#RolandMartinUnfiltered - COVID vaccine concerns; PA Supreme Court hears Cosby appeal; Black Farmers Act may reclaim lost land

Episode Date: December 1, 2020

11.30.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: COVID vaccine concerns; PA Supreme Court to hear Bill Cosby appeal; Georgia runoff election continues to bring out the worst in the Republican candidates; Catholic Church has it's first African American cardinal; Black Farmers Act looks to reclaim millions of acres; Oregon man pleaded not guilty in the shooting of a black teenager for playing his music too loud; Video shows the violent take down of a Texas teen outside his home by police; + Tips for how women of color and jumpstart their way up the corporate ladder.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.

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of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Martin! Today is Monday, November 30th, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, the CDC will meet on Tuesday, discuss distribution plans for the eventual coronavirus vaccine. We'll answer some questions that many of you have about that.

Also, on tomorrow, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case against Bill Cosby. We'll be joined by his spokesman right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. The Georgia runoff election continues to bring out the worst in the Republican candidates. We'll tell you about the latest attack by Senator David Perdue on John Ossoff. And also, Kelly Loeffler puts out an ad featuring a black woman touting her credentials, but they never tell you that she's a paid Republican consultant. The Catholic Church has its first African-American cardinal. We'll tell you about Bishop Wilton Gregory. Also, earlier this month, Senator Cory Booker introduced the Black Farmers Act.

We'll talk with the founder of the National Black Farmers Association about it and what it means for him, as well as we'll talk about the possibility of Congresswoman Marsha Fudge being the new agricultural secretary for the Biden administration. A black man in Ashland, Oregon, shot and killed by a white man. That white man is pleaded not guilty for killing the black teenager

for playing his music too loud. And a video has been released showing the violent takedown of a Texas teen outside his home by police. And the Harris County Republican Party resigns after calling Martin Luther King Jr. a monkey. Plus, tips on how women of color can jumpstart their way up the corporate ladder with author Michelle Smith.

Folks, it is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best believe he's knowing.

Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks, he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for gigs. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's Rolling Martin. Rolling with rolling now. He's broke, he's fresh, he's real, the best you know. He's rolling, Martel.

Martel. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris announced an all-female communications team on Sunday. Jen Psaki, a top member of the transition team who served in the Obama-Biden administration as deputy press secretary and later White House communications director, was chosen as the White House press secretary. Kate Bedingfield, who was deputy Biden-Harris campaign manager, will be White House communications director, Simone Sanders. One of the most prominent faces of the Biden campaign will be a senior advisor and chief spokeswoman for Vice President Kamala Harris. The team also includes Elizabeth Alexander, a senior advisor to the Biden-Harris campaign, who will be the first lady,

Jill Biden's communications director, Ashley Etienne. A sister who was a senior campaign advisor will be Harris's communications director, Karine Jean-Pierre, a sister who was a senior campaign advisor, will be Harris's communications director. Karine Jean-Pierre, a senior advisor to the Biden campaign, she'll be the deputy press secretary. And Pili Tobar, a Biden-Harris campaign director, will be deputy White House communications director. Now, in addition to these announcements, the economic announcements was made today. Janet Yellen was officially named to be the Treasury Secretary. We're going to explain to you some of the other big announcements. And here is what Biden had to say. OK, all right. I thought we had sound from Joe Biden, but on the economic team, another big

pick, Cecilia Rouse, who served first of all, Cecilia Rouse served in the Obama administration. Cecilia Rouse also, she was, is going to be leading the White House Council of Economic Advisors. That is a huge, huge announcement there. Then also, first of all, the deputy secretary of the Treasury Department is also a brother, the number two there as well. And so, some big announcements there. I want to bring my panel right now, Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeaver, political analyst, Dr. Julianne Malveaux, economist, president, emerita, Bennett College, Eugene Craig, CEO, Eugene Craig Organization. Avis, I want to start with you. When you look at the team members, when you look at, again, all female communications team, when you look at the positions there of Corrine, Ashley, Simone,, and then, of course, then we go to the economic team.

Cecilia Rouse, somebody we know very well. She didn't get much play during the Obama administration. In fact, most of her interviews came on my show. I never understood why they didn't put her out. She's a brilliant sister. She is going to be the head of the White House Council on Economic Advisors. And then, of course, the number two official in the Treasury Department, also a brother as well. I'm going to pull up his photo in just a second. And so now we're seeing these announcements and what they mean.

Absolutely. So starting with the economics team, very happy to see Cecilia where she is, not only because, as she mentioned, she is extremely capable, a brilliant woman. She's going to bring so many assets to that position. But also, specifically, it's great to have the focus, the person who's leading this economic task force as someone who can understand this issue, not only generally speaking, but also from a race-gendered perspective and really provide an intersectional lens on issues of economics. So I think that's critically important. Talking about the communications team, for example, absolutely historic. First time ever intersectional lens on issues of economics. So I think that's critically important. Talking about the communications team,

for example, absolutely historic. First time ever we've had all women. So happy for the sisters who received those appointments. I will say, you know, I have to be honest, I would have liked to have seen a sister press secretary. I'm just gonna say that. But I will also say that I'm glad to see that they are there. And as we continue to see more rollouts with this administration, as it fills out, I'm looking forward to seeing some black appointments in terms of statutory cabinet positions.

I think we still need to keep the pressure on for that. But in terms of these so far, I'm happy for all of those who have been named. Wally Adeyemo is going to be the deputy secretary in the Treasury Department. Julian, this is a photo of him right here. He served in the Obama administration. He's obviously to the left. That's President Obama. And then, of course, Susan Rice to be the number two official, the Treasury Secretary. We've never had an African-American, I believe, serve that high position in the Treasury Department. Julianne, you're on mute. Julianne, you're on mute. There we go. Technically deficient. Am I unmuted now? Yes, yes. Now we can hear you. Go ahead. I'm excited about the economics team so much. In 1977, I was a junior staff economist at the Council of Economic Advisors. I was one of the first two or three

that had been there. To see this sister lead the Council of Economic Advisers makes me want to just holler and throw up my hands. It is so amazing because CEA, I remember when I was there, they had a category. They had Negroes and others. And I had to fuss and fight to say, y'all have to just do something about this. And they did. I mean, they were responsive. But the point was that they weren't seeing the world through our lens. Now we have a sister who's going to see it through our lens.

And there's so many other things. I am so excited that President-elect Joe Biden is seeing things through our lens. The communications team, the foreign policy team. This is just really beyond exciting. Now, this is not the be all and end all. There's more that has to be done. But I must tell you, Roland, I must tell you how, I can't even put words into it, how excited I am about this and how hopeful I am that the economic limp begins to have what a friend of mine, Dr. Rhonda Sharpe says is a disaggregation. So you don't just look at the big numbers of macro numbers, but also the micro numbers. Everybody's jumping up and down about the stock market being over 30,000. But what does a 30,000 stock market mean when 20,000 people don't have jobs? 20 million, not 20,000.

20 million people don't have jobs. So this is an exciting moment for economics, and it's an exciting moment for me and for other black women economists who are just looking at this and saying, my, my, my. Look, huge, huge news there. And again, Eugene, for the people who think I'm just joking here, again, if y'all go to YouTube, if you pull videos to see your routes when she served in the Obama administration, it was very rare that they put her out. Christine Romer, Austin Goolsbee, they got more attention. And in fact, I used to often ask the Obama administration, I said, send me somebody black talk economics. They sent me a brother who was the assistant secretary in her.

And I was like, wait, seriously? I'm at Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Ron Kirk, who's a trade representative, he tells me, Roland, you got to meet this bad sister, Cecilia Rouse. He said she's one of the White House Council of Economic Advisors. I said, which White House? He said this one. He said this one. I said, dude, I have been asking them to

send me somebody black to talk about the economy on, then I had Washington watch on TV One, and also I had Tom Joyner. And I was like, I said, hold up. She's been there nine months. He's like, yeah, this was September, 2009. Immediately got her on a show. This is some of the video right here. Uh, got her on the show. Uh, she was of course, uh, she also worked at the Woodrow Wilson school. She's a Dean there.

We had her on Roland Martin unfiltered, uh June talking about the economy. Again, an absolutely brilliant sister. And I just never understood why the White House, the Obama folks, never sent her out there. But now she's going to be the top dog. So trust me, she'll be getting lots of FaceTime on media talking about this economy. And it's really important, Roland. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Eugene, come back. Go ahead, Eugene. Yeah, I agree. And I think, you know, her time has now come, right? And I think we have to give

the team Biden the credit for being intentional about making sure that their council of economic advisors, their press team, you know, reflects America. You know, when you have, you know, these all-white press teams or these largely white Council of Economic Advisors, you know, Black America and Brown America largely gets out. Black media, you know, gets lost in the shuffle. But when you have, when you're intentional about your personnel being policy, that sets its own from the outset. And this amazing lady heading up the Council of Economic Advisors, you can, you know, you can probably put short bets that, you know, black America definitely has a seat at the table that probably

we did not have before. And just in case people need to understand, Avis, we're also hearing now that four-star retired General Lloyd Austin, y'all, this is him right here on Roller Mark Unfiltered a few months ago. He is one of the top names being considered for the Secretary of Defense under the Biden administration as well. There's also an African-American, and I'm going to pull him up in a second, who is being considered to be the head of the CIA. And so, again, you know, what you're seeing is there's amazing talent out there. It's just, unfortunately, too often, they never got tapped. And so I think, you know, this is certainly good news here. It is good news, but I think we need to put the pressure on and keep the pressure on. Oh, yeah. Oh, no, no, no. The pressure ain't going nowhere.

