#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Cuomo resigns; COVID spike among kids; $1T infrastructure bill passes Senate; Nextdoor HBCU Connect

Episode Date: August 11, 2021

8.10.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigns; Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy talks COVID spike among kids, mask mandates; $1T infrastructure bill passes Senate; Texas Supreme Court allows for arrests of Democrats who fled the state; The Great Resignation: Americans are leaving their jobs at record numbers; Controversy surrounding DaBaby continues; Nextdoor HBCU Connect at Clark AtlantaSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Today is Tuesday, August 10th, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin on the filter. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned today after explosive sexual harassment allegations leveled against him in a devastating report from the Attorney General of New York, Tish James, will break down what it all means. Also earlier today, I talked with Surgeon General Vivek Murtha about COVID-19 variants and the importance of mask mandates. Of the months of negotiations, the U.S. Senate finally passes the historic $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Guess what?

A lot of Republicans voted for, including Mitch McConnell, will tell you what's in it and how it impacts African Americans in Texas as expected. The all Republican State Supreme Court rejects the request from House Democrats to overturn Governor

Greg Abbott's retaliatory veto on funding for the state legislature, but also ruled that they can also be arrested in the state for not showing up to this special session. More and more people are looking at resigning from their jobs rather than going back to the office to working from home. We'll break that whole thing down. Plus, we'll continue our conversation about the debate about DaBaby, his comments regarding homosexuality, HIV and AIDS, and what it means for black men. Cleo Monago will be joining us to talk about that. Plus, we'll talk with some students from Clark Atlanta University

as part of our HBCU Connect series sponsored by Nextdoor. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin and Philin and filter let's go he's got it whatever the miss he's on it whatever it is Puttin' it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rollin' Yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roll-Roll-Yell Yeah, yeah

It's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Rollin' Martin I'M ROLLING NOW. YEAH. HE'S BULK, HE'S FRESH, HE'S REAL, THE BEST YOU KNOW. HE'S ROLLING MARTEN NOW. MARTEN.

WELL, HE TRIED TO HOLD ON AS LONG AS HE COULD BUT NEW YORK GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO COULD NOT WITHSTAND THE MASSIVE PRESSURE CALLING ON HIM TO RESIGN ONE WEEK AFTER NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL LATISHA JAMES RELEASED A DAMNING REPORT THAT BROKE DOWN AND

CONFIRMED ALLEGATIONS HE SEXUALLY HARASSED 11 WOMEN. TODAY CUOMO APPEARED BEFORE THE CAMERAS TO EXPLAIN WHY HE WAS Today, Cuomo appeared before the cameras to explain why he was stepping down and why it would be the best thing for the citizens of New York. This is one of the most challenging times for government in a generation. Government really needs to function today. Government needs to perform. It is a matter of life and death, government operations. And wasting energy on distractions is the last thing that state government should be doing.

And I cannot be the cause of that. New York tough means New York loving. And I love New York. And I love you. And everything I have ever done has been motivated by that love. And I would never want to be unhelpful in any way. And I think that given the circumstances, the best way I can help now is if I step aside and let government get back to governing. And therefore, that's what I'll do. Because I work for you. And doing the right thing is doing the right thing for you. Because as we say, it's not about me, it's about we. Kathy Hochul, my lieutenant governor, is smart and competent. This transition must be seamless. We have a lot going on. I'm very worried about the Delta variant, and so should you be. But she can come up to speed quickly, and my resignation will be effective in 14 days.

Cuomo has been governor since 2011. His resignation will be effective in 14 days. New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, who would have presided over Cuomo's impeachment, released the following statement. He said, this has been a tragic chapter in our state's history. Governor Cuomo's resignation is the right decision. The brave women who stepped forward were heard. Everyone deserves to work in a harassment-free environment. I was spoken with Lieutenant Governor Hochul, and I look forward to working with her. When Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul takes over as governor, she'll become the first female governor of New York State. This is a dramatic downfall for Andrew Cuomo. Last year, many lauded him for his daily news conferences dealing with COVID-19. Then the criticism mounted with regarding to deaths in nursing homes in New

York State. Also, a highly profitable book that he also released. Some criticized the Emmys for giving him a special Emmy. Then these allegations hit. Keep in mind, he was talking about, he talked about in many circles, as a presidential or vice presidential candidate. He was planning on running for a third term. That is all gone. The 63-year-old Cuomo, who followed in the footsteps of his father, Mario Cuomo, as governor of New York State, coming from a politically connected family, leaves now in disgrace. Joining us now, Dr. Robert Collins. He's a professor of urban studies and public policy

at DeLong University. Mustafa Santiago Ali, former senior advisor for environmental justice at the EPA. Kelly Bethea, communications strategist. Robert, I want to start with you. A dramatic downfall for a figure who, again, many said was destined for greater things in national politics. People praised his leadership, his tough talk, willingness to take on Donald Trump and other Republicans. All of that is gone. Can Andrew Cuomo recover politically? No, I don't really see any realistic chance for him to recover from this. Here's the situation. Even though he continues to deny the allegations, and even though his lawyer went on television today and had a long press conference detailing their case.

The simple reality is this. He was going to be impeached, he was going to be convicted, and he was going to be removed from office. He's a smart politician, he's a pragmatic politician. He reached out to his allies in the legislature and he realized he didn't have any. All of his former allies were gone, and they told him, look, Governor, there's no way we can be with you on this one. So the simple reality for him is that the votes were not there. He said he was going to fight. Up until 48 hours ago, he said, I will not resign. But the reality is,

he talked to the assembly members, he talked to the Senate members, and they told him, if you do not resign, you will be impeached, you will be convicted, you will be removed from office, and that's that. So his only choice was, what is my legacy? Do I want to go ahead and resign and then have some possibility of recycling my image, start working on that now? Or do I want to be impeached, convicted, and removed? Obviously, he figured resignation was the best way to go. But either way, he was going to go. I mean, there's no question about it. The thing here, Kelly, is that Cuomo said this was political retaliation, that it was dirty tricks from his opponents. The problem is that the women who criticized him were women who worked

for him, women who were right next to him, a woman who was a state trooper on his security detail, another woman who was an executive assistant in his administration. And so it's a little hard to say these were your political opponents. These were people who supported you. They worked for him. Exactly that. And that was going to be my point with all of this. Between what his remarks were and what his lawyers remarks were, it just felt like they were grasping at straws to try and assuage people into thinking that this wasn't as big of a deal as it is, like you said, that this was a political attack. But sexual harassment isn't political. It's criminal.

Sexual harassment has no party. It is an action in which is illegal and certainly unethical. And for Cuomo to basically use politics as a scapegoat for his own behavior, whether you like him politically or not, it's simply wrong, because, frankly, all of this could have been avoided if he just kept his hands to himself. You have women on national television being interviewed by world-renowned reporters saying that the governor of New York stuck his hand down a woman's blouse, thinking that he was going to get away with it, because he was the governor of New York.

I don't know if anyone recalls around, I want to say 2011, around the time that when he was new in his term, where he literally said on the radio, I am the government. And granted, it was a one-off statement. You know, he was being sarcastic, but there was some truth to that in that he thought he was above reproach. He thought he was above accountability. And all of this that has happened in the past few weeks and, regarding this particular matter proves that he is not, that he is a man like anybody else who should be held accountable like anybody else. But like I said, all of this could have been avoided had he just simply kept his hands to himself and respected the women around him the way he purported to respect the women around him. This is someone who was a secretary of HUD in the administration of President Clinton. He, as I said, that his father was the governor of New York.

A couple of terms. And again, I'm sorry, three terms. And he wanted to make history here, Mustafa, as a four-term governor. That's what he wanted. He wanted also to pave his way towards the White House. That's all gone. We're living now in a Me Too world. We're living in a world where women are demanding to be heard, to be respected. And not only that, the 165-page report from Attorney General Tish James also laid out how he and members of his staff retaliated against one woman from her allegations. And so that was the also what stood out, the unlawful retaliation. Those were damning allegations. And he simply had no support anywhere. Well, nor should he have any support. You know, you have to respect people's face.

You have to respect women's bodies, respect everybody's bodies, actually. And if you're serious about making a run for the presidency or any of these other high-level positions, then you know there's going to be serious investigation. So if this didn't come out in this moment, it would have came out down the road if he decided to continue to follow his aspirations. So if you're serious about wanting to hold those, then, as know, as Kelly said, and as my mama taught me when I was little, you know, keep your hands to yourself. And the other thing about this that we have to call out is that the folks who are there in the

New York Assembly did the right thing by saying that if you are not going to resign, then we are going to impeach you. Now, we should also expect the exact same thing from folks in Congress when they allow President Trump to get away with many of these same types of behaviors and some even more egregious based upon the stories that have been shared. So we got to make sure that justice is across the board. And again, one of the things that we are seeing here, we're seeing how folks are saying enough. That was a prominent attorney on the Time's Up board who was forced to resign because she gave some advice on a memo that was never released by the Coral team. In fact, and I'm looking for the story right now, the top LGBT organization, HRC, they have launched an investigation into one of their

members, into one of their members. We lost Mustafa, so we'll get him right back. So just come back to me, please. And so I'm looking for the story. So the head of HRC, Robert, is under investigation for what he did in advising the Cuomo folks. Again, what this says, anybody that has gotten near New York Governor Andrew Cuomo very well will be burned. Well, certainly, certainly anyone that's used any unethical means to assist him is going to be in trouble. You know, obviously, you know, all citizens are entitled to due process. He has the right to an attorney. If there are criminal charges, we don't know if there will be or not. He certainly has the right to an attorney. If there are criminal charges, we don't know if there will be or not. He certainly has the right to a defense. But certainly any political insiders, any corporate insiders, any nonprofit insiders that have helped him behind the scenes, that have used inside information to assist him, yes,

I believe they will be in trouble. There is an ongoing investigation. It's important to keep in mind, just because he resigns, that doesn't mean the investigations stop. The investigations go forward. So we don't know what the results of those investigations will be. So even though we know he won't be governor, we don't know the final result of these investigations. And so I strongly suspect as we unravel these threads, we will see that there are more people that are going to be involved with protecting the governor. And I think some other folks are going to find themselves in difficulty. One of the things that often happens in cases like this, Kelly, is you will hear people say, why move forward? Folks got what they wanted with him resigning. That's pretty much what he said in his 21-minute speech, that this would be extremely costly.

