million, spent a year and a half there, ended in horror with her comments about blackface and Halloween. For some reason, for Megan, this song here, it's just, it's just, she's like, how dare they?

They're too woke focusing on this thing here. So listen, she hates this song. And sing till earth and heaven ring. Ring with the harmonies of liberty. Let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies. Let us resound loud as the rolling seas. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has brought us Sing a song Full of the hope that the present has brought us us facing the rising sun of a new day

begun let us march on till victory is won. Well, you know, you got folks like Megan not too happy about that. They're just hot and bothered as a result of that song. And so on her show the other day, she just said, this is just this is just wrong. I don't think that the average American, black or white, wants to hear the black national anthem before they hear the national anthem. I really don't. And it's and it's no offense against people of color. It's we're one country. We're one country. We don't

need separate anthems. It's a chance to come together, celebrate America, all of it, good, bad, warts and all, and then play a sports game and not to shove politics or divisive cultural issues down the throats of the viewers who are looking for a getaway. Okay. So, see, here is the thing that just absolutely cracks me up about delusional white people, okay? They love to go, well, you know, this thing is dividing us. No, Ashley, it's a great song. It's a great song. It's a great song.

And they don't want to hear it before the National Anthem. Well, Megan, have you actually gone to any NFL games? You know they play music before the National Anthem. I've been to NFL games

and you actually might hear too short. You might actually hear juvenile. You might hear Darius Rucker. You might hear a Beyonce song. You might hear Snoop Dogg. No one complains about the DJ playing music before the game. But you are so bothered because they're going to sing Lift Every Voice and Sing,

which is called the National Black Anthem. Now, there's a reason why they call it the National Black Anthem. Because, you know, there's a thing called American history. What's also silly to me, Megan, is how you and some white folks, first of all, when you say the average American black or white, do me a favor, and she was on with Steve Krakauer, and I tweeted both of them, they haven't responded. Can y'all define for me average American?

Who's the average American? By all means. Because actually, most of the networks don't even show the songs being sung. So, the folks who are actually hearing it are those who are at the game And if you brought a family of four to an NFL game Um It's going to cost you

You know Four, five, six, seven hundred dollars Those are not average Americans Going to a game And then I love this whole thing Of oh, oh See we just want to escape the cultural stuff and the politics. Really?

So why do the owners have politicians in their boxes? Why do they invite elected officials there? In fact, if we just want to focus on the game, Megan, why don't we have military flyovers? Why don't we have military salutes? If we want to have all of that, well then, why don't we have other initiatives? See, the thing for mega you don't get,

you can't escape politics and culture in America because it infects everything in America, including sports. Yeah, it does. But see, I know it drives, does. But see, I know it drives, and then, see, Megan, you also don't want to own up to this because, see, you and Clay Travis

and all so many others, y'all said, see, it was the NBA being so woke that led to their ratings being down. But then the hockey ratings went down. And other sports went down. Because folks were kind of bothered in 2020 due to COVID.

They kind of weren't focused on games, Megan. So Megan, really, with your history of Halloween and blackface and white Santa and your infatuation with the new Black Panther Party when you're at Fox News, seriously, give it a rest. Because it's actually boring now to listen to your whining. You're literally whining about lift every voice and sing. But then you don't want us talking about that third verse of the national anthem, do you? You don't want to talk about that one, huh? See, the fact that you don't even want to acknowledge

the role that race plays even in the national anthem, that third stanza that we don't sing, oh, it's still part of the song. It's still a part of the song. You just don't like the fact that we don't deal with it. That's how cheap and childish these folks are. And so I really don't care because guess what? It's going to happen.

So Megan, suck it up. And you know what? Learn the words. Because you probably haven't attended many black events in your life, which means that you probably never even heard the actual song. So I'm gonna go to break, gonna come back, we're gonna talk about some other stories.

