#RolandMartinUnfiltered - COVID cases hit 6-mo. high; AFL-CIO Pres. Trumka dies; Black realtor profiled; DaBabby gets canceled

Episode Date: August 6, 2021

8.5.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: COVID cases hit 6-month high; Black realtor profiled while showing home to Black couple; Landlords balk at eviction moratorium extension, sue; Rapper DaBabby ripped for anti-gay comments + Get a discount on CEEK virtual headsets just for watching #RolandMartinUnfiltered.Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Today is Thursday, August 5th, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, one of the biggest labor leaders has died. Will talk about his loss and what it means to the union movement. COVID cases are at a six month high with more than 100,000 new cases reported just yesterday was behind the surge and what needs to happen. The eviction moratorium

has been extended and landlords are filing suit in LA and Mayor Eric Garcetti signed an ordinance criminalizing folks who are homeless. In Michigan, a black realtor says he was racially profiled while showing a home to a black couple. We'll also have a conversation about destigmatizing HIV and AIDS in response to comments made by rapper DaBaby. Plus, how to get a discount on a Sikh virtual headset just before watching the show. Also, folks, we'll talk about voting rights until freedom. They're going to be having their protest tomorrow as well.

It's time to bring the funk on Roland fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's rolling, Martin.

Yeah. Rolling with rolling now. Yeah, yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Rollin' Martin Now Martin All right, folks, COVID is causing significant issues in this country. So many people are, frankly, when you look at what's happening in this country,

so many people are who are in hospitals right now begging. They're begging for the vaccine. It's too late. You've got schools in Florida who are having to reverse mask mandates because the governor, Ron DeSantis, is literally threatening to pull their funding. Same thing is happening in Tennessee. Asa Hutchison, Republican governor of Arkansas, yesterday said he regretted signing into law a bill that ended any mask mandates.

These people are actually losing their minds. And you even have folks fighting on Fox News because they've changed their tune. And guess what? A new poll shows that people who watch Fox News, more of them are now getting the vaccine because Fox is now all of a sudden start telling people to take the vaccine. Folks, do you see what is going on? And then you have the people who are saying, oh my goodness, you know, you really shouldn't be talking about these things. I got people tweeting me talking about all kind of other crazy potent potions that could actually fix it. Y'all, it's worse in the southern states where they have the lowest vaccination rates and they're leading the country. Arkansas, same thing. The problem there, children who are now in ICUs filling up all across the South.

Here's the Arkansas governor, Asa Hutchinson, now singing a different tune. Signed it at the time because our cases were at a very low point. I knew that it would be overridden by the legislature if I didn't sign it. And I was not supportive of, I'd already eliminated our statewide mask mandate. And so, you know, I signed it for those reasons that our cases were at a low point. Everything has changed now. And yes, in hindsight, I wish that had not become law. But it is the law, and the only chance we have is either to amend it or for the courts to say that it has an unconstitutional foundation. See what's so stupid?

He signs a mandate into law saying, well, at the time our numbers were low, stuff changes. Well, the legislature was also going to override me. Well, let them! Show some damn leadership. Check this out. In Texas, Scott Apley, who sits on the Republican Executive Committee, y'all, he's dead. Yep. He died of COVID-19 five days after mocking vaccinations and mask mandates on this Facebook post. This is what he posted. In six months, we've gone from the vax ending the pandemic to you can still get COVID even if vaxed, to you can pass COVID on to others even if vaxed, to you can still die of COVID even if vaxed, to the unvaxed are killing the vaxed. Well, guess what? He dead. He dead right now. Scott Apley. His family's about to

bury him because he, well, see, see what happens? Texas has 3.1 million reported cases, 52,142 deaths, including him. Only 44% of Texans are vaccinated. Public health officials and politicians are urging all citizens to get vaccinated. The Biden administration plans to require all foreign travelers to be fully vaccinated before entering the country. Joining us right now, Dr. Ebony J. Hilton, Associate Professor in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, University of Virginia, Medical Director at University of Virginia, also Medical Director, Goodstock Consulting. Dr. Hilton, glad to have you back on the show. It is, it has been, we've watched how these things have gone. And again, everybody has a choice whether they want to get vaccinated or not.

That's fine. You have a choice. But we keep seeing numerous stories, Ebbony of people in the hospital right now intubated on ventilators begging nurses and doctors can you give me this shot and they literally are patting their hands saying baby it's too late can you hear me yes we got you go ahead. Go ahead. Right, my connection froze. You know, we say this, people have a choice, but unfortunately what we do know is that a large population

does not have a choice, which are our kids. And right now, you know, if you look at Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Texas, literally they've run out of pediatric ICU beds. And it's the most frustrating thing, because for one, those 12 and under, they can get vaccinated even if they wanted to. But we know that right now, literally only 11 percent of 12 to 17-year-olds are actually fully vaccinated in the United States of America. And unfortunately, we're seeing that younger and younger people are literally dying because of COVID-19. We're

seeing cases now rise from newborns to teenagers out of Florida, out of Texas, out of Alabama, out of Arkansas, Louisiana, where they are dead. And it's adults making stupid decisions, because if even for those children 12 and under who cannot get vaccinated at this point, they depend on us to create this umbrella of herd immunity to protect them. But we're so selfish and self-serving as adults in America in this cry for freedom that we would risk their lives in order for us to be able to go to La La Palooza for a weekend getaway. It is absolutely ridiculous, at a year a half into a pandemic for us to try to pretend

like we don't know what's smart and what's dumb at this stage. We also have seen the stories now of the people who were gathered outside the stadium where the Milwaukee Bucks won the NBA championship. A massive crowd, guess what, 500 people who were in that crowd have now tested positive for COVID. Right. And I mean, and Citibank, I think, is planning a concert in New York City for 60,000 people. And New York City and Chicago, where Lollapalooza was, literally, they were the epicenter of where COVID started, where everyone truly realized this is a problem. And yet our vision is so short-sighted that we cannot wait until we get over the surge of Delta before we go out and gallivant,

as if it's not killing 600 people a day. And to give you an idea of what that is, if you think of the largest airplane, commercial air flight, add an extra 100 people to that and crash it every single day. That's what we're doing with COVID-19 and no one's blinking an eye and it makes absolutely no sense to me. Check out this back and forth on Fox News. Again, if you want to understand the lunacy, if you will watch this. Also saw that in Arkansas, apparently about 20% of the people who are in hospitals with coronavirus, 20% of them are children.

So that's one of the things they're obviously gonna be talking about. There are a lot of kids under 12 cannot currently be vaccinated, but if your kids are over 12, you probably ought to get the shot. All right, but it works to your doctor decide what you wanna do. That's what usually people go to get the shot. Right. But or see a doctor decide what you want to do. That's what usually people go to for medical advice. Doctors. I didn't go to a doctor

before I got the shot. That's your decision. Absolutely. That's your decision. But I don't think anchors should be recommending medical advice. Yeah. Well, you know, but a lot of people have been tuning into the show for 25 years to see what we think about different things. I think if you have the opportunity, get the shot. I also saw that. I find that to be hilarious that Brian Kilmeade would say anchors should not be recommending medical advice. I guess he doesn't watch Fox News in the prime time or he doesn't actually watch even his own show. Yeah, I mean, even him saying you shouldn't go and get it, that's medical advice, too. So, I mean, it's absolutely ridiculous. The GOP makes no sense to me. You're literally killing

off your base. If you look at Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, they have—Texas, they have—Florida, they have largely voted Republican. And guess what? Right now in Florida, literally 18,000 cases a day is the running average over the last two weeks. If you look at Louisiana, they went from 400 cases a day back on July the 4th to 4,000 cases a day this week. It's absolute. It's ridiculous. And it makes no sense. And I think that's why, truly, that the GOP are starting to change their tune and say, oh, wait, now people need to go and get vaccinated. Because they realize you literally are killing off your voters by doing this.

It makes no sense. Everyone needs to wear a mask. Everyone needs to get vaccinated. We need to stop having these concerts every other day, because we're going to be looking at what the models show is by September the 1st, we're going to be looking at 200,000 cases a day in the United States of America. And by October 1st, literally back to 4,000 people dying a day. That's what the models are showing. And we weren't hitting those numbers in 2020 until November, December. So when you think about the fact that we're going to start hitting those numbers months earlier, our risk of hitting over well over a million people dead from COVID-19 this year is definitely a real possibility.

We have to stop playing these games. Dr. Anthony Fauci talked about how we could actually, this thing could actually get worse than it is right now. Help me understand, are we headed towards a period once again where we're going to see lockdowns, businesses shutting down, masks routine for everybody, or is this potentially just a temporary setback? John, I don't think we're going to see lockdowns. I think we have enough of the percentage of people in the country, not enough to crush the outbreak, but I believe enough to not allow us to get into the situation we were in last winter. But things are going to get worse. If you look at the acceleration of the number of

cases, the seven-day average has gone up substantially. You know, what we really need to do, John, we say it over and over again, and it's the truth. We have 100 million people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated, who are not getting vaccinated. We are seeing an outbreak of the unvaccinated. There are some breakthrough infections among vaccinated. You expect that because no vaccine is 100 percent effective. But in the breakthrough infections, they are mostly mild or without symptoms, whereas the unvaccinated who have a much, much, much greater chance of getting infected in the first place are the ones that are vulnerable to getting severe illness that might lead to hospitalization

and in some cases death. So we're looking not, I believe, to lockdown, but we're looking to some pain and suffering in the future because we're seeing the cases go up, which is the reason why we keep saying over and over again, the solution to this is get vaccinated and this would not be happening. So, Dr. Hilton, there's somebody who's watching and they're saying, I'm sorry, I'm just not buying it. Yesterday, we had Terrence Woodbury on with the hit strategies. They've done polling. 52 percent of African-Americans say they're not going to take the vaccine. Talk to them.