The process, it would cost millions. The money could be better spent by the government. So really what he is hoping, and we often see this in Congress as well, where people by resigning, then that stops everything. And so now it's unclear if there's going to be an impeachment. They could still impeach him even though he's resigned. Remember, he said my resignation is not effective for 14 days. They could literally impeach him in the next 14 days. They could, and that is the assembly's prerogative. I don't have necessarily a comment as to whether they should or shouldn't, because there's still a criminal

aspect here in that if the allegations hold, he sexually assaulted somebody. It was sexual harassment on the criminal side as well. So whether he is held accountable by the legislature, again, they have, that is their prerogative whether they move forward or not. But if the logic behind him resigning was to avoid impeachment, and it was understood by the assembly that it was to avoid impeachment, it would kind of be like just, I don't want to say unnecessary, but it would be a cost to the New York state taxpayer if they do that. Again, it is the assembly's prerogative as to whether they do or don't. But on a criminal side of things, he should absolutely still be held accountable. If charges are brought, the allegations are such that it is possible that he could be convicted of a misdemeanor such as sexual harassment.

And that is something that he has to answer to because if these allegations hold, that's something that he did and needs to be held accountable for, whether he was governor or not. All right, folks, let's talk what happened in D.C. today. A huge infrastructure bill that was passed by the United States Senate after months of negotiations. The Senate passed the $1.2 trillion bill for investment and jobs. Vice President Kamala Harris ventured down to the U.S. Capitol to oversee the proceedings. On this vote, the ayes are 69, the nays are 30. The bill, as amended, is passed. The passage was by a wide bipartisan majority, 69 to 30, 19 Republican senators voting in favor of the bill, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. President Joe Biden believes

this bill will make a difference in the lives of all Americans. I truly believe that this bill LITERATE, MITCH McCONNELL. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN BELIEVES THIS BILL WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF ALL AMERICANS. I TRULY BELIEVE THAT THIS BILL PROVES THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE WILL BE HEARD. AND WE CAN ALL COME TOGETHER TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN PEOPLE'S LIVES. AS YOU HEARD ME SAY IT BEFORE, AND I APOLOGIZE FOR REPEATING IT, BUT THERE ARE NO REPUBLICAN BRIDGES OR DEMOCRATIC ROADS. I apologize for repeating it, but there are no Republican bridges or Democratic roads. This is a moment that lives beyond the headlines, beyond partisan soundbites, beyond the culture of instant outrage, disinformation, and conflict as entertainment. This is about us doing the real hard work of governing. It's about democracy delivering for the people.

It's about winning the future. It's about doing our job. The bill includes $550 billion in new federal investments in America's infrastructure over the next five years. The bill earmarks $10 billion for roads, bridges, and major infrastructure projects, $40 billion for bridge repair, replacement and rehabilitation. $39 billion to modernize public transit. $65 billion to improve the nation's broadband infrastructure. $17 billion in port infrastructure and $25 billion in airports to address repair and maintenance backlog. $7.5 billion goes towards zero and low emissions buses and ferries. $73 billion is allocated to rebuilding the electric grid and $21 billion to clean up Superfund and Brownfield sites, reclaim abandoned mine land and cap orphan gas wells. The bill still has to pass in the House before President Biden can officially sign it into law.

What's interesting here, Robert, is that this was a priority of the Biden administration. But if you look at polling, his numbers are going down. I just saw an item where they said as Biden moves to the left, his polling numbers go down. But the reality is this here. Republicans voted for this bill. He's going to be able to go to Kentucky and say, clearly, you're a sinner like this bill. Rob Portman in Ohio like this bill.

The question, though, is will Democrats know how to properly message this win? I think back to 2009, how President Obama was utterly clueless when it came to messaging around the stimulus bill there that saved the country, and they got no benefit from it because he acted as if, oh, people will figure this thing out. No, you have to sell it. Well, yes. And I think the president's poll numbers have been going down, not because of infrastructure. They've primarily been going down because of issues with immigration and the border and some COVID response issues. The reason why there were so many Republicans on this bill is because those Republicans realized that within their individual states, infrastructure polls very well, especially

hard infrastructure, you know, bridges, roads, highways, water systems. That's very popular with constituents, both Democrats and Republicans. Now, of course, we have to see what's in this bill. Even though we know the broad strokes, the devil is in the details. And this is a very long, complex bill. And there were a lot of amendments added at the last minute. So, for example, people down in South Louisiana, where I live, are going to be looking to see what's in there exactly for water issues and flood control and levee protection, hurricane protection, et cetera. historically is always very popular. And in the past, the Democrats have not done a good job of messaging and packaging and selling the bill. And that's going to be very important. And they have to start doing it right now, because keep in mind, this bill hasn't passed

as it's passed the Senate, but it still has to go over to the House. And you don't want to have any recalcitrant House members cause problems. And the way you avoid problems in the House is you start selling the bill now, so that the House members realize, OK, this is, you know, I may think the price tag's too big, but this is going to be popular with my know, with my constituents back in my district, you know, and I want to be reelected. So I'm going to go ahead and sign on to the bill. So, yeah, they have to they have to put on the hard press and the lobbyists from the White House have to be over and, you know, putting on the hard press now, basically today.

They also have to make sure that with all of this money being spent, Kelly, that they are making sure that it's going to diverse communities. I've been making the point to this White House, if you're going to be spending billions of dollars, if you talk about supporting these labor unions, you better make sure that Black folks are going to be getting this money as well.

What this cannot be is a $1.2 trillion investment from taxpayers, and only white folks get paid. Exactly. And that is my main concern with this bill. Where exactly is this money going to go? Because when you talk about infrastructure, like you said, people think, you know, trains and roads and highways and the like. But the highways and the areas that need the most help are in urban communities or are in predominantly Black and people of color neighborhoods, whether it's rural or urban. Those are the roads that really need help. Those are the ones that have cracked pipes and potholes and just not sustainable for travel, transportation

or anything. We need to understand that when we talk about infrastructure, I'm thinking about the bridge down in D.C. where I live right now. The Benning Road Bridge collapsed a couple months ago. And this is something in that bill that could help with that situation. It hits closer to home than most people think. And when you talk about messaging, something that Republicans do really well is drive it home. They don't, you know, use jargon that's kind of very academic or nuanced. They drive the point home to make it applicable to where people are right now. Democrats don't do that right now. If anything, they only cater, at least from what I see,

the messaging only caters to those who are in their own respective circles, and not to those who actually desire to vote for Democrats. So when it comes to messaging, meet people where they are, especially when it comes to this bill. You get a better road. You get better transportation. You get better bridges. You know, you're trying to get to work, and the bridge is rickety.

Your bridge is going to get better. Your bridge is going to get fixed. It's not just a, you know, just this pie in the sky dream of kumbaya or anything like that. We need to really drive the point home that this bill will work for you specifically. Mustafa, again, look, if the House passes it, one of the first things Biden's got to do is hit the road and sell it hard. And my deal is do what Reverend Barber does with the Poor People's Campaign. Put the workers up front. That's what you do.

Go to the people. This was one of the biggest mistakes that Obama made when he FIRST BILLS THAT WAS PASSED IN 2009. HE AND THEN HIS WHITE HOUSE LATER ADMITTED THEY DID NOT SELL THE BILL AS A WIN. DEMOCRATS ARE GOING TO HAVE TO SPEAK TO THE PEOPLE IN A VERY BASIC WAY TO SAY WE TOOK CONTROL OF THE WHITE HOUSE, THE HOUSE AND THE SENATE AND WE DELIVER IT FOR THE EVERYDAY PERSON AND YOU GOT TO BE ABLE TO BREAK THOSE THINGS DOWN. THAT'S WHAT THEY GOT TO BE ABLE TO DO. the House and the Senate, and we deliver it for the everyday person. And you've got to be able to break those things down. That's what they've got to be able to do. You've got to message this thing right.

Right. You've got to be able to have a conversation with folks in Appalachia and in Rust Belt and on the Gulf Coast and in the breadbasket. You've got to help folks understand where the wins are for them, how their life is going to be made better, how their economic situation is going to be better. There's a lot of good things that are inside of this bipartisan bill. But, you know, one of the things that I always call out is the lead pipes, because we saw what happened in Flint,

Michigan. So we need to make sure that those 3,000 locations across our country, folks understand that their kids are not going to be impacted and that their life is going to be better. But we've got to call out also there's some missing components to this bill. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE.

I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE.

