#RolandMartinUnfiltered - COVID-19 drug trials for Blacks; BLM Breathe Act unveiled; Changes at Essence; FB meets rights orgs

Episode Date: July 13, 2020

COVID-19 drug trials for Blacks; BLM Breathe Act unveiled; Changes at Essence; FB meets rights orgs Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ��https://www.paypal.me/rmartcinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partner: Ceek Be the first to own the world's first 4D, 360 Audio Headphones and mobile VR Headset. Check it out on www.ceek.com and use the promo code RMVIP2020 - The Roland S. Martin YouTube channel is a news reporting site covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Today is Tuesday, July 7, 2020. Coming up, a roll of Martin unfiltered. Coronavirus infections continue to rise, particularly in the southern states, as the country continues its plan to reopen. We have the latest plus the need for African-Americans to participate in clinical trials. The Movement for Black Lives unveiled their demands for sweeping legislative changes today. We'll show you their announcement. Body camera footage shows an Orlando cop with his knee on a man's neck

following a traffic stop over a damn seat belt. In Indiana, a group of white men threatened to lynch a black man. Also, a black man jumps into the fin of a black woman when she's attacked by a white guy and in Philadelphia. Black guy riding his bike, reminding people eating at a restaurant, put their mask on. White man pulls his gun out on the brother. Folks, last night we told you about drama at Ebony Magazine. Now Essence Magazine announced their changes following claims of mistreatment of black women. TMZ Sports TV show says they have cut ties with Robert Little of Black Sports Online after allegations of sexual misconduct.

And Facebook met today with civil rights leaders about the Stop the Hate for Profit campaign. It did not go well. And yes, more crazy as white people plus my one-on-one with Hamilton star Renee Elise Goldsberry. It's time to bring the funk. Roll the mark on the filter. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the biz, he's on it.

Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics, with entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling, yeah, with Uncle Roro, y'all. Yeah, yeah, it's rolling Martin, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. Yeah, yeah, he's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know, he's rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martin.

Now. Martin. Coronavirus continues to have significant issues in this country, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, he tweeted this out that if you're traveling to New York North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah. Those are the states that are seeing the most increases in the number of covid-19 infections. Folks, as of today, there are three point three million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States. First of all, all 50 states and three U.S. territories want more than 133,000 people have died from the virus. 908,000 have recovered. This is obviously still a significant health issue. Now, Dr. Anthony Fauci says we're

knee deep into the first stage and medical organizations are working to develop a vaccine. Now, folks, what's also happening this year, when you talk about how folks are responding, this was a few moments ago, I actually tweeted this out, that just shows you the drama that we're dealing with, how people are responding. You got all these crazy white men who are losing their mind, yelling and screaming at folks in stores. You saw yesterday, the white woman who was in Target who began to just yank stuff down from the shelves. These folks out here just flat out don't want at all to do anything. They don't want to put on a mask, even though health experts say the

absolute best way to stop this, to stop this is to wear a mask. Y'all have the video of that white guy in Florida in Costco. Go ahead and roll that video. And I'll talk over folks. It just, I mean, it just, it shows you again the lunacy, the sheer lunacy of these people in terms of how, watch this here. Turn it up. I feel threatened. You're coming close to me. Back off.

Yes. Threaten me again. Yes. Back the fuck up or you're fucking phoned down. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Okay, I want you to play

the game from the top. He's angry they're asking him to put a mask on. You're six feet away from you. You're harassing me. I'm not harassing you. You are infecting us. I feel threatened. You're coming close to me.

Back off. Yes. Threaten me again. Yes. Back the fuck up or your fucking phone down folks this was yesterday right here in philadelphia go to my ipad folks this guy named jamie atlick this guy named jamie atlick okay so here's let me just set this all up so what happened was they're at a they're at the row of restaurants okay uh and black guy riding a microphone, riding a bicycle. He's riding by

and he's reminding people sitting at these outdoor spots to wear their mask. This happens. Okay, guys, okay, I don't know why I'm not getting the audio. So let's go and get that fix. I'm seeing right here that is showing up. So let's go ahead and get that fixed. I'm seeing right here that it's showing up. So let's go ahead and get that fixed here, the video here. So it's crazy. So we have the audio, so we should be able to have the video. So let me know we can get that straight. But folks, this is crazy. This brother is just riding his bike.

Do you have the video now? Do you have the video now? Okay, all right. So I'm, I'm trying, I'm trying to play this here, uh, again. Um, so here we go. Here's a video. Now watch this. Track this guy down. His name is Jamie Atlick. And he works for a bar or something along those lines that are in Philadelphia. Again, he pulls a gun on this black guy only for saying, hey, guys, please practice social distancing, wear a mask. Today, the Trump administration officially notified the United Nations they're pulling out of the World Health Organization. Again, that has implications all across the globe because they're angry saying they didn't stand up to China. Well, the reality is this Trump administration hasn't done a damn thing truly when it comes to doing what's right when it comes to coronavirus. They want people

to act like this is no big deal. They are desperate. They want people to get used to, literally, there are senior officials who are saying just sort of get used to the carnage here. That's not the case. In fact, there was a conversation today where Vice President Mike Pence talked about the cases and Trump goes, oh, we could have had a million. Y'all, Pence was talking about the fact that we have 133,000 who are dead. And Trump's like, well, you know, we could have had a million. That's the kind of callous person you're dealing with. All right. Do we have Dr. Gaffney's audio fixed, please? Dr. Gaffney, are you there? There we go. All right. That's a lot better there. All right. Again, health experts are trying to say, folks, put a mask on, but you're dealing with these crazies out here who don't want to do it. Yeah. You have people who are literally just

raging against the machine. We're asking folks to do what is safe, to do what we have known to be proven to reduce the spread of COVID-19, which is wear a mask while in public, social distance, you know, stay away from events and functions with greater than 10 people. And these efforts have all shown across the world when used effectively to flatten the curve. What's still amazing here, you have these politicians in these red states who don't want to do what's right. Now they are seeing the spikes. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, he was in a hurry to reopen. He ignored the advice of County Judge Hidalgo there in Harris County in Houston. He ignored what the mayor was saying, Sylvester Turner. He ignored what was being said by the county judge and the mayor in Dallas. And all of a sudden,

spikes begin to go up. And then he starts saying, hey, he starts requiring everybody to wear a mask. This is the same governor who actually stood up for this white woman who owned a hair salon when the judge simply said, I need you to apologize for what white woman who was a hair, who owned a hair salon when the judge simply said, I need you to apologize for what you're doing. I mean, this is the craziness that we're talking about and we're dealing with. Absolutely. And so what this does, it distresses the medical community. You look at Texas medical center, one of the largest medical centers in the United States. There are no ICU beds. That's frightening. That's frightening for patients with cancer,

for those who undergo any type of trauma, for little children who are getting chemotherapy treatments. I mean, you have such a large resource that is being drained because of politics and because politicians don't want to listen to the experts in this case for a myriad of reasons. And when you play politics with people's lives, we all lose. So where are we going next? And again, how do you see this? You're there in Atlanta. The mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, and her husband, I believe, have tested positive for coronavirus. I mean, this is, and look, she's taking lots of precautions. Great health care. This goes to show you anybody can be impacted by this. Absolutely. Anybody can be affected.

First, I want to say I hope the mayor, you know, hope you get better. You and your husband. But this the virus does not discriminate. This is a disease that, you know, no matter your age range, what we're seeing now because of, you know, colleges are coming back together and, you know, younger folks are going to the beaches and out to parties. That's where your new surge is in terms of your coronavirus numbers. It's younger patients in the population between 18 to 35. It's, you know, they're being affected and they're also having symptoms. You know, this age range was thought to be asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. Well,

we're unfortunately finding out that that's not the case. I mean, there are reports of, you know, teens as young as 12 and 13 dying across this country. And so everyone has to be vigilant, has to take the necessary precautions to keep yourself safe. And not only that, your family members, especially for us in the African-Americanican community where we are 2.3 times more likely to have severe illness and die from COVID-19 compared to our white counterparts. All right Dr. Vandy Gaffney we surely appreciate it thank you so very much. Thank you. All right folks my panel right now Long Victoria Burke NNPA Mustafa Santiago Ali PhD former senior advisor for the environmental justice

at the EPA Kelly Bethea Bethaya Communications Strategist. Mustafa, I want to start with you again. You see these crazy white folks out here losing their mind and their actions, their actions are actually hurting the nation. They're hurting it. These folks who don't want to listen, they want to go to bars and restaurants. We're seeing how this thing is spreading and these folks simply don't care. And at some point, public officials, again, remember Greg Abbott in Texas was angry with Judge Eric Moyet when he basically penalized and was going to send this hair salon owner, you know, he stood for her, said you can't do this here. Now he's now realizing the spikes in Texas and our hospitals in Texas are being overrun. ICUs don't have enough beds because the folks being impacted by COVID-19 put on ventilators. Yeah. And so sometimes you

almost feel like it's too little too late in the sense that all the information that we have now, we've had for months. And, you know, I put the responsibility first at the president because he shows the leadership for the country. He sets the pace, if you will. So he decided not to wear a mask, but he also decided not to make any type of a federal mandate that would have encouraged and pushed people. He could have worked with the governors to say, all right, we know we've got this serious challenge that we're facing. One of the ways that we can address it is by making sure that people wear masks. We've got 16 states right now and the District of Columbia that have a mandate that people have to wear masks in public. If we had that across

the country and there was actually real enforceability and also a fine that was associated for folks, people would get in line and they would do the right thing. You wear a seatbelt because there is a law that says that you have to, and that is to help to protect you. So sometimes when people are being foolish and don't want to do the right thing, they have to be legislated. No, absolutely. And that is the case. I mean, Lauren, at the end of the day, we are not even close to out of the woods here. And look, I mean, I've made it clear. A friend who got her PhD was having a graduation party. I was like, hey, would love to be there. I ain't doing groups. I'm not doing groups. I'm sorry. I said as as the primary breadwinner in my home, this show depends on me being here.

I'm not playing around with coronavirus, especially when you look at even the people who survived it, the massive health issues they still have after they've gotten it. Right. Exactly right. Roland is a bunch of documentation and reporting on people having memory loss after this, having fatigue syndrome after recovering. I mean, but, you know, because we have a president of the United States, of course, who's showing absolutely no leadership when it comes to testing, when it comes to a comprehensive national plan. This is where we find ourselves. Unfortunately, he's being followed into battle by a bunch of Republican governors who tried to play this game of acting like nothing was going on, there was nothing to see here. And now they're paying the price, and their constituents are paying the price. And once again, it's an example of dumb is dangerous. It's an example of what happens when you elect stupid people to office, and they think they can play politics with everything.

