#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Fauci talks to RMU; Chauvin pleads not guilty in fed case; Trinidad anchor RIPS Nicki Minaj

Episode Date: September 17, 2021

9.16.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Fauci talks to RMU; Chauvin pleads not guilty in fed case; Trinidad anchor RIPS Nicki Minaj; Federal judge halts NY healthcare workers vax mandate; COVID spikes 13% in Alaska; Chauvin enters not guilty plea in federal civil rights case; Prosecution close to ending case in R. Kelly trial; CBS nixes 'The Activist' after immense outrage.Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Now I'm getting music. Now I'm not hearing myself. Today is Thursday, September 16, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Oh, my goodness. CBS. They announced this... I don't know what you want to call CBS. They announced this. I don't know what you want to call it. Basically a competition. Social activism. Oh, a lot of activists lit into them.

Now they've admitted we screwed up. We'll be talking with Tiffany Lofton about that as well. COVID continues to spread all across the country. You will hear my interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci right here on Roland Martin on the filter. Derek Chauvin, police not guilty to a civil rights violation for a 2017 arrest of a 14-year-old boy. The prosecution may be close to ending its case in the R. Kelly trial. We'll talk with attorney Tammy Allison to break down what has happened so far. Folks, also on today's show, you know, more drama when it comes to Nicki Minaj. But I got to show y'all something. I got to show y'all this TV anchor in Trinidad.

Let's just say he did not mince any words when it came to Nicki Minaj and her swollen balls, friend of a cousin, because he got the vaccine, which we all know is a damn lie. Wait, let me show you what his brother had to say. It's time to bring the funk, and roll the mic on the filter, streaming live with the Black Star Network.

Let's go. Entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. Yeah, yeah. It's Uncle Roro, yo. Yeah, yeah. It's Rolling Martin. Yeah, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. Yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Rolling Martin now. COVID continues to be a major issue in America.

42.5 million reported cases. 685,000 folks have died as a result. It's happening all across the country. And folks, one of the reasons is that we still see massive disinformation taking place. I had a chance to talk with Dr. Anthony Fauci, of course, who is America's leading infectious disease expert about that very issue. Here's our conversation. Should have been wanting to do this for quite some time. Good to be with you, Roland. Thank you for having me. So here's the deal. You've had to answer questions from comments from Nicki Minaj. I've

been on social media dealing with Teddy Riley and other entertainers, and it's just been a deluge of misinformation. Do you believe that, look, you're scientists, that folks who are scientists and doctors underestimated the power of misinformation? When you go back, that we need to have just this massive information campaign to fight that? I totally agree with what your premise is, Roland, is that given the social media and the extraordinary range that social media has, when you get misinformation, and there is a lot of miss and disinformation out there, the only way to counter that is to flood the system

with correct information. And that's the reason why we've got to get more people out there who are talking, using science and evidence as their base, as opposed to conjecture and conspiracy theories and all the kinds of things that go around. I mean, misinformation is really the enemy of public health. It just really is. If ever there was a time when we need facts and evidence

is when we're in a public health crisis like we are right now with this historic epidemic that we're a pandemic that we're going through. And I'll be honest, look, you know, early on when we were reaching out to the folks who handle advertising and we told them, we said, look, you better have a targeted campaign, I said, versus sort of this broad deal. Oftentimes folks want to focus on mainstream media. And I said, look, I'm telling you, I said, when this thing takes root, it's going to be very difficult to change people's minds. And so, I mean, I'm still dealing with people who were saying, oh, my goodness,

what she said was correct. It's other people that if you're vaccinated, I mean, you can lose babies and people are going impotent and becoming sterile. And, you know, we probably have more than 100 plus segments. And I purposely put on black doctors talking to our audience. And I just think that even now, it has to be an even more micro-targeted approach because you're going to have to win folks, frankly, one by one versus thinking, hey, let's just sort of just do a broad messaging and folks will figure it out. You know, absolutely. And you got to get trusted messengers, people who trust them, peers, colleagues, clergy, family physicians, as opposed to people listening to sort of helter-skelter type messages that they pick up and then they get propagated.

Because, you know, misinformation that's really juicy in the sense of what you just mentioned a little while ago, where they were talking about a person getting vaccinated and then winding up being impotent and having interference with their sexual function. You know, that's kind of something that attracts people's attention. So therefore, it spreads more on the social media, whereas a cold, correct fact doesn't have that oomph to it that something that's controversial does. And that's one of the almost self-propagating aspects of disinformation. If you make it juicy enough, it spreads further and further. And much of the disinformation and misinformation turns out to be put in that category, which is really unfortunate. So how are you, how is the COVID task force,

how are you now altering the approach? How are you talking with your advertising agency saying, hey, we've got to alter the type of ad that we're doing and the people who we're using? Are you also saying, hey, we've got to bring in more voices, more Black doctors, more Latino doctors, more Asian doctors to give people and targeting communities in a different way? And so is there a change to the approach? Because now you're dealing with, obviously, the vaccine. Now we're talking about boosters. And so if you've got folks who say, I don't even want the vaccine, the booster is going to be even harder. Well, Roland, we're doing all of the above and not only bringing in other people who can do that,

but realizing that channeling it through the standard classical media is important and will continue. But also we're doing things that I never would have imagined I would be doing. Getting on TikTok with people, getting on people's Instagram, you know, talking to rappers, talking to people who I like and respect, but I never thought I would be talking about public health matters with them. And I think that we've expanded the scope of the venues that we use. It's fine to be in the New York Times and the Washington Post and cable and the classic networks. But there's millions and millions and millions of people who follow people on their Instagram or follow them on Facebook. Those are things that I find myself doing now that never in my wildest dreams would I thought that I would be doing that. Well, that's one of the reasons why I created this show for that very reason, because, look, I had a show on a black cable network. It ended and I

said, look, we've got to have a vehicle to reach people in a different way. The last question for you, and that is moving forward, what really should be our focus for the next six months? If we had to really say, hey, focus on this, what is that one focus for the next six months? If we had to really say, hey, focus on this, what is that one thing for the next six months? It's filling the gap of unvaccinated people, Roland, because right now we're entering into the fall, the cooler season, the influenza season. Things are going to get complicated. The best way we can protect ourselves and our family and society in general is to get those now 74 or 75 million people who are eligible to be vaccinated, who have not yet gotten vaccinated, to reach out to them by all the mechanisms that you and I just discussed to convince them how important it is to get vaccinated.

If we got those people vaccinated, we would not be having a problem right now. Right now, like yesterday, we had 130 or so thousand people who were newly infected. We have about a thousand deaths now that we see. We have increase in hospitalizations. You know, this is something that is entirely avoidable if we get the overwhelming proportion of the population that is unvaccinated vaccinated. Well, look, we certainly appreciate your work and the work of those other doctors and scientists getting the word out. We're doing our part. Trust me, I'm getting attacked by a lot of people just like you are. People say I'm a traitor to the race. Don't take that shot. And I keep saying there's no flip side to death.

You said it. That's exactly the truth. Dr. Fauci, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Look forward to having you back. Thank you very much, Roland. Good to be with you. You take care. Bye. Folks, in New York State, 17 health care workers have filed a federal lawsuit claiming their rights are being violated by the mandate that bans any exemptions. Federal Judge David Hurd has temporarily blocked New York State from enforcing a vaccine mandate for health care professionals. Judge Hurd is giving the state until September 22nd to respond.

All health care workers are set to be vaccinated by September 27th. Now, Fauci had to go on TV show and answer that stupid question regarding that craziness that Nicki Minaj said about her friend told her cousin that his wing

got caught off because of some swollen balls. Beyond a stupid-ass lie. Yo, this TV anchor in Trinidad was not playing with the Nicki Minaj who was born in that country. My man just let it rip. Play. This one dropped yesterday morning. And as the story dropped, it was excitement. Now Nicki Minaj no stranger to controversy. I mean she was here for carnival in 2020 and that was her back and

all but she well her husband now husband and Iowa she would have made some outlandish statements over the years but this one takes the cake. This is almost like what you would hear about Apollo, where somebody will tell you, well, your cousin, friend, neighbor, say X, Y, Z. I mean, come on, Nikki, you have 180 million followers. People listen to you. People follow your particular lead. You go in on the social media space and talking with your cousin friend, take the vaccine and get impotent. And all of a sudden, you know, marriage called off and some kind of bacchanal story. I mean, it's irresponsible on all fronts.

One, irresponsible based on the misinformation that is going on there regarding this vaccine. You know, there was no verification of the story. And furthermore, even on a personal note, even if this is the case, to expose your cousin's friend's flat tire in the

public domain like that, every man have a flat tire, okay. He will work on that. You know, there's herbs and punch and certain things a man can eat and bring back our vibes. But don't come now and talk that kind of talk. The thing gets so hot. Jake Tapper on CNN yesterday at 4 o'clock

talked about this with Dr. Fauci. Dr. Fauci is, of course, the U.S. That's their lead in mind and specialist with this whole COVID-19 pushback and the fight against the COVID-19. And Dr. Fauci had to almost, you know, like the man was blindsided. He had to answer. He said he didn't know nothing personal against Nikki. I mean, I don't think we should proceed, but Nikki, better than that.

I honestly expect it better. And besides, obviously, that outlandish statement, and she always talks about Trinidad and she's from Trinidad, she's yet to collaborate with somebody from here. But that's a talk for another program on another day. All right, that was kind of, that was some shade. Our panel, Dr. Greg Carr, Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University, Reesey Colbert, Black Women Reviews.

Dr. Justin Turner, CEO for Turner Care. And for this conversation and our next story, I'm going to bring in Tiffany Lofton, who is an activist and organizer. And so I just got, first of all, I love that shade at the end. Reesey saying, yo ass from here, but you ain't had no Trinidad rappers on any of your albums. That was some shade right there. But what Fauci laid out is, and this is the reality, Reesey,

you've been dealing with this. Of course, you dealt with this whole deal with the incentive that Kamala Harris is running. You do not let misinformation to slide by. You have got to attack it head on and be just as vicious and hardcore in going after it. Absolutely. And you know, Roland, even when the vaccine first came out and a lot of people were

talking about vaccine access and they were almost suggesting that it was anti-Black to discuss vaccine hesitancy. And I was really trying to sound the alarm about how vaccine hesitancy is being driven by this disinformation and misinformation that is permeating social media. And unfortunately, it's taken something like a Nicki Minaj or a handful of other Black celebrities or entertainers who have, you know, more prominently shared disinformation for people to really realize the extent with which this is having a harmful impact. And unfortunately, in the case of Nicki Minaj, instead of dialing it back and saying, hey, okay, guys, I got it. You know, it was a ridiculous story. It's not my personal experience. I'm not invested in the story. You guys say it's

ridiculous. Cool. Like, I take it back. She just doubled and quadrupled down, and then she sicced her barbs on all kinds of people. She slurred Joanne Reed. And they're just on a rampage now because she refuses to do the responsible thing, which is take accountability for sharing disinformation. And unfortunately, as you pointed out with Dr. Fauci, I don't think that the country as a whole is taking disinformation and misinformation seriously enough. It's not just enough to identify it in these spurts, in these more prominent viral moments. We have to attack this relentlessly every single day because they are winning the war. And unfortunately, you have people who are

digging in more and more and being anti-vaxed or whatever you want to call yourself, which if you don't like the word anti-vax, is becoming more of a lifestyle and an identity that people are taking on instead of being willing to be open to the facts and the science and the data that's out there. And unfortunately, Black people are the ones that are most impacted or most impacted by COVID. And we're most impacted by lack of vaccine, you know, not taking the vaccines because we're seeing, we talked about it last week. Right. In Miami, there were 13, at least at that time, there were 13 school staffers who had died. All of them were Black.

