#RolandMartinUnfiltered - COVID-19 explodes, Blacks 3x more at risk; WH defends Trump's Bubba Wallace tweet; Ebony mag shakeup

Episode Date: July 13, 2020

7.6.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: COVID-19 infections explode across America, Blacks 3x more at risk; White House defends Trump's Bubba Wallace tweet and Trump wants an apology from the NASCAR driver; Shakeup at Ebony magazine; Bad cops hired at St. Ann PD, but why? More crazy a$$ woman won't let a brother walk down the street; Zerlina Maxwell talks 'The End of White Politics: How to Heal Our Liberal Divide' Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartcinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partner: Ceek Be the first to own the world's first 4D, 360 Audio Headphones and mobile VR Headset. Check it out on www.ceek.com and use the promo code RMVIP2020 - The Roland S. Martin YouTube channel is a news reporting site covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. All right, folks, today is Monday, July 6, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin on the filtered COVID-19 cases explode all across the United States. We'll talk to Dr. about what that means and what America should be doing. Also, Donald Trump, why is he demanding an apology from NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace? He ain't getting one, but he's also defending Confederate statues and the Confederate flag. Yeah, he's all about running a racist campaign. That's exactly what he is doing. Also, Willard Jackson is out as the CEO of Ebony Magazine. We'll talk with the new owners

about what that actually means for the historic magazine. Also, folks, Jelena Maxwell on her new book, The End of White Politics, and we'll talk with police union in St. Louis who breaks down when cops who do wrongdoing in St. Louis,

how they're hired by a nearby police department. Wait until you hear these details. Louis, how they're hired by a nearby police department. Wait until you hear these details. Folks, we got a jam-packed show. Plus, yeah, we got a jam-packed show. Let's just get started. It's time to bring the funk. Roll the mic and the filter.

Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the mess, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the smooth, the fat, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics.

With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's rolling, Martin. Yeah. Rolling with rolling now. It's Rollin' Martin Rollin' with Rollin' now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Rollin' Martin Martin It was a hotter 4th of July when it came to COVID-19.

More than 3 million cases now in the United States. Places like Texas and Florida are seeing record number of cases. Not only that, 132,000 people have died due to COVID-19. Also, 1.3 million are recovering. Now, here's the deal. You might hear that, but the reality is there are people who are having significant health issues even though they are recovering. Let's get right to it with our guest right now. And that is Dr. Idris Abdur-Rahman of the Twin Doctors TV.

Doc, glad to have you back. How are you doing? I'm doing well. Thanks for having me back. So let's talk about this here. Because you have in these places like Texas and Florida where they tried to reopen all of a sudden, did not go well, had to shut bars, had to shut restaurants. Now you have the governor of Texas saying, hey, now he fought county judges, he fought mayors when it came to require people to wear masks. Now all of a sudden he's realizing,

yeah, those masks, pretty damn good idea. Absolutely. So this is the thing. At the end of the day, you can't fight the science. This is a highly, highly contagious virus. And there is no way that you can prevent people from getting it if people are congregating like it does not exist. So Texas, Florida, those are all states that are a prime example of that. Before this virus was contained, folks are out doing their thing, and this is what ends up happening. So unfortunately, this is what happens when people do not follow the science. And I'm not going to get political, but we have a lack of direction in this country. We don't have information or instructions coming from on high

for what to do. So we have states and municipalities trying to figure out for themselves. And when people are putting money before health, this is what ends up happening. Now Donald Trump is saying, hey, it's no big deal. If you're young, pretty much, you've got a guaranteed chance to live. That's simply a lie. That is absolutely not true. So this is the thing. Before COVID-19 was ever a thing, the United States is becoming progressively less and less healthy. And part of that is because young people are becoming less and less healthy. This is the first generation that it is projected will not outlive their parents in terms of life expectancy. That's because of high blood pressure,

diabetes, high cholesterol, things we used to see in older people. These are the comorbidities that unfortunately do not go well with COVID. So while the great majority of younger people will do okay, more and more will not because they have these comorbidities. And more importantly, they will take it home to their mom, their dad, their grandparents who will not do well. So yes, if you're younger, you may not die, but you can still become ill. You can die, but you can also be a danger to people around you. And that's what people just aren't getting. And again, when you start breaking down these numbers, when you start looking at really what's happening here, hospital beds are filling up like crazy in Florida,

Miami, in Houston. Doctors are saying we simply don't have enough beds. And then when you hear people say, hey, if you're young, it's all good. You can pretty much, you know, you're not going to die from it. But the reality is here, we're seeing these stories of people with significant health issues, diminished lung capacity, the inability to do a lot of things they did beforehand. So explain to people the after effects, even if you survive COVID-19, what your life may very well be like. And this is the thing, because this is new, we do not know. We're pretending like this is just a cold. You get over it and you're going to be fine.

There have been multiple, multiple case studies out of China, out of Italy of people that have quote unquote recovered, but they still have longstanding lung issues. There have even been cases of people that need lung transplants. So we just don't know what the long term effects are going to be. And again, this is a disease that affects your entire body, your blood vessels. It causes inflammation.

So this could be something that down the line increases the risk of heart disease, heart attack, stroke. We just don't know. So it is way too early to tell people, it's like a little cold, you'll get over it, you'll do fine. We have case studies showing that's not the case. And I'm thinking as time goes on, we're going to see more and more. So absolutely not the advice to listen to. You've got these crazy ass folks who are fighting constantly about wearing masks. Others are also wearing the face shields. Now, so let's

walk this thing through. Let's say you have the face shield. Do you also have to wear the mask as well? Is the face shield only... Because some people are wearing the face shield. Do you also have to wear the mask as well? Is the face shield only... Because some people are wearing the face shield, no mask. Right. So the face shield is more designed for your eyes. So while this is a virus that can enter through the mouth and the nose, it can also enter through the eyes. So if you wear glasses, you're good. But if not, you need a face shield. But this is the thing. The face shield is not going to provide protection under here. So even if you have a face shield because you're not wearing glasses, you should still have a mask on to actually cover your nose and your mouth

completely. Okay. So you have that. Also, we now talk about masks. We have the whole deal going back and forth, cloth mask, N95 mask. Some people will be not able to get the N95 mask. And so explain to people exactly what is it. Is the N95 mask the one that has a filter in it? Exactly, so the N95 mask, they call it N95 because it is supposed to filter out 95% of nanoparticles. So these are the really small particles. So when you're dealing with people that have TB or other respiratory issues like COVID,

this is the best mask. Nothing is 100%, but this is a mask that is most likely to filter out those particles. But what I tell people is while it's still hard to find N95 masks, you can go on Amazon anywhere and find what they call KN95 masks, which are just the Chinese equivalent, and they are readily available. So that's not a bad thing to have.

Those are the best masks. But they've actually done a study that shows that if you can't get an N95 mask, then cloth masks tend to be better than the, because you see people wearing these durags as well, you know, cloth masks, if you can't get an N95 or a K95, are much better than a durag. But anything's better than nothing. But if you cannot get an N95 or a KN95, then get a cloth mask. You're saying these people who are losing their minds

are going to play this video right here. This is a woman acting a fool in Target. Well, finally, we've reached the end of the road. I've been looking forward to this shit all my fucking life. So, Target, I'm not playing any more fucking games. This shit's fucking over. This shit's all fucking over. This shit's fucking over.

This shit's over. This shit's over. This shit's over. This shit's over. This shit's over. This shit's over. This shit's over. This shit's over. This shit's over. Yay! This shit's over. This shit's over. This shit's over. This shit's over. This shit's over. This shit's over. This shit's over. This shit's over. Yay! This shit's over. Woo! Yeah!

You know that shit? Get all this shit off of my car. I don't need any of that shit. I don't want any of that shit. Get my shit out of here. Now, Dr. Elders is here. Cops went to her place and actually arrested her. She then, of course, live-streamed the arrest. She did everything that Donald Trump was elected to out. You can read about it on Twitter. You can read about it in the news. All of the deep state politicians, all of that stuff has happened. It's done. So I was hired to be the QAnon spokesperson. So there's no information coming here today?

I cannot. It's a secret. What do you mean? Like, I can't give you any classified information. You're not Clarence. You're not Clarence. You don't. You're a spokesperson, correct?

Yeah, for the White House. Yeah. Okay. But I called Donald Trump and asked him, if you don't have parents. You don't. You're a spokesperson, correct? Yeah, for the White House. Yeah. Okay. But I called Donald Trump and asked him, if you don't believe me. We're going to talk over that video. She is a Donald Trump supporter. She's a QAnon conspiracy person as well. But again, this is what people don't understand.

These people also can endanger the public. One person can actually spread this coronavirus to a number of people. And so when you hear folks talk about put a damn mask on, this is real. And these people for some reason just

don't want to do it. This is the thing. I'm going to give her and people like her the benefit of the doubt that this has been so emotionally stressful that they are losing their mind. Because I'm not I'm trying to be nice. I'm going to give her and people like her the benefit of the doubt that this has been so emotionally stressful that they are losing their mind. Because I'm not... I'm trying to be nice. I'm not... I'm not giving... No. No, bottom line is, these are people who are nuts,

who don't want to follow rules. These are people who yell, oh, our freedoms, but they don't realize that people are dying. I mean, I saw one story of a guy who went to some COVID party. He apologizes. He dies the next day.

This is not something that, oh, you can catch, you know what, and fine, I can have it. I can live 20, 30 years. People are literally dying within days or weeks of contracting this. Absolutely. And this is what's driving me crazy, I guess, for lack of a better term. So when we frame this mask debate as an issue of freedom, I'm not understanding that. Yes, there are certain things that the government mandates that we do for our own health and well-being.

