#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Delta COVID surge; Okla. Ed board bans CRT; Proud Boys head pled guilty to vandalizing Black church

Episode Date: July 21, 2021

7.20.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Delta variant COVID infection surge; Okla. Ed board bans critical race theory; Proud Boys head pleads guilty to vandalizing a Black church in Washington D.C.; French President Emmanuel Macron made civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson a commander of the Legion of Honor; Billionaire Jeff Bezos successfully travels into space+ The Marketplace: Meet the creator of Beautiful Curly Me ... a business inspired and created by an 8-year-old.⭐️ The Marketplace is sponsored by Nextdoor, whose purpose is to cultivate a kinder world where neighbors can rely on one another, where all feel welcome.Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man.

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I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes, rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers

at taylorpapersilling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Thank you. Today is Tuesday, July 20th, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin unfiltered, the Delta variant causing major problems, skyrocketing increase of COVID cases across the country. Dr. Ebony Hilton says, I told y'all this was going to happen. That's not really how she sounds,

her South Carolina accent, but y'all know what I mean. In Oklahoma, the State Board of Education passed emergency rules on HB 1775 that bans critical race theory. We'll talk with the only black board member who also voted against it. Henry Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, pleads guilty to vandalizing the historic Asbury Ninety Methodist Church here in Washington, D.C. Also, French President Emmanuel Macron made civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr.

a commander of the Legion of Honor. France's highest award. We'll show you the ceremony. Plus, billionaire Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos successfully traveled into space this morning. We'll show you the video. Also, he announced that he's given Van Jones $100 million to hand out. However he so chooses.

And our next door black business segment is with beautiful Curly Mia, business inspired by and created by an eight-year-old. Folks, it's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin, unfiltered. Let's go. He's knowing, putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling, yeah It's on for a roll, roll, y'all Yeah, yeah It's rolling, Martin, yeah

Yeah, yeah Rolling with rolling now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's rolling, Martin All right, my first guest loves to say, listen, listen. Y'all better listen. her charleston south carolina accent i'm talking about dr ebony hilton uh she's been a frequent guest on the show uh go ahead pull up listen listen well they should have listened if they did listen we wouldn't be in this mess

that we're in right now so so y's that. So y'all, Dr. Ebony Hilton, she has been of course with University of Virginia, also with Goodstock Consulting out of South Carolina. She has been constantly upset with these folks when it comes to COVID, not want to put their damn

mask on. Folk getting upset about the vaccine. Ebony got one of them space age masks that she wears when she's in the hospital, wear it for $13, $14, $15 a day. She don't even take it off to eat, y'all. She ain't taking it off. And so you got the Delta variant that, of course, is happening all across the country. Now you have the Lambda variant. It's causing many conversations about vaccines and mask mandates. Here are the COVID numbers as of today. In the U.S., 35,019,526 reported cases of COVID-19 and 624,998 reported deaths. Now, we are seeing increases happening

in a variety of states. Now, the White House, they've also reached out to Fox News regarding their controversial COVID coverage, often disputed by Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and others. This is

former Fox White House correspondent Carl Cameron talking about the spread of misinformation by folks like Tucker Carlson. It's about ratings. Just money. And ratings ultimately become revenue. And that's the name of the game. Whoever gets the most clicks on social media makes the most money, gets the most fame, gets the most attention, and that type of activity is not journalism, it's not news, it's gaslighting, it's propaganda.

I mean, just last week, new infections went up 70 percent. And according to the CDC, which—excuse me, the NIH, which oversees the CDC, it is absolutely 95, 99.5% of those infections are people who haven't gotten vaccinated. I mean, come on. Anybody who disputes that sort of stuff is putting people's lives at risk and potentially killing them. Then, of course, last night you had all of a sudden Sean Hannity with a different tone. I'm just curious. Are they going to get sued or something? Because normally, you know, when they decide to change their tone, things are a lawsuit.

Y'all, here is the blabbermouth himself last night. Listen. Just like we've been saying, please take COVID seriously. I can't say it enough. Enough people have died. We don't need any more deaths. Research like crazy. Talk to your doctor, your doctors, medical professionals you trust

based on your unique medical history, your current medical condition, and you and your doctor make a very important decision for your own safety. Take it seriously. YOUR CURRENT MEDICAL CONDITION. AND YOU AND YOUR DOCTOR MAKE A VERY IMPORTANT DECISION FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY. TAKE IT SERIOUSLY. YOU ALSO HAVE A RIGHT TO MEDICAL PRIVACY. DOCTOR-PATIENT CONFIDENTIALITY IS ALSO IMPORTANT.

AND IT ABSOLUTELY MAKES SENSE FOR MANY AMERICANS TO GET VACCINATED. I BELIEVE IN SCIENCE. I BELIEVE IN THE SCIENCE OF VACCINATION. JUST LIKE WE'VE BEEN SAYING. NOW, THERE'S A WHOLE BUNCH OF

FOLKS ON FOX NEWS, OH, Oh, y'all, they got their vaccines. Remember when they were complaining about the vaccine passports? You do know at Fox News they have to require that to even come into their building. But just so you understand the game that's Carl Cameron, y'all, he spent years at Fox News playing. Check this out. I saw this where I was coming in and, hmm, you just heard Sean Hannity there on Fox News. This is media matters. Sean Hannity tells his radio caller he was correct to ignore his doctor and refuse the COVID vaccine.

Hmm. See, y'all need to understand the game is being played. and refuse the COVID vaccine. Mmm. See, y'all need to understand the game's being played. See, this is why we're dealing with the Delta variant and cases are increasing in Texas and California because all these idiots who keep listening to people like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson. When you heard President Joe Biden say Facebook is killing people

because they allow misinformation, the algorithm, folks, drives revenue. And when you have these conservative people on the right, like Ben Shapiro and others, Dan Bongino with the top numbers on Facebook, they're spreading misinformation. That, Ebony, is the problem. They literally are listening to these idiots as if they're giving them great information. Right, and it's ridiculous considering the fact that you don't have to, I don't know, the saying,

you don't have to see a duck to know it's a duck, like if you can hear it quack. We've been now in this pandemic for a year and a half. We shouldn't have to tell people that water is wet and that COVID is dangerous. But yet, here we are. And what we're seeing across the nation, we have an increase in 198% in our COVID cases over the last two weeks. And if you think about the last two weeks, that means January 4th, where everyone was partying. That's where we're seeing these numbers right now. So 198% increase in new cases, 45% in hospitalizations, 45% in death, even though our testing is down 13%. So imagine that. We're not testing as much as we were two weeks ago,

and yet our counts are going up, which is a bad, bad sign. And if you're looking at it across the board, Mississippi has had an increase in over sign. And if you're looking at it across the board, Mississippi has had an increase in over 308%. If we're looking at Arkansas, we're talking about 120%. Alabama, you can go literally across the board, you're looking at 200, 300% increase in your new cases. And I hate to say it for Mississippi, with this 300% increase, you don't have the hospital density that they do in New York City, that they do in California. You don't have the infrastructure in place. So all those persons that are getting infected, the likelihood of you dying increases because the resources there to keep you alive are simply not there. And what happened was, Ebony, we had these people who, we got to open up, open up, open up.

And they were putting pressure, there was pressure on the Biden administration to do so. They lifted the mask mandate and folk just lost their damn mind. I mean, the moment the mask mandate was lifted, oh, folk just lost their mind. Now you got Los Angeles reimposing the mask mandate. Now they got people who are mad at them because they're saying, even if you've taken the vaccine, wear your mask. And we had a scientist from North Carolina A&T on who kept trying to explain to people that COVID vaccine is not 100% proof that just because you get the vaccine does not mean you can't get COVID again. It drastically reduces the possibility.

And if you do get it, it's not going to be as fatal as it was last year. But we're seeing increasing number of people who have gotten it. Coco Gauff pulled out of the Olympics because she got COVID. Rich Eisen with the NFL Network vaccinated, he got it. Bill Maher, Bill Maher, he

got it. There was another media person the other day where, and they, again, all took the vaccine, but they still got it. Right. I mean, the closest thing I can give to people is birth control pills, right? Women, we know we can take birth control pills, but if you go and you're not protected or you're not using other methods of trying to have contraception, you can still get pregnant. Same thing with COVID-19. The vaccine is supposed to allow your immune system to be ready on day zero if you get

in contact with someone with COVID. It does not prevent someone from coming into your presence, coughing in your face, and actually transmitting the virus to you. It's not a, the analogy I use is like a raincoat. I can have a raincoat on and keep me dry for the most part, but if I jump into a pool of water, I'm going to get wet. Same thing with this vaccine. You cannot rely on it to prevent you from getting infected. It is supposed to be a booster for your immune system to be able to respond. And I think I said on the very first time I was on your show, we use death too much in America as a sign of how this pandemic is going. There are other consequences of COVID other than just death. The vaccine does a fantastic job of keeping you alive when you get infected with COVID, and that's fantastic. But what we do know is that long COVID does exist.

And long COVID is where the inflammatory process of this virus literally causes your organs to work differently, your brain, your kidneys, your lungs. And so there are studies out of Stanford, for instance, where they looked at people who didn't present with brain symptoms of loss of taste and smell. They didn't have that. But when they did autopsies on these people after they died from COVID, their brains resembled those of persons with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. We don't know what this virus is doing as far as the impact it has on your body structurally. And there was a report by Fair Health of over 2 million people. And what they found was that 23% of those 2 million people complained of symptoms of COVID-19 for at least greater than 30 days. And that's what they were using as a marker for long COVID. And the

interesting thing was, is that 19% of people who said, I didn't have any signs and symptoms of COVID. I didn't have a cough. I didn't have a fever. I literally just went and got tested and I came up positive for COVID. Well, 19% of those persons like that said that within those 30 days, something about their body was different. Either they complained of GI upset, they complained of what we call COVID brain fog, or inability to concentrate. They had painful experiences. They had differences in their lab work. And those are people who didn't even have any signs and symptoms that they were infected in the first place. So to play around with COVID when we don't know the long-term impact it can have on your body is a dangerous game to play. You know, man, I've got fools on YouTube going, oh, this is a con game.