Right. And all of them were unvaccinated. So this is killing people in our community. It's not a laughing matter. Even though the story was absurd and it was a joke and it was ridiculous, it's not a laughing matter about this disinformation in our community. That's the point, Dr.

Turner. This is life and death. That's what it boils down to. I mean, definitely life and death. Having information without interpretation is almost dangerous than information alone. And as a health care professional, you know, it's very, very disappointing that people are talking about, you know, well, you know, I did my research, you know, do your research.

But I did research at Meharry. And unless you have, you know, centrifuges and early microflags or running clinical trials, going to Google and looking up information that's not research and hearing about what your cousin, friend, baby mama, dog had happened to them, that's definitely not research. So I really, really pray that we can get to a point where we get back to the basics because, you know, polio is not here today because we had mass information that people allowed to be guided by health care professionals.

And nowadays, you know, you probably can't think of the last time, you know, somebody who was diagnosed with polio. So this whole disinformation and misinformation, even when I'm having the conversations with patients, you know, like today I had a lady who's a medical assistant and she was in my office and I just knew that she had been vaccinated. So by the time it came to that part of the conversation, I say, had you not been vaccinated? She say, no, I haven't been vaccinated. I say, you're in the medical field. I've been knowing you for years. Why have you not been vaccinated? Well, you know, they saying this and they saying that. They saying this.

I'm your doctor. What have I said? Yeah, I've been seeing your posts. So why are you allowing what happens outside there to be more important than what's happening in here? Well, you know, I had COVID last year, and I do have a seven-year-old home who has asthma. You know, I'm just scared. You're not scared of the virus?

You mean you're more scared of the vaccine than you are the virus? Let me get your newsflash. You didn't have the Delta variant last year. The Delta variant is here, and if you, as someone in the healthcare field, is not taking things serious, what do you think about everybody that knows you?

And just for sakes, let's say that you get COVID and you survive it, but you pass it on to that seven-year-old. Let me ask you a question. If that seven-year-old does not make it, are you literally willing to wake up every day the rest of your life living with that guilt when all you had to do was to take a vaccine that reduces your risk of dying from it and reduces your risk of having severe disease.

You say, Doc, when are y'all going to get the vaccines in? I say, we're going to get it in Monday, the next dose. We sold out right now. Y'all may need to come and get it next week. What you described actually just happened in Texas, Tiffany. going to get it in Monday. The next dose. We sold out right now. Y'all may need to come and get it next week. What you described actually just happened in Texas, Tiffany. A mother passed on COVID to her

four-year-old child. That child is now dead as a result of that. And the thing we talk about celebrities, we talk about impact. There's a flip side, Tiffany, when folks say, man, we really need our entertainers speaking out on issues. That's called informed entertainers speaking out on issues.

If you add the numbers up, Nicki Minaj, between Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook, that's 240 million followers. She was live last night, Roland. I watched about 20 minutes of it. She was live on Instagram last night and there were close to, it was 99.7 thousand people watching her Instagram live. So basically 100,000 people

were watching. Watching her IG live last night. She was live last night. So just put this in context. The live piece,. So let me put this in context. The live piece, okay? Let me put this in context. 100,000 people were watching a Nicki Minaj live video on Instagram last night

and to get 100,000 live viewers, we would do that in a month and a half. That's the point I'm trying to get people to understand when people who have platforms, when they

say things, you got to use it wisely. That's right. With great power comes great responsibility, as the great Spider-Man said. And folks who have that platform can't just openly and ignorantly say what they want to say because the influence that it has on your followers is very serious. What I decided to do was while I was watching the live was read the comment section. And I just want to acknowledge up front that the comment section is based off of proximity. So there are people that I follow,

like Timberland and some other artists, whatever, and I can see their comments. I can't see all 99.7 thousand people's comments. The comments that I was seeing, that I was seeing as I read them, were in support of Nicki. Nicki, we still got your back. You was telling the truth.

Don't let the government shut you up. They're going to try to pay you to do this. And she was acknowledging that she was going to go to the White House. And they were like, yeah, got your back. You was telling the truth. Don't let the government shut you up. They're going to try to pay you to do this. And she was acknowledging that she was going to go to the White House. And they were like, yeah, that's good. You should have been in the White House. And I just think it's interesting. This is not a shame or a dig in my community. But I just think it's interesting as you try to navigate, which we'll talk about in a little bit,

how people use their platforms and what information people decide to believe based off of their proximity and influence of a celebrity per se, like Nicki Minaj. And more importantly, what people decide to take a very hard stance on and what people decide to not focus on at all. Because I, and I'm just, I'm, I'm, I've been doing this work for about 13 years now. That's just the way it works. But it's really discouraging and hard to know that there are people who will stand up for Nicki Minaj over her baby daddy's friends' testicles blowing up and then stand up for her in the name of this, but not stand up for other issues that are actually more pressing and present in their communities. And I wonder how many of those 99.7 thousand people were actually vaccinated themselves

or have lost somebody to COVID, right? I've had COVID. I've also been vaccinated. I was watching her live and I was like, she is not the doctor. And you cannot play the victim because you said what you said. It is on record and it is there forever. And people were moved and influenced by it. The same way that I'm going to hold Donald Trump accountable for telling people to drink bleach when COVID first started,

I'm going to have to hold Nicki Minaj accountable when she's telling people that somebody blew up their balls and their testicles because they got the vaccine and lost their chance of having a happy marriage. We can't believe that. And Greg Carr, I got some idiot on YouTube by Florida Smoke,

a black man promoting vaccines to his own people, SMD8 so sad. So if you can't listen to a black male doctor, all right, who the hell are you going to listen to? Because here's what I do know. Here's what I do know, Greg, and this is what trips me up with these people. If somebody right now, if all of a sudden they go to the doctor and they say you're a diabetic, what are they going to say? Yeah, I ain't believing you, doc. I'm just going to keep going out there and eating sweets and everything.

All right, go have a diabetic coma and see what happens. Okay, your ankle, a doctor says you broke your ankle. You know what, doc? I'm just going to ignore you. I'm going to keep walking on it. Yeah, it hurts, but I don't think it's broke. See, that's what, it's amazing to me how it's like, oh, we'll listen to doctors on a whole bunch of stuff. But then, no, no, I ain't gonna listen to the doctor

on this stuff, even if you're a black male doctor. That's the one that just really cracks me up. Because Nikki had a lot of plastic surgery, which means she listened to a doctor who did a surgery. No, somebody gotta go ahead and say it. I mean, we gotta stop playing. She had a baby. Did she have a baby by herself?

Or was that Dr. President? Yeah. Yes. I mean, not going to listen to Roland Martin. Not going to listen to Sister Tiffany. Not going to listen to Reese. Not going to listen to you, Dr. Turner. You got to fight fire with fire. You know, something Senator Warnock said when he was campaigning and he came on the show,

he said COVID-19 exposed COVID-16-19. And I think that's very valid. What you see in moments like this is that the underlying conditions of the society are laid bare. So what you see, first of all, why is anybody listening to Nicki Minaj? Because celebrity culture has eaten the society are laid bare. So what you see, first of all, why is anybody listening to Nicki Minaj? Because celebrity culture has eaten the society. But celebrity culture was always there. That's number one. Social media, as PC tells us, is a cesspool. We all use it because we have to be engaged in it because we're trying to get messages out. But it has been overrun by deliberate attacks from all over the world. I'm not blaming the Russians or the Chinese. I'm blaming everything and everybody. We see them now going after people in the Biden administration,

blaming them for Afghanistan. It's just flooding. And then you have the convergence of the undermining of institutions. Ignorance kills. And I can tell you as a teacher, I fail every day in the face of ignorance. Did you read this? Yes. And then the question comes and I'm like, did you read that or not? Access to information is not enough. But as Raphael Warnock said, COVID-19 just exposed the underlying issues we are facing. Malcolm said this in the mid-1960s before he was assessed that. He said, which other group do you know has athletes and entertainers as their leaders? But the simple fact of the matter is at this point, everybody does. People are listening to celebrities. And so I think, finally,

that the best person to counter Nicki Minaj would be one of her number one fans who managed fan sites until he figured out how to use algorithms and vibe to create himself as a global celebrity. Let Lil Nas X beef with her.

And then what you would then find would be a cleavage in this thing. But I don't know whether Lil Nas X is vaccinated. But if he is, he needs to take his horse down Old Town Road and take on his Nicki Minaj. Because we are now beyond logic. This has nothing to do with logic. The thing this has exposed is the class tensions in our community. Nobody's going to listen to us because they're going to say, you bougie Negroes. I ain't going to do it because you said do it.

You have to fight fire with fire, Roland. That's why Fauci said he's been on TikTok. But they ain't going to listen to him or you. They got to find an influencer, brother. And see, when we talk about, again, the celebrity influence and how it then is weaponized, what CBS was going to do, they were going to launch this show called

The Activist, where they're going to have these celebrities compete for activism for some reason. It made no sense. It's going to feature six activists competing against one another for social media attention for their causes. Usher, Priyanka Chopra, Julianne Hough were joining to be the judges. Well, people lit them up, including people like Tiffany Loughton, and they were hot.

Now CBS goes, yeah, we kind of screwed up. Now the show is going to be a documentary special. Global Citizen, CBS, and Live Nation, they partnered on the project and they released a statement. The activist was designed to show a wide audience the passion, long hours, and ingenuity that activists put into changing the world, hopefully inspiring others to do the same. However, it has become apparent the format of the show, as announced, distracts from the vital work these incredible activists do in their communities every day. The push for a global change is not a competition and requires a global effort.

As a result, we are changing the format to remove the competitive element and reimagining the concept into a primetime documentary special, air date to be announced. It will showcase the tireless work of six activists and the impact they have advocating for causes they deeply believe in.

Each activist will be awarded a cash grant for the organization of their choice, as was planned for the original show. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Tiffany, let's just be clear. You would never see this type of documentary in primetime on a CBS. Let's just be real clear.

If it wasn't for the pushback. So you and LaTosha Brown and others were like, what the hell is this? I went off. I went off. I went off. I let it rip. I went off. Let me say a few things.

One, this was so insulting. It was a terribly dumb, stupid idea. Folks who do not participate in political action, who have not been committed to protest, to direct action, to campaign organizing, don't understand how much mental, physical, and spiritual energy and strength it takes to do this work. And I'm not, this is not a comparison to other talents, Roland. This is just me talking about this particular show and this dumb ass idea. There are people who are currently in jail right now because they protested Mike Brown's death. There are people who have been killed. There are people who have been shot at by white supremacists. There are people who have taken their own lives

because it was too stressful to fight for black lives in a world of white supremacy. So when I saw this article, I was immediately pissed off because I do not think, unlike talent shows, America's Next Top Model, American Idol, mass incarceration, ending police brutality, voting rights, those things are not in competition with one another and never should be. Neither are the people or leaders who move that work. They should not be in competition. Yes, all of our movements need, deserve, and can get money.

We all fundraise. I am literally fighting for a black man's life right now in Killeen, Texas. Marvin Guy, who's been in jail for seven years without trial because of a no-knock warrant that happened at his house. He's a black man. He's been in jail. He has not had a trial. He has not been sent to prison. And the district attorney has already said that he is trying to kill him. Now, what in the hell would I look like as an organizer coming on a competition show, begging the world and competing against other activists when my home girl's daddy is about to get deported and my other homeboy is trying to fight so that his school stays open or the teachers in Florida are trying to fight so that they don't have guns at the school.

