#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Cops charged in #RayshardBrooks case; GOP's policing bill; Black men & politics; Juneteenth in VA

Episode Date: June 18, 2020

6.17.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Cops charged in #RayshardBrooks case; GOP unveils their policing bill; Engaging Black men in politics; Juneteenth in now a state holiday in Virginia, Ballin' Auntie Curry still hittin' them from way downtown! Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partner: Ceek Be the first to own the world's first 4D, 360 Audio Headphones and mobile VR Headset. Check it out on www.ceek.com and use the promo code RMVIP2020 - The Roland S. Martin YouTube channel is a news reporting site covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend.

At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit adoptuskids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today's Wednesday, June 17, 2020, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Breaking news out of Atlanta. Former cop who killed Rashard Brooks, charged with

felony murder and his partner has turned state's witness and will testify against him. What do you hear what the DA said? What they did to Rashard Brooks after he was shot. Senator Tim Scott joins Senate

Republicans unveiling their police bill that would discourage but not ban tactics like chokeholds and no-knock warrants. Not good enough, says many African Americans. We'll have a police panel to break that down. Congressman Elliot Engel

slams his rival Jamal Bowman as a phony Democrat. Jamal Bowman will respond to that right here. And we'll talk about how to engage black men in the political process with the Black Male Voter Project. Also today marks the fifth anniversary of the Emanuel AME Church Massacre. We certainly remember the victims.

And Juneteenth is officially a Virginia state holiday. We'll show you how Virginia native Pharrell responded. Plus, I know you've Virginia native Pharrell responded. Plus, I know you've seen the social media of the ballin' Auntie Curry. Well, that's not actually her name, but she'll join us right here today. Plus, it's Wild N' Out Wednesday,

comedian Jay LeMond is in the house. Plus, my interview with Norm Lewis about his role in Spike Lee's Netflix movie, Defy Bloods. And what's up with Lawrence Cutlow actually saying there's no systemic racism? And Senator John Cornyn? Yeah, we got to break that down. It's time to bring the funk on Rolling Mark Unfiltered.

Let's go. He's got it Whatever the mess, he's on it Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling, best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks.

He's rolling, yeah. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. Yeah, yeah. It's Rolling Martin, yeah. It's Uncle Roro, yo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's Roland Martin. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rolling with Roland now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Roland Martin now. The former Atlanta cop who fatally shot Rashard Brooks in the back after he turned and pointed a stun gun in his direction will be charged with felony murder and 10 other charges. District Attorney Paul Howard made this announcement just a couple of hours ago. So these are the charges that we have had filed today, signed by one of our Superior Court judges. These are the 11 charges against Officer Roth. The first charge is felony murder.

This is a death that is as a result of a underlying felony and in this case the underlying felony is aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and the possible sentences for a felony murder conviction would be life, life without parole or the death penalty. Now, he's also charged by, in the arrest warrant, with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. And this is a count charging him for the shooting of Mr. Brooks. And the possible sentence for aggravated assault is one to 20 years. The second or the third aggravated assault account is for the shooting towards or in the direction of Mr. Melvin Evans. Mr. Evans was the person who was seated in the car. Let me with count four against Miss Officer Roth, it charges him with aggravated

assault for firing the weapon in or in the direction of Danielle Killians, who was in the passenger side of the front seat of the car. Next slide. Count five is an aggravated assault charge, and this was a charge for shooting towards or in the direction of Michael Perkins. Mr. Perkins was seated in the rear of this same vehicle at that time. There's a charge for criminal damage for shooting into that vehicle. Also, Officer Roth is charged with seven violations of office. Each one of those carries a one to five sentence. These are violations of his oath of office for the city of Atlanta, arresting Mr. Brooks for the DUI without immediately informing him of the arrest, shooting a a firearm at Mr. Brooks.

And number four is the failure to render timely medical aid. Those are the four violations of oath. The eighth is for kicking Mr. Brooks, and the possible sentence for kicking Mr. Brooks is from one to 20 years. And we actually have a photograph of the. And these are the charges for Officer Brosnan and their total of three charges. And the first charge is for aggravated assault. And this is for standing or stepping on Mr. Brooks' shoulder and the possible sentence for this crime is one to twenty years and

this is a photograph of Officer Brosnan who you can see to the right. And at the time of the photograph, he is standing on the body of Mr. Brooks. Stunning detail by D.A. Paul Howard. Again, former officer Garrett Rolfe, who fired the shots, 11 total charges, including felony murder, three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Officer Devin Brosnan has three total charges against him, including aggravated assault and a violation of his oath.

Let's go to our panel right now, folks, to break this thing down. This is just really, again, a stunning, stunning development here and how quickly, how quickly the DA moved. Joining us right now is A. Scott Bolden, former chair of National Bar Association Political Action Committee. Robert Petillo, executive director of Rainbow Push, Coalition Peachtree Street Project. Brooke Thomas, she is the host controlling our narrative podcast.

Let's start with you, Robert. You're there in Georgia again. Paul Howard moves extremely fast on this one. You have critics who are saying, oh, this is all politically driven. But the fact that we now know, as he described, the officer standing on his shoulder, kicking Brooks, saying, I got him. Trust me, that tells a different story about what took place that night outside of that Wendy's. Absolutely. I think also we have to look at the structure of these charges,

as Paul Howard articulated them. They did not charge him with first-degree murder or any of the intentional murders, but rather felony murder. So the only intentionality they have to show is the intention to commit the aggravated assault, which was the firing of the weapon at Mr. Brooks. So that's a far easier thing to prove where you don't have to prove intent, you don't have to prove malice, afterthought. All you really

need to show is that you criminally fired your weapon at that individual, which caused his death, which I think is a threshold which can be met. Going further, the way of showing that this was outside of the scope of his duty, outside of the scope of any reasonable law enforcement activity is the fact that they went through the pains of describing how they searched Mr. Brooks and knew that he was not armed, that there were no additional weapons.

They stated that the taser had been fired twice into Mr. Brooks, so they knew that the taser was unloaded and not dangerous at that point. And Paul Howard made it very clear that they had no reason to chase him. They had no reason to shoot him. And then moving on to the additional counts, well, the reckless nature of this officer firing his handgun where it went into a populated area, into a vehicle that had people in it, those are additional charges also because you cannot just say that there's collateral damage. You damage someone else's property, you put lives in danger as a law enforcement officer,

then you fail to render assistance and you assault a man as he is dying. I think these are the proper charges. I think with a Fulton County jury in a city like Atlanta, he has a very good chance of getting convictions on many, if not all of the counts. Bolden, that detail is important and it has to raise the question. We have seen numerous cases like this before. Why didn't DAs move this quickly prior to the death of George Floyd? Well, every case is different and all the facts are different and the jurisdictions and who's being led at these local level for prosecutors is really, really important. Notice here there were no lesser included in the charging document.

That is no manslaughter, no unintentional assaults or unintentional manslaughter charges, anything that sounded like that. This was personal. And, you know, Roland, I've talked about this with you before. The police and their training, they're using deadly force to compel someone to be handcuffed, to compel someone to stop running. That's not lawful. That's not legal. Since Tennessee v. Garner, it's been illegal. And yet we see around the country, if you don't comply, these police officers mentally and psychologically, they say, they get focused and say,

I've got to get you to get on the ground. I've got to get you to put these handcuffs on. And I can use any force, any deadly force to do so. You see it over and over again. And that just makes no sense whatsoever. That can't be their training. And if it is his training, who are we giving guns and badges to? And we've got to retrain these officers because there's no room for judgment in how they're implementing this training in Atlanta and elsewhere.

Brooke, obviously, and I keep telling people this, the speed in which we are moving since the death of George Floyd, that is the catalyst for the kind of pressure on mayors, on DAs to step their game up. Absolutely. I think that the part that I think public pressure has been playing in this and public outrage, it's not just coincidental. Because we saw with Ahmaud Arbery,

and of course that wasn't a police shooting, but it was a shooting that there was really no movement as far as charges for months with the same information. I think it was the two months with the same information that they've had the same information when they finally made a decision, had the same information, same video footage all along, but nothing happened until people saw it, the public saw it, and were outraged. And I think city leaders, government leaders, officials, prosecutors, they have been kind of focused on the police unions and what's their say in it. And now there's a whole other aspect and it's the public and public outrage. And people are saying that they're not going to stand for this. They're not going to stand for injustice. They're not going to stand for things to just be pushed under the rug. And it's proving to be stronger than what we're used to

happening. But that really is the most important thing that, again, when you talk about this pressure, when you talk about what's going on here, and that is the public is saying we can't accept these excuses. Look at the George Floyd case as well. DA comes out on a Thursday. Oh, we don't, you know, look, these normally take nine months to a year for whatever reason. Then the next day, charters are announced once Keith Ellis and the attorney general took over. The bottom line is that DAs typically are loathe to prosecute police officers. And they come up with all kinds of other things. And that's just being honest.

That's the deal. But I think what you had here, the pressure of the mayor immediately firing this officer to making her statement. Then she comes out on Monday as Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announcing new police procedures. And again, if you're the D.A., don't sit on this. The hell with the union. The hell with the critics. The hell with the other police officers out there talking about we got low morale. You were there to serve and protect the public.

Yeah, but Roland, let me tell you. Hold on, hold on, hold on. That was Robert. Robert, then Scott. Oh, I'm sorry. Forgive me. Go ahead. No problem.

And I think we always hear from people that, you know, there's always this countercultural argument that voting doesn't matter, voting doesn't do anything. Paul Howard is in a reelection campaign that he has not been in in probably over a decade with Fannie Willis. And they have a runoff coming up in August. And you better believe that the fact that he needs the people of Atlanta to be behind him and to vote for him in order for him to stay in office, this is why it's so important for us to exercise the franchise and get out there and vote, because when elected officials feel that pressure from the people, they are more likely to act. So the police union can march up and down the street and yell and do slowdowns and threaten to resign and mask all they want. But when our political leadership knows that the people are ready to boot them out of office, the power of the people wins every time.

Scott. Yeah, this mythology that bars or causes prosecutors to hesitate is that they don't want to second-guess the police no matter what, because if the police walk off the job, our streets won't be safe. What you're seeing, transformative now, is that the people are saying, that doesn't matter. Politicians who are run of officers,

that doesn't matter anymore. But the police misconduct and bad conduct drives that narrative counter to that mythology. And so, as a result, you're seeing now this transformation, not just with racial injustice, but how police interact with people of color. Black people and white people and brown and yellow people are seeing just how abusive the police are

around the country, and that's making a difference. That's the difference we're seeing. Now what do we do with it? seeing just how abusive the police are around the country. And that's making a difference. That's the difference we're seeing. Now, what do we do with it? How do we make it sustainable? And how do we make it so that everybody is not just anti-racist, but everybody's anti-racism if you're an American citizen? That's where we got to get to. And if this is the seminal moment, so be it. But we got to get there no matter what. Folks, earlier today, this comes on the same day when city Republicans unveiled their proposal to reform law enforcement in the United States in response to the national protest following the death of George Floyd.

Now, the proposal, called the Justice Act, includes incentives for police departments to ban chokeholds, but does not end them. More disclosure requirements about the use of force and no-knock warrants, but doesn't end them. And penalties for false reports. It also includes emergency grant programs for body cameras, makes lynching a federal hate crime, and creates a commission to study the conditions

facing black men and boys. The person who led the Republican effort is Senator Tim Scott from South Carolina, the only black Republican in the United States Senate. And so that's what he announced today. The news conference today, of course, there were a number of things that were talked about there. And he made it clear that ending police immunity was not one of those things, qualified immunity. That is an issue that many people have been raising.

Democrats in the House have been raising. So what you now have is you now have two bills that are going on at the same time. You have, of course, the Democrats' bill in the House, and then you have the Republican bill in the Senate. Now, we already know that Mitch McConnell has made perfectly clear he is not going to bring up the Democrat bill. What he wants to do is he wants to actually force

a situation where Democrats in the Senate actually will vote against that particular bill. That's what he wants to do. Now, again, earlier today, Tim Scott took to the floor of the United States Senate to speak about this particular justice act.

This is what he had to say. He has some stuff they need to hear. And if we do that, we'll have the votes to have a real debate next week on this bill. But if we don't do that, we'll just talk about scoring political points and you'll go on MSNBC or CNN, we'll go on Fox and everybody will have their chatter and more people in the communities of color will have less confidence in the institutions of power and authority in this nation because we missed the moment. We missed it five years ago. We don't have to miss it now. Mr. President, as you know, I am not really into theatrics.

I don't run towards microphones. I've had a lot of them this last seven days. I don't talk a lot in conference because why say what other people are saying? And they probably said it better. I don't demonize the other side because I know in order to get anything done in this conference and this committee and this senate, you got to have 60 votes. And plus, if you have a grievance with your brother, talk to him.

