#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Fighting For Voting Rights, Black Man Arrested on White Man's Warrant, Black Muslims Targeted

Episode Date: January 15, 2022

1.14.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Fighting For Voting Rights, Black Man Arrested on White Man's Warrant, Black Muslims TargetedThe Senate's plan to vote on voting legislation did not happen this week. House Majority Whip James Clyburn is joining us tonight to discuss what's in store next week and the likelihood of a vote evening happening. Reverend William Barber will also be here tonight to talk about what organizations are doing to pressure lawmakers to get these bills passed. In Texas, hundreds of mail-in ballot applications are being denied. We'll explain why.African American Muslims are among those targeted by an anti-Muslim group. The Deputy Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations will join us to explain theInvestigative Project on Terrorism targeted African American Muslims through a multi-year effort.  In Nevada, a black man is suing two police departments for arresting him instead of the white man who is decades older. The only thing similar about these two, they had the same name!A bill targeting critical race theory cites the wrong Lincoln debate in Virginia. We'll tell you about the white lawmaker who got his historical facts wrong!Marylin Mosby says she is innocent! We'll have today's press conference where she vows to fight the federal indictment.And in our Education Matters segment, we'll show you an app that can help students apply for college.#RolandMartinUnfiltered partners: Nissan | Check out the ALL NEW 2022 Nissan Frontier! As Efficient As It Is Powerful! 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3FqR7bPSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfilteredDownload the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com#RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the i Star Network. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will celebrate his national holiday on Monday. He said beware of the white moderate. Well, they sure are screwing up passing voting rights. We'll talk with House Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina. What can be done?

Is there a path forward to getting these voting bills through the United States Senate after that pathetic, atrocious and ridiculous speech yesterday by Senator Christian Sinema? We'll talk about it with him on the show. Also, Reverend Dr. William J. Barber will join us to talk about what organizations are doing to pressure lawmakers to get these bills passed. In Texas, hundreds of mail-in ballot applications

are being denied. Also, it's happening in Georgia and many other states as a result of the voter suppression laws being passed by Republicans. African American Muslims are among those targeted by an anti-Muslim group, so why did one of the members of the Council on American Islamic Relations share inside information with one of those

particular groups? In Nevada, a black man is suing two police departments for arresting him instead of the white man who is decades older. The only thing similar about these two, they have the same name. A bill targeting critical race theory cites the wrong Frederick Douglass, excuse me, the wrong Douglass

in the Lincoln-Douglass debates. How stupid are some of these Republicans? And speaking of stupid Republican, oh my God. Wait until we show you the dumb thing that Hershel Walker said. Lord my God. Wait until we show you the dumb thing that Hershel Walker said. Lord have mercy. Also, Marilyn Mosby, the state's attorney in Baltimore, says that she is innocent. She held her news conference today and we'll show you all of that as well. And in our Education Matters segment, we'll show you an app that can help students apply for college. It is time

to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's Roland. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics.

With entertainment just for kicks, he's Roland. Yeah! It's snowing, putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling, yeah It's Uncle Gro-Gro-Yo Yeah, yeah It's Roland Martin, yeah Yeah, yeah Rolling with Roland now

Yeah, yeah He's broke, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Roland Martin We know that we're celebrating this weekend. His birthday is a national holiday we know he had he was a prophetic voice this is what he had to say about the white moderate in america more than 50 years ago i think the tragedy is that uh we have a congress uh with a Senate that has a minority of misguided senators who will use the filibuster to keep the majority of people from even voting. They won't let the majority of senators vote. And certainly they wouldn't want the majority of people to vote because they know they do not represent the majority of the American people. Hmm. Clearly he knew then that a Senator Christian Sinema

will one day be in the United States Senate, literally doing the exact same thing that Republicans and Democrats did to stop the original Voting Rights Act. Remember what she said yesterday? Here are the concerns of civil rights advocates and others I've heard from in recent months about these state laws. I strongly support those efforts to contest these laws in court and to invest significant resources into these states

to better organize and stop efforts to restrict access at the ballot box and I strongly support and will continue to vote for legislative responses to address these state laws including the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act that the Senate is currently considering. I support these bills because they strengthen Americans access to the ballot box and they better ensure that Americans votes are counted fairly. It is through elections that Americans make their voices heard, select their representatives, and guide the future of our countries and our community.

These bills help treat the symptoms of the disease, but they do not fully address the disease itself. And while I continue to support these bills, I will not support separate actions. That's interesting because this is what Roy Tatum, a civil rights organizer in Arizona, tweeted yesterday. I'm highly offended at Senator Sinema's remarks on voting rights as she has not met with any civil rights organizations in Arizona since being elected. She does not speak for all of Arizona. Joining us right now is the House whip,

Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina. You know, Congressman Clyburn, you also were a little miffed this week when you had to educate some of your white colleagues on Capitol Hill about the Reconstruction Amendments, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, which were passed not by bipartisanship. Absolutely. Thank you very much for having me, Roland. You know, when I hear people say, in order for this legislation to be creditable, it should be bipartisan.

That is absolutely ridiculous. The legislation that gave the former slaves the right to vote, my great-great-grandparents, it was a straight, party-line vote. So are you telling me that that is not a creditable piece of legislation because it was not bipartisan? And so I think there are a lot of things that we can do and really have creditable application if only one party vote for it. Look, how many Republicans voted for the American Rescue Act? Am I to understand that because we couldn't get a bipartisan vote for the Rescue Act, that it was something we should not do? And those Republicans ain't turning down that money.

