#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Dems, GOP clash over DC statehood; Tamir Rice's mom calls out Tamika Mallory, Crump; Chaos in Miami
Episode Date: March 23, 20213.22.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Democrats, Republicans clash over DC statehood; Tamir Rice's mom calls out Tamika Mallory, Ben Crump and others; Black leaders slam SWAT tactics being used against Afr...ican Americans visiting Miami for Spring Break; Kay James...longtime President of the Heritage Foundation has stepped down; Teen Vogue employee who helped oust Alexi McCammond has some questionable tweets of her own; How can we achieve equity in Black Maternal Health? CAWP: 'Subway Karen'; Los Angeles Lakers Hall of Famer, Elgin Baylor has passed awaySupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered,
Democrats and Republicans clash today
over efforts to make Washington, D.C. the 51st state.
Samaria Rice, the mother of Tamir Rice,
is calling for Tamika Mallory, Ben Crump,
and others to step down from their involvement in fighting for the liberation of black people.
We'll explain and also hear Tamika's response.
Black leaders in Miami are slamming the SWAT tactics of police this weekend as they broke up massive spring break crowds on Miami Beach.
And Kay James, the first black president of the Conservative Heritage Foundation, announced today that she is resigning.
We'll tell you why.
It turns out that the Teen Vogue employee who helped oust Alexi McCammon has some inward tweets of her own.
She's now made her Twitter page private.
I wonder why.
We'll also discuss equity in black maternal health and plus show you today's crazy as white woman, Subway Karen.
Plus, we remember L.A. Lakers Hall of Famer, first of all, Elgin Baylor, who passed away today at the age of 86.
It is time to bring the funk on Rolling Mark Unfiltered.
Let's go.
He's got it.
Whatever the piss, he's on it.
Whatever it is, he's got the smooth, the fat, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on it. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. Yeah, yeah. It's Rollin' Marten.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Rollin' with Rollin' now.
Yeah.
He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best.
You know he's Rollin' Marten now.
Marten. It has long been time that Washington, D.C. became the nation's 51st state,
and today that was a congressional hearing addressing that very issue. And it also led to a clash between Republicans and Democrats during the House Oversight and Reform Committee.
The course of the D.C. Admission Act, which was introduced in January in the House by
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat who represents D.C., and in the Senate by
Democrat Tom Carpenter of Delaware.
Democrats argued on Monday that Washingtonians are treated as second-class citizens, performing
the responsibilities of citizens, but not receiving representation in Congress in return.
Republicans oppose the effort, claiming the legislation violates the Constitution.
Listen to the back and forth. Y'all check this out.
I am Muriel Bowser. I am mayor of Washington, D.C., and I'm honored to come before this committee
to ask this Congress to right the wrong that happened 220 years ago when the residents of
the District of Columbia were stripped of their full congressional representation.
Two years ago on the 116th, I came before this committee under the leadership of the late Elijah
Cummings to dispel erroneous arguments against D.C. statehood. These are bad faith arguments, and I'm sure we will hear them time and time again this morning.
They say Washington, D.C. statehood is unconstitutional, even though constitutional experts have refuted this claim.
Article 1 of the Constitution is not an obstacle. As H.R. 51
makes clear, a federal district will remain for the federal government, its buildings and its
workings, and the rest of the area where people live will become the 51st state. They say Washington,
D.C. is too small. Our economy is not diverse enough, even though
we're bigger by population than two states and pay more per capita than any state. We pay more
in total federal taxes than 22 states. They say Washington, D.C. can't take care of itself.
This is simply not accurate. In fact, by many objective measures,
D.C. is a better governed jurisdiction than most states. We have balanced our budgets for 25 times
in the last 25 years, and we already operate as a state and perform the same functions as states do. During the coronavirus pandemic, for example,
we have led COVID-19 testing, contact tracing,
and vaccination efforts just as states do.
And we are treated like a state
in more than 500 citations in federal law.
Again, two years ago, we debunked those claims as thinly veiled attacks
on our political leanings and, quite frankly, on our diversity and history of black political power.
Today, I come to urge this committee and this Congress to move beyond the tired, non-factual, and frankly, anti-democratic rhetoric
and extend full democracy to the residents of the District of Columbia
as the founding fathers saved for a later day.
I was born in Washington, D.C., and generations of my family, through no choice of our own,
have been denied the fundamental right
promised to all Americans, the right to full representation in Congress. The simple fact is
denying American citizens a vote in the body that taxes them goes against the founding principles of this great nation. The disenfranchisement of Washingtonians
is one of the remaining glaring civil rights
and voting rights issues of our time.
Even as the Constitution was being drafted,
several members foresaw the situations
that Washingtonians face today,
a capital city of second-class citizens.
When white residents were the only population to be affected, as they were the only ones with
suffrage at the time, the founding fathers pledged to correct the wrong, and the Continental Congress
was eager to offer amendments to correct it. But ultimately, the Constitution did not resolve the concerns around the future of federal districts, congressional representation, or self-governance.
Why did the motivation to right the wrong disappear?
As time passed, the district became majority African American. The drive to correct the wrong was replaced by racist efforts to subvert a growing and thriving black city.
Historic records abound with statements of successive members of Congress referencing the Negro problem
or the color problem within D. within DC as a justification to withhold
congressional representation. This was their way of saying African Americans
are unable to govern themselves or vote for their best interest or I dare say be
the face of the nation's capital. Surely in 2020, this body cannot associate themselves with that view. Next month,
we will celebrate President Lincoln signing the Emancipation Act that freed the slaves in the
District of Columbia, April 16, 1862, months before the Emancipation Proclamation freed other enslaved people in
our country.
I hope to remind this Congress that district residents are still not free as we remain
disenfranchised by this body.
I urge all of you to do what over two centuries of lawmakers have failed to correct and grant full democracy
to D.C. residents through statehood. We have proven our sound leadership and there is no reason
for this Congress not to right this wrong. Zach Smith, conservative with the Heritage Foundation.
This is what he actually said in today's hearing, y'all.
Framers also wanted to avoid one state having undue influence over the federal government.
There's no question that D.C. residents already impact the national debate.
For the members here today, how many of you saw D.C. statehood yard signs or bumper stickers or banners on your way to this hearing
today? I certainly did. Where else in the nation could some such simple actions reach so many
members of Congress? Framers also wanted to avoid. Yeah, that's that's such just a nonsensical
argument that, oh, yard signs. But during his testimony,
Smith also got something wrong
and he had to be checked
by Baltimore Congressman
Kwaezi Mfume.
Y'all watch this.
Mr. Smith, you were naming
a number of significant people
elected and appointed
who were opposed to statehood.
And you mentioned
the former Congressman Fauntroy.
What was his opposition? Do you know?
I do, Congressman. Delegate Fauntroy was advocating for other voting rights for legislation for district residents. But he was saying that he he wanted to be clear with other members of
Congress that he was not advocating for D.C. statehood, because in his
words, that would be in direct defiance of the prescriptions. I'm going to reclaim my time on
that, Mr. Harris. I'm not trying to figure out where Mr. Farnsworth was in the 1970s,
but rather where he was all along since then. And he was a big, strong advocate of D.C. statehood.
In fact, we took a train, he and I, and a number of members of Congress from New York back down to Washington,
with each stop having a rally for D.C. statehood.
So I think you probably want to check your facts on that because Walter Fauntroy was not against statehood.
Isn't it interesting when you start correcting the facts here? Folks, here's the
real deal. Republicans simply oppose D.C. statehood because they don't want to see two
black United States senators. They don't want to see two black Democrat United States senators.
Now, look, this is real simple. If you really believed in D.C. statehood or if you believed in democracy,
how can you say we're just going to just blow off and screw over individuals who who live in this particular state?
It just kind of makes no sense whatsoever to listen to any Republicans had to say on this.
It's it's nuts.
You also had Rashida Tlaib who spoke on this very issue.
And this is what she had to say in today's hearing.
Partnership and leadership of Congresswoman Norton on our committee for constantly bringing this to our attention.
I think it's important to note that D.C. statehood should not be a partisan issue. I
know that's what you hear here. I think the messaging on the part of my colleagues on the
other side of the aisle would be different if it was a predominantly Republican district. I mean,
we truly are literally talking about democracy versus, you know, being able not to have democratic
access to making sure that you are represented
at all levels of government. And we also can't claim to support self-determination and democracy
and oppose D.C. statehood. It's that simple. So since my friends across the aisle love to talk
about taxation, local control and federal overreach whenever it happens in their states,
I'd like to focus on these topics as they impact
the D.C. residents. Congress has always... That was, again, Rashida Tlaib, who was speaking today
on D.C. statehood. When you listen to a lot of the craziness coming from Republicans on this issue,
there was almost a deal a few years ago to actually get D.C. statehood,
but then it failed as well. Let's go to our panel who joins us right now. Dr. Avis Jones
DeWeaver, political analyst. Dr. Julianne Malveaux, economist. President Emerita Bennett
College. Later, we'll be joined by Eugene Craig, CEO, Eugene Craig Organization. I'll
start with you, Julianne. Look, we know exactly why
Republicans do not want D.C. to be a state.
Absolutely, Roland. I think that if the population continues to tilt, you know,
it used to be Chocolate City, now it's Chocolate Chip. You know, when the chips get smaller,
I think they'll be much more interested in D.C. statehood.
They do not want two black members of Congress, two black senators.
What they want is to close our access.
Congresswoman Norton, high props for continuing to raise this issue.
I found it so disingenuous. I'm so grateful that
Kweisi Mfume checked that man. I forgot his name already. But check that man who tried to say that
Fauntleroy was not in favor of statehood. If you go back and look at the congressional record,
he spoke out on it on the floor of Congress. I don't know how many times he sang about it once,
actually, talking about set us free.
So these folks will manipulate facts, but we know what part they are.
They don't believe in facts.