What do you say to somebody right now who is adamant or who is hesitant about taking the vaccine? What I say right now is that things will get worse before they get better. We know that children are going to start schools in South Carolina. It's on September the 8th, I think, or something like that. So we have a matter of weeks. And unfortunately, we know that children, they are curious. They like to go into the classrooms. We know many states are not mandating masks, but even those that mandate masks, we know kids tend to take them off. And unfortunately, we're seeing our children get infected with COVID-19 and unfortunately die from COVID-19. We also know that children can be vectors and pass that infection off to you. So for those persons that are saying, I am vaccine hesitant, I don't want to do this, look around you and honestly look at the children in your life and say, is it worth

their life? Because that's what we're risking right now. It is not a threat. It's a promise. We will be losing far more children than we lost in 2020, of which it was already too many. You know, back in March, we had a report that there was over 40,000 new orphans because adults were dying and leaving children behind. But unfortunately, now, this fall, what we can see is the reverse of where children can be dying in those same rates and leaving parents childrenless. What does that feel like? And especially when we can prevent it, and we can stop the spread just by getting vaccinated, by wearing our masks, by trying to stop the spread of this thing, by not traveling all throughout the United States, and particularly to

those places where we know we have ongoing hot spots, which, unfortunately, now, if you look at the United States map, it's pretty much everywhere. We just have to really buckle down these next three to four weeks, so that we can hopefully not spur this thing like a wildfire that caught flame in California last year. But it really is that type of picture we have to consider. And the thing that I keep, we also got to remind folks, is that this surge has a devastating impact, not just on families, but also on our medical professionals.

There have been a number of doctors who said, hey, there was probably about a two or three week period where things were returning to normal. We're now seeing in Tampa where they've announced no elective surgeries, just like last year, happening in other cities as well. And so this is going to have a ripple effect on the health care of people who need emergency rooms, who need to be in ICUs. Yeah, I mean, it's not only that. It's also, if you're thinking about people coming in to deliver their babies, if we think about the fact that people are having heart attacks, that people who have cancers and need treatment, we are only, the healthcare providers, we're human too. There's only so many hours a day that we can possibly work, And that gets stretched, trust me. But it's just thinking through the process of, there's more consequences, too, of just dying from COVID-19. And this is another thing I would tell for those people who are walking around

without masks on, vaccinated or not vaccinated, that, if you're infected, what there's a report that showed that up two million people, they studied with COVID-19. For even those who are asymptomatic, they didn't have any signs and symptoms of COVID. They just went through and got tested. Well, within a 30-day span, they ended up developing some form of abnormality, either physical fatigue or chronic pain now or changes to their lab work, one out of every five who are asymptomatic develop these signs and symptoms. And so to play around with COVID-19, we don't know what the long-term impact of that will be for your life, and particularly for the children that have 60 years left of life, hopefully, to live. If they are in their senior year of high school, why would you risk that,

where you can go and get him vaccinated and hopefully prevent them from being infected in the first place. Doctor Ebony Hilton, always good to see you. I will be in your home state this weekend for Congressman Jim Clyburn's annual golf. Tell him I said hey,

tell him to tell him to tell Lindsey Graham since he's now COVID positive to talk to McMasters about reversing the ban on masks that they have for kids going to school. Do that on the golf course. Yeah, we'll be sure to do that. And I can guarantee you there will be social distancing on the golf course. It's like, y'all stay over there. Absolutely. Amy, thanks a lot.

Good to see y'all. All right. Good to see y'all. All right. Good to see you. All right. Let's bring in my panel here. Dr. Greer Carr, Department of African American Studies, Howard University. Recy Colbert, Black Women of Views, Faraj Muhammad, radio and TV host. The thing that I think probably drives me crazy the most, Recy, with all of this,

are the number of these Republican governors who have signed into law people who so-called believe in small government, who believe in personal responsibility, who believe that people should make their own choices. They literally are tying the hands of officials. I mean, to threaten, to revoke school funding from schools in order to, because of a mask mandate.

In fact, that was an emergency hearing today where they want to provide emergency opportunity scholarships for people who want to pull their kids out of public schools where they have mask mandates to enroll them into private schools. In Tennessee, they are threatening to pull the funding of school districts that put into place mask mandates. They're trying to literally save lives. Yeah. This is what I've been talking about, the danger of this post-truth, post-factual, post-science society that we're living in, where we aren't making public health decisions based on science, based on saving people, based on not overwhelming the healthcare system. We're making them, or not we, but Republicans more specifically, are making these decisions to score cool points

with, you know, people on Fox News and with their base, who has an appetite for destruction, who has an appetite for defiance, who has an appetite for, I guess, sticking it to the Democrats and big government. And it's to their detriment. And I think one of the reasons why they're getting away with this is because at the beginning of the pandemic, it was kind of presented as a Black and brown issue. Oh, it's only Black and brown people that are dying. For some reason, they don't care about grandma, great-grandma, grandpa dying. And so they're saying, well, if some older people have to die, that's fine, too. But as Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton just pointed out, and you pointed out, this is impacting kids younger and younger. And as a mother of a

four-month-old, I'm absolutely terrified of something happening to her. I mean, I'm vaccinated. Everybody around me is fully vaccinated. She likely has some protection through the breast milk. But I'm still, I could not fathom the idea of putting her at risk. And so the idea of sending kids to school without masks, it's just incredibly troubling and disturbing. And it just seems like they don't have a problem signing a death warrant. And I don't know if it's as much hubris or delusion, but either way, it's equally dangerous. And so this goes back to what I've been saying and what we always say on the show, elections matter. Elections have consequences. And people in these red states, they don't deserve

to have their death warrant signed. They don't deserve what they're being subjected to. But that's the government that they voted for. And so I'm hoping that there will be some sanity in the courts, that there will be some lawsuits to try to challenge some of these mask mandates. We've seen where the vaccine mandates have basically been upheld by the courts. And it'll be interesting to see if how these mask, banning the mask mandates would hold up in the courts, if the same logic would hold. But it's very dangerous. It's very dangerous. And to think that some people are choosing to sign up for this danger is even more mind-blowing. So we have to try to tackle this disinformation in this post-science

society that we're living in. And the one last thing I would say is, it's so troubling to know that it's not even about trying to contain the disease anymore, contain the pandemic and the spread. It's just basically saying, you're on your own. If you don't get vaccinated, you're shit out of luck. And we know that kids can't get the vaccine. But, hey, we'll figure it out. We're going to. And I'm scared to see what kind of death toll and destruction we have to see from kids, because we know from the Sandy Hook shooting, there is an incredibly high appetite for children's deaths in this country. And I'm just very afraid to see how many kids are going to have to die or get long COVID or be in the hospital before people say enough is enough.

Roger, we talk about, again, impact. We often have said on this show that the vaccine is down 100 percent. It doesn't completely ward you off. There are variants, how Delta. They are in Jackson, Mississippi. They're mourning the death of the sheriff in Hines County, Lee Van, 63 years old. Apparently that was a. He was fully vaccinated. Apparently that was a outbreak of COVID in the county jail. He was at home for quarantining

and he died this week and the thing that so you have that example. But really what I think what is really. and he died this week. And the thing that, so you have that example, but really what I think what is really just confusing me are the people who are not listening to children's experts, people who are not listening to these doctors who specialize in children. I'm looking on Cleavon's Instagram, excuse me, Twitter account, and he had posted a particular video where a hospital official in Arkansas said that they had experienced

a 690% increase in children impacted. But also caught me was this here. 42 year old John Ayers from Southport, England died from COVID. Quote, he was the healthiest person I know. He thought if he contracted COVID, he'd be okay and have a mild illness. He didn't want to put a vaccine in his body, said his twin sister. Now, this is his photo, which he looks like. This is him in the hospital. Now look,

this was a very muscular, healthy dude. For the life of me, I don't get these people who don't realize what's happening with our children. Well, I think it's a few things. And I think that once you start looking at, you know, vaccinating adolescents, there has to be a much bigger and deeper conversation because you're talking about children. One of the big concerns that I've been reading about and hearing about by the role is the fact that out of the Children's Health Defense, this is a activist group founded by the attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Who is actually

one of the biggest spreaders of disinformation on the vaccine. Well, I mean, he brings up a point. I think we should, and I'm saying this is why we have the conversation. But he is, but look, there's a

conversation. There's a conversation and then there are people who are deliberately sending out misinformation and he's one of those people. Yeah, and targeting our community specifically. Well, if we don't want to acknowledge him, let's look at the fact that if you're talking about having children, I have two

children. I have an eight-year-old and a two-year-old. So when we're talking about having children, we're talking about informed consent. We're talking about what is going to be the impact of the vaccine on their evolving bodies. We're talking about a is going to be the impact of the vaccine on their evolving bodies. We're talking about a whole lot of things. This cannot be just a simple rollout. This is not a PR campaign. This is my future. This is Risi's future. This is anyone that has children or caretakers of children. This is your future. So we can't have a big conversation about vaccinations, an experimental vaccination at that, that hasn't been fully approved, and it won't be at least until February, I mean, until September, excuse me, until we understand the whole, at least get

the whole picture. I think one of the big parts about this whole process well rolling recent dr. Carr is the fact that there has been a campaign of everything from fear to coercion to intimidation Now it's just all out federal workers. You're mandated or you lose your job But here's the deal though. He's the I'll be on with you I'm scared of death You do damn right. And I want to show this. I want to show this. I want to show this. I want to show this.

I want to show this. Dr. Jose Romero, who is the pediatric infectious disease specialist at Arkansas Children's Hospital, this is what he said. Among children less than 18 years of age who were hospitalized in July, 58% were less than 12 years of age.

Listen to this. I'm going to take it back. Just hold on one second. Among children less than 18 years of age who are hospitalized in July, 58% were less than 12 years of age. I think these numbers exemplify and bring out a very sobering aspect of the pandemic in our state. We have a group of individuals that are extremely susceptible to infection because they do not have eligibility for a vaccine. Among children less than 18 years of age who are hospitalized in July. So I'm going to pull you in here, Greg.