Yeah, because here's the thing. I mean, OK, I hate to like throw cold water on this conversation. But the reality is, if you look at other groups that have not shown up as much for this particular administration in this particular election, we're already seeing representation in the cabinet. Right. And so that is not including the number one group that supported the Biden-Harris ticket more than any other. And so I'm glad to see that with all of us, I think they've had Black people represented in almost everything that they have announced thus far. But when the actual announcements come out, we're not there. And I would like to also see us, in addition to traditional, and when I say traditional, I mean constitutional cabinet position representation. In addition to that, I would love to see us in more senior level staff positions in the executive

branch. So, you know, it would have been great to have the chief of staff, at least of the vice president's office, be a black woman. You know, so it is it is those things, you know, that I think are very important. Not only these positions that everybody knows about, but high level staffers are also a very important part of the power equation. And we need to make sure that we are represented at that level as well. Absolutely. Bottom line, Julian, black people, black women turn out the highest rate than anybody else. Black men were number two. So black people, black women turn out the highest rate than anybody else. Black men were number two. So black people turned out at a high rate for Joe Obama, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and anybody else.

And so, yeah, there has to be a return on that investment when it comes to appointments, not only the top level of appointments, but senior level positions and junior level positions as well. Absolutely. I think especially, you know, coming from my wheelhouse, which is the economic wheelhouse, I think it's really important to make sure that we're sitting at that table talking about economic policy. I also think, as Amy says, we have to go down the ladder to see who else is there. But more importantly or most importantly, what I think is that we need to make sure that as we move ahead, we have an inclusive cabinet, an inclusive staff wheelhouse, something that's extremely inclusive. I think that Biden is there almost. But I don't think he's all the way there. And I think there are a whole lot of holes that can be plugged up that we have to be very vigilant about as this president elect moves forward in filling up his staff. Absolutely. All right, folks, we're going to be later in the show. We're going to talk about the Treasury, excuse me, the agriculture position where Congressman Jim Clyburn is pushing very hard for Congresswoman Marcia Fudge.

We'll explain to you how really, really, really important that position is because it's not all about farmers. And we're going to explain to you that was the case. All right, folks, let's talk about COVID. Vaccination plans are underway at drug developers Pfizer and Moderna. Pfizer is already making air deliveries of their vaccine so injections can start immediately if it receives approval from the FDA. Moderna had plans to apply today for authorization of the COVID-19 vaccine. This is certainly good news in light of the fact that the coronavirus crisis continued to reach new heights over the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Average daily case loads show no sign of declining across much of the country. 16 states,

including Arizona, California, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, and Ohio, saw their average daily case counts hit all-time highs on Thursday and Friday. Now, 13.4 million total cases of COVID, folks. At least 267,000 people have died from the virus. These numbers are going up. We are seeing states impose new standards when it comes to closures, when it comes to schools because of what's going on. And then you have the people out there who are fighting this left and right. Pull up this graphic before I go,

Dr. Ebony Hilton. I want to show you all this here. A woman tweeted this out, and this just shows you, y'all, the kind of nonsense that you see out here with these people. I came across this particular tweet, and it gives you an indication of what happens when you have these stuck-on-stupid people. And, yes, I'm going to call them stuck-on-stupid, okay, because that's what they are, stuck-on-stupid. Look at this woman here, okay, Alice Willow. I don't know who needs to hear this, but this is a reminder. First of all, drop a little third, please.

This tweet was sent out on November 26th at 2.09 a.m. Let me go ahead and just increase this for y'all. I don't know who needs to hear this, but this is a reminder that I am willing to die for my religion. If I get COVID attending mass, then I'll deal with it, but I'm not missing out on worshiping. You don't get to bar me from my religion because you're scared. Be mad. Don't care. Y'all see that time stamp? 2.09 a.m. on Thanksgiving, November 26th.

Two days later. I don't know how to say this casually, but I tested positive for COVID. I really, really appreciate some prayers for my husband and I. He has a pre-existing condition and I'm really worried about him. Dr. Ebony Hilton is the associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the University of Virginia. Amity, take it away. I mean, you can cut to me and let me have a moment of silence with that.

I mean, honestly, with these people, she said in the beginning, leave me alone, let me be. She was willing to die for it. And what we know is that people are dying from COVID-19. In fact, last month alone, 35,900 Americans died from COVID-19. And what we know is if we're looking at modeling, by mid-January, 20,000 Americans will be dying every week. And if she wants to be in that number, we can continue to do the same game over and over again. COVID-19 has not changed.

It's transmitted the same as that way. Our precautions are going to be the same as that thing. And it's very simple. So I don't understand why people are treating it as if it's oppressive for you to simply wear a mask. But it's not oppression. So we need to choose something different, a different struggle, because this is not the one. So check this out. Ice-T posted this on social media. Same thing. Go to my iPad, please. My father-in-law, Coco's dad, was a serious no-masker. COVID hit him. Pneumonia in both lungs. 40 days in ICU, close to death. Now he's on oxygen indefinitely. Oh, he's a believer now. Hashtag COVID is not a

game. And this is a photo of him with that bag. See again, all these folks, Ebony, they, I mean, they started running their mouths. Oh, it ain't real. Ain't real. And now pneumonia, both lungs almost died. Now it's like, oh, damn, this thing is real. Yeah! It's real! Right. And there's no turnout vow for this. What we know is that there's these groups of people who we call now long callers of where they're having symptoms,

not for one or two weeks when we typically see what virus is, but it's lasting months and months and months. We've had to transplant at the University of Virginia. We actually had to transplant, give lungs, new lungs to a person who was otherwise completely healthy, who contracted this virus. And thank God he's done well with the lung transplant. But what transplantation means that you now have to be on basically chemotherapy to prevent your body from rejecting someone else's body parts for the rest of life. And what we're trying to prevent is anyone else

having to go through that same life story when it can be simply that you just simply wear a mask, wash your hands, stay in your house, and avoid large crowds. That's really not complicated. So I don't know why the struggle, again, why the struggle is there for people. And again, look, the reality is, you know,

the business that we are in, you know, we are, you know, being in media. I'm going to be traveling to Georgia later this week. We're going to be covering the Georgia Senate race. And look, when we are out there, folks want to roll up and they want to sit here and want to speak. I'm like, hey, hey, back up.

I need you to back up. Folks want to come take photos. take photos i'm like uh-uh you ain't got no mask on you can't come near me and i will shut folk down i mean i'll cuss them out i don't care you ain't mean you walking around no mask on i mean in fact i was doing an interview the other day and a couple of camera guys and i'm sitting there answering the guy's question i literally stopped i said mask over your nose too. Then I turned back and finished the interview. And then one of the other camera guys he walks over to the camera to make

an adjustment and I'm literally in the middle of the answer then I go, hey let me put your mask on right now. What are you thinking? I ain't gonna, I don't give a damn about the interview. I will shut it down in the middle of an interview. Honestly,

because it literally takes, the greatest risk of you getting COVID-19 is the length of time that you're exposed to someone, right? 15 minutes, which may seem like that's a long time, but that's two songs playing, right? And I'm seeing all these images of

people that are out in clubs and at restaurants and sitting there. How are you eating in a restaurant in an enclosed space in the middle of a pandemic and it not strike fear into your soul, knowing that people, both old and young, babies, literally weeks old, have died from this. Old people, rich people, poor people, it doesn't matter. And what, again, we know is that between now and mid-January, we're expecting another 100,000 to 200,000 Americans only to die from this. And my question is, do you want to be in that number? Because your name is not special. And if you want to meet Jesus, that's one way to do it. But I would suggest that we actually take heed

of what we already know to be simple things to do, especially in the light of the fact that we have a light at the end of this tunnel with the vaccine here. We just need to hold steady for at least five more months, people. We can do this. It's unbelievable, but a huge part of this, a huge part of this really is the level of stupidity that we're seeing. It's also being pushed out there by media. This was a conversation on Fox News with their anchors

and Will Kane. Look, I know Will Kane. He and I used to debate on CNN all the time. I used to crush him. And so he went to ESPN. Now he's on Fox News. And what he said here, I think there's truth to it. This stupid ass American individual spirit, that's fine, but you're going to be like that damn woman woman who was so I'm so proud. But yeah, now you're asking for prayers for you and your husband because of COVID. And how dumb can you be knowing he has a pre-existing condition? But then you want to sit here and play games. Listen to this. I said one thing over the weekend that I thought was kind of troubling, but probably realistic. And she said, if you traveled or if you were with family

outside of your normal bubble, just assume that you've got the coronavirus. And she suggested that people get a test within a week if they were out and about and traveled this week. And if you're in your house around your family members, you should probably wear a mask so you don't infect your family. Yeah, if you traveled, then you have to play by the rules. And we hope that everyone does

just to stay safe so that we don't infect other people. That's great news about the vaccine. They're bringing it in on those airplanes so that it's ready to go as soon as the FDA does approve this. Dr. Jeanette Neshwat, she was talking about the vaccines earlier on Fox and Friends First. Watch this. We don't want to rush this vaccine. So once they meet on December 10th, the earliest that these vaccines will be shipped out would be the very next day. So that's what we're hoping for. So far in the trials and the studies that we've had, which included thousands of volunteers who have already received the vaccine, there has been no severe life-threatening allergic reactions or adverse reactions. So that is very reassuring. And I do believe by, you know, the

last two weeks of December, we're going to be getting these vaccines and it's ultimately going to save lives. So I'm super excited about that. The New York Post is reporting that in the UK, they just got 2 million more doses of the vaccine and they're rolling it out in just a few days. Well, you know, I think this point can be underlined, highlighted, repeated over and over. It is absolutely stunning how quickly this vaccine made its way to market, to distribution. Operation Warp Speed, an absolute success. That should be repeated over and over. A process that normally takes years has been accelerated to take place within a couple of months. I will say this, Steve, I'm not

ready to start wearing a mask around my family. I might be like a lot of Americans. I'm going to hold on to a little bit of this. I don't know what we'll call it, individual spirits, but I'm not going to be putting on a mask around my family. I'm just reporting what the experts are saying. If you, because Will, think about this. You go out and you're at grandma's house and then you come home and Dr. Burke said, if you have in your unit people who are over 65, you got to protect them. So you would hate to have, you know, somebody my age, give it to somebody a little older or vice versa. Individual spirit. I mean, how stupid, I'm sorry, Will. That's stupid. Like, you're really stupid. I'm not trying to wear a mask with my family. If you have elderly people in prison conditions and fuck. Dude, really? But here's the deal. He's sitting there saying that predices social distancing at Fox News. You know, there is an individual spirit, especially when you have a ventilator, because we have one breathing tube that we typically place inside of your mouth down into your little throat here.