Manipulate facts to essentially sideline the voices of 700,000 people, 700,000 people who live in this District of Columbia.
It's wrong.
It's big wrong. And hopefully,
this administration will support Congresswoman Norton and others in making sure that D.C. has
the kind of representation that we deserve. Avis.
Absolutely. I mean, really what's happening here is that you have a Republican
Party that above all else wants to hold onto power. And they know that if D.C. becomes
a state, then that essentially is providing two more Democratic senators to the Democratic
Party, which will make it that much more difficult for the Republicans
to be able to get back in power and maintain power.
And so the last thing that they want to do is to put themselves at a disadvantage by
granting D.C. statehood, even though, to be perfectly honest, obviously, morally, it's
the right thing to do.
When you have people who are disproportionately paying taxes, paying taxes more than many states in the United States, uh, to the federal coffers,
uh, yet they still don't have representation in Congress that can actually sort of vote on,
on their key issues. Um, it, it is, it is wrong and it needs to be corrected.
Look, y'all, uh, bottom line is line is this here. Democrats, they got to show
some guts. They got to make a decision whether they're going to actually get serious about this.
And the question is, will they? Bottom line is it is due. D.C. should be the 51st state.
Nothing precludes folks from doing it. They just simply have the guts to actually do it. Not quite sure they'll do so.
But we also, you know, need to see some action on this.
You've had President Bill Clinton, President Barack Obama.
Now you've got President Joe Biden.
And so this needs to be also pushed from the White House.
And so let's see exactly what happens.
Let's go to my next story, folks, here.
That's gotten lots of attention the last several
days. Samaria Rice, the mother of Tamir Rice and Lisa Simpson, the mother of Richard Reischer,
who was shot and killed in Los Angeles, calling for Tamika Mallory, Ben Crump, and a number of
others to step down from their involvement in activism in fighting for black people. Now, a statement was released by Samira Rice, and
she made some posts last week on Facebook blasting Tamika and others, really criticizing
them for their work. That's led to lots of conversation back and forth from a lot of people. And I really
thought it's important for us to really walk through this and break this down because I've
seen a lot of comments on social media. I've seen people going back and forth. No, go back to the
statement, please. I've seen people going back and forth. And so I want to break this down. So this is the statement here. The official statement from
Samaria writes, Mother Tamir writes, and Lisa Simpson. Tamika D. Mallory, Sean King, Benjamin
Crump, Lee Merritt, Patrice Cullors, Melina Abdullah, and the Black Lives Matter Global
Network need to step down, stand back, and stop monopolizing and capitalizing our fight for
justice and human rights. We never hired them to be representatives in the fight for justice for our dead loved ones murdered by the police.
The activists have events in our cities and have not given us anything substantial
for using our loved ones' images and names on their flyers.
The attorneys in our fight are also misleading the impacted families.
In the case of Tamir Rice, it was even questionable
as to whether Benjamin Crump knew the laws in depth in the state of Ohio. I fired him six to
eight months into Tamir's case. We don't want or need y'all parading in the streets, accumulating
donations, platforms, movie deals, et cetera, off the death of our loved ones while the families
and communities are left clueless and broken. Don't say our loved ones' names, period.
That's our truth. Now, that is the statement.
Okay?
Now, so I was on Twitter, and the mother of Lisa Simpson,
she actually posted a variety of tweets on this very issue that are important.
They are important because what she is saying is that they need to be paid.
They posted this tweet right here.
Update from Samaria Rice.
This was at 1.34 today.
I've been contacted by the following people, Patrice Cullors, Sean King, and Timmy Camallory.
Me and my team will be preparing an official response.
Thank you to everyone who has joined me in Lisa Simpson and fighting for our sons.
Okay?
So that was a tweet that they actually sent out today on this very issue. The other thing is when you begin to break down
what was stated because Samaria Rice was really upset when Tamika
Mallory was on the Grammys when she spoke on that particular program. And it was doing a performance by DaBaby.
Now, I'm going to walk through this,
and I'm going to show you several things,
because I think it's important as we talk about this
that we really properly walk through it.
So people understand what was said,
what was done and really what is involved.
I know Tamika very well.
What's interesting about this is that Tamika wasn't involved in the case of
Tamir Rice.
Tamika didn't travel to Cleveland,
wasn't out there doing anything with regards to that case. But this was the performance that really angered Tamira Rice.
Watch this.
Not sure why we're not getting any sound.
Um, all right, guys, uh, we'll, we'll, we'll figure that out.
Uh, but no one's kicking out sound here.
Um, so she speaks at the Grammys.
They can't come up with a statement saying you've raised money off of Tamir Rice.
Tamika did a podcast where she broke that down.
So here we understand the pain and the agony of both of these mothers who've lost sons.
But when they call on all the folks they mentioned to step down from the movement.
No disrespect to Lisa Simpson or Samaria Rice,
but they don't speak for all of the families who've actually lost loved ones.
They only speak for themselves.
Earlier, Jameika posted on her Instagram page,
she posted a statement from the family
of Breonna Taylor.
And what, remember,
they were in Until Freedom,
the group that
Tameka works for. They spent a significant
amount of time in Louisville fighting
on behalf of Breonna Taylor.
This was the post. The family of Breonna Taylor. This was the post.
The family of Breonna Taylor fully supports and stands with Tamika D Mallory and until freedom,
just as they have with us. If you scroll through the comments, there was Sabrina Fulton,
Trayvon Martin's mother. Tamika, I'm still with you because you are still with me
hashtag say her name
Trayvon Martin
that was and I'm looking for
the comment I saw earlier
there was
another family member
who said that
since
since
their child had been shot and killed.
Tamika had consistently talked to and communicated with the family.
And so as we begin to unpack this.
You have this emerging narrative where people are saying y'all stole all this money.
Now, a lot of this tension has been made public when Black Lives and forth on this, on the issue. What's interesting
about this is that the NAACP has actually received more money than Black Lives Matter Network since the death of George Floyd.
Is anyone asking the NAACP to step down?
Is anyone asking the NAACP they should not be fighting and speaking on behalf of communities and social justice.
Why not?
What's interesting here is that Samir Rice talks about Ben Crump.
Let me explain to y'all that I don't have to about Ben Crump. Let me explain to y'all.
I don't have to defend Ben Crump.
I'm only explaining to you what works.
Let me be real clear.
What works.
When you are hired as a lawyer, you're out of state.
You have to partner with local counsel. We've seen
this happen. We've seen this in Minneapolis. We've seen other cases. We've seen this in
Dallas. I mean, we can go on and on and on. That's what a Ben Crump will do. If there's
a case in Georgia, they will partner with attorneys that are in Georgia.
If it happens in Ohio,
they will partner with attorneys there in Ohio.
Typically families hire folks like Ben Crump
to actually bring attention to their case.
That's why they get hired.
That's how this works.
This is no different than when Johnny Cochran was alive.
Johnny Cochran was hired.
Families could have easily hired a local attorney.
But they brought in Johnny Cochran was high. Families could have easily hired a local attorney. But they brought in Johnny Cochran because Johnny Cochran brings in cameras.
To the energy on YouTube saying I'm always speaking for Ben Crump, I can go to hell.
I don't always speak for Ben Crump. I'm telling you how it works.
I'm telling you that whether you hire a white attorney, a black attorney, doesn't matter. If an attorney is licensed in Florida and you hire them,
there is a legal process they must go through to work on a case that has nothing to do with one
or the other.
See, the issue here is not, too many of you on Twitter, on Instagram, on Snapchat, on YouTube who comment on stuff and you don't know any facts.
Tamika Mallory wasn't in Cleveland protesting
during the Tamir Rice case.
If Samaria Rice is saying
don't mention my son's name,
okay.
Don't get mentioned.
Don't get mentioned. Don't be surprised.
If no one mentions what happened to your son and the case,
if folks forget about it.
Y'all, we can literally walk through all of this.
Do y'all understand?
When we cover the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March,
there were numbers of families out there
who were not on stage.
Not every family story gets picked up. Not every family is going to be as large as the next one.
I want to read.
I want to read through a series of tweets.
Just give me a second.
Because I think this is vital because...
We're being a walkthrough.
And also, this is also what happens when people tweet stuff and lie.
So, peaceful underscore rule on Twitter, you're lying ass.
When you just tweeted one minute ago,
Roland Martin is making an argument in favor of Tamika Mallory, Ben Crump, and Sean King, claiming the tension with Samaria Rice and Lisa Simpson is over 90 million dollars raised by BLM.
This is also reductive and actually not what Samaria said.
You are a liar. And I'm going to call you a liar because you lied in one minute ago.
I am fully unpacking what is going on here.
You are a liar. So please don't lie. Tell folk exactly
what I'm laying out. What I am laying out is that, and I've been covering this, I have
been covering the tension that has existed inside of the black lives matter movement.
We've had critics on, we've had Patrice colors on what I am saying is since the $90 million
announcement was made, you've had Mike Brown and activists in Ferguson protesting, saying they should send 20 million
of that to Ferguson.
So don't lie and tell a partial thing of what we're doing.
And everyone you mentioned, I didn't all mention.
Let's just be real clear.
So if you're going to open your mouth and say some things, then what you really need to do is speak truthfully.
And the reason this is important
is because there are people who have committed themselves to
social justice and do understand ain't no 401k programs in social justice.
It's not.
There are people who are out there
getting COVID
on the streets,
getting arrested,
raising awareness,
doing all of those things
when it comes to many of these cases.
See, I'm going to deal in facts.
And the reason I am going to deal in facts is because I need our people discussing this, not from a fact less position, but a
fact based position.
Tamika Mallory is not the only activist in America.
She's not.
Until Freedom, the group she co-founded, is one organization.
They are not tied to the Black Lives Matter global network.
The New York Justice League
I've had them on
they are not tied
do all of these folks know each other?
yes
first and foremost
the phrase Black Lives Matter
is a phrase
the problem is people The phrase black lives matter is a phrase.