What do we look like fighting and competing with each other in front of the public world where America should have all these things fixed already? And then even more so, what the hell do we look like competing for money publicly in front of other people? And the statement that I saw on CNN said that they were trying to recruit people to the work this is actually the opposite way to do it when you create reality tv shows and when you

create competitions you don't recruit people to the work you make things messy you create competition you create evilness you create pettiness in between the organizers and leaders which already frankly exists roland you want to talk about this all the time and we are trying to bring folks together. My old boss, Derek Johnson, president of NAACP, said social justice is not a competition. So this show was a direct insult and disrespect to the political prisoners, to the lives that have been lost, and to the organizers like myself who sweat every single day because we do the hard work of knocking on a door to have a conversation about why it's important

to vote in the recall in California. We do the hard work recruiting people in North door to have a conversation about why it's important to vote in the recall in California. We do the hard work recruiting people in North Carolina going to a hearing so that they can talk about why redistricting is important in their community. We do the hard work of making sure that Stacey Abrams can run a great race for governor and be the first black governor in the United States of America. We do the hard work of trying to convince people to vote even when they know and feel like voting doesn't make a difference in their communities. That was a direct insult. Now, moving on, because now, a couple of days later, the statement then came out, and I had already ripped him on social media. Me and Amanda Seals went back and forth on social media and in the DMs talking about how ridiculous this was, and also how ridiculous it was to choose these three hosts, because I personally don't know

none of them except for Usher. And even though I am a huge Usher fan and plan to go to his residency in Vegas in December, I have never seen him outside of wearing a t-shirt that said Black Lives Matter show up to a protest, donate money. I'm not saying he hasn't. I'm just saying I don't understand why he's the person that they chose to be the host of this show. Moving on to the solution now. I actually also disagree with this documentary idea. I do not think that they should have a series of documentaries about activists. Six special activists should be chosen to go to, where is it, Rome for the G20 so they can come to the conference. Listen, I sat on the board for Reebok, for the human rights campaign, where we worked on finding six activists. And we awarded six activists up to $100,000 to do the work they've been doing.

Those young activists were people who were trying to fight to abolish youth prisons in their city. Those young activists were folks who were providing women's sanitary napkins and things like that, and also providing basic food. They had a food bank for the community that they needed, trying to solve and end homelessness. Those are the things they were trying to do. So instead of us spending money on the show, talk about the work, how about we just fund the work? If Usher wants to get involved, if these judges want to get involved in the work, they can call me, and we can just put them

and plug them into the campaign. If we wanted to focus on the actual work that was happening, then celebrities would align themselves with activists, organizers, leaders, and social justice organizations, and they would say, hey, this is the issue that I care about. What can I do to get involved? Now, I have worked with multiple celebrities who do do that.

Absolutely. Some of them do it for free. Some of them do it for money, but they do it. If we really want to do that work, let's do that. There are documentaries that already exist, like Ava DuVernay's 13th. There's a documentary, The Kalief Browder Story. There's a documentary that I watched last night.

It was not a documentary, but there's a show that I watched last night, Blood Brothers. Dr. Grant Carr has the show with Karen Hunter on Sunday. They just got finished talking about that. I watched that on the class. They also have a show, Self Made. They also have a show, and these are all on Netflix, and they're all free. There's also Shape Moisture. I was on their board because we just funded three organizations up to $150,000 so that they can continue to do work that they wanted to do in the community.

Money is being given out. Organizations are stepping up to the plate. This show is a dumb idea. The documentary is a dumb idea. And if they actually want to be invested in recruiting people to the movement, they can have a conversation with myself. They can fund the organizations that are doing the work on the ground. And they can help celebrities get connected to issues and organizations that align with the mission

and the values of the work that they want to do. We will not make social justice a competition, especially when we're still out here fighting for basic stuff like voting rights. Now go catch your plane. Now go catch your plane. Now go catch your plane. It's ridiculous, Uncle Roland. It's ridiculous.

It really is ridiculous. I was so insulted. I was so insulted. I was like, this is actually... I don't like reality shows. I don't like social media. It's already moving us into the age where things are in competition with each other. Why is it that I'm trying to fight Congress and trying to fight Texas so that women can make decisions over their own bodies? Why am I trying

to end police brutality? Why are we trying to save Julius Jones's life in Oklahoma? That's enough competition in and of itself. I already have to fight America for America to do what I needed to do so that I can live free and black in this country. We do not need a show where I have to battle other people to do the same thing. That is stupid. Absolutely stupid. All right. You do have the flight to catch.

I do got a flight to catch. I can't wait to see you. I love you. Dr. Greg Carr, I'm going to text you because, sir. Yes, ma'am. Don't dodge me no more. We have to have lunch or something. No doubt. No doubt.

No doubt. And I'm sure you're going somewhere where you can do a yoga headstand. Go. Go. You didn't see my IG? I just did that. You didn't see me? Yes, yes.

I saw it. Yes, I saw it. Stay black. I love y'all. Yes. Love you, too. Bye. The point that she makes there, Greg, is an important one because, again, and I'm putting these two together for a reason.

When you talk about activism, we talk about even where we are, all these people who are talking about, even when we're talking about the vaccine information, you have the people who are like, oh, you're getting paid to say this. No, actually, we're not. Because you know what? Here's the whole deal. I haven't seen any Pfizer money, any Moderna money. We haven't seen any advertising from the federal government. So since all y'all keep saying I'm getting

paid for it, please show me where in the hell the money is because I got some other shit to pay for around here. So I'm just saying y'all let me know that. But what both of these stories really illustrate is this celebrity-driven But what both of these stories really illustrate is this celebrity-driven world that we are in

and what it has created, Greg, and I can't help but think about Bob Moses who recently died, who walked away from the civil rights movement because he feared becoming a civil rights celebrity. That's right. That's right, Roland. In fact, it's so funny you mentioned Bob Moses. We've got 1,800 freshmen at Howard in the College of Arts and Sciences and freshman seminar reading this book, Quality Education as a Human Right, which Bob Moses called together a meeting in 2005,

and a bunch of people came together and they said, what would it take to make quality education for everyone a constitutional right? And we thought it was important for Howard students to have that conversation because it isn't about them. College students aren't natural leaders. The vast majority of our people are suffering. I think that what we saw with the activists is quite predictable. This dying system is fighting to preserve itself. I look at that show as the logical extension of everything from the corporate-sponsored NAACP Image Awards, to the National Book Awards, to the MacArthur Genius Grants. In other words, capitalism, when it sees itself on the verge of being confronted by those

who are beyond the petty-bourgeois kind of manager class, will reach out and cultivate from that class a group who will look at preserving itself as the first priority. We saw it during the social justice movement we call the civil rights and black power movements. The birth of black studies, you'll go out and find some talented Negroes that you'll bring in, just enough of them to serve as a pressure valve on stopping everything else. You could have predicted this. So when you see something like Global Citizen and Live Nation, these are huge corporate international entities that are looking at the situation and saying, we got to attract eyeballs, we got to pull all this in.

So then what is our response? What has to be our response? You've created an independent black media platform. That has to be the counterbalance, just as the Chicago Defenders, you've told us and taught us many times, just as the black press was, just like the Courier was, just like Freedom's Journal was. By the way, I told, I have John Russ Worm's five-time great-granddaughter in my class at Howard right now, and I told her yesterday, I'm going to tell you that she said hello to you, because it blew my mind, man. I said, but my point is this independent black press is the counterweight.

Independent black institutions are the counterweight. But the minute they drop two nickels to rub together, even when we say we doing activism, we will go to the shiny thing that we think somehow could be a way, maybe a point of entry. And boom, they got you. This isn't an outlier. This is this is the same thing. Liberation is not going to be funded by our open enemies. Those people Tiffany talking about, finally, those political prisoners that have been in jail for 50, 60 years,

the Panthers, the Black Liberation Army, all these folks, the state is never going to stop oppressing black people until we realize that you can't dally dally dally with with capitalism because they're never going to relent. They're never going to relent. And I think I just don't know how we counter that other than countering it. And and Doc, it really is. And the countering has to be aggressive. It can't be passive. Again, when we talk, this is what I was saying, Dr. Fauci. And I think what happened was, you know, you had and look, let's just be real clear. And there's no disrespect to medical doctors. And there are a few out there who understand the medium of television, who understand social social media.

But the reality is, that's just not what y'all do. You are a medical doctor. You know what you're doing every single day. But this is also where people who do know this, this is where you listen to those experts and say, hey, if you want to get information out, this is how you gotta do it. And I'm gonna tell you, as I told Dr. Fauci,

the problem that we had is, we talked to the White House. We talked to the CBC. We told them, this white ad agency that's controlling the money, they are not going to disseminate the money right. They're not going to know who to go talk to and where to go. They're going to give it to mainstream media. And then about six or eight months later, y'all going to come to us like, oh, this ain't working.

Duh. We tried to tell you. Yeah, so at the beginning of this pandemic, we got together with Jackson State and did some research. And what we did is we did a survey and we sent out all these questions. And what it boiled down to was asking, basically, where do you go for credible information? Who do you trust? We looked at all of the different age groups. We looked at ethnicity. We looked at all of these different factors on this questionnaire. And what we

were able to find out is that the most credible place that people go to for trust as relates to information is their primary care physician. And the government, you know, was down the line, and mainstream media was down the line as well. So we did this big push to try to always talk to your primary care physician, but unless you're going to the doctor every three to six months, it's hard to make that call. So that patient that I referenced earlier today,

she hadn't seen me in about a year. So she has allowed the influence of everything else that's out there. Now, if everyone was listening to Roland Martin unfiltered for their news, then they would be getting credible information. But the majority of the people that I talk to say, look, I don't trust the news.

You know, they have a narrative. You know, unfortunately, they're not like you all and the rest of the panelists who keep it real and it's understood. And if people, you know, took the time to actually listen to what we're doing, what you're doing, it would make a big difference. But they don't want to look at something for an hour or two hours. They just want a sound bite

that has two minutes worth of information of somebody that's stated they're a doctor, but not really a doctor. And they go and fire it. Oh, boom, there it is. This guy come in on my Instagram post the other day and he was asking about fertility and what about increasing the risk of miscarriages, all these different things. So I answered him twice. And the third time I was like, look, you have to schedule an appointment.

I said, I can't teach you embryology, pathology, physiology, biology on social media one day. And I'm also not going to keep going back and forth with you when an answer is not what you're trying to get. You won't drum. And I just don't have time for that. You think he set up an appointment with me yet? No, he hasn't set up an appointment. So as it relates to misinformation, the only thing that we can do is counter that.

And I'm not sure if everyone is aware that's listening, but there's a school district in San Francisco that has about 50,000 students and staff. Guess how many outbreaks they have had since vaccinations have been out? Zero. What they have done, they have achieved a 90% vaccination rate amongst individuals age 12 to 17. They have the social distancing measures in place. They've been very, very strict out there, and they have had zero outbreaks. They have the social distancing measures in place. They've been very, very strict out there. And they have had zero outbreaks. They have had some cases. And the exact number is 227 cases.