And you can have your own individual ventilator. That's the only thing individual about this entire pandemic. Everything is interrelated to how other people are taking precautions and whether or not this thing is going to be mitigated and preventing the spread. But what we have to even think about, too, Fox News always tells half of a story. Because when we're talking about the vaccine, yes, it's going to be available to roll out within 24 hours after it's approved, right, for this emergency use. But there's only so many doses that they have. For instance, Pfizer will only have enough for about 20 million people to be

vaccinated in December. Moderna, hopefully they'll be close behind there. That's another 10 million people. Well, if you look in totality, if you look at the first people to get vaccinated, there's about 20 million healthcare workers. So check off Pfizer's doses. Those are all gone. If you look at how many people we have in the elderly population, that's another 50 million people of elderly population of 65 and older. If you look at people who have pre-existing conditions, that's another 100 million Americans alone. And these vaccines, America, we have to stop thinking that these vaccines are only for us. This is a global pandemic. And these vaccines, America, we had to stop thinking that these vaccines are only for us. This is a global pandemic. And so when the vaccines are being made, we cannot be the

only persons in line to get them. It has to go across this globe. And so there are going to be many people that are waiting to be vaccinated, which means that the mask wearing will not stop for at least another five to six months. And even after that, I guarantee we're going to still see this mask wearing being of an issue. Oh, I agree. I absolutely agree. And I just think I don't understand why people don't quite understand this here. It is not anything to play around with. Last question for you. These various decisions being made by these governors, People are angry at Governor Gavin Newsom.

And let's be clear, he's screwing up by going to a damn party and saying one thing, doing another. We saw Denver Mayor Michael Hancock tell people stay at home for Thanksgiving. Then he goes on a plane and goes to Mississippi. You might want to sit here and follow your own advice, folks. I'm just saying. Just saying. I mean, it's incredible, especially if you're looking at Los Angeles. Right now, one in every, I think, 140 people in Los Angeles.

Those are my dogs going crazy. But one in every 140 people. We're used to your dogs going crazy, so we're used to it. Right. I'm trying to, I don't throw everything on this floor. I'm not even going to lie. It looks like a hot mess right now,

trying to get him to chew on anything. But in Los Angeles one in every 140 people are infected with COVID if we're looking at North Dakota, South Dakota, Illinois one in every thousand people that are living in those three states have died from COVID-19 and we haven't even hit December, if we're looking at how many people have been traveling here the last four days, 3.4 million Americans traveled for Thanksgiving. What do for what we're going to see in December. We're not ready for what we're going to see in January and the absolute crippling that happens with the health care system. And that's not being an alarmist. That is literally being a realist that we've allowed our egos and our want for one day to compromise the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans

and infecting millions of people like I see his father-in-law that will be disabled from here on out. And that's just a consequence of our actions that we're going to have to live with if we can get to see 2021 together. All right, Dr. Ebony Hilton, always a pleasure to have you on the show. And now you can get your dogs under control. Thank you. Y'all have a good one. I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Bottom line here, Avis, these people are stupid.

I mean, I'm serious. And look, and there are some black people out there who are thinking the same thing. And there's, I ain't trying to put a mask on. Look, here's the deal. If you say I'm cool with dying, go right ahead. Go right ahead. But don't sit there and talk all this trash and turn around and, can y'all please say prayers for me and my husband?

Because we got to go. No, no, no, no. Your ass, because you wanted that smoke two days ago. Now your ass got it. Well, you know, be careful what you wish for. You know, people talk big and bold when it doesn't come close to home. And then all of a sudden when it comes close to home, they're all hemming and hawing and helping. Thank you, Jesus.

Please help me. That sort of thing comes out. And it's so ridiculous. But this is, once again, an example of the damage that has happened that did not have to happen because of the lack of leadership. And I would say it's even worse than a lack of leadership. It is a very damaging and dangerous leadership that we've had from the start of this pandemic all the way up through today. Because look at what's happening right now when we're at a point where we're losing well over a thousand people a day dying. Here we are, we still have a president

who hasn't even mentioned this crisis at all. In months, he hasn't gone to a meeting with the COVID task force, in months. He's sitting here every day throwing another temper tantrum where he's lying about the election and he doesn't care that well over a quarter million Americans are dead.

And so it's this type of ridiculous, complete disregard for human life, as well as politicizing the wearing of masks that not only puts idiots like that in danger, because those people don't live their lives in isolation. When they go out and mingle among the rest of us, they're putting our lives in danger as well. He's playing golf. He's playing games. He's playing golf. He's playing games. He is not playing for the American people. He never has been. Not from the time he was sworn in. What's ridiculous about this, two things. Number one, it ain't that deep to wear a mask. Put the thing over your nose, over your mouth, and protect yourself and other people from yourself.

All the studies have shown it works. But number two, this has simply ignored the science. He has simply and consistently ignored the science and ignoring the science. He's put all of us in jeopardy. This is nonsense, but we know it's nonsense. And the challenge, the biggest challenge is that Republicans who know better, they know better will not call him on his BS. They will allow him to spew nonsense. They will allow him to ignore this pandemic that is now killing, what, 2,000 people a day? And he doesn't care because he is sitting in this warped space that he created for himself, number one. And number two, because he is lying.

Simply lying. There are other words for varication, for blah, blah, blah. He is a liar, and his lies have hurt the American people. Eugene, bottom line is the easiest way to stop the nonsense, to have businesses reopen, is for folks to take precautions. I mean, it's really not that hard, but the more they choose not to, it makes it worse.

I agree 100% with you. I mean, look, the only thing that will literally stop the spread is a mask. Literally, just wear a mask. Wear it properly, wear it often, wear it whenever you go out. All it properly, wear it often, wear it whenever you go out.

You know, all my clubhouse buddies are like, come to Atlanta. And I'm like, no, because I don't wear masks. And the thing is this, it literally is the most cost-effective life-saving tool. And it's very unfortunate that we had leadership for months that told you not to wear a mask and that still derided and decried the mask.

And even when, you know, the president got it himself, you know, he, you know, still was anti mask. And what's crazy is that it's his people that are dying and driving up the rates right now. So, look, people, you know, wear a mask, social distance, save the lives of your friends and family. Absolutely. All right, folks, let's go to our next story. Tomorrow, tomorrow in Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of actor Bill Cosby. Cosby has been in prison for more than two years, serving a three to 10 year prison sentence after a jury convicted him of aggravated indecent assault. His lawyers have been filing appeals. They've seen that the judge allowing others to speak and testify in that case in the second trial was actually an erroneous decision.

Joining us right now to discuss this is the spokesperson for Bill Cosby and Camille Cosby, Andrew Wyatt. Andrew, glad to have you back on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you for having me back, Roland. And it's good to hear that you and your family continue to be safe and healthy during these troubled times. Oh, we ain't crazy. We ain't crazy. So nobody in my family, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, ain't nobody got COVID. We ain't stupid. We know how to pay attention and follow the rules. We must.

It's mandatory that we do. Certainly appreciate that. Plenty of vitamin D. Plenty of vitamin D. I got you. So let's talk about tomorrow. So the attorneys have been filing various appeals. The Supreme Court accepted this appeal.

What is the basis of the appeal of Cosby's attorneys? Well, the basis of it is that Mr. Cosby had immunity, that he should have never been convicted. He should have never been brought to trial. So one of our strong key points that we're going to make in oral arguments, our attorney Jennifer Bundy tomorrow, is that Mr. Cosby had immunity and his conviction should be vacated. He was given a deal by the former district attorney, as you know, Bruce Castor, who sent out a press release stating that he was not going to file charges against Mr. Cosby because Ms. Constand failed to prove that anything happened. She gave five inconsistent statements to five law enforcement,

different law enforcement agencies. So that's one of the issues. The other issue is also the 404B witnesses. I think that this case got a lot of attention because of Bill Cosby and this murky law surrounding 404B. When should a jury hear about a person's past? You know, Mr. Cosby went into this trial. It was supposed to be with just him and Andrea Constance. However, it became a trial of six people, six 404B witnesses, prior bad acts, that he had to defend. And the jury had to hear, you know, those accounts of his past that had no similar interest to Andrea Constance. So those are the arguments that are going to take place on tomorrow. And when you talk about that immunity, when he was involved in the civil lawsuit,

the district attorney said that he was not going to pursue the case. And then that's how Cosby's lawyers allowed him to testify in that civil case. In the civil case, the depositions were given, but depositions were sealed. Those depositions were sealed. And then they were ostensibly leaked by a court reporter, and some have said that was done on purpose. And so then all of a sudden, the admissions of Cosby in the deposition were then used against him in the subsequent criminal case.

And when you talk about that DA saying he wasn't going to pursue charges, there also was an election. And the DA that actually did file charges ran saying, you elect me, I'm going to indict Bill Cosby. Correct. Kevin Steele, the current DA, he ran a Willie Horton-style campaign ad saying, if you elect me, I will go after Cosby. Look, Mr. Cosby was given the deal. After the press

release was sent out by the former DA, Bruce Castor, who said, I'm not bringing criminal charges, 19 days later, Undrej K Constance filed a civil suit against Bill Cosby. He waived his Fifth Amendment rights, sat for a deposition for four days, never invoked his Fifth Amendment, thinking that he would never be charged. He settled out of court for $3.8 million for indecent assault, which is digital penetration of her, to never be brought to trial again. However, because of the sensationalizing of what took place in the accusations in the media, this district attorney used that opportunity to not only get elected by Mr. Cosby's name,

but saying, if you elect me, I will go after him and bring him to justice. And that's why he's convicted today. But he should not be in prison today. And that's what we're hoping that oral arguments will be shown to these seven justices and they will do the right thing and vacate his sentence. And so tomorrow you're going to be, first of all, will the oral arguments, will there be folks in court? Is it going to be for the public to actually see on Zoom? Because I understand you're going to be with the folks with NNPA live streaming the proceedings? Yes, sir. The oral arguments will be shown live on YouTube. So all media and all public will be able to watch. Our attorneys will be doing it virtually because of COVID.