And, you know, this is a joke. The vaccine is a joke. And I'm sorry. It's not a get-out-of-jail-free car where, oh, I can now just go out and wild it out, and I can just walk around. And part of this thing was, this is where the information came in, Ebony, where it was problematic because then it was like, oh, well, no, sure, if you got vaccinated,

sure, you can be in groups now, and you can be in groups of, you know, up to 10 and 20, and everything is fine. It was kind of like, yeah, but you don't know if they ass got it. Right. And we were saying that with the CDC's lifting of the mask mandate, we have to realize it was based on information that was coming out of Israel. And Israel did a fantastic job of vaccinating the country. They literally had 60 percent of all their adults vaccinated by April the 3rd or 4th, I think it was. But they still didn't lift their last mask mandate until April the 18th to allow for even more persons to be vaccinated.

Now, we in the United States of America, we still have not gotten to 60 percent of our population fully vaccinated. And we know that. And so for us to try to use Israel as a surrogate for what we should do here was premature, in my opinion, for one. For two, we know that we have to think about COVID on the global scale of things and then also locally. So to tell the entire nation, United States of America, hey, you can go about your lives and take off your mask and wonder about when we're having outbreaks in Missouri, where people are literally have to transport their patients out of state because they don't have any hospital beds for them. We have outbreaks in Mississippi, Florida, literally one in every

five new cases of COVID is coming out of Florida. Stay away from Florida. When we have those types of situations, we can't make these blanketed statements and say, go out and be free when it's not safe. And vaccines, for those persons saying that vaccines don't work, what I'm telling you in my ICU right now, I have a person half my age, literally. If they don't get a lung transplant, they will die. That's the truth of what happens. It's not old people. It's not the sick people. It is people that look just like you and me

that are struggling to breathe at this point. And it doesn't have to be that way. The vaccine does a fantastic job of preventing you from getting to that severe form of COVID-19. Well, one of my lawyers was misdiagnosed. Absolutely believe that she has COVID. Doctor said you have COVID lungs. She had, she, three months ago, she said, I need to transfer your work to someone else because I am still dealing with COVID one year later.

And I texted her the other day just to see how she was doing and she is getting better, but this is a year later. And these people are playing games. You tweeted this, a friend who got vaccinated. I think she was, she's a doctor if I'm correct, and got COVID. There are so many other examples. There was, I saw a tweet the other day

where a young lady out of Houston, she's a pharmacist, and her dumbass boyfriend refused to take the vaccine. Now his ass is in the hospital, in the ICU, fighting for his life because he was like, oh yeah, a vaccine is stupid. We see these other stories where people were big time anti-vaxxers and now they're literally

fighting for their lives and they're posting these photos of them in their hospital beds. And I don't understand how nuts folks are on this. I don't get it. I don't get it. I don't get it either. I'm not trying to play games. I'm not trying to play games. I'm not trying to be sick.

And again, bitching about a mask. First of all, Ebony, his was so crazy. It's not that many times I'm actually around a lot of people. So when I walk into a convenience store, mask. Now, when I'm walking out and

ain't nobody on my left and ain't nobody on my left and ain't nobody on my right or in front of me, behind me, hell, I take it off. I'm trying to figure out why is it so hard? It's hard because people want to make it hard. People will complain about the

wetness of water if you let them. But what I do know is that those same persons who are complaining about a mask, when they come into the hospital, they are begging, begging for a mask that has some oxygen because they can't breathe. And I think what we have to realize is the burden that it placed on medical professionals. You mentioned the retweet I did of a physician who is now infected because trying to take care of persons who have COVID in the hospital, that's one of my greatest fears.

I mean, I go to work and I will go to work and take care of patients because that's what we're supposed to do, but I don't wanna die. And so for persons to be as selfish as they are to say, I just don't want this, right? If you have curiosities and you have concerns about how the vaccine works, for sure, let's talk that through. But if it's just say, I just don't feel

like doing that, then when COVID, if COVID touches your throat and you cannot breathe anymore, think about if you're going to keep that same energy. Because if you're not going to keep that same energy and you're going to want someone to help you, then help me help you. Go get vaccinated. You can text your zip code to getvax, which is G-E-T-V-A-X, and it'll have all the information of exactly where within your locality you can go and get vaccinated. If you have questions, find me on Twitter. Write me, and I'll try to answer as many of your questions as possible. But what we know is that right now, the persons that are dying in the hospital aren't the very old, because we've

done a great job of vaccinating our elderly population. Over 70, 80 percent of those elderly people are vaccinated. It's young people, and they're leaving behind their kids. They're leaving behind orphans at this point. You don't have to do that you literally can get a vaccination save your life and hopefully if you if we are to get infected if i do get infected um hopefully the vaccine will prevent people getting long covet and a permanent disability related to this this virus so look i got this fool Y'all, I'm just mad because we won't run off the cliff with the rest of the sheep. Okay, Silver Harmonix, when you die of COVID, let us know.

I'm afraid he doesn't die. No, no, no, no, see, sometimes you gotta go ahead. So Silver Harmonix, if any of your family members are watching, if you, I did, if you die of COVID, let us know because you were stupid with the comments you made on YouTube. Then I got this person blessing season, so you trust the government. What about the Tuskegee

experiment? Okay. Let me say this right... Go ahead. I was going to go ahead and handle it, but go right ahead. Because Tuskegee is brought up ahead and handle it, but go right ahead. Because Tuskegee is brought up over and over again, but if people truly know the history of what Tuskegee actually was, Tuskegee experiment was carried out from 1932 to 1972, just 10 years before I was born, it was actually ended.

And this Tuskegee experiment was actually the U.S. Public Health Service calling out to the black community, saying we want people with, quote unquote, bad blood to come in, and we're going to give you treatment for bad blood. But actually what they were looking for was people with syphilis. And the thing with Tuskegee was that they did not give them treatment. That was the problem with Tuskegee. Hold on, hold on. Let's slow that down. They were not injected with anything. No. What they did was monitor them.

They didn't forgive them any, they didn't provide any medical care. There was no injection of black people to the Tuskegee experiment. Go ahead. Right. And that's the problem. We knew that the cure for syphilis in 1940 was penicillin. So for 30 years, they allowed this experiment to happen, knowing they had a medicine that could cure these people. And so with COVID, when we've been watching for this last year and a half, black and brown people dying at higher rates. If the United States

government said, we have this vaccine that could save your life, and they said, we're not going to give it to you, that would be Tuskegee part two. But what we have now, this whole idea of, I don't want the vaccine because they may be trying to do something. Do you think, do you think I would go and tell my grandmother to do this? Do you think you would see the most powerful people in our country were the very first ones running up on stage to try to get vaccinated because they realized this is the only thing that can keep them alive to see 2022? We've already lost 630,000 Americans at least, and that number is grossly underestimated because we weren't testing a lot of people early on in the pandemic because we didn't have tests.

So when we were looking at that, it's, again, whenever you're trying to come up with an argument, and I welcome healthy discussions, but make sure it's based in facts. And if you're going to bring up Tuskegee, just realize that Tuskegee was the holding back of medicine. It wasn't the giving of medicine. They knew we were sick and they said, I'm not going to treat you because I want to see what syphilis does to the brain, to the lungs. What does it do to someone if we don't give you medical care? Well, you don't have to have that anymore in America. You can get treatment, and that starts, especially in this pandemic, with, again, testing GetVax, G-E-T-V-A-X,

your zip code, and you can find out where to get vaccinated. All right, then, Dr. Ebony Hilton. And I see your little nice, little cute candles over there, over your left shoulder. I got to zen out. This is a really stressful week. I'm tired. You trying to get your little

10 for 10 on Room Raider on Twitter. You ain't fooling me. It's a candle. From WeRind. You got the books. You got the candles. You got your 18 degrees on the wall.

This is my office. The only thing missing is your little... You give everybody else degrees on the wall. This is my office. Only thing missing is your little... Do you give everybody else this kind of grief? Yes. I ain't seen it. I give you extra grief. I'm going to give you extra grief. I ain't seen it.

Okay, Charleston. I haven't seen it. I haven't seen it. All right, we'll chat later. All right, I'll see y'all. All right, take seed. All right. We'll chat later. All right. I'll see y'all. All right. Take care.

All right, y'all. I want to bring in my panel, but before I bring them in, y'all, Dr. Anthony Fauci just got sick and tired of Senator Rand Paul's punk ass. They went at it today. Listen to this. If the point that you are making is that the grant that was funded as a subaward from EcoHealth to Wuhan created SARS-CoV-2, that's where you are getting. Let me finish. We don't know. We don't know if it did come from the lab, but all the evidence is pointing that it came from the lab. And there will be responsibility for those who funded the lab, including yourself totally this committee will allow the witness to i totally resent the lie that

you are now propagating senator because if you look at the viruses that were used in the experiments that were given in the annual reports that were published in the literature, it is molecularly impossible. No one's saying those virus caused it. It is molecularly. Those virus caused the pandemic. What we're alleging is the gain of function research was going on in that lab and NIH funded it. That is not. Get away from it. It meets your definition and you are obfuscating the truth. I you are obfuscating the truth. I'm not obfuscating the truth. You're the one. I'm expired, but I will allow the witness to. Let me just finish. I want everyone to understand that if you look at those viruses

and that's judged by qualified virologists and evolutionary biologists, those viruses are molecularly impossible. No one SARS-CoV-2. We're saying they are gain-of-function viruses because they were animal viruses that became more transmissible in human, and you funded it. And you implying... Senator Paul, your time has expired, and I will allow witnesses who come before this committee to respond and you are implying that what we did was responsible for the deaths of individual I totally resent that and if anybody was lying here senator it is you Fauci Ben Dixon is the host of Benjamin Dixon Show podcast.