Talk to him. I've tried to do that. Mr. President, as I'm sure I've run over my time, let me just say, I'm sure I've run over my time, let me just say that to the families I sat down with yesterday, they don't think working on body cameras is a token experience. They don't think sitting down with serious conversation about police reform is a token experience.

They don't believe that having a serious conversation about body cameras is a token experience. They don't think sitting down with the president of the United States with their tears filling their eyes, running down their

cheeks, talking about their lost loved ones is a token experience. The law enforcement officers in that meeting with those families do not believe that having a serious conversation about police reform is a token experience. They don't believe that co-responders for the one man who was in the room whose son was having a mental episode who was shot on the scene,

he doesn't think this is a token experience. Joining us right now is Redditt Hudson, founder of the National Coalition of Law Enforcement Officers for Justice, Reform, and Accountability, and Dr. DeLacy Davis, founder of Black Cops Against Police Fatality. All right, first off, Redditt, I want to start with you. Your assessment of this bill presented by Senator Tim Scott. He says it's a strong bill.

Almost worked, man. In the context of police culture and police behavior, you can't incentivize good behavior. You have to punish bad behavior. We've tried that over and over again here in Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri, where racial profiling statistics come out every year and they're horrific every year. They threaten to take away state funding. They threaten to take away any number of funding sources from offending departments. They just don't give a damn. It really is unfortunate for him to describe a moment and then miss it so hugely as he has in this instance. What he needs to do is understand

that there is a remake that needs to take place right now. We can't tinker around the edges, which is what he's trying to do, and describe that as some kind of significant institutional change. And for him to describe restoring trust in our institutions, this falls way short of that. We have to have a serious remake of our entire criminal justice response, our entire public safety response, and it doesn't involve trying to bribe some officers not to devalue black life. Delacey. Yes.

Well, you know, when we give children candy to make them comply, it usually doesn't work. They simply want more candy. And so I looked at the bill. I watched the press conference. They talked about training, duty to intervene, data collection with the database at the local level, and then a National Criminal Justice Commission. First of all, we've had the Kerner Commission, we've had the Mullen Commission, and then we've had the Task Force on 21st Century Policing,

which is relevant and there in place. So there's no need for another commission. Second of all, the data collection. What are we collecting data on? We're seeing black bodies laying all over the street. And finally, the duty to intervene. Let's be very clear. In 2016, they had already revised

the use of force policy in Minneapolis. In fact, the officers all there with Mr. Floyd had a duty to intervene, and none of them intervened. And then finally, training. How do you untrain the racist? How do you take the racist and white supremacist culture out of policing

and somehow get a good cop? It's a horrible bill. It does not reform police. It is not accounting for anything. And it's not transparent. It does nothing. The fact read it that it does not ban chokehold. First of all, let's figure out. Let me know what's up with this microphone. Because I'm keep hearing this microphone that's moving. So please let me know. I've got tell me what's going on with no banning of chokeholds, no ban when it comes to no-knock warrants.

In fact, earlier I saw this MSNBC graphic that laid it out, and it was kind of like, okay, so we hope they change. Yesterday we had former Sergeant Cheryl Dorsey, the LAPD, where the cops said, oh, no, that wasn't a chokehold against Eric Garner. I think she said that was an upper-body seatbelt-type restraint. I mean, that's the kind of stuff that they've said. It was utter madness. And you nailed it, Roland. You hit it on the head.

What they're doing is positioning themselves. As much as Tim Scott tried to decry the political aspects of this and say that it shouldn't be politicized, that's exactly what they're doing. When they introduce a bill like this, as you said, what they're looking to do is get a no vote on it from people who are more serious

about addressing the real issues that face us as a nation right now, when we have a real opportunity to eradicate institutional racism and police culture and do it through legislation and movement and work on the ground. Combined together, we can get that thing done. But with senators like Tim Scott doing the appeasement dance with police unions and the other folks who were surrounding Donald Trump when he signed that woolleyful executive order that he put out yesterday or the day before. This is what you get, ineffectual legislation that does nothing more than give them something to talk about, claiming they're making a real

effort to address systemic issues. He couldn't even acknowledge. I mean, I was floored. A good friend of ours, Reverend William Barber, said he was speechless when Senator Scott said that there is no systemic racism in the country and it's not a racist country. When you're living that far away from reality, I don't expect you to be effective on real problems. No annual qualified immunity in Senator Scott's bill, DeLacy. That is the case of the Democrats' bill. Democrats' bill, no new funding. Republicans, more funding

in their particular bill as well. If you don't deal with qualified immunity, can you actually deal with the issue? Absolutely not, because you can't get inside of a police officer's head when he or she says, I was in fear of losing my life. What are you going to say, that they're not not, because you can't get inside of a police officer's head when he or she says, I was in fear of losing my life. What are you going to say, that they're not in fear? You can't argue that point. It's a point that won't be argued. We know that the courts

have extended qualified immunity to include police because that was not its original intent. I listened to Senator Shelley Moore Capito, and she said that this bill was pro-civil rights and pro-law enforcement, and there's no conflict. Well, their end tells you everything, because if law enforcement is killing me, black and brown people, and leaving me dead in the street, and you're telling me this is pro-civil rights, it is inherently conflicted. And the fact that they can't call it what it is, they can't talk about institutionalized racism, the fact that they want to continue to study, what their answer is, we want to put more money in for more police on the street, which is problematic.

And the other side in the community is saying, we want to, the community is saying, we want to defund the police, reallocate those resources because the community is suffering when they call the police. So the people who are most vulnerable, fragile communities and those in need of law enforcement are actually

being told now in this bill, we're going to send you more cops. And that means you're going to be exposed to being killed more frequently. Delacey Davis, Reddit Hudson. Gentlemen, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Let's go to our panel. Scott Bolden, your assessment of this Senator Tim Scott bill. They're just not serious. They are not serious because they believe that the police are fundamentally good and that the bad apples are poisoning the reputation of these police officers and that they need their political support and votes from white conservatives and whites in rural areas who believe that the police come to protect and serve and that the police are basically good. They just have hit a rash of unintended consequences of using deadly force.

Just not the case. If you look at the Democratic bill, the Democratic bill says enough is enough, and these are the changes we need to make. They don't deserve, the police don't deserve these protections. And so at some point in time, these two bills could come together, but the fundamental premise of each bill is so far apart that you're not going to get resolution until you believe that Black Lives Matter, that if you are complicit in bad policing, then you are a bad police officer. If you don't change the standard from reasonable force to necessary force, you're not going to stop these shootings. And if you don't put money into training and evaluating who you're giving guns and badges to, then you're not going

to get to the root cause of this. These are black and white and brown police officers who have this mentality. And how about annual training or annual evaluation as to whether you are racist or whether you believe you're in combat against those on the street, the public, when you go to the black community or brown community? How about testing for that? Because you shouldn't have a gun and a badge and use deadly force simply because you don't have cooperation from a black man or brown man or woman on the street. This is nuts. You see, these killings are going to keep going on. See, after George Floyd, you'd have more killing. You know, white people abuse peaceful protesters, haven't you? Something is wrong. They don't care. It's not stopping because of the protest. You're gonna take legislation. You need that. But you also need to reevaluate

how you're evaluating police officers before giving them a gun and a badge. It's twofold. You gotta do both of them. And if you don't do both, the killing fields of Chicago, Atlanta, D.C., New York, of black men by police is not gonna stop. Bottom line is, uh, Robert, Atlanta, D.C., New York, of black men by police is not going to stop. Bottom line is, Robert, again, what people want is they want change.

And what Donald Trump has made clear, he does not want a bill that law enforcement does not endorse. Law enforcement is not going to endorse banning a chokehold, ending qualified immunity. They're not going to endorse banning a chokehold, ending qualified immunity. They're not going to simply endorse those. Oh, look, Tim Scott has been put in an all but impossible position. He's in charge of drafting a bill, a compromise bill, that can get 60 votes in the United States Senate.

Right now there are probably 500 bills sitting on Mitch McConnell's desk that have come over from the House of Representatives that he's never brought up to a vote. Environmental regulations, health and safety regulations, all sorts of things that we need as a nation. Tim Scott is trying to draft something that he believes can pass and can go into law. So the question is, where do you make the compromises at? Where do you go? What can we offer? What can be created where we can get something that can actually pass and be signed into law and move us incrementally into the direction of ending these practices.

What we know is five years ago when these things started, you would have got an absolutely zero Republican response or zero Republican votes on this. Three years ago, Donald Trump was saying drag that SOB off the field with regards to NFL players who are kneeling. So the fact that now we are even having the conversation and getting some form of legislation, I think Donald Trump was saying drag that SOB off the field with regards to NFL players who are kneeling. So the fact that now we are even having the conversation and getting some form of legislation, I think that is a beginning point to jump off from. So instead of us hopping on Tim Scott, let's find out how can we make his bill better, how can we bring in more elements of the House bill and still get the 60 votes we need for

it to pass. Otherwise, we, as Tim Scott said, must move over. But why are we moving incrementally then, Robert? Why are we moving incrementally? You've got dead men over the last five years. We're moving incrementally because you? Why are we moving incrementally? We're moving incrementally because we have a key party that controls the city

and you want to move incrementally? Stop it! That's the problem with the Republicans and the Democrats have said we're not moving incrementally there's enough empirical data and evidence and dead bodies to show where you need to move dramatically and reduce this power and get some

systematic change in the police department. Nobody's moving incrementally like this is some type of economic incentive program. People are dying. What are you talking about getting credit for incrementally moving? We need bold action and bold action now. Scott, this is the issue you're going to run into. That it still has to pass a Senate that is controlled by Mitch McConnell, where you have Rand Paul who is blocking the anti-lynching legislation, where you have kids through. We're going to take care of him in November. If we can't have him, we're going to have him later.

You cannot move incrementally. One second. One second, Robert. You're saying that black lives don't matter. One second. One second. Robert, finish. You're saying black lives incrementally, not decisively. Stop it. Enough is enough. Stop it. Look, Scott, if the United States Senate had a composition like this panel, I would agree with you completely. But you have to have something that can pass and can be signed into law. Dr. King didn't get everything he wanted in 64. We didn't get everything we wanted in 65.

The fact is we have to start moving the ball forward or we're marking time. We can't continue marking time. One second. Don't talk over each other. I can't hear either one of you. Brooke, I want to go to you. Robert just said that...

Hold on, Brooke. Hold on. Robert just said that Dr. King didn't get everything that he wanted in 64 and 65. But look at the Fair Housing Act. That was filibustered by Republicans for two years. And it was Senator Edward Brooke, the first African-American elected since Reconstruction, Alpha Scott.

And he was the one who fought his own party and broke the filibuster. At some point, Senator Tim Scott, Brooke, needs to stand up to his party and say, no, if I'm going to put a bill out, I'm going to put a real bill out. And these are the things

that need to be in it. There have been times where Senator Tim Scott has said, this federal judge bridged too far and they withdraw the nomination. Senator Tim Scott can be far more

aggressive in challenging his party. He has the moral authority, and trust me, they will listen, but he has to be willing to actually do it, Brooke. Yeah, he's not put in an uncomfortable position. He chose this position repeatedly. He is where he wants to be. It's his decision. It's a conscious decision that he's making to be the face of a bill that I think we're talking a lot about how much good this does and not enough about does this cause harm? Because this bill not only doesn't really ban anything that's deemed problematic when it comes to policing right now, but it also puts more federal funds into police departments at a time where experts and activists are saying, hey, we need to take at least some funding out of these police departments and put it into other public services that will better help serve our communities

and choose other ways outside of violence to help keep crime down, to help keep our communities safe. So forget about how much this helps or what little or not getting everything. Does this bill cause harm? And I think a lot of people who are focused on how much money goes into policing, I think they would say yes. And the data is there with the dead bodies. The data is there with the dead bodies. The data is there. What else you got to study? Tell me what else you want to study about dead people and dead black men

at the hands of rogue cops, bad cops, violent cops. What else do we need to study? More dead bodies. Stop it. We can wait until 2021. We can wait. Here's the deal. Fine. Here's the whole piece. Allow the Senator Tim Scott bill to move forward. Let's see if it actually passes.

If Democrats have courage to say, no, this bill is not good enough and then watch the House pass their bill. And then if Mitch McConnell chooses not to bring the House bill up, Mitch, that's on you. And we remember that when he's running for re-election come November. Folks, speaking of running for re-election, many Democrats, including Congressional Black Caucus members, are running to the aid of Congressman Elliot Engel, who is facing a very challenging race

in the primary from Jamal Bowen. Bowen is closing in on him, and he has done what a lot of folks do. Ingle went on the attack, calling Bowen a fake Democrat and a bad educator. Hmm. I wonder what Jamal Bowen thinks. He joins us right now.

Jamal, first of all, you are a fake Democrat. How long have you been a Democrat? I've been a Democrat for two years now. I was an independent prior to that. And so when he calls you a fake Democrat, is he essentially trying to say you're a Republican? I think that's what he's trying to say, yes.