Seat belts, that's a perfect example. You don't see people saying, I'm a Republican or whatever, I follow Donald Trump, I'm a Trumpy, so I'm not going to wear a seat belt, because it's for their protection, but not just their protection, the protection of the passengers in their car who they will hit on their way out of the windshield, or the protection of the people around them who could potentially be hurt. Same thing with the mask. My wife and I had this discussion. I said, you know what? If the only person who met a bad end was the one that didn't wear a mask, I'm going to preach to you to wear a mask, but if you don't, that's your business. But like you said,

unfortunately, what happens is they don't wear a mask. They then go into contact with somebody else because what we're finding is that up to 90% or more people are either asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic, meaning they don't know they're infected. So they don't wear a mask. They get COVID. There was actually a study that shows that one person, one person can infect up to 80 people, you know, in terms of that exponential spread within the span of a week. So them not wearing a mask is not an issue of their freedom. It's an issue of public safety. And that's why I'm getting so tired of hearing this thing that it's an issue of freedom. The same people, the same people that are yelling and screaming about freedom for not wanting to wear a mask are the same ones that will protect the Second Amendment to the end. And I'm a gun owner, so they'll throw a Second Amendment, but these are the same people that protect the Second Amendment to the end. So they don't mind, you know, government telling you what is okay when it's something that they want. But

when it's something that they don't want to do, all of a sudden it's a big issue. And it's absolutely just driving me crazy. This is not an issue of personal freedom. It is strictly a matter of health. Well, and get, look, I mean, that's just the reality of what we're dealing with. Last point here, New York Times paid for this data that broke down the impact, the impact of COVID on Black folks and Latinos startling information? Yeah, absolutely. So this is the thing. So what, again, we're not understanding everything about COVID, but we've seen that Black people and Brown people are disproportionately affected, and it's for a multitude of reasons. A, the fact that we tend to have more of those comorbid conditions, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, but also it's that double whammy of we're not in

a position where we can say, hey, I'm not going to go to work. We're not in a position where we can social distance, and we don't have the same access to healthcare, both in terms of actually having healthcare and then the quality of that healthcare. So it is absolutely disproportionately affecting Black people and brown people. And I'll be honest with you, I'm not a big conspiracy theorist, but I think that is why it is not necessarily being taken as seriously in certain circles. Just like, you know, the inner city drug problem wasn't a big deal until all of a sudden white folks were dying. Then it became a national emergency. I think that if more people that look like the president and less people that look like us are being disproportionately affected,

it might be taken a little bit more seriously. But that's just my opinion. Well, no, man, I disagree. I mean, first of all, I disagree. I absolutely agree. And I still think that what you're dealing with is you're dealing with people who want to downplay the fact. Last question for you. There's a story out of the White House where aides are saying that what they hope is that Americans will pretty much just get used to and become numb to the number of people who are dying of coronavirus. Already 133,000 people,

133,000 people have died from coronavirus. When you hear them say that, that, okay, people will pretty much become numb to it, and then they will just accept living with this. We haven't reached that stage yet. I keep arguing, until we have tested 100 million or 100 million or more Americans, we're not going to have a real true understanding of the handling of this disease. And that's the thing. So, you know, it's very easy to hope that Americans will become numb to something that does not affect them. But as more people are diagnosed and as more people die, more people are going to be affected and can't be to something that affects you. But that is what happens when you have an administration that has no plan. They're not hoping that people are going to go numb to this in Germany and in Italy and in Spain because they got their crap

together and they took care of it. They're hoping the folks are going to go numb to all the sickness and death here because they don't know what else to do. But as a physician, I mean, that's sick. It's like, really, you want us to just go numb to people dying and becoming ill? That's just not human. I'm not saying that's not the American way. That's just not the human way. That's ridiculous. And so, yeah, it's unfortunate. At the end of the day, what I keep arguing to Black folks, look, don't play games with this. Keep your behind at home. Protect yourself. If you go out, limit in terms of what you do. Have maximum protection, because the reality is our folks are dying. I saw a tweet a little bit earlier that came from Ice-T,

his father, his brother, his father, his son, and his sister all have it, Sebastian Telfair, a former NBA player. His brother and his mother have died from it. I mean, this thing is just seriously impacting a lot of people of color. We do not have time. Look, if white folks want to run out there and run around with no mask and go to the beaches or whatever, but I'm sorry, we don't have that luxury. We do not.

I agree 100%. All right, Doc, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thanks for having me%. All right, Doc, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thanks for having me. All right, folks, we were supposed to have Reverend Dr. William Barr on the show today, but the reality is one of his folks, one of his ardent supporters of the Poor People's Campaign, she passed away as a sister out of Alabama. And when you talk about somebody who was very much involved, Doc sent me this. He said she died just before I came on the show and was a Lou Hammer-type sister. I mean, when you think about that, when you think about what's going on and who we're losing to this, you know, this thing is real.

This thing is real. And I really wish we stop again. We stop playing games. I want us to stop playing games. I want us to realize what this whole thing means in terms of how we are impacted. I'm going to pull this video up. Her name was Pamela Rush. She was out of Alabama. And Reverend Barber, he was, like I say, we were texting over the weekend and she passed. And part of the deal, she did not, because they did not have Medicaid expansion in Alabama. She was afraid to go to the hospital. And folks, it was too late. It was too late for her. And so I'm going to go ahead and cue this video up and play it right now.

William Barber. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Thank you for letting us come. Hi, my name is Pamela from downtown Alabama. And I live in a mobile home

with my two kids. They charge me over $114,000 on a mobile home. They're falling apart. And then Alma coming in my house. Possum. I trapped four possums in my house.

Cat sister. And I got raw sewage. I don't have no money on power. Pamela let us come in her house courageously. It was hard. She said, I want the nation maybe to help somebody else. A predatory lender made her pay $120,000 for a single White House that she's still paying for.

She's in the Poor People's Campaign. She said, I have no place else to go but fight. I feel bad because I don't have stuff to give my children. I'm paying all these bills and they need school clothes and stuff and they be asking me for it, I can't give it to them. Do you see that somebody that would take advantage

of a poor family is criminal? Yeah, it would take, yes, it is a criminal. Yes, they treated them wrong. Eternal God who loves justice, mercy, and grace. We thank you today for Pamela, her strength, her family. We stand against this kind of oppression and wrong. And we thank you for giving her the courage by your spirit to say,

I'll no longer be quiet or silent or in hiding. And we want to thank Reverend Barber and the folks with the Poor People's Campaign for sending us that video. And folks, that is precisely why the Poor People's Campaign exists. That's precisely why they are doing all they can to fight what is going on. Because what we are dealing with, we're dealing with people in this country who do not want to help those who are poor. We're dealing with people in this country who are not trying to offer the kind of assistance to folks who are poor. Oklahoma last week approved Medicaid expansion, red state, and you're seeing that. But unfortunately, where more than half of our people live in southern states, we are under the thumb of

Republican governors who do not care about poor people, whether they are black, whether they are white. And that's why the Poor People's Campaign is doing what they're doing. And so somebody asked, Roland, can you get her contact information? We can help her. No, folks, she passed away. She passed away from COVID-19. But if you want to help, again, in her memory, please go to the Poor People's Campaign. Go to their website and volunteer. 75 million poor people in the South didn't vote. Folks, they can pick the next president. Speaking of the next president,

Donald Trump this weekend had this absolutely insane right-wing, white nationalist, racist speech. The only thing that he can run on now is white supremacy, and you're seeing it. You're seeing him literally argue in support of Confederate flag, argue in support of these monuments. That's what he is doing. He knows he has nothing else now. He is appealing to these white national interests. In fact, he did something today that was quite interesting, and that is he's sitting

here whining and complaining. Now he's attacking folks like Bubba Wallace. He's attacking people at the Washington Redskins. So, I mean, we'll talk about how nuts he is. And so here's my iPad here. You see this tweet. They named teams out of strength, not weakness, but now the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians, two fabled sports franchises, look like they're going to be changing their name in order to be politically correct. Indians like Elizabeth Warren must be very angry right now. Understand what he is doing here.

Okay. So you have that. Then, of course, he complained a little bit earlier about Bubba Wallace. Now, of course, Bubba Wallace is the NASCAR driver who they, when NASCAR found a noose in his particular area, in his garage area. Well, guess what? Trump ain't too happy about that. And so what did he do? He sent this tweet out today. Has Bubba Wallace apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers and officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, and were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only

to find out that the whole thing was just another hoax. That and the flag decision has caused lowest ratings ever. Now, when you hear Donald Trump say the flag decision, NASCAR decided to take down, to order the removal of the Confederate flag. What Donald Trump is literally arguing, oh, that's caused your ratings to go down. Understand, folks, what we're dealing with here. Understand what we're dealing with. Now let's deal with this here.

Now you have, at the White House today, Kayleigh McEnany was hit with lots of questions on this very issue about this Trump... Oh, listen to this, y'all. Why is the president so supportive of flying the Confederate flag? So I think you're referring to a tweet this morning. Is that right? Well, I think you're mischaracterizing the tweets. The tweet was aimed at pointing out that the FBI report of the alleged hate crime at NASCAR concluded that the garage door pull, which had been there since last fall, was

obviously not targeted at a specific individual because, in fact, it was a garage pull. And in fact, it was there since last fall, long before these 43 teams arrived. And it was concluded by the FBI that this was, quote, not an intentional racist act. For clarity, I'm asking you about the Confederate flags. My question is, why is the president so supportive of flying the Confederate flag? The president never said that. Again, you're taking his tweet completely out of context. The president said that NASCAR saw bad ratings because they took down the Confederate flag, banned the Confederate flag. Does he believe NASCAR should

fly the Confederate flag and why don't they fly it here? The whole point of the tweet was to note the incident, the alleged hate crime, that in fact was not a hate crime. At the very end, the ban on the flag was mentioned in the broader context of the fact that he rejects this notion that somehow NASCAR men and women who go to these sporting events are racist. When in fact, as it turns out, what we saw with the FBI report in the alleged incident of a hate crime, it was a complete indictment of the media's rush to judgment, once again calling this a hate crime when the FBI completely dismissed that. John. Kelly, to follow up on Peter's question, what is the president's position?

Does he think NASCAR made a mistake by banning the Confederate flag? So he said, I spoke to him this morning about this, and he said he was not making a judgment one way or the other. The intent of the tweet was to stand up for the men and women of NASCAR and the fans and those who have gone in this rush to judgment of the media to call something a hate crime when, in fact, the FBI report concluded this was not an intentional racist act. And it very much mirrors other times when there have been a rush to judgment, let's say with the Covington boys or with Jesse Smollett. But let's drill down on the Confederate flag. Does he think it was a mistake for NASCAR to ban it? The president said he wasn't making a judgment one way or the other.

