#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Dem vs. GOP police reform bills; COVID-19 rates spikes; ATL cops surrender; Building Black Wealth

Episode Date: June 21, 2020

6.18.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Dem vs. GOP police reform bills; COVID-19 rates spike in 10 states; Atlanta cops involved in #RayshardBrooks killing surrender; Trump's Facebook ad removed; 'Black Men Build' looks to organize African American men to address today's issues; Sen. Kamala Harris faces scrutiny over her record as Biden prepares to name his VP; Time to evolve Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima; Laila Ali talks building Black wealth. Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partner: Ceek Be the first to own the world's first 4D, 360 Audio Headphones and mobile VR Headset. Check it out on www.ceek.com and use the promo code RMVIP2020 - The Roland S. Martin YouTube channel is a news reporting site covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. self. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. 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 Lott. 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. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them.

It makes it real. It really does. 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. Today is Thursday, June 18th, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. The two cops charged in the murder of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta have turned themselves in. Congressman Bonnie Cohen of New Jersey is here to discuss why the House Police Reform Bill is what we need.

Coronavirus spikes are seen in 10 states, with Florida becoming the epicenter. Plus, are steroids the answer for people with the virus? We'll talk with a black infectious disease specialist. Facebook removes a Trump campaign ad and posts that they say violate its policy against hate. We'll also talk with the co-founder of the Black Men Build Initiative. Plus, Laila Ali will join us to talk about building black wealth. A Facebook event happening on Juneteenth. Plus, explosive revelations in the new book by former National Security Advisor John Bolton.

Well, first of all, it's not like he could not have talked. That was one thing. Also, Aunt Jemima, see you later. Uncle Ben's, see you later. Will Mrs. Butterworth actually survive all of this? Plus my interview with Isaiah Whitlock about his role in the next Netflix movie, The Five Bloods. It's time to bring the funk on Roller Mark Unfiltered. Let's go.

He's got it. Whatever the mess, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the smooth, the fat, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling, best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling, yeah, with Uncle Roro, y'all.

Yeah, yeah, it's rolling,oro, y'all. It's Roland Martin. Rolling with Roland now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Roland Martin now. Martin. Martin Both of the cops charged with the killing of Rayshard Brooks have turned themselves into police. Atlanta police officers Devin Brosnan and Garrett Rolfe surrendered today. Brosnan, who surrendered around 11.30 a.m., bonded out about an hour after turning himself in. Rolfe is currently being held without bail, according to the Fulton County Jail website. Remember, both of them, of course,

were involved in the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks that took place last Friday at a Wendy's there in Atlanta. Also, folks out of North Georgia, a North Georgia cop has been fired for calling for the hanging of convicts on Facebook. This particular officer is a part time police officer. Community rose up in arms. And this, of course, was a post from 2016. The Rossville Police Department announced that it was relieving Robert Skipper Dunn Jr. of any duties. An internal investigation has been confirmed.

But again, he has been fired from the city of Rossville, Georgia after that post was discovered. People, of course, are being very focused on what's happening with police all across this country. Police in Atlanta are not at all happy. Yesterday, a significant number of them refused to even show up for their shift, angry with how officers are being treated. But that's also part of the problem. But I'll get to that in just a second. Right now, let's talk about what's happening on Capitol Hill with the police reform bill. Last night, of course, the House committee moved it out of committee 24 to 14, sending the bill to the floor of the House

for to debate. That is their police reform bill. Of course, you also saw yesterday where Republican Senator Tim Scott introduced his bill as well that he believes is a better bill. Joining us right now is, first of all, a congresswoman from New Jersey. That is, of course, she is Bonnie Watson Coleman. Glad to have you back on Roller Martin Unfiltered. How are you doing? Good to be here. Thank you. Good to see you. So let's talk about really these two bills. I've talked to some folks and they've said, hey, the actual, the House bill really only deals with what's happening on the federal level, but the Senator Tim Scott bill really goes all the way down to the state and local level.

Your assessment in terms of is this the strongest bill we can get out of Congress? I think the House bill is the strongest law that we're placing down as it relates to justice and policing right now. And so I think that there's more substance in the House bill. I don't think any bill is perfect, but I think that this really, this bill addresses many of the outstanding issues and the loopholes that have got us to this point right now. But Roland, the one thing I want to say is that all the discussion that we're having about this policing bill is about this emergency situation. When we get through this,

we need to be dealing with those long-term policies, politics, and legislation that brought us to this point. But you have some who say, Reverend Dr. William Barber and others who say, this is the moment to go big. This is the moment to, because you already have Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who's saying I'm not even taking up the House bill. He's saying I won't even consider it. And so if that's the case, why not go as big as you can?

I think that this is a very comprehensive bill. I mean, it changes the use of force issues. It makes the immunity issue illegal. It makes chokeholds illegal. It makes the carotid depressions illegal. It holds police accountable. It establishes a national registry of police who've been found to have conducted misconduct, et cetera, and should not be employed any other place. There's the anti-lynching bill in there. There's anti-racial profiling. There's training requirements. I think it is pretty substantive dealing with the issue that we're dealing with right now. Well, absolutely. I think all that's important. Not only that, of course, you're dealing with chokeholds. It also deals with no-knock warrants as well. Those provisions of the House bill, does that apply across the board or is that only on the federal first of all you see that a lot of thought is happening on the state and local levels around these issues but it affects the um it makes the act an illegal act and it

will impact the funding at a minimum of what gets into these law enforcement agencies on the state and local level and so when you say when you say it impacts the funding, break that down. So if a police officer, actually, if this bill passes and becomes law, a police officer engages in a chokehold, what's the penalty? Is it against the officer?

Is it against the police department, the city? It's a, well, it'll be against the individual officer. Then there won't be this sort of limited immunity for the officer. The officer can be fired, can be charged, as you see what's happening right now, can be convicted and can be sued, unlike ever before. So it affects the officer who's involved, but it also gives the attorney general's incentives to do patterns and practices, practice discrimination investigations of agencies. And if there is a finding of a pattern in practice, then that can be dealt with also. And that would be something that the agency itself has to correct. So when do you expect it to actually go to the floor and be voted upon by the House? Next week. Next week. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's proposed for Thursday, I think.

But it's next week. Unless something extraordinary happens, that's the plan. And then, of course, we'll see what the Senate does. And so for our audience, if the House passes their bill, and then let's say the Senate is able to pass their bill getting beyond the 60-vote threshold, what then happens? There would be a coming together of the Senate and the House in a conference to try to work out the issues in the bill. But since the Republican Senate president, majority leader, has already said that there are certain things that we think are essential, especially around the immunity issue, that it's a no-starter as far as he's concerned, then I don't know where we're going to end up.

But I know that what we put in this bill we're going to fight for because we believe that it minimally represents what we need to change the culture and hold the law enforcement officers that violate the civil and life and rights of individuals, it holds them accountable, and it holds them accountable for the murders that we're seeing happening, even while we're debating this bill and having protests throughout this country about changing the abuse of police. The police are still killing black men. Congresswoman, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much for joining us. Thank you for having me, as always. All right, let's bring in our panel now. Dr. Greg Carr is the chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University. Recy Colbert, Black Women Views. Erica Savage-Wilson, Thank you for having me as always. a stark contrast. What people are saying is that they want to see that the chokehold,

no-knock warrants, and qualified immunity to all go away. Those are three things that are not specifically outlawed in the bill by Senator Tim Scott. No, they're not. And Tim Scott should take a bow. He's proving once again that skin color has very little to do with politics. Tim Scott, a black-white nationalist, backing the white nationalists who stood behind him as he stood before the podium and introduced a nonstarter in terms of not just the Democrats, but the people of the United States. But the Republicans have a playbook. We've seen it.

It's playing out right now in Minnesota in the state legislature, where the Democratic governor called the Republican proposals weak sauce. But the Republican proposal in the Minnesota legislature looks like this proposal that Tim Scott allowed his face to be stamped on. You know, getting rid of those Uncle Ben boxes. But at any rate, the Democrats, however, and this came up in the call in the panel that you moderated the other night for the Alphas, brother, as Brother Barber said, William Barber said to Bobby Scott, as you alluded to a moment

ago, you know, the Democrat bill doesn't go far enough. Let's be very clear. With Eric Garner, the choke hold that was used was illegal, and they have been training against it. And in fact, they have been training in Minnesota. I mean, so, you know, you see these guys violating the laws. But what the Democrats are proposing certainly goes farther than the Republicans.

But to tie a bow around it, to the point you're raising, folks who might be listening, the House proposes a bill and passes. The Senate proposes a bill and passes. Then they go to committee to work it out. So even if the white nationalist cryptkeeper, Mitch McConnell, were to allow a vote on the bill that the Democrats have, it would still have to be reconciled with the with the House bill unless it was the exact same bill. So what I expect is that nothing will be passed. And this is going to be an issue in the election, brother. Erica. Yeah, and I also think that it's really important for people to understand that the executive order that Donald John Trump Jr. had a ceremony around signing in the Rose Garden, when you look at what

is included in that, the piece about discretionary, a discretionary grant that would be allocated to the Department of Justice, and it would be under the authority of another white nationalist, as Dr. Greg Carr has called him, the toady, William J. Barr, who has pledged allegiance to Donald Trump in this entire regime movement. Even when we're talking about database collection, the database that's outlined in Section 3B of the executive order, which is published, if people don't want to go to the White House's website, they're more than welcome to go to the National Archives Federal Register. But when we look at that, it really narrows it to where the only information that

would be available in that database is where, again, the state is afforded fair process. And that, again, is under the authority of William Barr. So as we move through, and the CBC is going to do a town hall tomorrow around this particular piece of legislation that they're offering up, that, number one, people very much so pay attention because I do agree that it does not go far enough into funding the police. But understand that this is an incredible step and that people do have a part to play and really pushing for not only just their the House legislators, which there's definitely a lot of fervor behind that, but for their folks that are sitting in the Senate with these thirty five seats that are up for election to really be moved in the direction of making this a reality.

Recy, people want to see solutions. They actually want to see something done. And as Dr. Barber and others says, look, this is the moment. This is the moment when you go big. Yeah, I mean, I totally agree. But I think we still have to acknowledge the landmark historic nature of this bill. This isn't a small bill by any means. I've watched the House Judiciary Committee hearings.

I've watched the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. And you have Sherrilyn Ifill. You have Vanita Gupta. You have a lot of people that will tell you that this is unprecedented what the Democrats have put forth with the Justice and Policing Act. So I think that I understand that, you know, people want more, more, more. And I understand that no matter what is put on the books, there are going to be police officers that are going to disregard the law. But I think that this is a big bill.

And I think that the solutions that we are facing with is, do we push for this bill and more, or do we just sit back and say not enough? And the problem that we have is that Republicans always win the compromise war. You always have the Republicans winning the messaging war such that the Democrats look like they have to give in to what the Republicans have put forth, rather than the Democrats pressuring the Republicans. The Democrats put all the pressure on the other Democrats, telling them to do more, even though they're not putting that on the Republicans. So I think that we have to acknowledge that what is proposed and the CBC will acknowledge

it's not a be all end all solution, but it gets us much closer to where we need to be with police accountability. Well, absolutely. So we'll certainly see what happens over the next few days. OK, folks, another story that we've been the first interesting. A lot of things have been happening in terms of changes all across this country due to Confederate statues. First of all, the University of Florida is a very interesting story. University of Florida announced today that they are dropping a particular cheer, a gator bait cheer that has been in place for the last 25 years because of its racist history. Black babies were fed to gators during the Jim Crow era. Also, those were those phrases. The imagery was used targeting African-Americans. Yet one of the players, the guy who actually came up with it, is angry.

Lawrence Wright, because he came up with the phrase, if you ain't a gator, you gator bait baby, after they beat Florida State in 1995, one of their biggest rivals. He's angry because he said, wait a minute, he said, I created that. That's not actually a racist history. He said, so no one talked to me about it, so why are we getting rid of the cheer? You also are seeing where the Confederate statues are being toppled down left and right. Nancy Pelosi announced today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, that she was removing the portraits of Confederate folks in the U.S. Capitol. Also, what has been happening is that the Senator Cory Booker, he actually tried to get the Senate to vote with unanimous consent to remove the various statues from the from a statuary hall. Well, of course, you had Roy Blunt, Roy Blunt, who stood up and he stopped that from happening. So I'm a pull a video in just a second. So the question, Reesey, that all these people are just raising,

is it going too far in some cases? So let's just use the gator bait. Okay. That wasn't, that was, didn't go back, you know, to 1920s or Jim Crow's created by a black player. Do you get rid of it? Do you let it stay? But when you talk about these Confederate portraits and these statues, it's a whole different conversation. What do you think? I don't think it's a different conversation. I mean, I think that it never hurts to understand the additional context that maybe this particular black player didn't have when he created the cheer. And, you know, if it could be just slightly modified, I don't see what the problem is with that. But I think when it's a Black person that creates

something and it has no connection to the historical context that is anti-Black or racist, then is that the hill people want to die on? I don't really know. But the Confederate statutes, the portraits and all the other stuff, that is a completely different beast and those need to come down. And what we are seeing, what we are seeing here, Erica, really is an attack on the symbols of white supremacy. And I think what is also, you know, and I hear some people, they say, okay, this is no big deal, but I disagree. I disagree because if you begin to, you clearly have taught people to understand that these are indeed racist symbols.