He's tried to connect me to John McCain through some of his negative mailers that he sent out. It's ludicrous. I mean, he's very desperate. You know, we're near the end of the race. The polls just came out today. It's ludicrous. I mean, he's very desperate. You know, we're near the end of the race. The polls just came out today. We're 10 points ahead. So he's doing what many politicians who are up against the ropes do. They try to slander. So that's where we are now. So bad educator. Have you had any strikes against you in education?

No, actually, we've been celebrated as a school. In 2015, we had the number one combined growth score average. What school is that? The Cornerstone Academy for Social Action Middle School. I'm actually the founding principal of that school. I opened that school in 2009, along with parents, teachers, and students. And in 2015, we had the highest combined growth score average in the city. We had grades of A and B when they gave out report card grades.

And we're a project-based learning school focused on culturally responsive education, restorative justice, and trauma-informed practices. And the city and state keep lists of schools that are failing, and we've never been on that list. Once again, just a smear campaign. When Ayanna Pressley was running for Congress in Massachusetts, many CBC members came to the aid of the long-term incumbent, a white male. Same thing is happening here.

Does it bother you that Congressional Black Caucus members are coming to the aid of incumbent Engel? No. You know, I don't expect them to support me just because I'm black. I expect them to support me because I'm the more viable and better candidate. And that has been shown throughout this campaign. Listen, Congressman Engel's been in office 31 years. He's lived in Maryland for 27 of those years,

claiming his home in Maryland as his primary residence for over a decade. I've been here working in public education for 20 years on the ground with families who have been most disenfranchised. So that's what's exciting about this campaign. That's why so many people have supported us, including Senator Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, just to name a few. When is the primary? June 23rd on Tuesday. All right, then. Well, we certainly appreciate it. We look forward to seeing what happens.

Jamal Bowen, thanks a lot. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Robert, I want to start with you. A lot of, you know, look, politics are politics. Incumbents want to protect incumbents. There are a lot of people who are angry that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was running or supporting candidates who are sitting running against incumbents. I remember Congressman Hilliard years ago when Artura Davis ran against him.

He lost. He was very upset. We see that I think David Scott in Georgia is facing a runoff as well. Yvette Clark, Congresswoman Yvette Clark is facing a very tough race as well. Look, here's my deal here. And I'm very clear on this, Robert. No politician, black, white, Latino, Asian,

Native American, doesn't matter. They do not own a seat. And if someone challenges them, guess what? You run. And that's the way it should be. So when people say, oh, my God, how dare they run against? No, you don't own a seat. It's the public's seat.

You're absolutely correct. I think the power of incumbency is one of the primary reasons that we get so little done on the state level, local and national level. People think that they live there. That is their only job. If you ever want to have fun, go walk around your state house or your city council or even Congress and ask people how the hell they get paid. What do they do for money? Because often legislating and being in power is the only means to an end that they have and they believe that the only point of being in office is to stay in office that's influences how

you vote well how you vote that influences how bold the legislation uh you put up is uh as scott was saying in the last segment so i do think that we have to make sure that we are giving uh challengers a fair chance and a fair shake. I ran for a state rep back in 2012 against another African-American, and the level of hate and vitriol that you get as that insurgent incoming candidate is amazing to the point of people tearing down your character. Because my last name is Strange, they did robocalls

saying I was a white Republican running in a Democratic district. So these types of dirty tricks are very common, and we do need to work on pumping new blood and new oxygen into the room, new ideas, more bold plans, bold action. Just look at the way that Ayanna Pressley and Ocasio-Cortez and Omar and Tlaib and that freshman class have pushed the progressive agenda in Congress in ways that we haven't seen in generations. So it's important to get that new blood in there. I don't see what the problem is, Brooke. Look, look, I get it. Nobody wants to have to sit here. Folks want to have want to be safe. They don't want to have to go out there and campaign.

But anybody gets to run. And it's so funny because people are always thinking a little too late. Politicians think a little too late. They get really frustrated when it comes election time. But there is, you have actually a better spot, a better position being the incumbent, being the person who's in office, being the person who has the ability to create change, meaningful change, right? You are the face of it. You have the spot right now. And so they could have been focused on doing things that would encourage voters to vote for you. Like with the position that you're in, it's almost like they're there and the focus becomes just staying there. But that's not how you do it. Yeah, absolutely.

But look, I mean, look, I'm sorry, Scott, I mean, you you you run and here's a deal. You know, it was a trip to me. The people who are in Congress, most of sorry, Scott. I mean, you've run. And here's the deal. You know what was a trip to me? The people who are in Congress, most of them, they ran against somebody. That's right. They did. But having represented a lot of corrupt elected officials and government officials in my legal career, let me tell you what happens. They get comfortable. They get entitled or they feel entitled. They go out and their people stand and they're called honorable and they trade votes and they're power brokers. They don't have a lot

of money, but they got power. And then all of that comes into play every two years or four years when you run for office. And it all says, I'm entitled. How dare you run against me? And they lose sight of the fact that it's a political process, that anybody can run against you. And yeah, if you don't toil in the fields, if you don't nurture those relationships with those voters day in and day out, if you don't deliver the bacon, because it's still a political process, yeah, you can get beat. You can get beat bad. But the accoutrements and the accommodations of being in office, federal office or local, is overwhelming. And it's intoxicating. And they either commit a crime or they lose an election because that becomes the dominant force in their,

quote, public service versus public service over personal benefit. I've seen it happen over 30 years. Well, I'll tell you what, I would love to see some folks do lose, folks like Matt Goetz of Florida. Today, the House that were debating the police reform bill, let's just say things got a wee bit tense between Goetz and Congressman Cedric Richmond of New Orleans. Watch this. I'm not interested in studying Antifa.

I'm not even interested in studying the Klan or sovereign citizens right now. Because that is not the imminent threat that black men face on a daily basis. And right now, too often, it is law enforcement. Those who were sworn to protect and to serve. And so all we're asking today is to deal with that. I don't mind dealing with other pieces of legislation. I don't mind dealing with other issues that you all may have. And what I don't want to leave this conversation with and why I'm speaking now instead of later is because I don't want you all to leave here saying, well, we didn't know. We didn't know that's how you felt, Cedric.

I want it to be crystal clear. And I will give you the benefit of the doubt that it is an unconscious bias that I'm hearing because at worst is conscious bias. And that I would hate to assume from any of the people on the other side. Well, the gentleman, you sure. I appreciate your passion. Are you suggesting that you're certain that none of us have nonwhite children because you reflected on your black son and you said none of us could understand. Man, stop. I'm not about to get sidetracked about the color of our children. We're talking about black kids. I reclaim my time. You said that. I reclaimed my time. I know.

You want the discussion? I know that. The gentleman reclaimed his time. I said I claim reclaim my time. I already know that there are people on the other side that have black grandchildren. It is not about the color of your kids. It is about black males, black people in the streets that are getting killed. And if one of them happens to be your kid, I'm concerned about him too. And clearly I'm more concerned about him than you are. So let's be clear about that.

You're claiming you're more concerned for my family than I do? Who in the hell do you think you are? If the shoe fits, the gentleman will suspend. This is outrageous. You should take those words down. I love to care about your family and love your family. The gentleman will suspend. The gentleman will suspend.

The time belongs to the gentleman from Louisiana. Cedric, would you yield? Was that a nerve? Yeah. Oh! He was so calm. It was great. Oh!

That's what I'm saying. Was that a nerve? Did I hit one? Did I hit one, Brooke? He said, I kicked dog, go holler. I hit dog, go holler. My grandmother used to say. See, sometimes you got to go there, Robert. Sometimes you got to go there.

Well, I think the issue with Matt Gaetz is one of the number one trolls in Congress. The fact is that when the coronavirus outbreak was just starting, when we had a chance to nip it in the bud and stop it from becoming a countrywide outbreak, they ended up killing over 100,000 people and predicted to hit 200,000 dead by October. He wore a gas mask on the House floor to make fun of the idea of wearing masks. This is what he does. I don't understand how the people of his district have continued to send him back when he embarrasses

them over and over again. Maybe he's been drinking again because he has that DUI in his past, but I don't know how he can maintain his seat in Congress putting on theatrics and shows like this when we have important issues where he simply does not take seriously. Easy, the same way them white folks in Iowa kept sending Steve King back.

That's what happens. It's performative, yeah. That's what the deal is. That's how it's been. That's the deal is. All right, y'all, gotta go to a break. When we performative, yeah. That's what the deal is. That's how it's been. That's the deal is. All right, y'all, got to go to a break. When we come back,

we're going to talk about how to get more black men out to vote in November. Also, all right, come on, single shot. Come on, come on. You're moving slow. Come on, come on.

You got that. That's first. That's first, okay? Second of all, y'all seen the video of the sister who's been hooping all her trick shots? Yeah, we're gonna have her on the show as well

and the second hour comedian, Jay Lamont. And what's up with these Republicans? Oh, no, there's no systemic racism. We heard Senator Tim Scott say it earlier. Where in the hell are they living? That's next. Roller Mark unfiltered, back in a moment. Martin Unfiltered Daily Digital Show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each

for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. All right, folks. The folks at Seek.com have a great deal of these amazing headphones right here. Love the color being black and gold being alpha. Sorry, Scott. They don't make them in crimson and cream. Again, 360 degree 4D headphones. Sorry, Scott. They don't make them in crimson and cream. Again, 360-degree 4D headphones.

Really, really great headphones here. Mary Spiel, she is the founder, the architect, the inventor of these headphones. And folks, again, 360-degree, 4D, great for gamers, Bluetooth, for music, all that good stuff. All you got to do is use the promo code, folks, RMVIP2020. RMVIP2020.

Go to seek.com, C-E-E-K.com. That's seek.com, C-E-E-K.com. And again, the promo code, guys, where is it? RMVIP2020. It's RMVIP2020. All right, folks, in 2016, a little more than 50% of black men voted compared to 57% in 2012. And the portion of black men who reported they did not vote

increased from 23.5% to 27.5%. Well, these numbers show is a disassociation of black men from the electoral process. And in fact, the Black Male Voter Project wants to change that. Joining me right now is the founder, W. Mondale Robinson. Mondale, the Black Male Voter Project wants to change that. Joining me right now is the founder, W. Mondale Robinson. Mondale, glad to have you on the show. It's always a pleasure to be in your presence.

How are you? Great, man. So what's the deal? What the hell's going on? Why are black men checking out of the process? Well, the process checked out on black men a long time ago, Roland. You know that. We talked about it in 2012 when you and I met in Charlotte at the DNC convention

about the fact that voting is a habit. Our resources are intonated, and no one is sending resources on black men. Therefore, black men are not participating at the level of other demographics. It's tragic because we know the more black men that participate in electoral politics, the more progressive policies we will pass. So right now we're in a space where nearly half of the black men in this country that are registered to vote, already registered to vote,

have not participated in five consecutive elections. Again, that's not a critique of black men. That's a critique of the lack of resources spent on us. We are out here creating a space where black men feel comfortable putting their faith back in their system. And the way we're doing it is we created a new way of campaigning.'s called bmp uh editorial approach where we

center the black voter the black male voter um instead of the electoral process and or the candidates themselves um first of all if you have a set of headphones i want to put those on because actually we're breaking up there with your audio one of the things that we're dealing with is also there was a nine-point gap between black men and black women who went for Obama versus Romney in 2012. There was a 13-point gap between black men and black women who went for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The Trump administration, they believe, they've been saying that they believe

they can get 15, 18, as high as 20 percent of the black male vote come November. That's why they're touting, they keep touting the First Step Act and also economic policies as well. Do you believe, or what do you believe is the reason why these black men are finding Donald Trump to be appealing? They're not, Roland. This is just like everything else Donald Trump says, baseless. Donald Trump cannot win that high of a percentage of black men. Here's what he can do, though.

The Democratic Party not investing in black men, not investing in black men, will cause black men to stay at home. That, too, is a loss for the Democratic Party and progressive candidates. Here's what we do know. We know that talking about presidential campaigns will not motivate Black men to go to the polls. We can't make Donald Trump a big enough boogie monster to keep Black men at the polls or in lines long enough to vote.

So what we do is we don't center presidential candidates when we talk to Black men. What we do center is local issues that are important to black men, and we know once they get to the polls, black men will vote for Democratic candidates. What we also know is Donald Trump didn't do anything special when it comes to black men. That number falls in the range of what black men always vote as it pertains to Democratic, I mean, Republican candidates. If you look back, all the way back to the 70s, Donald Trump only did better than two presidential candidates on the Republican side.

Donald McCain and Mitt Romney. That's it. So there's nothing special about Donald Trump and black men. Black men don't talk to Donald Trump. We did it. We see what he is. We've stopped racism for most people. As it affects us, of course. Hold tight. Hold on, Mondale. Your audio literally is getting progressively worse.