So 227 cases out of about 50,000 people that's students and staff. That's the recipe. And our goal initially was to try to get 70% vaccination rate. But we got comfortable. I guess we had premature success, which is dangerous sometimes than success, and people start getting vaccinated. And what happened? We got the Delta variant. And here we are. We got to cover our

pants down, and we've been trying to play catch-up ever since. So the information is there. The example, as far as what they're doing in the San Francisco school district, is showing what we need to do to get ahead. So how do we take the information that we're providing on this panel with all these different sources, and like Dr. Carr said, how to meet them where they are with this information?

But you know, Reece, you made this point. I see you make it all the time. You get a little perturbed at people who are real quick to share video clips from mainstream media outlets, even those hosted by black hosts, when those same things they're sharing, we literally said two, three, four, five weeks earlier on Roller Martin Unfiltered. And you're like, and you're like, if y'all, if y'all blue check black people had the same intensity of sharing black owned media stuff,

then maybe our folks would be informed. That's really what it boils down to. I am constantly saying to people, the first lecture I gave at Fisk a couple weeks ago, I said real simple, the money follows your eyeballs. And where you as black people move your eyeballs that's where folks are gonna go so stop talking about we need to have our own we need this we need this i i will say this and i dare somebody to put some money up i don't believe that there is a single show on any network including Black News Channel, TV One,

BET, OWN, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, News Nation, Newsmax, OANN, Al Jazeera, I don't know who the hell I'm leaving out. I guarantee you, there's

not a single show that has had more black doctors and scientists on in the past 16 months than this show giving out credible, real information about COVID-19 and other health issues. But again, our folks, real quick, man, we got to have our own. It don't matter having our own if you do not watch and support. Risa? Well, I think that explains why you have a show like The Activist that comes up. Because as a society, we, and I don't include myself, to be clear, but we as a society decide who are the chosen ones, who are the tastemakers,

who are the people that get to set the narratives and get listened to? And they have to be anointed to some degree. On Twitter, you have blue checks. And all across social media, you have blue checks. And there's no shade if you have a blue check. That's fine. I'm not hating on you. I'm verified by the people. No, no, no. Hold up. You ain't hating. You stating.

I'm just stating. Hello. I like it. I ain't hating. I'm stating. Okay. I'm going to use it. But the bottom line is that people want to see you validated by somebody else before they follow behind what you have to say, before they amplify what you have to say, before they approve of what you have to say. That's why I always say we are the tastemakers. We are the validators, but we don't spend that time validating ourselves.

There are people who are fans of me. I don't see you retweeting my stuff. I know I can get a little spicy or whatever, but I'm not the kind of person that's going to be retweeted by everybody because I don't have a certain stature. I don't have a certain blue check, you know, even though people like, and they quietly, you know, follow all that kind of stuff. So I think we as a society are basically moving behind a select few number of people, a select few number of even black broadcasters, a select few number of networks. Even Black News Channel don't get as much attention as MSNBC. Even Fox Soul doesn't get as much attention, even though these are not black-owned media outlets, but they are black-targeted. We as a society have decided

that only a certain number of people that only a certain number of people or only a certain group of people are the people that get to speak for us, that get to be the ones that we pay attention to. And so that's why, Roland, when you were on ABC this week, I saw a dozen articles written about your

comments that you have made countless times on Roland Martin Unfiltered, because you have to countless times on Roland Martin Unfiltered because you have to be somewhere that's validated for your opinion and your statements to be valid to too many people. And we have to solve that. Absolutely. Now we're going to go to a break.

It's interesting. Somebody sent me a clip. I'm going to show it later in the show. And I remember the conversation, but I'm going to show you a clip of what I said on MSNBC before the 2016 election. And when y'all see it, you probably are going to ask, why in the hell every network didn't call me for the last five years? But it goes to show you. And in fact, I can say this here. Since doing this show, launching Blackstar

Network, not a single one of these mainstream media writers has written anything on us. Now, they write stuff on Tucker and Sean. In fact, I sent a tweet to one of them today who was talking about an article he did on

Sean Handy. I was like, you know you you could do something over here, a black owned independent company. But that's also what we're dealing with. And even when you talk about Black Star Network, there are about 30 black celebrities that I actually sent the graphic to and the announcement of the OTT channel. One, sent it out. Just saying. But when they got a project, it's amazing how my phone rings. Folks, if y'all want to support what we do, we're going to go to a break. When we come back, we're going to talk about

these federal charges against Derek Chauvin. Folks, you can support what we do, of course, joining our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar you get goes to support the show. Cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered as well. PayPal is our Martin Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUniltered. Venmo is RM unfiltered as well. PayPal is our Martin unfiltered. Zell Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Also, folks, we are

streaming on the Black Star Network, our OTT network. We're on every single platform, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Amazon TV, Roku, Samsung, Xbox. Come on, guys. Let's go. Show the Black Star Network graphic. Let's go. Thank you very much. And so, again, iPhone, Android, Android TV, Roku, Fire TV, Xbox, Smart TV, all of that. Support what we do. Download the app.

We're past 10,000. Now we're trying to hit 20,000. Got to go to break. We'll be back. Roland Martin Unfiltered on Blackstar Network. I believe that people our age have lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing. The challenges, there's so many of them and they're complex. And we need to be moving to address them.

But I'm able to say, watch out, Tiffany. I know this role. That is so freaking dope. Oh, it's death. Hopefully put another nail in the coffin of racism. You talk about awakening America. It led to a historic summer of protest. I hope our younger generation don't

ever forget that nonviolence is soul force. Christ. This is DeOlla Riddle. What's up, y'all? I'm Will Packer. I'm Chrisette Michelle. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Now, of course, Derek Chauvin, who killed George Floyd, is going to prison.

He was convicted in state court. But remember, there were still federal charges, not just in the George Floyd case. What happened was there was another case that was being investigated, all right? Now, he has now pled not guilty to federal charges against him involving a 14-year-old boy. According to prosecutors, Chauvin held the boy by the throat and hit him in the head with a flashlight in 2017. Those charges are separate again from the case involving George Floyd in 2020. Earlier this week, Chauvin and the three other officers pled not guilty to the federal charges in the Floyd case.

Chauvin is currently serving a 22-and-a-half-year prison sentence for the state conviction. Joining me now is attorney Christopher Brown, who specializes in excessive force cases. First and foremost, you're actually based where, Attorney Brown? I actually don't hear you. Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C. area. All right, so here's the thing that's interesting. This case is from 2017.

This is 2021. Floyd's killing 2020. What the hell took so long to hit him with federal charges in that case? Maybe if he was dealt with between 2017 and 2020, he would not have been in a position to kill George Floyd. And George Floyd might still be with us. But it's people like you. And it's the attention that the public brought on the atrocious behavior of Derek Chauvin

and the killing of George Floyd that's going to push the Justice Department to try to do the right thing here. I mean, you hate to think they're playing catch up. They should be leading the charge. But unfortunately, that wasn't the case. And so these federal charges, so explain to folks again, obviously state charges are totally different. The federal civil rights charges, that's also a different animal as well, because when Attorney General Eric Hogan was there, he complained about the high threshold they had to meet the federal standard? It is high. Now, the first question

I always get is, what about double jeopardy? That's not quite what's going on here, right? They're bringing these indictments under 18 U.S.C. 242, which is a civil rights statute. It's for criminal behavior. And it has a high bar. It has to show that they deliberately did what they did. They essentially knew what they were doing, and they did it anyway. Now, that's going to be tough for the other three officers. Kung, I'm sure I'm pronouncing his name wrong, and Tao, those two are being indicted on account for failing to give aid. And all four of them are being indicted for failing to give medical aid.

Kung and Tao are being indicted for failing to intervene and stop Chauvin. And Chauvin has accounted against him for violating Floyd's civil rights by keeping his knee on his neck and killing him. So, and when we say a violation of federal civil rights, the federal civil rights violations, also explain that. What does that actually mean? That means that there's a civil rights statute that's in place to protect people's constitutional rights from people doing what anybody else can do to you in the public, but there's a special protection if someone does it under color of state law.

And these officers, the allegation in the indictment is that under the color of state law and the authority they possessed, they engaged in behavior that violated the civil rights of George Floyd. That is, his right to be free from unreasonable seizure, to be free from excessive force, to have the other officers provide aid if someone is violating his rights, and to have them seek medical attention appropriately and timely in order to try to save his life. And also, when you say civil rights, meaning, because that was the case, I remember, with the Trayvon deal, is that you have the right to walk down the street.

You have the right to drive. So when they say you're federally protected civil rights, that includes your right to just be free, and that restricts your movement. Is that what factors in when they say a federal civil rights charge? Look, when we're talking about all you hear in the news about freedoms, whichever side of the aisle you're hearing from, this is what we're talking about. These civil rights statutes protect our freedoms, not to be unfairly investigated, not to have our property or our person taken or abused, not to be the subject of excessive force, not to be held against our will without probable cause, etc. So when you hear all this talk about our freedoms and our freedoms, this is in fact what we're talking about. All right. Well, look, we certainly are watching this.

And so he's already in prison on the state charges. Now you have this particular case and still the federal case as well. And so Derek Chauvin might be spending the rest of his life in prison, especially those judges don't, if he's convicted, they don't serve concurrently. Well, they will be served consecutively, right? But I got to tell you, it's great to see some more attention placed on the significance of this situation, because there's been a little dearth of news lately with respect to excessive force against people of color. And even though he'll serve consecutively, he can get 10 years associated with death. He could get life or even the death penalty.

That's very unlikely. And while, you know, I think Chauvin was 45 when he was sentenced, he's got 22 years even the death penalty. That's very unlikely. And while, you know, I think Chauvin was 45 when he was sentenced, he's got 22 years on the state case. He could be out in 15. You know, if he served 10 or 20 on this, you know, he's going to be 65 years old. You know, is that good enough? You know, if you ask me, no. but it's the way it is. But it's at least nice to have some more attention on this point so we can continue to make efforts toward improving the situation out here for people of color and dealing with officers and the use of excessive force. All right.

Attorney Crystal Brown, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you so much, Roland. Folks, it's been five years since, sorry, it's been seven years since a Tulsa police officer killed Terrence Crutcher. It's been four years since the woman who killed him, Betty Shelby, was acquitted for the manslaughter of the unarmed father. On this anniversary of her brother's death, Dr. Tiffany Crutcher came to Washington, D.C. to hold a news conference with Attorney Ben Crump as well as Attorney Demario Simmons.

Here's some of what was said at today's news conference. His car stalled in the middle of the road and he needed help. He needed a competent, rational, well-trained public servant to aid him in a difficult situation. But Officer Betty Shelby was none of those things. Rather than uphold her oath and discharge her duty to protect and serve, she decided to discharge her weapon. She shot my brother, an unarmed black father, with his hands in the air in cold blood. And then she retreated to her car instead of rendering aid.

In five years, my family has received no justice. And so today, on the day when I should be with my family, I am here 1,000 miles away fighting for justice for my twin brother. I'm standing here to call on the nation's Department of Justice to reopen the case in my brother's killing, into Officer Shelby's actions, and into a culture of relentless racial bias

that has permeated Tulsa's police department for generations. It is my hope that President Biden's administration will go beyond the empty talk of racial justice we saw over the last four years and instead vigorously act to ensure that justice is done. Five years ago today, Terrence Crutcher was walking away from the police. Attorney Solomon Simmons with his hands up. His back was to police officer Betty Shelby. And it is inexplicable from that day to this one why she shot this unarmed black man who was simply having car trouble.