Teresa Lundy, principal, founder of TML Communications. Mustafa Santayegh Ali, PhD, former senior advisor for environmental justice, EPA. Ben, Fauci's like, I'm tired of this shit. He should have been tired. I'm glad to see him tired of it. What Rand Paul is doing here is particularly nefarious because he is making an assertion that is, he's insinuating that Dr. Fauci and this gain of function research is what triggered the pandemic. And he knows that while he's making that distinction in front of the

Senate hearing, that the Trump supporters are going to just run with that. He understands how to do this double speak. It's very Orwellian. It's very 1984. He's a professional propagandist. He's a professional liar, and he specializes in half-truths, and I'm glad Dr. Fauci read him for filth. What we're dealing with, Teresa, is we're dealing with yahoos on the right who are really stuck on stupid, and they really believe this kind of crap, and that's part of the problem. Ron Brownstein tweeted this about a new CBS poll. 55% of the Trump voters described January 6th attack

as defending freedom. Just 20% call it an insurrection. These are the yahoos we're dealing with who are endangering America. Absolutely. I mean, so I think from the the beginning when we started to talk about what the pandemic was going to look like um you know i think probably the halfway through we were still in the process in the research stage so of course there was no plan in place um so i think there's just been obviously rhetoric that has been coming across either from my media streams um either even from the administration on down from the beginning.

So when we look at now with the rates going extremely high and we're trying to figure out solutions, we can't help to think about those naysayers in the beginning that said this pandemic was just not extreme or it wasn't as penetrable as it is today. But again, I guess that didn't matter with the high rising cases that we've had, not only in the US, but across the board. Look, we're dealing with some crazy people here.

And look, if y'all want to be one of these black folks who want to play games with this, go right ahead. I keep trying to explain to folks, Mustafa, ain't no flip side to death. I mean, it's not. When you're gone, you're gone.

That's it. Y'all can play with this all y'all want to. I ain't playing with it. Yeah, you know, it's like playing Russian roulette, you know, with your life, with your health and your wealth. When you actually look in totality of how, you know, COVID-19 impacts you, you know, we know that we're dying disproportionately.

So we should be doing everything that we can to make sure that any of our relatives, any of our friends, any of the folks in our community have all the information that they need so that they'll go ahead and make sure that they get vaccinated, but also continue to wear your mask. We know that it's also impacting our long-term health, which Ebony shared with us. And then the third part that we don't talk enough about is that it's also impacting our wealth. Because if you get sick and you have to be in the hospital for any amount of time we know how expensive that is so any of those three reasons should be enough for you to make sure that you

stop playing around with this um you know with this virus because it's real and it's not playing with folks you don't care you know what color you are party you are, it will take you out. Look, people have asked me, when am I going to allow panelists like yourself back in the studio? I said, it's going to be another six months. I said, we are not out of the danger zone. And so I don't want panelists potentially exposed. I don't want staff potentially exposed

because again, we've got to be out of this danger zone that we're in. And so if folks want to keep playing games, go right ahead. But I'm warning y'all, y'all got to sit here and really, really, really deal with this stuff, folks. And so, again, if y'all want to sit here and don't take it, okay, but guess what?

Do understand what's going to happen. You can be like one of these people here who are in the ICU gasping for air, saying, please, please save my life. Why don't you do that before your dumb ass gets sick? All right, let's talk about the stupidity that's going on all across the country. This happened yesterday. The Texas Senate, this is Philip Lewis tweeted this here. The Texas Senate passed a bill to eliminate a requirement that public schools teach that the KKK is morally wrong.

That same bill dropped studying Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech as a curriculum requirement. Now, in Oklahoma, the State Board of Education, they passed an emergency rule on House Bill 1775 banning critical race theory. Y'all, it wasn't even being taught in Oklahoma schools. Other rules implemented include,

check this out, parents are permitted to inspect school curriculum. Okay. Teachers who violate rules could face suspension of their teaching certificate. I told y'all what's going on here. These crazed, deranged white people, these white conservatives are going nuts.

They're trying to group everything under critical race theory, and it's idiotic. But you see what's going on. The Texas bill and its neighbor in Oklahoma, their actions, is causing them to have impact far greater than so-called critical race theory. Carlicia Williams Bradley is the only Oklahoma State Board of Education member who voted against these particular rules. She joins us right now. Take us inside the room. What was the conversation like with your fellow board members who were debating critical race theory when it's not even being taught in Oklahoma schools?

No. You know, we had the board meeting, and there were several parents who signed up to speak. You only have eight individuals who were able to make it on that docket. And many of the comments related critical race theory, compared it to teaching and talking about race and privilege

in school as bullying. They talked about these discussions on race and racism lead to things such as genocide in other countries. I mean, the concepts that these parents and the fear-mongering that went into this discussion was just completely outlandish. And when it came time for the board to vote, my fellow board members were silent. I shared about the fact that many of the comments that were made aren't even things that are taught in a K-12 classroom, when we're talking about critical race theory and not truly understanding the definition, placing everything under that umbrella. And what we're really saying is that we are not comfortable having conversations about race and racism or teaching our true, accurate history. And this is an act of a censure of our history teachers, of our teachers in the classroom. And for us in Oklahoma, administrators, teachers, even myself,

I didn't get the final version of those rules until 30 minutes before the meeting. So this is happening swiftly and it is happening in the dark. And just to put this thing in perspective, wasn't it just in 2018 when Oklahoma started teaching the Tulsa race massacre in Oklahoma schools. So it took all those years, almost 100 years. Bob, they moved real fast on this one. Yes. And it's so interesting, the energy that surrounded Tulsa.

Just a month ago, we're celebrating the centennial, not celebrating, but commemorating the centennial. A spotlight is on our history in telling this truth. And many of the school districts began to adopt new curriculum that was developed. And so now here comes House Bill 1775. And while some individuals are saying, oh, just teach the standards and you will be fine, it's the consequences attached to that. When you talk about making a student feel uncomfortable, to feel anguish or guilt, and there being a penalty of your teaching certificate, and even further in the consequences, school districts could lose accreditation, which means losing all of their state funding.

So there are so many things that are attached to the fear that is surrounding this bill, the fact that of the hundreds of education laws that were passed, that this was the one, the only one that we needed to finally getting to speak the truth and putting that in the standards, it's three steps forward and four steps back for us here in Oklahoma. And I'm just deeply concerned at where we've landed and especially in being the only person to voice dissent at this board. seeing, and this is what people have to realize, when you look at that Texas bill, when you look at what these fools in Tennessee have been trying to do, how they've been trying to change the textbooks as well, the real deal, these folks do not want race.

They don't want diversity. They don't want any of this stuff being taught, and their strategy is to put everything under this critical race theory umbrella. Correct. I mean, and it's interesting, you know, even when you look at the bill for Oklahoma, it doesn't say critical race theory in the bill.

It says that you can't talk about meritocracy, that you can't speak on hard work ethic and it being related to somebody's race or identity, that you can't speak on hard work ethic and it being related to somebody's race or identity, that you can't make people feel anguish, guilt, or any type of fear in regards to their race or their gender. So there's coded language in there, but underneath all of it is the ability to silence conversations about race, to silence conversations about the truth in our history. And it is an organized movement. As many people that have reached out to me since the rules passed, it is our community oftentimes reacting to the circumstances. But to be honest with you,

the conservatives were organized already to be on that agenda, to speak at this meeting. They were sending hundreds of emails to the board members days before we got to this vote. So I just really encourage, especially as we look across the country and this is happening rapidly, we must organize and we must elevate our voices. Well, but you got to realize, I mean, this has been driven by Fox News, by conservative talk radio. That's what's been going on here. And so it is a trumped up fake conversation. And that's what it is, pure and simple. True. You're right. I mean, and it is, it's a conversation that's not built on truth. And even when you try to approach the conversations about critical

race theory not being taught in school at all, I now see, now that we have passed these rules, there's another surge of many of the conservative think tanks who are saying, capture screenshots, do whatever you—send reports to the State Department about these teachings in schools. They are on a mission to find anything possible to continue to ignite the flame of this fear and really a false conversation. But it has become the center of attention, especially in a state like Oklahoma that isn't even funding education properly. While we're sitting here talking about what you can't teach, we're not even funding public education to the degree in which we should. So it is really smoke and mirrors, but it is also for us in our state that just finally began to reckon with

our past, a critical and pivotal point to where we have to say, not here, not now. We need to do something and we need to see something change. All right, then. Well, look, keep up the fight. That's what it entails. And I know it must be lonely being the only voice dissenting. But remember, it was Congresswoman Barbara Lee who was the lone voice voting against that war in Iraq.

And she was hailed as a fearless leader a decade later. And so sometimes you got to do it by yourself when others don't want to stand up. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right, Kalisha Williams Bradley. Thanks a lot. All right, folks. This is one of my panel here.

Teresa, I want to start with you. We need to understand what it's about coming down the pipe here. What you're having is, and people don't understand what's going on. You can have all the black folks in Atlanta, Republicans who control the legislature in Georgia. You got black folks who are in Houston,

but you got Republicans controlling legislature in Austin, Texas. You got in your state, oh, black folks in Houston, but you got Republicans controlling legislature in Austin, Texas. You got in your state, oh, life force in Philadelphia, but you got Republicans who are controlling legislature in the state capital. That's what they, for all the folk who love talking about local control, no. They only believe in that when they are in power local. They want to control everything happening in these cities. They want to control everything happening in these cities.