There's nothing political about this. This is a medical situation. And yet they made it political. They made it about freedom. And remember, we had those dumb protests about, you know, I want my liberty and I want my freedom and I want to be out. So now we're getting the spike that Dr. Anthony Fauci predicted months ago. He predicted it months ago. There's nothing, there should be nothing surprising about what we're going through right now. But unfortunately, we are going through it because we have terrible leadership at the top and governors can only do but so much. I think several governors have been quite good. Obviously, Andrew Cuomo is first on the list. Governor Hogan in Maryland. But you can only do so much without a real comprehensive federal push.

And now we're seeing these spikes all over the country. What gets me, Kelly, is that you hear the people who say all the media is making a big deal out of this with the numbers going up, but deaths are going down. But when you read the stories of the health issues people are having, diminished lung capacity, how you look at Scarface, who talked about both of his kidneys shutting down. Look, the doctor we had on yesterday who said we don't know what this thing does to people's bodies. We can't predict where it's going. The Broadway actor who died yesterday, his name escapes me. 41 years old, perfect health, no preexisting conditions. He's dead. And I've been following

that particular Broadway star's story. I am, his name is escaping me right now as well, but I've been following it. He was in the hospital for something like 95 days or something like that. And over the course of time,

it wasn't just the fact that he couldn't breathe. It wasn't just the fact that he was on a ventilator. His entire body was shutting down. They amputated his leg because they were trying to save his life. It wasn't just about the lungs. Like you said, nobody knows what this disease does. Nobody knows exactly the course of this disease.

And if all you have to do as an American citizen is to put a piece of fabric over your face so that you don't have to have that same thing happen to you, I, for the life of me, do not understand why that is so difficult. The fact that people think that just because it doesn't happen to you right then and there, it is irrelevant. It just shows just how selfish Americans are and have been. This is nothing new. It just so happens that this issue, this pandemic is illuminating the stupidity of so many American citizens right now.

And the stupidity of American citizens right now is affecting not just the stupid ones, but the smart ones who are wearing the masks, the smart ones who are social distancing, the smart ones who are staying home and actually abiding by the smart politicians who have put in stay at home orders and social distancing mandates and face mask mandates. It's not hard. No one's taking away your liberty by putting a piece of fabric over your face. No one's taking away your liberty by saying, hey, don't be up under me if you're coughing. It should be innate. It should make sense to you, but it doesn't. And that's why we

are the way we are right now. And the fact that the president of the United States doesn't understand that either, it is just beyond me. Well, Bob Lange is, he doesn't really care. And that's part of the problem. That's part of the problem that we have. That's part of the problem that we have right now. And so we're seeing that whole thing happen now folks today before it took place on the West Coast the folks with the movement for black lives what they did was they introduced with it what they call the breed Act and already Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Massachusetts and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley excuse me Rashida Tlaib of Michigan Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, excuse me, Rashid Tlaib of Michigan,

Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. They actually introduced that. The proposed bill would divest federal funds from incarceration and policing systems and invest in new community safety initiatives that will protect black lives. And the announcement of the bill was made during a virtual conference hosted by Mark Lamont Hill, which featured Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrice Cullors, Representative to LEAD, the mothers of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, as well as a short performance by John Legend.

We shall overcome We shall overcome. We shall overcome someday. deep in my heart I do believe we shall overcome someday we shall live in peace we shall live in peace We shall live in peace We shall live in peace someday

How deep in my heart Oh, I do believe We shall live in peace someday Thank you. Thank you, John Legend. And welcome to everybody. Thank you all for joining us for the announcement of the BREATHE Act. This bill comes at an absolutely historic moment. A people-powered movement in the streets has paved

the path for this pressing people-powered bill. The Movement for Black Lives represents a unified front of Black activists, of policy experts, and everyday people directly impacted by centuries of excessive and remorseless policing. So many of our leaders have failed to deliver on the clear mandate coming from our communities to protect and to defend black life. Today's press conference has one question at the core. That is who among our leaders will answer the people's call? Who will answer the people's mandate

for a new vision of community safety? The Breathe Act outlines a vision that truly defends Black lives, and it invests in communities where Black and marginalized communities can thrive, where they can be free, where they can breathe. The Breathe Act is bold. It's meaningful. it's transformative. It pushes us to reimagine power structures and what community investment really looks like. If we listen to our community members and leaders in the streets, we can start to envision through this bill a new vision for public safety, one that protects and affirms Black lives.

I stand in solidarity with the leaders from Movement for Black Lives and with my sister, Congresswoman Pressley, and with the millions of protesters demanding transformation now. When they shout, show me what democracy looks like, I can't but think, help but think, that this is exactly what democracy looks like,

a people-powered federal bill that responds to the work and mandates of local communities across the country. So I invite my colleagues, my fellow Congress members to join me and other legislators in taking this very bold step towards a just future. At the core of the BREATHE Act is what become clear to many of us. Policing as we know it needs to be drastically less powerful. I urge our leaders to be bold and courageous in this moment. For over four decades the federal government has poured billions of dollars into police departments. Federal dollars have incentivized arrest, jail and prison construction, and the militarization of

constantly growing police forces. And the truth is, all these resources spent have not made us safer. We cannot innovate new approaches to safety and accountability. We can innovate new approaches to safety and accountability that better serve the needs of the people without creating massive gaps in our crisis response, without traumatizing and decimating communities. The BREATHE Act gets us closer to justice. Now, the BREATHE Act is in honor of those who have lost their lives to police brutality. Let's go to our panel. Lauren, I'll start with you. Obviously, we saw we have the Democratic bill

that was passed in the House that's now sitting in the Senate. Now you have, of course, the Senate bill that failed. OK, so what does this bill actually do? Is it broader than the House bill that's already been passed? It's broader than the House bill. But, you know, I really think this entire thing, frankly, is a whole setup for next year, because it's unlikely that anything comprehensive is going to pass in the Senate, as we all know. And, you know, not to say that these people are sitting down, you know, doing a head fake. I think they believe that something will pass and they're working for that. And that's fine. I'm just saying that I think that the likelier scenario is that you have a new president of the United States and that you have

an actual chance to really have some real serious reform. I mean, if you can't get it in this moment, when can you get it? But the answer to that question, unfortunately, is you probably can't get it in this moment because Mitch McConnell is not going to allow it to happen. So real, true reform that involves things like taking immunity away from police and those things that we know would enact a price on people who kill people on duty and think that just nothing is going to happen with them, to them, that is a major piece that I think clearly has to be a part of this, and it is a part of this. So, obviously, the funding issue, the money, that's when it gets real. I mean, you can see that from what we see policy-wise around this country with regard

to monuments and symbols and things that are not related to cash. The thing that I always look for is the money. In a few days, there is going to be a briefing on the entire issue of police reform by members of the CBC, which is going to be off the record, but I'll be a part of. And I'll know more of the details about exactly what's going on behind the scenes, because what you see out front at press conferences, as you know, Roland, and what's going on behind the scenes is two completely different things, as you know. So we'll see in the coming days whether or not this has any serious, any part of this has any real serious chance of becoming federal law. And, of course, what you have to deal with here, Mustafa, and that is, OK, they're presenting this.

Where does it go? Does Speaker Nancy Pelosi endorse it? Do they move it forward? Does the House Judiciary Committee, do they actually take it up as well? So you can introduce a bill. But the question is, will it begin to gain some movement? And will the movement for black lives go to the streets and reignite protests saying consider this bill? I think the latter is definitely going to happen, and I think it's going to play a role in the election as well. And I also think that this is a template. You know, this is an important one that I hope gets passed because we have to be focused on moving our most vulnerable communities from surviving to thriving. But this is also an opportunity for the states to take a look at what's being proposed here on

the federal level and to make some decisions themselves about the elements that they can begin to incorporate. And, of course, we've seen since the Black Lives Matters has continued to grow that there are states and local municipalities that are beginning to, you know, do better, if you will. Lauren hit it on the head, too, because this is about money. Most folks don't really understand how much money we are talking about in relationship to policing. And it goes back to the reconstruction era, where you had to snatch people off the streets, where we had these police departments and others that were put in place, the sheriffs and everybody else, to keep black people in line, to put them into the prison

system so you got that free labor again. So all that dynamic has now just moved forward to the time period that we're now living in. And people need to be honest about that so that folks understand the totality of how much has been going on in the past, but how also those dynamics are playing forward today. If you think about some of the militarized weapons and some of these armored units that are moving into our policing, there's huge amounts of money and there are very powerful people who are a part of this, who are making a tremendous amount of money. So let's not just focus on these police departments. Also focus on the people who are literally making billions of dollars off of what is going on.

Kelly. No, I echo the sentiments of both of my colleagues here. I do think that what the congressmen are doing specifically is to set up for next year, no matter what happens, who is in office. Because I sincerely doubt that anything is going to get passed right now in the middle of an election year. But the fact that it is introduced now, it'll gain traction, hopefully, and we will see what happens from there.

But it is promising, and I am pleased with the fact that something is on the table. And that way, they have a record of something being on the table so that when the Republicans actually say no, they said no to something specifically, and that'll be even more fodder for them to be voted out of office. Folks, here's the perfect- It's important to have something on the table that goes fully to the left, which this is, because what the Democrats always make a mistake on is not going far enough.

So when you negotiate all the way to the left, which is what they're doing with this, this is a full divesting of federal money from the police, then that calibrates the conversation. And so I think right there, it's sort of an important effort, even though it may, it's unlikely to pass. It's actually unlikely to get a lot of Democratic support. All right, then in this example here, folks, what we're talking about a traffic stop for a lead seatbelt violation in Orlando leads to officer putting his knee on a man's neck. Two officers assigned to an elite special enforcement division were on what they call proactive patrol when they initiated the stop as Janet Feliciano pulled into her driveway on West South Street in the city's Paramore neighborhood.

The special enforcement division normally focuses on violent crimes and offenders. The officer with his knee on the man's neck is Officer John Earl. The officer heard screaming is Luke Austin. I'm sorry, Mustafa. We go from a seatbelt violation to that type of arrest. Again, you have to ask, seriously?