Once you begin to do that, now you can then begin to go to the next step. Uh, but as long as we were allowing that to happen, that was always going to be a problem. Absolutely. And I think that this is another great opportunity for because as we continue to see all of these different pieces unfold, for folks to understand that proximity and being in the gate of whiteness does not mean that everything is well. Right. So I think that for this brother to actually be able to actually take a trip through history, which we're seeing more and more a lot of people springing up in conversations without historical context. And it's OK to be wrong.

It's OK not to be ignorant. No one knows everything. But to be loud, wrong, emphatic about being loud and wrong, and to be ignorant and stubborn and moving towards having another level of understanding and what that rooted is, that is problematic in and of itself. And so I hope that this will be an opportunity where he and anyone else that's not steeped in any type of historical understanding of even some of the most maybe simple things that maybe we pass by throughout the day as we're going to talk about. and Dr. Carr brought

up Uncle Ben in relation to Tim Scott, which is spot on, but talk about some of these other symbols that have been incorporated for some people in their daily lives and just how that continues to reaffirm what is the false belief of white supremacy. Greg, this video I'm playing right here shows what is happening across the country where people are attacking these Confederate statues. And they're not allowing that, you know, before it was like, oh, you know, we all abide by, you know, the cops and they're protecting them. No, folks are like, damn that. They are snatching them down, tearing them down. And they're making it clear. I mean mean this is happening all across the country on my on my

University Texas A&M so though so you see that folks dancing on that I love this one here in Bristol England where they tore down a statue and dumped in the river and then when they said what happened I said oh the statue tripped the statue tripped and fell into the river. That was very funny there. Then, like I said, it was happening at Texas A&M. Kellen Mond, who is the starting quarterback for Texas A&M, has been quite vocal about removing a sole raw statue. Confederate general, was a university president, sits in the center of campus.

It has led to lots of debate. But and guess what? All of his his his his fellow players are standing with him. This is a letter here that he put together. It's called Let's Not Forget Sully, where he describes this whole deal. And people were sitting here talking about how great this guy was. But it says General Ross, the Galleon, Texas, Negro killer, made a descent upon two grades of black Yankees at Snyder's Bluff on Wednesday, the 30th, killed and captured quite a number of them. And he lays out this. It was interesting. You had some Texas A&M folks who were trying to defend Sol Ross. Then the Texas A&M history department put out an actual memo countering the narrative they were trying to put out there. And you've had these protests take place where you got white folks on one side who were trying to defend. And Texas A&M is very much about traditions. I mean, we are a tradition-laden university. But what you're

seeing, Greg, you're seeing athletes. Iowa, University of Iowa, they said that the strength coach was using language. He got put on administrative leave, fired. Other basketball players of the university has been coming out. A former basketball player at Murray State called for the removal of a Confederate statue in Murray, Kentucky. You are seeing a generation of athletes, many of them who were in high school when Colin Kaepernick took a knee, who are using their power and challenging universities, challenging athletic departments in a way that we, in a way that this generation has not seen, Greg. No, brother. In fact, I'd encourage them to keep

going. We need some of you sisters and brothers at our historically black colleges and universities, because what we are seeing is one thing to say defund the police. And I think that day is going to come and rechannel those resources. But what these young people have edged up on the edge of, which is why football coaches from Clemson to the West are saying they're going to take a knee when football starts again. What these young people are edging up on is something we might think of as defund the university. They're going to mess with the money if they decide they're not going to a school that supports these racists. And let's be just let's just be candid. The Confederacy reeks from every white state university in the old Confederacy, the Southern states. But let's

also continue along these lines. You know, the first part of the title of every student who enrolls to play athletics at the university level is student athlete. So I can't do anything with what my sister Erica has said, except say teach. Teach, Erica Savage. Because at the same time, you went to school. If you didn't just go to school to play ball and you sat in class, I would hope that this young brother, although I suspect he didn't, enrolled in class at the University of Florida with my friend Zahara Simmons or my sister Stephanie Evans over in African American States.

Because if he had, he would understand that the term gator bait comes exactly from what you said and tied to Ben and Jemima and Butterworth and Cream of Wheat and everything else. The advertisements of the late 19th, early 20th century would show over and over again, black children in danger. Go look at those postcards where you would see two little black children in the mouth of an alligator with gator bait at the bottom. And then go forward to the children of that type of a depiction, the Goldust Twins. So see some of these old folks who watching the

show tonight, remember the Goldust Twins advertisement, that the black child was seen as gator bait. The black child was seen as constantly in danger. And so, brother, whether it be the University of Florida getting rid of gator bait, whether it be your nemesis at Florida State getting rid of the Seminole and the tomahawk chop, come north to the Atlanta Braves, get rid of the tomahawk chop, what we're seeing now is a flood of a general strike against the social order. And they are getting rid of these symbols as fast as they can, as if if they throw them in the road, they can somehow slow this flood down. These young women and men are messing with the college money. And that's why they're

going to give up everything as long as they please sign on the bottom line and help us continue to make these millions. One of the things that I think is also great that we're seeing here is that we are seeing black folks who before were afraid to speak publicly are being liberated. Go to my iPad, please. You see here hashtag black at you arc. And these are these are a number of tweets. Black at UARC is having a sorority on campus email black orgs on campus to cast them as slaves in a play. It's having your chancellor delete his social media for a week because he refuses to admit racism is bad. It's being kicked out of a white frat party that you were invited to, Kappa Sigma, and seeing them have a playlist called Coon Tunes.

It's when you get reported to your chair for focusing on black people in your, wait for it, intro to African and African American studies course. Having your white professors say nigger in a class with three black students out of like 200, then you get emails asking if you need to be removed from the class for getting up and leaving. It's wanting to wear your natural hair, cheering after asking about it being told that quote we're not there yet. Also is having Pike throw a fried chicken watermelon and 40 ounce theme party to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Is folks saying to transfer to HBCU I

should have to transfer to be treated like a human being. Is having your advisor decline a letter of recommendation for a NASA internship and then being shocked that you got it anyway? What we are seeing, folks, is we are seeing this generation not quiet. We're seeing this happen in companies. We're seeing people speaking up quickly and letting it be known that as a documentary, I'm not your Negro. Yeah. But we're largely saying that the impetus of that was that black blood had to be shed for people to understand that there is no colorblind society, that everything that we experience within this American life is very much so weaved into slavery, is very much so weaved into anti-Blackness. And so as we continue to see momentum, that we have to acknowledge what the springboard for all of this was, that there have been decades, there has been centuries

of movement, but we're at another place where we're not going to take it anymore. And so the other piece behind that, when Dr. Carl was talking about the throwing the statues in the water and hoping that it will stop, is that we're seeing the same behavior from companies, right? I watch business programming throughout the day and never have I seen so many businesses throughout the day really stress and beg and trying to make people aware that, listen, we are for Black Lives Matter because they want to continue this economic crisis. They want to discontinue the economic crisis that we've been placed in because of COVID. And then I'll also say just in part about that too is because, in part, this about specifically my hair. I've been growing my hair for 17 years. I have cut it several times. But I remember being very plainly told that going into federal service that I wouldn't be able to matriculate into federal service because of my hair. But the defiant, the woman that I am, the smart woman that I am, whatever space that I'm going in,

I'm going in fully as me, and that everybody has to make a decision to not shrink, to not bow, wherever they are, be that in the C-suite, be that in media, be that in the classroom. That is an individual decision that has to be made. But the collective momentum that we're feeling for the bravery and the courage to do that is because people are demonstratively saying, hell no. Yeah. And I think we also have strength in numbers. And so with strength in numbers, in terms of people speaking out about their experiences, as well as strength in numbers gives you accountability. So when, what a situation that feels very isolated.

I saw a thread about Pinterest and there were two black employees that individually experienced this really horrific discrimination against them. And the outcry towards these kinds of incidents that we're talking about, it creates that accountability. So I think it's very important that in this moment we're seeing accountability, not just in a criminal justice system,

which is incredibly important, but in a corporate space, in an educational space, because our entire society needs a remaking against white supremacy. And that is the thing. I mean, look at this story here. Marilyn Booker, Greg, she spent 16 years as Morgan Stanley's diversity chief. Now she's suing them. I mean, we are seeing I keep saying to people, stop acting as if nothing is I dare say, we have not seen this level of a reckoning since 1968. And maybe not even before then, because I think this is accretive. You know, I was on a call today with some colleagues from the Zen Education Program. They've been doing for the last two months.

They're calling it Freedom Fridays. They're pulling together school teachers, middle school and high school teachers from around the country to talk about lesson plans, to talk about how to teach and learn during this period. And tomorrow I'm going to do a session on reconstruction with Jessica Rucker, who's a high school teacher here in the district. And we were talking about what this moment means. And something Jessica said very much resonated with me. She said, you know, this feels like it's building on all these movements of the past. Yes. And so it looks a lot like the previous movements, but it also has the forward momentum.

And I think it really comes down to this. If this is indeed, as you said, as our dear brother William Barber has said, as so many others, Manny Marable even, you know, if we are in need of, and in fact, in the moment of a third reconstruction, then we should think about the fact that reconstructions in this country have really meant clearing out things and doing a hard reset. And every previous reconstruction, the reconstruction after the Civil War, the civil rights, black power movement have pushed momentum to the point where you can have the types of things we're seeing now. And in the case of University of Arkansas, and yeah, they don't have a transfer to Philander Smith, the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff, although if they did, I'm sure they'd be welcome. Welcome arms. But they should be treated as humans there. Remember that in 2015, 2016, the University of Missouri had the Concerned Student 1950 movement. That comes in the wake of Mike Brown and Trayvon Martin and Sandra Bland.

These things are gaining and building momentum. And as Erica says, these companies are trying to get in front of it. They ain't transferring no wealth yet, but they will if it means that they'll be able to stay in charge. The universities are now looking and saying what's about to happen. And I think what is really going on here to the point that you're raising is that we are in a moment and those who have been able to use their positions to keep everybody else in line. But I don't think any single person can stop it. Absolutely. Now, folks, I think coronavirus also has played a role in this because by exposing these disparities, it also, combined with Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Sean Reed, also, of course, George Floyd, they all go together. As of today, there are 2.1 million COVID-19 cases reported in the United States. 27,975 of those cases are new.

116,862 people have died as a result of the disease. 722 of those deaths are new. Ten states saw a record number of new COVID-19 cases this week. And Florida could be the next epicenter of the pandemic. Florida joins nine other states. Listen to these states, y'all. Alabama, Arizona, California, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, and Texas are seeing record high seven-day averages of new coronavirus cases per day. Joining us right now is Dr. Tyson Bell, critical care and infectious disease specialist at the University of Virginia. Dr. Bell, I'm looking at those states and I'm looking at black

folks in Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas. That is a concern when you look at these numbers. You know, Dr. Ebony Hilton, she kept saying when this thing goes south, it's going to be a problem. Now we're seeing it go south and go west. Right. This is a big problem, Roland. Thank you for having me on the show. I think that we've learned the lessons from coronavirus in terms of what we should do to protect the public and to keep our case rises from rising too quickly

about PPE and about therapeutics. But when it comes time to do what you need to do to keep the population safe, you need to have the courage to step up and do what needs to be done. One of the metrics that I've been looking closely at are hospitalizations. A lot of times when cases rise,

and some of these governors in these states have talked about, well, we're doing more testing, so we're seeing more cases. The element of that is true, but hospitalizations are also going up. Now, hospitalizations will tell the truth when you're testing. They not give the full picture. The reason is COVID sticks to a certain rule. One out of five people who get infected will need to be hospitalized. One out of five of those people will need to be in the ICU.