The problem is people glue people group all of the black activists together all
under the umbrella of black lives matter.
That's simply not the case.
So do you group the National Urban League under there?
See, if we're going to talk about people
raising money
and collecting money,
I see the critics,
oh, these folk raising money off of black pain, black death.
Let's put it all on the table.
Who else has raised money?
NAACP, National Urban League, NAACP Legal Defense Fund,
Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law,
a plethora of local organizations.
So what are we saying?
If there's an organization that is in Charlotte
and they are trying to change the laws to deal with police reform,
are we saying that when they give a speech, they cannot bring up certain cases?
Okay.
Fine.
Done.
Are we saying that they cannot have someone like this on a shirt.
That's no problem.
Okay, that's fine.
I do believe it's problematic.
When we say, oh, y'all got to step down. Well, first of all,
how do you tell someone
to step down
from an organization
that they founded?
I got somebody trying to tell me,
yeah, I see it all.
Some so-called truth seeker.
Roland, I lost respect for you in this world.
You can't even understand why Mrs. Rice felt that way
watching that Grammy performance
turning this movement into some corporate sponsor performance.
Well, that's nonsensical.
See, let me unpack.
You can't complain about corporate dollars when you're asking for corporate dollars
when you're asking for corporate dollars.
I'm just trying to understand here.
What are we actually talking about?
What exactly is the real thing we're talking about.
I'm looking for the... Because I think this is important.
Because I think that...
And I've been watching this,
and I've just been seeing
way too many black people
like really caught up
in all of this stuff
and not really
unpacking this thing.
Perfect example.
I see this tweet about Tamika Mallory simultaneously capitalizing off of their grief.
We saw that with Brianna Khan.
How was Tamika Mallory?
Let me just go.
Y'all, this is the criticism I just showed you.
Go ahead and show it.
So they're criticizing this Brianna con days of action. Brie barbecue.
Yo, they did this with the Brianna family. They were literally passing out food to the community.
So are we upset with the name?
Or with what they did?
Are we upset with the name Brianna Con, Days of Action, or are we upset
with the work?
And now are we mad with the folk
who do the work?
I'm just trying to understand
the work that was done.
Y'all don't remember that
if you don't think
the protests in Louisville
every single day
putting pressure on
the city,
if you don't think that did not play a role
in the settlement for the family of Breonna Taylor
that went beyond money,
I don't know what planet you're living on.
How did
that protest happen? protests happen.
How do you pay for the billboards?
How do you pay for the permits?
How do you pay to bail people out of jail who are protesting. How?
How can you have a movement if we are asking the people
to lead the movement for free.
Say when see when
we lump everybody together
Tamika Mallory is with
Untell Freedom, Sean King is Sean
King, Ben Crump is Ben
Crump, Black Lives Matter
Global Movement is the Black Lives Matter
global movement. These are
separate entities.
Do folks cross-pollinate?
Yes. Do they talk? Yes.
Do they share? Yes.
Well,
hell, so does the NAACP, the
Urban League, and everybody else.
How
are lawsuits filed?
What do we do here?
How do folks begin to do this?
See, again, we can go through this
and it's important that we do.
So what are we saying here?
Are we saying that we're mad?
That a Tamika Mallory,
see, let me just really, are we saying that a Tamika Mallory see let me just really are we saying that a Tamika Mallory
how dare you speak about social justice
during the Grammys
when that presentation reached
millions of people otherwise you
wouldn't reach them. Roll it.
People, it's time we stand. It's time we demand the freedom that this land promises.
President Biden, we demand justice, equity, policy, and everything else that freedom encompasses.
And to accomplish this, we don't need allies. We need accomplices. It's bigger than black and white.
This is not a trend.
This is our right.
Until freedom.
That's what we're at about.
That.
The reason.
I believe. We are seeing this
and I say it from the top
no one can understand
the pain
of losing a child
to police violence.
Except those who have lost
a child to police violence.
We have seen too many mothers and fathers lose children to police violence.
There is Samaria Rice.
There's Lisa Simpson.
There's Philando Castile's mama.
There's John Crawford Jr.
Rekia Boyd's family.
Ayanna Jones' family.
I mean, we can go on and on and on and on and on and on and on,
but here's the very basic question that we have to ask ourselves.
If you are a black mama and a black daddy
and your child has been shot by the police
and nothing has been done, who are you going to call to try to get justice for your child?
In the past, Reverend Jackson got the phone call.
Reverend Sharpton got the phone call. In the past, Johnny Coch Jackson got the phone call. Reverend Sharpton got the phone call.
In the past, Johnny Cochran got the phone call.
The NAACP got the phone call.
I can go on and on and on.
Who are you going to call?
Because guess what?
I'm going to go to my panel next after this.
What if the Tamika Mallory say, you know what?
I'm good.
I'm going to go work for a voting rights nonprofit.
And I can go get me a nonprofit job paying me $200,000 a year
focusing on voting rights
and what I'm going to do is
I'm going to focus on that stuff
I'm going to have a health care, a dental plan
a 401k and I'm going to let somebody else
go out there in the streets doing the work.
Kim Brown, this ain't called yelling.
It's called speaking.
Get your facts right.
And it was too much for you to turn your volume down. Ben Crump could very well say,
you know what, I'm going to go work on some corporate law.
I'm going to go work on some personal injury law.
Who going to take up the civil rights cases how how can the civil rights lawyers
pay their staff how can they pay their private investigators how can they pay their private investigators? How can they pay their court
fees? How can they pay? Please, by all means, show me. All I want to know is all of the people who are complaining.
I want you to answer a very basic and fundamental question.
If there are no black activists to call, if there are no black civil rights lawyers to call. Please tell me how you are going to get justice for your child.
Go to my panel.
Julianne, Avis, Eugene.
Avis, I'll start with you.
How do we deal with this?
Because you got folk who are scared.
I don't want to say nothing. I don't want to criticize these mothers.
And I didn't.
But I do believe we got to have
an honest discussion here
when allegations are laid
out and some stuff ain't
true.
Truth is vital.
So if an allegation is made,
you raised money off of my child,
you put my child on flyers,
you put my child on shirts, stuff like,
if that stuff ain't true,
the record should be corrected.
So what do you make of these two mothers saying
that Tamika Mallory, Ben Crump, Sean King, Black Lives Matter, Globe Movement, they all need to step down from activism in this case?
Go ahead. I'm sorry.
Yeah, no.
You know, truth is absolutely necessary. must have felt like to get your 12-year-old, in essence,
murdered via drive-by shooting by a police officer who to this day is still alive, still fine, not in jail,
never really received any substantive punishment
for what happened.
And you have a police department that, to me,
has gone out of its way to be especially
vile to her. So I think that that's important to recognize the context of what she's going
through, absolutely. But I also think that it's important to not lump everyone in the same basket,
as you've mentioned. I do think that it is a truth that there are some people
who have risen to fame
in the sort of Black Lives Matter movement era,
and that have been extremely personally successful
as a result of that.
And one could debate, you know, really the degree to which that those
successes that have happened subsequent to that, you know, the degree to which some of these
individuals have really had a long history, a lot, most of them, some of them, a lot of them have not,
okay, and have been able to go on and have very successful careers,
book deals, and all the movies. She's right about some of that. But let's also talk about
Tamika. Tamika is someone who's been involved with this work well before the Black Lives Matter
movement. She's not a product of the Black Lives Matter movement. She's been
in this work, let's be honest, since she was a child.
Years. Her parents...
25 years.
Absolutely. Her parents
worked in this, in the
movement, particularly with NAN, and she
grew up as an activist,
worked within that organization. She
has personally had a loved one,
and I'm not going to go into great detail, because I don't even know if she's been public about it, but she has personally had a loved one, and I'm not gonna go into great detail,
because I don't even know if she's been public about it,
but she's personally had a loved one murdered by the police
prior to the Black Lives Matter movement.
So she knows this type of pain.
She's personally experienced it.
And that has been a lot of, I believe,
her fire around working in this area of social justice. Yes, her activism started when the father of her son was shot and killed.
That's where it started.
So, yes, Tamika Mallory is no different from Sean Bell's widow.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
One died at the hand of police.
One died to Cicely's gun violence. Go ahead.
Absolutely. So the father of her child is dead as a result of police violence.
This is something that she has been fighting against for years.
And so she knows this from a very personal experience,
and as I mentioned, very well before the dawn of the Black Lives Matter movement.
As you mentioned, her organization is a distinct and independent organization.
It is not a part of the Black Lives Matter network.
So the confluence with people sort
of mixing all of this stuff together is an unfortunate misunderstanding of the facts.
That's just clearly not the case. She was doing this work well before Black Lives Matter.
She understands what it's like to have the love of her life murdered by police,
the father of her child murdered by the police. And she's been doing this work for decades.
So, you know, I think we have to be very careful here
about painting with a broad brush
and throwing everybody under the bus
because we don't know the facts around different situations.
It is possible to critique and say about, you know, certain situations.
I don't know about where the spunny is and all this and all that.
But when we're being specific and we're calling specific people out,
let's also be clear that we know the facts around that person,
particularly when we're trying to project onto them things that they've never been involved in.
Julianne, I'm reading here.
So these were tweets that Lisa Simpson sent out
on March 16th, and I would love to...
I'm going to read them.
I just want to...
These are demands that they made.