If you've got some headphones or audio, y'all let me know. Fix that. So y'all, let me know when you fix that. I'm going to bring in Robert Scott and Brooke right here. Robert, I can tell you in 2016, I had a very

direct conversation with Hillary Clinton, with Huma Abedin, Marlon Marshall backstage at Congressional Black Caucus Foundation AOC Phoenix Awards dinner, where I said point blank, I said, I can't even get your black surrogates. I'm trying to get your black male surrogates. What the hell are y'all doing?

I'm like, do y'all see what's going on? Dude, it was awful. It never actually got fixed. And so what I hear from black men is, I don't see anybody come and talk to me. And what they're seeing right now is all this Democratic energy focused on black women, black women, black women,

rightfully so, because they turn out in high numbers. But black men saying, you ain't talking to me. Well, it's a chicken and egg issue. The reason black women turn out in higher numbers is because you have someone's campaigning directed and pushed directly in their direction. So if you have that same amount of energy and money pushed towards black men,

then you'll probably see similar turnout numbers. The truth is Democrats do not know how to talk to black men. They don't even know what the issues are of black men in this country. And if it comes down to a question of, am I going to be appealing to black men or black women, they're going to choose black women every time because they believe that's the more fruitful field to be plowing. So I think we have to, we as black men need to be putting out our issues, putting out our own position statements, letting us know what the unnegotiable points are.

All of us aren't going to prison, so criminal justice reform might not be our number one issue. All of us aren't dealing with many of the things that I think are reflexively what candidates talk about when they think they're talking about black men. And it's always during the Democratic primary, many of the candidates being very uncomfortable talking to black men about black male issues without offending other groups. So I think they're going to have to sit down and Walter Rodney said, have some groundings with my brothers and talk to actual men in the community, find out what the needs are and figure out ways to articulate policy that will promote that.

And then we will turn out for them. Mondale, what specifically are the issues? What do you think that should the candidates should be talking about to target black men, to speak to black men, to interest black men? Mondale? Yeah, Roland, can you hear me? Now we got you. Go ahead. Yeah, so black men, there are three issues all over the country that we found out that are motivating the black men. We need to address criminal justice reform in a real way, not the first step act. We And there are three issues all over the country that we found out that are motivating the black man. We need to address criminal justice reform in a real way, not the First Step Act. We need to also talk about putting trades back in school.

That's an economic issue. We also need to talk about political reality. Those three issues move black men. And Donald Trump or Joe Biden can't get enough to make black men be motivated by them. But we need to be supporting local candidates and local organizations that are supporting and pushing black men to do this. And we can't do it in a transactional nature where we're only talking about November's election.

We need to figure out how we create faith back in the electoral process within the black community. All right, Mondale Robinson, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. You bet. All right then, folks. Again, Black Male Voter Project. Go online and check it out.

Five years ago today, white supremacists went to Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, prayed with the people there for Bible study, and then opened fire, killing nine folks. Today, we remember the Honorable Reverend Clementa Pickney, Cynthia Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson,

Ethel Lance, Reverend Depayne Middleton, Tawanza Sanders, Reverend Daniel Simmons, Reverend Sharonda Singleton, and Myra Thompson. It is shocking, Brooke, to think that that took place just five years ago. It seemed like just the other day. Yeah, it is shocking. It's still always really, really sad to see someone, a white supremacist, went into a church. And, you know, I always think about the segment. There was a segment on Fox

News that I saw was clipped, and it was like they were saying, they were trying to argue a couple of anchors that he wasn't a white supremacist, that if the motivation was just to kill black people, he would have went into a basketball court or a rap concert or something like that, if historically you wouldn't just, like, always find the most Black people at a church. At churches everywhere. Um, but that, you know, it was so intentional,

and just even the way we talked about it, and still we're now still in this space where people are arguing that it's so physically important to them to have these racist heroes have monuments. These people, they didn't even live in the same time. They know how awful these people are. We are still in that space. And also at the same time, still in that space within five years where white supremacists walked into a church and killed nine people, nine people who have families, nine people who were just worshiping the Lord, nine people who were welcoming to him.

I don't know what to say about it. Scott. You know, I think about just pure evil that day. It was so overwhelming from an emotional standpoint. And then you had the family the next day in court at the hearing, and they were still religious and emotional and forgiving this young man for his just awful acts. And then I realized that he was alive,

and those nine people, our brothers and sisters, were dead and that he should be dead. He should not have lived. The police took him to McDonald's afterwards in almost solidarity with him, silent solidarity. if he were black and the congregation were white, that all of them would be dead and that black killer would be dead and not to take away from the power of their death or the strength from their death, but just how unequal justice is in America. So I thought about that.

I thought about when he got convicted, got convicted at the federal level and state level, but that he survived those attacks. He survived those attacks. And so just a really solemn moment. We should pray for them, honor them, remember them, but make their death stand for something. And these are the moments, the George Floyd moments that we're standing for, but we're standing for them too.

They died so we could stand for this moment that we're experiencing in America. Robert? 10 a.m. on Sunday remains the most segregated hour in American life. The silence of the white church on this killing and in remembrance of this killing has been deafening, not just contemporaneously at the time, but since. We always hear from the religious right about attacks on Christianity, attacks on the church. You know, is there a gay Teletubby? It's an attack on the church. You're saying happy holidays, it's very Merry Christmas.

It's an attack on the church. This was an actual, literal, physical attack on the church. The body of Christ was attacked by pure evil, by the manifestation of evil in human form. And we have not heard and we have not seen the rallying of the major white religious congregations and denominations around the black church to find out what we can do holistically to root out white supremacy. Clearly, we know that it was a white. There are pictures of the guy with Confederate flags. He has manifestos written. We know that he is a white supremacist, but the white Christian conservative churches have yet to confront white supremacy in their own ranks, and they have been definitely silent on this issue.

I think that tells us more about where we are when we talk about being a post-racial America than anything else. But you would think that the church would be a unifying force between black people and brown people. You would think, just if you think about their concepts and precepts and religion and faith in God and Jesus Christ and the Christian values and the Judeo-Christian principles,

and yet still, it cannot overcome racism between those two groups. Why do you think that is? Easy. It can't overcome racism between those two groups. Why do you think that is? Easy. It can't overcome racism because the very racists are sitting in the pews. And you also have these white church leaders

who are in denial. Yeah, yeah. And to Roland's point, and to Roland's point, remember during slavery, we would yell out in the name of Jesus to rescue us from slavery. And our we would yell out in the name of Jesus to rescue us from slavery. And our masters would yell out in the name of Jesus and give them the strength to beat us.

So they have a different interpretation often of the exact same scriptures. They have a very different interpretation of what their duty is and their roles are as Christians. And I think we have to confront that from a textual standpoint. I don't believe you can call yourself a Christian leader and not condemn and fight against and work to root out white supremacy in this nation, and that many of them have buried their heads in the sand. And the Mother Emanuel AME Church is a perfect example of that. Or the white supremacists themselves. So allow me to pick up on that particular point right there. You just used a very key phrase that I think is important, and that is they have buried their heads in the sand.

The Los Angeles Times did a big story where black folks in Hollywood began to talk about their experiences. Black folks began to share what they've dealt with, what they've gone through and the difficulties that they have faced. Same thing. Same thing has happened. Same thing has happened in

media. The other day, ABC there was a story that was done on Huffington Post about Barbara Fadida, essentially the number two person at ABC, who allegedly made some race some racist comments and now she's administrative leave and then they announced there's an external investigation what we're seeing the Pittsburgh Post Pittsburgh Post

Gazette where they have really a rebellion going on among their staff when it comes to pulling a black reporter off of covering the riots. We've seen Bon Appetit, Condé Nast. We've seen Anna Wintour come out with her comments. We've seen other people resign as well. See, while we are in the midst of all of these things happening, you know, also, there has to be a reckoning that takes place in mainstream media.

The Colonel Commission report in 1968 that studied the race rise in 67 said the media played a huge part in that. And I think what has happened is that part of the problem is that nobody reports on media. Nobody really reports on media in the same way.

Media outlets right now are asking questions about this company and their staff and this company, what they're doing, and this company and their statements and this company, what they're doing, and this company and their statements. But what are these media companies doing? The reason that that brought my attention is that, and I'm linking this to Mother Emanuel

because I was on Twitter, and go to my iPad. I saw Jason Johnson tweeted this. A friend just reminded me today is the fifth anniversary of Mother Emanuel assassination. There's been so much black death from police, vigilante violence over the last month, I'd forgotten I wrote this NBC news piece about the friend I lost that night.

And the piece was from five years ago. But you have to ask yourself the question, hold up. Here's Jason Johnson writing about a friend, Reverend Clemente Pickney, who he worked with, who died in Mother Emanuel. Same date where Paul Howard, of course, is bringing the charges down there in Georgia. Why is Jason Johnson not on the air at MSNBC?

Four months ago, Jason Johnson was taken off of the air. Comments that he made with regards to Nina Turner and Breonna Gray working on the campaign of Bernie Sanders. And there were other people who said, okay, he shouldn't have made those comments. He immediately apologized. Four months? Four months? He's still off the air?

We're in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic impacting black people. We're dealing with George Floyd. We're dealing with somebody who is a professor at an HBCU, Morgan State, who used to write for The Root, now writes for The Griot, who is one of your more visible faces. We saw him consistently throughout on the air

when it came to the impeachment. But what's the deal? How can media demand transparency on the air when it came to the impeachment. But what's the deal? How can media demand transparency from other companies but the media won't be transparent? Why won't MSNBC executives say, what's the deal with Jason Johnson? Did he piss somebody off?

Does he still work there? Clearly he does. Why isn't he on the air? I'm raising that point because media must learn to do what they demand of other people. When you watch these news shows, they will demand, where's the transparency from Trump? Where's the transparency from Congress? They'll demand those things. When we at NABJ released our statement, I'm vice president digital, when we released our statement about ABC on Saturday, we said do an outside investigation and make the results public. I believe folks in this moment where

we're talking about do black lives matter? Mainstream media has to answer the question. Do senior black media executives matter? Do black anchors matter? Do black reporters matter? Do black contributors matter? Do black commentators matter? See, media can't be demanding of other people what media won't do themselves. And I still say part of the fundamental problem we have in this country as to why we really haven't properly addressed a lot of these issues is because mainstream media looks the same as most of these advertising agencies, as most of these corporations, as Congress, as most of these places where we are essentially non-existent. Now, you might say, okay, yeah, but Jason Johnson is a commentator. It's been four months. How long must the person be on the sidelines and nobody say anything? This is critical because if our voices are important,

don't they need to be on the air? And I want to see more than Jelani Cobb. I want to see more than Eddie Glaude. I want to see more than Jonathan Capehart. I want to see more than Jonathan Capehart. I want to see Ellie Mistel. I want to see other brothers and sisters. I want to see more

black men commentating on television. I want to see more black men and black women being legal analysts and political analysts and economists and breaking down these various issues. I am not satisfied with what we are seeing. And let me be real clear.

I was on MSNBC on Saturday, Saturday and Sunday. In fact, it was shocking. I've been on the last three weeks. I came to the last time I was on MSNBC three consecutive weeks. This is not about me trying to get a job because I've been fighting with black folks for a long time. What I am saying is this here. Every single mainstream media corporation in America, including NBC slash MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, ABC, NBC, CBS, all of them must,

must be far more transparent and honest about what's happening on the inside because largely white men are running these organizations and they are deciding who gets to go on and who doesn't all i'm saying is the brother been on the sideline for four months you think it's long enough all i'm saying is you got black folks in your operations who ain't been promoted in 10 years is that that long enough? The reckoning is happening in the advertising industry, in the fashion industry, it's happening in the athletic apparel industry.

It's time for it to happen in the media industry. Because enough is enough. Because if you dare cover on the air saying Black Lives Matter outside your building, they damn sure should matter on the matter outside your building they damn sure sure sure should matter on the inside of your building gotta go to a break we come back systemic racism what's wrong

with these republicans it's all over the place media included and politics because that is America. That's next. All right. So a lot of y'all always asking me about terms, some of the pocket squares that I wear. Now I don't know. Robert don't have one on. Now I don't particularly like the white pocket squares. I don't like even the silk ones. And so I was reading GQ magazine a number of years ago, and I saw this guy who had this pocket square here and it looks like a flower. This is called a shibori pocket square. This is how the Japanese manipulate the fabric to create this sort of flower effect. So I'm going to take it out and then place it in my hand so you see what it looks like.