No one would be allowed in a courtroom. So you can go to www.youtube.com forward slash C forward slash Supreme CT of PA official. And that would take you directly to oral arguments that would take place at 930 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. There are three oral arguments on the docket. We're up first and we're assuming and guessing that this thing will last probably for about an hour. But we're just asking for people to tune in, the public, so they can hear the facts and the truth that they didn't get to hear from the media accounts, mainstream media, during the trial. All right, then. Andrew Wyatt, we surely appreciate it, man. Thank you so very much. Thank you so much, Roland, for having me. All right, folks, got to go to a break. We come back. We're going to talk about the Georgia Senate race. Senator David Perdue, why is he attacking

John Ossoff for visiting a Black-owned restaurant? And Kelly Loeffler puts out an ad featuring a black woman. They don't tell you, though, that she's actually a paid Republican consultant. All of that next on Roller Martin Unfiltered. You cannot fulfill your life if you're not willing to engage in the tactics and strategies that makes your own life grow and helps you to build the community in which you want to live.

Voting is a singular method for a people locally and regionally to govern themselves. It's so important to have Senator Loeffler in the Senate, especially right now. What we need more than ever is a business mind. We need someone who understands how to not only write paychecks and sign paychecks, but how it feels like waiting on that paycheck. Kelly Loeffler, a fearless advocate for school choice, write paychecks and sign paychecks, but how it feels like waiting on that paycheck. Kelly Leffler, a fearless advocate for school choice, growing opportunities for minority businesses,

and a comprehensive health care plan for all Georgians. This is the fight for the soul of the country. I'm Kelly Leffler. I approve this message. All right, y'all, that ad there was dropped today by the Leffler campaign. And the black woman you see in that ad, her name is Janelle King. What they don't say in the ad is that she actually was a number two with the Georgia Republican Party, has been a paid consultant for the Republican Party. So they're presenting it like, oh, there's this black businesswoman who is sitting here, you know, touting for Kelly Loeffler.

No, she's a paid Republican operative. This race is utterly hilarious when you see, you know, what has been going on here. Now, here's the deal, okay? Y'all really want to laugh? So in that ad, Janelle King, who we've had here in Roland Martin Unfiltered when she, you know, she was touting Trump and Loeffler and them. So what was hilarious to me in that particular ad, uh, they were touting, uh, Kelly Loeffler, uh, supporting minority businesses, um, except the problem with that. It's not like she really is. In fact, uh, I actually went to Kelly Loeffler's website and you know what, I'm just going to go ahead and pull up right now just to show you.

OK, to show you how much of a joke this is, because for her to say that she's supporting minority businesses, I figured, you know what? I want to go to her campaign website and actually see what her particular plan is. And so, um, so, so here we go. All right, let me close this here. Y'all go to my iPad. So this is the Kelly Loeffler website, conservative businesswoman, political outsider, stop it. Okay. So let's go up here. Let's click issues. Hmm. Here we go. Jobs in the economy. Fair trade. Second Amendment life. Military and veterans. Ag and rural Georgia. Sex trafficking. Opioid epidemic. Foreign policy. National security and illegal immigration. Health care taxes in the deficit. OK, so maybe her minority business plan is under, no, go back. Go back to my iPad.

It's under jobs and the economy. Julianne, that's it. Her plan, this is her plan. It's a paragraph. That's it. That's, I guess that's her minority business plan. There's jobs in the economy and she does nothing, but that's race specific. It lets you know that she does not know who she's trying to represent. Her attacks on Reverend Warnock additionally

let us know that she does not know who she's trying to represent. This woman is a caricature of a businesswoman. She is a Barbie doll who married a rich man. And okay, I'm trying to be politically correct and clean. But at the end of the day, here's the bottom line. This woman sanctioned her own basketball team for wearing Black Lives Matter T-shirts for raising up Breonna Taylor. She is a throwback to the antebellum age, but beyond that, in terms of the minority business, let's ask how many minority vendors

are getting business from her basketball team. Let's ask how many minority businesses are taking or getting anything from SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission, that her husband runs. We have this woman who is playing games and doing a winky dink with us and to even indulge her in rationality plays a game on all of us. It's laughable, Eugene. It's laughable. Because in the ad, Janelle says, oh, she knows what it's like to wait on a check. No, she don't.

Her husband has the company that owns a new york stock exchange the woman has put 50 million of her own money into the campaign she's co-owner of the wmba team yeah she's the richest republic she's the richest person in the senate sit your ass down she ain't waiting on no damn check. And it's laughable for her to call herself a political outsider when there is no more of an insider's game than getting an appointment to the U.S. Senate.

Political outsiders don't get appointed to U.S. Senate seats. Eugene, pay for that seat. Eugene, it's nonsense. It is nonsense. It is nonsense. It is nonsense. Janelle knows it's nonsense.

You know, I on a regular basis laugh with Ron Patillo about, like, how his comment section is for people that know. And, like, how more recently, like, folk like Janelle have disappeared from the comment section as we get further and further from the election. I mean, it's beyond bananas. But, you know, Kelly Loeffler is no friend of black America, no friend of black business. And put it this way, if she was, you know, she'd be fighting tooth and nail right now to get the Heroes Act passed to save black business. And she's not and she's, and they're not doing that. And again, you see the kind of madness going in this campaign.

First of all, folks, this is a new ad debuted by the Warnock campaign. Check this out. Love your neighbor as yourself. It's a value we all try to live by, but in Washington, it's been forgotten. It's clear. Our politics are broken,

overcome by a selfishness that rewards money and power, leaving far too many of us out of the conversation. I'm Raphael Warnock, and I see you. I see too many communities left behind, too many hardworking people ignored. I'm running for Senate to be your voice. That's why I approve this message. Look, neighbor. Avis, is this,

obviously you look at Warnock's ads. Loeffler is attack, attack, attack, attack. You look at Warnock's ads, far more positive, far more hopeful. Talk about him growing up in public housing. And, you know, some people say they think it's too soft. They think he needs to be going after her

a lot harder. They're going to have their debate taking place this weekend on Saturday. Just your thoughts about that. To see him go a little harder. You know, every commercial does not need to be, quote, unquote, negative. But let's just be real. If negative commercials didn't work, people wouldn't run negative commercials. I mean, and she has so much.

I mean, golly, she's the gift that keeps on giving. I mean, she can claim that she's not a political insider, but she sure knows a thing or two about insider trading, doesn't she? I mean, she, you know, this woman, it is so much. The ground is so fertile with drawing the contrasts that need to be drawn between what she says and who she is. And being able you can't just let this ad that's playing right now just stand without coming back and letting people know about facts. Not everybody is as, you know, obsessed with politics as some of us on this show are, for example. This is not the center of the world, especially with so much going on right now where people are just trying to keep a job, keep a roof over their head and not die. And so you have to make it easier for people to be able to draw a contrast and at a minimum push back on

outright lies that are being targeted to them, such as that lie that you just showed in terms of that previous commercial by Kefler. This is going to be obviously a pretty interesting race here over the weekend. John Ossoff visited a black owned restaurant and it was a black owned vegan restaurant called Slutty Vegan in Atlanta during a tour to support small businesses. Well, Georgia Senator David Perdue, his campaign, that they didn't like that, they decided to mock the senator's opponent for eating a vegan burger. Team Perdue tweeted, Ossoff can have the plant burger. Guys, you have the tweet. Please pull it up. Thank you very much. Ossoff can have the plant burger. We'll take the all-star tweet please pull it up thank you very much osoft can have the plant

burger we'll take the all-star special pick your side georgia um first of all i don't know why we don't have the tweet it's in the script i don't understand that but julianne it makes no sense to me you're attacking him for supporting a small business because it's a plant-based burger supporting a small black-owned business, which makes no sense at all. But none of this makes any sense. The fact is that these folks don't have anything on Ossoff and Warnock. So they're pulling out threats. And it's really annoying to see the way they're playing games.

But they're going to play games. And here's the deal. They play games. We play real. They go low. We go high. How can you attack a slutty vegan? I've been there a couple times. It's vegan food.

I ain't that into it, but it's pretty good. But it's a black-owned business. What is wrong with that? Right. And, and, and, and again,

Purdue, you are attacking a business owner. So by saying, by you're attacking him, the dude is supporting a small business who gives a damn. This is a plant based burger, or if it's actually real, it's a small business.

And so what are you saying, David Purdue? Hey, I only want to meet. So small businesses that are vegan, y'all should go out of business. And so what are you saying, David Perdue? Hey, I only want meat, so small businesses that are vegan, y'all should go out of business. If I'm Osof, I'm turning this sucker into an ad in the next 24 hours.

All that shit he has on his plate made him start to oink. Seriously. That was more bacon than the law allowed. But that's not the point. The point is that that bloody bacon is owned by a sister, a black woman,

who has been building this business up. And this is what we have to lift up. And how dare he? How dare he attack Ossoff for going there? And he wants to attack Ossoff, attack him for something else. But the fact is that he and that Kelly,

baby Barbie, essentially don't have anything to say. They got 45 coming down there. But what they really have are problems. And that's what we have to deal with. They have problems. I interviewed Jamie Harrison today. He's got this new pack called Dirty Road Pack. He's sending money down to Georgia. He's encouraging people to deal with Georgia. And we have to take Georgia. And if all they can do is talk about a restaurant, they ain't got nothing to say. Yeah. In fact, this was actually the response, Eugene, of the Osoff campaign to the attack by David Perdue on that restaurant. Listen. Mom's Kitchen in Preston, Georgia.

It's a family business. I enjoy making people happy, giving them a good meal. But since COVID, we had to close our main dining room. We lost all of that business. And we used to do a lot of caterings. We can't do any of that anymore. David Perdue knew what was about to happen. He was getting classified briefings about the pandemic. But instead of him being concerned about us, he off selling stock.

We had no idea we'd have to close our businesses off. We'd lose caterings, and so many people died. And then when we needed help the most, he fought against the stimulus checks and to cut unemployment insurance. Purdue needs to come out and Ossoff in. Early voting starts December 14th. You've got to make a plan to vote.