You're focusing on one word at the very bottom of a tweet that's completely taking out of context and neglecting the complete rush to judgment. Are you saying the NASCAR ratings are down because they banned the flag? That's what he said. The president was noting the fact that in aggregate, this notion that NASCAR men and women who have gone and who are being demeaned and called racist and being accused in some venues of committing a hate crime against an individual, those allegations were just dead wrong. Does he think his supporters should not take the flag to Trump rallies as he considers banning the Confederate flag from Trump rallies? Well, at Trump rallies, all flags that are not official campaign gear are banned.

Yes. And why is it Bob Wallace's responsibility to apologize for an investigation into a news that he didn't report and he never even saw? It was NASCAR that found this, that reported this and even the FBI referred to it as a noose, even if they said it wasn't a specific crime against Mr. Wallace. Why is the president even suggesting that Mr. Wallace should apologize? Well, look, the FBI, as I noted, concluded that this was not a hate crime and he believes

it go a long way if Bubba came out and acknowledged that as well. This was not a hate crime as noted by the FBI. He has. He didn't tell you, he's been very clear that the FBI found this not intentional. Why is he pressing this to equality? So one of the things that's—this is where the president comes from and this is where the president stands. And he actually hinted at this in his live force speech. To those in the media who falsely and consistently label their opponents as a racist, who condemn patriotic citizens, who offer a clear and truthful defense of American unity.

We want a clear and faithful defense of American history and unity. And when you level false charges, you not only slander me, you slander the American people. He believes the American people are good. In the allegations and the rush to judgment with Jesse Smollett in the Bubba Wallace case and with the Covington Catholic boys, we shouldn't be so quick to jump onto those narratives. Those are just three examples of those that have been proven false. Yes. All right, folks, so that's Kelly McEnany

going through her long-winded explanation of this nonsense. Y'all, here's the whole deal. Donald Trump is appealing to racist folks. He is appealing to people on the basis of race. That's what he's doing. That's what he's doing. And folks are slamming him. Different groups, never Trump Republicans, are slamming him. Here are some of the ads they're running against Donald Trump. And I'll explain on the flip side I'd like to just announce the spectacular news for American workers and American families and for our country as a whole. There's not been anything like this at record setting.

Donald Trump made history in June. More Americans were out of work in June than any June in U.S. history. More unemployment claims were filed in June than any June in U.S. history. More women were out of work. More men were out of work. More African Americans were out of work. More Hispanics were out of work. Since Donald Trump took office,

almost eight million fewer Americans are working. If Trump lost jobs were a state, it would be larger than 37 states. Donald Trump's incompetence, ignorance, and indifference has made him the most deadly job-killing president in our history. With so many losing their jobs, isn't it time Donald Trump lost his? The Lincoln Project is responsible for the content of this advertising. The more you lie... Now the content of this advertising. He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured. Collude. Russia, if you're listening, I would like you to do us a favor, though. Pleading with Xi to ensure he'd win.

Bounties to the Taliban to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan. The more you lie and demean and collude, the more credibility you lose. For the 244 years since we declared our independence, one name has stood as the very definition of the word traitor to the U.S. military. Benedict Arnold sold out our troops during our fight for freedom. He tried to sell West Point to the enemy before defecting to the other side. Now, there's a new traitor sullying those hallowed army grounds. And no one has betrayed those in uniform like Donald Trump. He consorts with a foreign enemy that puts bounties on the heads of American troops.

He takes the word of Putin. President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. Over the best American military intelligence. To Donald Trump, Russian bounties on American troops is just another hoax. I think it's a hoax. Some hoax. This July 4th, Benedict Arnold can step aside because Benedict Donald is America's number one traitor.

The men who followed this flag 150 years ago knew what it meant. Treason against their country. The death of the United States. America defeated the men who followed that flag, those with honor, surrendered, and cast it aside forever. So why does it keep showing up today at events supporting Donald Trump? And why does he call the folks who carry it very fine people? I think there's blame on both sides, but you also had people that. Very fine people. I think there's blame on both sides. But you also had people that were very fine people. What does it say that they're all in for Trump?

What does it say that he won't condemn a flag of hate, division, and losers? For us, it says this is a time for choosing America or Trump. So, folks, what you're seeing with those particular ads, you are seeing how Democrats as well as never Trump Republicansump Republicans, are targeting Donald Trump. Those ads have gotten millions of views online. One of the reasons why you see his polling numbers drop. Gallup dropped their poll today, 38% approval rating for Donald Trump, one of the lowest of his presidency. And that's one of the reasons why you see him double down. He is desperately trying to appeal to his white nationalist base in order to drive them to

the polls because he is losing, based upon various polls, white independents, especially white women in the suburbs. And that's why you're seeing Joe Biden leading in a number of these polls. But let me be perfectly clear, and I've said this all the time, ignore every single one of these polls. They mean nothing. If it doesn't mean that we are mobilizing and organizing and registering people and double-checking registration and assuring that we're getting people to request absentee ballots, it means nothing. I keep saying that my favorite films is Remember the Titans. I love that scene when he says, Herman, leave no doubt. This should not be a close election. Leave no doubt in firing down Trump in November. That's why I use the hashtag fire Trump in November, because Republicans are going to

do all they can to hold onto power, and we better understand exactly what they're going to do. All right, folks, down to our next story. Yesterday, I got this email in my inbox right here that says, Ebony Magazine announces leadership transition. Willard Jackson to step down as CEO. Now, Willard Jackson has been the part of the CVG group, the group that actually bought Ebony Magazine, acquiring it from Linda Johnson Rice, of course, the daughter of John H. Johnson. This is what the statement actually says. The board of directors individually and collectively understands the legacy and value of Ebony to black communities globally, said Jacob Walter Jr., newly elected chairman of the Ebony's board of directors and co-founder

of Blueprint Capital Advisors, a black-owned asset manager. Founder John H. Johnson conducted himself in Ebony business with a level of class, integrity, and honor that has come to define black professionalism in America. While the board expects that Ebony will always need to adapt its business model to stay relevant, it must never compromise the core values of Mr. Johnson. Joining us right now is Jacob Walter Jr. Glad to have you here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Hey, Roland. Thanks for having me. Really appreciate it. So in your announcement yesterday, you announced that a couple of weeks, several weeks ago, the board commissioned an independent inquiry into a number of transactions laid by Mr. Jackson, and the investigation is ongoing. Was that the reason why you and others asked him to step down?

And was he voted down, or did he voluntarily step down? On Thursday, July 2nd, the board actually came together and voted to affect a leadership change at Ebony Media Holdings, which required the removal of Mr. Jackson. And so that was a board vote that actually led that. And so did he vote? Right. As the press release indicated, we are as from the board of Ebony Media Holdings. So CVG is the company that acquired the assets. So CVG owns Ebony magazine and own those particular assets. Your company, exactly what is your role in this for people who don't quite understand these various transactions?

So I am on the board of Ebony Media Holdings, and I chair the board of Ebony Media Holdings. I am on the board because my company, Blueprint Capital Advisors, controls the senior debt of Ebony Media Holdings. So we are the senior lender in a first lien position on Ebony Media Holdings. Now, the previous company, Parkview, you guys took it over. Did you take over that company because they filed for bankruptcy, correct? Parkview did not file for bankruptcy. So we took over for Parkview. And Parkview had a number of companies in its portfolio.

Parkview was a senior lender. And one of those companies was Ebony Media Holdings. So we took over for Parkview on April 29th. So your company assumed all of those different companies that they were financing? Correct. Okay. So you came in, you said that took place on April 29th. You then came on the board. What were the red flags that you immediately saw or began to ask questions about where you said, hey, something is amiss here? Because everybody has been having significant issues since CBG took it over. You've had lawsuits from writers who didn't get paid. You've had constant negative headlines. You folks are even asking, where's the print publication?

They haven't seen it. That was supposed to be their Power 100 event that was supposed to take place in March at Tyler Perry Studios. That was canceled. And so folks are saying, what the heck has happened to what used to be a crown jewel in black media? Sure. I will agree with you that Ebony used to be a crown jewel. And, you know, if we have anything to do with it, the new board, then certainly it will be a crown jewel again. And we feel that honestly, now more than ever, the voice of Ebony is necessary so that black people can tell their story. No other time since the civil rights movement have we needed an Ebony more. And so we're looking forward to a restructuring of Ebony, looking at all of the businesses that Ebony is currently in, assessing whether it makes sense for them to continue

those individual lines of business, and then thinking about kind of what Ebony will look like as a business model for the next 75 years. But to get back to your question, Roland, as board members, we have a fiduciary responsibility. You carry out that fiduciary responsibility by asking hard questions, not softball questions, really hard questions. And as we ask questions of the senior management team, including Mr. Jackson, we just found we weren't getting the level of transparency that we would normally get from someone who was involved in transactions at the level that Mr. Jackson was involved. And when you can't get firm answers, that really is the beginning of the red flags

going up. Because anyone who runs a company should be able to tell you who the counterparties are, should be able to tell you the terms of the transaction, why the transaction makes sense for the company. And so we couldn't get details on the transactions. What we also learned was that a number of these transactions also did not go through the proper protocol. Transactions have to be approved at the board level. And a number of these transactions were not approved at the board level. Those were the corporate transactions. Then there was a series of personal transactions. As you know,

when you are the CEO of a company, what you do personally can very often impact the company that you run. I mean, you have to be above reproach. And there were a number of transactions that he was involved in personally that caused us to be very concerned about how those transactions might impact the image of this crown jewel, as you put it. Speaking of that, when you talk about, are you at liberty to discuss what those transactions were? So we can't go into extensive detail on the transactions. I will say that there are a number of transactions that we're looking into. Again, some of those transactions involved Ebony and Ebony getting into contractual relationships

with various entities that the board knew nothing about. And some of those transactions were personal in nature, where either by way of a board seat or pursuing his entrepreneurial urge, he got himself into a number of businesses which we think could ultimately have a reputational impact on Ebony Media. So who actually owns Ebony? Because Michael Gibson was part of CVG. Is he still, so you removed Willard Jackson from the board of directors. Is Michael Gibson still involved with CVG? Is he still on the board of directors?

So Michael Gibson is still on the board of directors. Michael Gibson is still one of the founding partners, managing partners of CVG. In the work that we had done up to this point, we had no reason to believe that Michael Gibson was involved in the transactions that are going to be the work of the independent review. And so Michael will remain on the board.