He had committed no crime. But as often is the case that we see far too many times in America, police shoot first and ask questions later when it's unarmed black people. And from that day to this one, his twin sister, Dr. Tiffany Crutcher, has bared her heart, saying that her brother's life matters. And that's why she's been here to Washington, D.C., on Capitol Hill on many occasions with the families of George Floyd and Botham Jones and Breonna Taylor and so many other families that have had their loved ones taken far too soon at the hands

of the people who are supposed to protect and serve them. And just yesterday, on the eve of the five-year anniversary, Dr. Crutcher and Attorney Solomon Simmons and others were on Capitol Hill, and they were trying to get support for the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, so we would have meaningful police reform, because her brother's blood is on that legislation. JOHN BARRON, Former Attorney General of the United States Supreme Court of the United States, The last five years, I have the great pleasure and honor to work alongside and represent the family of Terrence Crutcher, including my sister and my friend, Dr. Tiffany Crutcher.

We have asked specifically and formally in a letter to the Department of Justice to reopen the criminal investigation into the murder of Terrence Crutcher that happened five years ago today, along with LDF and Human Rights Watch and many other leaders, national and local leaders. Why are we doing this today? Why are we making this announcement five years later? Because we do not trust the investigation from the previous administration. We cannot trust that they actually looked at this case for what it is, an unarmed black man shot with his hands up in the air.

We asking the Joe Biden administrate, the President Biden's administration, the current administration to reopen this case, to do a proper investigation, because we believe strongly that the evidence is clear. The video is clear. Terrence Crutcher's civil rights were violated when he was shot with his hands up in the air and when they allowed him to lay on the ground

for over two and a half minutes without any medical assistance. When on video, the officers made eyewitnesses leave the scene, never to be investigated, never to be discussed about what they saw and heard. That is on video. Until this very day, not one officer has been disciplined. Not one person who participated in the cover-up of the murder of Terrence has been brought to justice. And that is why we're asking for this administration, an administration that is built upon racial equity and civil rights, to reopen this investigation and to open a civil practice and patterns investigation into the department, the Tulsa Police Department. It is beyond time for

the Tulsa Police Department to be investigated, not only for the murder and the cover-up of Terrence Crutcher, but for the continual degradation of black and brown people's civil rights in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That is why we're here today, because as Tiffany always has said, Dr. Crutcher, Terrence's life mattered. And his death will not be in vain. And yes, I want Tiffany, she's going to talk about the pain that her family has had and how they've turned their pain into purpose, including yesterday, seeing Joe Manchin and asking him to commit to supporting her family by supporting the George Floyd Policing Act. That is the commitment we need from Senator Manchin and every politician who says they are for racial equity, for civil rights, and for just doing what is right for our country to move into the next half of the 21st century as a place where freedom, justice, and equality actually occurs for everyone. Thank you.

All right, folks, we want to correct that. Terrence Gertrude was killed five years ago, and this was the fifth anniversary of his death. That's why they were here. Let's go back to our panel. And so, so, Reese, I'll start with you. You saw Demario Simmons there talk about the George Floyd Justice Act. That has been essentially dead because the police unions and the sheriffs they've been fighting qualified immunity. Early on you had a center Tim Scott Lindsey Graham they literally told the family members they could probably bring around bring on 20 to 25 Republicans. Remember mentioned about it somehow grant them 10 on the voting deal?

So at the end of the day, I don't know why these people think Republicans are going to go along with any of this. They're not. The only way any of this stuff is going to get passed is if 50 Democrats actually do it and Vice President Kamala Harris breaks the tie. Right. absolutely. I mean, at this point, what is Chuck Schumer doing to do anything about any of these procedural hurdles that are really manufactured because the filibuster is out of the Constitution? And basically, he's allowing his caucus to be held hostage by Joe Manchin, Kristen Sinema, and whoever else is secretly against the filibuster. Or maybe they're not being held hostage by Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, and whoever else is secretly against the filibuster.

Or maybe they're not being held hostage. Maybe the votes just aren't there, even with the filibuster being removed. But the bottom line is that there are so many limitations when it comes to and hindrances when it comes to getting justice for families who are victims of police brutality. I mean, my heart goes out to Terrence Kutcher's family and all of these families. And I think I noticed that they frequently want to reopen reinvestigations. And they rarely ever result in any kind of different results. And it's not a matter of depravity for the family, but it's a matter of law and the way

that the laws are written. And that's why getting things like the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act or some iteration of it is one of the ways that you can kind of get maybe perhaps some sort of relief in the law. But I am encouraged, at least today, we saw Vanita Gupta and Biden-Harris DOJ come out and talk about how they're going to open up pattern and practices investigations in Phoenix, in Minneapolis. And I think there is one more. I forget off the top of my head. But they're going to be a lot more aggressive about how federal funding is being allocated to police departments that are violating civil rights and trying to use that stick to punish those police departments that are racial profiling and doing things that are violating civil rights and trying to use that stick to punish those

police departments that are racial profiling and doing things that are racist and terrorizing black citizens, black and brown citizens. So, unfortunately, there are no warm and fuzzy feelings that you're going to ever get from any of these stories, because the police, we have a country that has wholesale bought in to the police basically being above the law. There's no political will to do much about it. I shouldn't say no political will, but there's not enough political will to do anything about it. So at most, what we'll see is whatever is going to come out of these consent decrees and investigations that were completely halted and not at all enforced under the Trump administration.

That's the best case scenario, unfortunately, here. Dr. Turner. Yeah, so Benjamin Franklin had a quote that says, justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are just as loud as those who are affected. And here in Mississippi, you know, we helped the reign of being the last state to change that old flag. And we fought so hard here trying to get that done. And my heart goes out as well to, you know, the family of Terrence, as well as so many others. But it wasn't until after George Floyd's death and the presence of social media, that's actually one place where we can be

thankful for social media because of the pressure that it allowed us to be able to have as one voice, as one race. But there's a state medical association that pretty much every state in our nation has. And Minnesota State Medical Association put out a statement, and it talked about how, you know, there's basically injustice in health. And as a health organization, we're going to say in solidarity that we speak up and we stand against it. And here in Mississippi, we try to do the same thing.

Actually, University of Mississippi Medical Center, a place where at one time doctors like myself who couldn't go and practice medicine, they actually led a silent protest where you had doctors and most didn't look like me, as well as nurses and staff. And they sat out there for several minutes, you know, in silence. And I was honestly, I was shocked because we're not where we used to be, but we're a whole lot more ahead of where we've been. And until we get more people that don't look like us to really speak up and stand out, and like you said, Roland, you know, not putting power over patriotism, then it's going to be hard for us to, you know, get to where we need to be.

I'm constantly challenging my colleagues, my colleagues that don't look like us. You guys got to speak up. I mean, we're talking about what we can do in Mississippi. You know, I'm not sure if y'all heard, but now Mississippi is number one in the nation per capita with COVID cases. And I'm on task force and we're talking about what else can we do? I'm like, you all can talk to the person that you are financing the campaign, the governor. He has the biggest influence. If you all are not funneling him money, then that's going to make a difference. Instead of the same,

it takes moving money to move problems. So whether that's getting players like the ones that basically say to Mississippi, hey, I'm not going to play if that flag is not changed. Or the SEC saying, hey, look, we're not going to allow you all to have a national

championship play in Mississippi unless you all take down the flag. You know, a little bit later on down the road, the flag is taken down. So I pray that we can get to a day where money doesn't have to make things move, but we really need the voices of those who are unaffected to be

just as loud as us. Benjamin Franklin gave that quote a long time ago. How far have we come? Greg? Yes, sir. As we sit here in the DMV awaiting the hillbilly horde that is coming to town on Saturday for the Justice for J6 rally, I'll contribute a quote, Dr. Turner, from somebody a little closer to me, my Alabama-born mother, Catherine Carr, who was wont to say from time to time, white folks do what they want to do.

So the point is this. Joe Manson, you cosplay coal miner, bought and paid for by the fossil fuel industry. Joe Manson will vote for whatever the hell the streets tell him to vote if there's enough people in the streets. These people are never going to be in coalition for justice. I mean, I'll quote another black woman, another prayer warrior, and that's Terrence Crutcher's mother. Terrence Crutcher's mother, Liana, said, there is no justice. My son is gone. I want closure. And so when we see Dr. Crutcher there, we understand that the villain of this piece is represented by Betty Shelby, good old murdering Betty Shelby, who has had her record expunged,

who was rehired by that police force, then moved to a sheriff's unit outside of Tulsa where the leader of that unit supported her. Then she and her husband are currently in some witness protection. They're probably in Idaho or Montana somewhere living the good life off of them GoFundMe funds that was raised. Meanwhile, her record has been expunged. She didn't do anything wrong. White folk do what they want to do.

And with all due respect to our brothers, Brother Crump, Brother DeMario, I see those brothers there. But it's time now for a different tactic to join the tactic of discussion and asking and organizing and visiting offices. The streets must be flooded now by those who understand where we live. We have a fundamental misunderstanding of where we live. There has never been a time when there was a we called the United States. This criminal enterprise has been built on the dehumanizing of Black people, on the dehumanizing of Native Americans. Policing as a concept cannot be reformed because it is doing what it is

supposed to do. You're not going to put Daniel, Daniel, Daniel, uh, Pentangelo in jail. You might not even see those other three cops that helped Derek Chauvin get charged with third degree manslaughter because the Supreme court of Minnesota yesterday overturned the conviction of Muhammad Noor on that thing. And you might see Derek Chauvin go back in to see if his conviction on that term can be overturned. In other words, it's doing what it was designed to do. There is no amount of eloquent pleading and losing, quite frankly. My friend, Ben Crump.

There's no amount of eloquent pleading and serial losing and negotiating settlements which can help the family. I'm not saying anything about that will win. What is going to win is when Joe Manchin looks out of his houseboat on the Potomac and sees too many people for him to keep playing that Cosby and runs his ass to the damn floor of

the United States Senate and votes the right way for fear of his life. Until we learn that white folks do what they want to do, everything else is just an academic conversation, friends. Folks, let's go to California, where a probe into the 2019 death of Elijah McClain uncovers problems within the Aurora Police Department. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser describes some of the findings from the report. This investigation concluded that the Aurora Police Department and Aurora Fire and Rescue have a pattern and practice of violating rights secured by state and federal law. Specifically, we found that Aurora Police has a pattern and practice of racially biased policing, using excessive force and failing to record

required information when it interacts with the community. Moreover, we concluded that Aurora Fire has a pattern and practice of administering ketamine in violation of the law. So if you put the rural police department then you start putting these other departments they're investigating and all of a sudden you start realizing you're 5, 10, 20, 30, 50. We can go on and on and on. What happened to all of those few bad apples, Recy? Well, like Dr. Carr said, I mean, the system is working as designed. This is not a bug. It is a feature. It's only when something goes viral in Elijah McClain's case, I mean, it was a full year,

I believe, later, after he was killed by the police, that that situation even got any attention, because the video went viral and it was horrific. As long as we don't hear about it, then the system is working as designed. And every now and again, when we do see something that goes viral and goes viral enough, not just, you know, circulating on Twitter for a day, then they trot out people to say, oh, this is an aberration, and there are all these protocols that are being breached, and maybe it goes away, people have short attention spans, or there's another police department somewhere else in the country that's doing what police officers and police

departments often do. And so, you know, this stuff, I don't mean to sound at all desensitized to it or flippant about it, but this is the reality of policing in America. And we're going to have to, to Dr. Turner's point, I think what is going to have to change is that white people are going to have to stop sacrificing their own up to the police, too, because the police kill plenty of white people. They abuse plenty of white people as well, not to the extent that they do it to us, where there are Black people around. They're going to target us first, 60 percent in some cases. You know, in Rodeo Drive, they had to think about that. But when there are places where there are no Black people around, the white people are the

ones that are getting it. But to date, the white folks have decided that they're willing to subject their brethren and their sistren to these corrupt police forces just so that they can keep the blacks and the browns in line. The thing here is, and this is where, Greg, an aggressive Department of Justice matters. This also, for the people out there who say, oh, Joe Biden, he racist, he the same as Donald Trump. I'm just going to hold up to you.