It escalates to that? We see these trumped up charges all the time where officers will, we remember in the 50s and the 60s to today. Oh, so you had a broken taillight. Well, how's that possible? Because I looked at my taillight, it wasn't broken. Well, that's the reason that I pulled you over. And now I need to search you. I need to search your car. So they utilize these tactics all the time in certain communities. So again, if you are a unit that is supposed to be focused on violent crime and you're pulling somebody over for a seatbelt violation, then we know that there is something

amiss in what you are sharing with the country. And thank goodness we now have these videos that show these actions that are going on. And then I we now have these videos that show these actions that are going on. And then I'll just put on my public health and environmental hat real quickly. We got 24 million people in our country who are suffering from asthma. So each time that you put these types of actions in place, you're literally almost taking somebody's life. I just it's a seatbelt and again what precipitates a seatbelt violation that escalates to this type this is why I keep saying Lauren these cops have got you learned to de-escalate situations well I think the bigger discussion there is we have to get to a point here. We have fewer stops and fewer contacts made by police and police are not as part of everybody's life as they

are, you know, because unfortunately with policing, you know, it's like when you're a hammer, everything is a nail. And so when you're a hammer, you're looking for something to hammer. So, you know, these departments that have all these police and keep hiring, keep hiring, there's stats now coming out where you have jurisdictions where the crime rate is going down, but the number of police hires are going up and the budget for police is going up. It's like this automatic pilot thing, and it's become such a part of our society in the United States that we feel, you know, you see the resistance to any change in the budget, to any change in policing.

And when you look at the crime stats, particularly for violent crime, it has been going down. And in some major cities, it's at its lowest point in like three and four decades. So then why do we have all this policing? But the number of stops, of course, in a lot of jurisdictions tends to be disproportionately African-American. What that shows you is that, you know, you get these interactions that escalate for absolutely no reason and in some cases lead to violence. Kelly. No, I agree. I, your initial question of why it's just a seatbelt, it's something minor. It's not about the seatbelt. It's not about why he was pulled over he was black period and this is

why the black lives matter movement is in existence because black lives in this country do not matter and all we're trying to do is get people to recognize our humanity and to matter, just matter, bare minimum, just recognize that I'm a human and that I matter. That's it. So the fact that police officers do not agree with that sentiment that we matter, they do not agree with that. That's why this keeps happening. It has nothing to do with our laws and our legislation and everything to do with our history and our pattern of behavior towards black people. Legislation can fix that to an extent, but ultimately it has to deal with the innate behavior and culture of this country because racism is America. And the sooner that we can realize that, the sooner black lives actually can matter.

But right now, this is what we're going to see until that happens. Folks, law enforcement is investigating an alleged attempted lynching of a black man by a group of white people that happened on July 4th in Indiana. Vox Booker was on his way to watch a lunar eclipse at Lake Monroe when a group of five white men with Confederate flags accused him and a friend of trespassing on private property. Booker was attacked, beaten and pinned to a tree. The group threatened to lynch him. Booker posted the account of the assault on his Facebook page. Folks, it is shocking and stunning to watch.

So just warning you in advance. Look at this. We're just trying to get out of here, guys. We're just trying to get out of here. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care.

I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. Please let him go. We're going to as soon as you let him go. I'm going to. Guys, get the fuck out of here.

Let him go. Get your phones out of here and go. Shake your head at me and go. Get the fuck out of here. Go. You happy about this? You fucking nappy-headed. Why aren't you happy about this? What do you really want to call me? fucking nappy-headed bitch. You happy about this?

What do you really want to call me? You nappy-headed bitch. You with your five white friends. You happy with your five white friends? You guys started all this. You put it in your fucking film, bitch.

Film it all, fuck it. Come over here. We're on our own ways now, guys. Come over here. We're on our own ways. This sucks, this sucks both ways, guys. Come over here again. This sucks both ways.

No, no, no. Let's go, let's go. Come on. Just like when you guys invaded us. No one invaded us. You guys invaded us. We were having a great time and you invaded us. No one invaded us.

No one invaded us. No one invaded us. No one invaded us. No one invaded us. No one invaded us. No one invaded us, you guys invaded us. We were having a great time and you invaded us. No one invaded you. You stupid fucking liberal fucks. That's what you get. Take your ass on.

Are you okay? I'm okay. Folks had better understand, Mustafa, that if that guy had stopped filming and left, they would have killed that brother. Without a doubt. I think they should be arrested for kidnapping. They should be arrested for assault. I agree. And these stories happen all the time. And many times they're not captured on video. Everybody knows now I'm at the National Wildlife Federation and, you know, deal with all this public land stuff. And one of the

things that I've shared with folks is that, you know, for many, you know, many folks going out into the forest, into the woods, into public lands, into the mountains, you know, it is unsafe for folks. So we have to create a safe space. And that means that there has to be accountability in the law when people do these types of things. If you are impeding someone. And, you know, we continue to allow these types of behaviors to happen. And a part of this story also is the DNR officers as well, when they came and actually interviewed what was going on and then decided not to take it to, you know, another level and to work with the local police department and others to make sure that the right types of things were being captured in the legal process, if you will. They need to go to jail. Pure and simple, Lauren. Well, obviously there should be some sort of arrest for assault. It's all right there on tape.

It just brings to mind once again the power and the importance of this thing right here in my hand. And if it wasn't for that, I don't know where we would be exactly. We wouldn't even be talking about police reform right now. And we wouldn't be seeing half of these things that happened and we'd be still in this zone where we relay these stories. We've been relaying these stories forever.

And nobody has ever believed African-Americans when they've told these stories. And now that we have the cell phone camera, the power of social media, this is where we find that, you know, this is one of my sort of odd worries is that when you don't have something on video, will anybody actually ever believe you? But when I think about this moment, particularly with regard to police reform, I think about the fact that Malcolm X was talking about the same thing over 40 years ago. I mean, there really isn't any difference other than the fact that we do have video proof of it. Even with no proof, no arrests. It's pretty amazing. Speaking on video, a white man attacked

a black woman who was not happy about his girl spitting on her. He wasn't prepared for what happened next. The law's gonna protect us anyway. Come on. She spit on me. She's bound to have, she done spit on me. Please don't come outside. Put that out.

Put that out. Put that out. Put that out at the same fucking time. Dang, I'm not going nowhere. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not gonna start the day. Put them two. Put them the fuck down at the same fucking time.

Dang, I'm not going nowhere till you put them. That's what they all going. I guess the fuck. I'm dying. What are you doing? What are you doing? Neal said. What are you going to do when you're out there?

She crying, y'all. She's scared. What are you going to do when you're out there? She crying. Why would you ever put your hands on my feet. Come outside, come outside. I don't give a fuck about all that. I mean, I'm not listening.

You don't ever do that shit thinking nobody ain't ready to do something to you. They don't want it. Y'all ready to step outside? Oh, he's fighting her. Oh, oh, kneel center. Kneel center. Kneel center. Oh I know my mom in real life. He done. He done. He done. He done, he done, he done, he done. Oh my God.

Stay there, stay there. Yeah, keep his ass. Stay there. He started it. Damn. Oh my God. He need it. He showed it. Damn. Oh, my God. He need an ambalame.

He need an ambalame. So his girlfriend, the white woman, spits on the sister. And this whole thing erupts. They might want to hire them some new security guards because them security guards wasn't doing a damn thing kelly the security guards were outside that was a tiny security guard and i don't shame bodies and strength or whatever but you know balance is necessary sometimes and that clearly wasn't the case here i don't have not nary a problem with that man getting his ass beat and he's on the ground do it again because for what like why were you doing why were you even in her vicinity you had every opportunity like you were at the door you could have left you could have de-escalated the situation and just left but no you thought that you had something within you to actually go out there and hit a woman who did nothing to you.

You deserve to get your ass beat. Good riddance. I keep trying to tell folks, Mustafa, act a fool. This stuff gonna happen. I keep trying to warn these people. Black folks not taking disrespect anymore. We believe in the lessons of Martin Luther King, and we appreciate that nonviolence. But if you put your hands on us, we're going to take your hands off of us and give you more probably than you had intended to receive. They say it ain't the size of the dog in the fight, but the fight in the dog. So not only, and it was interested also. So let me say this because the security guard, the little small sister, he even swang on her.

And then the brother jumped in and the dude was bigger than the brother, but the brother was like, you know what? You're not going to disrespect our sisters. You're not going to spit on us. This is not 1940, 1950, 1960, 1970. If you decide that that's the type of behavior that you want to utilize, then we're going to give you some act right. Equal rights and equal left. That's what happened. Lauren? Yeah, all I can say is it reminds me of the Mike Tyson quote, everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the face. I mean, that's basically, you know, it's sad to see the amount of anger that we see in some of these videos,

people just angry about various things, some petty, some not petty. And I know that obviously these videos are not a full representation of 360 million people in the United States, but it's amazing how, you know, how, how something can just like escalate out of control. But, you know, if you want to fight, you better get ready to, you better, you better, if you're going to start a physical altercation with somebody, you better be sure of yourself. You better be sure you're the person in the room that's going to win. And he picked the wrong person out in the bar for the bar fight on that one. All right, folks, there are always online ads that are put out all the time that very much target the Trump administration. There's a new batch dropping every day. So here's what dropped today.

We'll come back and discuss with our panel. Watch this, y'all. I know so many Americans are suffering, suffering loss of a loved one, suffering economic hardship. A country is crying out for leadership, leadership that can unite us, leadership that brings us together. That's what the presidency is, the duty to care, to care for all of us, not just those who vote for us, but all of us. I promise you this, I won't traffic in fear and division. I won't fan the flames of hate. I'll seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued our country. Not use them for political gain.

I'll do my job and I will take responsibility. I won't blame others. You know, I've said from the outset of this election that we're in the battle for the soul of this nation. What we believe, and maybe most importantly, who we want to be, it's all at stake. We stand together, finally as one America, we'll rise stronger than we were before. I'm Joe Biden, and I approve this message. For the first time in our memory, many Americans are asking, does history still have a place for America? There are some who answer no, that we must tell our children not to dream as we once dreamed.

Together, tonight, let us say that America is still united, still strong, still compassionate, still willing to stand by those who are persecuted or alone. For those who are victims of police states or government-induced torture or terror, let us speak for them. I believe we can embark on a new age of reform in this country that will make government again responsive to people. We can fight corruption while we work to bring into our government women and men of competence and high integrity.