So Michael is still on the board of directors. So, CBG is still owning or operating whatever there is of every that is social media, websites, things along those lines. Is anything actually happening? Are they producing anything? Or is everything at a standstill? So, I mean, as an industry, I mean, the magazine business has been a really tough business. Ebony has probably had a tougher time than most in the magazine business. Nowadays, to survive, you need real scale. And as a fully integrated magazine business, it was very difficult

to turn a profit. And that is one of the three pillars. So you have magazines or what we call the print business. You have digital, which is basically your social media. And then you have events, which was Power 100. So print, in all likelihood, will not come back as people know it. The world of print has changed dramatically. The cost of print is exorbitant if you're an individual magazine as opposed to a conglomerate of magazines like Condé Nast or American Media. And so what we'll look at is doing special editions around certain events. So maybe it's two or three publications a year as opposed to printing one every single month. With respect to digital platform, you know, Ebony did not convert to digital as fast as most did. And that's really sad because when you really think about it, Roland, Jet Magazine

was the first publication to really offer people news in really small doses. I mean, John Johnson really led the industry in condensing a story into two paragraphs. And when you read Jet Magazine, it took you all about 25 to 30 minutes to consume it. Unfortunately, that format was never converted to digital. So the company didn't have, you know, commercial success on the back of that, that vision that he had. So we're really excited about the digital platform. Even though the brand has gone through a tough time for the last three or four years, it still is the number one black brand in the world.

And it's possible for it to make a resurgence if it has the right management team and the right resources behind it. The third business is the event business. Right. No, no, no, go ahead, go ahead. The third business is the event business, and that's where you have your Power 100. And I think what we'd like to do there is figure out how to bring ebony to the local level in major metropolitan areas around the country and replicating the success that we had around Power 100, which was only held once a year. There are far more than 100 African Americans that need to

be honored each and every year. And I think we'd like to figure out how to do that in Detroit, in Los Angeles, in Atlanta, and New York City and other cities where we have large concentrations of African Americans that need to be showcased nationally and globally. But obviously, COVID-19 greatly impacts that because there are no events happening all across the country. Essence Festivals, they just had their virtual conference as well. And so Black Enterprise, they've said that, frankly, without their conferences, they don't actually, they're not in business. But those are, that's in peril as well because there are no events. And so, you know, we don't know what's even going to happen in that space. We don't know what's going to happen in that space.

And I think that, honestly, it means that there is pressure on us to tap into our creativity and to find new verticals. And so one of the things we're thinking about is taking that iconic brand and moving into licensing and merchandising, right, as a potential vertical for the company. Low capital intensity ways to continue to bring the brand to Black America and others that will allow us to turn a profit, you know, on our efforts. I just, just a couple, literally, I just got a text message from Willard Jackson saying, quote, I absolutely refute the allegation that I have not been fully transparent with everybody's board of directors regarding any and all transactions. I look forward to clearing my name and reputation regarding these allegations. I have directed this matter to my attorney. I'm not really sure what you want me to say, Roland. I assure you that the board deliberated this decision and used information that they found

to be very pertinent to making this kind of decision. And so, you know, we didn't take the decision lightly. No one has anything personal against Willard. Willard has a lot of strengths as a leader. I think that, as the statement said, Ebony, as a brand, has always come to be associated with quality, honor, integrity, and on a going forward basis, that's the way we'd like this business to be conducted. I do have to ask you this here. You said this action was taken on Thursday by the board. Yet I received this email Friday, then went out to media all across the country. And it actually has Ebony in this email. It was sent by Sabrina Taylor, a publicist, I assume, with Ebony magazine.

And it was a news conference, a virtual news conference that dealt with asking for a commutation of Kwame Kilpatrick. And in reading this, this is what it says. The press conference is organized and hosted by Ebony's, by Ebony, whose new co-owner, Robert Shoemake, is leading the brand's involvement in social justice causes, including mass incarceration of blacks and economic justice for the nation's black farmers. Is Robert Shoemake a co-owner of Ebony? So Robert Shoemake and Willard Jackson actually together were interested in buying out Michael Gibson's share of Ebony that he owned through CVG. And that is one of the transactions that the independent review is taking a look at.

That transaction was completed without board approval. It was completed without approval from Parkview, the senior lender to the organization that had veto rights over that transaction. And so that is one of the transactions that the independent counsel is taking a look at. And we won't know the answer to that question, whether or not Robert Shoemake is an owner of Ebony until they complete their work. So you were not aware of this arrangement prior to taking over the debt of Parkview? Actually, we took over April 29th. The existence of Robert Shoemake as a potential owner of Ebony was made aware to us about three weeks after we took over. As I indicated to you, Parkview was supposed to approve that transaction,

but Parkview was never asked to approve that transaction. So it had no idea that this deal actually existed. I do have to ask you also about this here, because this is actually a graphic here. This was a particular initiative that Ebony was involved with, a marketing campaign for criminal justice and social reform, and it involved the cannabis space. And so what happened was, of course, they approached us from an advertising deal to be able to sort of advertise this cannabis crowd fund. And there were two, one was Bonge, another was 420 Real Estate.

And Willard Jackson and Robert Shoemaker were involved with that. To your knowledge, does 420 Real Estate have any connection to, because one of the issues there is that a lot of people who watch my show, they actually gave money to the crowdfund and they've been asking for answers. And some of them say they have not been getting answers. And I did talk to Robert Shoemake today who said they have a call center. They've been actually taking people's questions and answering their questions. But is 420 Real Estate, this cannabis crowdfund, is that actually an Ebony deal? Was there a partnership? Anything with that?

I want to make a declarative statement here that Ebony Media Holdings, Bonji, and 420 have no affiliation on a formal basis. You happen to mention two of the transactions that are also subject to review by the independent council that is looking into these transactions. As I mentioned, there are a number of corporate transactions of which one of the transactions is the transaction that was done with Mr. Shoemake to purchase a portion of Ebony without board authorization and without senior lender authorization. And other transactions that we're looking at

are the bond transaction as well as the 420 transaction. Those transactions were done by Mr. Jackson personally. However, we do feel for a number of reasons that our independent counsel should be looking at those transactions as well. Well, and again, for the purpose of it, for you and also our audience, there was there was a for them. They had to stop. We were doing this advertising campaign and payment had been stopped. And so we stopped running those live reads. And I then began to ask questions like exactly what is this, what's going on, you know, and then, and I'm still not clear in terms of these two different crowdfund, who's connected, who's doing what. And I've asked both of them

very clearly that I want to make sure that the people who watch this show, who gave to that crowdfund, are going to be made whole and then their answers are questioned. And so clearly you, I mean, what you guys are doing with your investigation, again, to me, those questions need to be asked because as African-Americans, this is a reality. This was an advertiser who came to us. This was a this was a crowdfund. We serve a black audience. Ebony serves a black audience.

I think the most important thing across the board is that we ensure the integrity that black people are not being taken advantage of and that when someone promises something, it actually gets done because that matters to us, that matters, I think, to the constituents. And we can't talk about Black power and Black progress if Black folks can't trust one another. I completely agree with you. I feel like we ought to switch roles. As I mentioned, we are looking at a number of these transactions using an independent counsel. And one of the reasons why we decided to use an independent counsel was because of the complexity of all of this. Clearly, the lines had blurred between corporate and the personal. And business that was personal in nature was leveraging the corporate brand as well as the corporate assets to actually be legitimized.

And so I assure you that on a going forward basis, as long as I'm on the board and involved in Ebony Media Holdings, those types of things will not occur. Ultimately, I think that the sponsors of those transactions that you mentioned will have to answer to their investors. It is my understanding that they have had successful crowdfunding fundraisers, And but I've yet to hear kind of how much success has been had in terms of those business entities actually pursuing their business plans. And so, you know, I think that you're spot on when you say that, you know, this sort of black people taking advantage of Black people, that certainly can't be allowed to exist. And to use another Black person like yourself to facilitate that certainly makes it even worse. What I will say to you is that on a going forward basis, Ebony will be managed and will make decisions in a way that African-Americans can be proud.

John Johnson, to me, embodied black professionalism. I'm a small town boy, grew up in upstate New York, a poor town with 6,000 people. Without Ebony Magazine, I never would have had a window into what black people could accomplish in sports, in entertainment, in politics, in a bunch of different fields, including education. So Ebony means a lot. It inspires kids in corners of the world where they can't see real live examples of African American success. And I want to make sure that what it did for me and my forebears for the last 75 years is done for the future generations over the course of the next 75 years.

Just a couple of more questions. First, are you currently seeking a new CEO or are you waiting for the investigation to come to a conclusion before you lay out what the next steps should be? So we have an operating committee that consists of some external people, some internal people, and we are looking at, you know, kind of all aspects of Ebony, but really focused on making sure we are here for the whole Black Lives Matters movement, right? And so a lot of those folks are focused on, you know, how do we get kind of new and interesting content and capture this moment? I don't want to bring a new CEO on board until our house is clean, okay? And so we'll let the independent review run its course. We've said, look, you need to move forward with all deliberate speed, but at the same time, you need to be able to be thorough in your work. And so there's always that

balance, Roland. I don't think, as I said, we should bring a CEO on board until everything is cleaned up. And their focus is not on cleanup. It is on how do we stabilize the organization and how do we grow the organization? What lines of business should we be pursuing, et cetera, et cetera. Because a lot of what you find in the media business is collaboration nowadays. You need partners to be successful in the media business.

And if Ebony is not viewed as an A-quality partner, then we're not going to have the kind of opportunities that we want to have on a going-forward basis. So we need to clean our house up. Jacob, you also, in your press release, you said this here. As part of the board's engagement, they are prioritizing the payment of delinquent compensation to Ebony employees and expect to make announcements soon. First off, how many employees are actually still with the company? You also have, you still have writers out there who say they have not been paid. And so have you gotten a handle on what all this outstanding debt is? Because I've heard from former employees who are angry, who say they

had not been paid since November or December, and we now are seven months into 2020. Sure. So a lot of this occurred before we got involved and before I came onto the board of Avenue. And I recently asked for an accounting of the monies that are owed. And I was given, you know, a very, very long spreadsheet. And I looked at the spreadsheet, and I said, are you kidding me? We owe people $100. We've owed people $300 for, you know, God knows how long. There's got to be a way for us to start to fix this. And so before I've proposed is that we engage the attorneys in thinking about a creative way to start to pay this down.