So when you see hospitalizations go up, you know that there's a problem in your community. In some of these states, Texas, you know, Roland, you're hospitalizations go up, you know that there's a problem in your community. And some of these states, Texas, you know, Roland, you're from Texas, Arizona, South Carolina, North Carolina. These are states that are worrying me right now because their hospitalization rates are going up and they're reporting record increases in their cases. And it is stunning to have to listen to the ignoramuses in the White House who say, well, you know, we wouldn't be going up if we didn't test. Like, really? That's like saying, oh, don't don't worry about me getting prostate cancer. I'm not going to get checked. So don't worry about me actually getting it. That's the point. It seems like there's an anti-science and ignorant approach to leading this from some areas of the country, and it's just not acceptable, especially when we've seen how this plays out in many different areas, China, northern Italy, New York, the West

Coast. We know what happens. When you start to see the cases go up, you need to take action right then and right now. So, you know, things like the governor of Texas saying that he's not going to allow local governments to mandate people wearing masks in business establishments. The governor of Nebraska saying that governments won't have access to federal funds if they require people to wear a mask in their buildings. You buildings. I get they're trying to impress the president, who's making ignorant decisions as well, but is that worth the cost of human lives? It's just not acceptable in this day and age, especially when we know so much about how to prevent this, to walk in the face of that and say, we're not going to require this,

we're not going to let these regulations have teeth, and we're not going to do the right thing. It's unconscionable. And of course, you have, you know, Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx pretty much has disappeared off national television. Fauci has done some interviews in the last day or so. This administration pretty much is ignoring it. You have these governors who are not allowing local leaders to do what they need to do when it comes to mandating folks wear masks. And it's crazy in Texas, like for instance, they're mandating people wear masks in restaurants, but they're not mandating that the employees at businesses wear masks.

It's just the craziest thing that we're seeing. And what I keep telling people is, look, there's, I mean, when I see the photos, I saw that there was that story about, there was a double lung transfer and they showed this woman's COVID-19 lung. That was beyond shocking to look at and to see what it actually does to the lungs and how even those who have gotten it, who are recovering, are still having significant health issues and will have

them for the rest of their lives. Exactly. And that's why it's so important that you need to do whatever you can do to make sure that you're protecting the public and making sure that people are not getting infected and that we're protecting people from the circulation of the virus. So, you know, I keep saying again and again that we need to have courageous leadership that follows the science. And when that falls short, we need to demand accountability. All right. Dr. Bell, we certainly appreciate it, man. Thank you so very much. Thank you, Roland. All right, folks, I got to go to a quick break. We come back. Tomorrow's Juneteenth. And this fool three blocks away literally said he's made Juneteenth famous.

We got something to say about that. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. You want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin unfiltered, support the Roland Martin unfiltered daily digital show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. All right, folks.

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you see it right there RMVIP2020 at seek.com alright folks tomorrow is Juneteenth and of course folks are focused and celebrating we'll be celebrating all around the country, even though Texas became the first state led by the late Representative Al Edwards

that made this a official state holiday. Virginia now has become the second one. The governor declared that on yesterday. But, you know, you know, the ignoramus sitting in the White House had to weigh in, get his arrogant self included. So he gave an interview with The Wall Street Journal. This is what this fool said. Go to my iPad, please. He said Trump said a black Secret Service agent told him the meaning of Juneteenth as he faced criticism for planning a campaign rally that day. He said, Recy, I did something good. I made Juneteenth very famous. Nobody had ever heard of it. What he hadn't heard of is how powerful this holiday is to black people.

And they made him not only take notice, but move his damn Klan rally so that he didn't have massive protests and potentially even violence greeting him in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It's just beyond me, Erica, to you made Juneteenth famous. Now, forget the fact that you have events in Washington, D.C., and North Carolina, and New Jersey, and

Philadelphia, all around the country. Even though it originated in Texas, black folks all around the country have been though it originated in Texas, black folks all around the country have been celebrating it. Now you have all these companies who are now declaring Juneteenth a paid day off. I mean, left and right, like all of a sudden, like I said, ABC is doing a special on Juneteenth. You even got these black media companies like, ooh, Juneteenth, everybody jumping up. And I'm just sitting again, being from Texas, I'm just laughing because I'm going, sorry, Trump. We knew about it.

Your dumb ass didn't. Yep. But this is where whiteness enters into the conversation. Wow. We've learned about it. So now it must be something that has just been eyes open for everyone else. And so, you know, what else do we expect from somebody who doesn't even read his presidential daily briefings? He's mediocre. This is the same person that sought fame. So he's really not in a, even though he's occupying the White House, he has no interest in governing. He has no, he has no interest in governing. He has no interest in the affairs of being a president. What he is most concerned with are approval ratings and keeping those five black people that refuse to leave his side happy.

Greg. You know, in this case, I'm going to agree in part with the current occupant of the bunker at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. His election unleashed a new round of weaponized white nationalism in this country, certainly entered the soul and the spirit of Klansmen like Derek Chauvin and others. And so the state murders that these police have committed, the Blue Clubs clan in Atlanta trying to back their murdering friend on the fence. You know, a lot of this has been enabled by Donald Trump. But what what what Donald Trump did not factor in is that the spirit of Juneteenth is a fierce spirit, brother. And as you said, I mean, you I was telling somebody the other day and we were talking earlier, you and I, you know, we graduated from Jack Yates High School. You know, when George Floyd came out of Jack Yates High School, Jack Yates in 1872 and two other brothers put together a thousand dollars and bought what became the Emancipation Park where they first celebrate

Juneteenth in Houston. What our orange guy down there doesn't quite understand is that when white supremacy rears its head, there is a reaction from black people in this country. And so, you know, not only did he not remember that he put out or his office put out a perfunctory Juneteenth acknowledgement last year, which is what presidents have been doing for quite some time. Not only does he know, he does not know, in fact, that in 1968, as Reverend Barber and them get ready to do poor people's campaign on the 20th, that on the 19th, I'm sorry, June 19th, yeah, 1968, they had a rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to end Resurrection City. And it was on the day of Junete-19 cases that were reported today, making the number one one day high. And the previous high was on Wednesday as he goes out there. Perhaps he needs to reflect on the fact that if he wants to take credit for making Juneteenth this kind of popular, he should probably also take credit for unleashing the wrath of black people in this country.

And in that respect, you know, I'd give him a little partial credit. So I don't give partial credit for nothing. That's the professor in you. I don't give him credit for a damn thing. Bottom line is he didn't know what the hell Juneteenth was and he just wanted to be arrogant about it. I do want to do this here. I was trying my best

to ignore this. And it really bothers me, Greg, when I see it really bothers me when I see videos and I see black people who talk loud, speak with conviction, but have no clue what the hell they're talking about. of people have sent me this video of this sister trying to read this white woman, trying to drop CVS long receipts on her about how racist democratic party is and how black people

were all about the Republican party. And I was going to ignore it. But the reason I, the reason I can't, is because I had all these people who were tweeting me saying, oh, she's right. She's right. And that's what I went. OK, now we've got a lot of really dumb people who have no clue at all about history. So here's what I'm going to do, y'all. It's two minutes and six seconds. So we always do one of our great deconstructions and so normally I do it myself. So this time I'm going to allow the panel to deconstruct it. So y'all just let me know which part you want to deconstruct. Okay. And so and I'm a pull up. Somebody had sent me what this

what this child's name is. I think the last name was Battle or something. I'll come across it. So let me just go ahead and play it. So watch this, y'all. I would be in the same position as you. I'm not even mad at you, baby. I'm feeling like... Oh, fake news.

This is the thing. I know people don't like Trump. I understand that. But let me tell you something. If I had to pick between him and Joe Biden, I'm not voting for Joe Biden. You want to see a bunch of black people go to jail by the next four years? Put Joe Biden in. Watch what happens. You want to see black men get killed substantially like you've never seen

before? Put Joe Biden in and watch what happens. These Democrats, and I'm sorry to say this, I'm not trying to be racist, but they hate black people. These are the same people who fought to keep slavery in. These are the same people who built the KKK. These are the same people who hated us from the beginning. The Republican Party is the party of the blacks. Blacks leave, but the Republican Party is the only party that the black people actually assisted in finding. But all of that history has been torn away. People say, oh, there was this big switch. There was never a big switch. The Union won because we had grown in the industrial era. So we were able to get trains and get supplies back to our soldiers while the Confederate

was still riding horses. They were not able to get supplies back fast enough, right? So what happened was once slavery was abolished in the South, the people in the South could no longer make their money from slaves. They had to move to the North to work in the industry to produce. And so the people in the North that already had established themselves in the industry moved to the South. And so that's where it was a transfer of people coming from the South to the North and people coming from the North to the South. There was never a big switch. So the same Democrats who hated black people from the beginning are the same ones who hate us now. And they use our cause. How did Black Lives Matter turn into something about LGBTQ?

When blacks really don't support that. We're conservative. We're really not about that. Not only that, we don't support abortion. We're about work women. This is the black culture. We ain't even about that. Not only that, we're not about feminism. Black women marry their husbands and respect their husbands. That's what we on. We're not on this

oh, I do what I want. We don't do that. That's not our community. You would understand. I know, I do what I want. We don't do that. That's not our community. And you would understand. I know you understand what I'm saying. We don't do that. But yet these people are hijacking our movement. The Democratic Party, they're trying to hijack us. No. Okay. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to play a portion. I'm going to stop. And then we're going to deconstruct and give you actual facts. Okay? So here we go. I would be in the same position you're in, so I'm not even mad at you, baby, for feeling

like, oh, fake news. This is the thing. I know people don't like Trump. I understand that. But let me tell you something. If I had to pick between him and Joe Biden, I'm not voting in Joe Biden. You want to see a bunch of black people go to jail by the next four years? Put Joe Biden in. Watch what happens. You want to see black men get killed substantially like you've never seen before? Put Joe Biden in and watch what happens. These Democrats, and I'm sorry to say this, I'm not trying to be racist, but they hate black people. All right. Who would like to take that one first? Democrats, and I'm sorry to say this, I'm not trying to be racist, but they hate black people. Alright. Who would like to take that one first? I'll take that one.

Go ahead, Recy. I think it's completely absurd to try to suggest that Joe Biden would be worse for black people than Donald Trump when literally tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people are in the streets marching because of

black men and women, by the way, getting gunned down. This is the same Donald Trump that looked at the statistics of black people being disproportionately impacted, killed and infected by COVID-19 and said, it's a black disease, nothing to see here, folks, open up the country. This is the same person that told police officers to violate people's due process. I don't know if you guys remember when he did that rally and he said, oh, rough them up when you arrest them. This is the same person that has a white supremacist Department of Justice who is relaunching their quote-unquote war on crime in predominantly black areas that have ended pattern and practices investigation civil consent decrees. I could go on and on and on and on.

Now, Joe Biden has had some problematic votes in some bills in the past, but it's unquestionable that the white supremacy and white nationalism that we see perpetuated in such a dangerous way by Donald Trump is not only worse than anything we've ever seen from Joe Biden, but he would be even further emboldened for the next four years. So she must, like, what did he say? Joe Clark and lean on me? You smoke crack, don't you?

You must smoke crack because that is the only explanation for what she sat up there and said with a straight face. She also, I think, completely ignores the fact that Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell have put on nearly 200 federal judges, far right wing, who are going to who going to rule against black men who have cases that might come before the federal court and Supreme Court when it comes to death penalty becomes cases along those lines. That's just a fact. OK, here we go to the next one. These are the same people who fought to keep slavery in. These are the same people who built the KKK. These are the same people who hated us from the fact. Okay, here we go to the next one. These are the same people who fought to keep slavery in. These are the same people who built the KKK.

These are the same people who hated us from the beginning. The Republican Party is the party of the blacks. Okay, let me leave it right there. I'll take this one. First of all, in the election of 1860, there were four candidates. Lincoln

ran as the Republican. There were two candidates who ran as Democrats. One as the Northern Democratic Party, the other as the Southern Democratic Party. What does that mean? That was a split. That was a split in the Democratic Party in the 1860 presidential election and northern Democrats opposed slavery. Southern Democrats supported slavery. So when you hear her say the Democrats backed slavery, she's leaving out that important distinction, folks.

There literally were two candidates who were running in 1860. And then if you go through history, you still had that taking place. You still had that situation where your Southern Democrats had a particular view, and then your Northern Democrats had another view. Just like if you start going through the election, you always hear Republicans say, Democrats oppose the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, and they only pass because Republicans. The only problem with that is that there were more Democrats in the United States Senate, and there were more Democrats in the United States Senate and there were more Democrats in the United States House. And actually, a majority of Democrats voted for both of those bills. I know facts be damned, facts be damned. But just I just want to give you all the name

just so you all know. OK, John Breckinridge was the Southern Democratic nominee from Kentucky. OK, you had Stephen Douglas, who was the Northern Democratic nominee. Lincoln-Douglas debates. There you go. That's what you had going on. So when she says that, you kind of can't just say it's all Democrats. You have to make the distinction between Northern and Southern. Anybody else want to add to that? Okay. Well, anybody, we'll play the next one.

Black freedom. Republican party is the only party that the black people actually assisted in finding. But all of that history has been torn away. People say, oh, there was this big switch. There was never a big switch. No, no, go ahead and play it. Go ahead and play it. Because we had grown in the industrial era.