Tomorrow, you will be making a choice between different visions of the future. Are you more confident that our economy will create productive work for our society? Or are you less confident? Do you feel you can keep the job you have or gain a job if you don't have one? Are you pleased with the ability of young people to buy a home? Of the elderly to live their remaining years in happiness, of our youngsters to take pride in the world we have built for them.

Are you convinced that we have earned the respect of the world and our allies? Let us resolve tonight that young Americans will always find a city of hope in a country that is free. And let us resolve, they will say of our day and of our generation, that we did keep faith with our God, that we did act worthy of ourselves, that we did protect and pass on lovingly that shining city on a hill. Biden now leads the president. He's going to be your president. Why do you think you're losing, Donald? Because some people don't love me, maybe. It's because you've got a loyalty problem.

Loyalty problem. They're in your campaign. They're in your campaign. Your White House. White House. In Congress. In Congress. Even your own family.

Your own family. They whisper about you. They whisper about you. They leak, spin, lie. They tell the media they're smart and you're out of control. And you're out of control. That you can't focus. That you're mentally and physically weak. That you hide in your bunker,

scared and shaky. Laugh when you can't walk down a ramp or drink water. All of them are in your campaign. The ones you know and the ones you don't know. Whispering about you. They expect you to lose. They expect you to lose. They want the media to like them.

And to get one last big payday before you go down. Go down. With so many leaks, you probably think it could be anyone. So many leaks. Donald, it could be anyone. It's everyone. It's everyone. With tens of millions out of work,

Trump promised to provide relief to struggling businesses hit hard by COVID-19. With tens of millions out of work, Trump promised to provide relief to struggling businesses hit hard by COVID-19. But who was put in charge of oversight of the more than $2 trillion meant to save jobs? I'll be the oversight. I'll be the oversight. So where did the money go? This small business loan program ran out of money. Several large chains have received millions. It was shameful. But it didn't end there.

Conservative anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist happily took a handout in the form of a seven-figure check. The Daily Caller, founded by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, received as much as $1 million. Handouts are depressing and they're degrading. A winery owned by Republican Congressman Devin Nunes raked in the moolah. Not one, but three companies tied to Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Even rapper Kanye West got in on the action. Sometimes debt just disappears.

Like a miracle, it will disappear. I love this guy right here. Let me give this guy a hug right here. This is where we know the money went, but there is still another $400 billion not accounted for. Where did it go? Tell Donald Trump to stop using your money to make him and his rich friends richer. Tell Trump and his cronies, leave me alone.

Midas Touch is responsible for the content of this advertising. Now wait a second. Those people look like looters. The Trump Hotel. It's turned into the place to be for lobbyists and foreign officials. of this advertising. Now, wait a second. Those people look like looters. The Trump Hotel. It's turned into the place to be for lobbyists and foreign officials. Government money, your tax dollars, into Donald Trump's company.

Well, yes, technically, they were doing that. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner made at least $82 million last year. The prince is saying, I have Kushner in my pocket. Trips on costly jets with American taxpayers footing the bill. A $31,000 mahogany dining set.

$43,000 phone booth. Serious questions about the Trump organization meant to raise money for children with cancer. What is not acceptable? Anything? Mike Pence is now revising his story a third time on going 180 miles out of his way to go stay at Trump's resort. The Chinese government awarded Ivanka Trump's brand seven new trademarks. You sold over a million dollars in stocks before the market went down. Were you trading on inside information? A small Montana power company landed a $300 million contract. 40 million Americans filed for unemployment. The small

business loan program ran out of money. Several large chains have received millions. It was shameful. The Trump campaign owes nearly $570,000 to El Paso, Texas. Will you commit publicly that none of that taxpayer money will go towards your own hotels? We have to save some of these great companies. Among the biggest grifters in American history. Well, Lauren, I got to say, Republicans who hate Donald Trump, they know how to do ads. That one using Ronald Reagan's voice, attacking Donald Trump. Damn, that was good. Yeah, that was particularly good because it brought up the issue of conservatives who always want to argue for less government in your life

until it's the police harassing African-Americans. Then suddenly we don't believe in less government. And the beauty of so many of those ads is that all you have to do is roll tape. You don't really have to come up with any concepts. You sure as hell don't have to make anything up. You just have to deal with straight reality. Just rolling video, just quoting what people said, saying what happened, saying how much money disappeared. It makes it easy. I mean, that's the best thing about the ads is that it's all true. And what's happening, Mustafa, it is really getting to Donald Trump.

It's driving him crazy. You look at his poll numbers. He's failing. Now, of course, he is fixated on the Confederate flag, attacking NASCAR and Bubba Wallace and Confederate statues. Now, of course, I saw a story where these White House insiders are troubled with Trump going so hard to racist language. Here's my whole deal. Well, if y'all are bothered, quit. Publicly resign and say this, say this is not tolerated. In fact, I'm going to try to find it. That was a woman who worked for the South Carolina GOP.

I'm going to try to find it. And someone shot a photo where she walked up to Senator Tim Scott and quit. She said, because I cannot work for a party that is led by a racist. I'm going to try to find it. But that's what you're dealing with. Well, I resigned because I couldn't work for a party that I knew was going to kill black folks and brown folks and low-income white folks and indigenous folks. So yeah, people should resign because it says something about your character, says something about your morals, it says

something about the value that you place on our democracy. You know, and the president, I hope he does get upset because he continues each and every day. So racism has always existed, but he continues to pump it into the veins of America each and every day. And people get addicted to that racism because they see him doing it, saying it. We saw what he did on July the 4th out at Mount Rushmore and in almost every one of his additional speeches. So people just need to also understand there a while ago there was something called the barbarians at the gate, you know, very focused on, you know, the resources and the money

and how people are padding their pockets in this administration because they understand, they watch what happened in South Africa. They knew change was going to happen in our country. So one of the ways that you hold on to power is to make sure that you're holding on to the wealth and expanding your wealth. So people should understand the game that is going on. Trump wants to cause chaos. He wants people to get all of these various racialized types of things all flared up. And when he can do that, then the sleight of hand happens. That's when they can manipulate policy. That's when they can reach into the till and continue to pull and pull and pull so that

when their time is up, that they feel like they'll still have power. In fact, I did find that this woman named Lisa Marie. This is the this is the tweet right here. Go to it. This is the moment last July when I told Senator Tim Scott that I was resigning from South Carolina GOP because I believe Trump to be a racist. I have not one regret. Hashtag Lincoln Project. Hashtag by Don 2020.

Hashtag vote him out. And in fact, she actually put together a let me see if I can find she actually put together a video where she was specifically talking to suburban white women. These Republican women want to go ahead and play this here. Watch this. South Carolina. I'm a lifelong Republican voter. I've donated to, campaigned for, and voted for Republicans. My first presidential vote was for Ronald Reagan. I did not vote for President Trump in 2016. I supported John Kasich. When I heard that Access Hollywood tape in October of 2016,

I knew I couldn't cast my vote in good conscience for Donald Trump. When he was elected, I was told by my fellow Republicans to give him a chance. I tried. I was told there'd be a presidential pivot, but there wasn't. President Trump has continued to gaslight our nation. He continues to use social media just like any online troll would do. On his watch, our national debt has increased over six trillion dollars just in three and a half years. Our

annual deficits exceed a trillion dollars and most recently this administration had my daughter's friend who was peacefully protesting before curfew, gassed and shot at in Lafayette Park. As a mother, I was outraged. As a citizen, I'm disgusted. People keep saying that suburban women are going to change this election. I'm one of those suburban women. I'm going to vote for Joe Biden, not because I'm a Democrat. I'm voting for Joe Biden to restore decency in our nation. I hope you'll join me. When I, Kelly, when I interviewed John Ward for his book, The End of Camelot,

and he talked about that 1980, excuse me, the 1976 campaign when Jimmy Carter was elected. Jimmy Carter ran on this notion of decency, decency and character. I said then that was December 20. That was December 2018. And I said, then I said, this is how Democrats should run against Donald Trump. Now I am not falling for any polls. I keep telling people ignore all of these polls, but the reality is this here. And you see this in election after election. You are seeing people who say, I'm I cannot support this man. That can be a difference maker. And when you have white women like her again, he got 53 percent of white women in 2016. I said I said after he won, if Donald Trump loses five to eight percent of those white women and he only gets 45 percent, he loses in 2020. No, I completely agree with you on that.

This election, I would venture to say it's not even about decency anymore. It's not about morals anymore. Or it's just the fact the bar has been set or lowered so low in terms of the standard of what a president is supposed to do that we just need someone to raise it back to where it was. Now, you can call that decency. You can call it morals. I just want the bar raised again. And that's why a lot of people, this woman included, is voting for Biden. Because Trump has just obliterated the bar in the worst possible way. He has done everything in his power to kill Americans, especially when it comes to his response to COVID-19 pandemic. When he in 2016 was talking about draining the swamp, he wasn't talking about

administrations. He was talking about American citizens. He was talking about the U.S. He was talking about us. And it is made apparent by his attitude, by his tweets, by his policies, and the lack thereof. It has been made apparent through his response to this pandemic. It has been made apparent through his voter base. And as a result, the bar is just gone. And all we need Biden to do is to make a new bar, frankly,

and then raise it. Because right now we have no bar. Because it's just a new bar, frankly, and then raise it. Because right now we have no bar because we like it's just a new low every day with this man and American people are tired. And if they're not, they should be. Gotcha. Absolutely. And so this is again, this is what folks should be really paying attention, looking out for as we talk about what's about to be happening uh in this election and folks we're going to keep showing you these ads i mean they're dropping these things like like two pop drop mixtapes so uh we're going to keep uh showing you as many of these as possible i do want to go to before i go to a break i want to go to

this next story actually i'm gonna go to a break i'm gonna come back first of all uh the second half of the show, we're going to talk about civil rights groups meeting today with Facebook. Did not go well. Two, we're going to talk about Essence magazine having some managerial issues where black women are saying they're not being respected. And black sports online. The brother who runs that, he's out of a job at TMZ because of sexual misconduct allegations. And we also talked with the star, one of the stars of the Hamilton Broadway production, Renee Elise Goldsberry. All of that next right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. You want to check out Roland Martin Unfiltered? YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black

and keep it real. It's Roland Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered. Like, share, subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications so when we go live, you'll know it.