In other words, put money into a trust. And at such time, as someone says, I need it, pay it to them. If they don't want to wait out the litigation, let them drop off and get what's owed to them so that they can go on their way and move on with their life and get their payment. I understand at the end of the day that this is the kind of thing that's small, but it can fester. Right. Someone owes you a small amount of money for a long period of time and you don't get any answers. It does nothing other than really make you upset.

Oh, no, it's gone public big time. And a lot of, you know, they've asked the National Association of Black Journalists, which I'm VP of digital, to get involved. We've got involved in the past. You've had, you know, writers, you've had all these different people who have been saying, and, you know, look, get these folks, folks paid. And again, as a African-American, somebody who's freelanced before somebody who really needed that two, $300 check, man, that means something when you don't get it. Correct. No, you feel violated. There's no question you feel violated. So what I am saying

is I am committed to coming up with a creative solution. That's what financial services firms like mine does, to start getting people what they are owed so that we can get that really long list down to a very short list. My understanding is that there are somewhere between six and 26 people, Roland, and we've got to figure out the exact number and exactly who is owed money. But I can't see any reason why, like a credit card debt, when you owe something, sometimes you got to pay it off in small amounts, and we need to consider doing it. Right. And there are some people who are owed upwards of $100,000. And so people have been asking and saying, hey, what the hell has been going on? What has been happening? I was made aware from external sources that the Republican National Committee had took out a significant

ad buy with Ebony. And you got to ask the question, where did that money go? And why did it go to employees to pay for expenses? And so I certainly look forward to having Willa Jackson and Robert Shoemake on to explain all this as well. So I look forward to having you back on as well. The absolute last question for you. Are you is is it concerning for you that you don't know what you don't know or

was this investigation, this this independent investigation? Is it intended to get a firm handle on any and all deals in that way that you got everything in front of you now? It's like, OK, here's a plan of action as opposed to executing a plan of action and all deals. And that way, you got everything in front of you. Now it's like, okay, here's a plan of action

as opposed to executing a plan of action. And all of a sudden, oh my God, a new debtor claim comes in. Is bankruptcy a potential to reorganize the debt of Ebony Media Holdings? Any and all options are on the table to strengthen Ebony Media Holdings? Any and all options are on the table to strengthen Ebony Media Holdings. So let me be really clear about that. Each and every day, we learn new things. We're still in that phase of our independent review.

And just this morning, I learned something new about, you know, something new about a transaction. And I had to refer that over to the independent counsel. So the answer that I would love to give you is that we are almost there in terms of wrapping this up. But the bottom line is that, you know, we have a lot more work to do to get our arms around everything that has gone on, you know, at Ebony Media Holdings. And I will say this, that the employees that are left have been extremely loyal. I'm very thankful to how they've handled themselves

as we've gone through this review. Some of them have been paid, some of them haven't. And so it just goes to tell you that they love this brand that much, that they want to continue to give to it. And I'm convinced that, you know, if we can get this all behind us and recapitalize the firm, that it'll be around for another 75 years. And it'll be a major player in recording the voice of African-Americans. Well, as someone who knew Mr. Johnson, who knew Lyndon Johnson Rice, knew Eunice Johnson, wrote for Ebony, someone who read it, we certainly appreciate your honesty and candor.

You're certainly welcome to come back anytime. And again, for me, as I expressed, I've been asking questions now for five months when it came to my viewers. It was an advertising deal, so that's all. We had no other involvement, but I still want to ensure, like anybody else, I want those writers to ensure they're going to get paid. I want to ensure that those African Americans who gave to that crowdfunding campaign are going to be dealt with respect. And so I've made that perfectly clear to Robert Shoemake. I've made that perfectly clear to Willard Jackson and anybody else involved. And they know that. And I tend to hold them to their word that they will be taken care of, just like I'm sure you will.

Absolutely. Thank you, Roland. Jacob Walter, Jr., I appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you. All right, folks, going to a break right now. We come back more on Roland Martin Unfiltered. And in this second hour, we'll also be talking with a union out of St. Louis. Cops are being hired at Neibach Police Departments who commit some of the most egregious things in the world. Plus, Jolena Maxwell will join me talking about her new book, The End of White Politics.

Folks, you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Back in a moment. For support of 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. We'll see you next time. 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 some of the pocket squares that I wear. Now, I don't, and Robby don't have one on. Now, I don't particularly like the white pocket squares.

I don't like even the silk ones. And so I was reading GQ Magazine a number of years ago and I saw this guy who had this pocket square here and it looks like a flower. This is called a shibori pocket square. This is how the Japanese manipulate the fabric to create this sort of flower effect. So I'm going to take it out and then place it in my hand so you see what it looks like. And I said, man, this is pretty cool. And so I tracked down, it took me a year to find a company that did it. And so they're basically about 47 different colors. And so I love them because, again, as men, we 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 colors. All you got to do is go to rolling this martin.com forward slash pocket squares so it's rolling this martin.com forward slash pocket squares all you got to do is go to my website uh and you can actually get this now for those of you who are members of our bring the funk fan club there's a discount for you to get our pocket squares that's why you also got to be a part of our brain funk 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 uh y'all see me with some of the feather pocket squares my sister who's 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 uh feather pocket squares uh right there at RolandSMartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So please do so. And of course, it 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. It's time to be smart. When we control our institutions, we win. This is the most important news show on television of any racial background. Y'all put two, three, four, five, 10, 15, 20, $30 on this and keep this going. What you've done, Roland, since this crisis came out in full bloom. Anybody watching this, tell your friends, go back and look at the last two weeks, especially

if Roland Martin unfiltered. I mean, hell, go back and look at the last two days. You've had sitting United States senators today, Klobuchar and Harris. Whatever you have that you have, you can bring to Roland Martin unfiltered to support it. Please do, because this information may literally save your life. Watch Roland Martin unfiltered daily at 6 p.m. Eastern on YouTube, Facebook, or Periscope

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contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUniltered.com. Every single night. All right, folks, check this out. Look at this story right here. This is the St. Anne.

Reading this story, reading this story, folks, is shocking. It's stunning. It talks about, again, significant misconduct. Officers crashing into someone, not stopping to give aid. Then you go down here, other cops, all sorts of misconduct. Look at this here. Recent hires include officers at the center of controversial police shootings, one with a history of drug abuse and others accused of assault, domestic abuse, or lying to superiors. Others were hired after police chases with past departments that resulted in deaths. Talk about shocking and stunning. This is the kind of stuff, folks,

that is happening. When we talk about police reform, it can't just be reformed when a neighboring city is going to hire that cop who screwed up in another particular city. Joining us right now is Officer Shannette Hall of the Ethical Society of Police in St. Louis County. Shannette, glad to have you on Roller Marker and Filter. Thank you. Thank you for having me, Roller.

Well, first of all, let's congratulate. You all have finally been certified as a union, correct? Well, actually not a union, but as an association with us. As an association. Yes. So explain to people how long that fight has been going on. This fight's been going on for over a year now, definitely about a year and a half. It's been a long, hard fight, but it's something that we were going to be steadfast with. I mean, the Ethical Society was founded in 1972 to address and fight race-based discrimination, not only within the

police departments, but also within the community. So it's been a long fight, but thankfully we've got it done and now we're on to the next thing. Let's talk about this here. We saw this in the case of Tamir Rice, where one of those cops involved had wrongdoing. Another particular police department gets hired in Cleveland. Then he gets fired from there, then gets hired somewhere else. How significant is this problem where, again, people go, hey, cop got fired, but it means nothing if they go next door? Right. I mean, Roland, this is a huge issue because, I mean, what significance is it going to be if we terminate an officer from one place, if he's going to be able to go to another place and then still have the authority to take away life and liberty from another Black or brown folk who is either unarmed or not

doing anything wrong? This is an issue that should be changed, most definitely. Licenses should be stripped from officers. All of those things should be taken away so that officer can not only be a police officer in the area in which he did fall within some type of illegal act, but not only that, but he cannot be a police officer in any other neighboring city. And that, look, I think the deal has to be, if you have that level of wrongdoing, you should not be able to get a job as a cop anywhere in America. Yeah, I think I lost you a little bit there, Roland, but I can almost

imagine what it was that you were saying just now. No, what I was saying is if you get fired for that level of wrongdoing, you should not be able to be a cop anywhere else in America. Point blank, period. You should most definitely not be able to be a cop. I mean, what good are

we doing, like I said, when we terminate one officer in one city as if there's not more people that's in the next neighboring city, as if there's not more unarmed black folks, whether they be men, women, whomever. We cannot continue to allow these or have these officers be able to police in these other neighboring cities. Their licenses should be revoked. They should be suspended, taken away. They should be terminated, all of the above. How is St. Anne's defending this, where it's like, hey, sure, oh, you beat somebody up, you didn't give aid, come on by, we're the Police Department of Second Chances. So, you know, if you have a police department, very resistant from the community in which they are policing so if you have this police department who is needing to a lot of things going to factor the wages that they are paying police officers

if there's not a huge amount of money that they can pay police officers you almost got to pay for what you can get um so in this case that is what saint anne is doing saint anne also what we have to know is that they have an elected chief there um this is one of the few cities the only one actually in saint louis where the chief is elected and not appointed. So this is also one thing that we have to look at. The community elected this chief into that place. And now the community has the opportunity to reelect or not, excuse me, not reelect, but elect another chief in 2021. But if we were able to take away those licenses, St. Ann would even have the opportunity to hire these chiefs that's been fired from St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department or any other police department.