So we were able to get trains and get supplies back to our soldiers while the Confederate was still riding horses. They were not able to get supplies back fast enough, right? So what happened was once slavery was abolished in the South, the people in the South could no longer make their money from slaves. OK, I just got to I just got to go ahead and stop it right there. Can somebody who Greg, won't you go ahead and explain to people really when Lincoln gave the Emancipation Proclamation that that was a military strategic move? It was, you know, Roland, I'm sitting here listening to the sister. And I mean, you know, I've been teaching over 30 years now, which is hard for me to believe would come out of my mouth. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

She is, as my old dissertation advisor used to say, she's mixing many things. A whole lot. Yeah. And but but there's enough in there to to really indicate to me that she's either been sitting in some lectures or surfing YouTube or sat in class and got a few facts that then she then matched all together. So, yeah, on the Lincoln question is very simple. Abraham Lincoln in September 1862 signed the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, giving the southern states four months to return back to the union. And if they did, they could have kept their enslaved, because the four states that Lincoln that were still in the union, Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and he said, I want God on my side in this war, but I must have Kentucky, and Tennessee, which came back into the union, had slavery, and the Emancipation Proclamation didn't apply to them, because Lincoln said only states where there is rebellion will this apply.

The only Africans Lincoln had a hand in freeing were the Africans of Washington, D.C., and they, in the Compensated Emancipation Act, gave up to $300 per body to the white people who had them enslaved, and then set aside another lump of money and told black people who were now free, if y'all want to go to Haiti or Liberia somewhere, we'll pay for your leave. Because Lincoln, as our dear brother, Lerone Bennett, was forced into glory. So, I mean, it was a war measure. He was trying to win the war. But when his sister says, you know, about the movements and the migration patterns, and in a minute she's going to talk about the railroads,

you know, what I hear is somebody who has, you know, seen something somewhere, internalized a little bit of knowledge, but maybe forgot the part where one of the things that General Sherman did in his march to the sea was tear up all the railroad lines. That's why Atlanta is jacked up today in downtown Atlanta, because it was never supposed to be the city that it is. It was just a railroad junction. And apparently they mapped that out of streets in downtown Atlanta on it was never supposed to be the city that it is. It was just a railroad junction. And apparently they mapped that out of streets in downtown Atlanta on the old trails, which is why you can't go nowhere.

But the idea is the railroads hadn't come into existence by the mid-19th century. However, and again, trying to disentangle, I'll stop with this because there's many more things we could talk about. The GOP was the party of business then and now. Enslavement was something that they made a kind of calculation that says it's not necessarily profitable for us. these same business interests who engaged in a truce with the old plantocracy to basically sacrifice the black people of the South who had indeed founded the Republican Party. She had that part right. But after that, she lost her damn mind.

The Republican Party in the South, as Du Bois says, was an African idea in part because that was the party that we used to seize political power. Once the objectives of the North had been achieved, they reconciled with the South. This is the abandonment of the South that comes after 1877 with the rise of Jim Crow. We see what happened in 1898 in Wilmington, North Carolina, where they broke apart that fusion coalition that Reverend Barber talks about. And in the wake of that betrayal of Black people in the 19th century, what you then see is the rise of lily white republicanism in the North and the whites already have their democratic party, which

is the party of white supremacy. So if the sister had paid a little bit more attention in class, she would have then seen that the only way Africans could crack political power in the South was to go into court, including a brother who helped revive Juneteenth in the 1930s in Dallas, in your home state, Antonio Macio Smith, the same Smith of Smith versus All Right, the same Smith who gathered, helped gather plaintiffs for Sweat versus Painter. Once they cracked that white primary in the South, the Democrats then, recognizing that they're going to have their party now invaded by the blacks, slowly made the turn to the Republican Party.

Took them 30 years, but it begins with the manifesto of 1957, where Strom Thurmond, Democrat, where all these Democrats say we are segregationists or Dixiecrats, but the children of the Strom Thurmonds and the Jesse Helms and them went to the Republican Party. Kevin Phillips, Pat Buchanan, the whole Southern strategy. If the sister had spent one more week in class, she'd have closed that loop. No, because she's got Florida stuff. She'd have masked it all up together. I was hoping. But, you know, right sentiment, two facts, but you need a few more letters in that alphabet to spell the words you need to articulate what you feel in your heart but haven't quite gotten to work out because you don't have all the facts. But come on back to class.

And then when she said about the gray switch, I'm just going to play this and come right back. Here we go. They had to move to the north to work in the industry to produce. And so the people in the north that already had established themselves in the industry moved to the south. And so that's where it was a transfer of people coming from the South to the North and people coming from the North to the South. There was never a big switch. So the same Democrats who hated black people from the beginning are the same ones who hate

us now. Okay. So I just got, cause see, that's just beyond stupid. First of all, folks from the South didn't move North and folks from the North did not move South. What she doesn't understand is that after after Lincoln gets killed, Jackson is restoring the land to many of those southern plantation owners. When they came into the union, they were like, OK, cool, we can give you your land back. But there are many radical Republicans who oppose that saying, why are we going to give them the land back? So they were restored. They didn't move. They didn't go anywhere.

And also the great transfer. It actually did happen beginning at the end of World War One. And then World War Two, where white folks stayed, black folks left. They begin the book, baby, go please read Robert Abbott and the Chicago Defender and the Great Migration. Please go read about the greatest population transfer from the South to the North where black folks, where it was so bad that white folks in the South literally would not even let black people read the Chicago Defender for fear that they would wake up tomorrow and black folks would be gone. That actually happened. Then when she said the Democrats, they are the same ones today. Oh my God, please. I hate to call people dumb, but that's dumb. If you have no understanding that people like Ida B. Wells Barnett actually were supporting Herbert Hoover when he ran for

president, even though he was leading the Lilly White faction. And then what began to happen after he became president and then black people saw how racist he was, they began to have an ambivalence about it. In fact, the Republican Party was called what, Greg? The Great Ship? Yeah. It was a phrase. That's right.

All else is the open sea, brother. Frederick Douglass. I need y'all to read. I need y'all to read, please. If you're going to go stand in front of some white woman and wave your finger, have your damn facts straight. And so what then began to happen was Republican Herbert Hoover, Lily White Party. Then he was then what follows that Woodrow Wilson, one of the most racist presidents in American history, Democrat who comes in and then you have who gets who's coming in

FDR, who was not necessarily a friend of black people, but he also understood the Great Depression, his economic policies. Listen to me, y'all. Frederick FDR was not the great emancipator, but his economic policies were what appealed to black people. And then you begin to see the shift of voters. In 1956, Eisenhower got a substantial number of black voters because they were still Republicans because of Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, because the National Democratic Party was being controlled by Southern Democrats. 1948, the Southern Manifesto, when the Democrats met where? In Mississippi.

We reintroduced the Confederate flag as a part of their whole deal because the Democrats put a very small civil rights item in their plank. The white Southern Democrats got mad. Strom Thurmond was their leader. Baby, I need you to read 1960. You have JFK versus Nixon. Significant number of black supporting Nixon. Guess what happened? you had people like jackie robertson who are begging richard nixon stop saying privately you support black people but you won't say it publicly and then of course dr king gets arrested he's there in albany uh i'm sorry what is it uh erica albany is that what it is uh it is albany okay all right because you know i had somebody else say that's not how you pronounce it. Fine. So he gets thrown in jail. JFK places a call to Coretta Scott King.

King gets released. Then, of course, you have Louis Martin working for the Democratic Party. They use major mail outs, put out a special black newspaper. Black folks shift to go to Kennedy. Then 1964. Then you have what? Barry Goldwater, senator from Arizona, opposing the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Black people, including Jackie Robinson and other black Republicans, said, no way in hell we're supporting this.

They supported LBJ. That's when the switch happened. And then 1968, Nixon saw the opening, began to appeal to those Southern Democrats. And then all of a sudden, those folks begin to shift. Then 72, then 76, then Reagan appeals to them. He opens his campaign in near Philadelphia, Mississippi, where Cheney, Schwerner, and Goodman were killed. Then you have the Republican Party. That's why, sister, today, who are the ones, what's the party defending Confederate statues? Republicans in Alabama, in Mississippi, in Tennessee, in North Carolina, in Texas, in Congress. What the hell are you talking about? Please, please.

I think part of the challenge is that in terms of— Go ahead. I was going to say very quickly, you know, there is a sentiment that there isn't a difference between Republicans and Democrats. We know that's not true. But both parties operate in a field of violence against black people.

The feeling she has, as Erica said, ignorance can be cured. Ignorance can be cured by a little bit of study and dialogue. I think there's a way to pull her back from it. But if we had been standing there, we could have dispatched with the entire administration and answered a simple question. Today, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in DACA. Do you really want to roll the dice in a minute

in another Republican administration and they can get a couple more votes and take away, or try to take away everything? See, sometimes we just haven't, she's trying to win an argument with the white lady, so she just got roped in. And let's be real clear here, my whole deal is like, I've never self-identified as a Democrat or Republican. You know the party I'm in?

The one called truth. And so if you're going to speak truth, speak truth. But don if you're going to speak truth, speak truth. But don't just make stuff up. Last part here, I know Erica and Reese have been waiting to deal with this last part. But again, ooh lord.

Y'all go. Turn it to something about LGBTQ. When blacks really don't support that. We're conservative. We're really not about that. Not only that, we don't support abortion. We're about working. This is the white culture. We ain't't support that. We're conservative. We're really not about that. Not only that, we don't support abortion. We're about working. This is the black culture. We ain't even about that.

Not only that, we're not about feminism. Black women marry their husbands and respect their husbands. That's what we want. We're not on this, oh, I do what I want. We don't do that. That's not our community. And you would understand. I know you understand what I'm saying.

We don't do that. But yet these people are hijacking our movement, the Democratic Party. They're trying to hijack us. No. Okay, I heard we don't support LGBT. I heard we don't support abortion and we don't support feminism. Recy and Erica, I know Ella Baker is like, I'm sorry, excuse me? I know Fannie Lou Hamer and Septima Clark and

Diane Nash and Constance Baker Motley are like, really? We don't support feminism? I think Merlea Williams and Daisy Bates, them sisters were real clear about black women. But

y'all weighing on just the last part what she just said go ahead yeah i was just going to invoke the name of the late fannie lou hamer that departed this life in march of 1977 and just you know the late ralph ellison said something and i think about it quite often that there are few people in the world as dangerous as sleep robbers this sister is sleep and that is the danger of speaking and talking and soundbites. When we're talking about reproductive health and we're thinking about how that impacts Black women, particularly at a much higher weight, there's no way in hell that you can't say that we're not a part of that. When we're talking about the important decision that came down from the

Supreme Court around LGBTQ, we look at that entire movement and I see black people. I see Stonewall. I see black people. We were people that shepherded, shepherded change into these most profound movements. I think about even just going further when we're thinking about science, I think about Henrietta Lacks. And so when, you know, when we hear people that are kind of like spewing and talking about messaging that they've heard from different platforms that aren't steeped in history, the history that you walked us through, the history that Dr. Carr walked us through, that is the danger when people enter political conversations and they don't enter these conversations with context to think about how Ronald Reagan influenced a huge two or three generations, and that he, as an actor himself,

you all talked about going to Philadelphia, and the way that he connected with those folks in Philadelphia, Mississippi, was talking about states' rights. And here we are talking about states who reopened prematurely. And because 37 percent of the black population lives in the South, look at who are the people who are going to be most impacted by coronavirus. And so that is, again, the danger of folks just talking without really having had set with knowledge. Google is real free, but books are a beautiful companion to Google. And the reality is, this whole notion that black people are homophobic,

white folks have been homophobic for a long time. So it's not like, but the other pieces is here, the same black people may have that particular view, but they'll read James Baldwin. They'll read Langston Hughes. They'll read. I mean, they'll say, I mean, we can go on and on and on. I mean, go ahead. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I think what's just very disturbing is I've encountered this mentality. What we have is we have a whole almost I hate to use this word, but almost radicalized faction of black people who get these

ideas that are completely ignorant and misinformed and ahistorical from these youtube kind of you know scam artists these grifters that sound exactly like this woman and they just spew all this bullshit and they get the clicks and then they continue to build this this this thing and then they become incredibly belligerently belligerently ignorant about it i actually don't believe that it's she would be one of those people that you could reach if you had tried to have a reason conversation with her and you told her all those things you would be every kind of black racial slur i'm not going to repeat it on the show, Roland, but you can use your imagination because I know they've called what he called butter biscuits and all kind of stuff. I've seen the way that they actually tried to talk about black people who were actually informed and saying the facts.

And so that's what's really scary. And to what Dr. Carr said, a little bit of information is dangerous. So into what Eric has said, Google, to be honest, Google can also be dangerous because you can put in any search in any kind of way and get the information that you want. Right. Right. And that's the real deal. And so, again, the reason I chose to deconstruct that is because I was seeing too many people who like, well, you know, she right. And I'll go, I'm sorry about which part. Like, could you please narrow it down? Because it's very narrow. And the danger, see, again, that's a two-minute and six-second clip.