But before I do, you know what, I just felt like doing it. Here's the edition put together by the Bomb of Gilead before the Black church inaugural ball in 2009 when Obama was elected I emceed that particular event Megan if you want to understand lift every voice and sing

you might want to watch this version Church. We're with the harmonies of liberty, Let our rejoicing rise high as the listening sun, And it breaks down now as the rolling sea. Satsang with Mooji We sing the mighty song of our new baby God Let us march on, still victory is ours Soon in the long return, we never trust in one We are now at Upper Session Road Come to the place, O rich of Father's sight. We have come over the waves and the tears and the water. We have come, training our life through the front of the slaughter. Out of the gloomy past, The lovely standing past, Where the bright green of our sun is cast. On his head.

All of our weary years, As for us, thou, far, far away, Thou who hast gone, my God, Let us sing to God He comes for us The angel of God He came Bless on me Bless the King Save from the places of unhealed memory Bless the heart

Perfect the mind of the world we obey And only be our help May we forever stand True to our home True to our native land I'm home to Tijuana. When you study the music, you get black history by default. And so no other craft could carry as many words as rap music. I try to intertwine that and make that create whatever I'm supposed to say. God of my silence, He is.

Thou who has called us not far off the way Thou who hast gone Thy God Let us pray to God He loves forever God, lead us, in metri, Vesta, a, Mavit, la,

Vita, la, Prodigo, E, Salo, in, A, E, ¶¶ When you study the music, you get black history by default. And so no other craft could carry as many words as rap music. I try to intertwine that and make that create whatever I'm supposed to send out to the universe.

A rapper, you know, for the longest period of time has gone through phases. I love the word. I hate what it's become, you know, to this generation, the way they visualize it. Its narrative kind of, like, has gotten away and spun away from, I guess, the ascension of black people. Women have always been essential. So now how are you going to pay us like that? And it's not just the salary.

I mean, there are a whole number of issues that have to support us as women. Yeah. That's what we deserve. We shouldn't have to beg anybody for that. I think that we are trying to do our best as a generation to honor the fact

that we didn't come here alone and we didn't come here by accident. I always say every generation has to define for itself what it means to move the needle forward. Mm-hmm.

Hi, I'm Eric Nolan. I'm Shante Moore. Hi, my name is LaToya Luckett, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Suicide is America's teeth-leading cause of death. A recent study says black boys between the ages of five and twelve are more likely to die by suicide than any other age

group. Suicides among black children under 18 have gone up 71 percent in the past decade. Here's a list of states where adults report the highest cases of anxiety or depression. You have, of course, Oklahoma which leads with 39% of adults reporting.

You also have Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Arizona, Kentucky, West Virginia, New Mexico, Tennessee, as well as Nevada. Joining us now is Crystal Curry, licensed critical mental health counselor and founder of Compass Life Skills and Counseling. Glad to have you here. Thank you. For the longest, it was this thing, black kids were not killing themselves at the same rate as white kids. What happened?

Yeah, so finally we had some research come out that actually found that black kids are killing themselves at a five times higher rate than their counterparts. And what it also found is that black kids don't just kill themselves. They do it impulsively without a plan, which is completely separate from their white counterparts or their Asian counterparts. And so does that mean that something happened, something triggered that, as opposed to if you're looking at white kids, depression, prolonged periods, and then it was planned out. And so is that about trauma? What is that? Yeah. So a lot of it has to do with trauma. And in the black community, unfortunately, we have normalized a lot of traumatic experiences.

So one thing that we have normalized is that as black parents, we force our children to be it means you obey me without question. And if you don't obey me, then I will whoop you into submission. And so we have to, it makes us tell our children, I'm going to tell you what to think. I'm going to tell you what to feel. And our children have no outlet because what research also shows is that Black children talk to their family exclusively about their suicidal ideations or their suicidal thoughts. And when they can no longer talk up to their family about what they're feeling because it's not appropriate, then they internalize it and they're unable to cope and they actually become their feelings, such as sadness or grief, instead of actually learning how to cope with it, feel it and let it go.