All right, folks. Last week, issues at Essence Communications where, of course, a group of black women wrote an open letter. It was an anonymous letter that they actually posted on Medium talking about what they felt things need to be changed. It was signed by Black Female Anonymous, a group of women who work at Essence and former employees. Now, what ended up happening was they made a number of demands, including four top executives to step down or step away. Well, what they did was they named Carolyn Wonga as the new interim CEO following the June 20th publication of an open letter, again, which they cited

allegations of mistreatment and abuse of black female employees by the company's owner, Rishi Lu Davis, as well as former CEO Michelle E. Banks, as well as Mona Liu, who was the top editor, chief content officer, and also another top executive over the festival. Now, here's what has happened. Rishi Lu stepped away from day-to-day running of Essence magazine. Carolyn Wonga, as I said, she is going to be the interim CEO. Now, Michelle E. Banks, Essence made clear that she had no managerial role since stepping down as a CEO several months ago, although she's on the board of Essence Ventures. Now, also, Mona Liu, again, she also has stepped away.

And they also announced that Joy was taking a job. Joy Prophet was taking a job with another company. And that was already done before all of this came about. And so we'll certainly see what happens next. Now, yesterday, of course, we talked about what happened at Ebony magazine. Also, another story that happened, Robert Little, TMZ. Of course, he, of course, is the founder of Black Sports Online. Well, he had a role on this TMZ sports show. They announced today that they have cut ties with him after allegations of misconduct surfaced, sexual misconduct surfaced.

And, of course, a TMZ that show airs on Fox Sports 1. Former BSO female employees claim that he harassed them, requested sexual favors and made inappropriate comments in the workplace. He later issued this video. All right. So first off, let me say this. You know, there are some things that you saw that I've said to my female contributors in the past that were very inappropriate. It's inconsiderate, and they were flat out wrong. And for that, I apologize for that, 100%. I was totally wrong with that.

I shouldn't have let it happen. I shouldn't have said it. I apologize to all of those women publicly. I have the utmost respect for black women. My mom's black, my wife's black. I should never put them in a position to be uncomfortable. So I apologize to them publicly. Well, there were some people who simply said that wasn't good enough. Let's go to my panel. I'm going to go to you, Lauren, first. The fact that in the wake of, and I keep saying this, in the wake of George Floyd's death, you have seen this unleashing of the reckoning, not just with white folks, but inside of even black media companies where folks are

using the power of their voice. That's what you see that happened here. That's what you saw what happened there with Robert Little. That's what you saw, again, even in terms of the changes happening at Ebony magazine. Your thoughts about all of this? My thoughts are the reckoning we're having in black media has been quite interesting. The Wesley Lowry article, the Soledad O'Brien article, those were really interesting looks into things that we've been dealing with as black journalists forever. Now, their articles were targeting mainstream, but in this case, you're talking about black media companies. Right. And yeah, right. That's true. But I do think the two things are slightly related,

but yeah, sure. So this is focused on is a focus on black media companies. Um, I'm a believer in, if you have a gripe with somebody, uh, then you should have to face your accuser, I guess you could say. And, you know, in the case of the Essence situation, there were some people involved who were former employees. So they had no risk, really, that I know of. I can see being an employee in a place and being very reluctant to speak up, you know, as an employee, as a sitting employee. But, you know, I come from a tradition of journalism where, you know, both sides of the story before you run your mouth about it. And it's not that I don't believe that these things happen because I know damn well that they happen. I've worked in media for over 20 years. And and, you know, the the Ebony example, I'm sorry, the Essence example sounded like not just sexual harassment, but it sounded like crazy bosses, which when you work in television, you get very used to.

You get very used to abusive, crazy people, you know, and I do think there's something to be said for not getting used to that. But at the same time, I'm a believer in knowing the details of what happened. I mean, I know Ed Henry, and I know, again, this has nothing to do with black media. Ed Henry got fired last week. I know him a little bit. And I know that obviously we're living in a changing world, but I have absolutely no idea what the allegations are in detail. And without knowing that, I just choose not to say anything until I know. Because I've seen it happen where, you know, you hear one version of a story, you hear one side of it, and then you know nothing about the other side. Then you find out something later. And when people are anonymous, I just want to know more about the story before I say anything.

Well, what you have, what jumps out here is that you had employees that essentially felt they couldn't go to HR because according to this letter, the owner's wife was over HR. And so now you're seeing here these level of changes taking place, Mustafa. And again, what it speaks to is that, first of all, media for the longest. Nobody reported on media, but here are people who are gaining their voice, who are saying we want to see changes. And these companies are paying attention. I mean, we talk about structural changes, structural inequalities. You know, that is internal also inside of our own communities, inside of our own organizations, inside of our own businesses. So that means that when we see bad management, bad management practices, they have to be called out. If we see sexism and racism

happening inside of our organizations, if it's a black organization or if it's a multicultural organization, it has to be addressed. You know, there is a culture shift that is happening. Old bad behaviors will no longer be tolerated. And in many instances, you will lose your job. You will lose the support of your membership base. You will lose advertising if you don't address it um kelly i find it interesting how with the me too movement when women were coming forward anonymously by and large we trusted that account and as the court of public opinion we moved forward accordingly however when it comes to our own Black women coming forward anonymously for good cause, we all of a sudden have questions. And I want to challenge the thought that I believe I heard Lauren say earlier that it was implied from what I heard that we should be used to crazy bosses in the journalism space.

And if I'm incorrect, I stand corrected. But as someone who has been in the journalism space, as well as the legal space, as well as the corporate space, who has had a slew of crazy bosses, there should be no reason at no point in anyone's career that you should be disrespected for the purposes of just being disrespected. I don't care who you are. I don't care how much tenure you have. I don't care what your influence is in the industry. I am still a human human being. I am still at work and I still have a sense of dignity and integrity about my work and myself such that you need to recognize that and address it accordingly. So when I heard that, when I read the article, because I did read the article regarding the women of essence Essence has within the media industry at large, specifically the black media industry. It would not surprise me that if they came forward with their full names, that they would be blacklisted throughout the entire industry. And that's why they became anonymous. That's why they went to medium anonymously and voiced their opinions and their complaints and their concerns regarding

what was going on in the workplace. So I don't have a problem with what happened. All I have a problem with is what's going to happen if it's not addressed correctly. Lauren? Yeah, so what I said was, you know, I'm not making any argument that anybody should put up with abusive behavior. I'm just making this point that I'm one of these people, I'm not making any argument that anybody should put up with abusive behavior. I'm just making the point that I'm one of these people. I know this is old fashioned. I'm one of these people who wants to hear all sides of the story before making a judgment.

Nothing to do with black women or white women. I was saying that when it was Christine Blasey Ford that came out of nowhere. I was on, in fact, Roland's show and said, we need due process and had the panelists next to me say, he doesn't deserve due process. We know what happened. Well, we don't know what happened. I mean, well, do you want all sides of the story? My belief is that. Hold on, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Lauren finished and Kelly. So this is not a commentary on the black women of essence, because I have no doubt as somebody who's worked in media, I have no doubt they're probably accurate. Certainly the way that the three people immediately resigned would indicate that as well. I'm just saying that with that package that we just saw the fella, fella, Robin Little, everybody, I'm just a believer in believing both sides. I would also say this. Increasingly, we live in a culture where people seem very sensitive about everything. And I don't mean this, and when I say everything, I'm not talking about sexual harassment. Sexual harassment's inappropriate no matter what. I'm talking about people who think that criticism in the workplace is somehow now a hostile

work environment. Like, if I tell you that you're not doing your job correctly, now that's a hostile work environment. I've seen that. And I do think to some extent, particularly in the space that we live in, media, you know, sort of an artistic space, journalism, you're going to have arguments, you're going to have disagreements, you're going to have times when people raise their voice a little bit. Again, I'm not talking about sexual harassment. OK, that's inappropriate no, now I'm in a hostile work environment and now I'm going to make you pay for it. And a lot of these companies are having to let people go, quite frankly,

to avoid civil litigation. Now, obviously for the sexual harassment space, they do have to let these people go because they're going to get sued. But it's starting to creep into sort of other topics as well. Kelly, go ahead. I think that based off of what you just said of you being old fashioned, that I feel like your threshold for criticism is a lot higher than it needs to be. And there's a difference between criticism and beratement. And I don't know these women, obviously they're anonymous, but there's something that needs to be said about a group of women coming together with the consensus of the work environment,

such that they needed to take this measure to get their voices heard. I sincerely doubt that it was just on the premise of somebody not liking their work. doubt that it was just on the premise of somebody not liking their work. I think it was more on the premise of beratement and harassment verbally, sometimes psychologically. I've been in those kinds of work environments. I know what it's like for my work to be criticized, and you take that as it comes. Like you said, journalism is a very uh creative

space in a lot of respects but there's a difference between criticism that you can take and beratement that that pushes the level of respect and i feel like the latter is what happened at essence and other places as well okay Well, OK, well, first of all, I heard you laughing that Mustafa. So I want to give you the final comment here. One of the things that the letter talked about, the letter talked about was pay. It talked about women who've gone on maternity leave and how they were how they've been mistreated as well. So those there were so they laid out all their allegations. Mustafa, your final comment. Well, I'm smart enough to not mansplain. The sisters understand the challenges that they have faced, which in many instances men will never have to go through. So I think that we just need

to make sure that we're honoring each other. I think there's a way that you can provide corrective criticism that is also tied to whatever the skill sets, training, whatever it is that folks might need. And I think that's the difference between good management and bad management. Good management is actually trying to figure out a way to uplift people, to make the organization stronger. And bad management is focused on, you know, trying to point the finger someplace else. All right, folks, let's talk about this story here. A couple of hours ago, civil rights groups ended their meeting with Mark Zuckerberg, as well as CEO Sheryl Sandberg, over a growing advertising boycott. The boycott is a continuation of a conversation about the need for Facebook to do a better job of monitoring objectionable content on their social media platforms.

It was launched three weeks ago, and the Stop Hate for Profit campaign has forced Facebook to deal with the role it plays in spreading white supremacy and systemic racism. The organizers include the Color of Change, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and the Anti-Defamation League. They have asked Facebook to submit to independent audits of hate speech and misinformation, remove all hate speech and hate groups, refund corporations when ads appear next to hate speech, and hire a civil rights executive to scrutinize products and policies for discrimination and hate.