Somebody will say, well, yeah, but, you know, y'all spent, you know, 25 minutes on this. There's a reason. Because you can spread a whole lot of lies in two minutes and six seconds, and it takes 30 minutes to unpack that level of lies. And this is important because I look at PragerU, where Candace Owens has a little show. Let me help you all out. And this is why I keep telling black people with money, they need to understand what's going on. PragerU raised $22 million their first year. Billionaire Republicans gave them $7 million in seed capital.

They raised $25 million their second year. They've already hit a billion views on YouTube. They are purposely using short content to reach the ignorance that you're hearing from black people. Let me be clear. There are black people who can talk very well, who with conviction, who are emphatic, who are passionate, who are wrong. And again, we can argue about a position. We can argue about Biden or Trump. We can argue about policies. We can argue

whether or not Senator Kamala Harris' proposals are better than Senator Elizabeth Warren's proposals. But what we're not going to do, I'm not going to play the game, is allow folks to sit here and just say stuff, and then folk, man, did you hear that, sister? And again, I don't know if she's conservative or liberal.

I don't know any of that. It doesn't even matter to me. What I do know is nearly everything she said was wrong. Exactly. And that, for me, is a problem, y' wrong. Exactly. And that for me is a problem, y'all. That's a problem. Help me, y'all. How do we reach

folk like that? And I'm saying that because I'm sure y'all been seeing it on social media this week. There's this back and forth between people who are identifying with J. Cole and young people who are identifying with no name, the sister out of Chicago. And J. Cole and young people who are identifying with No Name, the sister out of Chicago. And J. Cole is saying, you know, yeah, I haven't read much. I haven't studied, but I've been out in the street and you shouldn't approach me because, you know,

No Name has this book club. Her mother actually had a bookstore in Chicago for many years. And so this is the new iteration of it is these meetups where they discuss books and they talk. But what J. Cole is saying is that, yeah, I'm for that. But, you know, don't don't make it don't make me feel like I don't know anything just because what I know isn't what you know. It doesn't mean what I know doesn't count. Right. And I guess what I'm trying to reach is that in that last piece, we just deconstructed, you know, our colleague, Belithia Watkins-Batey, who's written about this a lot over the last 20 years, the idea of feminism. I remember Angela Davis saying this. They said, as Davis first said, you know, they called me a feminist.

I said, I'm not a feminist. And then I began to think about it, and I said, there's a form of bourgeois feminism that's affiliated with white women. And then some people said, well, no, it's not feminists, it's womanists. It's like, no, there's a real raging debate around it. But I'm saying some of this is social class. Oh, absolutely. The class structure, you know, that handful of black people who voted for Trump, some of them are those religious conservatives that are anti-choice.

You ask her. That are women subvert to your husband. But I'm saying there's also the tolerance in black community formations which say I'm not gay, but I am. I support you wherever you are. I mean, it's complicated. How do we reach those people? You have to utilize this platform to do it. And again, you look at what the right is doing. They are purposely funding independent media platforms to purposely drive that information the problem our black platforms are spending more time on gossip and entertainment and Fashion and makeup and who so-and-so Dayton and who broke up?

That's the problem and so we don't have information sources We have gossip and entertainment sources and that's the difference folks We talked yesterday about this we talked yesterday about the need for black men to be more involved in the political process. Today, we have the brothers with Black Men Build, whose mission is to organize black men to engage in what's going on around us. Philip Agnew, of course, he is co-founder of the Dream Defenders, and he is co-director of this movement here. Phillip, to tie in the discussion we just had, were you seeing same thing

and hearing stuff that was wrong, that was just, that's, I mean, rhetorically sounded great, but substance, if you were like,

what the hell are they talking about? Well, listen, we're hearing it over and over. And people are beginning to traffic more and more. And the sister already brought it up earlier in misogynist, anti-immigrant, because that's another threat that we're starting to hear more and more. People are saying, you know what, maybe we do need to get the Mexicans out or maybe why are we fighting for this group when we should be fighting for our own thing and it is because exactly what you said a rampant anti-intellectualism it is because also conversely

people from the academy have been divorced from what is going on in the street so left a gap for youtube university and prager you and you what you talked about i was itching to get in on this discussion because that is precisely what you're up against. You should have sent me a text. You should have just texted me. Listen, you had enough going on on there. But this is what we're working on with Black Men Build. This is a place for black men to get engaged in the political process as an organized force. And we had a value statement come out. And the number one thing on that value statement said, I am a critical thinker

and I am curious about this moment, how it is affecting my family, myself and my community. And we chose that particularly as an indictment of what we're seeing is a great many black men with doctorates or fake doctorates or honorary doctorate trafficking in piecemeal

information that is a historic that actually is rooted in a european ideology and selling it off as hotepism and leading our people to destruction um i'm gonna throw next question out to Greg for Philip. I got a simple question. Brother, can we get rid of using hotep as a pejorative? Because I'm going to tell you right now, if I took glyphs, Egyptian hieroglyphs is one of my languages. If I took glyphs and wrote hotep on every black person in this country's forehead and told them I'm going to blow their brains out if they can't decipher it, there'd be a lot of dead black people in America. Can we come up with a different type of more

layered analysis that does not then center black culture in what I think is not only intellectually lazy, but a shorthand that completely evades the very issues we're raising. Can we come up with another form of internal analysis that doesn't require us to engage in the same type of hashtag, YouTube, quick drive, 30-second kind of conversation that these type of platforms have begun to recruit us in? Can we come up with an alternative? Because it's just so frustrating well real quick um brother let me um understand your question um is it that we're using um what is a perversion of an ideology and calling it hotep or because you know i call it a few things we've called it photep and then we call it the unc right the unc right is this uh this like like this aunt right here the trial right right right right right right

so let me let me be clear let me be clear there are people misusing right and people a historically putting on the garb of a pan-africanism ideology uh utilizing bits and pieces of the thinkers from African scholarship and using it to lead brothers into a into what really is a right wing ideology is what I really am referencing the phenomenon of. I grew up reading Chancellor Williams. I grew up. So I don't I don't I don't believe that the ideology that I grew up calling HOTEP or

pan-Africanism isanism is leading us into destruction. I'm saying that there are people perverting it and using it as that bait, that need for identity, that need to identify with something greater than what United States has taught us about African-ness, and using that as a bait to lead people into the wrong direction. That's more precisely what I'm hoping to convey. And I think what Greg is saying, I think, I think what Greg is saying is that the problem is when people say, I'm sick of all these old, these old hotep folks. Now, maybe what they want to do is throw fake hotep in front of it, but, but, but what they're doing is they are.

And so what then happens is it, it then, it then says, well, if you understand HOTEP and you are actually right and just you're included in that. And I and so then all of a sudden now an attack on HOTEP because attack on all about it. And most of the people who even say these HOTEPs, they themselves don't even know what the hell HOTEP is. I'll concede that totally. Go ahead, Greg. Go ahead, Greg. Hotep is simply a word that means peace. And in fact, let me just show you something. This just came out. This is from Ayikwemal in Senegal. Now, you've heard of this, of course, the instructions of Hotep. That means God's peace. But look on the back. What they've done in Senegal, they are translating this from the Medu Netre into 11 different languages, most of them African,

because we have the intellectual tradition that extends back to the origins of humanity. And some kind of way, everything you've said, I agree with. In fact, the so-called hotel critique comes from within Black nationalist communities. It has been since it came. It's an internal critique. Believe me, I've been a part of it. And it's, as you say, it's really around gender hierarchies. It's around the type of misogyny. We talk, all of that is true, but now it has been exported into communities that have no interest in black community development. And I agree with everything you said, brother, you know,

I'm with you 100 percent. I just wonder how we figure out language that does not allow our open enemies to turn around and have us fighting each other while they continue in this late capitalist stage to make all the money and lead us to the brink. I just don't I don't have a good answer. But I know we're on the same side of this i just you know when i hear ho-chup i cringe the word literally means peace yeah no i completely understood brother complete i think the beginnings of where do we go is uh to to bring it back what we've been doing right here i think we need to reignite popular discourse and debate as something that is we already love conflict roland you know we as a people that is, we already love conflict, Roland. You know, we as a people in Western society, we already love a good battle. And I remember looking up to and watching Bayard going at it with Malcolm X and saying, oh man, that is amazing.

And watching the greatest thinkers of ours go into the written word and excoriate each other and the ideas that they are putting out. And I think that there is an appetite, Brother Roland, if you want to actually bring this together for us to actually feature intellectual debate branded in the right way, presented in the right way, but for people to actually see the fullness of black genius and have these ideas of the day put in a big state. And you're doing it now, I'm just saying, traveling. Right, but that's precisely why we created this, because the black networks are not going to do it, and the rest of these people out here, they're doing the nonsense.

It's just like, look, Elizabeth Epps, who's an activist out of Denver, strong sister, but she's an ardent, she does not like Senator Kamala Harris. And so she told somebody on Twitter, she said, I'll debate anybody about Senator Kamala Harris. I hit Reese. Reese was like, I'm game. So I hit them both. I was like, y'all let me know what date and time I'll moderate. We'll do it right here. Reese, you got the next question for Phillip. Yeah. And to address that, I want to have a conversation that's a well-rounded conversation.

And a lot of what I've seen is people want to set the terms in the most reductive and narrow way in a way that's as damaging as possible to the subject rather than having that critical thinking, rather than having that broader analysis to keep with the black elected officials where they got to crawl through glass and walk through wave of magic wand and cure everything. But then the white folks come out with a PDF or a plan and they all of a sudden are the best things that slice bread. But to you, what this topic is, I appreciate your platform and what you're trying to build.

And I think that the critical thinking part and the, and I would really like to see the not preaching to the choir part aspect of it. And to Dr. Carr's point, the we put labels on people that really kind of eliminate the conversation. And it's not just within the black community. And we talk about politics, neoliberal corporate shield establishment. Those are the kinds of pejoratives that have been used towards black people. To me, the progressive label has been weaponized to exclude black people that don't necessarily support certain people. So what are your thoughts in terms of, you know, elevating the conversation

beyond just I'm in this camp and I'm in this camp into finding that common ground? I appreciate that question. So the impetus for Black Men Build was actually a year ago. And what we recognize, and I think actually this has been coming up a number of times, and I actually agree completely with you. We as a movement far too often create barriers for entry that are insurmountable for everyday people. And some people in movement are more concerned with creating a safe space and a social club, frankly, for themselves and not in expanding the walls of their organization to be able to reach people who frankly are right now saying, I don't mess with the movement at all. Y'all don't talk to us. Y'all getting money. Y'all got blue checks.

I just got one. So I could they they say it to me. Right. I'm hearing people say y'all traveling around and I'm not eating. The world is changing for y'all, but it's not changing for me. And so those are the very people who are who are now being seduced by the overtures of the right, who are being able to say the democrats never did anything for you and now they're able to say the movement not really messing with you why don't you come over here what do you have to lose and so black men build is particularly serious about engaging with brothers who have no experience with the movement at all and this and the internal slogan for black men Build is come as you are,

grow as you go. So the barrier to entry is you sign the value statement. And real quick, I am a critical thinker. I care about this moment. I am ready to come together with other brothers.

And three, I am bonded with Black women and all Black people who are fighting for the liberation of other Black people. If you can sign on to that, and right now we have over 1,400 brothers signed on to that, then you can come in and come through political education and move forward. We're not trying to cancel anybody out right now because we need, at the end of the day, if my job is to be an organizer, I have to

say, how many more people did I bring into the movement at the end of the day? If it was less, I didn't do my job. Erica, question for Phillip Agnew. Hey, Phillip. So I'm really glad to hear that you're talking about how you are moving folks who are essentially blank slaves. And I'm just saying that in earnest, who are blank slaves into political power through education. That is fantastic and definitely much so needed, particularly for Black men. And I've just noticed over the years how there have been Black men who are celebrities who do have that level of platform, have exercised that platform in a way to almost give license

for lack of non-participation in the vote, understanding that that is one part of building political power. So can you tell me in what ways your platform, and congratulations to you, in what ways will your platform engage these Black men in order for them to also understand that, you know, there's a time to really turn out the noise and really focusing, be driven by what the information that they're provided through this programming. So right now, we just launched a week ago with the Values Pledge, and we had a signing day where Brothers signed on to the Values. Tomorrow or on Saturday, we have our first mass meeting. At that mass meeting, the agenda is going to lay out who we are because one of the things we hear from Brothers is it's always some kind of secret hand

and they don't want to mess with it if they feel like it's being run secretly so to be fully transparent and we're going to invite brothers to either a book club to the school or to an organizing program so that they're in their community so i'm breaking that part down for you and then after that right people are going to have the opportunity to have information directly related to local politics and be able to start doing sessions and workshops at barbershops, Masonic lodges, fraternity buildings, wherever black men are about the political issues of the day. The goal by the end of the year is that black men in 13 cities have built an infrastructure to be engaged in all of the ways you can in politics, protests, and the election. I believe in voting. I don't believe that voting is everything, and I don't believe that voting is nothing. It is absolutely something. And all the black people and other people, I even argue with leftists who are saying, I don't engage with the electoral process.