And I said, man, this is pretty cool. And so I tracked down, it took me a year to find a company that did it. And so they basically have about 47 different colors. And so I love them because, again, as men, we don't have many accessories to wear. So we don't have many options. And so this is really a pretty cool pocket screen. And what I love about this here is you saw when it's in the pocket, you know, it gives you that flower effect like that but if i wanted to also unlike other because if i flip it and turn it over it actually gives me a different type of texture

so therefore it gives me a different look so there you go so if you actually want to uh get one of these shibori pocket squares we have them in 47 different colors all you got to do is go to rolling this martin.com forward slash pocket squares so it's rolling this martin.com forward slash pocket squares all you got to do is go to my website uh and you can actually get this now for those of you who are members of our bring the funk fan club there's a discount for you to get our pocket squares that's why you also got to be a part of our bring the funk fan club. And so that's what we want you to do. And so it's pretty cool. So if you want to jazz your look up, you can do that. In addition, y'all see me with some of the feather pocket squares. My sister was a designer. She actually

makes these. They're all custom made. So when you also go to the website, you can also order one of the customized feather pocket squares right there at rollingnessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So please do so. And, of course, that goes to support the show. And, again, if you're a Bring the Funk fan club member, you get a discount. This is why you should join the fan club. All right, folks.

Texas is the only state official holiday of Juneteenth. Well, guess what? They now got some company. Uh, Virginia now says it's gonna be Juneteenth's official holiday in the state that was once home to the capital of the Confederacy. Pharrell, a native of Virginia, was there today for the announcement. It makes sense that Virginia officially recognizes

this holiday in this powerful way, and that's because it's been overlooked for so long. This is our chance in Virginia to lead by example. This is our chance to lead, to truly embrace the importance of Juneteenth and treat it as a celebration of freedom that black people deserve and African diaspora deserve. Worldwide, by the way. This is about proper recognition, it's about observation, and it's about celebration. This is a chance for our government,

our corporations, and our citizens to all stand in solidarity with their African-American brothers and sisters. Juneteenth, of course, is the day that General Granger, Gordon Granger, went on the shores of Galveston, Texas in 1865, notifying slaves in Texas that they were free. Well, Texas, led by the late Congressman Al Edwards, made this a state holiday.

It's also called in some places Emancipation Day and Freedom Day, celebrated annually on June 19th. It became a state holiday in It's also called in some places Emancipation Day and Freedom Day, celebrated annually on June 19th. It became a state holiday in Texas in 1980. It's going to be a paid day off for all Virginia State employees. 43 other states in the District of Columbia commemorate or recognize the day, but not as an official holiday.

Brooke, also it's happening. All these different companies out here now, yeah, you got the day off. I mean, the NFL and like, I mean, I saw all these different companies out here. Now, yeah, they are. I mean, the NFL and, like, I mean, I saw all these companies. Boy, as a matter of fact, ABC announced yesterday they're doing a Juneteenth special. I mean, black folks are involved. It's in to be black now.

Brooke, you there? Yeah, no. Go ahead. I'm interested. I hope that there are a lot of black people involved over at ABC because I'm excited to watch it. And they just had a great special on Black Wall Street. So that's great. Also, the holiday, finally, better late than never.

But we celebrate in a weird way. We celebrate a lot. A couple of holidays, the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, that weren't so great for a large group of American people. We celebrate those holidays because they're about the beginning of this country. It is about time that we celebrate human beings.

It's just simple to me. Bottom line, Scott, again, boy, I mean, everybody named Mama, all of a sudden, it's kind of like, okay, holiday, Juneteenth, gotcha, y'all off. Everybody off. I got a memo today, all personnel from my global managing partner celebrating Juneteenth and ended his statement with, we believe that all black lives matter in bold. And I got to tell you, big law firms, corporations, professional service firms, accounting firms, you name it, in not a million years, but I think that while they may have believed that,

they're going a step further and saying we're going to have a zero tolerance policy for racism, not just being anti-racist, but having zero tolerance for it. You should take that to your community, which is the next level of eradicating racism from America. And so I think this is hope. I hope this is George Floyd's moment that gives us not only the hope, but the implementation. And if we do that, we can eliminate generational racism, make it unacceptable. But it's going to take some tough, fearless conversations with people that don't look like us and with each other to have a zero tolerance for racism.

I got buddies who use racial slurs and I've corrected them and that they cannot be at my house if they want to use those terms. And I've made them think about it and they've agreed. But it starts with each and every one of us, black and white folks for that matter.

Robert? And Roland, two points. One on the point you were making about the media and the lack of diversity. I put together this research study on blacks in the media in 2000 and... Hold on, hold on. Pull it back, pull it back.

We can't see it. Pull it back. Now we can see it. Go ahead, go ahead. Yeah, 2008, I put together a research study on the inequities of blacks in the media. Most of the people in that picture are still there because they have done no efforts,

no work at diversifying, no efforts at really building up the back half of the newsrooms. It's still, when you look at the interns and the bookers, the people who are going to be working their way up to the news desk in 10 years, they're almost all from the same lily-white Ivy League institutions.

And now 12 years after I put that study together, the numbers are frankly worse. And on the Juneteenth holiday, I like the gesture, but we're going to start turning or enforcing field orders from the Civil War. Enforce Sherman's field order number 15 and give me my 40 acres and a mule. Tell me when they're going to start distributing that

and putting that stuff into activation. And that's when I'll start getting excited. I appreciate the day off and the acknowledgement. Sherman's field order number 15 is what we need to be fighting for. There you go. All right, folks, what's interesting here is that you got people in power who are saying systemic racism, oh my God, doesn't exist. Here's Larry Cutlow on CNBC. On this idea of creating an equal V, you said, I don't believe there's systemic racism in the U.S., which I found surprising given the moment that we're in, Larry, and given the economic data,

which has only exacerbated the inequality we've seen post-COVID-19. Can you just clarify what you meant? Well, I don't believe in systemic racism. I think the American system is the best system ever devised for mankind for history. We are liberty. We are equality. We are fairness. We have come a long way in this country. Now, I will grant you there are some people who may be racist. I will also grant you and the police there are some bad apples. But my view has always been folks have good hearts in this country and folks do not work in the basis of discrimination and folks understand the need for equality and opportunity. Here's a thought. President Obama, the first

black president, was elected twice, and he got 79 million white votes, 79 million in two elections. Now, therefore, I find it hard to understand something called systemic racism. Now, can changes be made? Absolutely. President Trump is going to put out an executive order. Come on. I'm going to need to woosah. Larry. Larry. Larry.

When Thurgood Marshall became the first African American on the Supreme Court, racism in the criminal justice system did not just magically disappear. When Douglas Wilder became the first black governor elected since Reconstruction in Virginia, racism in Virginia did not just magically evaporate. You do understand that when Deval Patrick became the elected governor in Massachusetts, racism in that state did not just disappear. The reality is this, Larry Cutlow, is that systemic racism means

that the system has been built and infiltrated and it has been running on racism. Larry, you are supposedly a financial guy. When did black people start showing up on Wall Street? Larry, what's the percentage of African Americans who get venture capital dollars? Larry, what's the percentage that black people are managing money? The federal almost one trillion dollar pension fund.

Larry, how many black Fortune 500 CEOs are there? There are less today than they were a decade ago. This is the thing about these white guys who just can't stand being challenged on systemic racism because they are the system. Here's Renita Gupta, CEO, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, talking this week to Texas Senator John Cornyn about this very issue. Senator Cornyn, in the United States of America, it's a little difficult to disentangle those two. And I don't think there's an institution in this country that isn't suffering from structural racism given our history. I think

the goal of taking action in this moment is to recognize that there are things that Congress can do to end the killings in our streets, to provide law enforcement with greater training support, to make national standards on things that frankly should have been national standards years ago. This is the time to take action given the pain on the streets and in communities. And this is just the reality of what communities have been experiencing. But there is action. I don't have very long to ask questions. So let me ask you, you changed the phrase from systemic to structural racism. What does that mean? That means every thing,

every institution, every person in America is a racist? It means that there is bias built into existing institutions and the policing. There have been any number of courageous police chiefs that have spoken to the history of systemic racism and policing as well. Do you think systemic or structural racism can exist in a system that requires individual responsibility? Or do you think it's one or the other? I think every American institution has been kind of shaped by these forces. And our goal is to do what we can as policymakers, as advocates, to take that out and to provide and to try to fight it in the modern day iterations that it appears. Well, do you believe that basically all Americans are racist?

I think we all have implicit bias and racial bias. Yes, I do. Wow. And I think that we are an amazing country that strives to be better every single day. It's why I went to government to make a more perfect union. Well, you lost me when you want to take the axe of a few misguided perhaps. See, that right there, Robert. I love when white folks want to play that game.

Are you saying that all are racist? Are you saying that you're stuck on stupid? I think what the problem is, is that I think all white people need to take one semester at HBCU just so they can understand the nomenclature, just so they can understand what we are talking about. The foundation of America is racism. The foundation of America is racism. If it was not racism against the American Indians, if it wasn't for that, then there would be no nation.

If it wasn't for the racism and enslavement of Africans, they would build no nation. If it wasn't for all of our institutions, our government, it's enshrined into the Constitution, the three-fifths compromise. It's enshrined in our court system. We have Dred Scott and Plessy v. Ferguson. It's enshrined in our businesses. Every part of American society is built upon layer upon layer upon layer of racism. So until you realize that and recognize it and admit to it, then you cannot fix it. Because what Cornyn was talking about, this idea of individualism, individual values,

no one is saying that every single individual in America is racist. What we're saying is by sending black children to less funded schools, you give them a worse chance of succeeding in life. By having more police officers patrolling black neighborhoods, making disproportionate numbers of arrests, you make it more difficult to gain property value in those communities. When you're looking at the influx of drugs, there is not one single poppy field in the United States owned by black folks. There's no black person growing cocaine anywhere that is coming through the border that's coming to america we're not guns are not being manufactured in the black community they just show up here so you have to look at the systemic nature of these things if you want to climb out of it if you want to say that it's just the

individual then you're missing the point i just get a kick bro, out of these people who act as if, no, no, these things just don't exist. The Russell Building in Washington, D.C., the United States Senate Building in D.C., is named after one of the most virulent races ever to serve in Congress. Where is he from, Robert? What? I forgot. Where? Your state. I know. I'm trying to I have to look. I'm looking

out a window and I can see off in the distance Stone Mountain. That's how entrenched it is in this country. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't want to go to Atlanta. The Senate building where their offices are located is a monument, Brooke, to one of the greatest races in the United States Senate history. Right, but this is not about ignorance. This is intentional. And so we can do all of this

educating and pointing facts out and doing that, but where we are right now with certain people and those two videos that we just saw back to back, that's about intent. It's not about ignorance. When we focus on education and let me explain and let me do this, it is about intent. Because you have to make a decision to feel like you want to center yourself as a white person, as if you are an expert on how Black Americans move through the world every day in this country.

That's a decision that you have to make to say, I'm going to talk over you. I'm going to center myself. I'm going to talk over to you. I'm going to tell you how it is from my white perspective. And I think that that matters at all in a conversation about how Black people experience this world, how Black people experience racism, something that they have to know. They don't have the possibility

to fully understand as a white person. And so even being willing to just talk over people of color. Everybody, I say Black because I'm a Black person. We're talking about Blackness right now. But you, that's not about ignorance. Right. And also they do this thing that's very manipulative about being called a racist is more offensive than it is actually being racist.

And that is because that comes from somebody who's not willing to do the work. That comes from somebody who's not willing to change. That comes from somebody who doesn't even really care how they behave. They care what you say about them. And we're seeing that when it comes to police officers, too. A lot of good police are talking about they're so offended. Right, too. A lot of good police are talking about they're so offended by how this makes – how people are speaking about police officers as a whole. And they're mad at the civilians and how they talk about them and not necessarily the so-called bad apples who are doing the work that actually makes them look bad.

And so if somebody from a friend, somebody I care about says, hey,, you're a jerk, of course, I don't want to be called a jerk. But I also don't want to harm my friend. So I am going to figure out what I'm doing that's jerk behavior. Because I care about that. I care about how my friends perceive me. These people don't care. Well, here's the deal. Here's the deal.

It's not about ignorance. It's about the fact that they don't care. Here's the deal. They don't want to hear you. They don't want to hear how you experience life. It's real simple. It's just real simple. And that is this here.

There's a reason why I rarely call people racist. Because then the problem is the conversation goes into racist, not racist. You know, what I'm going to do is I'm going to talk about what you do. I'm going to talk about what you say. I'm going to talk about exactly what happens. And so if I was sitting there and he was like, oh, my God, there's this. And I would have said, yes, look at this room.

Let's look at your staff. Let's look at all staffs. Let's look at this here. See, my deal is we're not going to sit here and fight over racists, all the racists, not racists. No, I'm going to show you the numbers and the data, and then you're going to have to defend those numbers. So that's the piece there. Y'all, real quick, like, literally,

you got 20 seconds and I gotta go. Understand, John Cornyn got to the Senate in 2002. When he was there, Strom Thurmond was still in the Senate until 2003. Don't act like you don't know what racism is. Bottom line is Richard Russell served in the United States Senate for 41 years, and the Russell building is a monument

to a virulent racist. Folks, thanks a lot. I appreciate it. Folks, how many of you have been seeing these videos circulating on social media? Play it. You want proof? Again? Come on, bro. How do you do this?