Well, more than 400, close to 500 companies have pulled their advertising. Guess that didn't get the attention. Today, there was a meeting among those groups again as i said with mark zuckerberg as well as cheryl sandberg and this is what rashad robinson tweeted out he of course leads color change met with mark zuckerberg and facebook leadership today it was a disappointment they have had our demands for, and yet it is abundantly clear that they are not yet ready to address the vitriolic hate on their platform. Go to my iPad, please. This is a email that Derek Johnson sent out of the NAACP. It was abundantly clear in our meeting today that Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook team are not yet ready to address the vitriolic hate on their platform. Zuckerberg offered the same old defense of white supremacists and other hateful groups on Facebook

that our coalition, advertisers, and society at large have heard too many times before. Instead of actually responding to the demands of dozens of the platform's largest advertisers that have joined the Stop Hate for Profit ad boycott during the month of July, Facebook wants us to accept the same old rhetoric repackaged as a fresh response. The only recommendation they even attempted to address is hiring a civil rights position, but were unable to commit to that to the crucial piece of the position being at the C-suite level or what the requirements for the position will be. However, they offered no attempt to respond to the other nine recommendations.

Zuckerberg offered no automatic recourse for advertisers whose content runs alongside hateful posts. He had no answer for why Facebook recommends hateful groups to users. He refused to agree to provide an option for victims of hate and harassment to connect with a live Facebook representative. He declined to adopt common sense content moderation policies and practices like the ones put forward by the Change the Terms Coalition or develop a process to ensure that their terms of service are fairly applied and do not bend to political expediency. And he did not offer any tangible plans on how Facebook will address the rampant disinformation and violate conspiracies on its platform. Instead, he offered a retread of the same old talking points from last week, tweaks around the edges with no details or timelines around the MRC audit they

have touted with only the barest minimum of labeling misinformation in political speech with a civil rights audit we asked four years ago and empty refrains of we are trying. None of this is hard, especially for one of the world's most innovative companies whose founder coined the term move fast and break things. Mark Zuckerberg, you aren't breaking things. You are breaking people. With a stroke of a pen, you could make Facebook better for your users, your advertisers and society. We hope that you continue thinking about the consequences of what you have wrought and come back to the table soon with real change. Signed by Derek Johnson. Now, Mustafa, here's the thing that's really the issue here. Facebook generates something around $70 billion a year.

More than 400, close to 500 major companies have pulled out. But here's the problem. They only account for around 6 or eight percent of all Facebook's money. Facebook makes their money from smaller advertisers as an aggregate. If you're going to see again, folks begin to pull back and it starts reaching 10, 20, 30 billion. That is the difference, Mustafa. That's the tipping point that folks have to get to. And folks have to remember that they have power. They have power in how they're utilizing their dollars. So for those mid-level and even smaller level folks who are advertising, you have to let them know what your expectations are. That's one. And then for everybody else who's out here, you know, we're talking about real systemic change. Then you have to, in your

own personal capacity, make a decision. If you are going to continue to utilize Facebook in this 30-day process that's going on and moving forward, and here's where it gets real tough for a lot of our folks, are you going to utilize Instagram? And are you going to support folks on Instagram also? then that means that you may have to no longer also utilize Facebook and Instagram. And you also have to get engaged in the process and hold these other folks who are mid-level and lower level who are advertising on these platforms. Kelly. People have been talking about Facebook for a while in terms of how covertly racist it is when it comes to groups, how they're formed, advertising that gets denied, advertising that gets approved. I believe that if Facebook doesn't get its act together, we need a mass exodus of some form, either

by way of advertising dollars or users in general, because it is becoming more and more apparent that money talks. And we already knew that, but money really does talk. So the more that we withhold our funds, the more that we actually come together as a consensus, as a conglomerate and move accordingly away from Facebook and away from entities in general that are not serving us, I feel like that's when systemic change is going to happen, like you said. Lauren? Yeah, Facebook doesn't care about this issue. It doesn't care about hate speech on their platform.

They clearly don't care. It doesn't matter who they talk to, who talks to them, how many meetings we have. It's the same result. Clearly, the only thing they care about is making money. They bottom line, I guess, brought them to the table on this particular conversation. But it's clear that Mark Zuckerberg does not care about this issue. I mean, it is very clear. And I'm surprised that he even took the meeting. I was surprised to hear the meeting was actually happening. But I think until they're broken up or until the boycott gets to the point where they really are impacting a mass amount of their revenue, we're going to be talking about this. But they clearly do not care about this issue.

That's true. And so we will certainly we'll see what happens next. All right, y'all crazy ass white woman in Tennessee. She taunted Black Lives Matter protesters saying white lives matter. And what are you going to do about it? Watch this. Say whatever she wants to say. Say whatever you want to say. You're not gonna cry. No, say whatever you want to say. Don't tell her shit. I didn't say a word, I'm just standing here.

How's it going? You need to move your ugly ass. Get the fuck out of our way. What loves matter? You're just a poor little black girl who's got a messed up mind. That's it. What loves matter? What loves matter? It's not true.

What loves matter? I know my worth. What loves matter? What loves matter? What can get accomplished right now? You know there's probably more people out there than you can imagine of what you're trying to do. But you're not going to settle it like this.

You're not going to settle it by shooting police officers, spitting cameras, blah blah blah, on and on and on and on. I'm not going to settle it like this. I'm not going to settle it like this. I'm not going to settle it like this. I'm not going to settle it like this. I'm not going to settle it like this. I'm not going to settle it like this.

I'm not going to settle it like this. I'm not going to settle it like this. I'm not going to settle it like this. I'm not going to settle it like this. I'm not going to settle it like this. I'm not going to settle it like this. I'm not going to settle it like this. You're not gonna settle it by shooting police officers, spitting cameras. On and on and on and on. Say it again, say it again. You're a liar. You're a liar. You're a liar. You're a liar.

What loves matters, sister? What loves matter? What loves are better? What loves matter? USA! USA! USA! You know, I get a kick out of when they start chanting USA as somehow folks are not from the USA.

Yeah, that's always pretty. It's a cute one. But here's the other deal. The woman there who was in that orange Tennessee shirt, well, she lost her job. She lost her job. And I keep trying to explain to these people, y'all, I don't mind when these white folks act a fool, Lauren, because they don't keep losing their jobs. And so they can single handedly take care of black unemployment rate. Yeah, I don't know why people are so insecure. I mean, the insecurity levels in some of these videos is really high.

The fact that somebody saying Black Lives Matter set you off and then you feel like that's an attack for you and you're insecure and now you've lost your job. You know, it is just really sad and embarrassing. But, you know, we live in like this era of the snowflake. And it's like very apparent that even when you have like some sort of a disagreement, people feel this need to be out in the street saying the opposite. Like, why? Why? Is money coming out of your bank account because somebody said Black Lives Matter? So it's really sad. Yeah, I'm just I just sort of just look at him, Mustafa, and I'm kind of like, hey, y'all keep acting a fool.

Keep losing your jobs. I'm telling you, once we find out, 100 black people should go apply for that person's job. As we've said time and time again, racism now costs. We know that we've paid a cost in the past, but now, as you said, act a fool, it's going to cost you. It's going to cost you your job, cost you an embarrassment, cost you in a whole bunch of different things. But I will say this to what Lauren just shared. The reason that these folks are so upset is because if they actually have to truly compete, they've never wanted that. That's the reason that they have kept black people and other people of color under their thumb through policy, through statutes, through all these various things that allow them to feel better about who they were.

Instead of improving yourself in your own situation, they decided to push others down. So, you know, you get what you get now. Kelly. Every time I see a video like this now, especially when it doesn't involve like outward violence, I think about the clip that I saw on Twitter of the woman saying, you about to lose your job. Like, I feel like that's what you need to say every time something like this happens. Like't even respond just just saying that to the white because that's what's going to happen now like mustafa said racism costs it already cost beforehand but now it's apparent that it's going to cost it's apparent that you're going to lose your job because you are literally doing something adverse

to whatever job you have yep like it makes no sense just keep your mouth shut be racist behind closed doors and not at your job and no no no i disagree i want them to be as racist as they can publicly so they can all get fired i'm good with that a thousand percent i'm good with it too i'm just saying like no i'm saying no no, no, no. Please keep running your mouth. Please, by all means. I appreciate it. Keep running your mouth. All right, folks. I appreciate it. Lauren, Mustafa, Kelly,

thank you so very much for being on our panel today. Folks, got to go to break. We come back. We'll talk to one of the stars of the Broadway play, Hamilton, now streaming on Disney+. We'll be back with Renee Goldberry. Enjoy. You want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club.

Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered daily digital show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year you can make this possible

rolandmartinunfiltered.com 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 robin 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 uh this guy who had this this pocket square here and it looks like a flower uh 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. And so, therefore, it gives me a different look. So there you go. So if you actually want to get one of these shibori pocket squares, we have them in 47 different look. So there you go. So if you actually want to get one of these shibori pocket squares, we have them in 47 different colors. All you got to do is go to rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So it's rollinglessmartin.com forward

slash pocket squares. All you got to do is go to my website 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, 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 who is 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 RolandSMartin.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, the amazing broadway play which of course has just

blown folks away all around the country hamilton is now streaming on disney plus remember it was supposed to come out in movie theaters but due to coronavirus disney chose to actually place it on their new streaming service it was responsible for a% increase in downloads to Disney. I'm sure what it also did was lead to lots of new subscriptions. One of the folks who is the star of Hamilton is actress, singer Renee Elise Goldsberry. Of course, many folks know about her singing that song Satisf satisfied in it you should be seeing some video right now folks of it and this is from the from the production and so she joins us right now Renee how you doing so how

things been going this has been a first of all folks who don't know how long has this Hamilton journey been for you? Because people don't realize, yeah, you got Broadway, but it's like a workshop. It's all kind of other stuff that happens long before you even get to the Broadway stage. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think Lin Manuel Miranda was writing this for, I think, six years before I had any knowledge of it. I joined the knowledge of it. I joined the show in 2014. We did a workshop with the public theater

and then we did an off-Broadway run for many months at the public theater. And then we waited a couple of months and then we went to Broadway in August of 2015. And I think I left the show in October of 2016. So it was a couple of years there, but it was a great couple of years. And this is a surprise, kind of early, an early drop of Hamilton. I guess I assume we filmed the show right before we left the show, the original Broadway cast.