Are there any parts of the country, when we talk about where African-Americans live, really it's like a reverse L in the country. Are there any parts of the country where they are much higher than other areas? Yeah, so research shows that it happens mostly in intercities where there is more exposure to trauma because black kids have a higher rate of exposure to trauma, but also their exposure to trauma is more severe. So trauma deals with, you know, racial injustices. It also deals with poverty. It also deals with discrimination and violence in the community and in the home. Questions for the panel. Kelly. First and foremost, thank you for just bringing this to light in full transparency. I was one of

those youth who did have suicidal ideations, dealing with depression and anxiety. And, you know, thankfully, I'm here today through a team of people, parents and teachers and pastors and the like. Given my own experience, can you explain or just give me your thoughts on how to reconcile the notion of religion with rationale? Because a lot of my conflict was the fact that you cannot just pray pain away. There are people who God made to be therapists, you know, and sometimes the pastor doesn't have all the tools. So can you just, you know, explain that and just elaborate on that further for the audience? Yeah. So religion sometimes overshadows the work that needs to be put in in order for you to heal from your traumatic experiences, right? Because it just says, let's just pray it away, let's just fast it away, and then everything will be good. But it actually takes work because trauma isn't just what happens to us, but it also deals with what happens inside of us. So anytime there is a traumatic experience, you change mentally,

emotionally, and psychologically. And so a therapist and your support system helps you realize and understand the traumatic changes that have happened and the emotional blind spots that have come as a result of what happened to you. So it does take more effort than just praying. It actually takes the work. And, you know, the Bible said faith without works is dead, but the work comes in from doing it on the outside, and you have to do the work on the inside. Amisha? Absolutely, and I feel you, and this day means

a lot to me. My own little brother was 12 years old when he committed suicide, so coming from someone who's very close to an individual who went through this process. And my family, for the most part, still does not fully acknowledge the fact of what he died from, because from that Christian perspective, they don't believe in suicide and don't want to talk about it. But it was literally four months after our mom had passed away from cancer. My question to you is specifically around black boys, because we're noticing and seeing the numbers and the rise in suicide among young black males specifically. And those numbers are shooting up. Part of me believes that it is part and parcel of a culture that teaches black men and black boys that they cannot show emotion,

that they have to be strong through everything, that they're supposed to just be able to pick up and keep going no matter what happens around them. And I think that in my little brother's case, watching my mom pass away, knowing that, you know, my mom was a single parent and she was basically the leader of our household, the rest of us were older. He was the youngest in the family. And at the end of the day, his his coping was not there. And he did not show the signs that we hear about often in terms of withdrawal, in terms of not talking to people. All of those things were things that we wouldn't have been able to see because they were things that were not shown. And to your point earlier, the process was different. People asked us about a note. He did not leave a note.

It was a very impulsive act. He jumped into the Chicago River and he was gone. And I feel like, you know, there's so much that goes on, particularly for our young kids, particularly black males. And it's not talked about often. It's kind of pushed under the rug and they really suffer. What are some things or some ways that could, you know, work as a community to be able to basically wrap our arms around them and show them better ways of coping with the things, honestly, in many cases that are outside of their control? Right. So it involves building a safe space for them where they can go and they recognize that I can go here and I can talk and I can be whatever I need to be. And I can feel with that,

whatever I need to feel without feeling guilty or without feeling shameful. And they need to be able to actively work through the feelings of anger, of being overwhelmed, of being frustrated, because what we're finding is they're suppressing all of this. And when it comes to, you know, for example, like your brother, you know, death is such a big concept. And even as an adult, we have difficulty processing death. And so as children, if we don't help them process these really big emotions and stop as though we do in the black community with forcing them to suppress and act tough and be tough and wear these emotional masks, they never learn how to cope. And so they honestly

start to emotionally detach from situations. And that's why you have so many black people walking around saying it is what it is, because they emotionally no longer know how to cope or process with what's happening to them. Michael. Thanks for coming on today, Crystal. This is a very, very important topic. You mentioned that African-American youth will commit suicide but not have a plan. I think it's the way you phrased it, not have a plan compared to white youth, et cetera. What are some of the common signs that youth will exhibit when they're contemplating suicide so that we can