So this is the conundrum that we're in. We are literally seeing children's ICUs filled to capacity in many of these southern states. They are calling around neighboring states. They're saying, we have no room for your children. Yeah. I mean, if you're not going to take the vaccine for whatever reason, isolate. Don't have any human contact. If you've already taken it, save yourself. Wear your mask. Protect yourself. If you got friends or loved ones who are not going to take the vaccine, listen to them. Ask them why, try to reason with them

from a distance. And if you can't get through, cut them completely off. And as for this white nationalist stoop Olympics, and it does look like the governor of Florida is going for the gold medal, which would be the nomination for his party, the white nationalist party for the 2024 presidential cycle. You know, whatever happens to y'all happens to y'all. I'm going to keep saying this until somebody understands it. There is no we in this country. There's no national soul. There's no national sentiment. There's only people living in the same landmass with various perspectives. That white woman in Arkansas that went viral the other day for her tortured biblical interpretation

of why God doesn't want her to put the needle in her arm, I wish her well. I won't encounter her in the store. I will not encounter her on the floor. I will not encounter her anywhere in the world. And if you want to die, you go right ahead, because, in order to get sick, you have to be alive. Let's not forget that. Meanwhile, the continent of Africa, about 1 percent rate. The countries in the world that have been ridged poor through structural capitalism, for every 100 people, they have got access to about a dose-and-a-half, as opposed to people in the United States and the global North, who

have, for every 100 people, access to 50 doses. And the cover of today's Financial Times talked about the fact that Moderna, which I took, and Pfizer have gone up on the price of their vaccine. They just unloaded $2.1 billion to the E.U. bloc. And they are actually charging more now for their vaccine. They just unloaded $2.1 billion to the EU block, and they are actually charging more now for their doses. Capitalism is about to kick in. Now, we'll talk a little bit later about this housing crisis. But those at the very top, they could give a damn about any of us. And if you want to value your whiteness over your life, and you watch that cosplay on Fox between Doocy and Kilmeade,

and you decide you're not going to stick that needle in your arm, God bless you. Your God bless you. I'm not getting anywhere close to you. And those of you who are essential workers, who have never stopped working over the last year and a half, who have to deliver the mail and bag the groceries and drop off the Amazon packages and do the DoorDash and drive the Ubers. Put three masks on because these damn hillbillies are going to kill themselves and they're going to drag some of us with them. Don't let it be you. Taraji, you talked about some of the requirements that people are making.

CNN announced that there were three employees who came into the office multiple times and were unvaccinated, breaking their protocols, they were fired. There are other companies who are now making those requirements. I have made the exact same thing. Employers can't just think about an individual. They had to think about all the employees. And I totally get companies that are saying, if you don't get vaccinated, you may not have a job well I mean if if you're going to make that and we have to look at the slippery slope that that that type of uh you know demand will possibly make the president said on July the 27th that

this that the pandemic is continuing essentially because because he calls this the pandemic of the unvaccinated. I mean, that is absolutely insane because this pandemic was happening before vaccines even came about. So the pandemic of the unvaccinated to create that narrative to which adds to the growing tension around vaccinations and those who are back and you're creating a war. And when you're talking about if this gets to the point, Brother Roland, Dr. Cotton, we see if we're getting to the point now that we're going to make vaccinations mandatory, you're going to have a real revolution in this country. And guess what? I'm not just talking about from Blackfield. I'm talking about let me just? YOU'RE GOING TO SAY, I'M NOT JUST TALKING ABOUT FROM BLACK FIELDS, I'M TALKING ABOUT, LET ME JUST CASE IN POINT, THE,

YOU KNOW, I THINK THAT WE SHOULD ALL KIND OF TALK ABOUT THIS A LITTLE BIT MORE, BUT THE USA TODAY, THEY PUT OUT THIS PIECE JUST A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO WHERE THEY LOOKED AT THIS QUESTION OF WHETHER YOUR PERSONAL FREEDOM, WHAT'S THE END OF YOUR PERSONAL FREEDOM WHEN YOU'RE DECIDING TO DO SOMETHING FOR YOURSELF AND WHAT'S THE START OF DOING SOMETHING FOR THE COMMON GOOD? AND AS AMERICANS, THEY SAID IT, THE COVID CULTURE POINT, AT WHAT POINT SHOULD PERSONAL FREEDOM YIELD TO THE COMMON GOOD?

WHAT IS THE COMMON GOOD? NOW, IS THE COMMON GOOD SAVING LIVES? ABSOLUTELY. I DON'T THINK ANYBODY WANTS anybody wants to just check out of here, you know. But the common good, based upon what we're seeing, we're seeing a health care companies that are reaping rich off of this vaccine. We're seeing the conflicting messages coming from the CDC. You know, 70 plus percent of the American people said that they have lost trust in the CDC and other agencies because of the conflicting messages. So what is considered to be the common good and what is considered to be personal freedom? We're not having certain conversations. We're not

giving people a chance to really think about their decision making. It's just take this, take this, take this, take this, do this, do this, do this, and at the same time, not giving people quote unquote personal choice. No, no, they are getting personal choice. But here's the deal though. It's also my personal choice to employ you.

See, here's the thing I think a lot of people really, really forget. And that is, when Greg said it, if you don't want to take the vaccine, fine. Self-isolate. But

the deal, though, is decisions that you make, a decision begets another decision. And if somebody says, I am not going to take the vaccination, cool. There are things that are going to come with that that you may not like. Now, if they want to say, well, you shouldn't be firing me. I mean, there are hospital workers right now who are angry and upset

because hospitals have said, y'all got to get vaccinated. And the hospital said, and if you don't, you lose your job. Now they're yelling and cussing and fussing, but the hospital is saying, we are a hospital. We can't have you. And here's the other deal. How many of us have actually, of the three,

of the four of us sitting here, how many of us have gone to the continent of Africa? I wish I could. I wish. I haven't yet. And Greg, you've been, I've been reaching, did you raise your hand? Yes.

Didn't we all have to take a series of shots before we stood on, for all of our personal freedom, I had to take a, we had to take a series of shots before we could even get on that plane. And if

we landed and they showed our papers and they were like, um, no shots. Hop your ass back on that plane. Go back to where you came from. Am I right, Greg? That's right, brother. But here's the thing, though, brother Roland. Does this country have the mechanisms,

the infrastructure in place to protect the citizens who may not be of the same mindset? Are we... And I'm asking, because, like, for example... Hold on, when you say protect them, how? What? Quarantine them under armed house arrest? What happens on the other side? So, okay, fine.

What happens on the other side is we have funerals. Then what happens? Then what happens? How do you protect those citizens? You just leave them to die? How do you ensure the rights of those citizens? No, but, Faraji, that's the problem right now. The problem right now is, and I can show you, there are people who right now

who did not want to take the vaccine and they literally right now are making deathbed videos saying, what the hell was I thinking? They are pleading with people. So, you just ask, how do you protect them? They are protecting them. They literally are hospitalized

right now. The problem is our hospitals are being filled. And Brother Roland, just real quick there, brother, the reason that they're being filled is not necessarily because folks decided not to take the vaccination. We don't know, one,

what the medical history of those individuals. Two, did they really wear the mask and do the social distancing? I'm all for that. So did they take the proper precautions to put themselves in a better place? Travis Campbell, 43, from Bristol, Virginia, has been hospitalized more than a week

due to the Delta variant, which also infected his wife and two children. The unvaccinated man is adamant about making videos encouraging others to get vaccinated now. Here's the video. This place was basically empty with COVID last week. But now it's full. So it is growing, and it is getting stronger. lost a couple of coins this past 24 to 26 hours. COVID.

This Delta strain. That's something else. I would ask you, if you thought that you had to sit down and plan your goodbyes and funerals or go get the COVID vaccine, what would you do? I'd hope to God that all my friends and family

would not say somebody handed me a piece of paper and a pen. That's a sobering thought of which I have no doubt. Recy. No, brother. I mean, I'm sorry, Greg, go ahead. No, no, no no all I was going to say is I wish Dr. Hilton was back here matter of fact she is I think she just called

back in Dr. Ebony Hilton you wanted to pop back on go ahead yes I was going to go and try to mind my business but I just listened to see what the panelists had to say and I just want to speak to the gentleman I'm sorry I don't know your name. You mean Faraji Muhammad? Yes. For one, respectfully, words have power. And right now, what I am telling you is that words and the information

that is being spoken, this misinformation, is literally killing our people. We have, at this stage, compared to last year, January 2020, when, before pandemic actually hit the United States in fullness, we had our first case January 20. And since that time, one in every 420 Black people that were alive last January has now died from COVID-19. We have higher death rates in every single age category, including our children. This is not the time for us to go back and forth over talking points, because we want to get our voices heard, because, at the end of the day, if you have not had to look at a family and tell them, I'm sorry, but they are dead, then I don't need the back-forth, because what I got to tell you is, we're burying nine-year-olds, nine. This has to stop. And it's one of those things that really does.

If there was a miracle drug, I tell people all the time, I don't come from a medical family. I came from a single-parent home. My parents didn't graduate from high school. I lived in the place that we talk about with the lack of resources. That's what... I got free lunch. That's me. So when I think about the fact that we're already having to battle the fact that we don't have medical resources in the neighborhood that I grew up, and I know my family is struggling to even get vaccines in the first place. Literally, they left South Carolina to go to North Carolina to get vaccinated, because they weren't getting it out because we got a Republican governor. I already know the uphill battle we got to fight as far as

racism, as it deals with environmental racism and the toxins being poured in our air and water. All that stuff, I already know. And what I am telling you is that we have young people, young, otherwise healthy, nothing in my chart. I am 20 years old. And what I am telling you is that we have young people, young, otherwise healthy, nothing in my chart. I am 20 years old. And two weeks ago, I had to literally bury a 20, I'm not going to say the age and the sex of this person, but a person half my age from COVID-19. We cannot afford to do this, people. I mean, and what terrifies me is that we know that if we look at where Black people live, we live in the southern states. We live in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi. Fifty percent of all Black people, we live down south. And guess

where the hot spots are right now, if not the complete south? And guess where the lack of vaccine uptake is happening? In the deep south. And guess where high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes live, if not in the deep south. So guess who's going to die at higher rates again. So instead of it being one in every 400, it'll be one in every 200. And it is going to, it is killing us. Yes, ma'am. And Dr. Hilton, you know, and this is not about talking points. And I'm wholeheartedly in agreement with you, sis, that, you know, having those conversations with families to let them know that their child has lost the fight against COVID-19. This is not about to score any political points. But I think that we should have some deeper conversations.

I mean, people are talking about the hesitancy. They're talking about not being adamant. I mean, looking at where this country is, we're looking at the in terms of the medical experimentation, the history of medical experimentation on black and brown communities in this country. We can't just disregard that scholarship and that research. We can't just disregard the fact that this vaccine was produced in such a way. And I could be wrong, Dr. Hilton. I can be totally wrong. And I'd be the first one to admit it. But I didn't see a consortium of Black medical professionals like yourself and others coming from both America, coming from Haiti, coming from Cuba to discuss,

OK, we know a company like Pfizer, a company like Moderna, a company like Johnson & Johnson, companies that have real problems in producing sound and effective and lifesaving treatment. Let's see what other alternatives have been, can we look at? I don't know if those conversations happened. Please inform me. Let me know if those discussions were had, where we can look at it specifically for black and brown communities, that those conversations, where we can look at what are some of the options outside of these medical corporations. Well, hold on, hold on, hold on. So you're asking, first of all, I, wait. Hold on, hold on. So you're asking...