And I assumed that I would be an old lady by the time they put this out in a movie theater. But, you know, the Lord had other plans. And so here we are on this very in this very surprising time. And I'm doing a lot of work from my guest room in my house. And, you know, on that particular point there again, Lynn owned the movie rights. And it was not the plan to put this in movie theaters so soon. Because frankly, what was happening is Hamilton had opened in Chicago. It had opened other productions, had opened in other parts of the country. But then coronavirus just changed the whole game here.

And so also share with people, you talk about you know joint going to broadway in 2015 leaving in 2016 folks might say why would you leave a successful play like this here but it's not like uh you were only doing one show a week oh no we did eight sometimes nine shows a week rolling nine shows sometimes and it's a three-hour show. It's a lot of work. I often say it felt like holding the Olympic torch, you know, as big of an honor as that is. At some point, your hand starts to wobble. You know, you can only keep it up so long. So, and I knew that the show, any really brilliant piece of art or theater in particular, doesn't need one particular cast to make it great. I've replaced other people in Broadway shows, and I thought I

did a pretty good job. So I knew that the show didn't need me in that way. The show itself is really a star. And I have young children, so I needed to come home. But the beauty of it is that now it's saved in this way. The theatrical experience is saved in this film. And so it's the one thing you normally don't get in theater. People always ask me, what do you like better, film or theater? And the only reason why theater is in any way in question is because, you know, if you missed it, it's gone. But if you can film it in a way that captures some of the magic, then it lasts, and that's the blessing we have here.

How has... First of all, why do you think... What made this so different? I mean, we've seen other Broadway plays. We've seen Dreamgirls. We've seen Cats. Right. Yes. We've seen The Lion King. We've seen others. But what was so different and just special about this one i can't think of any broadway production that has captured the nation's

attention like this one ticket prices were just crazy crazy uh thank thank god i know you personally so i was able to get two tickets with me and my wife, but it was just, I mean, what, what was it? You know what? I think we'll spend the rest of our lives answering that question. It's definitely a question for, for people who study this. And, and, and I think the answer is that there is no one answer. That's what I love. Do you remember that show biography that used to be on Annie? Yeah. I used to love that show because, you know, sometimes they wouldn't just do one person. They would do, like,

friends or some show, you know, the Cosby show, some show that had kind of captured, like, was like a juggernaut in a time. They would study it and you would realize

it really wasn't one element. It was all of the elements combined at a time. And some of the elements have nothing to do with the show or the people putting it on, but just the timing.

And that's definitely been the truth about Hamilton. But if I had to say, if I had to give one person credit or one thing credit, it would definitely be the storyteller. I think it's beautiful to really look at Lin-Manuel Miranda and think about kind of the power of perspective. This, this man is a fusion of, of, you know, he's a history geek. He's a, he's a rap, I mean, hip hop head. He is a music theater geek. He is, you know, he loves, you know, he's, he's, he's the son of a, of an immigrant, you know, you know, Puerto Rican immigrant, you know, family who kind of got really deep into New York politics. I mean, he is, he's a fusion of all of these things. And, and, and also, you know, he loves, he loves a lot of show and tell. There's a bravado there and he works really hard. And all of those things fuse together to give us this really wonderful story that I can guarantee you,

if I pitched it to you, you would have told me I was crazy. Who would have thought it would have worked to tell the story of America then with America now, with the music of now? Who would have thought that you could populate a stage with a diverse cast of people, you know, speaking and singing and just moving in our own vernacular and illuminate in any way the founding fathers in a way that was interesting to anybody. Who would have thought you could do that? I think if you have the right storyteller, well, you can. You make that particular point there in terms of the White House. And you also, of course, well, people didn't realize that he performed. Lin-Manuel Miranda performed this 10 years ago. Yeah.

And folks had no idea that this thing was going to turn out the way it did. I want to play some of that. So, folks, go ahead. Go ahead. Go to my iPad. I'm actually on a hip hop album. It's a concept album about the life of someone I think embodies hip hop, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. You laugh, but it's true. He was born a penniless orphan in St. Croix of illegitimate birth, became George Washington's right-hand man, became Treasury Secretary, caught beef with every other founding father, and all on the strength of his writing. I think he embodies the word's

ability to make a difference. So I'm going to be doing the first song from that tonight. I'm accompanied by Tony and Grammy-winning music director Alex Lacamoire. Anything you need to know. I'll be playing Vice President Aaron Burr. And snap along if you like. How does a bastard orphan son of a whore and a Scotsman dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by Providence impoverished and squalor grow up to be a hero and a scholar? The $10 founding father without a father got a lot farther by working a lot harder by being a lot smarter by being a self-starter by 14 they had placed him in charge of the trading charter and every day while slaves were being slaughtered or carted away across the waves our Hamilton kept his

guard up inside he was longing for something to be a part of The brother was red like a bag of steel Marwa bought a hurricane Came, devastation reigned And our man saw his future drip Dripping down the drain Put a pencil to his temple Connected it to his brain And he wrote his first refrain A testament to his pain

While the word got around They said this kid is insane man Took up a collection just to send him to the mainland Get your education don't forget from whence you came And the world is gonna know your name What's your name man? Alexander Hamilton His name is Alexander Hamilton

And there's a million things he hasn't done But just you wait, just you wait When he was ten his father split full of it debt ridden two years later see alex and his mother bed ridden half dead sitting in their own sick the scent thick and alex got better but his mother went quick moved in with a cousin the cousin committed suicide left him with nothing but ruined pride Something new inside a voice Saying, Alex, you gotta fend for yourself He started retreating and reading

Every treatise on the shelf There would've been nothing left to do For someone less astute He would've been death or destitute Without a cent of restitution Started working, clerking For his late mother's landlord Trading sugarcane and rum

And all the things he can't afford Scamming for every book he can get his hands on planning for the future see him now as he stands on the bow of a ship headed for a new land in new york you can be a new man the ship is in the harbor now see if you can spot him another immigrant coming up from the bottom. His enemies destroyed his rep. America forgot him. And me, I'm the damn fool that shot him. Alexander Hamilton, we were waiting in the weeds for you. You could never back down. You always had to speak your mind Alexander Hamilton we could never take your deeds from you and our cowardice and our shame

we will try to destroy your name the world will never be the same Alexander yeah I'm the damn genius that shot him. Thank you.

The thing there, Renee, and I think why it captured the imagination, first of all, one, you make history relevant. You made it interesting, entertaining. To me, it's sort of like the generation of us who grew up on Sesame Street Electric Company. It wasn't the presentation, wasn't this bombing piece, and it actually led to uh a resurgence of people uh and remember the Ron Chernow book was literally about this huge

uh and so I think that's what made it inviting because to be honest Broadway is not really the most inviting place very positive you want me to say something? No, I'm just saying, it's just not, I think it made it relevant to an audience who normally would not go to Broadway plays. Absolutely. Yeah, Broadway is, you know, is a challenge because it is kind of a commercial institution that is cost prohibitive. And so you have a lot of artists who, you know, some would think are at the top of their game, and yet they are now kind of in this elitist structure.

So, yeah, in Hamilton in particular, there was a challenge. You know, we start, I have to say this, actually. I've answered this question a bunch of times, but I haven't said this one particular thing. We start off Broadway at the Public theater where the ticket is free. So we were there for about five months. Um, there is also, uh, when there's a demand for something always, uh, an impossibility of getting in, even in that structure and money can always, money can always keep people out even in that structure. Um, but. But we did definitely start there.

But we became famous because nobody could get a ticket to the show. And actually, that's the beauty of what this moment is with it coming out streaming on Disney+, where we're talking about a $7 a month subscription and you don't have to leave your house to see it. That's the fulfillment of the dream of this group of artists. Um, cause it was always, um, it was always the intention to make this accessible to the people that really the story is written for and about. And that is why, you know, that's why it's, it's said over again, bastard, orphan, son of a whore, like, you know, everything immigrant, every, everything, every slur that is thrown at, at, you know, thrown to this day. It's the, the intention is to,

to call all of you people who are slurred in this country and remind you that you are actually, you are actually the people that created this country. You are, you are, you are the best part of this country from not just today, but from the very beginning. And if you know that, even with nothing, you are the powerful change that is still here. That's always the point that it was making. And the excitement about it coming out, you know, we didn't even see this coming at this time. And in this form is a is kind of is very poetic to us well also i think let's just be honest people of color we bring a little spice to

stuff and oh yeah it's a lot more flavor and then because this this this is not what a typical broadway production looks like in terms of the level of diversity not just those on the stage but those who are in control of setting the narrative? Absolutely. You know, there are, I mean, you know, we didn't invent casting a diverse group of people for sure. There are all kinds of shows with a diverse group of people, definitely not enough, of course, but that happens all the time. I think what we were credited with, and I should say by we, I mean the people that made those happens all the time. I think, um, what we were credited with, credited with, and I should say by we, I mean, the people that made those decisions in the beginning before I

got there, um, is not, is recognizing that the casting is, has nothing to do with what, you know, the outside in the idea that they were very well aware that there would be no accessibility whatsoever to this story. If they were looking for somebody that looked like George Washington, there would be no, nobody would, nobody would have a way in, right? Even, even people that might look like George Washington, quite honestly, if, if you, if you tell the story of this group of revolutionaries, um, and you make it look like, you know, Mount Rushmore, um, you're, you're not speaking to this country anymore. And so, uh, so yeah, um, it was, uh, it was a very

smart choice. It was a very calculated choice. It was the right choice. And it was the choice made by the people that, you know, the people that wrote it or the people that look like the people on stage, it's the same person. So, so it's, um, yeah, it's seamless. So how has it changed in your career? Oh, well, um, gosh, everybody, everybody, everybody got to bump up Roland. We all, uh, we all, you know, Hamilton is, uh, it's, it's a game changer for anybody that's anywhere around it. Um, it kind of reminds me of the, when I was in the color purple many years ago and, um, at some point, um, it was a very exciting day that they announced that Oprah Winfrey was going to join to produce the show.

And literally anywhere I went, everybody just to be in anywhere around Oprah. Like, you know, I just had a lot more attention around me and a lot more access to things myself. And that's kind of what Hamilton feels like. People really love it, that the beauty of it in the world that we live in, where we are so siloed in terms of whatever we're doing, even if you're successful in whatever space you're in, you know, the world is, you know, just the way we consume media. Now you're over there and I'm over here and this person's over there. And, uh, what Hamilton did is unique in, in my experience.