They want to stifle black power. Absolutely. You should see the amount of disproportionate, not only laws, but strongholds that they have on certain conditions here in the city of Philadelphia. But again, I think Republicans are always thinking about the long game. So they, you know, kind of gave up on local elections in some of these areas in the Commonwealth, and they have been focused on statewide appeal. And I think that same message and that same strategy has been working across different states where they're doing the exact same thing in the exact same playbook. So I think it's really incumbent up to us,

local elected officials that are African-American, to strive for those statewide positions and to ensure that their base is not only focused on local issues, but stronger statewide relations, because we honestly wouldn't have some of these issues that we are today if they were in positions on a statewide basis. It's all about power. It's all about control, Mustafa. And that's what the Republicans are doing. Yeah, it has always been about power. And this is, you know, this is politics. Folks know that they don't have any major policy to run on in 2022 or 2024 that we've seen so far. So they go back to these old, you know, things that they can try and whip people up about and get folks to, you know, to get in line

with what the Republican Party thinks that it currently stands for, what it does stand for, because they're the ones that are supporting this. So we know what the game is. We have to be very concerned, though, that there's the culling of teachers that will happen, you know, where the subjectiveness of being able to say, well, you said this, which was out of step, so you're no longer there. And as we lose good teachers, we hurt Black and brown students who desperately need to have folks

who look like them, who they can connect with. So you've got the two different dynamics that are going on. You've got the politics and the power that's going on. And then you've also got the silencing of teachers that are willing to tell the truth about the history of our country. Ben? I'm just thinking about how much effort that they go through to ensure that two things. They have a boogeyman, like Mustafa was saying. It's a cyclical outrage. It's a seasonal outrage. In a few months, we will be outraged over the war on Christmas, even though there's no such thing. Republicans are professional propagandists. They have mastered the art of the talking point, and they understand how to maintain and sustain outrage between elections. That's

what they're good at. The second thing is that they're absolutely committed to making sure that the history of this country is never told by the people who have been on the receiving end of this country's power. And so the oppressors never want the history told by the oppressed. Look, folks, just understand what's going on here. Look, we're trying to warn you in advance. There's going to be more of this happening. Got to go to a break when we come back. Reverend Jesse Jackson

Sr. is honored by the nation of France. We'll show you exactly what took place. Also, later in the show we'll talk about black business and how you can use the Nextdoor app to actually

grow your business. All of that. Don't move. Up next, right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. But before you go, don't forget, if you want to support what we do, please contribute to and join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar you give goes to support this show. We're back to using Cash App.

We shut down those fake Cash App accounts. Also, if y'all gave money to any of those fake accounts, please send me the screenshot to Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com so I can forward them the Cash app. So hopefully we can try to get that taken care of. But our Cash app, dollar sign RM

Unfiltered. Anybody who gives during the show, I'm going to give you a shout out today. And so again, Cash app is, Dallas and RM Unfiltered. PayPal is paypal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered. Venmo is venmo.com forward slash rmunfiltered. Zelle, roland at rolandsmartin.com or roland at rolandmartinunfiltered.com. Back in a moment. I believe that people our age have lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing. The challenges, there's so many of them and they're complex.

And we need to be moving to address them. But I'm able to say, watch out, Tiffany. I know this, bro. That is so freaking dope. What still impacts and what creates change is when we mobilize. When we say we're not powerless and if I get with you and you and you and all of a sudden it's ten

and twenty and a hundred and five hundred and two thousand and five thousand all of a sudden you have mobilized people that creates that voting power and then you throw somebody out it catches their attention real quick. But not only just that they have to know what it is that they're standing for. Because if you have friends that talks politics, then of course we're having a decent conversation and I'm being educated at the same time. But if my group of people are not talking about that, then I still don't know. So I can unite with you, and then I'm making sure that you have the voice, but what if you don't have

the courage to speak? So you're still getting a group of people together that don't know how to do nothing. George Floyd's death hopefully put another nail in the coffin of racism. You talk about awakening America, it led to a historic summer of protest. I hope our younger generation don't ever forget that nonviolence is soul force.

I'm Bill Duke. This is DeOlla Riddle, and you're watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Stay woke. The president of France has presented Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. with the country's highest award. President Emmanuel Macron commemorated Jackson for helping change the destiny of the United States by making him the commander of the Legion of Honor. That's an award that many African-American soldiers received in France in World War I.

They were also awarded other French medals at the time when the United States was not recognized in the bravery of African-Americans. Here is part of that ceremony. The French Republic is grateful for your tireless work to promote liberty, equality, and fraternity, and for the hope you have instilled in us all for over half a century. I just described some of your main fights, your merits, but all of us are very aware of this legacy, what you deliver, what definitely is a privilege to have you here today. This is why it is an honor and a great pleasure for me, on behalf of the French Republic, to decorate you as Commander in the Legion of Honor. Thank you. Thank you....

Monsieur Jesse Jackson, au nom de la République française, nous vous faisons commandeur de la Légion d'honneur. ... Thank you. All right, folks. And just if anyone was wondering, Reverend Jackson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom here in the United States by President Bill Clinton in 2000.

Of course, he is dealing with the reality of Parkinson's disease. And it is important, I think it is important that this generation and others do not diminish nor underestimate or ignore the tremendous work over his life, Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. It is, it's very painful for me to watch him now. Someone who was such a powerful orator, someone who is arguably one of the top 10 greatest orators of the 20th century. but a lot of folks ignore and dismiss what he has done and accomplished on behalf of a lot of folks but especially black folks

i agree and um i think you know as we talk about what the next generation looks like, even my generation, you know, Jesse Jackson, you know, who has been through a lot, who has suffered Parkinson's disease, you know, at the tender age of 79, he has been a monument. And you have seen him in social justice organizations. You have seen him marching. You have seen him in social justice organizations. You have seen him marching. You have seen him establishing coalitions. He has been the foundation of a lot of these institutions. And I think, for me, it's more so about remembering his legacy and remembering his purpose. And I think even this honor has shown that he is being remembered because of the great works he has done.

And I think some of those works, not only is it going to be remembered, but it's going to be passed down by generation to generation. But again, we just got to, again, keep pushing our history and pushing our legacy to the next generation. And because I have spent a significant amount of time

with him, Mustafa, because I have interviewed him on numerous occasions, folks who, people who've known him, interviewed me and Dr. king's lieutenants um i think in many ways because reverend was in so many places he was so familiar to a lot of people that folks did have not really had the reverence, if you will, and the appreciation for what he has done? I mean, Reverend Jackson is a treasure. You know, he's not just an American treasure.

He is a planetary treasure in the work that he has done. And, you know, some folks know about the work that he did with Dr. King, that transformational work of the civil rights movement, founding of Rainbow Push, bringing all kinds of people together, push for social justice, for workers' rights, really trying to make sure that real change actually happened,

running for president and actually pulling together a fantastic Democratic campaign in that space, you know, reaching across international borders and helping to free folks who had been, you know, kidnapped and all these other types of things that are a part of his legacy. You know, my grandmother once said, you know, don't give me roses after I'm gone. Give them to me while I'm here. If we truly want to honor Rev, then let's make sure that we're uplifting his story. But, you know, we have to also start to push and make sure that many of these buildings have his name and other great men's names on it. When we go to Capitol Hill, why don't we see, you know, a building named after Jesse Jackson, Jr. or John Lewis or a number of the other greats who have been a part not just of our past history,

but continue to make history to this day. So, you know, I'm thankful to the French for what they've done for our people in the past and that they continue to honor our folks in a way that sometimes we don't do it ourselves in our own country. And we've got to push because if we don't push to make sure that they're honored, nobody else will. I've never traveled internationally with Reverend Jackson, but many folks have made it clear that he is often treated like a head of state when he goes overseas. And I'll say this, and I don't care what anybody has to say. You could talk about today. You could talk about the NAACP, multiple presidents, you can talk about the National Urban League, multiple presidents. You can talk about Reverend Sharpton,

other civil rights leaders, but I can tell you right now that none of them, none of them, none of them have the stature and have the ability to pick, in his prime, going in the 70s, in the 80s, in the 90s, and in 2000, who could pick the phone up and make things happen and force CEOs to drop their schedules to meet with him. And I

long said this to a lot of people. I said what happens when Reverend Jackson is no longer on the stage? And a lot of people and I get folks who say happens when Reverend Jackson is no longer on the stage. And a lot of people, and I get folks who say we don't need to have the one leader, I totally get that.

But what I was trying to get people to understand was the influence and the power to be able to impact things, and that's the piece right there. This battle that we're having right now with ad agencies, I'll say it, if Reverend Jackson was not significantly slowed in his speech heard by Parkinson's, his voice would be very loud and persistent on this issue. And again, I don't care. And I know all of them.

I know all the civil rights folks from Sharpton to Derek Johnson and Mark Morial. We can go on and on and on. But the reality is here, none of them can hold a candle to Reverend Jackson. I'm thinking of two things. I'm thinking of the funeral of C.L. Franklin when Jesse Jackson was there and Jasper Williams was preaching. It was, I don't know what year it was, but I couldn't have been but a boy.

I saw the tape of it and Jesse Jackson was moving with a style and a grace that matched his commitment to black people and human rights. And he has always had that grace and that soul deep down in him that manifested not only in how he responded to the preached gospel, being Reverend Jesse Jackson, but also to the liberation aspect of the gospel. And I also am reminded of, I think, Roland, you had him on back when it was the year anniversary of George Floyd's death. And he was on with Carlton Pearson and Jamal Bryant that day. And I heard him, I heard him. He still has the same

level of brilliance. Oh, yes. But you could see, but you could see the struggle with Parkinson's. And I just see a struggle of a brilliant man who still has so much more that he could say. But like you said, just the fight, the physical fight, he hasn't let it stop him, even if it slowed him down. He is still one of the most brilliant men I've ever heard speak. And again, he was with Reverend Barbara a week or two ago, got arrested here in D.C. fighting for voting rights, and the dealer's here.

He's not perfect. Nobody is perfect. MLK wasn't perfect. JFK wasn't perfect. LBJ wasn't perfect. And we understand that. Many of y'all probably have never seen this, a lot of y'all who are watching and listening. I probably listened to this at least six to eight times a year.

And I brought it forward, but if y'all really want to understand what Benjamin just said, I need the last seven minutes of Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr.'s speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. If listening to the last, if you would not move to tears

listening to the last seven minutes, I can actually, my eyes can well up even just talking about it. So understand setting, y'all. Understand this is his second presidential run. He comes in second to Michael Dukakis. Anyone who remembers that,

he took a bus from Chicago to Atlanta, and it was as if he was the candidate going to claim the nomination in Atlanta. But I want y'all to listen.