Let's go, IT. Let's go, IT. We celebrate you. Let's go Let's go I see Let's go Get it. Don't play with me. Next challenge. What about this one? Do it. WNBA ball. I am in the store.

All right, guys. That's the wrong one. We already played that one. All right, come. There you go. All right, y'all. In there like swimwear. You know, you should have given me something hard.

I'm going to do it with a shoe off. Leave the car running, please, nephew. Keep it moving. I got you. I got you. Yeah! Cash. Cash.

Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash.

Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash.

Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash.

Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash.

Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash.

Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash.

Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. Cash. How's she going to get back in the car and take a damn nap? She is Dr. Chantel Trimotier. I hope I got it right. A former WNBA point guard. And she also is at Auburn University. It was so funny, y'all. So I was trying to find it. I was telling people I want to get on the show.

And then I realized the Auburn Tigers, they blocking me on Twitter. Maybe because I'm a Texas A&M graduate. I was talking some smack, and we beat that ass. That's probably what happened, and they blocked me. So, Doc, all right, so where the hell do these challenges start? And all of a sudden, they're going crazy on TikTok, and now they're calling you Auntie Curry. Well, you know, associating Curry might be a little too much uh right now but you know what roland i

was i was just um i said you know what is this tiktok thing and and started throwing them up a little bit and and uh minding my own business uh and then some folks some young men started coming after me coming for me on on uh tiktok saying oh you can't do that with WNBA bar. You can't do it with a men's ball. And then other commenters were saying, don't come after auntie, don't come after auntie. And so I had to come after them. And so, you know, I just started having fun with it. And, you know, folks started challenging me

and I'm trying to let them know, don't challenge me because I'm going to make the shot and then I'm going to come for you after I make it. Okay, so people are asking. They're all on YouTube. They're on Facebook. Like, what's the deal? They're like, okay, were these edited?

Did you actually hit these shots on the first try? You got people who are saying, ah, I can't believe she hit these on the first try. Well, I'm going to say this. A few of them, most of them, yes, on the first try. If I don't make a shot in three tries, then I'm sitting my tail down because I'm trying to do a trick shot. I'm not trying to be out there practicing. So, you know, I'm done practicing. So, yeah, they're done pretty early on, pretty early on.

So, I mean, obviously what's also got people talking is this attitude you got. This look you throw, the swagger. And you're like, don't challenge me. Right. You know, I'm trying to be like you, Roman. I have absolutely no filter. You know, I

grew up with 14 brothers and sisters, so I have absolutely no filter. I'm going to come after you. If you come after me, I don't care how old I am. I don't care how old you are. If you old enough to speak and get smart, you old enough for me to come after you. Period. Well, the video that I thought was hilarious when they were in the store

and folks were like, oh, I knew she was balling when she palm that ball. They're like, I knew something was coming. I mean, you got to be cracking up at the responses from people. You know, well, one, Roland, I was mad that when I palmed the ball that I dropped it. So usually I can palm the ball pretty well with about three fingers because I got unusually big hands. But, you know, I've been looking at some of the comments.

You know, I can't read all of them, obviously. And I appreciate all the love I'm getting. But, you know, the comments, both good and bad, you know, I figure they say more about the person commenting than they do about me. So, you know, I just take it with a grain of salt. And I'm going to have fun regardless and keep doing it. Now, you spent how many years in WNBA?

Four. Four years. And I was reading a story where your college coach at Stanford, I think it's Stanford, right? At Auburn. At Auburn. No, the college coach. Yeah, I was seeing her tweet, and she's like, yeah.

No, she recruited you. The Stanford coach recruited you, right? Well, her sister is the head coach at Stanford. Gotcha. There you go. And they were like, yeah, she's been balling for a long time. Like I said in my first video in the road, this ain't new to me. You know, they didn't have social media when I was playing.

They probably would have kicked me out the league for that. But they didn't have social media when I was playing. They probably would have kicked me out the league for that. But they didn't have social media. But, you know, I'm going to talk trash and always do. And, you know, I said one of the biggest things, Roland, that, you know, that happened is that, you know, Barack Obama followed me and somebody asked me, would you challenge him? I said, I'll talk trash to him too. It doesn't matter.

Okay, hold on. See, then you about to crack up laughing, so this is a true story. So Obama's... Straight up, Obama's president eight years, okay? And every time we're going to get together, play golf, eight years, he ain't never called me to play golf.

Now, he called all his other people, Trade Ambassador Ron Kirk. I see videos and photos of him playing golf with Anthony Anderson and my man Alonzo Mourning, all my people. And now, mind you, I'm left-handed, and he left-handed. Right.

And I'm sitting there going, and folks are like, well, you know, Roland, if you ever get a chance to play with the president, you know, you got to let him win. I was like, no, that's some bullshit. I said, no, we play. I said, no, that ain't where I come from. And so I made it clear.

I said, oh, if I play golf with Obama, I'm going to do exactly what I do with everybody else. I'm talking trash. Yes. Yes. It don't matter? I'm going to try and beat your ass regardless.

That's who I am anyways. Barack wants some of that. Look, now we're on a first-name basis. Barack, if you want some of that smoke, you can do that too. It's been fun. It's been fun. Right now, I posted a video today. I was going to shoot one backwards, but then I stopped right know, it's been fun. It's been fun. Right now, I'm trying, but I posted a video today.

I was gonna shoot one backwards, um, but then I stopped right before I shot it, because I said, I'm not, I'm not posting another video, Roland, until somebody give me a blue check. Ha ha! There you go. Now, here's the deal here. Alright, so, first of all, I got lots of people, uh, I got lots of people here,

uh, on YouTube, and they're asking, how old is she? What does she eat? Uh, she beautiful, her old age. They like, she young. They got questions for you. Well, my, you know, my fault about cussing. Am I allowed to cuss on here?

Yeah, it's called unfiltered. Oh, okay. Well, uh, first of all, all y'all who's saying, you know, uh, she look good for her age, she old, kiss my ass, because I am old, but you ain't got to say that I'm old. But, yeah, I'm the big 50 right now, so I just try to live right and eat right. You said 50?

Five-zero. Five-zero, because someone over here said six-zero. I want to make sure that we can check them. Right. They gone. Don't give me 10 more years. Good God. No, I'm not.

The hair is blonde. It's not gray. It's blonde. It's platinum blonde. Don't play with me. So have you been, and I, okay, so I'm on your Twitter page, and I keep seeing all these references to Ellen. Are you trying to get on, or were you on?

You're trying to get her attention. What's up? No, you know, at the end of the day, you know, I mean, I've always been a fan of Ellen, and, you know, my mom, who passed in 2017, was a huge fan of Ellen. And so I've always wanted to go on the show. Just a lot of people say, like, our personalities are alike. And so, you know, I want to be honest.

If I get on Ellen and she says, nice to meet you, I'm going to say, you're welcome. You know, and I don't want to have fun. But, like, Ellen's somebody I think me and her can hang out. Like, and just, you know, whatever. Or feed some gorillas or whatever. We could hang out. But she's not giving me any love yet. If you go on Ellen, you got to go on dancing.

You got rhythm? Come on now. Look. You going to put me up in front of all your, what's the power of this? I don't assume. All your fans? I don't assume. I can dance.

I got moves. Wow. Come on. Google my ass. I ain't going to get on there. Google my ass. But look, at the end of the day, yeah, that's what I love right there. I'm going to get on and dance.

I'm not Twitch. I'm not going to get on there like Twitch. But yeah, they're not going to make fun of me for dancing. I mean, but this still has to absolutely crack you up. And I'm telling you, what happened was, I kept seeing Auntie Curry, Auntie Curry, Auntie Curry, and I was like, what the hell are they talking about? Then I see the clips, and I was like, okay, I don't know who this is.

Because I ain't on TikTok. Never will be on TikTok. So I'm looking over here. Then I'm like, okay, y'all. I said, yeah, we got to get her on the show. And so I start putting this up, and I'm like, black people can find anybody real quick with black Twitter

and black Facebook. And then somebody gave me your Twitter feed, and so surely your stuff is just blown up. And I was thinking, you know how this thing goes, that, you know, granted we got COVID going on right now, but

I think surely WNBA or even the NBA should be giving you a call and say, hey, we got COVID going on right now, but I think that surely WNBA or even the NBA should be giving you a call and say, hey, we got to get you back in the mix. Well, you know, I'm too old for the WNBA. No, no, no, no, I don't mean playing, but I'm talking about halftimes or something, you know, that's fun and interesting. You know, I told, I tried to tell them,

I tried to tell my friends, well, first, before I say that, I'll say this, Rowan, you got some fans, because you had a lot of fans that were DMing me, saying that you were trying to find me. So, you got the love out there, but as far as, you know, the WNBA, I told them, I said, look,

I could be, like, if you put Stephen A. Smith and Charles Barkley into a female body, that's what I'm going to be. Except I'm not quite as obnoxious as Stephen A. Smith, but, like, that's what I would do for the WNBA game. Like, I mean, you know, on the anchor desk or whatever. I would just act up. But I don't know if they're ready for that.

All right. So here's, okay, since you said that. So I'm going to send this video to my boy Dave Roberts, who is a senior executive at ESPN. And Dave is actually over the morning shows, including first take. Yeah, I would love to see them put you between Stephen A. and Matt Kellerman and have it out.

And then what I'll do is I'm going to send an email to Adam Silver, as well as my man Mark Tatum. He a Kappa, who's the deputy commissioner of the NBA, and see what we can do. I mean, I know a couple of people. Well, I know you know a lot of people. When you're out there, can you tell Twitter or Instagram, give me a boot jack?

But, Roland, I hear through the mix that you a Sigma. Is that right? No, somebody locked their ass off. You see this ring? Zoom in right here, Anthony. Zoom in. That's number black. That's black and gold, baby. Life member.

Okay, okay. First of all, I ain't never met a Sigma under 55, so I can't be no Sigma. That wasn't even no consideration. Child, please. I might as well be non-Greek if that was my only choice. I love my Sigmas out there, but y'all know I ain't lying.

Right. I'm a Zeta, so I don't know why somebody said that you were a frat brother, but it's all love for the black and gold for me. It's all good. You know what? To be honest, you know what? At the end of the day, you were talking about COVID and all the crazy injustices going on in the world.

And at the end of the day, I'm having fun, but I understand that this is bigger than me. And if at the end of the day folks want want to, whether they want to make fun of it or laugh or whatever, if her 60-second video, they can forget what's going on and kind of just smile, then, you know,

I'm doing my job. So I'm just having fun with it. I'm going to keep going after I get my check. And we got some good challenges coming up. All right. Well, look, we're looking forward to it.

And, of course, I can't wait for the sports season to resume so my Texas A&M Aggies can handle them Auburn Tigers. Yeah, we'll see what they can do. We'll see what they can do. And if I ever get on in front of Stephen A. Smith, I'm shouting you out because Stephen A. Smith might retire after I get on.

Oh, oh, I'm going to have to send that to him. All right. Dr. Chantel, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Appreciate you. All right. Thanks a lot.

All right, y'all. Auntie Curry, great conversation right there, y'all. It's Wild Out Wednesday. We had way too much fun with her. Right now, my man, comedian Jay Lamont. What's up, Jay Lamont? Rolling, rolling. Are you there, brother?

I'm here, my brother. How you doing? Man, I'm hanging in there, man. I just got to do this. He's Roman. Whatever it is, he's knowing. Put it in there for Dr. Phil, the father, Tiz. I like that little theme song, man.

That's hitting right there. Well, that's in vogue. You know, Terry Ellis and Cindy Heron did that. They got with the producer. They did that, man. And they gifted that to me when we were at the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. They said, Ro, they said, what you do for the culture, we're giving you this song to use for your show.

Man, I got to do one for you one day, man. I got to do one. Maybe I could do one for you like an Isaac brother, you know. Oh, Roland, yeah. La, da, da, la, da, da. Roland, oh, yeah. And then bring Ernie. Oh, but maybe that's too much. I Oh, yeah. And then bring Ernie. La, la, la, la, la, rolling.

Oh, but maybe that's too much. I don't know. Maybe that's too much. Oh, yeah. I don't know. That might be it. Now, you sent me a text. You got a new song out?

You do songs? Well, you know what? What you got? Well, a lot of people don't know, man. I used to be in an R&B group. You know, music is my background. So I was doing music first before I got into comedy. And so I sent you a song of one of my singles that I put out last year. It's called Celebrate, man.

It's been big all over the UK. It was in the top 30 R&B chart over there. So it's funny because a lot of the folks, when I get hits from folks in the UK, they only hit me up as a music artist. They don't know that I do comedy. So it's like I have a different identity over that way. So I'm working on a new album right now. I've got an EP out that's streaming on all outlets,

iTunes, CD Baby, so you got to check it out. So I wanted to send you that song, man. I think you'll like it. So basically, in the UK, that's like your Vegas name. I guess you could say. I guess you could say, yeah. They don't know the comedy stuff. They know the music stuff.