First of all, I can tell you, because we had them on, the National Medical Association, the folks at Meharry, the folks, they were very much involved as a vaccine was being developed. Now, when you say other options, please, by all means,

present the other options, please, by all means, present the other options. I think there are other options. Look at, we can look at South America. We can look at Mexico. We can look at Haiti. We can look at what's happening in Africa.

When I looked at some of the numbers, Brother Roland, Dr. Hilton, when I looked at some of the numbers, again, correct me if I'm wrong, but in the global context, the United States has the highest number of COVID cases in the world. Wait a minute, Faraji. I think, you know, just today, no, yesterday, Tedros Ghebreyesus, who is over at the World Health Organization, called for a moratorium on booster shots in the Global North until vaccines are delivered to Africa, 1 percent. You got people who will crawl through over broken glass to try to get a vaccine in Ghana, Nigeria,

even South Africa. And in terms of Latin America, that's where we have seen, correct me if I'm wrong, Dr. Hilton, the lambda strain is coming. As far as Cuba is concerned, that's geopolitics. United States and the Global North freezing Cuba out, they developed two vaccines, the Abbata vaccine and the Soberana vaccine, both over 90 percent effective. And so far, they've begun to inoculate. I think they're over, they're close to 11 million in Cuba now have taken one shot. But, Dr. Hilton, help me, because, again, and, Roland, I'm glad you mentioned President Harry, James Hilton. If you had him on before anybody, he's an epidemiologist. I mean, you know, Wayne Frederick at Howard, the sister who's president of Morehouse School of Medicine.

You've had them on over and over again, and you've kind of been the thread through all of it, Dr. Hilton. So something I heard on the show the other day, the brother from A&T who you had on, Roland, made this point. But, Dr. Hilton, correct me if I'm wrong, the Delta, the Delta Plus, the Lambda, I mean, I had Moderna. Number one, that doesn't make me immune to COVID. But in terms of the new variants, am I now, because of those, if I get one of those variants, am I more likely to be a carrier with a mild illness? And then because the new variant looks at, I mean, COVID is not racist. And the new variant, help me if I understand this correctly, because of the new variant, I am more likely to infect an uninfected person than maybe even

before they had a vaccine. It's just going, this vaccine is not helping me against, we don't even know if it's going to help me against COVID. And it's one of these things. So let's define how variants come across. So it's almost, again, I don't come from a medical family. So I try to think in very simple terms of how I wish someone would explain it to me. So you can think about variants like the telephone game. If I say ABCD QRST, and then Recy says ABCD QRSTV, right? And then the next person says ABC, QR, LMN. That's the slight change where we keep the same base, but then it's slightly different in between. That's what mutants are. Because as COVID goes from me to Recy to Roland, the virus's only job and only goal is to be able to replicate. And it knows that if I can

trick the immune system, then that's the most likely that I can get to the next generation of me. So I have to change slightly from me to Recy, from Recy to Roland, in order to get to the next generation, if that makes sense. And so when you're talking about the vaccine, what we do know is that the vaccine still recognizes fairly well that ABCD. Now, it does not necessarily recognize the QRS if you throw in some other letters. And I'm hoping this is making sense to people as far as this telephone game. But what we do see is that the vaccine itself reduces your likelihood of being hospitalized or infected by 8 percent, eight times, right, eight times less likely to be infected. You're 25 times less likely to be hospitalized and 25 times less likely to die if you are vaccinated versus if you're not.

Now, do we have a real threat that we're going to get a telephone game of where now, instead of it saying A, B it saying ABCD, that it says QRS first and throws us all the way off? Yes. And the reason why we have the biggest is, again, when we were just talking to the gentleman about vaccines and he mentioned Africa, I don't know. And I think you said you've never been to Africa. I've done mission trips in Africa and I lived in Tanzania for a month and then for two weeks the following year in 2013. And I tell you, that one hospital was servicing in Tanzania, Mwaza, Tanzania, the entire country of Tanzania. There is not a resource there that we have the luxury of having here in the United States of America.

So when we're saying they don't have cases, it's not because they don't have cases. It's because they don't have tests for those people. Literally, we had patients that would walk to the hospital for days, that I can put up videos of what I took to show how these children who had infections within their belly, their families had to carry them for days to get to the hospital. And, unfortunately, they would pass away there. So, we cannot say that they don't. And it's an injustice to Africa, the continent of Africa, actually, at this stage where 15 percent of the global population is vaccinated, but yet in Africa, it's only 1.8 percent, because they are not getting vaccines in the rate that the wealthiest countries are getting vaccines,

and they are dying. And it's not only in Africa. It's in South America. Literally, when we're talking about the P1 variant, that was out of Brazil, right? That was, we had the alpha variant first in the UK. We had the South African variant, right? I don't know if y'all remember that one. And then we had the P1 variant, which was in Brazil. This is not a game of, oh, well, we're only dying in the United States. We're testing more in the United States. We're not doing as many tests as we should be doing in the United States. And, yes, we are able to count our deaths better because we have the medical resources that if you get sick because you don't want to get vaccinated right now for whatever reason, you can go into a

hospital that's at least 20 minutes car ride from your home, right? That's not the same in every other location. And unfortunately, it's that type of not understanding the system holistically that's causing a lot of people to doubt the system. And unfortunately, it's costing their lives. Because what we do know, again, is that in the United States of America, one out of every 420 Black people has died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. And it's only going to get worse. We are again estimating, right now, we have 100,000 cases being diagnosed a day. That's going to go between now and September 1, which is only three more weeks, up to 200,000 people we're estimating are going to be diagnosed a day. And by October the 1st, we're going to be burying 4,000 people a day.

And how many of those people are going to be black people? And it doesn't have to be— Dr. Hilton, I'm just—excuse me. I just want—I'm interested to get your take on, you know, how do we have a conversation like this? And it's fine. I mean, you know, we can go back and forth, but I think that it's very important that we have a conversation like this from a space of really understanding that Black folks do not trust the medical industry of America. We don't trust the medical system, right? We understand that, you know,

there are two books, and I'm sure Dr. Carr can go further on it, Medical Apartheid by Harriet Washington, that talks about the dark history of experimental medical experimentation on Black people, and Acres of Skin by Alan Hornblum, which deals with medical experimentation done largely on black inmates. So when we have that history, when we have that history, I mean, how do we do we just put that to the side? Do we just say, no, it doesn't is not important because the numbers for this is right now? Or do we just say, OK, let's figure out some other way to address this beyond a PR campaign? No. And I think we do address the history. Again, I don't come from a medical family. The reason why I went into medicine is literally when I was eight years old,

my little sister asked my mom for a brother. I'm the middle of three girls. And at that time, my mom told me that my parents' first child was actually a little boy. She was in her 11th grade of high school. They got pregnant. She went to a clinic and at six months pregnant, they did a test on her. She started leaking fluid. My brother was born within two days and he only lived three days and he passed away. That's the reason why I went into medicine because I, at the age of eight, felt like I can possibly make a difference where another mother wouldn't have to cry because she has to bury her child. And so in growing up in medicine,

I have definitely taken with everything that I have, again, I am from that space. I am from that very neighborhood of where we were talking about, to see what we're talking about. You know, you're talking about actually with the acres of skin, that's the Philadelphia experiment, a prison experiment. All that stuff, literally, if you look at our website, I have a consulting firm called

Goodstock Consulting. Literally, that's all we talk about day in and day out. And what we are saying is holding institutions accountable. If you look at things like Tuskegee, for instance, they were withholding medication for Black people that could have kept them alive. And in this stage of COVID-19, what I ask everyone clearly is, if it was an experiment that could possibly taint you or kill you, would you see the most powerful people in our nation, white people, the president of the United States, would you see the Lindsey Grahams, would you see the Mitch McConnells, all of them jumping in front of us Black people who should have been in the front of the United States? Would you see the Lindsey Grahams? Would you see the Mitch McConnells, all of them jumping in front of us Black people, who should have been in the front of the line,

because we had racial health disparities? But we had Marco Rubio. We had Ted Cruz. We had the Fox News support people. They were the first ones on stage, so they could use it as a political stunt to say, oh, I'm just doing this to gain interest and to gain the support. No, they were doing it because they knew it could save their lives. And Lindsey Graham right now with his COVID positive cell, if he did not have the vaccine, would likely be dead. That's the truth of what we're dealing with. So we have to look at this thing and take a step back and say, if it was, if it was this huge experiment, then would we be seeing people literally jump over you in order to get it? Because if y'all

don't want it, I guarantee you there's people all around this globe, like in India, where they're burying 13,000 people a day because of the Delta variant that would say, please give it to me because I don't want to die. And unfortunately, in the United States, between now and December 31st, many people who are hearing my voice right now will not be here. And possibly even me, because when people are coming to the hospital, they are coughing in our face. I don't want to die either. And it's that selfishness of thought of, well, I don't want to put something in my body. But when you get sick, then all I ask for you to do

is keep that same energy. Again, I'm not from a medical family. Take the white coat off. Keep that same energy then, and don't come into the hospital coughing in my face, because I want to go home to my family too. Can I jump in? Yeah, I'm going to bring Recy in.

Recy, Faraji talked about having a conversation. That's what we've literally done for the last 15, 16 months. This is precisely why I have put on black medical experts.

We know, based upon the research, Recy, black people trust black doctors than they do anybody else. So that was a reason why. Now, I get this whole deal about let's have the conversation, but this is the dilemma that we are in. We can talk about what has happened over the last 100, 200, 300 years. Or we can talk about how we're going to enrich funeral home directors today. Right.