So to take the licenses, does that require action by the state? Correct. So what happens is whenever, technically, whenever an officer is terminated from a police department, that's the police department that terminates the officer is supposed to require that, or I'm sorry, send that information to the department of public safety, more specifically to post, which is the police officer standards and training. Once they do that on the state level, post is supposed to keep track and mandate all of these investigations that they have, keep track of all the complaints, all of these different things. And they are the entity that is supposed to take the license away from the police officers. All right. So what, what do you want the public to do? Because this is not just something that's solely in Missouri. Like I said, we saw that in Cleveland and Ohio as well. This is a problem all across the country because

you also have different agencies. You've got police departments. You've got sheriff's departments. You've got police units with school as well. And so this thing really should be across taking the license to say you cannot. Look, if you want to be a security guard somewhere, that's different. But having a public sector job where you have the power, that badge and gun should be taken. Most definitely. I mean, the public, one, we should make sure that the public is aware of how these things are happening. So any one source can complain to the, in our case, the Missouri Post about police officers,

about their misconduct and moral turpitude and all these other different things. So if the public needs to put more pressure on their police departments in the areas that they live, because we have several municipalities. So if the public within those municipalities need to put more pressure on their police departments in the areas that they live, because we have several municipalities. So if the public within those municipalities need to put more pressure on the police departments that terminate these officers, then it's one thing that the public can do. The public can make sure we can come out. I mean, the same answers exist for a lot of different things. We can make sure we have the right politicians in place. We can make sure we have the right chiefs that are in place of these police departments. We can make sure that, hell, some of the Missouri Post Commission, their meetings are open. We can show up to the meetings if we need

to. We can make sure our voices are heard when we need to talk about some of these officers that need to be removed from the street. There's a number of different things that the public can do. Most importantly is making sure they have the knowledge about how these things exist and how these systems move in place so we can get these people out of here. Well, I think that that's critically important. And again, when we start talking about police reform, people have to understand how much bigger this is besides saying, yeah. So people are saying, hey, fire the cops involved in the case of Breonna Taylor. But what then happens if they get hired next door? And we see this time and time again, many of these cops, they know the system and they got friends in the other police departments who look out for them.

Right. I mean, we definitely have to look at this. I'm glad you brought up Breonna Taylor because we definitely have to say her name and we cannot forget this sister who was murdered by police officers down there as well. And so this is one thing that's spoken about within the Justin M. Policing Act is banning no-knock warrants, something that should have been done. We probably could have allowed Breonna Taylor to still sit here and celebrate Juneteenth with all of us, like the rest of us did. We need to ban these no-knock warrants. We need to make sure that we are enacting mandated reporting for all these police officers that are going around so they can't just do this mini-shuffle. We need to make sure that we are collecting data on all types of police misconduct. I mean, the list goes on and on, but a lot of those things are listed out and adjusted in police in 2020.

All right, then officer Jeanette Hall. We certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. The great work that you're doing with the ethical society of police in St. Louis County. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you so much, Roland. All right, then. All right, folks, just a moment ago, I got an alert, and then let me just pull it up here, a breaking news alert,

that the mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, has tested positive for COVID-19. This is the headline here that is from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and it says that breaking Atlanta mayor test positive for COVID-19. And then it looks like she apparently posted a tweet. Let me see if I can pull that tweet up right here. It's her saying that it hits close to home. Again, it came down just a few moments ago of her speaking about that very thing.

And so she's in fact, yep, here's the tweet right here. And I will pull it up for all of you out here. Let's just go right to it. This is it. COVID-19 has literally hit home. I have had no symptoms and have tested positive. And then Senator Kamala Harris has responded, keeping you, your husband and your entire family in my prayers for a swift and easy recovery. Take care. Now, keep in mind, folks, look, this is the mayor of Atlanta. I'm sure she took all the necessary

precautions when it came to COVID-19. But the reality is she actually has tested positive. And so, folks, we must take this thing seriously, not play any games whatsoever, because there's no joke. Something else that I think I also want us to deal with, and that is, and we have seen this all across the country. We have seen significant shootings in Chicago and Atlanta. In fact, the mayor has been pleading with people. There's an eight-year-old child shot and killed in Atlanta. Several children shot and killed in Chicago. Now, as African Americans, we're talking about Black Lives Matter

in the midst of protesting, obviously, when it comes to George Floyd. But we also have to ensure that we are demanding elected officials do their part to ensure that our communities are safe. We look at some of these videos that have been going out. As a matter of fact, I saw one earlier on a page of folks, and it was like a shooting that took place. Then folks were actually just, you know, running, scared to death. Here it is right here. This particular video here, these folks have put out. Again, shootings have been erupting in Atlanta, Chicago.

We must be vigilant. Ask the Americans to protect our young, to protect the others. We've got to make sure that we fight against white supremacy. We fight against people who are engaging in this sort of thing. That should not be happening. That, Americans, should not be happening in our cities and so I want us all to make sure all of us to make sure

that we are focused on fighting for injustice and looking out for our brothers and sisters no matter where they are no matter how they are being impacted alright folks y'all know what time it is oh shit No matter where they are, no matter how they are being impacted. Oh shit!

Y'all know what time it is? Oh shit! Oh shit! No charcoal grills are allowed. I'm not a human. I'm white. I got you, Park. Illegally selling water without a permit.

On my property. Whoa! Hey! Give us your address. You don't live here! I'm uncomfortable. Imagine you go to Jimmy John's, look to get you something to eat, and then you realize

these white kids working at Jimmy John's, they decide they want to make a noose out of dough. Watch this. Yeah, they literally laughing and joking, taking pictures, making a noose out of dough. That took place for folks over the 4th of July weekend. The folks at Jimmy John's, I believe they have responded.

Give me one second. I'm going to pull that up. But look, I need to understand what's going on here, how ridiculous these people are. This is how they have responded. The actions seen in the video are absolutely unacceptable and do not represent the Jimmy John's brand or the local franchise ownership team. As soon as we were alerted to the video, we notified our franchisee who quickly investigated and terminated all employees involved. The franchisee is also meeting with their team to conduct training to help prevent anything like this from ever happening again. Well, good. Now, our other crazy ass white person, can a brother simply walk his dog without being

accosted by a white woman? Check out this Karen. That's not what I asked you. I asked you your name. Margie, nice to meet you. Why are you asking me about the prediction? Yeah. Why did you ask me if you know? Margie, have a nice day. Let him walk. How are you following me and telling me to get out of here? We're not going to talk. You're going to go do your thing. That's the way it works. Have a nice day. You don't do that. Do you guys see this? I do. I sure do see it. Oh, you're having a problem with this?

Yeah. Yeah. Just let this guy walk down the street. He's not bothering you. Come here. I don't want to come here. Yeah, it's kind of like you're doing something you don't want to be recorded. Folks, do y'all see? Brothers is trying to walk his dog. Thankfully, some other white folks are like, why are you bugging him? This is what we talk about in this country.

Black folks can't even mind their own business walking a damn dog in the neighborhood. Makes no sense whatsoever. All right, y'all. Time to go to a break. When we come back, we're going to chat with radio talk show host and MSNBC contributor Jelena Maxwell about her new book, The End of White Politics. That'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, and 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. I'm out. All right, the folks at Seek.com, folks, we have a partnership with them. They have these great, unbelievable headphones. Mary Spiel, our sister, she's the inventor of these 360-degree 4D headphones. Man, whether you want to listen to music, whether you want to watch movies, whether you want to use them for gaming, or even take phone calls, they're absolutely fantastic. They also have their virtual

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2020. That's all you gotta do, uh, to get a discount off of these items here. All right, folks. Uh, let's talk about this here. Early. I you Kayleigh McEnany and her insane, insane defense of Donald Trump's Confederate tweets trying to slam Bubba Wallace. Then we had, of course, his just beyond stupid speech over the weekend at Mount Rushmore, that travesty of an event happening in D.C. It's real clear who Donald Trump appealing to. We knew at the moment he came down that escalator when he ran for president in 2015, and all the other media people not paying attention, black people, we knew what was going on.

That's why I use the hashtag, hashtag, we tried to tell you. Well, he's really dealing with white politics, and everybody, of course, is so focused on what white people think, because frankly, they've been the majority in this country and the dominant force. But that is changing. We're 23 years away from America becoming a nation majority of people of color. There are new books. Maxwell has this. The End of White Politics. How to Heal Our Liberal Divide. She joins me right now. Jelena, what's happening? What's up? How are you?

Glad to have you on the show. Bottom line is we talk about how to heal our liberal divide. So are you really dealing with white politics on the liberal side or white politics overall? Well, I think, you know, I'm a Democrat. I've worked for Democratic presidential campaigns. So I think, you know, I was focused on the I've worked for Democratic presidential campaigns. So I think, you know, I was focused on the Democratic side. But that doesn't mean that I ignore Republicans because they are looking at the same data that I was looking at. So when Pew Research is projecting that America will be a minority white nation by 2045, Republicans are hearing that data as well. And since their voters are mostly white, they are trying to suppress the vote of those people of color that are the majorities in many critical states. And they're trying to ensure minority rule planning for that moment when people of color are the majority. So I don't ignore the Republicans, but I focus on Democrats

because I think that they're playing a white politics when the base of the Democratic Party is not white. And so it is completely ridiculous that in 2020, heading into this election against Donald Trump, again, we did not seem to learn the correct message from the 2016 Electoral College defeat. And to that particular point, I mean, the thing that gets me is like, look, I totally get it. It amazed me the whole talk. Hey, Senator

Amy Klobuchar should be a great pick because she can really help us in the Midwest. And I'm going, I thought that's why Biden was supposed to be the guy because he was white and he's supposed to get the people in Scranton and in Wisconsin and Michigan. And I keep making this point that, look, Democrats cannot continue to act like black people are political sharecroppers. We're going to till the land, but not benefit financially from tilling the land. Right. Well, here's the thing, Roland. Black people live in Detroit.

They also live in Milwaukee and in Philadelphia. And so this idea that we're going to try to get back that white working class male voter in the Midwest is a fantasy. What we need to focus on is turning out the million plus Black voters that turned out in 2012. And then for whatever reason, whether it was voter suppression or whatever else, they didn't show up in 2016. Additionally, I think we have to focus on turning out even more than that, because I think that there's really just a lack of concentrated focus and investment in communities to help build out the Democratic Party infrastructure so that we can actually turn out the vote and respond to issues as they come up.

We go at the end of the election cycle that weekend before to ask people to GOTV without giving them substantive reasons to vote. Well, part of that, and let's just go ahead and be clear. Part of that is because when you talk about these campaigns, you have candidates who get it, but your campaign apparatus, a bunch of white folks. And so let's just be real clear. We can go ahead and say it. In 2016, you were on the Hillary Clinton campaign. Jameel Burley was on the campaign. Here were black people who, before they got on the campaign, I could get on my show without any problem. Y'all get on the campaign, and I can't get y'all on the show. And y'all are sitting there on the inside saying, hey, white people, we're here to do shows like this. And that made it difficult.