Yeah, they know the music stuff, but they don't know the comedy stuff. But one thing I have to say about you, man, I've known you for a long time, man. See, I watch you all the time. Let me just let everybody know. I am a true Roland Martin fan, and it's nothing to do with the fact that I know you. But you know what?

You should have a commentary segment called, But the Reality Is. Because I noticed how many times you – I know your viewers know that. I think I must have counted you saying that maybe 17 times today. But the reality is – but I want you all to hear me. Hear me right now as I unpack this, okay? Oh, I said, yeah, he about to go there. He said, let me get my offering plate. You about to preach. I know your wife is the preacher,

but let me just take you there, okay? She got papers. I'm bullying. I just want to get to an organ and say, you better come on, Roland. But the reality is, if you could just say it like that, but the reality is, if you could just say it like that, but the reality is when you say that you are racist, but let me unpack this.

Let me, see, that should be your, that should be the title of your segment right there. Let me unpack this, but the reality is. Well, we actually, we actually call it, like when I really go in, we call it a deconstruction. Uh-huh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So like when I had to get in Kanye's ass when he was in the White House,

I said, let me deconstruct what Kanye said. So when you hear me say, I'm about to deconstruct this, what that really means is I'm about to get in that ass. I'm about to deconstruct this. Yes. What that really means is I'm about to get in that ass. I'm about to actually break it and just separate it

and just throw that suck out. And you do. And you do. That's why they hate you, because you keep it real. See, that's one thing. See, that's the pandemic right there. See, truth is a pandemic for them, because they don't want to hear that truth.

That's why they don't want to hear what you got to say. That's what I love about you because when you deconstruct it, see, that means you're taking the building, the blocks, you're taking the blocks down and then unpacking it. And then, but the reality is. That's what kills me when you say that, but the reality is. I love it.

There are two things that I break down. First of all, I want to say what the reality is. Now, when you really, really, if y'all really listen, this is when you know I'm about to straight getting somebody ass when I say first of all.

Like, I'm giving you warning. The heat's about to come when I say first of all. See, right there, when you hear first of all, you should sit here and gird your underloins. I'm ready. Because it's coming.

It's coming. I'm ready. Actually, I had at Alicia Keys Black Ball several years ago, ran to Terrence Howard, and I was talking to Marvin Gaye's ex-wife and Terrence said, you know what? You know what I really love about you? He said,

man, is when you, he said, when you start laughing, I said, oh, no, no, no. I said, let me help you with the laughing is. Yeah. I said, when I'm debating, I did this with Glenn Beck on CNN. Y'all, Jay, when I say that boy walked off that set like he had got run over by a truck,

he said some nonsense, I start laughing. Oh, my God. And he goes, oh, I'm so glad you're so dismissive. I said, no, no, no, no, no. I want you to go ahead and finish your comment. I'm going to deal with you when you're done. And you said it straight, man. That's why they're so scared of you.

Oh, he wouldn't. You said it straight. Okay, straight up. The producers loved it. They wanted us to debate the next day. He was like, nope. I said, dog, I'm available. 12, we can pre-record it.

We can go live. He's like, nope, nope. He told him, I will never. He said, this, I'm available. 12, we can pre-record it. He's like, nope, nope. He told him, I will never... He said, this was in 2008. He said, I will never go on CNN again unless it's just me and the host. And you, oh, wow. No, he would not...

Glenn Beck had me on his show one time. He wouldn't even have me in the studio. He had two guests next to him had me by the camera down the hall. Oh, my God. But that was the first time. After I laid that ass out, he never had me back. But Glenn Beck was like, he told him,

I will not go. Forget I ain't going on with him. I ain't going on with nobody. And I was like, say, bro, let's roll. They cannot handle you, man. They cannot handle you. That's what I love about it, man. But the reality is, see, you have to let him know,

but the reality is, you see what I'm saying? You know what? You need to get Obama on, man, or something like that. Or if you can't get Obama on, get me on, because I heard he's going to be going back out to help Joe Biden, I guess, for his campaign. So first of all, look, I only interviewed Obama one time during the eight years of his presidency.

Look, they were a little scared of me, too. What? Yeah, no, he didn't even do an exit interview with me, him or Michelle, but I told him, I said, look, again, so you got to understand, I'm black. Right, right. Period. I'll take his place.

Don't worry, if you can't get him, I'll stand in for him. So let's see you go and stand in. So he's about to do a fundraiser for Joe Biden. So President Obama, why are you raising money for Joe Biden? Well, Roland, here's the thing. Here's the thing. Let me be clear about this as far as the, like what you just said, that you only interviewed me one time.

And I know it was hard, but I felt the need that I had to do what I had to do in order to do what I can do by doing what I will do to help Joe. Joe has a lot to learn. He has a lot to learn as far as how to talk the talk and walk the walk. You see what I'm saying, Roland?

See, I got him. I'll do that for you. You know, bow, wow, wow, yippee, yo, yippee, yeah. Throw your hands in the air, wave them like you just don't care. You know, not that he's gonna say that all the time. You see what I'm saying? So, uh, Donald Trump has really been running you down a lot.

Oh. My God. I don't know what to say about him. I just don't know what to say about him. The one thing that I will say, I wish and wish what to say about him. I just don't know what to say about him. The one thing that I will say, I wish and wish that he would just keep my name out of his mouth. Because one day, one day soon, I'm going to come up on him and I'm going to pimp slap that ass.

I'm going to pimp slap him so hard. I know Michelle doesn't want me to, but one day I will. And we will throw it out. I just don't understand him. We've got to get him out. And the only way that we've got to get him out is to vote. Don't boo. Vote. That's all you've got to do. Oh, yeah.

Up in the heezy for sheezy for shizzle my nizzle. That's what we've got to do. That's what we've got to do. Oh, man. Jay Lamont always have you here. Got to have you back. First of all, what's your cash app for the folks watching that want to show you some love? Hey, man, if you want to show me some love, God bless you if you can. My

cash app is $HumaniPod. That's my nickname, Roland. They call me HumaniPod. So $HumaniPod. That's my cash app. And Roland, I'm going to let them know if you want to get my live DVD, go to my website, vjlamont.com. T-H-E-J-A-Y-L-A-M-O-N-T.com. That's my DVD and my music streaming on all outlets.

Just type it in, Jay Lamont. Y'all, he got comedy DVD. He got music. I'm doing it all. He probably selling some candy bars for the basketball team. I got to, man. So, you know, do what you got to do. I need money.

I understand. I understand, man. Yes, Lord. Glad to have you on the show, brother. All right, Roll. All right, good got to do. So, Jay. I need money. I understand. I understand, man. Yes, Lord. Glad to have you on the show, brother. All right, bro. All right, good to see you. Thanks a lot. Look forward to having you back.

All right, man. Wild Night Wednesday, always fun. Hey, folks, Friday, of course, Netflix debut, Spike Lee's The Five Bloods, a fantastic movie. Here's my interview with Norm Lewis, a huge supporter of this show. Check it out. I absolutely enjoyed this film,

The Five Bloods, and the consistent theme that in my conversation with Delroy, of course, with Clark, is that this movie really is about Brotherhood and the love between black men. Yeah. Yeah It definitely it definitely like signifies that and you don't see that you don't get a chance to see that ever in film and television and it not be something that is a negative. And so the dynamic that you saw on the film with us is the dynamic that actually was happening offstage too. Spike knew how to cast us,

and he knew what he wanted from all of us to make these characters come to life. Well, and the thing is, the thing that, again, in watching it, is that when you, in watching it, um... is that when you talk about brotherhood, brotherhood doesn't mean we all get along all the time. Right.

But what it means is, and this is what I... in my chat with Delroy, that there is a force that exists that no matter what you're going through, no matter what your personal issues, no matter what the arguments, that we're going to come back together and keep it together.

And that's why I love that whenever something happened, where y'all put the hands in the center and all were touching and connecting because that was saying, no matter what, we're going to all still be here together. We're going to get over it, but we cannot lose this bond.

Right. And I think it was elevated and intensified by the fact that we were going through this war and having to depend on each other so heavily because it's life and death. It wasn't, you know, like we were playing tennis out there. We were out there fighting for our rights, fighting for... We were actually fighting two different wars. We were fighting for America, but we were also fighting some of the soldiers

that were there, too. Once we started signifying who we were with the DAP, did they talk about the DAP when you talked to Delroy and Clark? That's what I'm saying. That was that thing that... I didn't get into it with them, but go ahead.

The DAP actually stands for dignity and pride. And there were different DAPs for the different units and for different platoons, for different parts. You could tell what unit someone belonged to by the DAP that they did. And it was one of those things that we tried know, we tried to be very authentic with it. It took us a long time to get those. I think we had to learn like five of them. They were a little complicated. God.

And Spike would always say, yo, give me some dap. Or like, let me see the dap. And so you didn't know. So you always had to be ready. So every time we would get, every morning we would get up, even at breakfast, we would give each other some dap, some sort of form of dap just so we could be ready for spike. But that was, that right there, you know,

though doing that showed pride and, like I said, dignity and pride, but it, some folks didn't like it over there. Some of the white officers did not like that. And in fact, if they caught you doing it, you might get arrested doing the dap. So they were fighting two different wars, you know, while they were there.

Mm. And that was it. And I think what Spike gave people a sense of that because you had this tumultuous time, you had this Black Freedom Movement, then you had America's reaction to Tommy Jacks, to Tommy Smith, to John Carlos, America's

reaction to Muhammad Ali, but the same, America's reaction to Muhammad Ali. But the same country wanted black folks to hug that flag and swear allegiance to America, but a nation that didn't love them back. Absolutely. And, you know, it's interesting, too, because I didn't know this history. You know, my cousin was a soldier

in the Army in the Vietnam War, and he married a Vietnamese woman and brought back her and the three kids that he fathered with her. So that was my only experience with knowing what was going on over there. And a lot of soldiers, no matter white or black, have a hard time expressing what that was,

that experience was over there. So I didn't really get to hear too many stories. But I had no idea about the black culture over there. And knowing that there was, I think the numbers are 11% of Americans in America was what the ratio was. And then it was 33% of African-American soldiers, black soldiers. So there was a disproportionate number of black soldiers that we didn't know about. I had no idea. Yeah, I mean, it was...

And, you know, I remember the Million Man March. I remember the day before the Million Man March going down to the Vietnam Memorial. And I remember standing there and looking at that wall and then looking down the mall where we were going to be the next day and saying to a friend of mine, I wonder what Black America would have looked like

if those brothers were not shipped off to Vietnam. Right. It's really interesting that you bring that up because I know a lot of people who are, you know, who fight this Black Lives Matter movement or fight black rights bring up the narrative that, you know, it's about the significance of having the father in the home. all these young black men who had just graduated from high school or college and take them over there and they're killed. And then you come back to this racist sort of, I don't want to say society, but this racist just injustice. And people are getting arrested for no reason or getting these sentences

that were lighter sentences for their white counterparts. No wonder there was no black father in the home from the 70s to the 80s to the 90s. You cannot say. These statistics are just so off for me. And I want to do more research on that. The other thing I thought was, what was quite interesting is just

the personal toll these characters had to deal with. Everything wasn't all great and rosy. The character of Delroy Lindo, the PTSD, the pain Clark Peters was in, even though your character, everything was supposed to be all

wonderful and gravy. You then reveal it's not. Right. It showed the complexities. It showed grown men and what they've had to go through since that experience of being in that jungle together. Right, and also just the fact that we're human.

You know, we're showing human stories. It's not this monolith of these people who are downtrodden and going through all this stuff and living poorly and living in ghettos and all this stuff. That's real, but not everybody's that same way. And, you know, my character being this fun-loving guy, but what I, you know, actually seeing the film again, I forgot about how intently I was watching Norman

chat with Bozeman, tell us and give us his wisdom and tell us history and try to uplift us. And so I was really absorbing that, and I was like, I lost that along the way because I was thinking that success was making money and having women and all this fun time, and then I lost all of that. And then I went back to that narrative,

especially when I come back to get him and I come back to get the goal. And the fact that Spike also linked that moment, not just being Black in Vietnam, but also that period with Black Lives Matter. Right, right.

Linking the past with the present. Well, you know, it's interesting that you bring that up because I've had a lot of my white friends, non-Black friends, I should say, reach out to me and give me their support and they love me and they see me and things like that, which is wonderful. One person in particular wanted, he's an artist, and wanted to put a sign. He's like, he doesn't feel that the term Black Lives Matter really was enough. So he

wanted to make a sign that says Black people matter. And we were like, dude, that's great. Thank you. Thank you so much. But we've been saying Black Lives Matter for years, for decades. It's just been in different ways, different forms. You coming up with this new term, that's fine.