Trump Department of Justice, where they said we're going to pull back on consent decrees, we're going to sit here and not investigate police departments. Biden Department of Justice, where Vanita Gupta is over there, Kristen Clark is over there.

What they are announcing, and not just this here, they also announced, I'm going to pull up in a second, this investigation of, give me one second, of one of these jail conditions in one of these states.

Give me one second. Yeah, Justice Department, they announced investigation into the conditions in Georgia prisons. So again, all the people who said, oh, this is the same, they're the same. This is how you show the difference. Trump DOJ and a Biden DOJ, totally different. Absolutely. Yes, yes. I think, and this is the challenge of struggle. You know, we heard earlier, you know, as Tiffany was

talking, struggle is not something that is won like a television episode over 20 minutes with commercial breaks. Struggle is waged incrementally. It's hard. it's demoralizing you don't see the results immediately but in the nature of struggle is victory as you struggle so merrick garland is no hero we shouldn't even know the name merrick garland merrick we know the name of merrick garland because of the cowardice of barack obama and we have the cowardice of barack obama because we didn't make obama do what we needed him to do. And the reason we didn't do it is because we, again, in celebrity culture, mistake politicians for people

we got to like or not like or be celebrities. Politicians are means to an end. And so, yes, people say, well, Trump and Biden are the same. You wouldn't like the Department of Justice if Trump had been able to steal a second term, friends. Oh, my God. You would be facing a very difficult—at the same time, however, at the same time, however, Merrick Garland will go as far as he is pushed. Right.

There's a Kristen Clark and a Benita Gupta, as we just heard Recy say, because he was pushed. One of them should be the attorney general, but we'll get there or not, depending on what we do. Finally, this is why, again, you've got to support Black Star Network. You have to support Rhoda Martin and Filcher. Why? Because the conversation like this, somebody's watching this thinking, well, it ain't going to make a difference. No, every push makes a difference. We have to have the political logic of an Adam Clayton pal. You have to be smart. You have to be tactical. And I'm not beating up on Ben Crump or Demario Simmons or any of those cats.

What I'm saying is that they have to now be supplemented, surrounded, and overrun with those of us who understand tactically that there is a role for everyone. Once you voted, get in the street. Once you get in the street, break off $50 a year for RMU and Blackstar. Once you've done that, call and call unceasingly. Once you've done the street, break off $50 a year for RMU and Blackstar. Once you've done that, call and call inceasingly. Once you've done that, run for local office. Once you've run, in fact, do all of that at the same time and watch, watch the progress. Because them white boys is coming here this weekend to tear up the damn city again. They're not sitting around trying

to figure out what they can do. They simply build a reality and live as if that's the reality. They won the election. Every time they lose, it was stolen. I ain't taking no vaccine and I'm going to cough in your child's face until you knock all my teeth out and make me stop. And they dare us every day to stop them. That is actually quite simple when it really comes down to it. And on that particular point there, Doc, that Greg lays out, I was watching a story that they said the Mercers had contributed some $20 million to this dark money group. Well, they don't have to actually disclose who their donors are. I mean, look, the reality is these folks, they don't want an aggressive Department of Justice. They don't want an aggressive SEC.

They don't want an aggressive Food and Drug Administration, an aggressive CDC. They understand that, how Trump gutted the Department of Agriculture, gutted the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA, gutted all these different places. Them being in charge during a census year, the gathering of that information, that made a difference in terms of how many people got counted. And so it's walking people through these things. And so when we talk about this stuff, you cannot just say, well, I'm just going to be only committed to social justice and criminal justice reform without realizing if you do not have the people in place who are more likely to support your issues then you ain't changing a damn

thing you're not changing anything which which you see there in mississippi with the yahoos that are in the governor's mansion the legislature yeah i i don't understand i mean we still hear fighting talking about medicaid expansion which has been proven over and over that basically the benefits are a way to risk, that there's a whole lot of economic opportunity. We've been fighting for decades to get the approval of being able to have a lottery. They finally did. We had a black politician that had been trying to lead that for probably 20-something years. So we have it now. And now we've got more funds coming in to fix some of these broken roads that's been messed up for years. To try to make it simple, like our previous speakers have said, everybody plays a role in this fight. And silence gives consent. And it's time for all of us to realize that we have some capacity to be able to get

where we need to get. So, we think about the human body. We got the head, we got the hands, we got the heart, we got the lungs, we got all these different parts. My heart can't say, you know what? Man, I'm gonna take a break for a couple months. I'm just gonna let the lungs and the brain work that thing out. My brain can't say, you know what? Man, I'm going to take a break for a couple of months. I'm just going to let the lungs and the brain work that thing out.

My brain can't say, you know what? I'm tired. This doesn't appear to be affecting me. So right now, I'm going to let the hands deal with this, and I'm going to let the gastrointestinal system deal with that. Every part of the body is always working together. Even when you're sleeping, the body's working. When you're sleeping, the heart is pumping.

And if your heart does not get enough blood to your brain and get enough oxygen, it shuts down. There's 16 million Americans with sleep apnea right now, and a lot of them don't realize that they have it. But it's causing increased risk for heart disease and causing increased risk for heart failure, hypertension, all these type of things. But typically, it's not until people have symptoms that they begin to take things serious.

So we don't need to wait as it relates to this whole thing of injustice in America for it to happen to us in order for people to speak up. We don't need the white family to wait until it happens to them for them to speak up. So to everyone listening, we have to understand that when you continue to be silent, We don't need the white family to wait till it happen to them for them to speak up. So to everyone listening, we have to understand that when you continue to be silent, you're basically suggesting that you agree with everything that's being done. Dr. King said a while back that one of the greatest forms of discrimination is health injustice. He said it's the most shocking and the most humane.

But in reality, we can't really separate this versus separate that. We don't even have time to compete anymore. Injustice, whether it's health, whether it's education, whether it's economics, it's all related. So we're thankful for voices like Roy Lamar and Phil, because you guys are really addressing

all of it. All of it. Y'all got to support. Y'all got to follow them. Because if we're going to get serious about this thing and we walk down, we realize that, you know, black power and we're going to do this, we can't just post hashtags and think we're doing something. We got to get involved. We got to get in the streets.

We got to get in the trenches. And like Dr. Carr said, sadly, people have to fear that their life is in danger in order for us to get the most amount of movement at this point. Can I add one more thing? Yeah, go ahead. I just want to point out to you that this was a state attorney general's report and pattern of practices investigation.

This is why it's so important that when you go to the ballot box, you vote for all of your state elected officials. That's lieutenant governor. That's lieutenant governor, that's attorney general, secretary of state. I'm not sure if they're elected in every state. The governor, mayor, city council, et cetera. The attorney general is the difference between a Daniel Cameron in Kentucky declining to press charges against the cops that murdered Breonna Taylor and didn't even present evidence of their crime to the grand jury about them shooting Breonna Taylor.

They didn't even present evidence about her particular assault, death, execution. And Keith Ellison in Minnesota, who was the one who determined that charges would be brought against Derek Chauvin. And so it is so important. Everybody wants to look at, if you want to say, oh, Joe is no better than whoever. Okay, that's fine if that's what you want to believe. It's completely ridiculous. But that does not absolve you of your responsibility to be paying attention to who is in your state. Do you know who your state attorney general is? You can't say anything

about Mayor Garland if you don't even know who your own state attorney general is. If you're not putting pressure on your local elected officials and you're not putting pressure on your mayor, you're not going to city council, you're not going to school board things, then there's more work that you can do. All right, folks, got to go to a break. We come back. We're going to talk about the R. Kelly case. It is nearing its conclusion of the prosecution arresting their side. We'll give you an update on all developments. But before we do that, these are the folks who have given to us during the show. Nancy Jones, LaWanda Rivers, John Morris, Cheryl Houston, Darrell Lavelle, Ray Wilson, Ronald Pierce.

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And so you can join us via Cash App. So anybody who gives before the next 15 minutes we're on the air, I'm going to give you a personal shout out. Cash App, dollar sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal is rmartinunfiltered. Venmo is forward slash rmunfiltered. Zelle is rolling at rollingmartin.com. Rolling at

rollingmartinunfiltered.com. Alright, folks. We'll be back on Rolling Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. Life's films ain't just about hurting black folk. Right. You gotta deal with it. It's injustice. It's wrong. I do feel like in this generation, we've got to do more around being intentional

and resolving conflict. You and I have always agreed. Yeah. But we agree on the big piece. Yeah. Our conflict is not about destruction. Conflict's gonna happen. Before Till's murder, we saw struggle for civil rights as something grown-ups did.

I feel that the generations before us have offered a lot of instruction. Organizing is really one of the only things that gives me the sanity and makes me feel purposeful. When Emmett Till was murdered, that's what attracted our attention. Stay woke. All right, folks, here's the trial again. Witness of the witness testified about the horrors of R. Kelly. It has been a damning, damning testimony that we have seen each and every single day in the trial. It appears as if the prosecution is nearing the end of this particular process. Like I say, it has been very traumatic for those who have been testifying. He, of course,

is still claiming his innocence, but that's what's going on there. Joining us right now is Dallas attorney Tammy Allison. Tammy, how you doing? I'm good. How are you, Roland? Thank you for having me. All right, so let's break this thing down. It has been more than two weeks of testimony, back and forth, back and forth. Your analysis of what we have heard this week. What we've heard this week is a lot. We heard a lot more evidence from the prosecution's witnesses that speak to that criminal enterprise that you and I talked about the last time that I was on the show, where Mr. Kelly is

not being accused of the independent sexual abuses of these alleged victims, but overall a criminal enterprise similar to that of, like, a mob. And that's that RICO charge. So these testimonies that we've heard, they're stating that Mr. Kelly has done some very horrific things to these alleged victims, that the individuals who worked very closely with Mr. Kelly were aware of what was going on. They testified for the prosecution and detailed some of these very strict rules that Mr. Kelly had for these alleged victims, the fact that they were not able to use the bathroom without permission, they were locked in closets for days. I think we've heard about the naked women crawling out

from under the boxing ring and doing sexual things with the very young man and a lot more. I believe yesterday the prosecution presented evidence from a videotape from 2008 where Mr. Kelly was heard berating one of those alleged victims. And it was a very traumatic testimony that was heard yesterday. And I think that the jury, they're hearing all of this and I'm not sure how the defense is going to be able to overcome it. Um, because of COVID in the federal courtroom, cameras are not allowed, and the reporters are not able to see the jurors or their reactions to this testimony because of the fact that they are in these overflow rooms.

So there's just, like, a lot of speculation as to how the jury is receiving this information. But here's the question. Is berating someone actually illegal? So there's just like a lot of speculation as to how the jury is receiving this information. But here's the question. Is berating someone actually illegal? I don't think so. But the thing is, Roland, is that that type of testimony that these federal prosecutors are trying to elicit from these witnesses. Again, it goes towards that larger criminal enterprise, trying to say that Mr. Kelly used his power, his influence, his fame in order to keep not only these alleged victims under his control, but also those individuals that worked with him.