And again, I pulled it a little bit before just to set it up. But the brilliance, and that's why when all these folk talk about Obama's 2004 speech, you know, not blue states, not red states, not, y'all, I'm sorry. I mean, look, I know my white commentators on CNN,

they just went crazy with that. I was like, y'all, I'm sorry. That don't even touch Reverend's 84 or his 88 speech. It just don't. But I need y'all to listen to this. And again, a lot of y'all have never, I posted this on Instagram a couple of years ago, people had never heard this and were blown away. Check this out.

And then for our children, young America, hold your head high now. We can win. We must not lose you to drugs and violence, premature pregnancies, suicide, cynicism, pessimism, and despair. We can win. Wherever you are tonight, I challenge you to hope and to dream. Don't submerge your dreams. Exercise above all else. Even on drugs, dream of the day you're drug free. Even in the gutter, dream of the day that you'll be up on your feet again. You must never stop dreaming. Face reality, yes, but don't stop with the way things

are. Dream of things as they ought to be. Dream. Face pain, but love, hope, faith, and dreams will help you rise above the pain. Use hope and imagination as weapons of survival and progress. But you keep on dreaming, young America. Dream of peace. Peace is rational and reasonable. War is irrational in this age and unwinnable. Dream of teachers who teach for life and not for living. Dream of doctors who are concerned more about public health than private wealth. Dream of lawyers more concerned about justice and the judgeship. Dream of preachers who

are concerned more about prophecy than profiteering. Dream on the high road with sound values. And then America, as we go forth to September, October, November, and then beyond, America must never surrender to a high moral challenge. Do not surrender to drugs. The best drug policy is a no fresh use. No surrender with needles and cynicism. Let's have no fresh uses on the one hand, or clinics on the other.

Never surrender, young America. Go forward. America must never surrender to malnutrition. We can feed the hungry and clothe the naked. We must never surrender. We must go forward. We must never surrender to illiteracy. Invest in our children. Never surrender and go forward.

We must never surrender to inequality. Women cannot compromise. E-R-A-A, a comparable word. Women are making 60 cents on the dollar to what a man makes. Women cannot buy meat makes. Women cannot buy meat cheaper. Women cannot buy bread cheaper. Women cannot buy milk cheaper. Women deserve to get paid for the work that you do. It's right and it's fair. Don't surrender, my friends. Those who have AIDS tonight, you deserve our compassion. Even with AIDS, you must not surrender in your wheelchairs.

I see you sitting here tonight in those wheelchairs. I've stayed with you. I've reached out to you across our nation. Don't you give up. I know it's tough sometimes people look down on you it took you a little more effort to get here tonight and no one should look down on you but sometimes mean people do the only justification we have for looking down on someone is that we're going to stop and pick them up but But even in your wheelchairs, don't you give up? We cannot forget 50 years ago when our backs were against the wall,

Roosevelt was in a wheelchair. I would rather have Roosevelt in a wheelchair than Reagan and Bush on a horse. Don't you surrender and don't you give up. Don't surrender and don't give up. Why can I challenge you this way? Jesse Jackson, you don't understand my situation. You'll be on television. You don't understand my situation. You'll be on television. You don't understand.

I see you with the big people. You don't understand my situation. I understand. I understand. You see me on TV, but you don't know the media makes me mean. They wonder why does Jesse run. Because they see me running for the White House. They don't see the house I'm running from. I have a story.

I wasn't always on television. Writers were not always outside my door. When I was born late one afternoon, October 8th, in Greenville, South Carolina, no writers asked my mother her name. Nobody chose to write down our address. A mama was not supposed to make it. A mama was not supposed to make it. And I was not supposed to make it. You see, I was born a teenage mother.

Who was born a teenage mother? I understand. I know abandonment and people being mean to you and saying you're nothing and nobody and can never be anything. I understand. Jesse Jackson is my third name. I'm adopted. When I had no name, my grandmother gave me her name. My name was Jessie Burns

till I was 12 so I wouldn't have a blank space she gave me a name to hold me over I understand when nobody knows your name I understand when you have no name I understand

I wasn't born in the hospital. Mama didn't have insurance. I was born in the bed, at house. I really do understand. Born in a three-room house. Bathroom in the backyard. Slop job by the bed. No hot and cold running water. I understand. Wallpaper used for decoration? No. For a windbreaker.

I understand. I'm a working person's person. That's why I understand you whether you're black or white. I understand work. I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I had a shovel programmed for my hand. My mother, a working woman. Some of the days she went to work early, with rons in her stockings she knew better but she wore rons in her stockings so that my brother and I could have matching socks

and not be laughed at at school I understand at 3 o'clock on Thanksgiving Thanksgiving day we couldn't eat turkey because mama was preparing somebody else's turkey at 3 o'clock. We had to play football to entertain ourselves and then around six o'clock she would get off the after-dista bus and we would bring up the leftovers and eat our turkey, leftovers, the caulkers, the cranberries around eight o'clock at night. I really do understand. Every one

of these funny labels they put on you, those of you who are watching this broadcast tonight and the projects on the corners, I understand. Call you outcast, lowdown, you can't make it. You're nothing, you're from nobody. Subclass, underclass. When you see Jesse Jackson, when my name goes in nomination, your name goes in nomination. I was born in the slum, but the slum was not born in

me. And it wasn't born in you, and you can make it. Wherever you are tonight, you can make it. Pull your head high, stick your chest out, you can make it. Pull your head high. Stick your chest out. You can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but the morning comes. Don't you surrender. Suffering breeds character.

Character breeds faith. In the end, faith will not support. You must not surrender. You may or may not get there, but just know that you are qualified when you hold on and hold out. We must never surrender. America will get better and better. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive on tomorrow night and beyond, Chief Hope alive. I love you very much. I love you very much. That right there is, as I dare say,

why it is hard to look at today because we are so used to, I think a lot of us got so used to hearing him. And I would say it's akin, Ben, to not being able to hear someone else who suffered from Parkinson's, Muhammad Ali, which is the value of video, the value of what someone had said so much and did so much,

the ability to still be able to hear it today. And so again, for a lot of people who never saw or heard that, they probably were like, yo, yeah, that was in 1988. Yeah. It was 1988 and that was in 1988. Yeah, it was 1988. And I was looking at the date. It was 88. It was July 20th. It was a day today that he gave that speech.

And one of the things that jumps out to me, Roland, is just how magnificent that brother is as a wordsmith. And I still hear that calculus going on as he's contemplating how to speak, even with the inhibition or the Parkinson's holding him back. That same brilliance is still calculating in his mind every time I hear him speak. And I thank you for sharing that entire clip because I've seen it. I don't know if I've seen it as many times as you, but I do know that that is one of the most powerful speeches that I've ever seen, definitely

from Reverend Jackson, but period. It's one of the most powerful speeches. And Mustafa, for the people who again, who don't understand the 84 and 88 run, presidential candidates

were not talking about apartheid. They were not talking about apartheid. They were not talking about universal health care. When you, if you, if you, people need to, for the people out here, y'all need to understand, Bernie Sanders' agenda in 2016 and 2020 was straight out of Reverend Jackson, 84,

88. It's amazing. The people who call themselves Reverend Jackson's, those two runs were so is they scared the living shit out of the democratic party that that's what led to the creation of the Democratic Leadership Council, the DLC, which led to the election of Bill Clinton. They were scared to death

of this black man and his progressive agenda. He was and is a transformational figure in American history, in American politics, in the labor movement. So many different, so many different genres that he was able to navigate. And, you know,

he brought that Greenville, South Carolina, that country swag, which is so important because people can connect with that because they know you're just telling it to them real and that you're not putting on air that some of us who who got a country background will sometimes say. And that was Reverend Jackson. I remember when I was working for John Conyers, and I remember the first time he walked in the office and put his hand over my shoulder, and I looked up and saw him. And then as soon as we got done talking, ran to the back and called my mama to tell her that I had just officially met Jesse Jackson. I mean, he was just real. He's so incredibly real and such a blessing

for our country to have had before and to still have. And that's why I say we got to honor. We got to continually honor. And, you know, all these people do the remixes, you know, Bernie and President Obama and a number of others. He was the originator, you know, as James Brown once used to say. So he was the originator of his space, and we should honor that. Absolutely. And Teresa, again, when we talk about that agenda, when we talk about where we are today, it was that run

in 1988 completely transformed the Democratic Party and black power. People don't understand. Dukakis and the white Democrats had to negotiate with Reverend Jackson. That's how Ron Brown becomes the first African-American chair of the Democratic National Committee. Not only that, Reverend Jackson, the late Dr. Ron Walters, with Ron Brown, they changed the Democratic Party rules to go from winner-take-all to proportional, to proportion delegation. Here's the deal, folk, and I'll be somebody who's like, Roland, you ain't got to

compare Reverend Jackson and Obama. Here's the deal. Reverend Jackson does not change the rules in 1988. There is no Obama presidency. Because if people, and y'all can sit here, and y'all, all people who love Obama, and oh my God, he's our forever president, Michelle's our forever first lady facts are facts in 2008 Obama lost Texas Pennsylvania Ohio California if the 1988 rules were in place Hillary Clinton wins

all of the big states grabs those super delegates and wins the nomination so for everybody and then look I know the stuff Reverend said about Obama I know a back story y'all don't even know and I ain't even gonna get into it.