I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. I THINK THAT'S A BIG ISSUE. THAT WERE SUPPOSED TO BE GOING FOR HEALTH CARE WORKERS AND OTHERS, THOSE ARE FOLKS WHO VOTE. AND WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE THOSE DOLLARS THERE, WHEN YOU TAKE $100 BILLION OUT FOR WORKFORCE

DEVELOPMENT, SO WHEN YOU WERE HAVING THAT CONVERSATION WITH KELLY JUST NOW, IF FOLKS CAN'T GET TRAINED, HOW ARE THEY GOING TO BE ABLE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THESE SETS OF OPPORTUNITIES THAT ARE OUT THERE? SO WE GOT TO FIGURE OUT A WAY TO

MAKE SURE THAT IN THIS NEXT OPPORTUNITY, IF THE RECONCILIATION BILL ACTUALLY PASSES, THAT YOU GET SOME OF THAT STUFF BUILT BACK IN ALONG WITH THE OPPORTUNITIES THAT ARE that are out there. So we got to figure out a way to make sure that in this next opportunity, if the reconciliation bill actually passes, that you get some of that stuff built back in, along with all the climate stuff that was not a part of this. Yeah, there's a little bit in there for EVs, for buses and some other things, and that's incredibly important. But there's a huge amount of things that weren't inside of this bipartisan bill that we got to get right. All right, folks, let's talk about COVID-19. You are continuing to seeing the pressure that's being applied to what's going on. Man, you've got

in Florida, where you've got Ron DeSantis, who's an idiot governor, where school districts are opposing him. He's threatening to actually hold the salaries of superintendents who move for a mask mandate. One of those superintendents said, fine, I'm not here for hold my salary. I'm here to educate these children and to keep them safe. In Texas, school districts are fighting Governor Greg Abbott there as well. I had a chance to talk with Surgeon General Vivek Murthy about COVID-19, the vaccines, the variants, and also how vitally important mask mandates are to protecting Americans. All right, Sergeant General Murphy, glad to have you on Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Always good to see you. Let's jump right into this. We have spent a whole lot of time on this show, putting on black experts and scientists and doctors and ER doctors, anesthesiologists, epidemiologists, going on and on, trying to walk through people the reality of COVID and the vaccine. You know, how important is it to have trusted voices speaking to different communities because there is so much misinformation and disinformation out here? Well, Roland, it is absolutely essential that we have trusted messengers telling people the truth about what science tells us about COVID-19 and the vaccine. You know, in the old days, we used to say that information is power. But it turns out that patient plus is power, because people are awash with information right now. They're trying to figure out what they can trust and what they can't, what's true, what's not. You need somebody to help filter that for you, and you've got to trust in that person.

And that's why, even if you're a family member or friend who has got no background in health or science, you might be the trusted person in someone's life. You can help them understand what the truth is about COVID-19 vaccines. You can help them make a decision about getting vaccinated. But it's also why, as communities, we've got to put our trusted messengers forward, whether that's our faith leaders, whether that's our local doctors and nurses. We've got to make sure they're at the front lines talking to folks so people can get accurate information. Because as a doctor, I believe everyone has a right to the facts so they can make the right decisions for themselves. People may make different decisions,

but they have a right to have the accurate information that you and I have access to. And that's why it's so important. But what do you make of the folks who keep saying, especially we see these folks on the right who keep saying, I saw Senator Rick Scott the other day, you know, people have a choice. People have a choice. And they act as if it's good versus bad, and they keep harping on that. But we're talking about an increasing number of children in ICUs.

We're talking about this one church in Florida, 20 people infected, six have already died. And so I saw a tweet today, even a Kansas U.S. Senator Roger Marshall saying, who's a doctor? Oh, no one has convinced me that masks are effective. That, as a Surgeon General, that has to absolutely drive you crazy that a Republican United States Senator who is an M.D. is saying that on television. Well, look, first I want to say people do have a choice about whether they get vaccinated or not. But what people do also need to make their decisions is they need to know that the information they're getting is reliable. And, you know, misinformation and false, you know, false information being peddled around, that's not new. But what is new is the speed, the scale and sophistication with which this misinformation is spreading everywhere. So, you know, I agree people should have a choice. But how are people supposed to make the choices that are best for them? They don't have accurate information. This is why a couple of things have gone wrong. I issued a Surgeon

Donald's advisory confronting health misinformation. And one of the groups that I called to action on this were actually technology companies, especially social media platforms, which for years have allowed misinformation to spread like wildfire and have not done nearly enough to address it. That misinformation is now affecting our health. It's costing us in terms of hospitalization, lives lost as people have said they don't want the vaccine because they don't know about the COVID-19 vaccine. So this misinformation has.

And if you're helping, if you're contributing to the spread of misinformation, like on these social media platforms, you've got to step up, address that, because it's costing people their life. But what I'm struggling with, again, I've seen Dr. Anthony Fauci going sparring back and forth with Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. Doctor. Again, Senator Roger Marshall, doctor. I was reading the other day in Arkansas, there's an ER doctor who is in the state legislature DOCTOR. AGAIN, SENATOR ROGER MARSHALL, DOCTOR. I WAS READING THE OTHER DAY IN ARKANSAS, THERE'S AN E.R. DOCTOR WHO IS IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE WHO VOTED, WHO IS TRYING TO GIVE OUT INFORMATION ABOUT COVID, YET

HE VOTED AGAIN, HE VOTED FOR BANNING MASK MANDATES IN ARKANSAS AND SAID, WELL, OUR NUMBERS WERE DROPPING, I'M STILL STRUGGLING WITH THAT, I'M NOT QUITE SURE. YET I'VE SEEN, I'VE SEEN THE STUDIES THAT COME OUT THAT LAY OUT THAT THEY'RE NOT TRYING TO and said, well, our numbers were dropping. I'm still struggling with that. I'm not quite sure. Yet I've seen the studies that come out

that lay out that masks do work, that depending upon the mask that you're wearing, it is stopping the transmission of particles. And so we literally are fighting over masks. And you're sort of like, okay, what in the world more can we say and do to get people to understand that even though you might get the vaccine, you still have to take precautions, which includes wearing a mask? Yeah, well, this debate on masks, I think,

is very unfortunate because we have built up a body of data over the last year and a half that's told us that masks do help reduce risk. They have to be good masks, good quality masks, but they do help protect us. And I don't think history will judge us well when, years later, we look back on this and recognize that simply wearing a thin piece of material on our faces could have reduced our risk of a life-threatening disease, but we didn't do it, because we were either misled by misinformation or led to somehow believe that the mask was harmful to us, which it is not. So we have got to recognize what we're up against,

which is a powerful, formidable virus that has cost us more than 600,000 lives. And we have got to take every measure we can to protect ourselves. Masks are one of those. Do they protect 100%? No, nothing does. But they do reduce risk. And vaccines are another critical piece of this. And as you mentioned, Roel, one of the recommendations the CDC recently put out is that if you are fully vaccinated

and you're in part of the country where there's a lot of virus which is the vast majority of the country right now, that when you go to public spaces, you should also wear a mask because there's a chance that you might transmit the virus to others. Now, you'll be OK yourself, most likely. This is a really critical point to make. The vaccines still work to save your life, ending up in the hospital,

and they also reduce your risk of even getting mild infection. But if you do end up being one of the minority of folks who gets a breakthrough infection it'll probably be either mild or you won't even have symptoms at all but you could pass it on to somebody which is why he's asking vaccinated to wear a mask okay can you really hone in on that i had a woman who tweeted me today uh who uh she said uh you know you folks are pushing the vaccine she. I had a woman who tweeted me today who she said, you know, you folks are pushing the vaccine. She said, I had a family member who had the vaccine, yet they still passed away. And I keep saying, folks, no one said that the vaccine is 100 percent effective in terms of

in terms of you could do whatever you want and you and and you're never going to get it second walkthrough that the vaccine that was created was for COVID-19 but it was not specifically for the Delta variant I think that's also what's confusing to people because they go, oh, COVID vaccine, then that's just going to protect me from anything and everything and not understanding how viruses work and how they mutate and how they change once they interact with the human body. Yeah, it's a really important question, Roland, and there's some good news here, which is even though we've gone through now several versions of COVID-19, we had the original version, we had an alpha version, now we're dealing with the delta version.

The good news is that the vaccines that were developed still have broad protection across those, particularly when it comes to preventing us from ending up in the hospital or losing our life. That is the good news. But they are different viruses in the sense that they act and behave differently. So the Delta variant is far more transmissible than any version of COVID we've seen to date. That means you've got to be a bit more cautious. It's also, there's some data that indicates it may cause more severe infection, making it more likely to end up in hospitalizations for people who are unvaccinated. So they should particularly be cautious. But even though the vaccines still work, and this is,

again, another reason why even in the face of Delta, you should still get vaccinated, we can't bank on that always being the case for future variants. So if we allow the infection to continue spreading rampant in our population because not enough people are vaccinated, that means there's a greater chance that more variants will develop and we may have trouble down the line. And so we have a chance now. We still have vaccines at work for Delta and the other variants to really make sure we're doing everything we can to vaccinate everybody, get cases down, keep them down. That's how we're going to reduce our chances of variants down the line.

So when you say other variants and what may happen with those other variants, and I heard that Dr. Fauci testified that they're the variant, and why is it more deadly? So how is a variant more deadly than the original one? Can you explain that for people, again, who don't quite understand the science behind this? Sure. So what a variant is, is it's a different version of a virus. And that version comes about because of some mutation in the DNA that takes place. Now, when mutations take place in your DNA, they can affect the structure of the virus and how it functions. So some changes in the structure of the virus and how it functions. So some changes in the structure of a virus might make it easier to latch onto the cells and to infect you. That

might make the virus more transmissible, in a sense. Other changes to the virus might make it more successful at damaging your cells or causing inflammation in your body, which could show up as more severe illness. It all depends on the nature of the change. Now, viruses mutate all the time. Most of the time, the changes that happen are not really consequential. But every now and then, there'll be a change that leads a virus to be different in a way that causes this harm. And that's actually what we're seeing with Delta. We should just expect that this virus being what it is, which is a coronavirus, virus that mutates a lot, it's going to keep changing. And so that's why we often say we're in a race against the virus, the vaccines versus the variants right now. And the quicker we vaccinate,

the less of a threat future will be. And so on that particular point, then we talk about trying to vaccinate as many people as possible. And again, I'm trying to make it as easy as possible for people to understand. If we vaccinate as many people as possible, then what that does is it decreases the number of people that if they get COVID, that it might create a new mutation. If you have more people who are not vaccinated, which essentially, Timmy, if I'm right or not, we're giving the virus more opportunities to be able to go into a human body and then mutate and then create a new variant. That's right. The virus can only mutate if it's inside something. It actually infected someone and it's replicating.