So, you know, berating someone and another individual that's witnessing that, they're going to be less likely to, like, speak back against that. So I believe that the prosecution is strategically bringing that up to show how much Mr. Kelly had power and control over everyone. Okay, but if we're thinking about this from a gang standpoint, we're thinking about this

in terms of RICO statutes, how we dealt with the mob. Well, they arrested underlings and the mob bosses. In this case, it's only him. So what about, okay, all the people who work for him, nobody else has been charged, except, I guess, the dude who gave a bribe for some information. But so it's sort of like, okay, there's a criminal enterprise, but of one? Exactly. And you know what, Roland?

There's been some witnesses, I'm sorry, not the witnesses, but some of the Mr. Robert Sylvester Kelly superfans that are at the courthouse day in and day out. And there's been a lot of footage that's played, these super fans, they're making some very good points that is facing these charges for a whole criminal enterprise, which allows the door to be open for a lot of evidence and testimony to be let in because the statute of limitations allows it to go back further than if he were being charged for any one of these individual acts. I think it's very interesting that you point that out, but his super fans have definitely been on top of that. Question or comment for Tammy? I'll start with you, Recy. Yes. You know, a lot of the comments that I hear, why is R. Kelly the only one that is facing the charges? I mean, I think he's the one who is obviously the most egregiously guilty on here. Do you make anything of it, or can you explain to those viewers why the absence of charges for other people does not mean that R. Kelly is any less allegedly guilty? Let me put it that way.

Yes, thank you for that question. So this case is before a federal district court judge. So these are United States attorneys that have brought these charges forward. Thank you for that question. So this case is before a federal district court judge. So these are United States attorneys that have brought these charges forward and indicted Mr. Kelly. Now, these prosecutors believe that they have enough evidence for him that they can move forward and present evidence so that the jury could find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. That's the standard of proof in any criminal trial. Now, if the defense is able to raise doubt,

then Mr. Kelly can be found not guilty. Federal prosecutors tend not to bring charges against individuals if they feel that they are not going to be able to meet that burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. So if there's any type of doubt that the prosecutors feel that it's already going to be raised, they're going to be less likely to go ahead and bring an indictment against that individual because it's not going to result in a guilty verdict.

Dr. Turner. Yeah, just as a physician, I'm always curious as it relates to health and specifically my passion for mental health. So when you see things that happen to people like, you know, Simone and other athletes who have talked about, you know, a history of being abused or issues with coaches and different things and people that they have held in high regards, I'm just curious about the process and what may be going on mentally as we watch the witnesses give testimonies from things that may have happened 10, 15, 20 years ago that mentally they suppress. And suppression and denial is a defense mechanism that allows people to continue to live how they live without having to worry about those uncomfortable feelings. That's why we're seeing people that

are still worried about COVID. So I'm just curious about, you know, are you all able to, you know, gauge, you know, what may be emotional, mental challenging times as it relates to the witnesses as they're given testimonials? I think that's an excellent question and something that, you know, I've talked about on other networks as well, given the fact that these are predominantly young African-American women. And this is, again, pre-MeToo movement, where people have been comfortable coming forward with allegations of sexual assault and abuse. So given the fact that these alleged victims were minors at the time of these alleged incidents that Mr. Kelly allegedly has done, I think it is very important that we take into consideration not only the mental health status

of each one of the individuals, but the timing. And was it okay back then to speak out against someone who has so much power, control, influence, money and fame and what that would do to not only that individual and their family. I always talk about myself because I'm an open book, I'm a survivor myself, and there is a lot of trauma that's affiliated with being a victim of abuse. So I think that the defense attorney, the way that he's cross-examining some of these witnesses, really trying to attack their character and to paint them out to be not credible witnesses to the jury, his main focus is trying to categorize these individuals as groupies. I do not believe

that that's the proper type of defense, given the fact that I do think the jury is going to be taking into consideration the mental health aspects that you mentioned and the various traumas that these individuals have gone through. And a lot of survivors, including myself, we don't speak out as soon as it happens. There's a lot of time and effort and energy where you have to work through that before you get comfortable. So we've heard throughout the trial the defense attorneys asking some of these alleged victims, well, did you call the police? Well, you went to a civil attorney. You had a monetary settlement. But again, it's like back in the early 90s, early 2000s, even up until this Me Too movement, a lot of these alleged victims probably felt more

comfortable settling this that way and having monetary compensation for what they've been through, as opposed to the backlash that they and their families might have received if they went to law enforcement authorities. Dr. Carr. Thank you, Roland. And thank you, Sister Allison, Attorney Allison. I was reading an article today that spoke to, I guess, a discovery in one of R. Kelly's storage bins of letters that he probably forced these girls to write saying that they hadn't done anything and they detail in great detail all the detail of things they didn't do. I guess what I want to ask you as as an attorney and realizing that that standard, of course,

is kind of high and the federal prosecutors are throwing everything against Kelly and he's going to probably do everything he can to, you know, besmirch the witnesses. As you're observing this jury, and we know that a lot of jury trials are about jury selection in the process, can you help us understand why it might not be as big a slam dump as we imagine it should be based on the evidence that's being admitted in the testimony. I mean, what's your sense of the jury and the possibility that it, you know, some of them may say, you know, I'm just going to just, you know, they're persecuting R. Kelly. In other words, the same thing we've seen before. Do you have a sense of that at this stage? I mean, it depends, but that's a very good point

that you make. Right now, because of how the courtroom is set up in federal district court, the jury is not in the jury box where they traditionally would be, where people could observe them. Even the person that sketches out the pictures of the courtroom is having a difficult time making out who the jury is, if certain witnesses have glasses on or don't have glasses on, because they're in these overflow rooms watching the trial on a monitor as opposed to being inside of the courtroom. So, the jury is spread out pursuant to the COVID protocols. So, no one is really able to see the reaction of the jury members to see if they're reacting

in disgust, if they're looking like they're interested, if they look like they're sleepy or bored with some of this testimony. So only time can tell. And as it pertains to some of those letters that Mr. Kelly allegedly had these alleged victims write, the prosecution has presented them to show the jury that Mr. Kelly had that intent. He knew what he was doing was illegal. And he pretty much coerced these individuals to write these letters to exonerate him if, in fact, he were to ever face charges. So the prosecution is actually using

those letters where you would think that the defense attorneys would use the letters to be like, OK, look, they wrote a letter. He didn't do it. But no, the prosecution is using it to go ahead and establish that criminal enterprise mindset of that control that he had using his fame, his power, his money, the attention that he had to show that how he was able to convince these young women and men to write letters to say that he didn't do anything. All right, then. Attorney Tammy Allison, we surely appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you. All right. Have a good one. Numerous occasions on this show, we've talked about how HBCUs have been, frankly,amato of Tennessee State University, they need more than $420 million to address urgent deferred maintenance on the campus in the next 10 years. electrical and utility systems require immediate upgrades in addition to several new academic

and service buildings. 337 million of those dollars are for critical projects that demand improvements in the next five years. In April, it was reported that the state government may have withheld funding over 70 years, totaling more than $544 million to Tennessee State. You know, Greg, when I was at Fisk University a couple weeks ago as a scholar in residence, I sat down with the president, and he told me that they are now building, because of the resources that have come in the last year, and let's also be clear, it was the death of George Floyd that spurred a lot of money that had been coming HBCU's way. On Fisk's campus, they are building their first new classroom

since the Eisenhower administration. They had not built a new classroom building on the campus of Fisk since Eisenhower was president of the United States. This report here about Fisk, and this is what people don't seem to understand when we talk about the problems at HBCUs. It's one thing when you talk about getting new students in, and sure, you're talking about dorms, but if you have most of the problems for many HBCUs, they are old facilities because they literally have not had the resources to retrofit new buildings or to tear down old buildings

that don't function well in the 21st century and replace them with new buildings. The money hasn't been there. That's right, Roland, of course. And it's interesting you mentioned Fisk because, of course, we have private HBCUs and we have public HBCUs. And so the private HBCUs are in even more dire straits

in many ways, many of them. The public HBCUs, and when you talked to the president of Alcorn the other week, I thought it was very important to understand that Mississippi, as you've had Alvin Chambliss on, our brother Alvin Chambliss, who has talked about this for years, most of our HBCUs are in southern states where the white legislatures and the white nationalist party have been starving them. And before that, when the white nationalist party was centered in the Democratic Party, they starved them for decades.

Now, the irony is, Tennessee State is a good case study. When I was an undergraduate there and student body president, and my brother followed me two years later as student body president, we took over buildings. My brother, they occupied the downtown campus of Tennessee State for over a week. And as a result, the governor of Tennessee, Ned Ray McWhirter, put in, a Democrat at the time, put in money in the federal and in the state legislature to get new buildings and new facilities. The student center was one of those buildings. But it doesn't make up for deferred maintenance, because now they're saying Tennessee State needs a new student center. But the problem is this. The problem is that the new buildings, the new money, Jackson State has had new money. We see what happens and is happening in Maryland now at Bowie State and at Coppin and Morgan, new buildings. One of the strategies to lessen

the footprint of black students at HBCUs, as it was made in the stipulation of settlement back in the 1980s at Tennessee State, Guy versus Alexander at the time, was that we need new buildings and a new physical plant to attract white students. So there's a lot of moving parts going on. At Tennessee State, they wanted to close Jefferson Street, make it a closed campus to attract white students, because they wanted that not to be a black thoroughfare, as you know, Fisk, Meharry, Tennessee State, all within several blocks of each other. This is a delicate calculus, because it's one thing to engage in deferred maintenance. It's another thing to

tear down all the buildings and build new buildings in an attempt, in part, to create a new campus footprint and perhaps even a new campus image. I mean, now, I have mixed feelings about this. I really do. Because all of our schools are owed the money, but you don't know what else is at stake. And so, I mean, it's something I have to really think through. Let's get the money, but I don't know if I'm for tearing down all the damn buildings. Well, the issue we talk about

tearing down buildings, because, look, when my old high school was torn down, the reality is it was filled with asbestos. I mean, trying to put in fiber optic lines, trying to retrofit buildings for a new technology simply isn't doable. And we talk about what has been happening here, Dr. Turner. I look at the Ayers versus Ford Ice case. Alvin Chambliss fought that. Got 500 million for the HBCUs there in your state of Mississippi. And

what we have seen, we've seen again where these states have been withholding the resources. The reality is this. Students aren't just choosing schools for the name. Facilities matter. That's why you see the arms race in football. It's a facilities race. You got folks, I mean, you got these major schools, they're putting barbershops and lounges and all kinds of stuff in their football facilities because they are competing against other institutions who are doing the exact same thing. And so folks are like, yo, we need our kids to go to HBCUs. But the student is sitting there saying, I'm not trying to go to a raggedy school. I'm not trying to go to a school where, in terms of where you

don't have elevators or you don't, or you're sitting here and you don't have strong Wi-Fi. I mean, you know, Howard University got hit with a cyber attack. Other people have gotten hit. And so this is also a part of this battle when it comes to HBCUs and for these public institutions. This is where, listen to everybody who's watching, why I keep telling you, you got to get off your ass and stop whining and understand that when you don't show up at the state legislature to demand the money every legislative session, then the Tennessee states of the world

don't get their fair share. The Texas Southern Universities, the Prairie View A&M Universities, the Alcorn State, Southern, Grambling. And that's the thing I'm always trying to get people to understand, connect the damn dots. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so one thing we've got to realize is that we don't work hard to have a seat at the table, and a lot of times we're on the menu. And I'm glad you referenced the Ayers case because I was going to mention that. So I'm a graduate of Jackson State, so here in Mississippi, you know, we're thankful for the Ayers case because before that,

you know, you had schools like Jackson State, Alcorn, Mississippi Valley, that were getting significantly less funds compared to Ole Miss, compared to Mississippi State, compared to University of Southern Mississippi. And I just sat down, I was at a bar getting something to eat about a month ago.