But right now, it is Black lives. It's not just Black people. Yeah, we know Black people matter, but Black lives matter. And so we thank him for wanting to reach out and making a difference, but listen to what we're saying and how we're saying it. And now you got people in Japan and Italy and the UK

all saying Black lives matter all at one time. Because the reality is white supremacy is worldwide. I mean, you look at what's happening with African immigrants in European countries. You look at what's happening, I mean, all over the world. In Belgium, they're taking down King Leopold's statue because of the number of Congolese who he killed. I mean, he killed more...

He's responsible for killing more people of African descent in the Congo than Hitler killed Jews in Germany. And people don't know that. That's the thing. People don't know that history. They don't. They don't, which is also part of the problem because actually it hasn't been history.

It's been history. Yeah, exactly. And that's the case with this as well, because when you look at all of these films, Don, you look at just, you know, all of these films, you know, when Spike did Miracle at St. Anna, it was a film about black soldiers in World War II. Out of all these other films,

yeah, you had black characters, but you never had a Vietnam era where the epicenter, the nucleus of the storyline. And that's what it was. That is the... That's the fact right there. If anybody wants facts, that's the fact right there. You know, I just... I'm a little older than you are, so, you know, listen to an old man like myself. I just remember when I was in school,

I just... Being in history class, you know, we would study the pilgrims came over. And then, you know, there was a few more years and all of a sudden George Washington was the president. And then all of a sudden we had slaves and Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. And then it was World War One. And that was it. That was all I remember. And it took roots when roots came out, that's when it was like, oh, wait a minute, back up. There was some stories here, a vast amount of stories. And we need to kind of relive those and understand those

and teach our kids that, you know. Most of your career has been on the Broadway stage. As opposed to TV or the big screen. And so what made you want to do this? Well, I got a call from Spike. So the story is Spike called me. We've known each other for a little bit. We've seen each other at events.

And he's come to see me do shows and stuff. He called me out of the blue, and he said, hey, Norm, what are you doing right now? I said, I'm, you know, nothing. So he said, OK, I'm going to send you a script. Click. I said, OK. So I read the script, and then he called me the next day.

He said, what do you think of it? I said, well, man, it's great. I didn't know. Now, in this process, I didn't realize he was going to offer me a role. But he said, what do you think of the script? It's great. You know, Spike Lee wants to know my opinion.

So it's fantastic. I think these characters are fleshed out. And it's a departure for you because it's got a lot of action and gun shooting and things like that. He's like, OK, I want to meet you for dinner. Let's go to dinner. I went to Brooklyn. We had dinner.

What do you think of the script? What do you think of these characters? Blah, blah, blah. Still not knowing anything. And then he said, what do you think about Eddie? I said, yeah, Eddie, blah, blah. And he said, I want to offer you that role. Now, okay.

Wow. I figured that was where it was leading. I just didn't know. Inside, I'm jumping up and down like I'm a little school boy. You know, just found out he's on the football team, a basketball team. But you're out playing cool. Trying to be cool. Like, yo, thanks, man. But you're trying to play it cool. I'm trying to be cool.

Like, yo, thanks, man. Thank you. It's an honor to be working with you. So no reading. No? I mean, he... We did a reading once we got to... Right.

No, but what I mean is you didn't have to... You didn't have to try out for it. No, and the thing about it was, you know, and I'm so grateful for that, but we had worked together, like, a few months before I did She's Gotta Have It. Okay. And I did, like, an episode of that.

So I had a little experience with him as far as working with him. And I think he just remembered that and the experience with that. And also, I did Porgy and Bess on Broadway, and he saw it a few times. And I don't know if you realize how pigeon-toed I was in the movie.

Yes, I did. Yeah, because you talked about it. Yeah. So, he saw that I was able to be physical, because in Porgy and Bess, I had a deformed leg. And he, I guess that, he remembered that. Yeah, because he figured you walk like he does.

Exactly. He's my man, so I can mess with him like that. It was funny you talking about hierarchy of the road, because that's what Sam and Denzel were talking about. He'll call me like, yeah, so-and-so, click. They're kind of like, did he just hang up? He didn't say bye or nothing. Didn't say bye at all.

You know, one of the things, I brought that up because most people, a large amount of people really got to see you through Scandal playing Edison. Yeah. And, man, it drove us crazy because we were like, man, can Edison get some soul? Can he just, come on, dog. Don't let that sister just treat you that way. You know, it's funny because, you know, I always my title is, yeah, I'm the guy that that that Olivia Pope kicked to the side.

And that's my claim to fame, you know, but I loved it. I working with Carrie. Carrie saw me do poor game best. And then a few weeks later, I ended up getting the role. And she was, you know, very excited for me. And I, uh, and she even told me a funny story. Her mom, I think, thought, wow. Because she thought that I was actually crippled in four-game bets.

And so she was like, that's so great that they're bringing this handicapped person to play. To have fun. To play your love interest. Um, but when I got on the set, it was, uh, amazing to work with her. She set the tone. They were so lucky that, you know, she was lucky she got the role,

but they were so lucky to have her. She was ready to do whatever they needed her to do. She put in her ideas. The entire set, the entire cast and crew, she knew everyone's name. I just admired how she did it, what she did, and I'm glad that I got a chance to work with her. So when I did Scandal,

I was one of the people who was always tweeting. I'm the original gladiator. Whenever there were certain things that happened on the screen, I always loved music, so I would come up with these hashtags.

Songs for Olivia Pope, songs for Papa Pope. And so I just put the... And I realized that I created a hashtag for you. And it was a songs for Edison. And I guess it was the January 31st episode. It was too funny, because I see, uh, Sail Away by The Temptations, Songs for Edison. Holding On to a Dying Love, hashtag Songs for Edison.

Uh, then other people start chiming in. Uh, and they start put, Hit the Road Jack by Ray Charles, hashtag Songs for Edison. Uh, and it was like, like, I'm trying to see, was there any more we dropped out? And folks were just cracking up, responding to it. And so it was, I was like, come on, dog. Come on. Come on.

She just dismissed the brother. Why everybody hating on Edison? You know, come on, man. I was the best thing that she ever had. Now, what was interesting was like, why would she go with the president who's married and got, like, all this stuff around her when she could have, you know, a brother who really wants her and could take care of her?

But that's a... I guess the show would have just ended earlier if that happened. Well, but I still get joy, again, out of you and Joe Morton going at it. And I'm telling you, look, I miss the show, and I keep those scenes on my phone when he's like, don't make me angry. I'm telling you, I tell Joe, I said, Joe, you kill that.

You kill that. And the two of y'all together was just too much. Well, listen, let's qualify that. We didn't go at each other. Joe came at me. Yeah, yeah, it was a little fierce. It was a little fierce. Well, you did give him a little pushback. You gave him a little pushback.

Gave him a little pushback. This, um... Do you want to... Uh, with this, I mean, obviously, it's airing on Netflix. We're in a whole different space now in terms of, you know, stuff that's supposed to be on the big screen.

They're now driving on digital platforms as well. What else do you want to do? Other movies? Other shows? What do you want to do? I'm open to anything. You know, I love this industry. I love being on TV and film and the skill set that it takes with that. I wouldn't mind directing.

I definitely want to start producing and having a voice for more people of color and specifically black people to bring their stories to the forefront. And, like, things that deal with producing and music and producing writers to come and do stuff on the stage or screen. And, I mean, my love, my love,

if I had to choose one, it would be live performance. I love to do concerts. I love to do Broadway because there's nothing like that, that visceral live reaction because you get energy from that. But, you know, I'm open to anything. I asked Clark this, and I said, because it was great watching his character, was Isaiah the biggest cut-up on set?

Oh, man. Isaiah Washington is one of those people, he would come out of the blue, and he's, like, very, like, it's almost like a stealth bomber. Sometimes he's just kind of, like, you think he's asleep, and then he'll come up with some line, and you go, what the actual, what the? And I mean, he had lots of fun.

Even though this was not a comedy, but he had lots of funny lines in this movie. What's interesting about that is that we had a script, and we pretty much stayed with the script. And that's one thing I learned about Spike. You know, Spike is basically the writer and the editor. He's editing the movie as he's directing it. But he's everything.

And we trust that. We trust being in the safety of that. But within that, he gives us flexibility and freedom. And he'll sometimes see an energy that's happening, and he'll change it. He'll go, wait a minute, I didn't like that line. It was a line that he wrote. I didn't like that line. It was a line that he wrote. I didn't like that line.

Let me change that. Let me give you this. Try this. Or he would say, what would Eddie do in this moment? Give me a line. Let's improv this. And a lot of the stuff that you saw was improv with all of us. And I guess MVP will be Isaiah Whitlock.

Isaiah Whitlock, absolutely crazy. Now, so I got to ask you this. So you'll be the third one answering this. So first, Clark was like, man, what the hell? Spike had us out here running around shooting guns and like we were in war. Delroy said he loved it. All right, your take on it.

Because when I saw it, because normally when you see movies like this, there's always the flashback scenes, the younger character. But... But how... And I see why he used that. I see why he used y'all playing it. But did y'all go...

He actually want us running around shooting guns, acting a fool? We supposed to be older. Oh, oh, gotcha. Gotcha. Um... Let me see. How do I answer this? Yes, I was excited about doing it, at least the idea of doing it. But once we got out there, my mind was, I was trying,

you know, it's all about mindset. And it was like, OK. Because it was on average about, I would say, 99 degrees. I was sweating watching the movie. Oh, dude, let me just say, like, I would say, 99 degrees. I was sweating watching the movie. Oh, dude, let me just say, like, I think the lowest it ever got there was maybe 94. And then there were times it was 110. Ooh.

And then we were wearing all that gear and the guns and all this kind of stuff. And I had to carry the camera. Like, I kept asking Spike, really, do I need to carry the camera in this scene? He was like, yep, yep, yep. So what was great about that was it added to who we were. And we basically were trying to show what these men went

through at that time. And I think that that was actually another character, the heat, the bugs, that kind of stuff, and just the challenges that they had to face. So I hope that that came across authentically. Oh, yeah. No, I was sweating. I'm like, damn.

I'm like, I'm from Houston, but damn. And we're talking about, we ain't talking about, like, dry heat like in California. We're talking about. Oh, I'm from Houston. I'm talking about 95% humidity and it being hot and sticky. Yeah. And let me add this, too.

Like, the bug situation that we had to deal with, you know, we put on the repellent and stuff, but they were like, I don't care. We're going to land on you anyway. The bug's like, repellent? This ain't repellent nothing. And I don't know if you, did they talk about the pollution that was there?

Uh-uh. So Thailand is known for, it's against the law to burn trash and burn crops and stuff, but people do it anyway. And all of that smoke and that filth will come into, like, the city. So what is normally, I guess, acceptable for human beings is 50. The number is 50 and below.

I think the lowest it ever got was 150. for human beings, is 50. The number is 50 and below. I think the lowest it ever got was 150. Oh. There was a time that it was up 500. So we had to wear masks and all that stuff until we got to our scenes. Like, we'd wear a mask, and then when we did our scenes, we would take it off and do our stuff.

And then, I mean, I'm not complaining, Spike. I swear to God, I'm not complaining. But on top of that, I had to be pigeon-toed, and I'm running up and down terrain. Right, right. A football field. And we had stunt doubles, but, you know, we didn't. It was like, well, let's see if we can make it without doing,

you know, working. It was like, damn. It was like, can I run with some straight legs, please? No, I mean, it was, again, I just think that the complexity of these brothers, as we said earlier, is rarely seen. I just think that that was really what jumped out at me because, you know, there are a lot of movies out there

where you have younger brothers who are operatives. You know, I think about the movie The Wood. I think about the movie Brothers. I think about some other ones. I think about Juice. But to have a film where you see that camaraderie, that love, the affection, the pain, the agony of these older brothers, you know, when they get together,

was just... is just different that we just don't see four Black men uniting that way. Yeah, yeah. You know, and Spike is always someone who is making sure that we have our Black issues brought to the forefront, whether that be bad issues that are challenging or issues that are just trying to prove that we are humans. And this is showing our humanity and showing that these four men loved each other and went through something very significant and will never, ever let, uh, live that down. Well, I certainly hope, uh, that people will enjoy, uh, seeing a movie with Vietnam, uh, as the center of it

that features African Americans. It is a story that, uh, has not, uh, been told, uh, just like so many other stories as well. Uh, and, uh, yeah, it is, uh, it is highly emotional, especially when you talk about that PTSD and the trauma. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, thank you, Spike. You know, I'm saying publicly, thank you, Spike,

for allowing me to be a part of this journey. And I cannot wait for America to see this thing. And it's interesting. I feel like being that even though we're not in the movie theaters, I feel like it's going to make more a significant mark on history

because it's happening at this time in people's homes. So I'm glad about that. The Five Bloods! Norm Lewis, we appreciate it, man. Thank you so very much. Listen, I'm a big fan, brother. I love you so much. We need you. Keep up the fight, bro. Will do. I appreciate it big fan, brother. I love you so much. We need you. Keep up the fight, bro. Will do.

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

I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like, he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it.

I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Sure.

Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart podcast.