So if you've got somebody who's vaccinated, there's a much lower risk of getting infected. The chances are the virus won't be able to hide inside, replicate, cause mutations and lead to new variants. So that's why more people vaccinated means fewer places that the virus can hide. And that means less of a chance that it's going to change and form a new dangerous variant. So right now, we got people who are going to get getting kids ready for school. You've got states in Texas and Florida where the governors there have ordered no mask mandates. You've got school districts like in Austin, Dallas, who are looking to oppose that. There's a parent out there right now, and they're afraid. They don't know

what to do. You have these conflicting messages going on. What is your advice to any parent? Are WHAT ARE YOU SAYING TO ANY PARENT? WHAT ARE YOU SAYING TO ANY PARENT? WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE TO ANY PARENT? ARE YOU SAYING, HEY, FORGET WHAT THESE FOLKS ARE SAYING. EVEN IF THERE IS NO MASK MANDATE, YOU TELL YOUR CHILD YOU ARE GOING TO SCHOOL WITH A MASK ON AND YOU ARE GOING TO KEEP IT ON THE WHOLE TIME. WHAT ADVICE AS A SURGEON GENERAL ARE YOU GIVING TO THE PARENT? FORGET THE POLITICIANS. FORGET WHETHER THEY ARE FOR MASK MANDATES OR NOT. the Surgeon General, are you giving to the parent? Forget the politicians, forget whether they are for mask mandates or not. What are you saying to that parent, if they're sending their kid to

school, how they should be talking to their child about protecting themselves? Well, it's such an important question. And I think about this first and foremost as a parent myself, Roland. I've got two small kids, and I know that for all of us parents out there, they're number one thing in our life, number one priority is to make sure our kids are safe. And so I recognize this has got to be a scary time for some parents, especially if their schools aren't taking all the precautions that are necessary. But here's what you can do. Even if your school does not have mandates, make sure your child wears a mask and wears a high quality mask, because that's going to be important to protecting them. Make sure your child wears a mask and there is a high quality mask because that's going to be protecting them make sure your child is also washing their

hands like if you want to send some hand sanitizer in a small bottle with your child as well don't have easy access to the sink all the time they do that as well and make sure they use it often so that they don't pick up infection and then touch your face and transmit it to them. And also, whatever your child can be in outdoor settings, if there's an opportunity to be in class outdoors, to do a session outside, if the ventilation is good, that's a lower-risk setting for the virus to spread. And, finally, I would just say this. As a parent, I think it's really important for

all of us as parents to be involved in what happens in our schools, and making sure that principals and the school board hear your voice as a parent who's concerned about your kids, making sure they know that you believe that all these layers of precautions, from testing to better ventilation to wearing masks in school, something that you're in favor of, because it will help keep the kids safe. That's really important for school and for teachers and administrators to know. So those are some things we can do, but I know that this is a tough, tough time for parents and there are unknowns out there. We're going to have to see how things go. But if you take all of these precautions that I'm mentioning, it will reduce the risk and it will help keep the child safe. And for folks who don't really understand this, you have been,

in your family, have been extremely impacted by this COVID virus. Yes, Roland. You know, my family is like so many families. We've lost a lot of them. With COVID-19, we've lost 10 relatives. We've had many more who have gotten sick and, thankfully, have survived and have gone through rough times in the hospital. No one has been left untouched by this virus, and that includes my family. But it's also why, when I think about those family members, I will tell you this. One common thing about 10 of them is that they didn't have the opportunity to get vaccinated that so many of us had. And I so wish that I could transport that forward in time, but to a moment where vaccines were a lot more available and easy to get. Some of my relatives were people who died somewhere in

India. But that was the common thread. And I said, you know, if they had the vaccine, I'd dare say that many, if not all of them would be alive today and so once we lose someone we can't can't bring them back we have an opportunity to protect the people we love and we can do that by encouraging the last question for you we've been talking about uh communication and now all of a sudden the body administration has not been talking about doing targeted uh peace i i've been one of the folks who've been highly critical of the ad agencies And now all of a sudden, the Biden administration has now been talking about doing targeted peace. I've been one of the folks who've been highly critical of the ad agencies that have been spending money out there. You know, there's a phrase in advertising called, you know, spray and pray.

And they just sort of just been, you know, throwing the money out there. And me and my partner said early on, you've got to target the resources to communities, to areas, to regions of the country where they're important. Is that actually happening now? Are you and the COVID response team in the White House, are y'all getting with these, the agencies, the people who are spending, you know, frankly, millions and billions of taxpayer money to say, let's have a more effective use of how we're using the resources to reach the communities most in need. We had Terrence Woodbury on with Hit Strategies, who came out with polling data showing 52% of African-Americans saying that they are not

going to get the vaccine. That means that we need to be seeding black-owned media and others getting that message out, because the messaging is really important and i just think targeting is a lot different than just thinking oh let's just go broad let's go general and then hopefully people will get it so it's that sort of review that analysis undergoing to make sure that those dollars are much better well spent for sure roland i mean you're absolutely spot on about the importance of targeting. And I know that the teams that are working on the media strategies are figuring out how to tailor the messages so that they reach the right audiences. But I'll also say, Roland, a key part of targeting also, I think, has to take place in our community. And that's been really our focus from the early days is thinking, how do we mobilize the right folks in communities, provide them with the right supports, and recognizing that they are often far more effective messengers than those of us at the federal level may be?

And making sure that we're targeting the right folks who are trusted is critical. I'll tell you one thing we know, Holton, is that about 80 percent of people say that they would like to talk to a doctor or nurse about your decision to get vaccinated. That means that we have to go to communities where vaccination rates are low, find the nurses and doctors who are trusted there, and make sure we support them in going out and talking to folks. So, I think community-driven targeted approach is equally as important as the ad-driven targeted approach. But, overall, you're absolutely right that we've got to be detailed in how we make sure these messages and messages are delivered. All right.

Surgeon General Murthy, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. I look forward to having you back on the show. Well, thanks so much, Roland. Take care. Good to see you, and stay safe. Indeed. Take care.

What we are seeing, Robert, is a significant issue. You are there in Louisiana. They've announced they're canceling Jazz Fest. There are so many other events they're looking at. Again, if Louisiana does not get COVID under control, Bayou Classic could be in jeopardy and potentially going into 2022, a third consecutive year of no Essence Festival.

This is extremely costly to Louisiana. Tourism is a huge part of their city New Orleans budget, but also the state budget. And so this is the impact we're seeing economically. We talk about this Delta strain and its impact, not just on hospitals and ICUs, but again, on the impact on business and the overflow from that. Restaurants, bars, transportation, the public sector, if you will, when it comes to the people who are in those customer service jobs? Yes. The hospitality industry in the state of Louisiana is just taking a terrible hit right now. It's just taking a terrible hit. We lost Jazz Fest.

Now people are worried about, even though Mardi Gras isn't until the spring, we have to make plans months in advance because of the logistics there. So people are worried about other festivals. People are worried about Mardi Gras. Yes, it's terrible. And what's working against us right now is that, you know, we're a very red state, even though we have a Democratic governor. We are primarily a red state. And so many of the Republican parish presidents are not really taking the aggressive measures that they should be taking to get it under control within their individual parishes. Also, the schools, there's a real challenge

with the schools right now. Most of the private schools do have vaccine mandates. So, and I'm talking about K-12s as well as at the university level. My university, Dillard University, has a vaccine mandate for both faculty and students. So everyone has to be vaccinated to come on campus. Pretty much every private school has that requirement. Tulane, Loyola, all of the private schools. The public universities do not. LSU does not have a vaccine mandate right now. And first,

the lawyer for LSU said, oh, well, it's not really legal. We can't really do it. But then the State Department of Health said, that's not really true. You haven't issued the request. If you issue the request, we will grant it. Then he said, oh, then he backpedaled and said, oh, we don't want to violate people's rights. The president of LSU, who's the first Black president in the history of the university, is in a tough spot right now. He's getting threats from parents saying, if you have a vaccine mandate, we're going to pull our kids out of school.

The wealthy alumni are saying, we're going to cut off the money. We will going to pull our kids out of school. The wealthy alumni are saying, we're going to cut off the money. We'll never give money to LSU again, if you have a vaccine mandate. So he's struggling right now. He's encouraging people to get it. But he won't drop the hammer and say, look, it's going to be required. Now, the LSU faculty, interestingly enough, is 90 percent of them are vaccinated. And they have been lobbying the president of the university very heavily and say, look, boss, we need a vaccine mandate. I mean, a lot of us are have health issues. We don't want to be in a classroom with 200 students, where, you know, statistically speaking, the last survey, we saw only about 30 percent of them are vaccinated. So these are political issues. These are not health issues. I

mean, there's nothing legally stopping the president of LSU from requiring that all students get the vaccine as a requirement for enrolling at the university. LSU is the flagship. I believe if the president of LSU did it, I believe the other state universities would follow. But it's just the political pressure he's getting right now and the threats against him, he just doesn't want to move. To understand how we are able to impact people, Mustafa, check this out. This woman goes by Savannah Orchid. Her handle is at 11 Orchid. She saw the segment that we did here on Roland Martin Unfiltered with Dr. Ebony Hilton. And she posted that she said, y'all have convinced me to take the vaccine. Well, she posted this today. Thanks again for the encouragement. And then she actually posted her COVID-19 vaccination record for the people who say that we can't actually convince folks and change minds.