There was an older white gentleman that was sitting next to me and it's always interesting because they meet me and they find out I'm a doctor and they find out how successful I am in their eyes. And it's like, you know, how did you get to where you are? And before I even allowed them to begin to put me on the pedestal, I explained to them that I'm an exception to basically a system that made it very difficult for me to get to where I am. Like, I was never, you know, the smartest student in the classroom, or at least I wasn't given the resources to be able to be prepared to be the smartest student. I went to an all-black school

from first grade to ninth grade at Port Gibson, and we didn't have any real animals in our lab. We only had one foreign language that was being taught. We moved to Vicksburg, and at that school, it was about 50% black and white. And we had four languages. We had real animals in the lab. And it was the first time that, for me,

I realized that, hey, something is not equal here. So I went on to Jackson State and finally talked about the heiress case. I'm like, man, this thing is serious. So we're here at Coast Prime. Deion Sanders talking about leveling the playing field. But it's not just in the athletics. It's in academics, and it's in everything.

How can we, this is what I had in this conversation with this man who was sitting there trying to tell me that, you know, there's no racism in America. There's no racism. Like, you know, what are you talking about? I say, if you all are starting from the 30-yard line, how can you all expect us to score touchdowns at the same rate that you're doing? If we don't level the playing field,

how are we gonna help protect that young black man from breaking into your car that you're doing. If we don't level the playing field, how are we going to help protect that young black man from breaking into your car that you're going to be complaining about, that y'all sit back in y'all affluent and fancy neighborhoods and complain about as far as the crime in the city? We got to equal the playing field by providing equal resources.

So fortunately, we have been able to get funding since the Jackson State, since the Ayers case. I've been able to participate in some enrichment programs. Matter of fact, I did one at Fish University and had a chance to get some experience there before I was accepted at Meher Medical College. And because of research, Jackson State is doing better. But you see things like Deion Sanders talking about, hey, you know, let's get names on the back of our students' jerseys.

They don't have that at Jackson State. Those little things matter as it relates to being marketable. Another thing I want to mention, because it is multifactorial, as alumni, we have to make sure that we're giving back as well. Yep. Because when it comes to HBCUs, I think only about five to seven percent give back at the public universities and about 10 percent at the private. We got to make sure we're doing so. I just came back from Nashville, went to Meher, and I went straight to Alumni Affairs. That was my first stop to make sure I

could pay my due to make sure that I can be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem. And before I left, I told the president, the next thing I'm going to do is work on establishing a scholarship fund so we can make sure we do what we need to do. Yes, we can continue to fight for equal distribution of funds, but Jackson State and Tennessee State, they filled that

stadium in Memphis. I was at Chris and I was sitting there with George and we had a great conversation about all that. But I want us to have the same energy when it comes to the education side as well. You know what, Reese, what really drives me crazy is when people

don't pay any attention whatsoever and who just don't know. This woman, Marjorie, on YouTube, she thinks she's trying to check me by saying, Roland, a cyber attack, that's not infrastructure. Oh, yes, it is. What the hell are you talking about?

Yes, it is. Don't do it, Roland. When you do have proper security for your IT, that's infrastructure. You have to have strong systems so they can't be broken into. It's infrastructure. Where do you think IT is installed? You have fiber optic lines, infrastructure. I mean, please, folks, can y'all just stop saying silly stuff and you don't know what you're talking about?

And what I'm discussing for you right now is one of the biggest complaints on HBCU campuses. Because you're talking to somebody who's actually been to more than 60 of them. Okay? Roland's been there. Do a roll call. Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, been there.

Wilberforce, Central State, been there. Florida Memorial, Bethune-Cookman, FAMU, been there. Alcorn State, been there. Alcorn State, been there. Southern Grambling, been there. PVTSU, been there. Want to go to some other states? Want to go to Missouri? Want to go there?

Y'all, don't try me. That is infrastructure. And students who are accustomed to fast Wi-Fi, they're not trying to have AOL dial-up, Netscape dial-up speeds when they go to college. That is also infrastructure. And if you're a private HBCU and you do not have the money to invest $5 to $10 million to upgrade your IT infrastructure, guess what's going to happen? When mama and daddy and that child visit, and they sit here and go, why in the hell can't we get online?

And they ain't talking about just in the room. They talking about anywhere on campus. They going to say, baby, we going to go somewhere else. Marjorie, it is infrastructure. Risa, go ahead. Yeah, absolutely, it's infrastructure. I mean, look at Vice President Kamala Harris. She's tasked with expanding broadband access throughout the country,

particularly in rural areas, as part of the infrastructure package. So that's a misconception, I don't know, of perhaps she was being defensive and wanted to say that Howard University is not deficient in some way. No, what is it? She was wrong. No, she was wrong. She was just wrong. Yeah, and I don't think there's any reason to

be defensive about that comment. It's just a fact. There was a ransomware attack on Howard University. To clear up another misconception, though, I've seen this very frequently recently, and even in the comments, Donald Trump did not provide HBCUs unlimited resources. And this is something that he did not, he did not personally with any kind of particular investment in HBCUs increase the funding. I've said this many times, and I know people will be upset that I said it, but it was actually Vice President then-Senator Kamala Harris who actually secured a 14 percent

increase in HBCU funding. That increase is the increase that people have falsely and incorrectly attributed to Donald Trump. It was what Kamala Harris fought for. On this topic of HBCU preservation, it was Vice President then-Senator Kamala Harris who spearhead or led the charge in the Senate to actually get the HBCU historic preservation funds reauthorized, which was now it sounds like a drop in the bucket. It was $10 million a year for seven years. But that got through the Mitch McConnell Senate. That is something that she was laser-focused. Even though the report said that they needed $800 million or $755 million as 1998, that was when that came out. But that was something that she championed. And so my point is, it's very important to understand who the

players are in terms of getting the resources as well as obstructing the resources. Because in the case of TSU, and we have the same case in Maryland as well with Larry Hogan. Sorry, yeah, I should know that. Larry Hogan blocking the funds, blocking the settlements. There's money that's owed to TSU. This isn't a matter of mismanagement. He blocked the funds. Actually, he vetoed it.

Last year he vetoed it. Then they came back with a new session and then was passed again. And then he then they overwrote the veto. And so that money is actually that settlement is going to actually go to institutions finally. Right. They're in Maryland, thankfully. But but my point is this is a similar situation. I don't know if it's particularly the governor there, but there's a similar situation where money is being withheld from TSU. More than enough money to cover this. So I don't want people to hear this story and think that there's some sort of deficiency or mismanagement of funds on the part of TSU. If they were given the money that they were actually owed from the state of Tennessee, we wouldn't have this issue. So this is where we need our people also to show the hell up and in mass at the

state legislature standing up for TSU. And that's the thing that bugs the shit out of me. And again, take it from somebody who's from Houston. I went to Jack J's High School. Texas Southern University is literally right across the street. The only time

TSU alumni showed up is when they were talking about Texas Southern University is literally right across the street. The only time TSU alumni showed up is when they were talking about supposedly merging TSU with the University of Houston. And I was sitting there as a middle school student, as a high school student, as somebody who saw it in college and then who

covered it when I ran Houston Defender. It was mind-boggling. I'm like, where the hell y'all ass is at when there's not controversy? Like, they need, TSU needed 2, 3, 5,000 people going to the state capitol for funding.

And so, as black people, we've got to stop only showing the hell up when something is on the verge of being shut down. It's true. I spoke at Southern. The first time I spoke at Southern,

and it's not picking on Southern, but it was in the speech. I sat there and said, how many of y'all have been to the state capitol to demand an increase in funding for Southern? I said, the goddamn state capitol is three miles from the campus. Yeah.

And I was like, I'm sorry. I'm like, folks, this is the reality. Let me be real clear with y'all. White folks who graduated from Texas A&M go to Austin. When the Senate, when the Senate Education Committee

and the House Education Committee are meeting to vote on funding, they're there. And I'm saying this has to be a natural part of our involvement. So I keep telling y'all, stop just talking about voting. If you're not showing up at the city school board meeting, don't show up when your school's on the closure list. Don't show up when it's something revolving around athletics. You've got to be present and accounted for. And if any black folks in Tennessee right now should be mobilizing

like y'all were when they had that voter bill, y'all should be mobilizing saying, we're out of money for Tennessee State. Roland, maybe now with Black Star Network, it's probably worth thinking about another

one of your famous roundtables and forums on this issue. I think in many ways, the HBCU conversation really has to address the fact that in the post-desegregation era, HBCUs have really seen an erosion of a full understanding and fighting for our purposes. And I say that, again, when I was an undergraduate, we marched to the state capitol. And the reason that so many public HBCUs are in state capitals is, of course, after the Civil War, during Reconstruction, they were placed there as black people moved into those areas and came to those areas. But after segregation, what these state legislatures realized is that these strategically located HBCUs could be converted into very useful, cost-efficient and cost-effective conduits

for their people to get degrees. Jackson State, Florida A&M, Morgan State, I mean, you name it, Tennessee State. And as a result, in 1979, there was a similar attempt to merge the University of Tennessee Nashville with Tennessee State. There would be no UT Nashville, except they set it up because they didn't want to go to Tennessee State. Once they realized that those walls of segregation came down, they merged the institutions. But thanks really to the astute leadership of Fred Humphries, the late Fred Humphries, our friend, who just made transition when he was president of Tennessee State,

for the first time in American history, in a merger, the black school took over the white school, the great Avon Williams, the attorney. I'm bringing all that up to say that our HBCUs, our public HBCUs in these state capitals around the South are seen as soft targets often for creating executive MBA programs, online programs, for government workers who work in the state capitals. And black folk have to understand that they won't go out of business. They're gonna be overrun and taken over. So I think this is a conversation

that would be interesting to have you moderate and jump in a conversation with HBCU presidents. And not only that, folks who know about the long history, because this is chess. And it's very important for us to understand that. Finally, in Maryland, what you saw was one of the reasons the judge, as you reported on at the time, was so hot as hell on the University of Maryland is because the executive MBA program that was given to Morgan State to grow its footprint, the University of Maryland created one which is reanimating that dual system of higher education. And when asked about it, they said, take us to court.

We don't give a damn. This is real warfare in terms of higher education. And the people that will suffer are our children. Those public HBCUs are cost-effective, and they've been doing that job for a long time and they could very easily be taken out of our hands if we go to sleep on this. It may be something Black Star probably can put together, man, because I don't think we get it. I don't think we get it. You're helping us get it right now, but I don't think we get it. Trying to get people to understand, which is why we implore y'all. We always try to connect the dots to understand what is going on

when it comes to public policy, how all these things work together. Folks, that is it for us. Dr. Turner, we appreciate it. Dr. Carr, we appreciate it. Recy Colbert, we appreciate it as well. Folks, please support what we do by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. Let me give a shout-out to these are the folks we have given since I last told you. Let's see here.

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Roland Martin unfiltered on the black star network. This is an iHeart Podcast.