It was the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life. And y'all sitting there like, I would love to do it, but the white folks over here got other ideas. Yeah, that was a really frustrating thing about 2016. I think, you know, when you're talking about a presidential campaign, it's such a large bureaucracy that there's so many different levels of approval from you asking me to come on and me actually being allowed to come on. I think I did come on a couple of times, but it definitely was something where it had to go through that levels of approvals before it could actually happen. What I'm trying to say in this book is there shouldn't need to be levels of approval to have black staff, first of all, to have the black staff that's necessary. Now, in 2020, compared to 2016, Biden is woefully insufficient in terms of

black women he's hired, black people he's hired. And so he has work to do there. But in 2016, there was black women all over the place, all around me, on the Hillary Clinton campaign. And part of the problem was I felt like we were not then publicly facing. And so people had no insight that there were more Black women on Hillary's campaign than any campaign in American history. And I think that that would have been helpful to at least allow people to have a more open mind towards Hillary's candidacy and her potential plans for their lives. I think that if they had seen Black women on the inside, I think that we are validators. I think that we're the moral compass.

We are the moral center of the Democratic Party and I think the progressive movement and the nation, frankly, to quote Mignon Moore. She's told me that recently. And so I think that we're the ones that you need on the inside and along your side as you're trying to go and be the president. I mean, you can't win without us. But here's the deal. It wasn't just black women.

I mean, I remember trying to get Alvin Brown on my Tom Jonas segment. And here was the craziest thing. And again, what this speaks to is for me, the problem is that when you look at who's running, who's in control of the money, who's in control of the apparatus, and the bottom line, as you start going up,

it gets wider and wider and wider and male, male, male. We were at the Congressional Black Caucus. This is September, 2016. I tell Hillary Clinton directly, like we're three feet away, saying, I can't get people on, I'm trying to call for your surrogates. And then I'm like, y'all got a problem with black men? Do y'all see what's going on? Can I get a, I said, who are the black men supporting your campaign?

Why aren't you getting them out there? Huma's there, Marlon Marshall's there. And at one point, Huma goes, Secretary, we're going to get it done. She says, get it done. I'm tired of the excuses. And I was like, uh-oh. Then they get pissed at me because I raised the question. And I'm sitting there going, the next day, the next day, I asked for Alvin Brown 11 hours, Zerlina, 11 hours. I didn't get an answer. And then finally, I think I just booked a black woman and had her on. But the issue that we are always making the point

is that we're frozen out of the apparatus. We're frozen out of the decision-making. We're frozen out of the money. And so if you chose to be a black political consultant, you get frozen out of the contracts, yet white boys over here are pulling down several million dollars repeatedly. That's also part of this problem when you talk about the end of white politics, because they only see themselves, and they control the levers of power and money.

Yeah, I talk about that in the book. I talk about the white male consulting class in Washington, D.C. and outside of D.C. that work on Democratic campaigns. They go from one to the next. And oftentimes they think they know everything. And I think that part of the problem with that, I mean, we see this in the media as well. You know, white men who are in charge, they sort of sit up on a perch and they observe and they feel like they can then understand and, you know, provide the best strategy for an experience that they have never had. And I think that the problem in 2016, I'm not seeing that as much in 2020, because I think that people are much more open about these

kinds of issues, particularly in this racial reckoning we're going through. But I do think in 2016, part of the problem was, you know, it just took too long for, you know, folks like myself, folks like Mignon Moore and Maya Harris to sort of get the message across of some of the changes that needed to be made. But I do ultimately think, you know, in hindsight, that, you know, the campaign did improve. You know, it just wasn't enough at the end. You have a chapter called the hashtag kids. Yes. And the reality is appealing to those voters is a lot different than appealing to Gen X and Baby Boomer.

Absolutely. You need to know how to use all of the social media platforms. And you need to know what content to put on those platforms and are using it in their daily lives are paying attention and are engaged not just to vote in November for the president, but also to vote for all those down ballot races. And I think that part of the errors I'm seeing so far is just the assumption that Joe Biden as the messenger is the wrong person to talk to young people. That may be true. I don't know that that's true. I actually think that, you know, he's a pretty authentic guy. So I feel like he can sort of talk to anybody. That's one of his strengths in this moment, strangely. But I think that, you know, part of the problem is, is they generally think that only the principal can be the messenger for the campaign. And they're, you know, surrogates are used in a strategic fashion. One of the things I hope they do, and I think that they're going to

start doing it because I've seen that they're going to start doing influencer IG lives with campaign surrogates and celebrities with big followings so that they can at least get the message out in those social media platforms where the millennials and the Gen Z kids are. Because if you, I mean, you know, in 2016, there was sort of a dearth of knowledge about Black Twitter, what it is, you know, what's going on there and how to engage with Black people generally in social media spaces. So I think that that's one of the things that they can improve upon in this cycle.

And I see them taking steps to do that. That's refreshing to see. One of the things that this chapter on the white resistance, I think is quite interesting because I think part of this issue is that when you talk about campaigns, white folks don't see themselves

in terms of their whiteness. So what will happen is, I use this phrase, they'll say, well, Joe Biden is going to meet with a group of black pastors. Joe Biden is going to meet with a group of Latino activists. And then it's Joe Biden is going to meet with a group of business leaders. They all white? And so they are uncomfortable. It's like they've been in power so long, they will identify everybody else based upon a group of women, a group of blacks, a group of Latinos, where I'm like a group of white folks.

And they're going to have to get used to being called that. And it sort of shakes them at their core because they're kind of like, whoa, hold up. I'm like, yeah, if you're going to say meet with a group of black preachers, I'm going to say he meet with a group of white preachers. Well, I mean, maybe they should be meeting with white preachers on the Democratic side. But I do think part of the problem is we default to white as an identity, as the identity that we start from, and then everything else is identity politics. Basically, what I'm saying in this book is that is backwards. We are doing identity politics. We just call it politics. And we start from the position that white men and what they want and what they need is it trumps everything, you know, for lack of a better term. And so I

think when they make up 36 percent of the population, like, oh, really? Oh, OK. Yeah. I mean, one of the things I like to always remind people is that, you know, by 2045, when white people are a minority, that we should also stop saying this term that I love to hear sometimes, we're going to become a majority minority country. No, white Americans will be the minority. That is the sentence. People of color, mostly Latinx people, frankly, will make up the majority in many states even before 2045. In four states, they already are. So I think that everybody needs to get the memo now because Republicans actually are already going about efforts to suppress this vote that is emerging as a majority in many of these places. That's why they're putting people on the bench. That's why they're doing voter ID. That's why they're trying to suppress the vote.

They understand the numbers. The Democrats just didn't get the memo. So one of the things I do want to talk about, you speak about the Obama coalition. And one of the things that I don't think people really, really understand is that to me, the Obama coalition wasn't necessarily, oh, just this multiracial group. What it really was also was activating people who were in those critical groups. You talk about in the book 75 million millennials, more than baby boomers. But the key is having demographic numbers means nothing if you don't exercise your actual

power by voting. And so the Obama coalition, they actually did that. And that to me, so people can tout the Obama coalition, but if you don't get the Obama coalition out to vote, it means nothing talking about a coalition. Oh yeah, that's definitely right. I think what I'm saying is that you sort of want to rebuild the same coalition, multiracial coalition of voters,

but you actually have to try to get those different voters, right? And to your point about the young people and how Obama, particularly in Iowa in 2008, 2007, was able to, you know, turn out young voters in Iowa, college students, sporadic voters that don't vote in every single election, you know, he was able to remake the electorate. In this instance, we don't necessarily have to remake anything, but it would be very good to not rely only upon what pollsters like to define as the likely voter, the voter who voted in the most recent two presidential elections. Because there are myriad reasons why somebody would skip an election or miss an election. And so they should still be spoken to by the party infrastructure or the campaign. And so what I'm saying in the Obama coalition chapter is, it's one thing to identify who your voters are, but you actually have to try to talk to them. Part of the thing, part of the problem with the way the Democrats

go about it is that they literally don't even try. They're like, well, Donald Trump is terrible and racist. I mean, who else are you going to vote for? I mean, that's basically the argument, because they don't provide, you know, substantive messaging and actual investment in those communities to turn out those sporadic voters that you're talking about. And also boots on the ground. So you have this passage where you say, my time on the Obama campaign as a field organizer in Virginia was very different from my time with Hillary in 2016,

where I spent every day as a director of progressive media in the campaign's Brooklyn headquarters, clicking away at my MacBook keyboard, hoping that our message was reaching our audience. Campaigns like to say they are doing what Obama did and knocking on doors, but you'll notice that they usually aren't until it's already too late in the election cycle. These days, they do more phone banking than door knocking. The point of door knocking isn't just to engage voters the last weekend before the election in order to remind them to vote and make sure they know where to go, but to ask them first and foremost, what is it that they need? That's pretty much what Ella Baker always said.

You go to the show Sharecroppers and say, what do you care about? And now I then have to then speak to you on how my candidate speaks to those issues. That's exactly right. I mean, I think, you know, part of the problem is that they show up too late asking for your vote, but they haven't provided a reason. And you need to give folks a reason. You need to show up early and be in communication on the ground. I mean, when I was a field organizer in 2008, it was my first job on a presidential campaign. It's the grunt work of a campaign. But one of the things I learned is that there were people I was talking to three and four times. So the third time I'm talking to Judy on the doors, you know, about the black president, the first black president, Barack Obama, you know, she, she may have leaned Republican,

but the third time she knows who I am at this point. So part of, part of what Obama did really well, I mean, I was among the type of field organizer that went to a battleground state, but one of the things he did really, really well, he incorporated what I call or what they called the neighbor to neighbor program, which I cite in the book, which is basically people signing up and creating their own precinct teams. Now, this is not, you know, a novel idea that no one has ever come up with before. And Democrats everywhere do this. But I think that they actually need to be serious about it. And instead, what they what they often do is, you know, they'll do all of the GOTV motions. They'll go through the motions, but they're not actually, their heart isn't in it. And they're

coming too late. And they're going to church service every Sunday, you know, a month before the election, but they're not talking to anybody who's outside of that church. And so they need to look at the Black community and brown community as the fulsome and diverse communities they are, and go and speak to them in those actual communities and stop just going, you know, where you traditionally would assume people are, like a church service.