And I've been in the entertainment industry for a long time. It really popped so many different bubbles. It was not just a group of theater people that love the show or a group of historians that love the show or people that love hip hop music loving the show or Americans loving the show or black people loving the show. It's really old people, young people, kids. I mean, it's it's pervasive. It's every group of people. I mean, I, I, I'm, I'm confident there are people that don't love it, but the, I've never in my life been in anything, no matter how successful that, uh, the demo doesn't matter what box you can check them all in terms of people that will be inspired by this piece of work. I mean, we were in the, like, I love that you showed that clip

as opposed to so many others, because you can see that we were born in the Obama administration. I mean, this show, I just, you know, Michelle Obama just was posting about us, supporting us on Instagram yesterday. And I was like responding to her and just, and thanking her for, for personally championing this show. This, this show was born in their, in that family, in the hands

of that particular administration. And we thought in the moment, because they, you know, they brought us to the White House. She came, everybody came, they came several times. She did everything that she could to support that show because she felt it was so representative of what she believed was art was supposed to be. And and we had so many moments with them, you know, just putting their own name on this and trying. And I mean, I mean, and I think our president, Barack Obama, said to us many times, the thing I'm saying to you now in terms of understanding the blessing of what we had, because in his own experience, um, he was aware of the fact that to be, to be acknowledged for doing something in the moment that you're doing it is extreme, extremely rare. And, uh, and if, since that is happening to you, for me, please appreciate that.

That's what he would say to us. Um, so we were born in that administration and, and did not see what was coming. And I often believe that, um, we were not necessarily for the administration we were born in. We were, we were for a time that looks perhaps like this. Um, and, uh, and so I've never been surprised when things keep changing and me still being able to find relevance in the show that was born in that really wonderful nurturing space. uh who actors who on broadway who who understood um what what it meant as well the night uh and i'm trying to pull it up the night that i was there uh was the first chance i got first night got just to meet brian dennehy uh and uh and he was uh i think let me see if i can go ahead and get this straight here y'all should be able to see it here's a photo right here uh and that was also was amazing to see other artists guys you see the photo go ahead that was amazing to see other

artists who would come and were blown away by the production as well yeah it was crazy um we didn't we didn't one reason why i was so tired is because you couldn't, you couldn't take a day off because you would have missed somebody. We met, you know, we met all of our, our heroes and, and the beauty of meeting people in that way is that, you know, you get to kind of meet them as peers because, because they come after they sat through three hours of the story we told. And so it's not like, oh, hi whoever Beyonce you know whoever it is Prince you know whoever that you whoever you've been dreaming to meet um you know you meet them on a level where you can actually have a conversation with them which is surreal um so how was that Prince

conversation well I didn't have the Prince conversation I just wanted to say his name did you have a Beyonce conversation I I did have a Beyonce conversation. Okay, cool. I did. I did. She is, she is, she's, she was just, I mean, the beauty of, of people showing up is they were aware that, you know, there was another thing afterwards, which is to come on stage and, and to, and to give us something back by just saying hello.

But yeah, her and Jay-Z came and she just was lovely. I think she touched my neck or something and said something really beautiful about the way I sing. And I think I wrote it down and it's probably framed in my room, but I'll blow it off. But yeah, no, everybody.

I mean, but Prince, he came and I think the night before his, we were living a crazy, a crazy pinch me moment. A friend of mine, his publicist is a friend of mine and she said Prince is coming into town to do a concert, a surprise

pop-up thing, you know, at this little club. Y'all want to come after the show? And we went and we were up to like 6 o'clock in the morning just me and us and the cast of The Color Purple in this very little bar watching him play after we had done our very challenging shows. It was over about 5 o'clock in the morning. Our lives

were changed. That show was over about 5 o'clock in the morning. Our lives were changed. Oh, that show was over early for Prince, 5 o'clock. I know, but it was hard. We had to wake up and do two more shows. And then he came. He came to our show the night after that when we had no sleep. And he sat in the box kind of up on the left. And it's probably one of my worst mistakes worst mistakes is, um, I did not,

I didn't think I'd be, I didn't think I'd be able to get through the show if I looked up at him. Right. I decided that I was going to just do my show. Cause all, you know, everybody else in the audience that, you know, was there was just as important. So I just did my regular show. And then I, as soon as I went to take the bow, I looked up to just see him, you know, and have a moment where I can be on a stage and see Prince. And I literally saw the curtain closing. Like he just slipped away. Wow. So I only have, I actually didn't get to see him there, but I know in my heart that, um, he came, he sat through the whole show and he, and he was absolutely loving. And it was just maybe a few weeks later when we heard that he passed away. It was, it's, it's, it's the first time in my life,

Roland, that I had ever been trending, you know, like, you know, we were part of something. And what I learned about this entertainment industry that I didn't know before is, uh, is when you're trending the way, the way people that are very successful in our trending stay successful in trending is that they, they, you know, they, the proximity they get to whoever is new on the block. And so we didn't have to do anything. We just sat there and everybody, if you were a politician, if you were a sports, I mean, anybody, anybody, whatever you were in fashion, I mean, the top of everybody came to, uh, to kind of rub elbows with us. And it was a really magical time, not because of, not because of what seems so superficial about that, but because we were so proud of the message of what we were doing.

Well, folks, we cannot show you, obviously we can't show you a video from the production, but because of that wonderful thing called the public domain, we're going to end the show with showing you some of the hamilton workshop that took place at the obama white house uh and you'll actually get to hear uh renee's scene yeah see that's that's the beauty of uh that's the beauty of understanding uh the rules and procedures that that because it's public domain when you take when you do it at the white house yeah you don't have to uh deal with the normal copyright drama. So, Renee, certainly enjoyed having you on the show. Good luck with everything.

And it was certainly an amazing ride. And trust me, look, y'all are going to be getting checks for a long time because Hamilton is not going away anytime soon. Thank you, Roland. Thanks for always supporting. Miss you. Appreciate it, darling. Take care. Be well. You too. long time because uh hamilton uh is not going away anytime soon thank you roland thanks for always supporting miss you appreciate it darling take care be well you too folks we'll end the show again this is the hamilton workshop taking place at the obama white house uh what year was it uh well don't even matter we'll figure it out but i'm gonna see you guys tomorrow check this out. Holla! How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore... What an incredible gift these folks have given to the United States of America. It is rare where a piece of art can remind us about what's best in ourselves.

The $10 founding father without a father got a lot farther by working a lot harder by being a lot smarter by being a self-starter by 14, they placed him in charge of a trading charter. And every day while slaves were being slaughtered and carted away across the waves, he struggled and kept his guard up. Inside, he was longing for something to be a part of the brother was ready to beg steal

borrow or barter then a hurricane came and devastation rained our man saw his future drip dripping down the drain but a pencil to his temple connected it to his brain and he wrote his first refrain a testament to his temple, connected it to his brain And he wrote his first refrain, a testament to his pain Well the world got around, they said this kid is insane, man Took up a collection just to send him to the mainland Get your education, don't forget from whence you came And the world's gonna know your name, what's your name, man? My name is Alexander Hamilton your name, man? Alexander Hamilton

My name is Alexander Hamilton There's a million things I haven't done But just you wait, just you wait When he was ten his father split, full of it, dead To bread and two years later, see Alex and his mother bed Bread and half dead, sitting in their own sick The scent thick And Alex got better, but his mother went quick

Moved in with her cousin, the cousin committed suicide Left him with nothing but ruined bride Something new inside her voice saying Alex, you gotta fend for yourself. He started retreating and reading every treatise on the shelf. There would have been nothing left to do for someone less astute. He would have been dead or destitute without a cent of restitution. Started working, gawking for his late mother's landlord,

trading sugarcane and rum and all the things he can't afford. Scamming for every book he can get his hands on Planning for the future, see him now as he stands on the bow of a ship Headed for a new land, in New York you can be a new man In New York you can be a new man In New York you can be a new man In New York you can be a new man In New York

Just you wait Alexander Hamilton We are waiting in the wings for you You never back down You never learn to take your time Alexander Hamilton When America sings for you Will they know what you overcame?

Will they know you rewrote the game? The world will never be the same, oh This ship is in the harbor now, see if you can spite him Another immigrant coming up from the bottom He's destroyed his rep, America forgot him We fought with him Me, I died for him Me, I trusted him

Me, I loved him And me, I'm the damn fool that shot him. There's a million things I haven't done, but just you wait. What's your name, man? Alexander Hamilton. There's nothing rich folks love more than going downtown and slumming it with the poor. They pull up in their carriages and gawk at the students in the common just to watch them talk. Take Philip Schuyler, the man is loaded. Uh-oh, but little does he know that his daughter's Peggy, Angelica, Eliza,

sneaking to the city just to watch all the guys. It's work, work, Angelica, work, Work, Eliza, and Peggy, the Skyler sister, Angelica, Peggy, Eliza, Work! Daddy said to be home by sundown, Daddy doesn't need to know, Daddy said not to go downtown, like I said you're free to go, Look around, look around, the revolution's happening in New York. New York. Angelica, work. It's bad enough daddy wants to go to war. People shouting in the square. It's bad enough there'll be violence on our shores.

No ideas in the air. Look around, look around. Angelica, remind me what we're looking for. She's looking for me Eliza, I'm looking for a mind at work, work I'm looking for a mind at work, work I'm looking for a mind at work, work Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, work

Woo, there's nothing like summer in the city Someone in a rush next to someone looking pretty Excuse me miss, I know it's not funny But your perfume smells like your daddy's got money Why you slumming in the city in your fancy heels? You searching for an urchin who can give you ideals? Sir, you disgust me Ah, so you disgust me

I'm a trust fund, baby, you can trust me I've been beaten common sense by Thomas Paine So men say that I'm intense or I'm insane You want a revolution, I want a revelation So listen to my declaration. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. And when I meet Thomas Jefferson, ah, I'mma compel him to include women in the sequel. Work! Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now. Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now history is happening in

manhattan and we just happen to be in the greatest city in the world in the greatest city in the world And we are one We hold these truths to be self-evident That all men are created equal Look around, look around How lucky we are to be alive right now History is happening in Manhattan And we just happen to be In the greatest city in the world

In the greatest city in the world Angelica Eliza And Peggy The Schuyler Sisters We're looking for a minor Hey, hey, hey In the United States,

President Obama, and the President of the United States have all been honored with the honor of presenting the President of the United States with a special gift. The President of the United States, President Obama, and the President of the United States, have all been honored with the honor of presenting the President of the United States with a special gift. Thank you. This is an iHeart Podcast.