Here is what's so frustrating because this is exactly what I have been screaming about. The way that disinformation has really infiltrated our communities. I think we need to challenge ourselves as Black people. Why is it that we can quote and we can cite Robert F. Kennedy – I don't know if it's the junior or the third, but a virulent anti-vaxxer who's targeting our communities with this – who's been targeting our communities with anti-vaccination rhetoric and specifically the COVID anti-vaccination rhetoric, and specifically the COVID anti-vaccination rhetoric. I mean, it's going so far as to hand out flyers. Why is it

that there is trust put in that person as opposed to a doctor like Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton, who is telling us that? Why is it that we as Black people, not all of us, and I'm not trying to dump on you, Faraji, but this is my frustration that I've seen in our community where I've been screaming about this. And Dr. Ebony, you know that I've been saying this because you're talking about vaccine access. And I said, we have to talk about hesitancy as well. We have to talk about the way that there is a deterrence campaign infecting our community. And why is it that as Black people, we will believe a sensational lie from a white person who wants to do harm to us than the simple truth from Black people who are trying to

protect us, who are trying to get the truth out there, who are trying to save our communities? And that — and I'm not trying to criticize you, Farajah, because I don't think that it's you alone who is repeating some of these things. But when you quote the CHD and the Children's Health Defense, that's an anti-vax organization. That is an anti-vax organization by a white man who does not want what's best for our community. Oh, no, no, no, no. Don't get it twisted, Reesey. No, don't get it twisted. It's not about choosing. Look, I trust, and of course, Dr. Hilton is not my personal doctor, but I trust her scholarship and her medical expertise. so it's not about that

this is a much larger conversation so it's it's not like oh we you know we're not we're not listening to black doctors but but at the same time black doctors have been used and i'm saying historically i'm not speaking of dr hilton but black doctors have been the face of white interest and white power in the medical industry. See, that's making my point about the cynicism and skepticism towards Black doctors. All I'm saying is, why isn't there that same cynicism and skepticism towards anti-vaxxers like Robert F. Kennedy and the children's health department? Okay, fine.

We don't have to bring Robert F. Kennedy. You can agree with or not. But hold on. All I'm saying is, why is there not equal, if not more, skepticism and cynicism towards the people that are actually trying to harm our community, that are actually trying to make it so that that 1 in 420 black people becomes 1 in 200 or 1 in 100? Why is there not the same level

of scrutiny and cynicism towards those people? Those are the people who are actually trying to harm us. That's what I'm saying. If you want to be skeptical of anybody, I'm all for being critical. I'm all for getting the facts. I'm all for doing the research. But what I find as a trend, and it's not exclusive to COVID-19, it's in politics, it goes across the board, is there is data that is contrary to conventional wisdom, that is uncritically ingested, indoctrinated, and regurgitated. And then you have the actual facts on the other side. And the people that are trying to give the facts, people like Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton, and a number of Black experts, as Roland has had on the show, are the ones who are tools of the white agenda. And they're the

PR campaign. The PR campaign is the Children's Health Defense Fund. That's not a medical organization. They're putting out flyers. We already know that. That's a activist group. So it is what it is for them. But again we see this is not about picking and choosing this is a looking at a pattern this is looking at a system that has not been kind to black bodies okay all right okay fine just show me this then okay fine show me this this is very simple please show me and first of all we know very well what, first of all, ain't nothing in America. There's not no system in America that has been kind to black people. We could apply that to real estate, Wall Street.

I mean, every single system. We got that. Fine, show me this. Show me a black doctor who does not believe in the current three vaccines, who has come up with an alternative. Who? A black doctor.

Yes. See, that's a medical doctor. The one doctor that said the alien sperm, he might mention her. I mean, it literally makes me think about it. No, no, no, no. Hold on. I'm making a point. Because here's the piece.

Go ahead. Show me. You mentioned other countries and what they're doing. Show me a black doctor who has done that. Because you asked Ebony,

hey, were there other doctors who came up with other avenues or methods that are alternatives to the vaccine? Okay, show me. I'm asking the question, brother. No, no, no. And so the fact that you can ask that question and I don't know and everybody don't know and Greg don't know and Reesey don't know

and if they're there, fine. Bring it out there, but the dilemma that we are faced with right now is this. It literally is life or death. I understand. the see we can have

the historical larger broader deeper breakdown of the system. This is what I know right now. When my ass go fill up my gas, I better have some gloves on and some damn disinfectant because the Delta variant might be on that gas pump. When I get on that plane, I am not thinking, let me be real clear,

when I sit my ass on that plane tomorrow to fly to Charleston, South Carolina, Roland, at that moment, ain't thinking about Tuskegee. I'm not thinking about a jail. I'm thinking about goggles, mask, filter, gloves, wipe everything down, getting out of there. I'm not dismissing. Nothing has happened to us historically.

But I have to deal with the present of what's happening now and that's why Dr. Robert Graves from North Carolina A&T has constantly been on here and Ebony and Tyson Bell and when you had the presidents

of Dillard and Xavier who participated in this COVID study. That's why we had the president of the National Medical Association, the largest group of black doctors in the country. That's why we've had these people on, because if we can't trust our black experts well hell who left because I damn sure I'm not going to listen to Robert F. Kennedy Faraji and you remember you remember this brother when HIV AIDS was really slamming our people and it's still slamming our people as we'll talk about about in a minute. But remember Dr. Barbara Justice, Abdullah Ali Mohammed. And we're talking about. Now, let's set aside the science for a minute, because I agree with you 100 percent about the distrust of the system. And it isn't just historical. I mean, Dorothy Roberts up at University of Pennsylvania Law

School wrote a book called Killing the Black Body. It isn't just Tuskegee. It isn't just Holmesburg prison. It's our experiences in the doctor's office every day. And so I guess I'm thinking, how do we maybe steer into this? In other words, what you've described, Roland, in terms of how you're going to approach that plane, there are people who would say, but you're fully vaccinated, brother. You don't have, no, no, no, no, no. I'm going to absorb all of that experienced-based paranoia of this system and protect myself. Because I remember, in fact, sitting and listening to Abdul Ali Muhammad and saying, yeah, you know what? There probably have been some breakthroughs. And of course, Big Pharma wouldn't let us know that. At the same time, what you're raising, Roland, is very important. And, Faraji, I know this, because I hear you, brother.

And I embrace that energy in part because I went to Howard. And, Roland, you covered it. You sent your team to cover it, when the Tuskegee, descendants of the people who were in the Tuskegee experiment came to Howard. ROALD J. Yep. FARAJI P. I'm listening. I can hear it logically. But I understand class plays a role in our society, which

means that there are Black people who trust no petty bourgeois Negro, and especially when they're basically talking to Black people like we're stupid. So in other words, if y'all don't do this, you're stupid. So immediately, part of the reaction is, I ain't gonna do it because I don't like how you're talking

to me. So why Dr. Hilton thought what you said at the end there when you were you and Farage were talking. That really hit me because, you know, my sisters, my mother's sister's oldest child, my cousin, has been a nurse for almost 50 years. And she works in Baltimore. Sometimes she's on the West Coast. But when you said I want to go home to my family, to my family. See, that's the kind of talk. But see, you know how to talk like that because you didn't come from one of them petty bourgeois families. Black people are going to have to be talked to

as if you're intelligent. And I know you don't trust them Negroes. In fact, the more degrees you got, the least you trust them. But when you say something like that, I'm thinking about my cousin, and I'm saying, if you go in the hospital in Baltimore and kill Jeanette, I'm coming for your ass today. In other words, but I think that, Faraj, what I'm saying, that I think we have to learn how to listen to our people in a way that doesn't communicate

we think we're smarter than them. I think that's why people don't trust politicians, don't trust many Black doctors. And so I'm just saying all that to say that what you're voicing, a lot of our people—in fact, Roland, I will say this last—this is why Roland Martin and the filter is so important, because there are people who are listening who are saying, you know what, I don't know if it's a doctor that created it or not, but I don't trust these people. I'm saying you shouldn't trust none of them, because if it was up to them, we'd all be dead. But guess what you need to trust

that they are against you which means what if they're taking it to doc's point then you need to think about taking it why because the one thing about being free you got to be alive to be free on top of the earth and that's why when Dr. Ebony Hilton and Dr. Tyson Bell, when they purposely, when they got the shot, they shot the video, they documented, everybody's talking about that, why y'all did that. Other

black doctors did that because this is real simple. If Dr. Ebony, you ain't trying to sit here and put something in your body that's gonna screw you up. Right. Right. Andony, you ain't trying to sit here and put something in your body that's going to screw you up. Right. Right. Right. And literally, I was the very first person at UVA to take the vaccine

and I wanted them to videotape it. And then I did YouTube videos of showing me the days after because I, again, I don't come from a medical family. I completely understand where the mistrust comes from. And I wanted it to be one of those things that people could see by my example. I wouldn't do something to myself that could potentially kill myself. I mean, I love life. And I didn't feel

that it would be right of anybody in the medical profession to ask someone else to do what they wouldn't do themselves. And so, like I said, I completely get it. I think, and I apologize if I came out as being kind of harsh and blunt, because it literally is- No, no, no, no, you ain't gotta apologize. No, no, keep it real. I do think, you know, it's by the grace of God,

my immediate family has not died. And I literally think about that all the time. Same here. So how do we get past this point of needing more and more data when the data is already there? And we're trying to find data that proves our, how do you say it, that gives our anxiety a home. And at this point, every day that we are trying to find that home space for that anxiety, 600 people are dying from COVID. And it's going to find itself to your door just because the Delta variant is literally, the viral load of the Delta variant is 1,000 times higher than their original COVID. It is not something that you can just say,

oh, I'll be okay. And even if you don't die, I have a mentee who is a young Black woman. She's in her mid-20s. She hasn't been able to taste or smell since January. And what does that mean when your brain no longer works in the same way? She is 26.

What will her life look like when she's 40 or 50? Will she develop Alzheimer's at a younger age? We don't know. But we do know that that part of her brain is now scarred in some kind of way. That's scary. And you don't have to go through that. Wear your mask. Get vaccinated. Don't go to Lollapalooza and things like that. It's not worth your life to have 48 hours of fun. Yeah, we're just trying to get through this together. That's all. All right, Dr. Risi, go ahead, the final comment. Okay, let me just talk to the audience right now. Here's the thing, my people. I understand the hesitancy. I understand the mistrust. What I want to warn you about is that there is a campaign to use that mistrust to further damage our community, our lives. They are playing on that mistrust.

There is a campaign through foreign interference, through social media, through organizations like the Children's Health Defense Fund that mean us harm, that are utilizing our well-warranted mistrust to damage us even further. And so just at least keep that in mind when you're seeing some of this anti-vax information. It is your choice. It is your choice. But I will say, in terms of medical racism, Black women have the highest Black maternal mortality rate. We do have the benefit. I know many Black women that have decided to do home births, that have decided to get doulas. That isn't as much an option with COVID. I had a standard C-section in a hospital.