Well, there is proof. Congratulations, Ebony, in protecting your life and protecting the lives of those. No, no, no, no, Savannah, Savannah. Everybody, the doctor, she being got her vaccine, but this sister Savannah, first, her name is Savannah. She goes by Savannah Orchid. She was, this is her posting right here on Twitter. Y'all can take it, please. This is her vaccination card. Says she got the Pfizer shot on August 10, 2021 at CVS. Well, congratulations, Savannah. That's what I meant to say. So, I mean, we just do it. She's doing the right thing and she's setting the right example for

those around her. You know, we got, what's it, 94,000 kids who got infected last week. And we know that we got about 100,000 people who are getting infected every day in our country. So we got to do everything that we can to actually make sure that, one, if those folks still need some education, making sure we get the information in front of them by trusted sources, and then making sure that we continue to push people to protect. We need each and every person in our community, and we don't want to lose anyone. And for these governors that continue to put these roadblocks in place, you know, they are literally sacrificing our children. I mean, it's really that

clear, because we know that kids are now getting infected. Some kids lose their lives. Thankfully, it's not as many as adults who often get infected. And we got to hold them accountable. We talked about it last night. And I'm very focused. You know, we've got child endangerment laws. We've got a number of other endangerment laws that are out there. And folks should give really serious consideration to understanding what that means. And these people are going to put your children's lives in danger by having these mask mandates where kids and other people can't wear them, then they should be responsible for the lives that they are playing with.

Kelly? No, I couldn't agree more. I find it really, for lack of a better phrase, evil that the governors of these states with the highest percentages of COVID rates, especially amongst children, still are so adamant about aligning themselves with skewed party lines that they do not take into consideration the interests of children. Those who can't get the vaccine, literally cannot because they're too young. The only defense that they have is a mask, and you're literally taking the one line of defense they have away and punishing those in their lives who want that mandate in place, you're punishing them because of some weird political agenda that shouldn't be political at all if we're talking

about your life. And on another note, regarding how this show is helping people get vaccinated and, you know, opening their eyes to the various research out there from from black incredible minds in the medical and public health fields. I love that. But we also have hosts who substitute for you who discourage people from getting vaccinated. Well, first of all, well, first of all, only one person is up to it for me for one day. And so you have that. So that only happened one day. But the bottom line is we are not discouraging anybody from getting vaccinated. And we made that perfectly clear to anybody who sits in this chair what the MO is of the show. Fair enough.

Absolutely. Folks, we want all of you to stay safe. That's why it's important for us to, we're going to keep having our black experts on talking about this very issue. Gotta go to break before we do so. Folks, we have an opportunity from our folks at SEEK. This is Lady Gaga on SEEK VR. Yo, this is Ziggy Marley.

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go to seek.com use the promo code rmvip21 and we'll be back we're talking about people who resigning from their jobs and they're saying i i'm just by sick of this covid has actually opened the eyes of many people we'll discuss that talk about talk about that with Debra Owens, America's Wealth Coach. We'll also talk about the controversy with DaBaby. What is really happening with black men? The issue of homophobia, as well as some described toxic masculinity. Cleo Monaco will be joining us. And we'll be talking with some HBCU students who are taking advantage of the app Next Door to build community where they go to school. All of that in the second hour of Roland Martin

Unfiltered. Back in a moment. When you study the music, you get black history by default. And so no other craft could carry as many words as rap music. I try to intertwine that and make that create whatever I'm supposed to send out to the universe. A rapper, you know, for the longest period of time, has gone through phases. I love the word. I hate what it's become, you know, and to this generation, the way they visualize it.

Its narrative kind of, like, has gotten away and spun away from, I guess, the ascension of black people. Carl Payne pretended to be Roland Martin. Holla! Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. COVID has taught a lot of us a lot of things, and many people have come to the realization they really don't like their jobs.

And it's not just not liking their job. What they really don't like is everything that goes with it, the long commute, also realizing how much time they're spending away from their families. In addition, they actually were spending a lot of their money, again, sitting in cars. Look at the amount of money they were spending on daycare. So people have decided, you know what, I'm good. So while companies are saying, we need you to return to the office, an increasing number of Americans are saying, I'll pass.

That's okay. I'm just going to go ahead and quit, which is causing many companies to now figure out how they're going to replace these employees. Joining us right now is Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach. Deborah, glad to have you on the show. This is something that, and I was telling folks this last year, I said, COVID is about to reveal a whole lot of stuff about this country. We learned people really understood the racial dynamics when it comes to health and who gets impacted.

We begin to understand how many kids did not have broadband and computers and were not as sophisticated, if you will, with technology and how there was a gap there between the haves and the have nots. But on the work front, a lot of people really have started to reconsider their work life and its impact on their personal life. Absolutely, Roland. Of course, always glad to be back and have some conversations on wealth and the welfare of our community. And I'll tell you, there are really

like three forces, right? It's generational, it's social, it's the social contract. And, you know, for many people, they just simply, as you said, want to spend more time with their family. I think if anything, COVID has been an awakening for all of us, and just in terms of what we value. And if you think about the folks who've been on the front line, it's really those essential workers who, you know, what we saw was some of us were able to stay home and work virtually, whereas others who were essential had to put their lives at risk. And so I think, as you pointed out, COVID revealed a lot of inequalities, really, in just the social framework of this country. And in a way, it has put the power back into people's hands. So for employers, it's opening up Pandora's box.

So much of what they said about virtual workforce and what could and couldn't happen, what we see is people have been just as productive. And in fact, they haven't been in cars commuting, so they're spending more time with their families. And what we're seeing in the wealthy U community is that some people, because they can work virtually, they have multiple sources of income and in some cases, two full-time jobs because they have the flexibility. So Roland, I think that COVID has really empowered people to say, hey, I'm gonna take control of my life and my lifestyle.

I was having a debate with someone on this whole issue of unemployment benefits and COVID and this person had said that, you know, these lazy-ass folks need to go to work. And I said, stop. I said, do not call them lazy. And the reason I said don't call them lazy

is because I said, the problem is not that they're lazy. The problem is that if you're making more money on unemployment than you're making on the job, it's a problem with the damn job. Well, not only the job, but if you think about... if you think about the minimum wage and the fact that it has not kept up with inflation, uh, it specifically, when you look at hospitality, uh, any industry where people are being paid in tips, it really revealed the fragility

of their circumstance, right? So, you know, if I'm bringing home a couple of thousand dollars in tips and now I'm no longer working, and so I'm not getting that and my, you know, my income is so low, what it is showing is that to these industries is that they have got to be able to pay people a living wage through which they can afford to take care of their families and also have the type of benefits so that with the type of health concerns everyone has, that they feel valued. Otherwise, they are going to look for opportunities elsewhere, and how could we blame them?

Also, I think, before I go to my panel with questions for you, also, I think a lot of people, how should I put this here? It's very interesting to me the people who, even with businesses, are somewhat timid of being aggressive in asking for support. Here's what I mean. I had a conversation today with an entrepreneur who said, you know, look, I got to create more revenue. And as we were talking about, we were talking about the business that he has, I said, why are you not asking your customers, your fan base, to give more to your product. And I said, but it's how you do it. What platforms are you on? Are we on Patreon?

I'm like, no, you need to be on Patreon and Cash App and PayPal and Venmo and Zelle. I said, it's not about how you are comfortable. It's about what the customer wants. And then begin to break down. Okay, what are your expenses? Your expenses are this a month. That means that you need X number of people giving this to cover your expenses. You should be tracking that on a weekly and a daily basis. And it was this, it was like a light bulb went off and it was like, yo, I mean, I wasn't even, you know,

thinking that way. Last year was a brother who was a DJ. We were talking and he said, you know, man, I'm kind of, you know, I'm just, I'm leery about, you know, put my cash out there. I said, I'm sorry, you're a DJ. There are no parties. You're not working. I said, but you're on Instagram. Basically, you're providing pleasure to people. You're making them feel good. I said, you're not demanding they give. You're making them feel good.

I said, you're not demanding they give to you. Just put your, just pin your cash out. I said, we're now living in a world where consumers have no problem. Dollar, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100. I said, you're not begging. I think that's part of the problem, Deborah. A lot of people think, oh, my God, that's begging. No, it's not. It's business.

And so, again, it's a different state of mind. Yeah, Roland, I think what you brought up, too, is that this is the social sharing community that we're in. And if you look at crowdfunding, I mean, when we were building an app, I raised $30,000 really from friends and strangers who were just aligned to what the mission of the app was. And so I think for business owners in particular, what we've all had to do is really pivot in this economy and really think about what are the ways that we can deliver our services.

Typically, a lot of our revenue came from doing live events. Well, we had to we had a live event planned in April when COVID hit. And so we pivoted virtually. And so what I would say to small business owners, self-employed people, what contractors really begin to think about what are the ways that you can create possibilities and all this volatility that we're having because I was listening to your last interview and clearly we are headed for another, I won't say full shutdown, but things are not going back to normal. So what is important is that people remain as flexible as possible and as innovative as possible. Well, I just think that what has happened is it has forced people to actually look at their life in their world in a much different way and then begin to make some different choices.

Any questions from the panel? Kelly, anything for Deborah? Hi, Deborah. Just really quickly, regarding how things are shifting, especially in the job market and what people are actually asking for up front is like, will you have a work from home option? Is there a hybrid model in your work style? What I'm finding is that there are some industries out there that are desperately needed, such as social work, some type of public health care can't come to your house. And it's hard to do something virtually when the main reason they need a caseworker in the first place is because of lack of internet services or what have you. So I guess my question is, and I know you don't have a crystal ball, but what do you think about that kind of dynamic, meaning do you think that will cause another chasm in the classes and in job descriptions in general, meaning will people be making less money if they do in-person jobs now? Because it's almost a luxury to work from home.

Well, you know, it's interesting that you bring that up, because the truth is, if you look at those kinds of roles, social work, administrations, those are basically occupations in which Black women specifically over indexing. And so and you find that their wages aren't as competitive. So, although typically if they're working for a government or a, you know, a local government, a federal government agency, the upside is that typically they have benefits, pension benefits and that sort of thing.