possibly prevent things from happening? And do those signs, are those signs in African-American youth the same or different when it comes to white youth, Hispanic youth? Yeah, so they're pretty much the same, but because these children are Black, they get labeled as oppositional defiant disorder, or they get labeled as ADHD, when in fact, because they are unable to emotionally regulate it comes out in their behavior and so what happens is these children tend to get expelled from school more frequently they tend to be referred to juvenile detention centers or juvenile justice when in fact they're just trying to communicate that emotionally they don't know

how to cope but instead of giving them mental health resources and emotional support, we consequence them for their feelings and their behaviors, which then reinforces the fact that they shouldn't talk to anybody about how they feel. Wow. Okay. Thank you. Doc, what can people get if

somebody's out there who's watching, or they may have a child who they're seeing these things, seeing sort of these signs or traits, where can they get more information? Yeah, so NAMI is a great resource, N-A-M-I dot com. You can go there and you can also text TALK to 741741. And that's also a crisis line to help. All right, Dr. Crystal Curry, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Thank you. Well, we all know the value of black children is seeing teachers who look like them in the classroom. Right now, about 2% of the teaching population are black men. But there's an initiative looking to change that. The Call Me Mister program is creating a pathway for black men to become teachers. Joining me now is Dr. Tristan Glenn,

director of the Call Me Mr. Initiative. All right, Doc, first of all, glad to have you here. And so, first of all, how long has this initiative been going on and what strides have you made? Well, thank you for having me, Roland. I appreciate the opportunity to come and talk about this important initiative. Call Me Mr Mister is an educator recruitment, development, and mentorship program that started in the year 2000 at Clemson University through a partnership with Clemson and three historically Black colleges, Benedict, Claflin, and Morris College. Through these efforts, we've seen that we have a 98 percent retention rate of black males who complete the program. So in our national network, that's what we're experiencing here at Kennesaw State University. We have been granted the second Call Me Mr. program in the entire state.

We've launched this year. We've inducted our first three students. Our goal is to induct five each year. Membership in this program at Kennesaw State University students receive mentorship, tuition, book, technology assistance, networking opportunities and job placement assistance. So nationally, we're seeing this have a tremendous impact, particularly when you think about the issues that were covered and unpacked with your previous guest. That speaks to the importance of having males of color in the classroom who can view through a culturally responsive lens the issues that some of our young men may be experiencing. And so when you talk about trying to attract brothers into the classroom receptive to teaching, but they're not sure in terms of how the economic structure is set up and things along those lines? You know, Roland, that's a good point. And every time we talk about recruitment of educators of any race and any racial identity, that's one of the things that most often emerges when folks consider education as a pathway.

But I want to share with you that when talking with brothers in my recruitment efforts, that's rarely a point of contention. I find myself spending a considerable amount of time just simply trying to create a level of interest in our black males about teaching, and here's why. Unfortunately, schools are engaged in what I call a push-pull process, right? So because of the ways in which we have failed to respond to the unique social, emotional, and academic needs of black males, schools are engaged in an intentional process of pushing black males out of the classroom. So what happens is that black males begin to struggle in their learning experiences. That then increases the likelihood of them being referred for special education services.

And once they fall into these types of school experiences, what happens is that they fail to complete school. So we experience a push out. So now, on the opposite end, we're trying to pull teachers in. However, it's difficult for us, and we have to be intentional about reintroducing our Black males into the classroom. So what I find is that I ask young Black males, have you considered being a teacher? And many of them just say flat out no. And I asked them why. And they struggle to articulate the why. What I know is from personal experiences as an educator, I realize that many of our black

males can't see themselves as being teachers because they've never been taught by someone who looks like them. So they traverse their entire academic experience with very little thought about schools being a place for them. Questions from our panelists. Michael. All right, Dr. Tristan Glenn, thanks for coming on today. And this is a very important topic. When we talk about getting more African-American males to be teachers, what are the particular fields? I know we're dealing with like first grade through 12th grade, but what are the particular specialties or subjects that