There are alternatives to counter that medical racism. The government is telling us, the only thing you get is the vaccine or a ventilator if you get the thing or a body bag. Good luck, bitches. So you make the decision whether you want to throw your lot in with the vitamins, with the disinformation, with your immune system being in perfect health, or if you want to give yourself a little bit more of a chance with the vaccine. It's up to you. But the government is saying,

that's it. The pandemic of the unvaccinated means if you don't get the vaccine, It's up to you. But the government is saying that's it. The pandemic of the unvaccinated means if you don't get the vaccine, don't say shit to us. That's what the government is saying, and that's what the employers are saying. And so that's your choice to determine which side you're going to be on. Dr. Ebony Hilton, I'm going to say

thanks a second time since you decided to come back home, watching the conversation. I certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. All right. We're going to go to a break. Uh, and during this commercial break,

we're going to show you, this is not all of the experts, but you're going to see, cause I need y'all to see what we've been doing. Okay. We have not, and this is, this is no shade to anybody.

We been having black entertainers on here talking about COVID, the vaccine and your health. We had no rappers, no ball ballplayers, no actors. No, we've had real experts on this issue. We come back from this break. We're going to talk about the eviction eviction moratorium and talk with a black real estate expert on what this means for African-Americans. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Every single night, we've got some of the top black experts. You're not going to see them on cable news or broadcast news because you swear black people aren't experts when it comes to this health crisis. That's why we have this show and why we do what we do every day on Roland

Martin Unfiltered. Joining us right now is retired General Russell Honore, the nation's first black Surgeon General, Dr. Joycelyn Eldridge. John O'Brien, he's the founder of Operation Hope. Senator Kamala Harris of California. Dr. Sedrina Calder. Retired General Lloyd Austin. Congresswoman Karen Bassett. Commissioner Omari Hardik. Bureau President in Brooklyn Eric Adams. Dr. Joseph Graves. America's Wealth Coach Deborah Owens.

Senator Corey Hebert. Patel, Salt. Howard University student. Pastor Jamal Bryant. Doctor Christy McDowell. Benja Aguilar, a senior economist at the Center for American Progress. Gilda Daniels, again, author of the book

The Crisis of Voter Suppression in America. Four stars, General Kip Ward. Dr. Oliver Brooks is president of the National Medical Association. President of the American Medical Association, Dr. Patrice Harris. Joby Benjamin. Dr. Alexia Gaffney, infectious disease specialist. Dr. Georges Benjamin is executive director of the American Public Health Association. Malcolm Nance, family medicine physician.

Dr. Jen Caldwell. Dr. Tshaka Cunningham, a molecular biologist. Kat Stafford, she's a national race and ethnicity reporter for the Associated Press. Dr. Wayne A.R. Frederick, who is the president of Howard University. Congresswoman Yvette Clark from the state of New York. William Springs, AFL-CIO economist. Andrea James, Executive Director of National Accountants for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and girls. All right, let's go to Capitol Hill.

Congressman Gregory Meeks, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, mental health clinician Jamie Singletary, Prince George's County State's attorney, Aisha Brave Boy, as well as Dylan Harry, ACLU Justice Division strategist. Dr. Cindy Duke, she is a virologist. Principal Steve Perry of Capital Prep. Health and Wellness Specialist Dr. Yolandra Hancock. Desmond Meade, President of the Florida Rights Restoration

Coalition. Cliff Albright, who is the co-founder of Black Voters Matter. Michael Herriot with the group. Damina McWhirter, founder of Love by the Hand. Dr. Julianne Malgo, Economist President at the Merida Bennett College. Coroner Michael Fowler is the Hand of Dr. Julianne Malgo, economist, president, and the mayor of Bennett College. Coroner Michael Fowler is the mayor of Atlanta.

Keisha Lance Bottoms, mental health therapist. Suzette Clark is Justin Gibney, attorney and political strategist and Bishop Vincent Matthews Jr. Dr. Suzette McKinney, CEO and executive director of the Illinois Medical District. Dr. Leon Madugo, president-elect of the National Medical Association. Jana Bailey, mayor of Moss Point, Mississippi, Mario King.

We're gonna keep driving this thing to make sure our people are fully aware, safe, protected from coronavirus. You get the top medical experts, the top business experts, top political experts, top religious experts, because that's why we do what we do, unapologetically and unfiltered. Ain't nobody else in the black media we do what we do unapologetically and unfiltered ain't nobody else

in the black media space doing what we do watch roland martin unfiltered daily at 6 p.m eastern on youtube facebook or periscope or go to rolandmartinunfiltered.com support the roland martin unfiltered daily digital show by going going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. I believe that people our age have lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing. The challenges, there's so many of them and they're complex. And we need to be moving to address them. The challenges, there's so many of them and they're complex.

And we need to be moving to address them. But I'm able to say, watch out, Tiffany. I know this road. That is so freaking dope. Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, the CDC's extension on the eviction bans is being re-challenged in the courts. The chapters of the National Association of Realtors in Alabama and Georgia filed a motion in federal court to vacate the ban that the CDC ordered Tuesday to areas of the country

with high transmission of coronavirus. The same groups led a legal challenge against the first federal eviction moratorium that expired on Saturday. That lawsuit prompted the Supreme Court to cast doubt on the CDC's authority to grant the ban. This new eviction moratorium will cover about 80 percent of the U.S. counties and 90 percent of renters and end on October 3rd. President Joe Biden hopes this will allow the federal government and states to enact

a rental assistance program from last year's $47 billion rental program. Joining me now is real estate broker and owner Mark Alston, public affairs chair for the National Association of Real Estate Brokers. Glad to have you on the show here, Mark. Sorry to keep you waiting, but that COVID conversation was quite fascinating and I did not want to end it because a lot of people I think were learning a lot that was needed. People have been saying, hey, this moratorium is unfair to owners, that they're the ones who are getting screwed because folks have not been paying their rent. How would you assess this issue? You know, I'm the public affairs chair for the National Association of Real Estate Brokers.

We were founded in 1947, black organization that our motto is democracy and housing. Our constituency is black America, black real estate professionals, black consumers, black people, our black communities. We're the watchmen for our community. So when I look at it, when I hear the moratorium, it's welcomed. It's needed. Blacks, the last numbers put out by the census last Tuesday, I believe, Blacks are 44 percent owners. Whites are 74 percent owners. That means 56 percent of us are renters. And we have been disproportionately disparaged by this coronavirus, by this season. And there needs to be protection for our renters. I do agree that landlords have had it tough. Black folks are landlords, too.

But there has to be a balanced approach. We have to keep people in their homes. I live in the homeless center of America, in Los Angeles. And when I look out, we're only 8 percent of the population, but we've got to be 40, 50, 60 percent of the homeless. We've got to quit adding to that. So we are in support of the moratorium. It's too short. It's 60 days. We needed to go through the support of the moratorium. It's too short. It's 60 days. We needed to go through the end of the year to give the United States a time to put together

the necessary policies and provisions to protect homeowners and to support landlords with the money that's been collected through various fees. JOHN YANG Well, then you got this issued issue in California where the mayor has now said that being homeless is against the law. Eric Garcetti signs an ordinance criminalizing being homeless. It specifies times and locations where it would be unlawful for a person

to sit, lie, or sleep, or store, use, maintain, or place personal property in the public right of way. Violators would be issued a citation from the city's administrative citation enforcement program. And so when you look at this and then you look at still the problem that we're having over here

when it comes to these evictions, I mean, this notion that we've fully returned from COVID, we haven't. We are still mired in an economic pandemic, a health crisis. You know, first, let me congratulate you and thank you for the last segment. That needs to be why there needs to be more viewership. We need to see that because not only is it not over, we don't know if we've had the brunt of it.

I look back at the Spanish flu, a Spanish epidemic in 1918, and the first year was the light year. It came roaring back in the second year. I'm concerned about that. 53 percent of Black people in this country report having housing insecurity. It's important that we provide the opportunity. When the government shuts down the country and says, stay home, when they turn the economy off, then they have to take the protections necessary to protect those who are damaged by that. Blacks are most damaged. We're the least employed, the most unemployed, the highest unemployment rate, and the last ones to come back into the workforce. We're even the lowest being able to work from home. So we've been impacted. A lot of the jobs that we had, not only are they shut off,

they're not coming back. So now you have this battle. President Biden, on one hand, has said that, yeah, likely this is unconstitutional, but he also says, what the hell? This buys time to put a program in place to make its way through the courts. If the court rules, they rules. But his whole deal is, we got to do something. I agree with President Biden. We've got to do something. I agree with President Biden. We've got to do something. And, you know, there's money involved. There's money there. Mark Calibria of FHFA last December

instituted a half-point cost to every refinance in America, supposedly to deal with pandemic issues in our housing finance system. There were 14,500,000 mortgages done last year. 97% of those mortgages were affected. 97% of the mortgages were affected by this half-point cost. That's about, there's about 8,300,000 mortgages that had an extra half-point cost that were going to generate funds to deal with this pandemic. Those funds should be used to offset landlord costs. There's got to be a way for us to address this. There's money in the Treasury. I was looking at Fannie Mae's income report a couple days ago, maybe it was yesterday, $7.5 billion income in the last quarter. We've got to

take and put this money back into addressing this COVID-19 season and the emergencies that we have on both the renter side and the landlord side. We've got to protect Americans. All right, Mark Alston. Surely appreciate it. Thanks a lot. We appreciate the expertise from our Black realtors. That's why we have this show, because we know the these other networks, they act like y'all don't exist. But we know we know y'all do. We appreciate you. Thank you so very much. Thanks a bunch. Welcome back to my panel. This is this is a significant issue, Recy. And for the people who got a home, everything is all good. That's fine. There was one woman, someone had done a story.