Number one, step down from the spotlight of our fights. Do not do any more
interviews, make any more t-shirts or hold any more press conferences or events in the name of
our loved ones. Do not use our loved ones to market any events. Number two, Black Lives Matter Los
Angeles should pay me, Lisa Simpson, as I am the mother of Richard Risher. They had a press conference
for the 49-day encampment when my son, Richard Risher, first got killed. They raised $5,000
for my son's funeral. I never received one penny. There should be accounting there. Was the money
paid to the funeral home or paid for the, like were expenses paid was the money supposed to go to her
or did they actually pay for the funeral those are legitimate questions that deserve an answer
number three financial assistance for the tamir rice foundation from all who have exploited tamir
rice tamika mallory sean king benjamin crump and black lives matter global network i samaria rice King, Benjamin Crump, and Black Lives Matter Global Network. I, Samaria Rice, purchased the
building in 2018, and it needs remodeling, operational funds, etc. Housing funds for Lisa
Simpson, as I am battling homelessness with my current children. My son, Richard Richard,
was killed by LAPD, and I was offered no assistance from BLM. I'm currently living in a motel with
my children and need funds for housing. And then she put support the Tamir Rice Foundation and make
all requested donations there. Send personal donations to the cash apps of Samaria Rice
and Lisa Lee. So these are the demands that were made.
Julianne, your thoughts about that and all we're talking about.
I don't mean to laugh.
I'm just thinking that they're accusing Sean King, Melina Abdullah of being grifters.
But these demands sound like griftering demands, frankly.
And I don't mean any disrespect. I know that
these sisters have to be an enormous pain. They must be an enormous pain. They've lost
their loved ones. They haven't gotten justice. They believe that other people are exploiting
their loved ones for their own benefit. But as you said, Roland, in the beginning,
where are the facts? Now, I think it's perfectly reasonable
to ask the folks in L.A. who raised $5,000,
where did the $5,000 go?
That's perfectly reasonable.
But I think that this dissension,
how can I put it?
I can't put it.
But it basically, at some level, gives the melanin deficient opportunities to talk about our movement in deleterious ways.
Tamika Mallory, as Ava said, I've known her for a while.
Great sister, very rooted in struggle. That she was at the Grammys, frankly,
was a victory for social and economic justice
for Black people.
But Lita Abdullah is a personal friend,
founder of the Black Lives Matter movement in LA,
professor at Cal State Los Angeles.
Again, rooted in struggle.
She's not making a penny off this.
She, in fact, has often been castigated by her colleagues at the university for her activism.
So, you know, as you said, people don't get paid for this.
Ben Crump, I don't know what he, you know, of course, he obviously has to eat and has to live.
But I don't think he's running around giving these people invoices.
So I'm just really, I guess a word might be disgusting, but that's a little strong.
I'm perplexed by the way this is going.
I do think that people should be accountable, but I don't think that this venomous attack on principled activists is at all useful.
And when you look at the names they're calling out, these are people who put their bodies on the line, put their reputations on the line, put their spirits on the line.
I feel so badly for these women. I really do. But that's not on these activists. I do think if there's a lot of money being raised, perhaps there could be some donation.
We don't know that a lot of money is being raised.
We don't know what it's going for, Roland.
And so, as you said at the beginning of your statement, we've got to deal with facts here.
And I don't think anybody in this debacle,
and that's what it is, is the debacle,
is dealing in fact.
Eugene, I made clear
two Patrisse Cullors in Black Lives Matter.
They got to be transparent and accountable
for what they do.
I said the exact same thing to Derrick Johnson,
the NAACP.
Let me say it again.
The NAACP has raised more, has gotten more money than Black Lives Matter.
More.
I know for a fact they've gotten in excess of $100 million since George Floyd's death.
Okay.
Are we demanding to see the plan of action
from the NAACP? And we should.
I know the National Urban League
has gotten millions
since the death of George Floyd.
And I think if we go back
before that, a year or two, Eric Garner, Mike Brown, we could probably track even more.
All legitimate questions. But when I hear people say these folks are profiting off our pain.
First of all, you need to be specific who you're talking about.
Because, Eugene, I remember, Eugene, I remember reading stories of Black Lives Matter activists in Boston and other places in 2015 and 2016 where folks were talking about sleeping on couches because they had gotten evicted and they were they needed dental work
had no dental plans and then it began to dawn on many of these activists that they had all of this
passion to fight in the streets but then it hit them they needed infrastructure because you cannot, and let me say this for everybody who is watching and listening, you
can not have sustained organizations if they are broke.
You cannot ask people to give their time and energy and their lives and say to hell with your family.
Forget that you might have kids. We want you to give. See, if folk Eugene gonna really make me go there? How many black people were asking Coretta on April 5th 1968?
How you gonna make it happen with your four kids now that you are a widow.
1967, Dr. King gave the speech at Riverside Church on April 4th, 1967, and the money dried up.
The speeches dried up.
The only thing that he had when he died
was a life insurance policy
from the church to domination.
And were it not for Harry Belafonte and others who sent the kids to private school, who provided
for security, who paid for groceries, Coretta Scott King would have been penniless because her husband gave all to
the movement.
When he got the Nobel Peace Prize, he gave the money and split it up between the movement.
Kept none of it. So I just want our people to understand
that you cannot demand
folk to fight for you pro bono
and say, well, somebody else,
they're going to pay you.
Somebody else is going to pay your bills.
Somebody else is going to send your kids to college.
Somebody else is going to pay your light bill.
Eugene, go ahead.
Look, first and foremost, we always start empathizing with the families, right?
They have a right to feel the way they feel.
They experience stuff that's unique to them.
But with that said, I think that there's accountability and questions that need to be asked on all sides.
The organizations only work when the trust is there.
And the only way to actually build a sustained trust is through proper transparency.
And, look, that doesn't necessarily just start or stop with BLM.
I think it starts and stops with every organization that's involved in the movement.
I think there probably should be some movement accountability project that says, hey, you know, this is what this organization, this is what they're funding, this is what the money went, you know, X, Y, and Z. But by the
same token, you're 100% correct. You cannot reasonably expect someone to do something for
free for you, even if they are doing it for free or giving their time, blood, sweat, effort, and
tears to fight on your behalf and your cause. You know, for me, you know, I'll be the blunt one here you know a lot of this popping up now
cries a lot of you know give me the attention give me the attention give me the attention why
are they getting the attention I mean look we all know Tamika Mallory and others have been at this
long before this was a formalized movement the way it is right now. They were out there on the front lines.
And look, I said this somewhere else,
you have the Sharpton Jackson,
what I would call the Sharpton Jackson effect at play here.
People want Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton
to show up to their calls and lend their name
to renovate their calls and give them help.
But then the second that light know, that, you know,
that light shines on an Alsharp and Jesse Jackson,
it becomes, oh my gosh, why are they here?
You know what I mean?
And so, you know, I think, you know,
for a lot of this to work,
it has to be effective two-way streets
and transparency and accountability for everybody.
I got a person on YouTube, Johnny Burton, he said,
what about pro bono lawyers?
Johnny. a person on YouTube, Johnny Burton, he said, what about pro bono lawyers? Johnny!
Johnny!
Let me explain something to you, Johnny.
A pro bono lawyer
means some other
clients are footing the bill
for him to take your case for free. Some other clients are footing the bill for him to take your case for free.
Some other clients are footing the bill
for her to take your case for free.
There you go.
So, please.
I don't understand how you think
you're going to pay for office space,
staff, filing fees,
everything that goes with being a lawyer.
Just, whoo, it's just going to appear.
I don't.
I don't really understand folk not understanding what we're dealing with here.
Let me be real clear.
I absolutely understand folks making the argument when they say that there are people profiting off of black pain.
But you need to be specific in who you're talking to. And if you're going to raise that point, you better have your ducks in a row.
You better have your receipts.
What you don't do is just throw something out there and then go, oh, it's true.
No, no, no, no, no.
So here's the deal.
If you are Lisa Simpson and if money was raised to pay for your son's funeral expenses, you should be
saying, how much did you raise?
Where did the money go?
Show me receipts.
That's fair.
That's absolutely fair. But if you want to demand if you want to demand that, you know, money, you know, go towards the building.
Let's be. Look, the city of Cleveland paid a six million million settlement in the Tamir Rice lawsuit.
$6 million.
Who did it go to?
The settlement wouldn't have been there without the help of the folk of Tamir Camallery and Ben Crump.
You don't get the $6 million settlement without people out there protesting, pushing.
And where did the money go?
You know, Roland, I serve on one of Reverend Jackson's boards.
And he, as you said, people call him, he shows up.
He doesn't ask for money.
I mean, he, obviously, the organization Rainbow Push
raises money and pays for him and his folks.
You know, he needs security. And now that he's been a bit ill, he needs someone to be with him.
But they don't say to people, I'm not going to come unless you give me X number of dollars.
He just shows up. If people happen to help him with the expenses, that's gratitude. And occasionally some corporate folks have donated a private plane or something like that.
But the fact is that folks don't understand how organizations work and what infrastructure looks like
and how a Reverend Jackson or a Reverend Sharpton moves around the country and what it takes for them to do that.
If they don't run around giving people invoices,
they come because they're called.
Again, sometimes people do help.
Oftentimes they don't.
And that's all right,
because they're not necessarily peculiarly motivated.
They're justice motivated.
And so when you look at this stuff that's on the internet
with these people talking about profiting off of pain, hell, we're all in pain. And the fact is
that Tamir Rice, all these other young people who've been killed, they represent so many others
whose names have not floated to the top. Whose names, like Oscar Grant in Oakland, didn't get anything, his family didn't get
anything. But he is as much a tragedy as Tamir Rice was. And so what I'm fearing about these
sisters who are putting this out there is that they don't understand the intersectionality
of pain, of how every single time a Black man, woman, child is killed, we are all going
through pain.
And that's why so many of us support Tamika, respect and admire Ben Trump, Trump, sorry,
Trump, you know, appreciate Reverend Jackson for the work that they've done.
And I just, you know, it really puts a chill down my spine
to see us fighting about pain.
The, um...
And let me be real clear.
I have no problem at all
having Lisa Simpson or Samara Rice on this show
talking about this here.
But what I want our people to do,
and let me be real clear, I want our people to do, and let me be real clear, I want our people to operate from facts.