What is your assessment? And you talk about in the Obama Coalition chapter, you talk about Senator Cory Booker, Congresswoman Lauren Underwood, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. But you look at this year, you had Congressman Julian Castro, you had Booker, Harris, who were running. Why do you think the minority candidates were not able to connect? Was it this belief that after 16, oh, my God, we have to get an old white guy? And then it became this self-fulfilling prophecy where the only way we can compete, because look, I'll be honest. Every time I turned on Morning Joe and you saw stuff on CNN, it was Michael Morrow.

We got to listen to these people in the Rust Belt. And I'm sitting there going, no, we don't. They need to be listening to some other people as well. And I think what happened, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy that the only way we can compete against Trump is to go get an old white guy. And folks just said, OK, that's it. What do you think happened? Why the Black and Latino candidates could not connect with those voters in those early states?

I think, you know, it's a couple different reasons because, you know, as you know, we have a media filter. So everything that we're learning and understanding about these candidates is through that filter. And that filter is just like the campaign problem where you have mostly white men in charge. And so, you know, you're only getting a narrow perspective. And that's why you saw, for example, more positive coverage about Mayor Pete versus Senator Kamala Harris or Senator Amy Klobuchar or Senator Elizabeth Warren. And I don't know about you, but like a mayor of a small town versus three women senators. I mean, there's, there's three people in that conversation that are very serious contenders for president.

And there's Mayor Pete, who is a very nice person. But I just don't think that, you know, the way the media covered him as if he was the second coming of Obama. I mean, people really said that. Yeah. You know, that they were really Obama people. Right. I was like, what? So they weren't really confronting the privileges that he was afforded because he was showing up in a white man's body. And so, you know, part of the problem is, is that you just you you have a lack of imagination when it comes to who can be in positions of power. When we were definitely traumatized after 2016. And so people definitely were concerned about who those white voters were going to vote for. I don't know how many times I've heard older black voters say, well, I like Kamala, but I don't know if other people will vote for Kamala or a black woman or insert the name of another candidate there. So I think part of the problem is that the fear of what sort of white moderate voters will do. But part of what I'm saying in the book is we don't have to worry about that.

We don't have to worry about them. First of all, the more conservative white voters, they're Republican. They are Republicans and they have always been Republicans. When the 53% of white women voted for Donald Trump, that was not a surprise. That was consistent with 2012, 2008 and beyond. We don't win the white vote on the Democratic side. We haven't won the white vote since 1964. So I think part of our strategy should stop only supporting and financing, frankly, candidates of color who are more diverse and come from different backgrounds, because we are afraid that white Americans, more moderate white Americans won't vote for a history-making candidate like that. I think, you know, 2016 was a machination of a lot of different factors.

If you list, you know, 10 factors, why Hillary Clinton lost the electoral college, all of them are correct. They're all correct, right? You don't know which one had more or less to do with it, if it was Russia, if it was voter suppression, all of her gender, all of these things are relevant. The point is, is that all of those things are going to be happening going forward. So what are we going to do about the fact that bias exists, sexism exists, racism exists, voter suppression exists. And so now we have to work within the world that we actually live in, but the numbers are actually on our side. So let's actually act like Republicans and get to work with the numbers that are on our side and use them to our advantage instead of just allowing them to suppress those

votes that could and potentially help Democrats make Congress different, make the Senate different, and make the White House different. Well, but also, I think that's also a part of, when you say the end of white politics, we've got to go ahead and say it. We've got to have the end of white media. See, I think a huge part of this is, frankly, who is controlling those shows? Who's controlling who are the producers? Who are the executives? And so, I use the hashtag, we tried to tell you, black people knew exactly what Trump was going to do.

Black people read what Coretta Scott King said about Jeff Sessions. Black people saw Donald Trump for exactly what he was. But I remember, I remember sitting there watching Joe Scarborough and Mark, what was his name? Alperin. The one who got fired. Mark Alperin just sort of dismissed the early story about how Trump treats women. And I watched these other stories. And I'm sitting there and I'm going, do y'all not see what's going on? And I think to your point about how media drives it, you did not have black people who were hosts, who were on shows every day for longer than five or six minutes.

You did not have black executives who could say, ah, we see this thing. So just like when you talk about how we see these things differently in campaigns, we also see these things differently in media. And that's the reason why, to your point, why Buttigieg all of a sudden, oh my God, he's white male. He speaks so great in these different languages. He's gay and all these different things. And black people kind of like, but 150,000 or less people in your city. And now you're going to be the next president. When there was a dude, Wayne Messam, who actually was a mayor of a larger city in Florida who got no attention whatsoever, I think media is a huge part of this too.

I do think the media plays a role. I definitely address that in the book. I do think that the sexism and the racism and those biases that I'm talking about in terms of campaign staff, I mean, I've existed on both sides. So I can see both of the biases at play, whether I'm in a TV segment or whether or not I was working on the campaign. And, you know, most of it is not, you know, malicious. It's literally blind spots that people have because they only have one lived experience. And of course, you know, just because you live one life and you're exposed to a lot of different other people, it doesn't mean you can speak for the Black experience or you know how to cover appropriately the Black experience. And I think

that, you know, one of the things that's been revealed in this moment is that the surprise after George Floyd's murder of the protest and everybody sort of going outside in the middle of a pandemic, understanding, you know, what was really truly at stake, you know, the surprise would not have happened if you had black and brown staffers and also media folks working within these organizations, because they would have told you many months ago what was going to happen. You would have had, you know, an eye to what was going on on the ground because you would have had some people in the meeting. I mean, my big thing is, you know, I don't want to be the only black person in a meeting anymore.

It's 2020. We're moving towards a minority white nation. You want to be like Beyonce when she went to the meeting with Reebok. It's kind of like, uh-uh. No, I'm out. Nobody look like me. I'm out. That means how could they

actually understand you as a Black person if there is no one present who is Black? I just think that all white spaces, I don't understand them because I just feel like every space that I've ever been in that was like fulsome and actually vibrant. It was diverse. It was inclusive. It had people from all around.

And if you have one flavor. Yeah. I just don't understand why white people are still having all white anything. I think that if you are if you find yourself in an all white meeting or all white space You need to ask why you need to raise your hand in that meeting be like why is this meeting all white? Because that is a problem within whatever organization you're working in All right, then. Hey final question. I know they haven't announced it all this talk Joanne reed's supposed to get a 7 p.m Show, whatever the heck might be opening on the weekend. You want it? You want to be a television show host? I will do anything when they

present me an opportunity. I don't have a plan. I mean, I think the book was a part of a plan, but if they ask me to host, yes, I'll host. Of course, and I'll be amazing. Well, be sure, make sure you get top-shelf money, too. That's also key.

They want us to host, but they don't want us to host for top shelf money. I'm just saying. Absolutely. Y'all the book is called the end of white politics, how to heal our liberal divide. Jelena Maxwell, Jelena, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks, that's it for us. Oh, hold up. I got to read this here here so we have our people uh who um support uh join our bring the funk fan club i want to thank all of y'all uh who support man y'all y'all are being phenomenal we've got more than 9 000 9 000 folks who join our bring

the funk fan club our goal by the end of the year they have 20 000 people giving at least 50 bucks a year which is 4.19 cents a month.13 a day to support what we do. To have these kinds of conversations, to have Jelena on for 30 minutes, to have the full breakdown of what's happening with Ebony, to have a sister who was from the police association in St. Louis, to have the black doctor discussing coronavirus, you are not going to see these many black guests on mainstream media, hell, probably in a week, but certainly, Francis, Jackie Morris, Jacqueline Conley, Jacqueline Grant, Jennifer Wright, Johnny Witte or Joseph Jackson, Joseph Mayfield, Joshua Thomas, Kenneth Barnhart, Kenneth Sharif, Kenneth Shaw, Kevin Freeman, Kim Dean, Lawrence Tucker, Lisa Hunter, Alita Brown, Lynn Brewer, Lena Hollingsworth, Marvin, Marvin Hearn, Mavis Knight, Michael, Michael Smith, Mikhail Oliver, Merlene Dossus, Mitchell Brown, Maya Fairless, Nicole, Namika Grant, Oslo Inc., Pamela Williams, Quintella Carter, Robin Basham, Rosanna Johnson, Shane Hawkins, Sharon McKeithen, Stanley White, Susie Tomlin, Sylvia Copeland. Sorry, it looks like my graphic, my back went out on me. Sylvia Copeland. Let's see.

Terrence Loric. Terry Ziegler. Thomas Atkins. Todd McManus. Tony Hall. Travis Everett. Troy Boyd. Tyrone Smith.

Ursula Hamilton. Vanessa Howard. Yolanda Lampkin. If you want to support us, pull a graphic up, please. Go to Cash App. Dollar sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal.me. Forward slash RM Unfiltered. You got Venmo.com. Forward sign RM Unfiltered, paypal.me forward slash RM Unfiltered.

You got Venmo.com forward slash RM Unfiltered. Don't forget, you can also send a cashier's check to,, Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 2006, 20006. Again, folks, we would love to get 1,000 of you this month. Trust me, our goal is to get 20,000. We're totally funded. Okay, so I'll explain tomorrow. I'm back in the studio. I'm at home today.

We're using the Ecamm Live software. It's one of the reasons why we have the panel, because it's not really conducive for our panel conversation. But I'm back in the studio tomorrow. Your resources that made it possible. We put a new lighting system in. We completely rewired our control room. We got all that sort of stuff. That's why, you know, we have all kinds of new things we're adding to our control room. We got all that sort of stuff. That's why, you know, we have all kinds of new

things we're adding to our control room, adding new features as well to give you the best show that we can give you every single day. Nobody's doing what we're doing, a daily digital show targeting African-Americans. Y'all were so phenomenal, folks. In the month of June, 25 million views in the month of June. We did 23 million in the month of May. And so we hope to exceed that. Y'all have been killing it with the numbers. People who watched the Mark Cuban interview, the Terry Crews interview, the conversation with Cornel West on Friday. And so our goal is to give you more great content. Folks, tomorrow on the show, Renee Goldsberry, the star of Hamilton, is going to be on the show tomorrow. Look forward to it. Y'all have a great one.

I got to go. Also, Black Education Matters. And so this is the former organization Black Alliance for Educational Options. The founder of Bale, DeHowa Fuller, is also going to be joining us this week. Y'all, we got a jam-packed week for you. It's time to go. I'll see y'all tomorrow. Ha! I'll see y'all tomorrow. A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding.

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I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Sure. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their homes.

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