But to understand why, the reason I still call Reverend Jackson, and it's a lot of media people, including black media people who no longer call his phone. There's a reason why we still call him is because I will not disrespect how he changed the game for a whole lot of us. Absolutely. And, you know, Reverend Jackson has, I think, has done the original blueprint of what it means to actually run as a black elected official, or even an elected official that without boundaries. So he has made sure that when it came to policy, when it came to making change, game-changer

policy and recommendations, that he understood who the people were. And so I think, you know, and part of his oratory ability was to really put himself in the shoes and get to know who the people are he was representing and so when we start to look at our you know the elected officials today I'm always you know impressed with those who are looking at a Reverend Jesse Jackson's a Shirley Chisholm who has paved the way not just because they put themselves in the ring and allow people to look at themselves as you know the first or you know they've done it and let's see you the way, not just because they put themselves in the ring and allow people to look at themselves

as, you know, the first or, you know, they've done it and let's see what the results are. But those who have, you know, just went out there into the deep and allowed themselves to be pulled at, to be picked, but also just to be an original person. And so, you know, as we start to look at our officials today, you know, I believe there is still that cord. Like I believe we all still have that fire within us, but it just takes some of those remembrance, some of those clips to bring, you know, that real potential that we all have in us

in order to get, you know, our country in the right direction. I just wanted, and again, folks, we started this segment off and I was, I was not planning to go that long and Ben, I'm glad you caught that because I, you know, we played it here, did not realize today was the anniversary of that particular, of that speech. And you know, the French honoring Reverend Jackson and, you know, you hear all the French honoring Reverend Jackson. And, you know, you hear all the time,

sometime what the Bible says about a prophet in his hometown. But I just think, and I do this all the time. And I say this to a lot of younger black folks. And part of this is maybe Mustafa, because when you are an alpha, there is such reverence for the seven jewels. When you, most fraternities and sororities, when we think about our founders,

I remember when I was honored with the National Association of Black Journalists, the President's Award, I said something when I got it, and I said, NABJ, don't ever hold another event where you don't have your founders stand up and be recognized. Always honor your 44 founders. For me, when I come across our civil rights veterans, when, whether it was Congressman John Lewis or Reverend C.T. Vivian or Reverend Joseph Lowry or still Ambassador Andrew Young, Diane Nash in Chicago, Merle Evers Williams, I tell people all the time, go up to them and tell them thank you.

Thank you for what you did. Show that appreciation because just like, granted our seven jewels of alpha are no longer here, but without those who put in the work, without those who founded our organizations, then they don't exist.

And so I think a lot of folks, and I watch people, I watch people a lot, Mustafa, at events, and they'll just walk past certain folks. And they'll just like, okay, I'm just too busy. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. Let them know. Anytime I get an opportunity to sit in a room and talk with Harry Belafonte, I do it. And y'all know how I feel. I don't let, no, I don't use the N-word.

You can't use it on my show. But I will say this here. I was at Reverend Sharpton's's uh i think was one of the national action network dinners uh and we were videotaping it and i came up to harry belafonte uh and he turns around nigga when you taking me out to lunch and i was like now you know i don't let nobody call me the n-word but you are harry be fonte so you're gonna get a pass today um but but again it's it's always i just think a lot of people need to show that appreciation and so whether they are our star wars on the national level in your state in your city in your church learn to show appreciation

yeah you know they've given so much to us. Sometimes, you know, we don't even know everything that they did, you know, all of the sacrifices, but we know enough about the sacrifices that they did. They didn't have to do it. You know, they were doing what they could to uplift our people, to create new opportunities, so that the next set of generations would have an easier road to travel, but also so that we could then take it to the next level. So the least that we can do is to let them know how much we appreciate them. You know, if you're a person who believes in saying the word love and you actually believe

what you're saying, then you should let them know that you love them because of all that they did and make sure that you're giving them that same energy back that they gave for decades upon decades upon decades. Absolutely. Teresa. I'm going to leave it there. I think, you know, Reverend Jackson is is again, while he's alive, we need to give him his flowers, but we also need to ensure that those who are running today, that they are also focused on the same priorities because the issues haven't changed. It's just a different spokesperson at the time. So we just need to make sure we're keeping those issues alive and make sure we're putting fuel to the fire when we take that oath of office. Final comment on this topic, Ben. I

really appreciate Reverend Jackson not being the first person to tell me, but the one to say it over and over again, that I am somebody. And I appreciate him being somebody who has invested his life telling the rest of us that we all are somebody. All right, then. Folks,

gotta go to a break when we come back. Another billionaire goes into space. Do y'all really care? Just curious. Do you really care? But he also announces that he given Van Jones a hundred million dollars and

did it for a chef Jose as well. We'll tell you about those details. Plus our marketplace segment where we focus on a black business. Sponsored by Nextdoor. That is next on Rolling Rock Unfiltered. Supremes ain't just about hurting black folk. Right. You gotta deal with it.

It's injustice. It's wrong. I do feel like in this generation, we've got to do more around being intentional and resolving conflict. You and I have always agreed. Yeah. But we agree on the big piece. Yeah.

Our conflict is not about destruction. Conflict's going to happen. Hello, everyone. It's Kiara Sheard. Hey, I'm Taj. I'm Coco. And I'm Lili. And we're SWB.

What's up, y'all? It's Ryan Destiny. And you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. One of the most stressful days of my life was when this one got out. I chased after her as best I could, kind of fell over and broke my wheelchair. I was able to get back home and make a post. Within about five or so minutes, I had three or four different people coming to the rescue. One woman stopped traffic, just drove her right back to the house for me. It was a very emotional day.

Over a period of ten years, my neighborhood went from being almost 98% black to being 98% white. So all of a sudden, oh, God, I'm the suspicious looking black man. I posted on Nextdoor that I no longer felt comfortable walking in this neighborhood.

The response I got was hundreds and hundreds of neighbors offering to walk with me. This experience moved me and changed the way I saw humanity. At Nextdoor, we come to work every day to help cultivate a kinder world. and changed the way I saw humanity. At Nextdoor, we come to work every day to help cultivate a kinder world. We want to make sure that everyone has a neighborhood to rely on. When we started this company, we felt that technology had an important role to play in bringing communities and neighbors together. We knew that having the support of your neighbors was critical.

When I found out I was becoming a father, I panicked. What am I going to feed this kid? I posted, hey, any other gardeners who might have extra soil, seeds, equipment, and they came up from everywhere. As human beings, we want a sense of safety and anything that gives us that sense of connection. You drive through a neighborhood and you see houses and bricks, but really what you have is people, business owners and entrepreneurs.

We know that the locals are what keep our restaurant going. When somebody says that they enjoy our restaurant, it brings us business. It's been really cool being able to cheer on your neighbors as they open at the next coffee shop. When Hurricane Harvey first hit Houston, I realized that Nextdoor was much more than just a day-to-day utility. It was a lifeline to the community. The neighbors have been using that Nextdoor app to coordinate evacuations.

When the pandemic started, people did have the urge to help, but often they didn't know who to help or how. Our Nextdoor group took off explosively. Just after a year, we had over 1,000 members. Nextdoor evokes a sense of pride in your neighborhood, and we know that people globally are craving for that. We posted our music video on the Nextdoor app. A lot of people in the area liked it. I think the video meant a lot to our neighbors

because it portrays the Cascade area in a positive lighting. At the end of the day, this is a business model about people and neighborhoods and communities. Wouldn't it be beautiful to connect Wall Street to Main Street and to do well and do good at the same time? It's going to be the legacy of 2020 that Nextdoor put neighbors together for a cause and then forever. Thank you very much. It often starts online, but we know that it continues into the real world, and that is the superpower of Nextdoor. All right, folks. Little black kids often go to stores and see dolls that don't resemble themselves.

Many black children express their wishes for dolls with the same skin tone or curly hair. Mother-daughter duo Ivana and Zoe have created Beautifully Curly Me dolls, books, and other merchandise to inspire confidence in our youth. Alright, joining us right now for our segment is both, is it two of them? How y'all doing?

Hey, how are you? Alright then, glad to see you. So where did this originate from? So whose idea was it? How did you start? So when I was six years old, I did not like my hair and I wished it was straight like my classmates.

And so I did everything I could to help. And so, you know, hearing my daughter say this to me, she actually came home from school and said, mommy, why is my hair not pretty like my classmates' hair? And so that really broke my heart because what mother wants to hear that their child feels less than, you know, what they are? And so I did everything I could to help, and one of the things I did was buy her a black doll. And I really loved that doll, but she didn't have hair that looked like mine. I wanted a doll with curls and braids.

And so when we went to the stores and couldn't find anything, I wanted to do something about it. And so Zoe decided she wanted to start a business, and of course, I had to support her dream. All right, okay, all right. But she wanted to start a business, but you were not going,

girl, you want to do what? I mean, honestly, she kept saying, Mommy, I want to do what i mean honestly she she came she kept saying mommy i want to make a business i want to make dolls that have curly hair i want to make dolls that have locks and braids just the way i wear my hair and i was like oh because i had my cushy corporate job and i honestly wasn't thinking about this so but she kept persisting and she kept um just harping on it like i want to make a business. I don't know how this happened, Roland, but here we are. OK, so one do a business. And so how did you construct your first products? Definitely a joint collaborative effort. So, you know, I wanted to really dig into what she wanted, right?

And so she was very clear about, I want a doll that has curly hair. I want a doll that has braids. And so we just started doing the research. Do you want to show your doll? We just started doing the research. And so just, you know, looking online, reading up, trying to figure out, you know, manufacturing and design and all those things. So it was definitely a process, but I would say we made it happen. I think with tenacity and hard work and passion and she kept, she wouldn't let it go. So we made it happen.

And we're still, you know, work in progress, but, you know, we're doing it. So how many dolls have y'all made in Seoul since you started this whole deal, Zoe? We have helped thousands of girls around the world with our dolls. And I actually have a big goal this year to donate $5,000 to underserved girls. But right now we're doing it 1,000 at a time.

And so the social impact is? Yes. So, for every doll bought on our website, we give one to a girl in need. Wow. Wow. Well, that's strong there. And so, one of the things that, look,

distribution, marketing, all those things matter. And so, one of the things we partner with Nextdoor for this particular segment because people have used their app to be able to connect with their neighbors, to be able to spread the word. And so how did y'all do that? How did y'all, you know, starting out, it's not like you had a big marketing budget. And so how did you begin to build the word of mouth? Did you do it with neighbors, friends, church members,

sorority sisters, other organizations? So talk about how that sort of started. Because see, a lot of people out there say they want to start a business, but they don't understand. Actually, starting a business is the absolute easiest thing in the world.

It's then selling what it is you're trying to sell. Right. So you want to go? Go ahead. Yeah. So we started off with, of course, family members and church members. And then they started telling friends. And it just went from there.