So they're giving up higher salaries for what could be seen as some long-term reward. But to your point, I do think you're already seeing people exit those occupations because of now with the sort of risk, health, risking their health that all of this entails. You're seeing nursing. You're seeing a lot of these, you're seeing a lot of exit from those roles specifically. So I think on the other side of that, the employers are going to have to be creative in order to retain workers in those different occupations. So you bring up a very good point. Mustafa. Yeah it's good to see you. I love that color you got on. Good to see you again. Matching that tie. Yes ma'am. In my family and in my circle of friends from elders all the way down to teenagers folks are getting much more engaged in investing and saying I can actually make more money investing than I can in some of the previous jobs that I have.

So have you seen that as also an area that's growing? And do you expect that it will continue to expand? Well, you know what's exciting? I'm glad you bring that up. What's exciting is what these statistics are showing is that particularly millennials and younger black folks are more involved in investing than ever before. They're learning how to invest because of the plethora of apps that we have available to us. Now, Cash App allows you to

invest not only in stocks, but also in crypto. You have other apps like Stash. You see Robinhood just went public. And a lot of the whole premise of Robinhood was for the not wealthy to kind of gain in riches. So I think that is part of what is driving the interest and accessibility of investing. Now, in terms of actually using, to make an income, I think there's a difference between trading and investing. And I think that, you know, we just hit another market high today. And so as a result of that, what happens is people begin to think that it's easy. But, you know, what I would say to anyone listening is to really get a basic foundation in how the investment markets work and how to invest it, if you will. You give me a great opportunity to just talk about some of the work that we're seeing in the Wealthy You community. And by the way, if anyone listening to me would like to learn more, they can go to WealthyU.com.

But what we're seeing in our community is that people's portfolios in some cases have doubled the kinds of returns. Just in the past year, we're seeing some of the members in our community, their portfolios are up 49 percent. We do see that it's not just in their retirement accounts either. People are also opening up not only the apps, but full-fledged brokerage accounts and really learning how to build portfolios. So I say it's a win-win-win overall, a-win-win, seeing young people get involved in the markets. And also, you know, the people in our wealthy youth community, our youngest member is, if I'm not mistaken, 23, and our oldest is maybe 79. So it's intergenerational, if you will. And it's a good thing because I believe that's one of the reasons the wealth gap is so big is because of the fact that not enough black and brown folks are investing.

Robert. Hi, Deborah. I work in the traditional education workspace, the traditional higher education market. And traditional higher education, of course, used to mean that, you know, we were, you know, standing in a classroom with a bunch of students. Then over the last year, you know, we were forced to go online. Basically, a lot of faculty against their will because the state basically shut us down and said, you can't have students in the classroom. So now we're back to, at least for now, for the time being, we're back to the traditional model again. We do have college students in the

classrooms again. But do you think, my question is, do you think as we move toward the future, the marketplace might be moving toward more of a hybrid model where you can switch traditional in-person, online, hybrid, easily in between? We're kind of struggling with that right now, especially, again, those people that work at very traditional universities like mine. Do you how do you see that the whole marketplace within online education working out? Well, you know, I do believe that particularly higher education has been toying with this hybrid model for years.

I know that I built a curriculum for a university in Massachusetts about a decade ago. And that was all done, even though I proctored the first class, it was all done virtually. And I mean, if you think about just the, you think about your traditional student coming out of high school, but I would submit to you, I don't know what the actual stats are, that a significant amount of the students in many college campuses are older employees retooling their skills. And in fact, I think you'll see that trend continuing because I believe that AARP has done some studies just on what employees need to do to keep their skill set up to date. And it's really enhancing and updating their skill set, understanding not only technology, but I mean, I think you would agree that someone

like me who got an MBA more than 10 years ago, that a lot of that information is obsolete. And so in order to just keep up with supply and demand, I see that hybrid modeling continuing. I do believe that, you know, as a parent of two millennials, that college in-person experience is valuable. experience will do is make college more accessible and hopefully less expensive for those who do not have the necessary incomes to afford it. So again, I believe it's my long way of saying that the certainly are all pointing towards a hybrid environment simply for universities because of all the bricks and mortars that you have to be able to continue to afford those facilities.

All right. Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach. Tell folks where they can find you. They can come to WealthyU.com and by the way, we have an amazing masterclass going on this Saturday all day. So just go to the wealthyu.com website and you can learn all about how we're helping people build their first investment portfolios to seven figures and beyond. All right. Deborah Owens, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Roland. Folks, we talked yesterday about rapper DaBaby,

the controversy where he has, of course, made some homophobic comments. He's made some comments dealing with HIV AIDS. And then you've had folks also criticizing him for his lyrics when it comes to using the N-word and also calling black women bitches and hoes. But what is really going on here? What is the conversation that needs to be had

with black men and same-gender loving folks? Cleo Binaga with the Black Men's Exchange. We were talking and we were tweeting, I'm sorry, we were texting about this. And so we said, well, let's actually have the conversation on the air. We've had different people weighing in. You have these different LGBT groups who have sent a letter to him, Cleo, asking to meet with him.

You've had folks canceling concerts and festivals. He posted a video apology. Then he later deleted that particular apology. What do you make of all of this drama surrounding DaBaby and his comments? Well, I hope I make sense, Roland, because this is a very complex issue. As you mentioned, before the white gay community and their Black followers started attacking DaBaby for his commentary, he had a long line of previous lyrics and still has them, where he is being anti-Black, anti-women, and very, very toxic.

And one of my critiques is that, why do we wait for Elton John and Madonna to get mad on the LGBTQ tip to start censoring and silencing this kind of rhetoric? So there's a perspective that I have in terms of black people needing to have the same type of entitlement consciousness to respectful narratives that the white gay community and their black followers are demanding. I also think that we should take a look at what black men are going through,

but let me back up a minute and talk about the peculiar context of the baby's commentary. The baby was giving a concert performing his material. And somehow he got on the topic of oral sex in the parking lot and HIV. And I think it's important to actually deconstruct why would somebody, it wasn't an HIV concert, it wasn't a homosexual concert, so why did he make that relevant to his rhetoric? Well, that gets back to a word that you used earlier that for me is a controversial word, and that's so-called toxic masculinity. That's an easy one-liner to use, but what's happening with people like DaBaby, whose name is really Jonathan Kirk, is that they have a subjective need to disassociate themselves from behavior that no one has particularly associated them with publicly, but they have a personal need to disassociate.

And often when these hyper-masculine rat brothers start bringing up homosexuality, there's something subjective and personal going on with them where they have the personal need to volunteer to disassociate when nobody's even talking about the topic. So all that to say is that this is a very complex issue. And another issue that I hope is discussed while we're finding a new angle in which to silence a black man. Because you know this happened to Kobe Bryant. People tried to attack you with the same kind of alleged allegations, Tracy Morgan and others.

And there's been a litany of black men who have been accused of things that I don't think is as simple as the accusation. Getting back to DaBaby, I think that these men, a lot of black men, feel belittled in a society, feel attacked in a society, as everybody knows about the unarmed police brutality and murder. And we rarely create space, initiated or intentional space in society for black men to talk about their anxieties about being man enough and male in a society that, while it privileges manhood, castrates black men.

So all that is part of what's happening here. And I think if we, as I said in one of my commentaries, instead of simply silencing Mr. Kirk or DaBaby, we should use the stage, the popular stage, and ask him, man, why did you say that?

What's going on? And that was one of the questions I had raised yesterday to three individuals who were on the show. I said, okay, what's next? They said they've been trying to reach out to him, reach out to his representatives, also with the label as well, have not been successful. But here's the question. Who should be approaching him? Who should he be talking to? Who should he be engaged in dialogue with? Because that also impacts the type of conversation you

actually have. Sure. Who should be engaging him is black folks. However, we have to do some retroactive work because DaBaby, I'm not sure if you ever heard this dude's lyrics, but he was severely problematic when it comes to black people, black self-conceptual health, and women way before the powerful white gay community decided to launch its power and put this dude's career to sleep momentarily until he does the classic apology while there's no transformation. But getting back to your question, we should be talking to him, but we should have been talking to him and other rappers. And we should be asking them instead of not saying anything and by silence almost encouraging what they're

doing, we should ask DaBaby at this particular point, since he's in the spotlight, why did you say that? Why at your concert did you talk about sucking penises in the parking lot, homosexuality and HIV? What was going on? And I... And, trust me, if he's given a comfortable environment instead of being punished, but an environment to actually express what he really feels, that will be revelatory and educational for us. Because black men are struggling in an anti-black male society with feeling safe. And a lot of this is compensatory behavior. A lot of this is dysfunctional. I'm a man, damn it.

I'm not somebody who's just going to get killed by the cops, who's just an N-word, who's just irrelevant, who's just going to be dogged. I'm a man, damn it. I'm not somebody who's just going to get killed by the cops, who's just an N-word, who's just irrelevant, who's just going to be dogged. I'm a man. And notice people like this dude have on what I call a black... what I call black man drag outfit. And what I mean by black man drag outfit is that there's, you know, there's drag shows

where there's dudes who try to look like women, but there's also drag shows that black men have where they put on a hyper black male outfit, tattoos, chains, going to the gym. This is all compensatory behavior to make up for something that they feel like that they're not. And even the homosexual debasing volunteer passages are based on, see, I'm not like that. I'm a man. So getting back to your question about who should address it, it should be people understand what I'm saying, who should create a rational environment for these brothers to actually unpack what's going on with them. I'll give you a short story about what black boys and men are going through that I think leads to this kind of behavioral implosion. I was going before COVID, I was traveling around the country

talking to different Black people at mental health conferences. And I would ask the Black parents, were they engaging their children about all this police brutality and all these murders of Black men in particular that's on the popular stage in the media? And I said, some of them have their children with them and their boys with them. And I said, have you all intentionally brought your child to the side and said, baby, do you know about so-and-so, about Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, you know, Melissa's long? And what is your perspective of that? And I asked the parents to tell me the truth if they had created safe space for their children to talk about traumatic incidences that are impacting black men. And the majority of the parents had not. And in one incident in St. Paul, Minneapolis, the little boy started crying

because they were sitting on trauma and fear based on this phenomena, but no one, including their loving parents, had created space for them to actually talk about how it impacts them. That's relevant, in my opinion, to young men like Jonathan Kirk or DaBaby, who are sitting on years of issues. And there's one more issue that's controversial that may be going on with him in terms of him needing to bring that up and disassociate himself. There's also a problem of child molestation in our community,

including male-to-male child molestation in our community, including male-to-male child molestation in our community that we don't talk about enough, that some young men are sitting on who grow up self-conscious and confused and mad at same-gender loving people and think they're all after them or think that these people are doing the same thing to other kids who do the same thing Mr. Kirk is doing because they have some kind of issue in closing. If a grown man goes to his own conference and volunteers to talk about sex with men in the parking lot and homosexuality, trust me, he has a personal struggle one way or the other with that issue. Not unless that's the theme of a concert, and it was not.