Someone had done a story. It was a black woman. She had three daughters. And in a matter of days, 48 hours, 117,000 or more was raised on social media for this woman. But that's just one woman. We now know that part of the problem when we had Congressman Maxine Waters

on the show was that these states and these mayors were sitting on the money. We're not deploying the money. $47 billion! You know, we consistently as a country and local governments make the choice to inflict pain on the citizens of this country when there's plenty of money to go around. I mean, as you pointed out, Roland, a lot of governors are sitting on loads and loads of money. And the relief that people

need that's already been allocated or appropriated is out there. But there's so much red tape, there's so much inefficiency in the process, and there's obstruction in the process that is preventing that relief from happening. And I don't know if they're just trying to run out the clock or whatever the situation may be, but we're seeing the same type of obstinance and obstruction that we've seen with, for instance, the expansion of Medicaid and Medicare with Obamacare. And so this, again, goes back to the point of why elections matter. But another thing to point out, though, is the discussion that we just had about the Biden administration and Biden saying, you know, this is likely unconstitutional, but it buys us some time. I appreciate that because Democrats so

often just say, oh, well, I don't know what we could do. My hands were tied. So I appreciate taking a risk. Hey, if it works out, cool. If it doesn't, then you go back to the drawing board and make Congress have to do their job for once. Congress seems to think that their role is strictly to be an activist. They're a co-equal branch of the government. They have the power to legislate. And a lot of times we get out of Congress is passing the buck and excuses. And so it's in their wheelhouse. They need to be the ones to take the action and get something through that's going to

pass constitutional muster and pass through the courts. Because as we know, Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell got over 200 judges. And as we know, the first thing that these landlords and these businesses are going to do is go after this eviction moratorium. So more work needs to be done. We need to stop making the choice to get people in poverty to inflict pain and to actually help the people that need the relief that we have the money to help them with. And Greg, we saw the actions of Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Congresswoman Cori Bush and others. And for the people who say activism doesn't matter, protest doesn't matter, sit-ins don't matter,

they're there to dramatize the problem. The reason Dr. King called the Poor People's Campaign and to have them live on the Mall in Washington was to create the drama to show the reality of poverty in America. You can't just do it just sitting behind closed doors. And it mattered. And how embarrassing for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who wrote an editorial that literally dropped an hour

before a deal was announced, basically trashing, basically trashing Representative Cori Bush, saying that her actions were essentially irrelevant. Boy, how stupid you idiots look at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Well, they might look stupid, but not to their hillbilly, white nationalist, Klan-adjacent followers. And so I celebrate them. Say it with your bird chests, because Cori Bush, sitting on the steps of the Capitol—and shout-out to Cori Bush, Yana Pressley, who you talked to last week, of course, the children,

the child of two housing activists who met in Cincinnati, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar. Shout-out to them and everybody who went out on those steps for saving some of those Klan-adjacent fools who are calling her the N-word from a place they can still be in, because she went out there. And in terms of how you walk through it with Representative Waters, inside-outside game. And Cori Bush gives full credit to Maxine Waters for that. But we should mention this, because, of course, Maxine Waters is originally from St. Louis. Maxine Waters was frustrated, because, as you just said, Recy, they're playing politics. I'm going to be very careful with my language here.

Maxine Waters was frustrated because, as the chair of the committee that got that legislation through, she couldn't get the leadership—and correct me if I'm wrong, when you see Jim Clyburn in a couple of days, maybe you can ask him, is he still the number three person in the House of Representatives? They couldn't line up the votes. Ain't no such thing as a moderate. And the Congressional Black Caucus as a group is certainly left of damn near everybody else in the Congress. But they should probably a group has certainly left, damn near everybody else in the Congress. But they should probably, probably put a pause on calling themselves the conscious of the Congress until we see a little bit more movement.

But they couldn't get the vote. And the Supreme Court didn't say it was unconstitutional. What Kavanaugh did, in siding with the four, quote, unquote, liberal justices—he's really a kind of strict constructionist. That's a whole other conversation. That's a legal conversation. What he basically is doing was gesturing toward the Congress and punting. Biden then punted. He could have extended this thing before, but it took those sisters on the steps to force them to act. Now, why is that important? Disease, epidemics accelerate trends. COVID is

accelerating a trend. And I wish that Brother Austin, I wish we could have asked him a couple of questions. I got a question about this rental investment market that is hot as hell right now. I got questions about the fact that you got landlords, including here in the state of Maryland, who are kicking people out because they're using the exception for people who have overstayed their leases. So you can still evict somebody if you've overstayed your lease. What they're trying to do is buy up rental properties. In fact, that's not what they're trying to do. That's what they're doing. Meanwhile, Cincinnati, since people, you know, picking sides in a congressional contest up the street in Cleveland, Cincinnati,

a third of the people, of the people who are renting, will not say, landlord said they will not take Section 8 vouchers. In Columbus, it's a little closer to Cleveland, it's 50 percent. I want to know what the number is in Cleveland, why people are picking sides. But my point is this. The landlords are sitting on the properties, using those low interest rates to buy more properties, freezing people out the mortgage market, and using this crisis to accelerate privatizing property so that people can't buy homes, pay bigger rents, and the least of these can't use federal Section 8 vouchers. Forty—almost $47 billion sent to the states. And the reason they're bottlenecking is because they're going to hand this property over

to people who are going to make poor people suffer even more. Ilhan Omar put a piece of legislation on the floor the other day, the—what is it called? The Rent and Mortgage Cancellation Act. She says one of the problems we have is—one of the reasons, as you said, that we have this problem is this bottleneck. She says, the money is already there. Get rid of the bottleneck. File it in a way that the landlords can—because that's what they do in these landlord associations, these realtors. Well, most of these people are small people. That's the same shit you say. What about that 50 percent of people who are not small? These are the multinationals who are buying a property. Omar is like, cancel the rent. Do you understand you have to pay this rent back anyway? And these

people are keeping you from—they're keeping landlords from getting the property money so they can buy the property money. Mom and pop realtors, don't line up with these corporations. They after your property. So, shout out to those sisters who went out there. I'm not into progressive or moderate. I'm into what the hell are you going to do to stop what's going on to the least of these? And if you Negroes want to get in the way of that, then I am your enemy too.

Farajan? Yeah, I mean, I think this is just another show, Brother Roland and Dr. Connors, this country don't care about poor people. This is a disaster. And one of the big things that I'm looking at, even in Baltimore, we're having a problem with landlord-tenant issues because they are looking at, in Baltimore City Council, they were trying to get a measure passed where renters would put their money to a company and then the company would like protect their money outside of the escrow. But basically, there was a pushback from renters in Baltimore City about, you know, using a third party, a third party that some people say is not trustworthy. But there was

some pushback by renters using a third party to hold their money and renters feeling like they have to pay what they call some type of renters, you know, not just your traditional renters insurance, but some extra fees for this company. So there's a lot of talk about tenant landlord issues in this country. And I think that, you know, as Recy and Dr. Carr say, it's important that we keep a couple of things in mind. One of these things, Lisa Rice, president and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance, she said, if you want, if what you want is to get people back to work and not having people, not have people out in the streets protesting, then maybe you don't want to kick them out of their houses. And this, what I think, Brother Roland, opens the door for the bigger issue of gerrymandering,

which we all understand what it is, of redistricting. I mean, because of the simple fact that if you move people out of their homes, then they don't have a residence. And then now when the lines start to move around for the next upcoming election cycle, then you got the resources are different for that community and the power becomes different for that community. And so that's the concern that I have. What's the impact of the moratorium on the election ballot come 2022?

Folks, I do want to go with this story here. The president of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka, he has died at the age of 72. Trumka's organization represents more than 12.5 million workers. He was a leader for more than a decade. Lee Saunders, my alpha brother, who is president of the American Federation of State and County Municipal Employees, and, of course, they're also a partner of us here at Roland Martin Unfiltered, said this about Richard Trumka's untimely passing. He said, we lost one of the nation's fiercest, most effective advocates for working people ever. From his earliest days working in the coal mines of Pennsylvania, Rich has lived the

values of the labor movement with the greatest passion and purpose. He has touched and improved so many lives. Trumka was actually camping with his family, was on a hike. It was a hiking when he suffered a heart attack and passed away. When we talk about power in this country. Understand this here. Our offices literally are right here on Black Lives Matter Plaza. If you walk in that direction, you can walk to the White House. The White House is only two or three blocks

from where we are. About a block from the White House, the headquarters of the AFL-CIO. Just want to get some thoughts, again, on his impact and an untimely passing, Greg. He was literally, you know, in the middle of all of this debate and negotiation with Congress over workers and COVID and lots of public policy. And so to lose Trumka at this point is certainly a huge blow to the

labor movement. RONALD GARCIA, Former President of the United States of America, Yes, it is. TRMCA, third-generation coal miner, as Brother Sanders said, the little town he was in in Pennsylvania, born in Pennsylvania, his granddaddy was a miner, his father, him, Buckeye Coal, in fact. It was one of those mining towns. And when we understand that only about 10 percent of the workers in this country are unionized, we understand that it has been the mission, the absolute mission, particularly post-World War II, of the rich in the world, but certainly in the United States of America, to crush organized labor.

And Trumka represents that type of—and I'm going to say this very clearly—white man who understood, when it comes to class politics, that labor—to quote Karl Marx, of all people—labor in a white skin will always be oppressed, as long as labor in a black skin is oppressed. And the AFL-CIO had to get over its early demons. Remember, April Randolph was the first black president, vice president of AFL-CIO, because, with the time, they would exclude black workers, and the owners would use black workers to break the strikes. Trumka is able, through his work with the United Miners, then eventually he ran them for a while, then when he was the secretary general of AFL-CIO, and then as president, to build those coalitions. The only other thing I would say, and it's very important to understand, is this.

Organization works. You can't beat money without being organized. And if you don't think all the politicians who we like, who we don't agree with all the time, but who we prefer over the alternative, Organized labor had a great deal to do with getting many of them elected. This is a loss. This is a loss. And, you know, we just need to, it reminds us, though, of the importance of organized labor. It was Senator Chuck Schumer who took to the podium at the United States Senate to give the news of the passing of Trump. Recy, when we think about, again,

the labor movement, there's been a resurgence. We've had Lisa Arzon talking about this, a resurgence in the last four or five years because the labor movement went back to its roots. Explain to people why they matter. Absolutely. I mean, it's funny because, you know, there's always this class warfare where people, the Republicans in particular, have run this campaign to try to convince people to vote against their own interests, which is the labor movement. But Trumka has a very long record of being on the right side of all the issues and being a fierce advocate.