Yeah, we did a lot of shows in the beginning. And so it was very intentional about that because I wanted Zoe to really have that customer face-to-face interaction since, you know, it's her business. And so that was really great, obviously pre-COVID. So we launched in 2019. And so we did a few of these vending events and it was just so awesome, you know, having that instant customer feedback and that really helps you as you think through, you know, what your kind of product roadmap looks like and sort of,

you know, what you want, what customers want to see next. Cause that customer, instant customer feedback is critical. Well, it absolutely is. And, you know, and just, you know, one of the things I just tell people is again once you got the product you got to sell it i remember when uh when my wife did her books did her book uh fulfill the art and draw a balanced living and probably about three or four months went by and i said follow me so we go into my office i said what's that so they were like, you know, all these, probably had about 20 cases of boxes that were stacked into the corner.

And she was like, those are my books. I said, no, that's actually money sitting in a corner. That's inventory, yes. I said, that was money spent on those books and they're sitting in a corner. I said, writing your book and me editing your book was the easiest thing. That needs to move out of this corner into somebody's hand. And that's the thing that a lot of people, again, have to understand. You got to get out there and work it.

You do. Honestly, to your point, Roland, like I would say, you can't rely on friends and family. So while you're in the beginning, they're supportive, they're not going to be your long-term customers. Let's be real. But also because, okay, so let me, so just hold that point right there, because I want, because we need to walk this through. People, the average person also doesn't understand

direct marketing. When they mail that junk mail to your house or when you're watching an infomercial, in the direct marketing business, an absolute astounding rate is 1.5%. That means that when they send that junk mail out, an absolute, fabulous fabulous unbelievable response rate is 1.5 percent if numbers if 0.5 return by the product they're excited so i say that because the what you your

point people go oh i go to a church and we got 3,000 members, so we probably can sell 1,000 dolls. No. If you sell 30, that's a great day. And people go, okay, that makes no sense. Because it's the 1.5% rule. If you sell, if you got 3,000 members of a church and you sell $50, you have far exceeded the market conditions in terms of what you normally should sell. And a lot of people

don't get that. They don't get that. And honestly, that's the best way. That's proof of concept, right? When total strangers are buying your product, then you know you're in business. And I think for us, that's just been the greatest joy so we're not relying on friends and family you know we're doing everything from digital marketing so he goes live every week on our Instagram and go ahead I go on live on Instagram and Facebook and do story time with the dolls so it's a great way to interact

with customers. Exactly, and we do email marketing, SMS. So, you know, we're testing, always testing different things and just looking for ways to continue to reach our customers. Well, that's one of the, and that's one of the folks that Nextdoor reached out to us

with their app. And then when I joined, I mean, it actually was pretty cool because there are people who literally live in your zip code who you connect with. And for people who are trying to be entrepreneurs, what they also have to understand, you got to use everything at your disposal. Zoe, what you just laid out is when you say, I go live,

I tell people, that's free. Like, that's free. Like that's free. And so what other social platforms are y'all on where you're constantly putting the word out? We are on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and TikTok at BeautifulCurlyMe So all the platform is BeautifulCurlyMe?

Yes, at BeautifulCurlyMe The only exception is Twitter where the character limit, so it's at BeautifulCurlyM on Twitter, but everything else is at BeautifulCurlyMe Alright then, questions from my panel, I will start with, yeah okay fine Teresa, I'll start with you.

Hi. So, one, congratulations. I think my question is, how come this wasn't around when I was growing up? Because you didn't do it, Teresa! You weren't Zoe! You didn't do it, Teresa. You weren't Zoe. You didn't do it. I do have a question. One, I think this is a phenomenal idea, and it's necessary. And I think coming from a young person like yourself,

it's so essential, especially right now. So one of my questions is, are you working with Mattel and are you in toy stores? Tell us where we can pick up this beautiful doll. Well, we are currently on our website, beautifulcurlyme.com and my books, Beautiful Curly Me and Say It, Show It are on Amazon as well as on our website.

So we are definitely direct to consumer right now but the plan is as we expand, we'll definitely explore options in retail. But right now, BeautifulCurlyMe.com is the best place to go. So again, they are direct to consumer, meaning they get all of the money.

They ain't trying to have a middleman. OK, I said it. I said I don't care. Next question is Ben. Ben. Yeah, no, absolutely. Congratulations on this. This is beautiful.

I'm reminded of when my shortly after I got married, my wife cut all of her hair and went natural and it kind of threw me for a shock. And then my daughter was born and she started saying some of the same things that you were saying, Zoe. And it really changed my perspective, completely changed my perspective to the point where I'm like,

I'm now pushing my wife to do as much natural as she can. Have you seen black men change as a result of this product? And I plan on picking up a couple for my kids. Oh, thank you. That's awesome. I would say yes. I totally resonate with that story with your wife going natural because that was actually what happened with me.

So when Zoe came and, you know, I was like, Mommy, why is my hair not straight? At the time, I had a long weave. No shade to anyone, but I had to lead by example and so that's definitely something uh that we see a lot of um hear our customers say that they're you know there's their children are really helping them come into their own in terms of really embracing their natural beauty all right to answer your question um we have a lot of male customers we have have dads, uncles, grandpas. That's right. And they're always very excited about, you know, giving their children dolls that look like them because it's all about building their self-esteem

and building your self-confidence. All right. Mustafa. Zoe, you inspire me, and I'm going to make sure that I purchase one also as soon as the show is over. I'm curious, and I had to pull my hair down to be in lockstep with you. I'm curious which one of your dolls sells the best.

I'm hoping you say the one with locks, but we'll see. Well, I mean, they're kind of the same. But usually it's Layla. Layla's getting a lot of love. She got a shout out on Oprah's favorite things last year. So she's been a little bit of a darling, but Anika is also awesome. She has braids,

not locks. Locks is next. Okay. All right. All right then. Well, look, certainly good luck with it.

Give folks the website again where they can check it out. So you can go to our website at beautifulcurlyandme.com. And follow us on social media. I would love to connect with y'all. We also have a tribe of community of moms on Facebook. And the other thing is, y'all don't forget, we're on a mission to donate a thousand dolls this year or more. So for every doll you buy, we give one to a young girl.

Foster care, underserved, and we've been partnering with a few local charities here in Atlanta, but we're also expanding nationwide. So every doll you purchase makes a difference. All right, then. We sure appreciate it. Thank you so very much for being part of the marketplace sponsored by Nextdoor. Thank you, Roland. I appreciate it. Thank you so very much for being part of the marketplace sponsored by Nextdoor. Thank you, Roland. I appreciate it. Thank you so very much. All right.

All right. And don't forget, folks, if you want to link up with people who are in the area where you live, if you're looking for somebody, like I say, you might be looking to adopt a pet, maybe looking to, you know, partner with a business. You might be looking for just some folks to hang with. Try out the app Nextdoor. Millions of folks are on the app, and it is a great way to connect with people who are in your community. A lot of us, this ain't like it used to be where we knew all of our neighbors,

and so this is the opportunity for you to actually get to know your neighbors. So be sure to download the app next door all right folks uh today uh the richest man in the world jeff bezos successfully traveled into space he flew the edge of the earth this morning on a rocket and capsule developed by his private space flight company blue origin the flight makes history as the first unpiloted suborbital flight with civilians as crew members. The entire flight was only 10 minutes long. After Bezos returned, he spoke to the media where he thanked those who made the mission possible. All right. I want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all this. So, seriously, for every Amazon customer out there and every Amazon employee, thank you from the bottom of my heart very much.

It's very appreciated. The history-making flight comes nine days after Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson flew to the edge of the Earth on a rocket designed by his space tourism company, Virgin Galactic. Okay, question for you, Mustafa. Do you give a shit? My question is, why?

You know, $5.5 billion for Blue Origin, and then of course we had this billionaire space race that's going on. So I'm just like, they should get together if they are that interested in space. And then the other half of money that if they weren't doing it as individuals, they could invest back into communities and make real change here on planet Earth. So somebody on YouTube is asking, why am I showing this? Because we're actually talking about it. And also today, Jeff Bezos announced that he was giving handing out huge checks, gave one hundred million dollars out to Van Jones, another hundred million to Chef Jose Andres for them to do work in support of the charities as well. And so I'm putting this out here again because I'm still asking the question,

does it matter to you, Teresa? Is it of interest? Is there value? Just your thoughts. I think it's a nice distraction. You know, billionaires going into space. I can't tell you how many Democratic emails that I received from candidates saying billionaires are going to space while poverty

is continuing. So I think it was a helpful conversation for them to help raise money. But again, we have so many issues going on right now that, you know, billionaires flying into space, you know, spending money in technology, I think was, you know, billionaires flying into space, you know, spending money in technology, I think was, you know, part one in another phase, you know. Yeah, this video clip is so interesting. But I think that the question, you know, do we care? Of course we care how billionaires are spending their money. So if they're going into space, great. You know, I don't think it's a whole session about it, but thank you for giving Van Jones $100 million.

I'm looking forward to seeing how that trickles down the communities. Hmm. Hmm. Now, here's the deal. So a lot of people being there were saying taxpayer money was wasted. NASA said no, billions were not, taxpayer money was not spent on Blue Origin. But this was a quote that came from one of the folks with NASA. Are there billions of federal dollars going into what Jeff Bezos did today? No. Has the federal government put significant amounts of money, somewhat under a billion dollars, in a variety of areas for Blue Origin? The answer is yes.