Interesting. Interesting? it was not interesting that interesting but no i'm saying interesting because um what you're speaking to is is asking the question that actually goes deeper the reaction from people is oh my god this is shameful it's wrong he must apologize or it gets canceled, as opposed to saying, first, why did you say it? What's behind that? But part of that, though, again, is your point of, well, if you're going to actually have a conversation, have a conversation to understand

what causes a person to say that, as opposed to say, okay, just shut up. It was actually wrong. Robert, Kelly, and Mustafa are on my panel as well. I'm going to give each of them an opportunity to ask you a question. I'm going to start with Robert. Yeah, you know, my question is, so even though, you know, he was condemned by the gay community correctly this time. As you eloquently pointed out, he's been anti-black, anti-woman in his lyrics and in his records before.

And yet he sells a lot of records. I mean, that's the bottom line. He sells a lot of records, and he makes a lot of money for his record label. So this is all driven by economics. If you make money, if somebody's making money, they're going to keep doing it. So do you think that there has to be a conversation, I don't know, you know, in the larger community, like why are you folks buying this? Or in the business community, why are you, why are producers supporting him? Why are people supporting his records? Because it's like he wasn't punished, you know, within the marketplace. We can talk about ethics and morality, and

we need to. But the bottom line is, if you put money in these guys' pockets and it works, they're going to keep doing it. And that's what I find disturbing. Well, this is not really just about money. In short, there are rappers like Loopy Fiasco and KRS, and Loopy Fiasco in particular, who's a conscious rapper, who makes a lot of money, whose records sell, because he's like Prince. He uses the internet to sell his products. But people like Loopy Piasco do not get the kind of exposure

that Lil Wayne, who they bring up every time we need a social commentary about politics, they go dig him up, which makes no sense. They should be calling Roland Martin or me or somebody else who understands the social behavioral issues

and political issues. They call him. My point is that people like theBaby are encouraged and highlighted and profiled because they are anti-Black and detrimental to the psyche of Black people. There are other artists who are talented who don't get the same level of play. So this is not just about money. This is about, in my opinion, white supremacy bias on who they would like to see us following so we can stay disoriented and in conflict. The reason why we didn't step up and we don't step up when people like Jonathan Kirk or DaBaby say it's anti-Black service, because Black people, because of this litany of anti-Black messaging, which has become a normal part of the United States culture,

we have been put in a trance. We have been putting in what I call a white supremacy trauma trance, where we are so busy questioning our worth or so busily internalizing anti-Black norms because we are not sure of our value, particularly among Black men who have been publicly devalued over and over in the job market and all over the place. I mean, Black men are the first to drop out of college because the curriculum is assaulting. So we have, that's why I say it was complex in the Rolling First Ags because our issues preceded DaBaby. The reason we're talking about DaBaby now, because a very powerful community who doesn't care about Black issues, but cares about gay issues, ran in and said, said oh no we're going to silence you because they have the power to do it but those same people black followers and people inside of

the white gay paradigm are not critiquing this dude who's being anti-black until he does something gay which is a white machine question from uh mustafa must Clay, it was good to see you. You too, man. The way that I'm looking at this, and I hope you can unpack this for us, is pain, trauma, and socialization. Because we are socialized to see ourselves as less. And then we will unpack each component inside of our community. So could you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, I'll just reiterate, and I spoke to it a moment ago, but it's relevant to your question. If you listen to this dude's lyrics, they're atrocious. They're toxic. They're vulgar, they're genocidal to black people and to black mental health. And you can go outside in any particularly black community or mixed community and hear this dude's music blasting in the, bumping in people's cars. And it is socialization. But I don't want us to miss that Black people are in a trance, and that Black people are dealing with social psychic factors and

stressors that must be addressed in an explicit way. Even when it comes to, and this might sound tangential, but it's relevant to the Black state of mind, even when it comes to this COVID-19 issue, 52% of Black folks apparently are not going to get the vaccine. Well, something's going on with Black people. And if we don't address what's going on with Black people in terms of what the resistance is about and ask questions instead of doing this, you're bad you're bad. People just shut down.

So we black folks have got to have meaningful, rational, strategic conversations about internalized white supremacy, anti-black norms, so we can have the entitlement consciousness not to wait for Elton John and Madonna and white gays to put down black men, which has racism in it and opportunism in it, but where we can hear these rap records right now and say, wait a minute. What's up? I got children. I got babies being raised. I got to walk through the streets and hear this. I think we need to address this. But you got to love black people unconditionally to do that kind of calling people to be accountable.

We didn't do that when Obama was president. We were the only ones who didn't call to make him accountable. The Latinos did and the gays certainly did. But we were we were someplace else doing other things instead of thinking clearly and coming out of that trance and holding people accountable. We have to hold rap hold the rap community accountable. Again, though, it's problematic that the baby did not become an issue until the gay machine said, oh, no. And that was actually a point that I read yesterday.

Jasmine Koenig wrote a column on that, and actually we did discuss it on yesterday. Kelly, your question for Cleo. Last question. Sure. So, obviously, I don't have the lens of a Black man on this situation. But what I do see is the fact that from my perspective, it does feel as though Black men, specifically Black celebrities, have more grace when it comes to problematic statements

and problematic actions with the community, as opposed to Black women. When it comes to cancel culture, it feels as though when it comes to Black men doing things such as this, there is more of a counsel culture. Like, right now, we're talking about counseling the baby into seeing the other side of this issue and really coming to senses with his homophobia. However, we have female celebrities who have done less but have been canceled almost indefinitely, such as Macy Gray, Azealia Banks, Chrisette Michelle, and there are others. So I guess if you could speak on how this needs to be a universal solution in terms of counseling our Black celebrities, in terms of counseling our Black people into these issues and making sure that there's a more holistic, less Eurocentric

and phobic approach to such things? If you could give your comments on that, hopefully I'm making sense in this regard. Well, let's be clear, sister. There is no council culture for Black men. That's not true. There is no council culture. I wish that was true, but that's not true. There is no counsel culture or no critical thinking encouragement culture around Black issues as a systemic norm in the United States of America. And I don't want to bring women into this yet, because it will distract from the point of what's happening right now, which is black male behavior.

And it's easier, for example, to simply call Mr. Kirk or DaBaby homophobic. However, it's not that simple. What's going on with people like Kirk is, am I man enough-ophobia? Are you gonna see me as a man of phobia? And a lot of Black men in some ways, in terms of its performance, is quite dysfunctional. But that's a lot of what's happening with Black men. And the counsel culture for Black people, regardless of gender, is quite high. I want to reiterate, there is no counsel for Black people, regardless of gender, is quite high.

I want to reiterate, there is no counsel for Black men. When the white gay community, for example, steps up, and that's who put this man's name in the lights right now, they are the ones who do the counseling of Black men, just like the brother that Mariah Carey used to be, Nick Cannon. Nick Cannon got canceled by white Jews because they were offended by what he said. We need to develop the entitlement. See, white people have what I call entitlement consciousness generally. They feel entitled. They don't play that. You don't mess with them. But we second guess that if we're entitled to voting, if we're entitled to not get

killed by a virus, we are in a state of questioning. And frankly, people like DaBaby and the perpetual highlighting of this kind of toxic behavior reinforces the trance and the disorientation among Black people. And we need to understand this and address this. REINFORCES THE TRANCE AND THE DISORIENTATION AMONG BLACK PEOPLE. AND WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THIS AND ADDRESS THIS. BUT NOBODY IS HAVING A COUNCIL CULTURE. WE HAD A COUNCIL CULTURE AND IT REALLY ASKS EACH OTHER WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO. IN PARTICULAR, PEOPLE LIKE DA BABY, WHY DID YOU DO THAT? INSTEAD OF JUST SHUTTING THEM DOWN SO HE CAN GIVE YOU THE CLASSIC APOLOGY THAT MAKES THE GAY COMMUNITY FEEL feel like, OK, we did,

we controlled him, but nothing changes. I mean, we've been dealing with black men who have said so-called homophobic things for the longest, and it has not deceased because we're not addressing the baseline issues. And when we start doing that, we'll have black men and black people who are more awake, who are more critically thoughtful, who are concerned about how black people look, who are willing to not call black women bitches and hoes and each other the n-word, when we as a collective say we're not having it, we're not tolerating it. Like the white gays say, we're not going to let you do something that's so-called homophobic. We have to have that entitlement consciousness, too. And right now, we don't have it. I think that shows like Roland Martin's show can help engage

us and help impose that kind of consideration among Black people. But on a general basis, we're just going along with the okey-doke, not because we're deficient, not because something is wrong with us, but we are acculturated from a media level to an educational level to second-guess our worth. And we're so busy in a second-guessing trance that we don't come up for air and say, no, you're not going to do that. Or, again, why did you do that? What's behind that behavior so we can understand that and address the factors leading to it so we can do some kind of intervention, as opposed to just having white gays and their black followers shut another brother down? That's kind of problematic. There's some racism in there that looks like a homophobia rescue story, but there's some

opportunism on shutting black men down who are already shut down on a macro level inside of this alleged homophobia concern. And I'll close with this. The white gay community and their black followers are not equipped to talk to black people or address black people in ways that are helpful to us, that even considers the issues that I'm raising. It's all about calling the next person homophobia, homophobic, with no context. And I consider Mr. Kirk castration-ophobic. I'm not sure I'm a man-ophobic. I'm going to be a hyper-masculine man and make up for that insecurity

by stepping on stage with muscles and a tattoo and arbitrarily talking about homosexuals to make sure people know that I'm not like that because I'm a man. And I'm a man concerned, which is not based on Black people just being irrational. Black men have a reason to be concerned about how they're seen. Even the police brutality, for example, and the murders of Black male bodies on the street is a reason for Black men to be hyper-masculine. And like I said in my previous comments, when I go to these mental health conferences to talk to these parents about if indeed they're engaging their children about the abuse of

black people in public, the majority of them aren't. And some of those boys started crying in the audience, because nobody had ever given them permission to even consider how this issue—how these issues hurt them. And Mr. Kirk used to be a baby boy. And we're all former children. And black people have work to do. All right. All right.