We do not have the luxury of allowing for four more years of that person, nor do we have the luxury of not voting for state attorneys and for mayors and for governors and council people who vote and move forward agendas that are killing our people and so for us it is talking to black men authentically consistently being present in their lives on a consistent basis from now until this organization ceases to exist and making sure they have the information that they need to make the decisions about their lives and telling them that this is not a game and if it was a game you're sitting on the sidelines while our sisters while queer folks while people of all identities are out there getting tear gassed and you're sitting pontificating on a high horse talking about

no that's not my game i get it like this that's insufficient uh what's the website where can folks get more information black men dot bill black men dot bill and that's where they can go they can also sign up uh for um and and um and move forward right they can sign up there or they can come to register for our mass meeting on this saturday as well all right then philip agnew my alpha brother i appreciate it man thanks a lot thank you very much thank all of y'all all right then i want to thank my panel as well dr car erica as well as reesey thanks a lot thank you enjoy y'all juneteenth thank you all right folks there's been a strong push for presidential candidate joe b Biden to choose a black woman as his running mate. While Senator Kamala Harris tops the list, California's first black U.S. senator is fighting the narrative that in her 27 years as a prosecutor,

she enforces laws that sent African-Americans to prison. Well, y'all seen this brother. We actually had him on the show. His name is Drew. He's all he's big time supporter, Senator Harris. So he put together this video. I saw it. That was pretty hilarious Because of just his whole style and so check this out So about a year ago They told us Kamala Harris locked up thousands of black people for weed said she broke the state record for incarcerating black men They just forgot one thing proof. Yo y'all over the course of the year. We heard one shred of evidence to back this up They said she broke today's record.

They ain't tell us what the old record was, how much she beat it by, when they even started keeping score. Who really think they're keeping personal records for how many black men a prosecutor can lock up? This ain't the pen relay. All they gave us was vague articles that started with the word opinion. Op-ed. That's not a reliable source. She locked up thousands of black men on petty charges. Dang, what was the exact number?

A lot. Okay, how much is that 21 Savage? You got an estimated number? Uh-uh. Get on. Hell uh. You mean tell me you ain't got no actual number, but you heard from what's-her-name who said that somebody told them the day it heard. We just gonna take your word for it? Do we got stupid written on our forehead or something? If she locked up that many brothers of a petty weed charges, there ought to be a record of it somewhere. Where's the proof? The plot of the number is 1,500 while she was Attorney General. Y'all, Attorneys General don't prosecute marijuana cases.

That's like the CEO of Target doing price check on Senate candles. Plus, she was AG from 2011 to 2016. In that span of roughly 5 million arrests, 1,500 out of 5 million is less than half and half of a percent. Not to mention that 1,500 number is not supported by a single official record. What is official is that marijuana incarceration rates plummeted during her terms as AG. From a little over 800 in her first year to about 130 something in her last. That's in the state of 40 million people, by the way. So let's go back to her DA days in San Francisco. Maybe we can find this number y'all talking about. As DA, Kamala Harris's office

won 1,956 misdemeanor and felony convictions for marijuana possession, cultivation, and sale. But this number also includes people who were convicted of more serious crimes at the same time. So not everyone convicted was even arrested for weed and fur play. But here's a number y'all can look at. The DA who had a job before Kamala, the one they call progressive,

sent 135 people to state prison when weed was the most serious offense during his tenure. Kamala Harris, in just about the same amount of time, sent 45. And I, ooh, that's a free fall. Also, the head of narcotics prosecution under Harris admitted their policy was no one with the conviction that simple marijuana possession

could do any jail time at all. They even routinely had more serious weed charges pleaded down. First black DA in the city's history, and these are the stats? Oh, say less. But hey, if y'all can find any evidence of thousands of black men she supposedly locked up,

please feel free. And while you at it, can you give me Santa Claus number? I'm trying to get PlayStation 5 early this Christmas. Call me in 2020. That video's hilarious, and here's the deal. If you think he was wrong, send us your video, and we'll take a look at it. Simple as that. Mars Ain't, the parent company of Uncle Ben's

rice, says it is now is the right time to evolve and they will change the brand visually. Quaker Oats, the company that owns Aunt Jemima syrup, made a similar announcement the same day. So Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima will soon be gone. Now, this is real simple. People are like, OK, what's the big deal? But the reality is images also matter. And so we have to understand that. Folks, tomorrow is Juneteenth and to commemorate Laila Ali will host what is being billed as a live virtual black business experience. She will

lend her Facebook page to hip hop artist Dre's, whose popular building black wealth video is an anthem to supporting black businesses. Here's the promo. Building Black Wealth presents a live Black business marketplace. On Juneteenth, we'll introduce you to 10 Black businesses taking over their industries. We believe it's important to amplify these voices at this time because we understand that there is no freedom without economic equality. So this Juneteenth, we're celebrating the breath of African-American innovation and ingenuity. So join the lifestyle where we're normalizing and patronizing black business, building black wealth, spend money with yourself. To tune in, go to Layla Ali's Facebook page, Friday morning at 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.

Happy Juneteenth. Joining me right now is Layla Ali and Dre's. First of all, we certainly understand that on this show, we are constantly putting black businesses on the show. In fact, we did our live drop earlier with the folks at Seek.com for the headphones they sell. That is something that is important. Dre's, you dropped this video. What inspired it? Was it something very specific in particular? Honestly, it was just a journey that I was on personally, right?

I was just starting to support black businesses in my own life. I started thinking about why am I spending so much money in other communities when I can give it back to my own community? So I did the song. And in the song, I was able to highlight 18 different Black businesses that I started frequenting and started using for myself. So really, the inspiration was my own story and life.

Layla, it's very interesting what you heard Dre say. And I get these people who say, yeah, man, but it's so it's so hard to find folks. I actually just requires you to actually stop and think and do a little research. I mean, take the time to do a little research. First of all, hello, Roland. How are you doing? I'm good. All good. Wow. Glad to see you. Thank you for all that you're doing. Like you said, to promote black businesses. You've been you've been preaching this for a while and now with everything going on, everybody wants to get on board.

And that's great. I think that's absolutely amazing. That's what we need to do. But I just want to say that, you know, we've been programmed to just buy what's out there, you know, and what's at the store and things like that. And to support a black business or small business, you do have to do a little bit more work. You kind of have to open your eyes. You have to figure it out what it is that you're looking for and then kind of go on the search. So I think what's amazing is that we're going to put everybody in the spotlight. All they have to do, you know, we got 10 businesses that are going to

be a part of this live event. And I'm sure there's going to be more afterwards. But now you've got apps, you know, like We Buy Black and, you know, Black Wall Street, you know, so there's ways now on social media that are really right at your fingertips. So there really isn't any excuse anymore, but you have to have the intention to want to support these businesses in the first place. Well, I'll give an example. So Anthony, give me the shot right now. So, you know, here we are in our studio. And then when we were, when we were building this out, when, you know, we, we started, we had these glass tabletops and chairs, and then we said, you know what, let's, we need to build us a new set. And the first thing I said is to Henry Peterson, our production manager, yo, you know know anybody black who build TV sets?

And he was like, yeah. And so then when you talk about the lights as well, that turns on our lighting system, there's a brother who actually, that's his company, and he does television lighting. So it was like, cool. And so again, that to me just simply required, then also you see right here, the art pieces here,

I wanted something different. And so I hit black artist Leroy Campbell. This is from his Remember to Vote paint series. And so to me, part of the problem for people is they say we should do this. Oh, people are black. Oh, man, we need to do this. But then you go. But are you doing it? Absolutely. Well, now we're going to provide them the opportunity to do it, you know, and I think that now with the spotlight on the situation is more of us need to get involved, more of us need to actually go to action. And I know that Dre has said this song before. Sometimes you got to pay a couple dollars more because you're dealing with small businesses that, you know, are not buying in bulk. So they don't, you know, their cost is higher.

So it gets extended. But sometimes, you know, that's what you got to do. And then eventually we can grow and then we can offer lower prices. So I ask that everybody just think about that as a supporting small businesses, black businesses. You know, Dre's and I use this phrase all the time. It's called being intentional. And that's what it is. I mean, you have to say this is what I'm going to do. I had the sister and brother, the husband and wife from Chicago who they went and bought this project.

And for the entire year, their goal was everything that they did. They would be purchasing from a black owned business. And they discovered how difficult it was in terms of categories and services that that they use every day. They realized that we were not necessarily in when Babyface and Teddy Riley, when they had the technical issues with their versus. I was on talking about it and talking about technology, creating on platforms. And all of a sudden, these brothers and sisters start emailing me who have created technology platforms who and they couldn't get any attention anywhere. So I was like, all right, we'll bring on a show. And again, because this is the key. But because I control this platform, because I own it, then I can make that decision. That's also part of this whole deal. Absolutely. Ownership has always been key and vital to anything that we want to do.

With this show, we said we want to celebrate the breadth, the width, and the depth of African-American innovation and ingenuity. So on this show tomorrow, on Juneteenth, 9 o'clock West Coast time, we're going to be on Laila Ali's Facebook page. Why? Because we're able to have a measure of control, like you say. But we're going to bring all types of things. Angela Rye is going to kick this whole thing off.

So we got her, Lennon, her voice. But we have everything. We have Figures, which is a black-owned cell phone company. We got the Honeypot. We have them on the show. We have the feminine care products. We have everything. Me and the Bees Lemonade, which is a youth entrepreneur, right? This young girl who got a deal on the Shark Tank and really blew up.

We've got toiletries and laundry determent. The point is black people are making everything, like you said on this show. What does it look like for us to be intentional about spending that money with ourselves? Because when you do that, now you can trust that these people are going to start to invest back into our community. But lastly, I do want to say it's not just about black people. Everybody needs to spend money with us.

Equality has to become action with our dollars as well. Spend money with us so we can rebuild our own communities. I like marches. I love marches. I also like money. And I want people to spend money with us, white and black, all races. Join us tomorrow, 9 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on Laila Ali's Facebook page and bring your credit card with you.

Well, I think and one of the points that we're seeing with the protests and now you're seeing corporations respond. And when they're talking about donations or investments, I'm also talking about a scorecard saying, no, no, no, no. I want to see board members, senior executives. But more importantly, I want to see your minority supplier development. I want to see what you're doing there. And so assessing, yes, what black businesses are you actually supporting as partners? I had a phone call. They were technology company. And I was talking with the associate. She said, you know, how can we have assistance? I said, y'all need to create a fund that that that helps fund black media entrepreneurs. Facebook today announced a 200 million dollar fund where 100 million will be going to nonprofits as well as to black content creators. YouTube created a hundred million dollar fund for black content creators. It's the same thing. These are people with businesses who need investment. And so that's the other piece. I think a part of this we talk about on one hand for us to support folks with their products.

But we also must make the demand of corporate America in terms of, no, what are you also investing in and then providing those resources? Final comments from both of you. Dre's first. Layla, you close us out. You know what? I just want everybody to enjoy it. Open your mind. Get up. Wake up. Get yourself some coffee. Get some tea. Get some breakfast. Join us tomorrow. Layla Ali's Facebook page is going down, but like I said, bring your credit card. We've got so many dope businesses.

It's not just about my music. The music is about becoming a movement, and I'm proud to say that it's doing that. So please join us, wake up, and have a blast on this June team. Layla. I just want to say that it's going to be an amazing opportunity. I'm happy to share my platform for this, and I love what you said, Roland.

We definitely have to take a holistic approach. Everybody needs to do what they can. Some people are using voices. Some people are marching. Some people are looking at the corporate level, making know, looking at the corporate level, you know, and making sure people are in the C-suites, all of that. So I think we all have to come at this from every angle, just like they've been against us in so many ways in every different angle. So we're not going to fix it by just doing one thing. So this is a small part of a big puzzle.

And I think it's a great start, though. So thank you so much for having us on. I appreciate it. And check out Layla Lee's Spice Clean, because I got a business, too, and we'll be on there. I'll be selling mine as well. All right. 9 a.m. Pacific, 12 Eastern, 11 a.m. Central.