African-American males are needed to teach the most? Are we talking about social studies? You're talking about mathematics, science, et cetera. Well, brother, I appreciate the question. And I think when you think about the broader context of education, I believe that there's space for black males in any classroom, right? I think, obviously, many will think about right now we have a critical shortage for special education teachers. We have a critical shortage in the area of math and science. So in our STEM-related fields and special education, there's a historical underrepresentation of men in general, particularly black males. So you see a lot of efforts that are geared towards recruiting and retaining black males for those areas. But me, personally, I say we need black

males at all levels, in all classrooms, in all positions and capacities. Okay, thanks. Amisha? Absolutely, and thanks for being here. I worked in executive leadership at Chicago Public Schools and agree with everything that you said. At the end of the day, over 70 percent of the nation's public school teachers are white female, K-12. What we know statistically and what studies have shown us is that having a black male specifically driving a classroom changes outcomes, not only in terms of on grade level, but also exceeding grade level and not just for black kids, for all kids. But the issue of recruitment continues to come into play and largely to the point that you made earlier of the bad experiences that many of our black males, young black men have had in the classroom themselves. Once you don't feel safe in your classroom or you feel targeted or you've been pushed out, the odds of you wanting to walk into that situation and beat it are very slim. What are some of the avenues that you're working through or the things that you're trying to see

come to pass in terms of getting more black young men interested in this field, but also getting people, Black men who are potentially in other fields, interested in trying education on. Because like you said earlier, I do think that it could change so many things, but also there's a critical need in all subject matter, in all grade levels to have a Black man in the classroom. Indeed. Thank you. So one of the unfortunate realities that you speak to is that schools right now, as they are currently constituted, are not viewed by black males as a place that they can thrive, but rather a place that they must survive. So we don't exist in this space in a way of thinking that this is a place for us. So, right. So they choose we, young black men choose to explore other career paths and opportunities. One of the things that we're exploring here at KSU that models some

of the other Call Me Mr. programs, right here we're in the process of developing a Future Misters Academy. And the Future Misters Summer Academy is a program that we will induct middle and high school males into the education process. So what does that look like? We will be bringing black males to campus for a summer week-long experience where they'll live in the campus dorms, they'll dine in the campus facilities, they'll do enrichment activities. And this is important because due to the fact of the statistics that you referenced, 79% of the current teaching population are white females.

As a teacher educator, I realize that there's a correlation between our future teacher pipeline in which 72% of the teaching teacher candidates who will be entering into the field are white females as well. So what do we have to do? We have to prick that interest in education in students at a very early age, things like the Future Mister program that we're developing here, the Junior Mister, Rising Mister Academy that we have at Georgia College. This will position us to introduce young Black males to Black male educators who can mentor them and develop relationships with them that they can carry throughout the way. So when they are prepared to enter into their college experience, education is at the forefront of one of those career paths that they want to explore. Kelly. Yes, thank you. I did not realize how privileged I was to have at least one black male teacher in every grade level of my grade school trajectory,

including college, because I went to an HBCU, so that was kind of a given. But so that being said, I didn't realize that this was an issue because I had seen it my entire life. So I guess my question to you is, what is necessary for Black male teachers to be in a school regarding the culture of the school? Does the culture of the school need to be cultivated in such a way to accept black male teachers? I know we were talking, you were talking previously about how the school culture itself for the student can be hostile towards black young men. But regarding the culture for the black male teacher himself, is that a different culture or are they coming up against the same type of thing? If so, what needs to change in that environment to accept more black teachers and to encourage more black male teachers specifically to come into the classroom? we have an issue currently with retaining black males once we are able to welcome them