Absolutely. I'm thinking about also the fact that we have subsidized Amazon. Some of the lowest paid workers need welfare. Jeff Bezos has managed to get away with not paying taxes, a lot of taxes, as much as you would expect a billionaire to pay. He should be thanking the taxpayers for that, but he also be thanking his employees by paying them a livable wage, letting them unionize, invest from Alabama instead of running programs against them. I'm not here for billionaires to colonize space, because we saw what they did when they colonized this planet. So they need to stay where they are and let the people handle these types of things,

because billionaires have shown that they have no interest in the people. They have the interest in their bottom line. So what about, Mustafa, the $100 million going to Chef Jose and Van Jones? Well, you know, I have no problem with either one of those folks, you know, if they're gonna utilize the dollars in the right way. But here's the problem, is that if you look at the billionaires who have been giving these huge amounts of money away, none of it has gone to frontline organizations

that are actually on the ground doing the work. So when you operate from that paradigm, it's very similar when we had enslaved people in this country, where you always had this middle man in between, you know, who was keeping everything in check and then doling out what they thought that folks needed. So, you know, we just got to understand these paradigms, these old paradigms that folks continue to work from that never builds capacity inside of the organizations that are actually doing the work. Now, I will say this here. You do have, of course, the dollars that Bezos' ex-wife has given out. A lot of that money has gone to HBCUs.

That has dramatically increased the endowments of the HBCUs. Teresa? She has been doing incredible work. I even think whoever is ahead of the philanthropy and development has taken a crucial eye to some of those grassroots organizations that Mustafa is talking about. Because again, if we keep putting money into the pot of safe organizations, we will never start to see the matriculation of a great necessity of what some of these smaller organizations are doing that can better the community, that can better the landscape around them. So, yes, she's doing incredible work. And I'm just looking forward to seeing more of what she's doing or maybe trickling to her husband to do

the same efforts in different ways. Alright then. Well, you know, look, billionaires have fun. I still haven't heard from somebody why this actually matters. Like, what does it do? It's like, what's next? So I'm just curious. A leader of the Proud Boys

pleads guilty to vandalizing a Washington, D.C., historically black church. That's right, folks. Henry Enrique Tarrio pled guilty to one count of destruction of property and one count of attempted possession of a large-capacity ammunition feeding device. In December, he and other members of the far-right extremist group

stole a Black Lives Matter banner from the Asbury United Methodist Church and burned it. Prosecutors say Tarrio posted after burning the banner on social media he was arrested on January 4th when he returned to D.C. two days before the Capitol insurrection. The 36-year-old faces a maximum sentence of 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine for each offense. His sentencing will take place on next month. Good! Alright, folks, testimony continued

today in the trial of serial predator Ed Buck. When a fourth victim took the stand to describe his encounter with Buck, he testified that the wealthy white Democratic donor called him a nigger and white trash since he's of mixed race. He also described one incident where he became unconscious from the drug use and woke up to Buck performing oral sex on him. Buck's charges include running a drug den, persuading others to

travel for prostitution, and providing fatal doses of methamphetamines to Jamel Moore and Timothy Dean. He faces life in prison if he is convicted uh all right folks I gotta ask y'all this here this story just popped up so you know Deion Sanders is the head football coach at Jackson State University and Deion is Deion well at the SWAC media day Deion took offense to a reporter calling him by his first name. This is the story from the Jackson Clarion Ledger. The Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback and second-year coach demanded that reporters shouldn't call him by his first name before walking out of a SWAC Media Day event at the Sheridan Birmingham on Tuesday.

You don't call Nick Saban, Nick. Don't call me Dion. Sanders told Nick Suss from the Clarion Ledger, if you call Nick Saban, Nick, you'll get cussed out on the spot. So don't do that to me. Treat me like Nick. Then Suss was quoted in the, it was, it was quoted here as saying, when I interview people, I call them by their first name. Whether it's someone I've been working with for years or someone I'm talking to for the first time, this is true of the coaches and players on the Ole Miss beat,

the coaches and players at Mississippi State and Southern Miss, when I help out covering their teams. And as recently as January, even Sanders, too. Sus says, Sus has referred to Saban and the football coach of his Ole Miss beat Lane Kiffin by their first names along with the Bulldogs National Championship baseball coach Chris Limones. What do y'all make of Deion saying don't you call me Deion you call me Mr. Sanders if you just met me.

Put some respect on that man's name. He asked you once. I mean, don't make him ask you twice. He'll walk out, right? Well, and that's the deal. I mean, Teresa, here's the deal. If the guy says, don't call me by my first name, call me Mr. Sanders,

and then you do it a second time, he gonna walk the hell out. I mean, he gave you a directive and I think if that journalist really wanted to ensure that he was getting cooperation and an answer for his story, then he should have abided, not go through

the history of, well, I called Nick and we don't need all that. So just call him by his first name. I mean, call him by his last name. Mustafa mean, call him by his last name. Mustafa, is Dion bringing too much drama? Dion knows how to work the media. Dion knows there's no such thing as bad publicity.

So I totally get that there is a history with white folks, you know, in many instances calling us by our first names or other names that they've used. But at the same time, I also understand the marketing game. And I just hope he has a winning season. That is too funny. And so that was I did see this one tweet where somebody said, if you're talking about the SWAC in July, Deion is winning. Yeah. That's how they put it. So he's like, if we're talking about the SWAC in July,

because also at the same news conference, Deion Sanders went off. Let me see if I can find it. Deion Sanders went off in same news conference, Deion Sanders went off. Let me see if I can find it. Deion Sanders went off in the news conference complaining about the media not giving HBCUs enough media attention. This is what the undefeated posted. Listen. Not only do you expect us to win, but we expect to win. We're the only team in the country that people expect

in the first year to win at all. I agree with that expectation. You brought in that level of expectation. What have you learned? This is a broader question. What have you learned about black college football? I know you went to Florida State and family was right there, but now day to day, you're in the trenches. In the trenches. We need to do better in all fronts. Every front. Not only on the field, but off the field. That's where it starts.

In the last five years, we've only had 12 guys get drafted in the NFL. So if I go around each table, we have 12 in the SWAC now. If I go around each table, I'm pretty sure, even if we just took the two at each table what's that do your math 24 24 so that means 24 kids should be drafted so what's the problem so that means exposure has to play a part so we have at least two from each team to get drafted that means we're not getting the right exposure so So that's on y'all, and that's on us. Not y'all in person, but that's on ESPN. We have TV One, and we have BET. Where they at?

But we black. We keep it at 100. Where they at? I got time. I got time. We thought, yeah, yeah, you were ESPN and thank god we're now ESPN 14 like we were now we're on ESPN and ESPN 2 which we're going to be for the

Orange Blossom Classic and we're thankful but we're not going to sell it with that we have a wonderful commissioner of the SWAG and he's doing some wonderful things to give us those platforms so if everyone has at least two guys that can go pro what's the problem? Exposure. We got to has at least two guys that can go pro, what's the problem? Exposure. We got to do a better job

at that. Hmm. We call our TV one and BET. Well, TV one's black on, BET is not. Owned by ViacomCBS. Got to get you up, Ben. Dion, speaking truth?

Absolutely speaking the truth. I mean, and then I also, not just the truth about the exposure and the coverage and how difficult it is to even see an HBCU game. Shout out to, I think, what did he mention? ESPN2 is like the only channel I can catch a Bethune-Cookman University game on sometimes. And I agree with him. Also, the fact that he's bringing light to this and pressing the media issue like mustafa said

this is really a win for hbcus because we need to be sending our top talent to schools who know how to treat our top talent like they are uh theresa what what when he says we gotta do better what he's also saying the expectation of the HBCUs has to be great as well, and that is how they market their players and things along those lines. I agree. And, you know, I think with the win with the NCAA and taking care of their players financially and ensuring that they not only get the sponsorship that they deserve,

but they can at least begin to not struggle as they are beginning to practice. So I think that is a continued conversation he is bringing up, and I think he's at the right place to do it. Musafa. Brother Sanders understands how to increase value. He did it in his own career, you know, with many of the things that he did. He was a phenomenal player,

but he also understood that the marketing of that phenomenalness was important as well. And now he's translating that to his leadership and the SWAC and trying to make sure that people are actually honoring the players that are there along with the schools. All right then, well folks, good luck with it. I just sent Dion the text.

Hey, Dion, we'll hook you up. TV One ain't got no news. BET ain't got no news. But you can come to Roller Mart unfiltered. So I literally just sent him a text. And that still should be his number, but it's all good, because I got his fiance's number, too.

So I just sent her a text. See, y'all need to understand something. All y'all young ass journalists who don't know a damn thing, never ever ignore the spouse, or a future spouse. Because see, Denzel ain't carrying a cell phone. So I called Paulette. See, some of y'all gonna learn. Some of y'all

gonna learn how real journalists roll. I'm just saying. Alright, y'all. That's it for us today on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Please support the young sister with the doll company, Beautiful Curly Me.

Follow them on social media go to the website as well we appreciate next door for being partners with that that's it for us folks don't forget to support us what we do joining our bring the funk fan club where every dollar you give goes to support this show we're going to be in Texas next week beginning on Tuesday covering the big voting march of course out there was Selma to Montgomery 50-plus years ago. Now they're going to go from Georgetown, Texas, to the state of Capitol in Austin. We're going to be live streaming every single day.

Our crews will be down there. So we're really looking forward to that actually happening. And so your dollars will make it all possible. Support us via Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered, Venmo.com is forward slash rmunfiltered, Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Let me shout out Jacqueline Crowder, Dana Gregory.

Let me also shout out, let's see here. I'm looking at who also. Rhonda McCarroll, Fabian Cuero, Priscilla Smith, and I'm seeing who else. I'm giving a shout out to everybody who gave during the show. Edward Reb. Edward, I appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Let's see here. I'm scrolling, scrolling, scrolling.

All the ones hop up during the show, which tells me who's given. And so that's it. All right, folks, that's it. I will see you guys tomorrow. Also, I'm rocking the Negro Leagues. Y'all go to the y'all go to Kansas City. Please visit the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City. That's where I got this Kansas City Monarchs. I don't know how they wore these jerseys back in the day. This sucker is hot as hell. I don't know how they played in the summer, but it's a really, I mean, this is like a winner jersey. So this is the Satchel Paige jersey you see right here. Number 24 Kansas City Monarchs that I got at the Negro League Museum

in Kansas City and rocking the hat as well. All right, folks, that's it. I appreciate it. I'll see y'all tomorrow. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2

of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that in a little bit, man.

We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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

Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.