I'm John Ossoff, and I approve this message. Well, Eugene, that's how you hit back. That is exactly how you hit back. Look, you know, I really don't understand these Republican campaigns that, like, decide that they want to attack Black business, attack Black people, attack people that support Black people. It never ends well. It literally never ends well. Anybody that's had Slutty Vegan knows that it's amazing.

I had that one music festival last year in Atlanta. It's amazing. Amazing. I think that Team Ossoff hitting back with this ad, with that small business owner and making the distinction between Purdue who's wealthy and using his

illegally, using his insider knowledge to trade and then turning around and not doing what he needs to do to protect his constituents and then want to ask them to rehire him? No, no, it's a no for me. And speaking of how the Republican Party operates out of Texas, Keith Nielsen, the Harris County GOP chair, has resigned after spending four months on the job. Of course, he resigned after becoming engulfed in controversy that took place before becoming the chair. He filled the position in

March, but as he was preparing to take office over the summer, he faced condemnation for posting a Facebook graphic juxtaposing a Martin Luther King quote with a banana. Many people figured Nielsen was equating black people with monkeys. He initially said he would forfeit the job, but reneged. But now he's actually stepped down. That, Eugene, is always amazing, Eugene. Whenever these stories come up, it involves Republicans who are doing these things about black people. But Trump loves his blacks. It's crazy.

It's beyond bananas, right? And you would think that there would be some level of... Beyond bananas, no pun intended. No pun intended. Oh, yeah, no pun intended. Sorry. But it's beyond crazy. You would think there would be some level of sensitivity, especially being that the Texas GOP just elected Al West as their chair. I mean, look, he has his own crazy going on,

but you would think that there would be some level of sensitivity. Hey, we have a black chair. Maybe we shouldn't say these racist things so publicly. And then, of course, Republicans love to lay claims on a man on Martin Luther King, right? We're going to bring Alveda King out here for something, something one day, right? And so you would think that with those two drivers always present know, this shouldn't be an issue. Like, it shouldn't be something that you would find funny or find comical or find levity in. But, you know, there's some people whose racism, you know, just can't be hidden by anything.

Well, if your fallback is racism, it kind of speaks to exactly who you are as a party. All right, folks, real quick before I go to a break, that is the Pope Francis appointed 18 new cardinals, one of them being 72-year-old Archbishop Wilton Gregory. Gregory becomes the Catholic Church's first African-American cardinal took place over the weekend. Gregory, who has served as the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. since 2019, was one of 13 men to be elevated to the College of Cardinals during a ceremony that took place on Saturday in Rome. He is now considered to be the highest-ranking African-American Catholic in U.S. history. Gregory told news media,

It's been a time to thank God for this unique moment in my life and in the life of the church in the United States. I hope it's a sign to the African-American community that the Catholic Church has a great reverence, respect, and esteem for the people, for my people of color. Coming up next, Senator Cory Booker presents a bill to assist black farmers. We'll also talk with John Boyd, who heads the Black Farmers Group, about Congresswoman Marsha Fudge potentially becoming the next agriculture commissioner and why that position means more than just farming. That is next on Roller Martin Unfiltered.

There are so many things that have happened that if we don't see them for what they are, this is just going to continue to, you know, get out of control. If I don't actually say, hey, I'm going to commit to registering 10 people to vote. And that's the thing I think is we get so hung up on the big picture. You know, the big picture matters, but it only matters when we all do small things. That's how it happens. It's not, hey, let's just post on Twitter and post on Instagram

because, yes, social media is huge, we know it, but we have to actually get out there and walk the walk. We told them the smear ads were coming and that's exactly what happened. You would think that Kelly Loeffler might have something good to say about herself if she really wants to represent Georgia. Instead, she's trying to scare people by taking things I've said out of context from over 25 years of being a pastor. But I think Georgians will see her ads for what they are.

Don't you? I'm Raphael Warnock, and we approve this message. I'm Jon Ossoff, and the path to recovery is clear. First we listen to medical experts to control this virus. Then we shore up our economy with stronger support for small businesses and tax relief for working families. And it's time for a historic infrastructure plan to get people back to work and invest in our future. We need leaders who bring us together to get this done. And that's why I approve this message. And because of us, we have strengthened the democracy.

We are the real patriots. We have stood with our country. We fought for our country. We've had people who have gone to war, who returned home with no housing, no jobs, but... Men in uniforms? Absolutely. But they stayed and they fought. And they protested. And the Civil Rights Movement taught us how to protest, how to stick with it. And whether it's the Civil Rights Movement

or organized labor who protest today, often they are rallying, they're marching, and they're fighting, and they're up against some of the biggest corporations in America about decent pay and decent benefits. It is because of protests that we have been able to make America better. We are the patriots who say we believe in this country and we believe that it can be about justice and equality for everybody.

At one time, farming was a lucrative business for black farmers, but they were stripped of tens of thousands of acres because of racist federal policies, also on the state level. Today, most rural land in the United States is owned by white Americans. Senator Cory Booker introduced a new bill that could help African Americans reclaim some of that land. The Justice for Black Farmers Act would allow black farmers to reclaim up to 160 acres each at no charge through a Department of Agriculture system of land grants. Joining me now is John Boyd, founder of the National Black Farmers Association. John, glad to have you

back on Roller Martin Unfiltered. How big, how significant is this bill? Well, thank you for having me. And this is a very, very aggressive bill by Cory Booker. So I would like to take my hat off to Cory Booker and the other two members of the Senate that introduced it. And for me, it's all about the land. And black farmers lost millions of acres of land at the turn of the century. We owned almost 20 million acres of land at the turn of the century. We owned almost 20 million acres of land. We're down to somewhere about three, three and a half million acres of land.

So this bill, if it can get enough mustard to make it through the House and the Senate, will bring about a much needed change to address the land loss issue. So that's the biggest part of the bill. And hopefully we can get a companion bill introduced in the House in the coming weeks. And if we can win this Georgia seat that you guys are talking about, the bill stands a good chance of moving forward.

And give our audience an understanding of how federal policies discriminated against black farmers. Oh, absolutely. The federal government supposed to be the hand up to help farmers in the country has been the very same hand that was dealt to us that been a detriment to black people and black farmers in this country. Discrimination, widespread discrimination. We filed two lawsuits and won two lawsuits against the United States Department of Agriculture for discrimination. In 1999, 20,000 black farmers received $1 billion. And 83,000 black farmers came after the filing deadline. Roland, thank you for having me on your show to really introduce that story to black farmers in the year 2009 and 2010.

That bill allowed for an additional billion dollars that was signed into law by President Barack Obama on December 8th, 2010 for an additional billion dollars that was signed into law by President Barack Obama on December 8, 2010, for an additional billion dollars. But the discrimination even that I faced as a Black farmer, with the county official spat on me, tore my application up, threw it in the trash can. I was called the N-word by the highest official at the United States Department of Agriculture, Gus Schumacher, the N-word. These are things that have happened in our lifetime where black farmers were denied applications. And it's just a systematic pattern of discrimination, widespread discrimination. And we called it the last plantation and rightfully so.

When did those things take place? This happened for me. and we called it the last plantation and rightfully so. When did those things take place? This happened, for me, it began in the 80s when I first was introduced to the United States Department of Agriculture and I bought a farm from another elderly black farmer by the name of Russell Sally, my first farm, in 1984. And he was already experiencing discrimination with the then-called Farm Service Agents, Farmers Home Administration.

And I said, well, where do you get money from? He said, well, you're supposed to be getting it from Farmers Home Administration. He said, but those racist people won't lend you any money. And then when I began to attempt to get money for nine years in a row, I was denied a farm operating loan. And for the people who are listening, farmers can't survive without farm operating capital every year to plant and harvest on time. We get two paychecks a year in the spring

of the year. And right now I'm harvesting soybeans as we speak. And if you can't get farm operating loan to plant on time and harvest on time, you just won't be in business. And USDA is supposed to be the lender of last resource for farmers, and it's been an uphill battle for black farmers. So we've been in a 30-year fight to bring about change at USDA. And we were heading in the right direction with the Obama years. And we took a 360 with the Trump administration that doesn't even have an assistant secretary for civil rights. Nobody has filled the position since he became president.

Wow. A lobby for in the farm bill. So we got this position since he became president. Wow. A lobby for in the farm bill. So we got this position in the farm bill that elevated civil rights at USDA to the highest office to report directly to the secretary. And that position lies dormant as we speak by the Trump administration. So people who are confused about what side of the coin they were on and does it really make a difference who you vote for. There's a position that's supposed to process complaints by black farmers and other minority farmers and government employees.

And that position lies dormant. So, you know, they're not processing any complaints if the head of that agency isn't even has not even been appointed. And we saw how fast they could operate rolling Roland, getting that Supreme Court justice in there. They got him in there within a matter of weeks. And here we are four years and they don't have that position filled. Speaking of that, you talked about during the Obama administration. Right now, Joe Biden is deciding who he's going to pick as his agricultural secretary. Congressman Jim Clyburn has been extremely vocal, saying he wants to see Congresswoman Marcia Fudge out of Ohio in that job.

He is considering Heidi Heitkamp, the former senator from South Dakota, but also Tom Vilsack, who was the secretary for eight years in agriculture for Obama, former governor of Iowa. Here's the thing that at that. First, I want to get your thoughts on that. But the thing I also want to explain to people is that the agriculture department only about 20 percent deals with agriculture. The agriculture, the USDA has actually one of the largest school building programs in America for rural areas. They have one of the, first of all, they have the largest federal bank out of all agencies. A lot of people have no clue really about the USDA. They oversee

the food stamp program, nutrition programs. But in this country, it's as if the agriculture folks, let's just be real clear, white farmers, they've taken the position that that's our position. We control that. Putting a Marsha Fudge, a black woman, a former mayor in Ohio, in that position could actually change how the USDA is run. Your thoughts about Biden considering Vilsack, who already was there for eight years. And some people said he was not as sympathetic to your organization and black farmers as he should have been. Absolutely correct, Roland. I want to go on record and say Tom Vilsack gave me a very, very hard time on all of those settlements. The black farmer settlement, the women's settlement,ettlement, and the Native American Farmers Settlement that owe us on that bill that I addressed earlier.