We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you. All right, folks. At the moment, we're going to have our interview with Isaiah Whitlock, who's starring in Spike Lee's movie,

The Five Bloods. But first, the folks who've given 50 bucks to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Let's go. Alvin Richardson, Angela Davis, Bruce Williams, Carol Lawrence, Christina Spears, Colleen Hawthorne, Daniel LaRoche, Delwyn Hawkins, Demetrius Herring Sr., Destination Honeymoon, Eric Cockrell, Eugenia Moss-Redd, Unita Bethea, Felix Olabatui, Henry Hall, Henry Harris, Irvin Nurse, Nurse Huntley, James Martin, Joyce Collins, Keisha Cooper, Keith Anosiki, Kevin Baker, Kevin Woods, Laverne Hayes Brown, Michael Bent, Michelle Arrington, Mittow Fire Extinguisher, Nicholas Richardson, Paul Copeland, Robert Jones, Robin McGill, Stephen Thornton, Thomas Turner, Tilsia Burnett, Tina, Tracy Mayo, Vincent Davis, Willie Turner. Folks, if you want to support what we do, understand every dollar you give goes to support this show. We're doing something right now where we're about to go through a whole new lighting sequence for our studio. We're about to completely rewire our control room, add some features to it as well. We're adding some other things like for instance there,

and just, I just want y'all to understand when I want us to talk about how these things cost. So there is a, there's a particular app. Uh, and again, and, and this is just shows you so you can understand, uh, why, uh, your, uh, dollars, uh, matter. I'm gonna do this right here. Okay. So let me close this out. So, um, let's see here. Let me close it out. All right. I'm going to do this right here. Okay. So let me close this out. So let's see here. Let me close it out. All right. I want you to go to my phone. You see it, pull it up, pull it up, pull it up. Okay. So I want y'all to see this app right here. So y'all see this. So this app is called LU Smart. What this app does, this app allows for us. So let's say let's say till tomorrow. That's Juneteenth. So let's say you're having a Juneteenth celebration in your city. And so I might say, hey, if you're having a Juneteenth celebration in your city, we would love for you to be able to stream your Juneteenth celebration to Roland Martin unfiltered.

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This allows for us, if there's a protest, if there's a rally or something going on, we can actually send this. And look, y'all, y'all can't use this at home because you have to have the live you rack unit over here to be able to to do it. But this is this app. Y'all is 245 bucks a month. And so that's just real. It's 245 bucks a month. And so if you're talking about the people who support our show, if all of a sudden, let me just give you, so let's just say it's $250 a month. And then you're talking about times 12. The reality is this here. If 60 people, listen to me, if 60 of you give 50 bucks or more than us being able to pay for this app for the whole year. If 60 of you right now, Cash App, PayPal, Venmo, pull it up, please, or send us a money order. You

see Cash App, dollar sign RM Unfiltered, PayPal, paypal.me, rmartinunfiltered, venmo.com, rm unfiltered. You can also send a money order please do this here make it out to new vision media that's the parent company i can't cash it otherwise 1625 k street northwest suite 400 washington dc 2006 and so so here's the deal if 60 of you if 60 of you between now and monday if 60 of you join our Bring the Funk fan club at $50 or more, and again, you're going to get a personal shout out. And so, and matter of fact, so do this here from this point on the first 60, the first 60 who could join our Bring the Funk fan club, either on YouTube or you can give right there on YouTube, you will be responsible for us being able to pay for this app. And then that way, anything is happening around the country, around the world.

We can send somebody that link and they will be able to transmit whatever they're broadcasting from their iPhone back here to our show. And so it's an amazing technology. It only works with the iPhone, but that's just a perfect example of the kind of stuff that we're doing here at Roland Martin Unfiltered, trying to bring you the kind of content you're not getting anywhere else out there. And so, again, go to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. You got Cash App, PayPal, Venmo. You can mail it in. You can also, of course, use a credit card with Square. But this is the stuff that we're doing, y'all.

This is what we're trying to do. And so we're limited. Just so y'all understand, okay, y'all, we're doing, y'all. This is what we're trying to do. And so we're limited just so y'all understand. Okay. Y'all, we got a staff of seven people who work real hard in the control room. I know some of y'all be getting mad with technical stuff and trust me, they like, man, we ain't trying to hear his voice. But what we're trying to do very simple is to bring you an A quality product five days a week and then giving you what you deserve and that is a strong news and information show

that targets African Americans. And so if 60 of you right now join our Bring the Funk fan club, boom, I can sit here, I can call the folks in there and say, boom, put it on our bill. And then that's paid for. And now we can expand this show. Now we can sit here and there's a protest over here. And so here's the deal. It's two and forty five bucks a month. OK, so basically two and fifty dollars a month times twelve is three thousand dollars.

Three thousand dollars divided by 50, 60 people. Now, if some if somebody out there wants to give three thousand. Great. Someone wants to give three thousand, great. Someone wants to give a thousand. Great. Five hundred to fifty doesn't matter. But that's just an example of the kind of things that we're trying to do to expand our reach here. And Roland Martin unfiltered your dollars matter. If you also want to support the show, if you want to advertise products, we do have, of course, a package. So just simply send an email to, send it to info at Roland S. Martin dot com, info at Roland S. Martin dot com. Then we can kick that out to you as well. All right, folks, Isaiah Whitlock, you know him from The Wire and from other movies as well. Y'all, he is in Spike Lee's new Netflix movie called Defy Bloods.

Had a chance to sit down with Isaiah. Some hilarious stories. He's a funny brother. I really think y'all are going to enjoy our conversation. I'm the Whitlock man. Glad to have you on Roller Martin Unfiltered. Hey, thank you very much. Thank you very much.

I'm a huge fan. Man, a huge fan of your work as well. First of all, obviously, uh, an amazing movie. Uh, at any point that you tell us, Spike, what the hell you got us out here running around this damn jungle shooting

guns. We too old for this. Well, it ran through my mind a couple of times. Uh, it was, it was so hot. Uh,

it, uh, we, there was, it was, it was over a hundred degrees almost every day. And with the mosquitoes and flies and things like that, at my age, I was like, I don't know. But we got through it and we had a great time.

Well, one of the things I think is so amazing, and I've said this to Delroy, to Clark, to Norm, and Spike as well. I mean, this movie really is about black brotherhood, older brothers who are unified by something. And speak to that, just that brotherhood concept. Well, a lot of that came out with the DAP that was very prevalent during the Vietnam War, where the brothers were trying to connect and hold together. And as you saw in the film, I mean, we did different types of DAP that showed where we had served, what parts of the country we had been in. But it was also a way just to connect.

And Spike was very insistent that we got that across. But I have to say, though, that after running around in the jungle with those guys and spending the couple of weeks we had for military training and everything like that we developed a brotherhood amongst ourselves uh that i i feel you could start to feel the brotherhood and the love and and that uh went into the film and we were able to get that point across it's rare though that to see that sort of connection, especially among older black men in movies. I really can't think the last time I really saw that. I mean, heck, it may have been the Robin Harris character, Sweet Dick Willie, and other cats on the corner in Do the Right Thing. I mean, you just don't see it.

Yeah, and it was kind of nice to be able to show that, you know, older black men getting together, living, having a good time, still having dreams, still loving life and things of that nature. You never ever see anything like that. And I was glad to be a part of that just to be able to show that. And then when you look at everything today, a lot of the film and that black brotherhood and older men and things like that getting together, all of that has been kind of lost. And when we do the film, you know, it sort of smacks people in the face that, yeah, you know, they do matter.

Well, they certainly do matter. And I think to tell the story from the perspective of these brothers, which you rarely see when it comes to Vietnam-era films. And it's like so much for African-Americans, where all these stories have been told over the years, yet our particular perspective gets left out, or we're simply a bit player in somebody else's storyline. Right, right. And that's what I felt with all of the documentaries. The one thing I kept seeing in a lot of the documentaries was when Sammy Davis Jr. went over to sort of calm things down.

I think Nixon had sent him over. just how tone deaf they were at that time about how disproportionate it was, what was happening in the country at that time. So many African-Americans on the front line fighting and dying at such a larger percentage than African-Americans in the country. I think it was like maybe 11% at that time. And yet you had about 30% on the front lines and dying. So you just didn't. And then when you see these documentaries, none of that is talked about. You don't see any of that. So it was nice to be able to represent that and let people know that African Americans did serve in the Vietnam War. And at the same time, I was very thankful they just didn't get me.

Did you reach out to other brothers who served to really sort of get an understanding? Did you reflect on classmates or family members as well who served? I had a lot of memories of the guys who did serve, because at that time you saw a lot of guys coming back. They would leave one way and come back totally different, totally disillusioned, and then having to deal with all the problems in the country. But when we got over to Vietnam, there were some expats who we spoke with, guys who had gone over to the Vietnam War and stayed. And that was very—it was very emotional for me to listen to their stories and what was going on and all.

And so by the time we started shooting, I had a very, very good idea as to who these guys were. characters um your characters seem to be uh the most level-headed didn't necessarily show lots of external drama and issues it is as if you were able to to get through that uh and and not have a lot of that weighing down on you in terms of how the storylines set it up. Yeah. And I, it was interesting because when we started shooting, I mean, you know, you saw that with Delroy's character, Clark's norms, and then you had this, um, you sort of had this other brother who was just, uh, you know, he still had his faculties intact. He didn't have all of these issues and things like that so when we go back to vietnam you sort of see it right up front especially once we go to the club and everything like that uh uh that you know he's that guy uh who you know i'm there to have a good time and um uh you know what we have had to do and everything like that. But in the beginning of the movie, I've already got a drink.

I'm checking in at the counter and I've got a drink already. And I was dancing with a drink and I didn't spill a drop, you know. So early on, you knew exactly who this guy was. And he was supposed to be the youngest, had lied his way into the military. And he was part of that group. He was part of that brotherhood. And right off the top, you know, I exposed him as to who he was. Yeah, no, it was it clear because I told when I asked Clark Peters, I said,

I said something tells me that Isaiah was the constant comic relief on screen and off shooting this film. I didn't I didn't plan it that way. But in looking back on it, I sort of was. It was kind of like when things started to get a little too heavy, I had to come in and lay something down to kind of pull everybody back to reality. And I thought that was good. It sort of showed that one of the things Spike said right before we left for Thailand and Vietnam, he says, look, I don't want four brothers who are the same.

And I knew Delroy. I knew Clark. I didn't really know Norm, but I did get to know him. But I remember thinking to myself, you cast this perfectly because we are all different. And that came out in those characters where you had four different guys. And one of the things that bothers me a little bit about film is that sometimes when you see African-Americans, you know, they're all the same. And it was nice to be able to show a little bit of diversity in character and who we were that we're not all the same and it was nice to be able to show a little bit of diversity and character and who we were that uh we're not all the same we you know we was some of us come from different parts of

the country midwest south west coast east coast but it was nice to be able to represent that and i thought that came out uh great in the film Well, and when you talk about that comic relief, when you talk about those moments, I mean, the reality in real life, we all need levity. Life ain't that serious all day,

every day, and it's great to have that person in your life who at any moment might crack a joke, might make light of something, might might start just start cracking on you playing the dozens. I mean, levity is needed even in life. Yeah. Yeah. And the thing is, is that that's where I mean, you know, usually when you see films, you know, it gets serious and it stays serious. But as the audience watching it, as an African-American watching it, I know that's not real. I know somebody, excuse me, somebody is going to say something, even in a desperate time, somebody will say something that will almost make you laugh.

And I had those little moments in there where no matter what the situation was, I could always find the opposite of that. And to me, that is what life is all about. Absolutely, absolutely. All right. So so first of all i didn't understand where in the world did your signature line she where did that come from and i of course i'm watching the movie going i know i'm gonna hear it well a couple of days it's like it's like your line your line is that damn camera of Spike Lee's that we're all waiting for. We know it's coming. You and everybody else, even Spike. About halfway through shooting, Spike said, you know, I haven't heard that.

What's going on and i told him i said he because spike had told me he says look find a place where you want to put it you you decide what what you want to do and i appreciate the fact that he trusts me enough to to bring it in uh he never told me exactly where he just trusted that i would find a spot for it. And I'm sort of like, well, you know, I don't want to just throw it out there. You know, I want to find that one spot where the audience is going to agree with me and say, you know, you got a point there. He's not going to give you a million dollars. Shit.

You know, that kind of a thing. So, so, uh, about halfway through spike say, you know, I haven't heard, I've said, no, I got a spot for it. I got a spot for it. And that's, that's when I did it, but it was later in the movie, but that all came from the 25th hour. Uh, the first movie that I did with spike, uh, that's when I, when i first did that and um and then six and when was it was it spontaneous then was it spontaneous then or was it in the script uh no no no it was uh it was but when i had gone to audition for the 25th hour i was i was chatting with spike and we were talking about baseball uh we were talking about the St. Louis Cardinals when they had Kurt Flood and Bob Gibson and all these guys, Lou Brock.