There are people who are sending DMs to Tamika with death threats.
Bitch, where's the 90 million?
She doesn't work for Black Lives Matter Global Network
the life of Tamika Mallory
has been consistently threatened
because of these allegations
let me say it again
the life of Tamika Mallory has been consistently threatened because of these allegations.
If we're going to talk about have a family conversation, have it privately.
I do believe issues should be addressed.
I do believe Mike Brown and the activists in Ferguson
should be talking with the Black Lives Matter global network.
I do believe that the other Black Lives Matter chapters should be talking with Patrisse Cullors and the Black Lives Matter Global Network to say, hey, how are y'all going to be dispersing funds to chapters?
Will it be $500,000 per chapter or $1 million per chapter?
How will that be done?
Do we have to apply all those different things?
There should be a process set up.
But my last point on this, and I want to be real clear,
and I need everybody to listen to me clearly.
Please. be real careful telling folk
to stop being involved in this fight for social justice.
Because they might just do it.
And when it's time for the next family to call somebody, to stand with them, to fight for them, to organize protests on their behalf, the call may go unanswered.
And then what will we say?
Because nobody, nobody is obligated to fight on behalf of anybody else.
No lawyer, no civil rights lawyer is obligated to take a case.
No activist is obligated to fly across the country to stay with families.
There are many who do it because they have been called to do so because they care.
Oh, let me be real clear.
There are those in the game who are in this for the check.
Oh, let's not make no mistake.
There are those who are in the game for the awards. There are those who are in
this movement to be on magazine covers and to get invited to Hollywood parties and panels at the
Aspen Institute and to be able to hang with rich white elites. Oh, there are those who are in it for that reason.
But you better be specific as to who they are
and not paint broad brushes.
Go into a break.
I'll be back and roll them out unfiltered.
Senators, this cannot be our future.
Do not concede, Mr. President.
Fight hard. This cannot be the future of America not concede, Mr. President. Fight hard.
This cannot be the future of America.
That's all we got!
The force, let's go! American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.
Where the fuck are they?
Everybody stand down.
People died that day.
What message will we send the rest of the world?
What happened today in Washington DC is not America has stood for some very important things. I think what we've seen in the United States is terribly distressing. Incited by the current president. President Trump.
The world is watching and wondering whether we are who we say we are.
You are patriots just like the patriots gathered at Bunker Hill.
The election in many ways was stolen.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
At one point, people started chanting, kill him with his own gun.
They thought they were going to die. Watching someone use an American flagpole to spear and pummel one of our police officers
ruthlessly, mercilessly.
We didn't need more witnesses.
We need more senators with spines.
President Trump declared his conduct totally appropriate.
So, if he gets back into office and it happens again,
we'll have no one to blame but ourselves.
Hi, I'm Kim Burrell.
Hi, I'm Carl Paine.
Hey, everybody, this is Sherri Shepherd.
You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered.
All right, folks. Welcome back to the show.
There was chaos in Miami Beach this weekend as spring breakers flocked to the city for maskless parties.
The police fired pepper balls to disperse crowds
after an 8 p.m. curfew went into effect on Saturday.
Miami officials said people had flocked to the city
because of its relatively few coronavirus restrictions.
But some black leaders are questioning whether the police reaction was exaggerated Miami officials said people have flocked to the city because of its relatively few coronavirus restrictions.
But some black leaders are questioning whether the police reaction was exaggerated because the partiers were black and brown.
Folks, let's go to it.
Eugene, I'll start with you.
Look, you saw the video there.
Go back to the video, y'all.
Go back.
Thank you very much.
You saw the video there. First of all, I saw white folks, black folks, a whole bunch of folk partying like it's 1999.
Listen, listen, it is wild down there right now. Something like a thousand arrests over
the course of spring break at this point. You know, it was black, white, Puerto Rican, Asian.
And I'm going to say this.
I came out and there were folks standing on top of my car and my car is now dented, mirror is broken, glass broken.
I'm expecting the police to arrest every single person
that was involved with it.
I mean, you know, there are just, you know,
some things that are lawful,
some things that are unlawful,
some things that are just, you know, completely out of line.
And that's completely out of line.
You know, you know, not to mention that it's a full on panoramic right now.
You know, and I don't see too many masks in any of these videos.
So the thing is this, you know, there are instances of police brutality. There are some instances even in the
spring break case where the police, you know, took things probably way too far. But I will say this.
You can't just go and do whatever you want, especially when you're damaging other people
properly or harming other people and not expect a proper response to it. Avis?
Yeah, I do have to agree with that.
I mean, if it was my car, I'd be a little pissed off too and say, get rid of those folks.
But here's another thing that we need to understand.
We just know in this country that the police are going to treat, this is just reality,
the police will treat Black people differently than white people.
And yes, a week ago when I was seeing footage from Miami,
it did look a lot of mighty white.
It looked mighty white down there in terms of the spring breakers out there acting a fool.
And yes, the reaction, I'm sure, was not as strenuous as it was this time.
But I will say the thing that worries me even more is what Eugene just alluded to a second ago.
I didn't see not one mask in that entire footage.
And all of those individuals are going to go back to wherever states and cities that they came from.
And we all know that Florida is one of the highest prevalence in terms of one of the more
dangerous strains of COVID. We know that Black people are three times more likely to get it and
twice as likely to die from it. And so it just bothers me that, you know, people have just lost their ever-loving minds
and out here acting like it's over.
It ain't over, folks. It ain't over, okay?
And so I'm sorry that, you know, you experienced SWAT tactics,
but you should know that you aren't going to be treated
with the same sort of kid gloves.
It's wrong. It's wrong.
But it's real that you're not going to be treated
with the same sort of kid gloves as the white kids when they go down there and do stuff.
So don't go down there doing crazy stuff, number one.
And then number two, don't go down there
contributing to a super spreader event
and then bring it back to your communities,
your mama, your daddy, your neighborhood,
your communities, and kill more Black people.
I mean, it's just absolutely ridiculous.
I find it very hard, honestly, to feel sorry.
Honestly.
For that reason alone.
Julianne?
Well, the differential enforcement
is concerning to me, but
even more concerning, as Ava says,
is the fact that these youngins are down there
maskless. I mean,
you know, they're going back home.
They're maskless. They're,
you know, unfettered.
And Eugene, I'm sorry about your car.
I'm sure there were a whole bunch of other people's cars that were also damaged.
People have COVID fatigue and they're acting like they don't have good sense.
And that's that.
At the same time, we do have to look at the differential enforcement of the law
and the extent to which African-Americans, although we're more likely to get COVID and
more likely to die, we're also more likely to die because of ignorant, out of control
police officers. So let's just be clear. There's enough ignorance to go around. I wish these black youngins would not contribute to it.
Yeah, it was kind of crazy.
And bomb liners, of course, they're extending the emergency curfew there in Miami Beach.
I'm tell you right now, I remember that story last year.
That was his wife, father.
He told his son, don't don't take his ass out of town.
The son decided to leave on spring break last year, y'all.
Came home, daddy locked his ass out the house.
Daddy said, no, I don't know where in the hell you been,
and you ain't making me and your mama sick.
He said, you got to find somewhere else to live.
I'm telling y'all right now, okay?
I'm telling y'all right now.
I got twin 17-year-old nieces in my house.
If any one of my nieces thought that they ass
could somehow do that kind of
crap and come back to the crib,
I would lock their asses out
the house.
Will you at least get them a motel room? Hell no.
No. No, let me be real
clear. If your ass so
damn grown,
if your ass so grown grown if your ass so grown
that you can make your way to Miami
and get your ticket
and live with some friends
with your ass grown enough to figure that shit
out when you come back
I agree with that
thousand percent
I ain't got no problem with that
no oh hell no
and look I'm telling you.
So, absolutely, I'm with the black leaders down there.
Demand accountability.
If you're going to sit here and use pepper spray on the black folks and the white folks acting a fool, use it on them too.
But I'm telling you right now, the video, these folks out there, I mean, massive groups of people in the middle of the street in the middle of a pandemic.
Nah, you ain't bringing none of that back to the crib.
You're going to have to figure your...
take your ass home.
I'm just laughing, Roland.
I'm so glad I'm not one of your nieces.
You damn skip it.
Roland is dead serious.
No, I'm dead ass serious.
Let me tell you what my daddy told me.
When your ass get to pay all your bills,
all your bills,
not half,
not 75%,
all your bills,
then you get to make some grown ass decisions.
Going to spring break
in packs of folk,
not wearing masks,
living together is a grown ass decision.
And you think you're going to come back to my house after being down there?
No, I'm telling you right now, you'll ask, go to a homeless shelter, call your little local friends.
Y'all can quarantine together.
If they parents dumb enough to let y'all come into the house, that's them.
But you ain't bring your ass to my house.
I'm just straight up.
OK, a homeless shelter. Hi, Roland.
I don't give a... Hey,
a homeless shelter is called
homeless.
For the next 14 days,
your ass will be
homeless.
You got to
quarantine somewhere
else.
I do not care.
Because second of all, I ain't got no biological kids.
So ain't none of y'all minds.
So I'm just letting you know.
Hello.
So you can call me Ben all you want to, but you ain't but to have my ass walking around sick and laid out
And all the kind of nonsense. No, I'm telling right now. I think one of the biggest problems we have today
We got too many punk-ass parents who sitting here with my parents didn't let me do some stuff
So I'm gonna let my kid do some stuff. See that's why y'all stupid too. So that's part part of the problem
So excuse me if y'all want to say,
oh, why are you old school?
I'll say, right, call me 100% old
school. Guess what? You
absolutely right. I will
be old school.
Ain't nothing wrong with old school.
If your ass like vintage clothes, that's
old school. Your ass like the Earth
Wind and Fire and the OJs, that's
old school. So it's amazing how we love other stuff that'sJs, that's old school. It's amazing how we love
other stuff that's old school, except when it
comes to parenting. Trust me.