Secretary Vilsack wasn't on the Hill helping me campaign for that to pass that bill. He gave us a hard time. It wasn't open to a policy there. And I don't think Tom Vilsack is the right person for the job for Biden. So I know he supported him, but maybe they can send him somewhere else. We need some new fresh blood at the United States Department of Agriculture. And I spoke this past Friday, Lentley, with a conversation with Marsha Trudge, and she has the support of the black farmers. And I hope that she's tapped and given him and get the big call to come to USDA, because that's the kind of person that we need to change the historic discrimination patterns

at USDA and reverse the clocks and turn around and pull us in the right direction. I think Marcia Fudge is the right person for that job. To the point, again, for people who don't even understand the federal government, how expansive USDA is. It's the second largest budget of disposable income, only secondary to the Department of Defense. Wow. And they disperse more federal dollars in rural America than any and all of the banks put together. So all of the monies that you see out in rural America come from USDA programs, subsidy programs where black farmers are pretty much absent, the school lunch program, the food stamp program, meat and poultry inspection, gasoline prices.

All of those things are regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture. It's a hidden gem in the government, but white people know all about it. They know how to use it, and they're getting these subsidies. The top 10% receive over $1 million a year in farm subsidies, Roland, of your taxpayers' money. And they're always beating on black people about taking handouts, but you never see the farmers turn away those subsidy checks that are told out that many blacks that are eligible don't get. I have a three-page letter in there right now where I'm eligible under those payments for about $85,000. And they said,

hey, boy, you didn't score high enough to get the money. That's the type of hidden discrimination that I've been speaking about on your show and others for many, many years. you didn't score high enough to get the money. That's the type of hidden discrimination that I've been speaking about on your show and others for many, many years. It goes in an underlined way. They don't say, don't come out and say, boy, you don't get it because you're black. They use these other terminologies to keep us from getting the monies. And if you don't have the monies, you can't buy the land, you can't stay on the farm, you can't get your crop in the ground, and you can't compete. And that's why we've been losing land at three times greater rate than any other race in this country. And for all the blacks that follow you and listen to your show, go out and buy five acres in the country.

If you can afford a new Cadillac and Mercedes Benz, invest in some land, something God don't make no more of. So forget about the new cars and all those things. People staying at home anyway. Invest in some land. If they don't get anything from this interview, I want our people to start buying land again. All right, then. John Boyd, man, we certainly appreciate it. You know, you're always welcome to come on this show. It's always important for us to give you all a voice. Thank you for your voice, Roland, and thank you for making a difference for black America. All right, John Boyd, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Go back to my panel here. Julian, the point that John made, USDA, the second largest budget behind the Pentagon, that is major. And if a Marsha Fudge is over that department, that changes the view. Because I'm telling you, white farmers in America have treated the USDA as their personal piggy bank. Absolutely. Roland, more than that, we have lost, black people have lost like 90 percent of the land that we owned in 1910. We've lost it for any number of reasons, partially because of just chicanery. Brother Boyd has raised a number of questions about how our land has been lost and what needs to happen.

And if Marsha Fudge leads agriculture, we can begin to talk about reclaiming some of that land. I'm not saying all of it, but certainly some of it. But we've never had a secretary of agriculture before who's even thought that that made any sense. So that, brother, is nothing but the truth. And if Fudge got that, I can call her Fudge. She's my sword. She's my sister. So I can call her Congresswoman.

I'll call her Fudge. If Fudge got that situation, I know that she would do some things to make sure that we began to repair the theft of Black land. When you look at the numbers, it would frighten you. The Emergency Land Fund looked at the ways the numbers, it would frighten you. The emergency land fund looked

at the ways the land has been taken from our people. When we talk about the wealth gap, we have to talk about that. Bottom line is here, when we start breaking these things down here, Avis, for these positions, we really need to understand power. And that's why Congressman Clyburn has really been pushing Congresswoman Marcia Fudge for this position. And it could be a game changer. And I see what happens is we you know, we you know, for so many years, it was always HUD or HHS. But really, it was HUD that was the black position. This is a power position.

And so when you're talking about Heidi Heitkamp, who lost her U.S. Senate race, you're talking about Tom Vilsack out of Iowa. She's out of South Dakota. No, no, no, no, no, no. It's about time that you get that we get away from the ag secretary being somebody from Iowa or Georgia or one of those places. Completely agree. And, you know, one of the most important points that was raised in their interview was the high level of discretionary funds that exists at the Department of Agriculture. That's huge because as it relates to most funding mechanisms in the federal government, it is a very strict sort of application, grant writing, vetting, like all

these strings are tied to it. But because there is so much discretion there, you're exactly right that historically this has specifically left our communities out, while white farmers have just literally been bawling off of these checks. And if you look at what's happened most recently, specifically under this administration, when you've had Trump with his pseudo trade war with China. What he's actually done is just been writing checks after checks after checks. Billions of dollars. His trade war has increased the trade deficit.

It has caused soybean farmers and dairy farmers to file for bankruptcy. And he's just been giving billions, here y'all go, billions of dollars to them because of his dumbass trade war. Absolutely. That gives a completely new definition to welfare queen, right? Dumbass trade war.

But the thing is, hold on one second, Eugene, the problem here is that to John's point, Republicans don't want to see farm subsidies as welfare. No, that's welfare. Absolutely. It's welfare in its worst form. Because more times than not, it's corporate welfare, which means it's corporatism.

It's assistance that the average farmer probably won't even have access to, if we're being frank and honest about it. But these huge, you know, corporate conglomerates can go knock on the door and just get whatever they need. And it's sad to a degree. It's sad because, you know, Trump didn't have to launch those trade wars, just, you know, trying to satisfy his ego. And then, you know, the American taxpayers shouldn't have to foot the bill for Trump's trade wars. Absolutely. All right, folks, let's go to Ashland, Oregon, where a 47-year-old Richard Kagan has pleaded not guilty in the killing of 19-year-old Aiden Ellison. On November 23rd, around 4 a.m., Kagan and Ellison were both staying at the Statford Inn when Kagan confronted the team for playing his music too loud in the hotel's parking lot. At some point, Keegan then opened fire and shot Ellison in the chest, killing him at the scene. Keegan has been charged with first-degree manslaughter, second-degree murder,

unlawful possession of a weapon, and reckless endangerment. Folks, not only that story, check this one out. In Shirts, Texas, where officials have released video showing officers violently arresting a teen in front of his parents' home. According to the officers on November 2nd, 18-year-old Zaki Rayford ran a red light and failed to pull over. He drove a mile to his parents' house, got out of the car with his hands up. He ran towards the house and started crying out for his dad as cops violently beat him. Rayford's parents said their son drove to their house instead of immediately pulling over because he wanted to get to a safe place. Take a look at the video captured from Rayford's parents

doorbell security camera.. . . . . Bro, chill. What are y'all doing? Dad! Stop resisting, dude. Stop resisting. You're under arrest right now.

You wanna stand up? You're under arrest. Turn around. Put your hands behind your back. You guys all right? Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Ah! OK, OK. I'm going to get you out of here. Ah!

Oh! I can't breathe! Ah! I can't breathe! Ah! Ah! He's on your rep. He's on your rep.

I'm on your rep. I'm on your rep. I'm on your rep. He's on your rep. He's on your rep. He's on your rep. He's on your rep. He's on your rep.

He's on your rep. He's on your rep. He's on your rep. He's on your rep. He's on your rep. He's on your rep. He fled from us and he ran, okay? He just ran and then he ran. Calm down. Everybody calm down. I'm sorry I didn't know. I'm scared. He ran from us and he ran.

I did. I did. I did. I did. I did. I did. I did. I did. I did. I did. I did. You better relax. You're going to get it next. Promise you, you will.

When is he going to get next? You can hear in the video the male officer saying to Rayford's father, you better relax or you're going to get it next. I promise you, you will. That officer and the other two responding officers have been taken off patrol and have been reassigned pending an internal affairs investigation into the arrest. The night of the arrest, Rayford was charged with a felony of evading in a motor vehicle, resisting arrest and possession of marijuana. Go to our panel here. First of all, we're talking about both of these cases. First,

the Oregon case. This sounds very much, Avis, like the Jordan Davis case, where he was shot and killed in Florida. The guy who shot and killed him is now sitting in prison. He was convicted of murdering Jordan Davis. Of course, his mother is Congresswoman Lucy McBath. And so, I mean, this over loud music. So you mean to tell me that now an argument over loud music is worth you killing somebody? This is what we deal with. And frankly, putting these two together, Avis, that's why that kid didn't stop. Frankly, you notice something in that video there. The officers changed their attitude and they stopped kicking and beating the kid when that door opened. Yeah. So, um, I'm a mother of two sons. My youngest son is also named Aiden and it, um, I am completely, and I know Lucy McBeth and she's a friend of mine.

And this situation, the fact that our young men and women, but in these situations, young men continue to get lynched in this country is infuriating. And I have to tell you as a parent, seeing that last video that you just showed happening on my doorstep. I cannot imagine that happening on my doorstep, hearing my child, because you know, as a parent, you know your child's scream. I can't imagine me coming to the door unarmed, hearing my child screaming like that. And I can't imagine leaving that situation like that, either alive or also in handcuffs. Because there is no way on God's green earth that anybody's going to beat my child like that and get away with it.

So I have to say that his parents showed superhuman restraint. But if anybody needs to understand why there is such an outcry across this nation by black people as it relates to the inhumane, deadly, and just disgusting treatment that black people receive, both from police officers and random Joe citizens who decide they just want to kill our children in cold blood, you know, this is why. This is why people react like we do around this and why we fight for justice and will continue to fight for justice. But I cannot imagine, honestly, I cannot imagine the restraint that those parents showed

because I am telling you, something like that happening to one of my children would not have ended so peacefully. I can tell you that for a fact. Eugene. I mean, this is this is nothing know, until there's mechanisms in place to hold these police officers accountable, other than putting them on death's duty as as as we essentially wait to investigate ourselves is going to keep happening. I mean, the only literally the only thing that stopped them from continuing to kick this guy while he's already on the ground was, was the door opening. And that, and that within itself is indicative that they knew they were wrong because they didn't keep kicking them or they didn't accelerate when the door opened,

you know, they stopped, you know, they stopped, but we can even take it a step back. Right. You know, you know, quote unquote, you know, you know, the arrest is for, you know, he's invading, you know, evading with a car, you know, quote unquote, the arrest is for he's invading with a car. They're reaching for anything to justify what they did. They're reaching for anything to justify what they did. But I think literally there has to come a time here where situations like this leads to automatic firing. You know, I mean, it has to. It has to. situations like this leads to automatic firing. You know, I mean, it has to.