into the field. So what we have is, is that schools, what I would encourage, what I would, what I'm hoping for is a reimagination of the school experience, one in which black males can arrive at the student and the teacher level in their full black maleness. They can be received and experienced in all the wonderful ways in which we exist. Currently, that is an issue. I work with other black male educators, scholars around these issues, and what I find is there's a theme as to why we have chosen to leave the classroom and move into administration or move into faculty positions in the academy,

is that we fail to have that experience. I, too, am a proud HBCU graduate from Bethune-Cookman College, and I understand the importance of having that community. So what we do in Call Me Mister is what we try to do is equip our students, our candidates, our misters with what I consider tools of resistance. When I talk to black males on my campus, I'm very transparent with them. I tell them that I identify with the experiences that they have in their classrooms, in the dining halls, as they walk across the campus, because unfortunately, my experiences often traffic and track in the very same way. So I think that's an initial acknowledgement that has to be present. And once we have that acknowledgement, we create opportunities for us to co-collaborate and explore

ways in which we can create our classrooms and our schools to be places that are much more inclusive for us. So then we can also ensure that our students are getting what they receive as well. All right then. Well, first of all, if folks want more information on Call Me Mr. Initiative, where should they go? Well, they can go to our website. That is mrmister.kennesaw.edu. That's mr.kennesaw.edu. You can also email me if you want more information.

That is at mr.kennesaw.edu. We're always looking for different partnerships partnerships as we can understand um education is not free my goal is to provide is uh as much financial assistance to my candidates to reduce the barriers that we know exist for critical populations of students because we know that roland that is the that is the first step in increasing this pipeline is making education more affordable and call me mister is committing to doing doing that in the ways that we can to the greatest extent we can for our students. All right, Ben. Tristan, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, sir. Take care.

Our final story, folks, another black lieutenant governor, Brian Benjamin, is officially the new lieutenant governor for New York State. Benjamin got sworn in on Thursday, making him New York's second black lieutenant governor. The 44-year-old served as a state senator representing Harlem and the Upper West Side. He is a former investment banker who has also worked with President Barack Obama's National Finance Committee. He succeeds New York Governor Kathy Hochul in the position. She took office last month after as New York's first female

governor after Andrew Cuomo resigned. So, certainly congratulations to now Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin. You know him, Brian, sometimes. We actually threw a party together at CBC. So we're going to get him on the show real soon. All right, Amisha, Michael, Kelly, we certainly appreciate it.

Thank you so very much. Glad to have you all on the show to close out this week. It has been quite the busy week. We, of course, are nearing, folks, 10,000. We're close to 10,000 downloads. Let me see where we are. So y'all who are watching on all different platforms, let me just see here where we are. We're trying to get 10,000 downloads by this weekend.

We right now are at, one second, 8,441. So we get 1,600 more people. We'll hit 10,000 downloads. Black Star Network. And again, I'll be announcing real soon, other shows will be launching on the network. And so you can download it on all the platforms, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV,

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PayPal is paypal.me forward slash rmartin. You also have venmo.com. Venmo.com is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. And so, please support us in terms of what we do. And look, it's really important as we move forward, as I say, what we're doing here and what we're building because we really understand the importance of our news, our perspective.

If you look at what we talked about today, we talked about the importance of our news, our perspective. If you look at what we talked about today, whether it's black suicides, whether you're talking about, of course, COVID-immorticians, whether we're talking about, again, black teachers, and, of course, our segment on sickle cell and other segments. I mean, you're not getting this on these other shows. It ain't happening on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. It ain't happening on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.

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Thank you so very much. I will see you all on Monday right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. If you have not seen our interview with the 92-year-old Fred Gray, who was the attorney for Dr. King, Rosa Parks, and Claudia Kovic, go to the Black Star Network. I am not putting it on YouTube or Facebook or Instagram. You got to go to get the app and watch that amazing interview with Fred Gray.

Folks, y'all have a fabulous weekend. And of course, be in prayer for those. Tomorrow, the 20th anniversary of 9-11. Holla! Thank you. Să ne urmăm. this is an iHeart podcast