Take your ass on a spring break
and see what happens. It ain't going to go well
when you come back to the crib.
You're going to be
old school, but you're going to be breathing.
And that's the most important thing.
Old school, I said I'm going to count it on AOL.
Just saying.
Just saying. K. James, one of the most important thing. I went to school. I said I'm going to count it on AOL. Just saying. Yeah. Just saying.
Kay James, one of the most prominent black conservative voices in Washington, D.C.,
has resigned as president of the Heritage Foundation.
James took the helm of the think tank after former president Jim DeMint was fired in 2018
after the organization's leadership determined he had veered too far from his conservative principles
and too close to Donald Trump. I don't know why I'm be showing this photo of her. I did an interview with her,
so y'all should pull that video up. Thank you very much. She is joined by Executive Vice President
Kim Holmes, a three-decade Heritage veteran who will also step down. Here's the real deal, Eugene.
There's a civil war that's going on inside the Republican Party. A lot of these conservatives
are pissed off with Kay James because she brought on Mike Pence
to work for the Heritage Foundation.
They want them to be a right-wing, hard-right,
Donald Trump kiss-ass, ass-in-loving think tank,
and that ain't Kay James,
and that's what was really going on
at the Heritage Foundation.
Look, look, and Kay James, this is what you get.
You get the first black female director of OPM ever
in the United States' history. You get the first black female director of OPM ever in the United States' history.
You get the first black female to serve as the Department of Health and Human Services of the state of Virginia secretary.
You get one of the first black female regents of a university in Kay Cole James.
You get the first black female to lead a large think tank in the world, and that just happens to be the largest think tank in the world.
Look, Kay James is a conservative.
She's an old school conservative.
She's somebody that's earned her stripes.
And look, she's somebody that
understands what it means to be
black and be conservative and the emphasis on the
black, not necessarily the conservative.
And so when she became
president of Heritage, it's something we all celebrated.
But
she walked in with some goals,
her and Angela Saylor and others.
They walked in to achieve some things, open up some doors.
Kay's been the epitome of, I'm gonna open up the door
and let the rest of the squad in
and create the opportunity for them.
And that's what Kay did.
And she played a very unique role
over this last four years.
There are some people that are pissed.
You know, she will still be a member of the board of directors for the Heritage Foundation that she was before she became president.
But, you know, the thing is this.
When you get a Kay Coles James, you get a Michael Steele, you get a J.C. Watts, you better appreciate them.
Because, you know, you don't know when you're going to get another one. And the role of good black Republicans, good black conservatives,
is when we get folk that are good, and I emphasize on good,
in these positions, you've got to support them.
You've got to back them up, because there will come a day
when their tenure will end, and hopefully during that time
when they serve, we're able to move the ball forward on some things,
specifically creating opportunities for people.
The Civil War, Julian, the Civil War that we're talking about, again, is real.
I mean, these these crazy, crazy Trump people, they don't want anybody around who is not sucking up and kissing his fat ass.
They don't want anybody. They want to shut everybody down.
And again, you know, they want Mike Pence to suffer.
They don't want him.
I mean, that's the craziness that you really got going on here.
You know, Roland, it's really absurd.
Kay James is a wonderful person.
I know her. I think she's great. Don't agree with her politics at all, but I think she's great.
I think that Heritage probably pushed her into a corner that she had to just get out of.
And as you say, they want Mike Pence to suffer. They want anyone who has disagreed with the orange orangutan to suffer. And so there, I mean, when you look at what they've done at people like Mitt
Romney, who is not going to suffer because they love him in Utah, but you look at some of these
Republicans who stood up, Lynn Cheney, who started to say, this doesn't make any sense.
And now these folks are going after them because they basically have independent thinking
integrity. I, you know, I don't know what's going to happen in the long run.
I mean, the Republican Party is morally bankrupt.
It has failed in integrity, has yielded to idiocy.
That 130-some of them wouldn't even vote.
That Joe Biden had been properly elected.
That just this week, some of them said they would not vote to give or last week, rather, someone would they would not vote to give congressional medals to the people who defended their behinds because they didn't want to use the word insurrectionist.
These people have lost their hot monkey minds.
And the question is, are there any Republicans with integrity who want to take their party back?
Davis.
Yeah, you know, I too know Kay, and I think that she is someone that has integrity and someone who is committed to truth, which is unlike where we see the Republican Party going today.
When she first took that position, to be perfectly honest, I didn't think she would last long.
I'm aware of the history of the Heritage Foundation and what the Heritage Foundation is. One of the highlights of my career is when the Heritage published a piece many, many years ago and called me a radical flaming feminist.
I was like, yes, thank you.
But I will say that, you know, here is what we know in terms of what's going on.
It had been the case, theoretically, that the heritage was supposed to be someplace where the
conservative intellectuals went, right? However, now, if you're seeing what's going on here with
Kay, you're right. What we're seeing here is that this sort of, you know, redneck underbelly of
white supremacist racists who are the base of the Republican Party are now looking to infiltrate
and infect all of those right-leaning institutions, including even the Heritage Foundation,
which at one point was the leading sort of Republican think tank, which you would think
would be a place where you would have intellectuals gather. So I find that very
interesting. And I find that very interesting.
And I also find it interesting, dovetailed with some reporting today, that shown that Trump has
released a list of, quote unquote, good Republicans, including potential 2024 presidential
candidates. And guess who he left off the list? Mike Pence. And so it's very interesting here that you have Kay leaving the Heritage Foundation,
because that to me suggests that that particular organization is going the way of the rest of the
Republican, and it's being sort of sinking down into the sewer with the rest of these liars,
these pilfers, and these white nationalist terrorists
who are now running the party.
Folks, Christine Davitt,
a senior social media manager at Teen Vogue,
is accused of using the N-word in her own past tweets
after calling out Alexi McCammon
for posts she made when she was 17 years old.
Those led to McCammon's resignation last week as the editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue.
To have used the N-word twice on social media more than 10 years ago,
the woman who describes herself as being of Irish and Filipino descent
allegedly used the word when she sent a tweet to a friend in 2019
identifying him as an N-word.
She's also accused of using the term again in 2010.
It was very interesting, Eugene, over the weekend N-word. She's also accused of using the term again in 2010.
It was very interesting,
Eugene, over the weekend when a bunch of these folks at Teen Vogue
started locking down their Instagram
and Twitter account when folks started looking
into their past tweets after they were
so vocal against Alexi,
who made
the comments when she was 17,
apologized for them and deleted them in
2019, but they still wanted her head on the platter
and they got it.
Ooh, ain't it something when your old stuff come back?
It's wild.
The thing is this, right?
So this is kind of wild.
So if you're under the age of 35,
Twitter from 08 to about 2013 was a wild, wild, wild, wild, wild place.
99% of what happened on Twitter at the time would not fly today.
With that being said, that being the baseline and that being the understanding, when something like what happened to Alexi happens, you either better have your stuff together or just shut the hell up.
Because chances are you got some problematic tweets yourself.
We all had some problematic tweets because Twitter was a wild, wild place.
Things like flying maggot cannot be said today.
That was what was said back then.
Certain views that were held back then and just tossed around cannot be said today because
it's a different time.
It's a different place.
You know, it was just a wild place.
And so when the pile on happens the way Teen Vogue did, they should have very well expected
that, hey, if you're going to
point your gun and fire shots,
expect bullets to come right back your way
because chances are
your ish is just as bad as her
ish, if not worse.
And I say that as somebody
that grew up in this era.
Avis.
I mean, exactly right. Listen, if you're going to have a standard
that standard needs to be uniform I mean that's
the thing if the issue
is that this person was clutching her pearls
about something that Alexi wrote
when she was 17
17 y'all 17
okay which needs to teach
any teenagers out there today just listen
stuff lives forever okay but
you know if they're going to be clutching
their pearls about that and raising
such a funk that
she can't even accept
the position, can't even
serve one day into
the new position for which she was
hired for, then you
need to, if that's the standard,
then you need to say
anybody else on this staff who has
offensive tweets also needs to be gone. I don't understand how it's okay to just allow your staff
to privatize their tweets, right? To make everything private now, because that to me is
showing that they know there's stuff on there that's offensive. So, so you're saying that it's
okay for everybody else to do it,
but it's not okay for the system to have done it. You know, either, you know, what's good for the
goose is good for the gander. Either they need to fire them all or they need to allow Alexi to
serve in that position. And since they've decided to, in essence, push her out, then they need to
have, they need to have some transparency at this point
and show who else is there who is guilty of the same thing. And at least that now that we know
of this particular person, she needs to be gone, period.
Julianne.
Exactly. I mean, as you say, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
It seems to me that there's always a different standard that's applied to black people. And this sister, they hired her.
They ought to stand by her, but they're not going to do it because it's problematic for them.
And then all these other folks have privatized their tweets.
I think that, frankly, if Teen Vogue has any integrity, clean the whole house out.
Clean them all out and start over.
Or bring Alexi back and say,
this is how we gonna do it.
Absolutely.
I agree with that. But again,
but don't just all of a sudden start locking
down your Twitter account
because you catching
that heat. All right, folks. Y'all know what time
it is.
I got you, Carl. Illegally selling water with well you never know when you're what you're going to see on the subway in New York City on this crazy train ride.
One white woman decides to go fool Karen and tries to stop a black man from reading his Bible aloud.
And there are a lot of subway preachers, y'all, in the city.
So who knows why this woman had an issue with this dude.
But, oh, check out the church came alive to rebuke this devil. Don't touch me. Don't touch me. You are in my space. Don't touch me. Don't touch me.
You leave him all the way over there. Don't touch me. Don't touch me. Don't touch me.
Don't touch me. Don't touch me. Don't touch me. I got a lot of folks in here.
The Bible says, don't bear any lies.
That's a demon right there.
I have all right to preach everything.