Automatic firing, and then you need to elect a good DA that will go after and prosecute situations like this. That was abuse. I mean, the bottom line here, Julian, in these two cases, first of all, the first case, that young brother is dead. And this brother here, the reason he didn't stop, because he didn't want to die. That's why he ran home. That's why you heard him screaming, dad, dad, dad. And the fact of the matter is, Julianne, look, that kid is likely still alive because he went home.

You know, I've had this situation, Davis, in my family. I have a 37-year-old nephew who's been roughed up by the police on more than one occasion for nothing, for nothing, because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, because he has my mouth, which is a problem. But, you know, young black men are constantly harassed and constantly placed in precarious positions. And there has to be something. And I tell you, I say this because my heart breaks. My Anya, I'm 67. He's 37. Um, he's my child, he's my heart. He's my total heart. And, um, he has had situations, like I said, he has my mouth, but that ain't the point.

You should be able to say something to somebody who's violating you. He's been handcuffed. He was on his way to a job interview, white shirt on, white shirt on, trying to do the right thing. Knocked down by a police officer who had the digits on his license

transposed. They fault. They had my baby boy locked up. And all of us have these stories. We all have these stories. And what we must know is that we must fight for justice. And when I saw the brother say, dad, dad, dad, I thought about Anya.

I thought about some of the things he's had to go through. And I think about all what our young people have to go through. And it breaks my heart in little bitty pieces. Because I know that no matter who and what our children are and who or what they do, who their parents are, it does not matter to these devils. And let me call it, Roland, devils who will go behind our children and do whatever they can to them and get away with it, and get away with it. So what must we do? We are grateful for the people with the cameras, basically, who collect it.

We are grateful to the people who talk about it. But we must be a community that says no blocking more. No blocking more because too many of our children, too many of our children have been placed in peril. And like I said, it's personal for me. I got these two boys. I got these two boys. And if anything happened to either one of them, somebody going out. I totally understand, folks. Yesterday was the 44th birthday of Chadwick Boseman, the great actor. He passed away in August of colon cancer.

Many people were paying tribute to him on social media yesterday. We live streamed a number of our interviews and specials that we did with Chadwick Boseman. Unbelievable brother. And it was three years ago, September, when he returned to Howard University. This was the first time Chadwick had been back on the campus of Howard University since he graduated. And he was absolutely shocked and stunned by the reaction. Just wanted to share some of this with you. All right, Pam.

Next up, y'all have seen, who saw the movie House Party? Who saw Boomerang? Who saw that movie with the white boxer and Sam Jackson, the black boxer? That was like Mayweather, Conor McGregor. The Great White Hike. You've seen his brother's movie. Who saw it? Did you saw Django? He was a producer on Django. He is the visionary behind this project. He is the director. He's the producer. He's the H.N. I've seen. He is from St. Louis, graduate of Harvard. Put your hands together for Reggie Hudlin.

Come out with that Hollywood pimp walk. The next person, you've seen this brother play Jackie Robinson. He'll be starring in the movie Black Panther. Unfortunately, he's not here. He has a video. Chadwickzeman! You know! Man, these niggas are about to run out of here by playing video. I got y'all on that video. I got y'all in that video. First off, we were backstage, and every five minutes, y'all shouted, y'all were laughing, y'all reacting. And Reggie was like, what are they doing?

I'm like, boo, they're watching the movie. How'd y'all like marching? Reggie, I want to start with you. How's your life, Arsham? Reggie, I want to start with you. Is that the reaction you always dreamed of when you decided that you wanted to make this movie? First of all, thank you all for having us here. And thank Howard for making great men like Thurgood Marshall and like Chadwick Boseman. Who's going to follow in their footsteps? All right. What you saying, Roland? going to follow in their footsteps. All right. What you saying, Roland?

Yes. Their reaction. See, you're getting old. You forgot the question. Was that the reaction when you thought about this film, when you wanted to make this film, to visualize that type of response when those final credits rolled up, how they responded?

Honestly, it was bigger than I expected. And you guys just really, you made my night, you made my week just now. Because we saw you. No, I mean, yeah, just your response to the movie because you get it. You got it on every level. And I really appreciate you and I'm grateful for the love.

Because, you know, you make a movie with blood. You know, you put your blood, sweat, and tears in it, and you put it out there, and you hope people respond to it the way you all did. So, look, as far as I'm concerned, I'm a success because of what just happened tonight. So thank you. Chadwick.

Ruben has it in the Barack Obama movie, you're gonna play Barack Obama too. I don't know if there's any more black historical figures you cannot play. James Brown, Jackie Robinson, you played a light-skinned Thurgood Marshall. Reggie's hit all the light-skinned actors in Hollywood mad as hell. They're like, that was the one movie we had! It's Reggie's fault, it's not my fault. They're like, that was the one movie we had! It's Reggie's fault, it's not my fault. They are mad. So Taylor, talk about the fact that, again, if you take Jackie Robinson, you take James Brown,

Thurber Marshall is, and you being be in Black Panther when he gets to be in 2018, but Th period in the NAACP, because he was the only attorney running around for them at that point. There wasn't a budget for a staff of attorneys. So if something was happening in Mississippi and he couldn't get there because he was dealing with something in Birmingham, in Columbia, Tennessee, then that person basically ended up, you know, not being able to get out of that trouble. So he was dealing with the same thing superheroes deal with. How can I save as many people as possible from disaster? And that's a superhero concept. How do I deal with time and space in a way that is not actually human?

It's superhuman. And so that's what Thurgood Marshall had to deal with in that time period. Of course, later on, he had a staff of attorneys. He had people working in different places. But he had to spearhead this, essentially, the legal aspect of the civil rights movement. Derek, when this movie opens up, one of the first things we see

is that logo of the NAACP. And what's very interesting to me is when I talk to people, I was just slapping somebody on Twitter last week. It's a daily occurrence. And the brother's like, man, I don't want to hear anything about the NAACP. They're not doing anything. And then I began talking about Reverend Dr. William Barber and what others are doing across this country. And I don't really think we look at a Thurgood Marshall

in that sort of superhero way. But that's really when he came to town, black folks literally greeted him like when you're watching Batman or one of those movies, like, here comes this brother to save the day. Yeah, no, that's the reality of the NAACP today. The movie ended with a scene in Clarksdale, Mississippi. If you think about the NAACP and the work that Thurgood Marshall did,

but the work that's going on now is in small towns and communities across the landscape. Just last week, Roland, we talked about a brother that was been in jail for 10 years without a hearing. Haven't been found guilty of anything, never had a hearing. It's the NAACP that's in Dalton, Alabama, supporting that case to get him out of jail because he's in pretrial detention. But also the work of Thurgood Marshall created a scenario where we elected a brother in Columbus, Mississippi to be DA, and he released several people who have been sitting in jail without a hearing. One brother, 11 years without a trial. So the work of Thurgood Marshall then is still impacting us today as young people, as activists, as

aspiring lawyers. We shouldn't run to where the lights are because people see that problem in DC sometime or in the big cities. We have to go where the need is. And the need oftentimes is in rural, small communities across the landscape. This is the third Q&A. Go right ahead. This is the third Q&A I've done with Reggie, two with Chad,

and the first time with Eric and so. It's a lot of the questions we've gone over. Folks, if you want to actually see, if you want to catch that old Q&A, we restreamed it over the weekend. All you got to do is simply go to our YouTube channel. Just type in Roland Martin, Chatwick, Bozeman, Howard, or Marshall, and you'll actually see

that there were actually a couple that we did. And so you can check that out. And so, again, Chatwick was a phenomenal brother. And we did interviews with him for the movie 42, for Marshall as well. We have all of that content. Remember, we did a three-hour tribute the Monday after he passed away in August. You can also go to our YouTube channel and check that out. We restreamed that over the weekend as well.

Our, of course, way to pay homage to him. Certainly, prayers for his widow, for his parents and his family as well. And so, of course, as many people, of course, celebrated the 44th birthday yesterday of Chadwick Boseman. All right, folks, for black women, actually, we've come back for black women, the road to executive positions in corporate America. It's not always easy. Coming up next, we'll talk with a book author who has some tips for sisters when it comes to surviving and thriving in corporate America that is next on Roland Martin unfiltered all right so a lot of y'all always asking me about terms some of the pocket squares that I wear now I don't know Rob I don't have one on now I don't particularly like the white pocket squares. I don't like even the silk ones.

So I was reading GQ magazine a number of years ago, and I saw this guy who had this pocket square here, and it looks like a flower. This is called a shibori pocket square. This is how the Japanese manipulate the fabric to create this sort of flower effect. So I'm going to take it out and then place it in my hand so you see what it looks like. And I said, man, this is pretty cool. And so I tracked down the, it took me a year to find a company that did it. And so they make these about 47 different

colors. And so I love them because again, as men, we don't have many accessories to wear. So we don't have many options. And so this is really a pretty cool pocket screen. And what I love about this here is you saw when it's in the pocket, you know, it gives you that flower effect like that. But if I wanted to also, unlike other, because if I flip it and turn it over, it actually gives me a different type of texture. And so, therefore, it gives me a different look. So, there you go. So, if you actually want to get one of these Shibori pocket squares, we have them in 47 different colors.

All you got to do is go to rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So, it's rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares all you got to do is go to my website uh and you can actually get this now for those of you who are members of our bring the funk fan club there's a discount for you to get our pocket squares that's why you also got to be a part of our bring the funk fan club uh and so that's what we want you to do and so it's pretty cool so if you want to jazz your look up, you can do that. In addition, y'all see me with some of the feather pocket squares. My sister who is a designer, she actually makes these.