Cleo Monago, we certainly appreciate the band. Thanks a lot. Thank you for the invitation. Good to see you, Ro. Likewise. Folks, we're going to go to a quick break. We're going to come back. We're going to talk about HBCU students and how they are connecting with one another via

the app Nextdoor. That's next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. I believe the people our age have lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing. The challenges, there's so many of them and they're complex and we need to be moving to address them. But I'm able to say, watch out, Tiffany. I know this road.

That is so freaking dope. All right, so a lot of y'all are always asking me about some of the pocket squares that I wear. Now, I don't know, Robby don't have one on. Now, I don't particularly like the white pocket squares. I don't like even the silk ones. And so, I was reading GQ magazine a number of years ago, and I saw this guy who had this pocket square here, and it looks like a flower.

This is called a shibori pocket square this is how the Japanese manipulate the fabric to create this sort of flower effect so I'm going to take it out and then place it in my hand so you see what it looks like and I said man this is pretty cool and so I tracked down that it took me a year to find a company that did it and so they think is 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 square. Now, 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 uh get one of these shibori pocket squares we have them in 47

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

at rollingnessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So please do so. And, of course, that goes to support the show. And, again, if you're a Bring the Funk fan club member, you get a discount. This is why you should join the fan club. Yo, what's up? This is your boy Ice Cube. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right.

Students are returning to college, especially many of our HBCUs. And so our HBCU Connect campaign, sponsored by Nextdoor, begins today. The purpose is to cultivate a kinder world where neighbors can rely on one another, where they all feel welcome. What we're going to do is talk to these HBCU students who are from these various campuses and of course, you know, talk to them, deal with them in terms of what they are doing on these various campuses. Today, I have three students from Clark Atlanta University. Joining us now are seniors Jada Barbee, Omari Wyans, and Junior Autumn Epps. Hey, folks, how y'all doing? We're doing good. How are you?

So one of the things that I think is interesting when we talk about how students connect, I mean, the reality is you have folks who live on campus, so you live off campus, but college represents really this microcosm of the real world. And so I'm very curious how how you utilize Nextdoor to be able to work with one another, find one another and use each other as resources while you matriculating through college. So one way I use Nextdoor after coming from New York, I didn't even hear about Nextdoor until I got to Atlanta. So I use it to navigate Atlanta, connect with people around me outside my campus

or maybe inside my campus that I haven't met before. And people have shown milestones and community service opportunities. And it's a great way to network virtually and safely. All right, one of the other two, your thoughts. Can you hear me? Yeah, we can hear you, go ahead. Okay.

We got you. Yeah, well, I have to agree with Amari. I'll definitely use Nextdoor for community service opportunities and connecting with other AUC students in particular. But I haven't used it too much when we're on campus. I usually use it like in my neighborhood, in my community, just to see what's going on and use it like that as well. The thing that I think is really interesting here is when you're away from home, you also tend to connect with people who are from where you are.

And so for the three of you, you go to Clark Atlanta, but where are you actually from? What's home? I'm from Urbana, Illinois, which is about two hours south of Chicago. And I'm from Baltimore, Maryland, and I've used Nextdoor in my home community of Baltimore. It definitely is a great tool to just navigate as well as find community service, like my peers said. But I've actually returned to WC next door. So I think it's really good. And I'm from Queens, New York City. I'm gonna bring Robert Collins in here who's from Dillard University. And Robert, the thing here is that universities, especially HBCUs, try to foster that communal spirit because they want

students to be as comfortable as possible and when they're able to connect with people where they are from, that makes their transition to college life a lot easier. Yeah, you know, it's really great to see three very articulate, handsome HBU students. Looks like y'all are doing a great job promoting your issues. And if I'm allowed to ask a question here, can I ask the students, because being a professor myself, we have our students coming back on campus. Do y'all, are you happy to be back on campus and do you and your colleagues feel excited to move forward with the semester in a traditional environment,

even though of course we still have COVID issues that we're dealing with within the larger society? I'm definitely, I know my colleagues are definitely excited to be back because this has been such a trying and unreal year for everybody. And I know people just want to be back on campus. They want to get away from home. I know a lot of people want to get away from home and just be around, like you said, a community. Like first coming to Clark Atlanta University, it was just instant love and support from the beginning. So just going back to that, it just makes everybody feel much better. And I think that as it relates to the COVID issue, I think that we take really good care of our community, like we've been saying.

And so I don't see a problem with us still enforcing, you know, our six foot distance rule and even wearing our masks. Like, I don't think it's going to be an issue for us, especially because we're also coming on here, coming on campus vaccinated. So I think that, you know, we will we do have that safety in there. And so it's not a huge concern for us. Great. Y'all look great. Happy to happy to see y'all back on campus. You look great when you talk about connecting not just when you don't mention when you mention various projects community service projects how are you encouraging freshmen coming in to terms of being able

to connect with other students via the social platform, as well as with folks where they're from. Yeah, so I definitely think that Nextdoor is an app that Clark Atlanta and our students can use to not only navigate throughout our campus community, but through the city of Atlanta. And I'm pretty sure Nextdoor, and I know it has for me since I've been using it,

it's provided me with plenty of opportunities to get involved. Because a lot of people are coming from out of state and their second home has become Atlanta. So to influence others and to just be diligent in making your community better, essentially as Clark Atlanta students, I know we pride ourselves in

not only finding out finding a way of making one but also doing culture for service so it's important that our students and our incoming freshmen and incoming students to to just be as impactful as the legend of clark atlanta university has been to the rest of the world. All right. Also, just piggyback off of Autumn, I think it's also important that we let them know that this app is useful. I don't think that, you know, coming on as a freshman, that you don't have that connection.

You don't know, you know, what's going on in Atlanta until you get here. And so even if we have, you know, us three or seniors, juniors, people who know the area, letting them know, hey, let's get on next door. Let's utilize this app. Let's make sure that we're safe. Let's use it for community service. Let's do, you know, making sure that they're engaged on that app and using it the right way. All right then. Well, folks, I certainly appreciate it. Good luck this year at Clark Atlanta. We'll be in Atlanta for a couple of weeks for the SWAC Me Act Challenge. And so look forward to being there. Thanks a lot. Thank you. A final item here. President Joe Biden has nominated Damian Williams to be the U.S. attorney for the Southern District. He'd be the first black man to ever lead that office. It is considered the most high-profile U.S. attorney's office in the country. One of the things that's

been happening here, Robert, Joe Biden has been appointing a number of black judges, black U.S. attorneys, following through on promises he made during the campaign. Yes. And I think it's important for him to increase the pace of that because, look, you know, obviously, I'm sure that President Biden expects to hold the United States Senate in the midterms. But the reality is, we don't know what's going to happen. And let's be very clear. If the Democrats lose the majority after the midterm, Mitch McConnell is going to shut

everything down. He's going to shut everything down. I mean, he has before. You know, we know that. I mean, he basically slow-walked Obama's appointees during his entire term, and he's gotten worse with age. So the Republicans are going to shut everything down. So while he has the Senate, he needs to go ahead and fill all of his U.S. attorney appointments now, and he needs to get as many judicial appointments at the district and appeals court

level as he can. Now, of course, it would be nice if someone would retire on the Supreme Court, and he could also make a Supreme Court appointment as well. But, of course, we don't have any control over that. But, yes, I think he needs to be a lot more aggressive working with the U.S. Senate to get all of his appointments that are open, that he has available to him filled before folks start leaving Washington to campaign for the midterms. That appointment, again, among several nominations today announced by the White House,

they dropped it around 6 p.m. Kelly. I'm sorry, you broke up. I say the announcement dropped around 6 p.m. Those announced with the U.S. attorney's announcements, including Damon Williams being the first African-American to head the U.S. Southern District in New York City. No, I think that's fantastic. The fact that we have a president who is interested in diversifying the judiciary, I think that's wonderful, especially when you consider the cases that come in and out of that specific district. A lot of it has to deal with people of color and issues regarding people of color.

So to have someone who is a black man who understands our issues will go a very long way. But to my other panelists' point, we need to push in getting more appointees into these respective slots regarding judicial vacancies, AG vacancies, what have you, because us having the majority in the Senate come this next midterm, the outlook is very bleak. And the fact that we have already had two years in the majority and it feels like they are taking it for granted, that's a problem.

So we definitely need to get on the ball with that. All right then. Folks, we certainly appreciate both of you on the show. Mustafa as well. His power went out because of the storm that came through D.C., so we lost him. Mustafa, thanks for being on the show as well. Folks, if y'all want to support what we do here at Roller Mark Unfiltered, your dollars absolutely

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