Everything. Everything. Everything.
Satan is a liar. Hear what the Bible says. And the devil, and the devil that deceived them was caused a life in the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the And they were tormented day and night forever and ever.
Ladies and gentlemen, all those who follow Satan is going to burn forever and ever.
All those who don't want, the devil don't want you to hear the word.
And devil, you and your followers, you're going to fall in the lake of fire.
The Bible says, and the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and was stoned with the beast and the false prophet's heart
and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.
There is power, power, wonder hell work in power in the blood of the Lamb.
There is power, power, one hell work in power in the flesh of the Lamb. Thank you. Oh, I love the choir joining in for the church service there, Julian.
Amen.
You know, amen.
Brother Ned had it going on.
And this thing, all he should have said is, get thee behind me, Satan.
And left it at that.
Well, Satan was standing behind him.
She surely was.
These Karens
are just amazing. They are
just amazing, and they crack us up. They give
us plenty of entertainment,
and I'm grateful that the brother
didn't just haul off and slap
the you-know-what out of her, which is probably
what I would have done, because she had it
coming. But anyway, Brother Ben
stayed in his God, and good
for him.
I thought that was just too funny,
Avis, how everybody starts
singing and clapping along with the song.
Praise the Lord.
Exactly.
Now, once again, I'm a little
frightened because I ain't seen no mask, but let me
just say,
he definitely knew how to get rid of that, you know, demonic spirit that was behind him, even though she kept on trying to harass him.
But I think when the whole train sort of sort of chimed in with the song, she figured out, OK, I've lost this battle.
Let me just kind of slink back over here a little bit.
So that was funny. Eugene, go ahead. Man, look, I've lost this battle. Let me just kind of slink back over here a little bit. So that was funny. Eugene, go
ahead. Man, look, I
agree with Ava. I was like, oh, man, we're
the mask guy in the mask here.
But I do think that
community backing him up on it was
probably the highlight of that video. And hopefully
she learned her lesson.
Oh, my goodness. I'll wait for
Ava.
I was hoping he was going to lay hands on.
He should have said, yo, somebody got some oil.
Just pass me some oil and just lay hands on.
Just hit him with the anointing.
Hit him with the anointing.
All right, y'all.
Eugene, Avis, Julian, I totally appreciate it.
Thank you so very much.
I've got to go to break.
When we come back, we're going to talk about maternal health of black women,
and we'll say goodbye to Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor,
who passed away today at the age of 86,
right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered.
If people begin to believe that their democracy is fossil,
if they conclude that voting is a charade,
the system is rigged, then God knows what could happen.
They rigged an election. They rigged it like they've never rigged an election before.
Actually, we do know what could happen. It's happening right now.
The U.S. Capitol overrun, under siege. Pro-Trump extremists storming inside,
flooding the halls, breaching the floor of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Millions of Americans sincerely believe
the last election was fake.
It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it.
We will not go quietly into the night.
When thousands of your countrymen
storm the Capitol building, if you
don't bother to pause and learn a single thing from it,
then you're a fool.
I know you're pained. I know you're hurt.
We had an election that was stolen from us. We got to this sad, chaotic day for a reason.
It is not your fault. It is their fault. I believe that it's movement time again.
In America today, the economy is not working for working people.
The poor and the needy are being abused.
You are the victims of power, and this is the abuse of economic power.
I'm 23 years old. I work three jobs.
Work seven days a week, no days off.
They're paying people pennies on the dollar compared to what they profit. And it is time
for this to end.
Essential workers have been showing up to work, feeding us, caring for us, delivering
goods to us throughout this entire pandemic. And they've been doing it on a
measly $7.25 minimum wage. The highest check I ever got was literally $291. I can't take it no
more. You know, the fight for 15 is a lot more than about $15 an hour. This is about a fight
for your dignity. We have got to recognize that working people deserve livable wages.
And it's long past time for this nation to go to 15
so that moms and dads don't have to choose between asthma inhalers and rent.
I'm halfway homeless.
The main reason that people end up in their cars
is because income does not match housing
cost.
If I could just only work one job, I can have more time with them.
It is time for the owners of Walmart, McDonald's, Dollar General, and other large corporations
to get off welfare and pay their workers a living wage.
And if you really want to tackle racial equity, you have to raise the minimum wage.
We're not just fighting for our families, we're fighting for yours too.
We need this. I'm gonna fight for it till we get it. I'm not gonna give up.
We just need all of us to stand up as one nation and just fight together.
Families are relying on these salaries and they must be paid at a minimum $15 an hour.
$15 a minimum anyone should be making to stay out of poverty.
I can't take it no more.
I'm doing this for not only me but for everybody.
We need 15 right now.
Everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond.
Hi, my name is Bresha Webb and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered.
And, well, I like a nice filter usually,
but we can be unfiltered.
Senators Michael Bennett and Cory Booker
have introduced the Black Maternal Momnibus Act
for 2021 in the United States Senate.
The bill would address black maternal health disparities
by driving investments into social determinants of health, community health, and health equity
data collection. Joining me now to discuss this is Jesse Thompson, the nutritionist and founder of
the DetoxNow.com, Charles Johnson, founder for Cure for Moms, and Errol Pierce, Senior Vice
President of State Programs for Health First. All right, folks, first and foremost,
Jesse, how will this, if this is passed, what will be the impact for mothers? What will it mean for their families? Jesse, go ahead. Okay. I'm so sorry. I thought Charles was going to go in.
No, you're first. Oh, okay. I didn't hear you say Jessie.
First of all, thanks for the conversation, Roland.
As you know, first of all, Black women, we are really, we suffer up to 12 times the rate of death in childbirth and postpartum nationally. And when we look at how, you know, in my story, I had many near misses,
how we're being treated, whether it's because of racial inequity, because of failure of health
services. The key with this act is really to level the playing field. And, you know, Charles is
actually specifically one of the key stakeholders in this act.
So I really would like him to speak on it in terms of because there's a Kira Johnson act that's named specifically after his wife and to prevent what happened to his wife to happen to mothers all over.
Charles. All right. So, Roland, thank you for having me. And so this, Roland, is a monumental piece of
legislation. We're not talking about one, not two, not three. We're talking about a dozen bills
specifically addressing the unique needs of African-American mothers in this country.
And as Jesse stated, African-American mothers are dying in childbirth
birth oftentimes five to 12 times as often as their Caucasian counterparts. And so what this
will mean is we're addressing everything from the challenges facing incarcerated women. We know that
there's even still in 2019, 2020, there's in prisons across our country, we're having forced hysterectomies,
extreme instances of obstetric violence. We're addressing the social determinants of health,
right? We're working towards expanding Medicare and Medicaid to a year postpartum, right? And
then also making investments, very importantly, well, and I want you to understand and your
listeners to understand, making investments in African-American-led community-based programs, right? So we're making sure that resources are
getting directly into the communities, to the women who are on the front lines serving our
communities, catching the babies. We're going to make sure that we have funding for doula care for
women that need it. We're going to make sure that we have midwifery. We're going to make sure that we have funding for doula care for women that need it. We're going to make sure that we have midwifery.
We're going to make sure that we have the specific resources to address the social determinants of health, right?
Because what good is it to have all these programs if a mother has to make the very tough decision between going to work and going to her postpartum appointment, right?
So this is a complicated, complex issue.
And so we've got a complex, very, very comprehensive package to address the very, very unique challenges facing our community.
And this is an important first step, not only for our country
to recognize that this is a problem,
but to make the necessary investments in turning around.
So we talk about, again again when Bill gets introduced obviously
then it actually goes through. How will this impact beyond just mothers who are expecting?
So really how comprehensive is this bill? Explain that for
the audience. Sure, sure, sure. So that's an excellent question. So it is important,
Rowan, that we're making investments that make sure that mothers and families not only survive,
but thrive before, during, and after childbirth, right? So we're making sure that we are addressing the social determinants on the front
and making sure that mothers are coming to pregnancy
better informed, educated about their options, right?
All the options available to them,
making sure that they are having all their needs met
from a prenatal standpoint,
making sure that there is,
when we talk about the birthing process,
making sure that there is representation
in the birthing workforce, right?
That's a critical piece.
And then beyond that,
making sure that they have the care postpartum,
because what we're seeing and what the data is showing is,
when we see these outrageous numbers of maternal mortality, those deaths are being calculated up to a year postpartum.
So oftentimes, many of these complications are going undetected because mothers' postpartum care is getting cut off six weeks to two months after their care.
And they're experiencing cardiomyopathy, all types of things are going undetected because they just don't have the care to keep up with them as they, you know, go through their maternity, through
their maternal journey. So we're gonna make sure that we have, we address, make sure that they are
thriving and they're coming to birth more informed, more empowered and healthier, and then making sure that they are protected during and supported afterward.
Roland.
Errol.
Sure. I think this is very important legislation because right now what people face is not enough care.
We know it disproportionately impacts black and brown mothers.
The panel stated, you know, Jesse talked about it. If you filled up a stadium with 100,000 black women, 40 of them, if they became pregnant, would die. It's only 12
for white women. And you might say, well, we need to reduce that disparity so that it's not so much
with black women. But even in other countries, they have higher quality, lower mortality rates.
Japan, it's only five women.
And in countries like Spain and Europe, it's lower.
So fixing this issue for Black women will actually fix it for the whole country.
And another piece that was brought up was the importance around something we call ethnic
concordance.
And if we can get more Black doctors into the healthcare
system, we actually have bona fide research that shows the outcomes are better. And it's because
those Black doctors have empathy. One of the big issues that happens in the delivery room is if a
Black woman says, hey, on a scale from one to 10, my pain is out of 10. I'm excruciating pain.
They're not believed.
And sometimes they're not believed because there's this implicit bias that's endemic in the system that says, well, you know, she's a black woman.
Her skin might be tough.
She's maybe big boned.
She's tough.
She's a strong black woman.