I mean, he helped the — Dr. Carr mentioned the miners. He organized the miners to stand in solidarity with the South, with the minors in South Africa who were fighting apartheid. He was the recipient of the World Peace Labor Award in 2018. I think that was the inaugural award that he received. And so, you know, for a white man, I'm going to have to say it, you know, he was pretty cool. He was pretty down. And so it certainly is a loss for the labor movement. But, you know, it's really, like you said, experiencing a resurgence. I don't think that it's going to, you know, necessarily stop us in our tracks. The Biden-Harris administration has, you know, put new labor people in place in terms of the boards that Donald Trump has stripped and the Republicans have been really hostile towards.

So his legacy and his work will certainly live on. And, of course, it was a shocking for Raji because he passed away of a heart attack. It was so sudden, unexpected. And now, as you begin to look at this movement now, the reality is with Trump's passing, it really, I mean, Lee Saunders really steps into the role as America's, you know, in terms of a significant role as a powerful labor force. No, and obviously AFL-CIO is in mourning. No word in terms of who is going to replace him, what the process looks like. But we also know that the rights of African Americans, despite all of what Greg also said there, is that the labor movement has played a crucial role in making that happen, too. No, absolutely. And I think that as we talk

about his life and legacy, we have to understand the importance of organized labor. And you just brought it up, Brother Boland. Organized labor has played a huge role in making sure that the voices of Black workers, especially laymen and laywomen, is not forgotten. But there's still some work to—of course, there's work to be done to make sure that there's some real equity. But, you know, bringing Black folks into unions, let me just say, we got to look at AFL-CIO. AFL-CIO can be a model of what Black, of what people can do when they're

organized and come together for a common cause. And so in the same way that AFL-CIO is working, you know, we, I mean, we're looking at a situation at Amazon where they still don't have a union. We're looking at even today where some black folks are working in spaces where they're not organized. And so, you know, AFL-CIO is a model that we can look at and to have a man like Mr. Trump just, you know, passing away, it's going to be interesting to see the way the leadership goes, especially in a time of COVID-19, where workers are being laid off and workers' rights are being threatened and the whole nine. It's going to be very, very interesting to see how the union is going to move forward over the next five to 10 years. Folks, last item here, and that is the reason. So I was wearing something else today,

but the reason I decided to put this on because in memoriam, J.R. Richard, 71 years old, one of the greatest pitchers in Houston Astros history, died again at the age of 71. His career was cut short by a massive stroke. He suffered one of the most dominating pitchers. There is no doubt that if his career was not cut short by that stroke, J.R. Richard would be a Hall of Famer.

I dare say, Greg Carr, he was the hardest-throwing pitcher since Bob Gibson. Man, Roland, brother, we used to watch James Rodney Richard, and my team was the Reds, because they had George Foster and, you know, Joe Morgan, and them had all the black ball players. When you face James Rodney Richard, you might as well just put the W in, man. This guy played what he used to call in the South, country hardball. Six foot eight throwing 100 miles an hour just as easy if he's playing catch and you couldn't and imagine james rodney richard and nolan ryan on the same damn team these cats man the astros i mean anyway

james rodney richard you know puts me back to my teenage years. But then that stroke, and then his money is gone. Yeah. And then he's sleeping under an overpass. Is that right? Yeah. He was homeless for a while. He was homeless, yeah. So, yeah, man, one of the great ones.

And had he not gotten sick, he'd have been a first ballot Hall of Famer for sure. This is a statement that the Houston Astros owner put out. And today's a sad day for the Houston Astros as we mourn the loss of one of our franchise icons, J.R. Richard. J.R. will forever be remembered as an intimidating figure on the mound and as one of the greatest pitchers in club history. He stood shoulder to shoulder with club icons Larry Durker, Joe Necro, and Nolan Ryan to form a few of the best rotations in club history.

Sadly, his playing career was cut short by health issues, but his 10 years in an Astros uniform stand out as a decade of excellence. We send our heartfelt condolences to J.R.'s wife, Lula, his family, friends, and countless fans and admirers. Folks, he was 6'8". In his career, he was 107 wins, 71 losses, 3.15 ERAs, 76 complete games, won 20 games in 1976, won 18 or more games in four straight seasons. He also became the first Astros pitcher to reach 300 strikeouts in a season with 303. And again, in 1979, broke his own club record with a major league best 313 strikeouts.

And again, he literally suffered a stroke during the season during the season on July 30th 1980 and all of that changed the only sad thing I will say Risi and Faraji JR Richard should have had his uniform retired by the Astros while he was living that was one of the things that he really really had hoped for had pined for but it never happened and this is one of the one of the things that he really, really had hoped for, had pined for, but it never happened. And this is one of the reasons why I think it's important for us. Like, I never understand. Like, I'll go ahead and say it.

You know, in December, the Kennedy Center, Barry Gordy is going to be one of the honorees. Barry Gordy is 91. Okay. Ain't that many people live to their 90s, especially black men. Okay. You look at, and I wish it already happened, but Congresswoman Terry Sewell,

she's been pushing for Fred Gray, the civil rights legendary attorney. Fred Gray's 90 years old and she's been pushing for him to get the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Reverend Dr. James Lawson, who's 92, has never received, also she'd

be getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom. You know, the thing is that it always amazes me how folks decide to honor people once they're gone. You know, give them their flowers while they're here. And that's what I wish the Astros had done that with J.R. Richard.

And obviously, you know, no one knows the time or day. I don't care who we are. There are people who are young, middle-aged, older. But, you know, I would say when we have legends don't wait till they're 80 and 90. i agree i agree in fact roland i say this about jr richard brother you know he should never have been unhoused. How in the hell are you going to be one of the all-time greats and be unhoused in Houston?

Yep. Now, I hope Johnny Baker, I hope Johnny B. Baker, I hope Dusty Baker wins the World Series if for no other reason than I ain't been to a Washington Nationals game since they did him dirty. And I hope the Nationals never win again in life. And with them cheap ass learners i think that's probably a safe wish but you know they had the astros had the sense the high and dusty baker but like with dusty baker you come get black people when you're in a pinch but then when you

good you turn your back and and the only other thing i'll say is and it's interesting because i thought about this earlier when you talked to dr hilton and we were having that conversation look here man a heart attack will take you now my man rinoko rashidi one of the great african senate scholars travelers touchdown in egypt this past weekend heart attack took him out monday we have to take care of ourselves jay rodneydy Ricch didn't have one stroke. He had several strokes. Yeah. Black people take care of your health, especially us. All these underlying, that's a serious,

cause that heart thing, brother, like you said, no woman, no man knows the day or the hour. But for y'all who use black people and then want to wait to the very end of their life to try to honor yourself by draping a medal around them so you can kind of sneak out like you really cared. Y'all, there's a special place in hell for y'all. That's all I'm gonna say on that.

Farage, your final comment. Yeah, I mean, I'm the same way with Dr. Carr. You know, when we have legends like that, I mean, we gotta honor them. And a big thing for me is that we don't teach about them when they're alive. You know, I mean, we had black schools, we got HBCUs. Bring them to your school.

Show them living legends. Let them tell the stories like the old griots of our people. You know, I mean, because if we don't connect the dots for the next generation, they're not going to be invested in the struggle. They're not going to understand. But when you have those legends, you know, THEM TO THE NEXT GENERATION. THEY ARE NOT GOING TO BE INVESTING IN THE STRUGGLE. THEY ARE NOT GOING TO UNDERSTAND. BUT WHEN YOU HAVE THOSE

LEGENDS, YOU KNOW, YOU DON'T HAVE TO SHIP THEM ACROSS EVERY PART OF AMERICA. PUT THEM ON A SKYPE, PUT THEM ON A ZOOM, SOMETHING, BUT LET THEM HEAR THE STORIES OF THOSE LEGENDS. IT WAS THOSE STORIES THAT WERE

MORE IMPACTFUL FOR ME THAN READING A BOOK. WHEN I HEARD, YOU KNOW, SOME OF THE GREAT PIONEERS FROM THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERA AND OTHER ERAS OF OUR PEOPLE, IT WAS WHEN I impactful for me than reading a book. When I heard, you know, some of the great pioneers from the civil rights era and other eras of our people, it was when I heard them, even today, when I listen to, you know, even like an Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson, regardless of where you fall in terms of agreeing on them or any brother or sister that has been a part of the struggle, those men and women made a choice to be a part of the struggle.

And I think that we gotta give them flowers by not just telling them how great we are, but give them flowers by listening to the wisdom that they profess. And, of course, you know, for me, I mean, my uncle,

my aunt, former husband, actually played for the Astros with Jerry Richard. And I guess ending it this way, since we began, Jerry Richard died of COVID. Oh, no. Didn't get vaccinated. Was in the hospital for a month in a coma. His wife also got COVID but she is OK. Hmm what? Oh there it is there it is.

Lord have mercy folks that is it for us great for RG a recent so appreciate it. Thank you so very much folks don't forget seek dot com is one of the partners with us here Roland Martin unfiltered if you would like to take advantage of their headset as well as their virtual reality headset or their or their earphones right here of course there's these amazing the sounds also folks. 360 degree sound. The bass is tremendous. You can use that VIP code right there. RMVIP21. RMVIP21. Use that promo code and then a portion of the proceeds comes back to us here at Roland Martin Unfiltered. So please, please, if you want to support Seek.com and you can check out their virtual reality content through their site as well. C-E.E.K.com. Folks, if you want to join our bring the fan club, all you got to do is do so by again giving us via cash at PayPal, Venmo or Zelle. We don't place a limit. We don't require you to spend a certain amount. There are people who support us who have given us more than the 50 bucks that we've asked for. Those who have given less, we appreciate every single dollar. So please do so. Cash app, Ballast Sign, RM Unfiltered.

PayPal is rmartinunfiltered. Vidmo.com forward slash RM Unfiltered. Zelle is roland at rolandsmartin.com. Roland at rolandmartinunfiltered.com. Folks, that is it for us. I am going to be off tomorrow. Faraj Muhammad is going to be sitting in for me tomorrow. I am going to be in South Carolina taking the day off.

Congressman Jim Clyburn has his golf tournament this weekend, so I'm going to go down there and kick some butt. You know, he's an omega, I'm an alpha. We got to show them what works. Because he also remembers last year in my flight, my team took second. Yeah, I'm coming first place this year in my flight, my team took second.

Yeah, I'm coming first place this year. So I appreciate it, folks. I shall see you guys on Monday. Ha! This is an iHeart Podcast.