They're all custom made. So when you also go to the website, you can also order one of the customized feather pocket squares right there at RolandSMartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So please do so. And, of course, that goes to support the show. And again, if you're a Bring the Funk fan club member, you get a discount. This is why you should join the fan club. All right, folks, how to survive and thrive in corporate America. That is, has always been a very difficult issue that African-Americans have faced, especially black women as well. There's only been one black woman who's actually been the head of a Fortune 500 company. That was Ursula Jones at Xerox. So my next author has a book out that deals with that. It's called No Thanks, Seven Ways to Say I'll Just

Include Myself. It is, again, a new book out by Michelle Smith that has tips on how to deal with racism, bias, and microaggression in the workplace. Michelle, certainly glad to have you here. So this is an issue that a lot of people are talking about even now, even in the wake of the George Floyd death. Everybody's talking about all these DNI positions that are available. We're still seeing sisters deal with the kind of bias in corporate America where you have, frankly, largely white men still running the show. Absolutely, Roland. Thanks so much for having me on your show. And you're right. These companies are built with white males at the center. They are centered. They were not built

with us in mind. So we can't even begin to think that the kind of change that even some of these companies are trying to make will even begin to solve our problems. It's a long way to go. So what do you do in the meantime? You have to do some self-talk. And there are some sisters who have made it. So I've turned to them. And based on my experience in corporate America and as a serial entrepreneur, I offer some tips. And so what's the most important thing that jumps out? Absolutely. The hero or the heroine in the book is knowing your value. And that starts with knowing yourself.

So many of us are jumping to trying to be our most authentic selves, but we don't know who we are. And that starts with some very hard self-reflection and knowing your story. And it also begins with understanding that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. No matter what you believe, you have to know that your value starts with that, and that means you're entitled. So when you get that together and understand the threads from your past, for me, it's a passion for technology, a passion for business, and a passion for culture. You can begin to weave together your value and walk tall in your power. That's the first thing. We're also, your sister's also dealing with lack of mentors. I mean, the reality is the higher you grow up in corporate America, it gets thinner and thinner. And even now in 2020, there are very few black people who are at the top in many of these companies.

Absolutely. And what I found is there is a gaping hole in the center of the leadership pipeline. And what's spewing out of that hole? Women, but especially women of color and black women at a more startling rate. We have women who are pushed out. We have those who have just given up because, you know, a gee whiz, I'm just not going to excel. So I'm starting my own business. The U.S. Census says that black women are starting more businesses than any other group. But here's the thing. You do need your mentors. You need sponsorship, too. And you also need the peers who can be your eyes and ears. I like to say that you need air cover and ground cover. But the problem is that women have heard this, black women have

heard this, but they don't know how to do it. There are steps to it and you need to activate this tribe. Most of us will assemble these folks, but we won't ever call them. Good point there. I got my panelists here. I'm going to start with Avis Jones-DeWeaver. Avis, what is your question for Michelle Smith? Hi, Michelle. How are you? Hi. Glad to see this book. Always important to discuss these issues. I'm interested with your research. If you are finding what I've seen myself in terms of a pattern in corporate America, to the degree that there seems to be a focus on issues of diversity and issue of women, it seems to almost exclusively be relegated to white women getting all the spoils. So I'm interested in your research and your book. Are you finding similarly

that the companies seem to be so much more interested in quote unquote gender diversity than racial diversity, for example. And to the degree that they look at gender diversity, they pretty much only see it in a way that benefits our white counterparts. Absolutely. And you know what? This goes back to the problem with DE&I or diversity, equity and inclusion programs. They try to make one broad sweep, one broad swipe at everyone. And they miss the fact that diversity means that you have your uniqueness. And so when there was this big push just recently to get into gender equality, they didn't think about the intersectionality of women. And that's not just about race.

There are all sorts of boxes to be checked. LGBTQIA, there is accessibility issues. No one wants to dig that deeply. And that's one of the problems with these DE&I programs. And then you have companies that try to separate gender equality from racial equality or their other diversity efforts when it came to culture, race, and ethnicity. And you know what? It just won't work like that. Julianne Malveaux.

Julianne, what's your question for Michelle? Michelle, I was wondering about the ways that we talk about equity in the context of political equality. What kind of conversations can we have and can we not have in the workplace? In other words, people are often willing to just lump women into a basket, and they expect us all to be able to have the same conversations. How do we have different conversations that empower each other? Well, you know, first of all, we can't just turn to the people who are oppressed for all the answers.

It really is a matter of the people who are in charge, the ones who are leading, to push themselves to learn more than they already do. And the problem actually lies within the fact that their immediate communities do not consist of different people. And you hit the nail on the head, Ms. Malveaux, when you said that we're different. You can't just come at women's issues and think you're going to take a broad brush at everyone. You can't do that. And the fact that these people, these leaders, are living in bubbles and they bring their whole selves to work with them, that's what we say, right?

They come to work with their experiences. And if their experiences are limited, they're going to act in limited ways and put policies in place that are very limited. And Craig? So, and I agree with you. You can't expect the press to have all the answers. So I guess my question is,

how can Black men be an ally to Black women specifically in this space? Ah, I'm so glad you asked that. That's great. First of all, Black men need to understand there is a difference. And I think up until now that we've been lumped together just as black folks. And I understand it.

Many of us have some of the same cultural background. But you know what? Just like black folks, period. We are not a monolith. So there are some gender-specific issues. We as double outsiders is what Catalyst called us that we have as women that black men can be on the lookout for. And I always like to say when you see something, say something, because black men actually do have this one little thing over us and that's gender. And you can relate with white men in a way, it may be limited, but even a bit more than we can. Yeah, real limited.

Real limited. But it is there. It's very nuanced. So if you are in a meeting and you see that a woman, a woman is being mansplained or whitesplained, it is up to you to speak up. And the book actually talks about how you need to speak up, even though you might decide that someone may call you angry or hard to work with, you've got to speak up. And the way you can do that is to build your confidence leaning outside of that organization in order to lean into the organization. And that means you need to have multiple streams of income. You need to have more than one egg in a basket. You need to have other opportunities knocking on your door

so that you can go into that situation and speak for the greater good and not fear for your livelihood. Also, I think it's important also, at the end of the day, we talk about it a lot, real simple, and that is providing opportunities. I mean, the rally is recognized. It's very easy to see when something doesn't make any sense. And that is, look, there have been times when, look, I remember whether it's this show, I had my TV One show, I would sit there. And actually, when my TV One show, I had damn near all female staff and I'll be sitting and looking at the show rundown. I'm like, uh, I don't want to see him mostly dudes.

Yeah. And it was interesting. And I would go, and again, it's so when you're cognizant of that, because the reality is when you're black, you're trained to see everybody. You're trained to see, is it mostly men? Is it mostly women? Is it black people, white people, Latinos? You know what your place is. So it's not actually hard to see, is it mostly men? Is it mostly women? Is it black people, white people, Latinos? You know what your place is

so it's not actually hard to see it. Somebody just has to be willing to actually say something to spot it. Well, and you know what, Roland, you bring up a great point because it's a chapter in the book that looks at the layers of privilege and there are all sorts of privileges. There's white privilege, of course. We talk about that, but there are other

layers of privilege that allow you to center that. And the thing is that we all have to be a part to center someone or some group of people. And the fact is that people of color or even people who are of a different gender or what have you center this power center. So sometimes we are bought in and you will see that there are women who will buy into this paternal white power center and work within that system to disenfranchise people who look like them or even have the same gender. I say all skin folk and kin folk and Karen will call the manager on you. Real damn quick. All right, folks. The book is, again,

Seven Ways to Say No. I'll just include myself. It is a guide to rock star leadership for women of color in the workplace by L. Michelle Smith. Michelle, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you for having me, Roland. All right, thank you so very much. All right, folks me, Roland. All right. Thank you so very much.

All right, folks. We're almost done here. Let me do this here. I got to give a shout out to my mom. 73rd birthday. Imelda Martin. Today's her birthday. Go to iPad, please.

And so she turned 73 years old today. Hanging out with the family. We did a Zoom family birthday yesterday because of obviously COVID. Normally we're together. My sister and my dad hooked her up with their meal today. So they're real happy at home, kicking it, having a little fun. And so my sister did all this designing stuff. And so you'll see in a second.

This was what greeted her. Hold on. No, go back. Go back. Go back. I wasn't done. Go back. My Lord. So there you go. All right. We need to show. My goodness, man. Y'all too. Lord wasn't done. Go back, my Lord.

So there you go. All right. We need to show. My goodness, man. Y'all too. Lord. All right. Now you can come back. So again, shout out to my mom.

Turned 73 years old today. All right, folks. If y'all want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered, please do so by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. I'll go by the end of the month, by the end of December, to have 20,000 of our fans join our club. Right now, we the end of December, to have 20,000 of our fans join our club. Right now we're at about 15,000. And so what you can do is you can go to Cash App, dollar sign RM Unfiltered,

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we give a personal shout outs on the show. I have not opened all of these yet. So I will be giving y'all the shout outs tomorrow on the show. And so we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Avis Julian, Eugene. Thanks a bunch as well for joining us on the show. And, again, I said this here.

We'll be go back, go back, go back. Go back to the two. Thank you very much. And so to our panel, Lord, I mean, oh, Anthony getting all excited today. And so I said this to our panel the other day, and that is all of our panelists, I'm going to be shooting you all some gear. And so in terms of our show hats, beanies, zip-ups, hoodies as well, for being on the panel, so we certainly appreciate that.

Thank you so very much. And so look for the e-mail from Jackie Clark real soon so we can send it to you. So thanks a bunch. To the rest of you, folks. We said happy birthday. All right, we'll do it to you. So thanks a bunch. To the rest of you, folks. We said happy birthday. All right, we'll do. We'll do. We'll do. She watching, so hell, you can tell her right now.

She watching. Happy birthday. There you go. All right, folks, we got to go. We'll see y'all tomorrow right here at Rolling Martin Unfiltered. Holla! Holla! I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time,

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We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care.

Visit adoptuskids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an iHeart podcast.