She's not in pain.
And the dollars in this bill goes to research so we have more data to uncover these implicit biases.
It goes to making sure we have more data to uncover these implicit biases. It goes to making
sure that people are educated. It goes to making sure that doctors are educated on their implicit
bias. There was a study in about a hospital in Philadelphia that found 95% of their residents
had a negative bias towards Black patients. So imagine you walk into a doctor's room and the
doctor already assumes you're not going to listen to them, already assumes education attainment about you, already assumes negative connotations about your diet.
How do you think you're going to feel? You're not going to open up. Those conversations won't go well. And the health is poorer.
So we're really looking forward to the outcomes of all this legislation, because it will not only have black women living longer, black babies living
longer, it'll also reduce healthcare. We spend, you know, twice as much as any other country and
we don't get the quality that we deserve. Jesse, go ahead.
A key thing that Errol just spoke to about the ethnic concordance is very important, okay? That's
why right now, you know, one of the things we say to women,
listen, the way I like to break it down is listen to your BAE, B-A-E, okay? Your body,
your advocates, and your experts. Remember about seven months ago, I had a headache that was so
crazy. I went to the doctor and thank God I found out I actually had an aneurysm. I text you
from the hospital, Roland, right? But because I did listen to my body, I was actually able to
cover, find something that was going on. And there are so many women who are going through things
during pregnancy and after pregnancy, and they're ignoring their own, what their body's telling
them because doctors, they feel are shushing them or rushing them, or they're afraid of, you know, of, of,
of being judged. Okay. And the other thing is to get your advocates in terms of whether it's
the doulas, you know, it's important as, um, Charles spoke to the fact that doulas would be,
um, empowered would be, um, hopefully, be hopefully services that would be covered as part of this act,
because doulas have an insight for mothers, for black mothers that are not found necessarily at the OBGYN office.
OK, and make sure you have whether it's the midwife, you know, extra voices and then your experts that you will be the first expert of your
own health. Remember when I text you from the hospital, um, Roland, the, the neurologist was
telling me neurosurgeon was telling me that I should go home with an aneurysm in my head.
But inside I was like, no, I cannot. Something was telling me absolutely. I cannot. And I knew
if I was not a black woman, would that have been the same same message I would have been receiving at that time?
OK, so we have to know that we have the support and we have to, first of all, call racism out right there.
If we feel it, that's really important. You know, one of the things that we have been afraid to do is call racism out, but we know it exists. And part of how we have to ensure it,
we have to work to ensure we're going to have a healthy,
whether it's pregnancy or health outcome in general,
is specifically naming the racism
and saying, how can racism be playing a part right now?
How can it show up in the care that I'm receiving so that we can work with that
in mind? Because unfortunately, it is something that plays a role. I know Errol can speak to a
specific research study that Health First did where they actually had measured results around
that. I would love for him to speak to that. Absolutely. So when we talk about social determinants of health, you know, it's talking about not just having an insurance card and having
a doctor. That's only 20% of why someone's healthy. 80% of the reason why someone's healthy
has nothing to do with just getting to the doctor. You're talking about income, you're talking about
education, you're talking about the environment you live in, if there's violence in your community.
So what Health First was able to do, partnering with Mount Sinai Hospital, was actually provide clinical caseworkers to help with postpartum care.
Postpartum care is after you have your baby, you have to have follow-up visits.
And what we were able to do with those clinical workers that were culturally relevant, they spoke the language, they looked like the people they were taking care of.
They were able to break down the barriers to find out what was preventing the mom from getting to the doctor's office. culturally relevant. They spoke the language. They looked like the people they were taking care of.
They were able to break down the barriers to find out what was preventing the mom from getting to the doctor's office. Maybe it was transportation. Maybe it was their work schedule. Maybe it was
disposable income. And so they were able to overcome those barriers. And that's what led
to higher health. And we're absolutely excited to find out we reduced the disparities. So whether you're a white woman or
a black woman, we had the same postpartum results by this intervention. And I think the bill that's
coming out will lead to more types of studies and actually making this not just pilots, but this
should be standard care in America. Final comment, Charles.
Yeah. So I just want to just really, Jesse made a point that was so important,
is that I want black women to understand is that race is not a risk factor.
It truly is racism.
Because even within these disparities, there are studies that show that African-American women with a graduate and postgraduate degree are dying at rates far more often than Caucasian women living below the poverty line.
So it's important that we are empowered, that we are informed, and we are able to advocate for ourselves in these situations.
And so there is a time that the women, Black women women are able to be seen and heard.
We have to take this upon ourselves to inform and empower and support our women when they go into these situations.
Jesse, final comment.
You are worthy of the care that you need.
Please make sure that you have the right team around you and make sure that if you feel
something's wrong, that you get the support that you need. Don't let somebody else know
cause you to lose your life. All right, folks. Thanks so very much. We certainly appreciate it.
Thanks a lot. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and stop the recording. Elgin Baylor, the Lakers' 11-time NBA All-Star and also Hall of Famer, died today.
He was 86, was surrounded by his wife and daughter.
Lakers announced that Baylor died of natural causes in Los Angeles.
His wife Elaine was there, his daughter Crystal.
Baylor joined the NBA in 1958 as the number one draft pick out of Seattle University.
He immediately set new records for individual scoring with a 55-point game
in his Rookie of the Year season before scoring 64 on November 8, 1959,
then the NBA single-game record and the Lakers record for 45 years until broken by Kobe Bryant.
Baylor became the first NBA player to surpass 70 points with a 71-point game
December 11, 1960 against New York.
Will Chamberlain set the record of 100 points in 1962. Baylor averaged 38 points in the 1961-62
season despite doing active duty as an Army reservist. He scored 61 points in a playoff
game against Boston in 1962, a record that will stand for 24 years until broken by Michael Jordan.
He averaged 27.4 points and 13.5 rebounds during his 14-year career.
He scored a total of 23,149 points in 846 games
and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in May of 1977.
Elgin Gay Baylor was born in Washington, D.C. on September 16, 1934.
It was named after his father's favorite watch, an Elgin timepiece.
Thoughts and prayers certainly go with his family, all who loved him.
I knew Elgin and his wife, always would see them at NBA All-Star Game,
had opportunity through a dinner party there in Los Angeles,
and their attendance was always great to see them.
The last time we talked to Elgin Baylor was when he was on this show last year
for our Kobe Bryant special.
Here's some of that.
Who were the coaches and players and maybe team executives
that he listened to most?
You know, I don't know because I really wasn't close to Kobe.
There's just an extreme of games where you think, talk and say,
watch him practice, say hello.
But Kobe was, you know, just watching him, you know,
a couple times talking to people.
I mean, he was a really unbelievable competitor, you know.
And Kobe believes that, you know, what you have to believe,
that you can do certain things.
And probably, like, his coach wouldn't want him to do certain things.
But Kobe would go out there and do the things that he thought
that would be beneficial for him, you know.
And I can understand that because separation,
these guys have got to make the play, you know, take the foul or make the basket.
And Kobe would go out there and, you know, would think that, you know,
hey, you can't guard me.
I'm going to go out there and just do my job.
Kevin Merida.
Well, just to have a little fun, Elgin, this is Kevin Merida from the Undefeated.
Magic Johnson said that Kobe was the greatest Laker of all time.
I mean, that, and as you know,
the Lakers could have their own Hall of Fame, you know,
because there's so many great Lakers.
Where does Kobe rank to you in the kind of Laker pantheon?
I don't know. Kobe's been a great player, but I don't know. See, when I played, the game was a
different game. When I played, you know, like, to be honest, I'd rather play today than I did when
I played because the game was such a physical game. They could hand check you. You know, that
down, they can't do that. And, you know, by not being able could hand check you. You know, that down, they can't do that.
And, you know, by not being able to hand check you,
you know, you can do a lot of things that you normally couldn't do, you know,
if you have, excuse me, the phone is ringing the other way.
But anyway, but I mean, it's like, you know, play it then.
You know, guys would hand check you. You have guys that were strong guys, you know, big, good hands.
And they can almost direct, guide you and direct you the way they want you to go.
Position, you know.
And so it's different.
You know, once you don't have that, you know, you can do the things you want to do.
It's a different, it's a different era.
It's different.
Guys are different today than it was when I played.
So basically what you're saying, Elgin, I am not going to say he was the greatest link of all time.
If you carry it further, Elgin,
if you guys are playing to 11, one-on-one,
you and Kobe, with the rules of your era,
who's winning that game?
We had to play, what you mean?
You and Kobe, one-on-oneone with the rules of your era,
who's winning that?
No, it would be difficult.
It would be difficult.
I mean, with the rules that they have and the rules they have now,
when I play guys with foul, you give you foul, hold,
and everything else.
No, I know.
What Kevin is asking, Elgin, if you were in your prime
and Kobe is in his prime and y'all going one-on-one,
you could have took him?
Oh, yeah.
They said, oh, yeah.
See, that's when you know you're talking to a great.
It don't matter what their age is.
Yeah, I'm going to take him out.
Not being cocky or anything, but, you know, you have to believe that. I don't believe what their age is. Yeah, I'm going to take him out. Not being cocky or arrogant, but you have to believe that.
I don't believe anybody could check me.
I have no problem if anybody guards me.
I like that.
That's not what Gus Johnson said.
What do you think about so-and-so and all that stuff?
I said, what do you think about me?
I like that.
He's got to guard me.
I'm not worried about him.
There you go.
Elgin Baylor, always man good talking to you.
Tell your wife I said hello.
Okay, hey, thanks a lot, guys.
I don't believe anybody could check me.
Elgin Baylor was indeed one of the greatest NBA players of all time.
Rest in peace.
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Holla! © BF-WATCH TV 2021 A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways.
Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up. A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways.
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So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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I'm Clayton English.
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And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast.
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Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war.
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Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season 2
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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 gotta 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. Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by
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