And then we started working a little bit on the script of the 25th Hour, and I did that. And Spike said, do that again. I did it again. He says, you know, you need to keep that. He said, it's the way you do it. And so he cast me in that film, and I found a spot to do it in the movie. And then I started doing it in The Wire, and the rest is history.

So Spike Lee was the one who said, write that, take it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He said, you need to keep that. And he had me do it twice in the 25th hour. And then once they started writing it in for The Wire, that's when it really blew up. But up until that point, I was just doing it in Spike Lee films. And then they started writing it in in The Wire. I started doing it in The Wire, which, again, I thought it worked very well.

And the rest is history. But I'm glad people enjoy it enough that, you know, it makes people smile. And I figure, you know, if I it makes people smile and i and i figure you know if i can make people smile great well the the thing about it is is that look there there are a lot of actors there are a lot of people out there who have done films and television but but there are very few who sort of have this signature thing this is that that that speaks to him now there's some folks out there i remember when i interviewed richard roundtree and he told me that um uh for the longest he resented uh the shaft character uh because people would come up to him and his dad

his dad pulled him aside he says son it's a whole bunch of people who nobody remembers yep he said you might want you might want to embrace that thing. And he said that moment from what his dad told him completely changed his perspective on that moment. So now, do you have people who walk up to you in real life and just want you to say it? And then you're like, okay, I'm about to cuss this person out. They just want me to do it. No, I have a lot of people i uh sometimes it's hard for me to get up and down the street without people stopping me and wanting me to to do that uh i've had people want me to call their wives and do it on both the phone on the phone and things like that, you know. And that gets a bit much.

You know, if I'm not in a hurry going somewhere. What's that? Yeah, no, go ahead, go ahead. If I'm not in a hurry going somewhere, you know, I usually accommodate them. Because I realized early on I was going to have to live with that. That was going to be a part of me no matter what. And again, I also saw the joy that people would get out of it. I mean, I've had some people, there's been a couple of people I thought they were going to pass out.

I would be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, take it easy, you know. I know it's me, it's just a word, but take it easy. But, you know, I embraced it early on because I knew if I didn't embrace it, I mean, I'd be ready to, you know, slit my wrist or something like that because people do it all the time. Well, I got to agree with you on the phone thing. I'll say that's probably, look, I'll take a million selfies. I'll speak to people. I'll do all sorts of stuff. The one thing that does sort of drive me crazy is when somebody will thrust a phone, hey, can you speak to my mama? Can you speak to my friend?

Can you speak to my mama? Can you speak to my friend? Can you speak to my wife? And now what I've done is I'll actually take somebody's phone and I'll shoot a video and say, hey, send this to them. That way, you know, I can knock it out, you know, in 10 seconds. But when they're like, it's a group, they're like, but hold on. It's my homeboy. And I was like, what up? Yeah. So, yeah. That does get a little different. And also in this day of coronavirus, you know, a lot of that's going to have to change.

Oh, yeah, yeah. No, no, no. Trust me. If I start snatching folks' phones, because see, the other thing for me, Isaiah, folk take too long with these phones. I know. This ain't a photo shoot. I'm not staying up for a minute.

So, man, I'll be snatching the phone, click, hand it right back. So I'm going to be gloved up once we get back out. And you better see here. Snatch your phone and I'll stand six feet back and I'm going to hold the phone up. Yeah, really, really. Because I'm like, you know, I'm in that, you know, group where, you know, I can catch it. So I don't want to catch any of that. Well, you black. We all in that group where I can catch it, so I don't want to catch any of that. Well, you're black.

We all in that group. Yeah, I know. That's your underlying condition, you know? Yeah, the underlying condition is black. That's what it is. Yeah. One of the things that, uh, you know, going back to the, going back to the film here.

And I, I, at first it was a little bit jarring, but I picked up on it. When Spike had y'all playing yourselves when you were younger, did you immediately understand that? Or did you say, wait a minute,

what a young us? No, it was very quick, and we never, ever really talked about it again. Spike said, no, you're going to play yourselves, and that was it. That was it. Nobody ever gave it much thought. I really didn't think too much about it until the film came out and people started talking about it. That was it. Nobody ever gave it much thought. I really didn't think too much about it until the film came out and people started talking about it. It was never a big issue. It was like, you know, Spike said we weren't doing it. So, so be it. And, you know, I mean, it's,

you know, it is, as you said, can be kind of jarring. But in some ways, I kind of liked the fact that it was sort of jarring because you saw throughout the whole film, you never could get too comfortable or too far ahead because Spike always had something that was going to pull you back in and say, wait a minute. You know, we're still here trying to tell a story. We're still here trying to make you realize what was happening back then. And so just when you got a little too comfortable, boom, something would happen. sort of felt if we had tried to make ourselves look younger or bring in some other actors i think that would have just uh imploded on us and um uh you it was like you had to take that that dream with us back into time and see us as ourselves uh and not get too distracted by makeup or trying to look younger. Let's keep our foot on the gas. Let's keep telling that story, and let's try to get our point across.

The Dilra Lindo character, obviously suffering from significant PTSD trauma. I see ghosts, y'all. I see ghosts, y'all. I see ghosts. And man, I can tell you, those scenes where a Vietnamese person would just

set him off, I'm watching it and I mean, that thing was real. he did an amazing job I mean you felt that PTSD that trauma just watching it and what's interesting what's interesting was playing it. I had to play it. Like, what's your problem, man? You know, like, you know, what's the deal here? You know, settle down, calm down, you know, get over it, you know, which is sort of what we did back then.

You know, you didn't have all these terms and things like that. You were just, you know, you were just a brother with some problems, you know, and you gotta deal with that. You gotta deal with that stuff. You can't be sitting around here, you know, because a man, big deal. So the man's got a chicken, you know, and you don't want to be around a chicken, or he's got

this, or he's got that. And the way Delroy played it was just brilliant, I mean mean but it's um as an actor playing off of that you know you never can let that bring you out of who you are and and bring you down you've got to stay on top of it and sort of deal with it in a very realistic way but he was outstanding uh for lack of a better word. I haven't asked the other, your fellow castmates this, but from your perspective, what was the one unique or great thing about each of them that you got to see. So let's start first with Clark Peters.

When you say unique thing, you mean as far as character or person? No, no, no. Anything in terms of how they played the role or just them in real life. Just one thing that really stood out or struck you about him, the person, the character he played, or how he actually went about his work, anything like that? Yeah, I would say with Clark Clark, it was very, he was in a very sort of mellow kind of trance you know uh uh he um uh he was very smooth about everything you know and uh uh it was impressive you know because i i you know it's i thought you know and with all this heat and everything over here and all these flies and mosquitoes and things like

that uh uh that's gonna be hard to maintain but to maintain. But I was impressed the way Clark was sort of going to this zen, you know, and he would start to, you know, Spike would say cut, and Clark would start to meditate, and I was in front of the fans saying, man, I got to cool down, you know. I can't be out here in this damn heat. No. Well, I think maybe he was doing this. Maybe he was thinking cool thoughts.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He had to be thinking something because I was like, I couldn't get to the fan fast enough. I knew if I sat in front of the fan, the mosquitoes wouldn't come because the wind was too heavy. So, and, and, and, you know, then, then Spike would say, okay, let's go. And it's like, okay, yeah, let's go. Cause we were always ready to go. Cause we had to just get the hell out of there, especially before the sun got overhead.

Uh, and, um, uh, Norm was Norm. Norm was cool. He was cool. He had to, you know, get the stuff down with the pigeon toad and everything like that. So he had his thing that he was working with. And Delroy, I mean, that PTSD, I don't want to say it transferred off screen, but he was in the moment and stayed in the moment also. You know, they were they were very, very they were all of the actors were just very disciplined. And that was it's hard to say, but I think when you have that kind of discipline, and I think Spike really knew that if I get, I know these guys, I've worked

with these guys, I know how disciplined they are. So when we get over there, no matter what, they're going to pretty much do what they have to do. I'm not going to have to sit around and worry about them. And that's pretty much what you got. And even with my character, it's...

Right. Yeah. Go ahead, go ahead. Go ahead and finish. Go ahead. No, go ahead. Even with my character, there was a discipline to not get bogged down

because all of that other stuff can kind of rub off on you, whereas I've got to make sure that I don't get bogged down except for when I have to be here and there. How did you get the role? Because it seems that Spike just pre-selected every one of you. Yeah, he pretty much did. Spike knew exactly who he wanted he knew exactly what you were going to do and uh uh he called me up he he asked me what i was doing i told him i was doing

i was across the street doing my laundry uh just get ready to put my clothes in the dryer. I always wish I could say I'm doing something else, you know, like, oh, you know, I got this, you know, this big thing going on here. I'm there, you know, but, you know, no, I'm at the laundry man. I'm just getting ready to put my clothes in the dryer. I'm trying to get some quarters to get some, I got to get some quarters to get some bounce. But what's up? You know, so sad.

So, so sad. I mean, you know, you can take the boy out of Indiana, but you can't take the Indiana out of the boy. And, but that's, you know, he called me up, he started telling me about this, uh, this, uh, movie that he was making.

I told him, you know, I said, look, you know, I'm leaving for Japan, but, uh, uh, I was just going to Japan just to visit some friends. And I said, I'll read it on the plane and get back to you. Well, I did read it on the plane, and I think I called him from the airport and said, you know, this is fantastic. And that's he said, you know, I want you to play Melvin. And I said, okay.

You know, I'm ready to go. I'll be ready. That I was doing laundry. Okay, i was not expecting that one uh but it's it's typical you know i always say you know why do why do my well why does why does my shit always got to do one thing. Clark said, I need to ask you. He said, I need you to ask Isaiah about that damn bicycle.

That goes back to me doing my laundry. When we were in Baltimore, everybody had a car. Driving around Baltimore to the set, I had a bicycle. And it always seemed whenever I was on the bicycle, I would run into Clark on that. I would run into Clark on the bicycle. Clark would be in the car. I I was on the bicycle, I would run into Clark on that. I would run into Clark on the bicycle. Clark would be in the car. I would be on the bicycle. One time I fell on the bicycle.

I heard a horn honking, and it was Clark. So fast forward about, this had to be maybe like six, seven months later. I was in New York City, and I heard a car honk and it was clark and i was on a bicycle and so he's he's been giving me shit about that every that's what he means so he's always teasing me you know he thought he thought i was gonna have a bicycle in the jungle and i said no so wait a minute so y'all bumped into each other in new york and you happen to be on a bicycle and he's in a car yes yes yeah yeah he's in a car and and he just laughed because he he always he always gave me shit about being on that bicycle down in baltimore especially when i fell on it

and he was it seemed like he was right there and said, why don't you just get a car? I said, no, no, man, I got this bicycle. I got this bicycle. And then about six months to a year later, I'm in New York City. I'm on a bicycle. I hadn't even used a bicycle since then. But I got on that bicycle, and there's Clark. That is absolutely hilarious.

That is funny. That's why I say it goes back to me doing my laundry, you know. I'm on a bicycle. Spike calls me. I'm in the laundromat doing my laundry trying to get some quarters to buy some bounds so I can put some fabric softener in. And it's like you know old school all the way man

last question for you man I this is a dramatic role but is there is there this wild outlandish comedy you would love to do

I could just I I could just, I see a lot of these comedies out here. And like I said, I see some of the roles. A lot of times you're playing a police officer, stuff along those lines. I just think, again, and hell, it might be me on the bicycle, I don't know. Or I own a laundromat.

Right. Right. Right. Anything like that in your future? You know, I never know. I never know. One of the things I really just enjoy doing, I enjoy doing all of these different characters. And I got to say, I never try to make them, you know, funny or anything like that. But I think the humor sometimes comes out of the

reality of a situation or a moment, because I always, you know, used to think of myself as being a very serious guy. But I think the more serious you get, the funnier you get. So I just enjoy playing, you know, a variety of different characters. And that's one of the things I really love about it. All right. Well, look, I can only envision, yeah, all of a sudden, yeah, a movie where you're the owner of a laundromat and dealing with some badass kids who are coming up in there and all kinds of stuff. To me, it would be 24-7 comedy.

Yeah. Well, you know, I own a laundromat and I have a bicycle that I deliver other people's laundry in New York City. We might be on to something. I'm going to have to call some of my friends who are comedy directors and run that by them. Tim Story, Reggie Hartley, let's holler at you. There you go. We'll do that.

Isaiah Whitlock, man, it's great to chat with you again. Defy Bloods was an absolutely fabulous film. I hope people check it out. And it really was, man, intense and great to see the four of you do your thing on screen. Thank you. Yeah.

I think the film was just fantastic. And with all the hard work and everything that we put in, it really paid off. All right. Man, you take care. And stay the hell out of those laundromats. All righty, man.

You take care. All right. have a good one Thank you. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you've got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication.

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