Not only that, they were out there with their signs. And some of them, if you recall, started taking credit for it before it even got to their states. So this is the kind of stuff that really irritates me a whole lot. You know, I'm no Christian cinema. We served together in the House. And, you know, I was really, really upset. You may have seen that I went to the Florida House yesterday. I don't usually participate in what we call special orders, but I found out that there was an hour set aside

for Democrats on yesterday, and I went and took that hour to address some of the things that she was talking about. And I want to thank you for opening up your show today talking about the so-called white moderates. I was very, very disappointed, and I think it was this morning, to see someone representing the group.

But I had some real respect for it. I'm going to take a look and see what in the world they're doing. A group called No Labels. And here he was on there telling, talking about what a fallacy these two laws are, the John R. Lewis law that implied that we are directing our attention to the wrong things. And he's using the turnout of 2020 to argue that this would not be necessary in 2022 because of the way people voted in 2020. How short-sighted can he be?

The reason these laws are being passed today in Georgia, Georgia passed those laws directly because of the big turnout in 2020 that they're trying to lessen in 2022. And what we're trying to do is guard against that voter suppression, guard against that voter nullification. Is he telling me that because we voted so heavily in 2020 and elected Warnock and Ossoff, that we all not worry about the fact that they are now going to make it a criminal act if somebody gives a personal bottle of water standing in the voting line or if they decide to shut down all the precincts in the black neighborhoods and create full five- and six-hour waits in the line while white people have

only 20 minutes to wait. We aren't supposed to worry about that. We know full well what is going to happen if they put these laws in place, not to mention setting up a group that can overturn the results of the election if they don't like the outcome. So, I want to know what this guy was talking about. That is what's causing so much problem for all of us, because these people trying to, I don't know what they call themselves doing, just misrepresenting what we're trying to do here. We're trying to have what we call preclearance, which we've had since 1965. That is to say, if you pass a new law,

send that law up to the Justice Department, let some independent, non-partisan lawyers take a look at it and see whether or not it would have some discriminatory impact. So you tell me we aren't supposed to do that? And these people are talking about all we need to do is organize an outvoter. How can you outvote nullification? And that's what they've done in Georgia.

Well, no, how can Christian Cinema talk about, oh, how we got to organize, when in Tennessee, they literally passed a law saying if you had organizations, you couldn't collect ballots. They are passing laws targeting organizers. Absolutely. That's the laws targeting organizers. Absolutely. That's the point I'm making here. In fact, all the things that people do

in order to get people to the polls, they are now criminalizing that. The things we do to make it convenient for people. You know, we often laugh about the old days when down in Alabama and other places, probably in South Carolina as well, you are going to be arrested. You give this 85-year-old thirsty lady standing in line, been there for three or four hours,

you give her a bottle of water. Come on. That is what's going on here. So Manton's people are out saying that he's working on a bill that he hopes can get nine Republicans. All right. How long have we been hearing that? I thought he was working. I thought he had his own for the people compromise. What happened? There are no nine Republicans.

Chris and Sinema said we we should have done more to bring Republicans to the table. Zero Republicans voted for the House bill. Do you, have you seen, I haven't, where are these magical, mystical, hidden, invisible, Casper the Ghost-like Republicans, where are the 10? Are you, do they exist? I don't think so.

I don't think so. I don't think anything beyond two or three exists. I think that we've had one that said that she would vote for the John R. Lewis Voter Advancement Act, but that's the only one that I've seen. Lisa Murkowski. That's it. Not Romney. Not Collins.

Nope. Nope. That's the only one that I've seen. And, you know, I'm finding it kind of interesting. This is Joe Manchin's bill. The House Sent For the People Act. That was H.R. 1. Joe Manchin asked for time to bring 10 Republicans on board. And he came up with this bill that we are now calling

Freedom to Vote. This is his legislation. It's not ours. And you may recall the moment he announced that he had this bill that he was going to take to the floor, Stacey Abrams, down there in Georgia, came out in support of it.

I followed her announcing public support for the legislation. Now, all of a sudden, Joe Manchin is now participating in a filibuster of his own bill. This is his bill. It's not ours.

So you've got to think something else is going on here. And I hasten to say that we are teetering on losing this democracy. We're already hearing today of people in foreign countries who are now saying we can no longer count on the United States of America. You just saw, I believe I heard the report the other day, that folks up in Canada are coming to the conclusion that America is headed toward a civil war. We got to see our relationships somewhere else. How can we sit idly by and see all these things taking

place, see people trying to nullify votes, see people trying to suppress voters, you see people doing things to take away livelihoods from low-income people,

children. You want to go back to school. And now we just took away the child tax credit. And what is going to happen with those children that's going back to school, what their parents are going to do when we know Omicron is running rampant throughout schools? What are they to do? I never thought I would see a day like this. So here's the question. Senator Chuck Schumer still says there's going to be a vote.

Storm is supposed to be hitting D.C. this weekend. They pushed off on Monday. They're not going to vote on Monday, the national holiday of Dr. King's birthday. And so they're going to vote on Tuesday. Folks are asking, what's next? They're saying, what's next? What do we do? What's what? They take the vote. It doesn't pass. What do we do? Well, here's my suggestion that nobody's going to listen to me, but I'll offer my suggestion. There is supposed to be significant support floating around on both sides of the aisle for doing something for the so-called

electoral vote action. Now, the reform of the Electoral College is something that needs to be done. But the Electoral College happens every four years. So that will be fine

for 2024. But we need to do fine for 2024. But we need to do something for 2022. So my suggestion is this. If you've got 10 people who are going to support that, put it on the floor in addition to these other things and take a look at the preclearance section of the John R. Lewis Voter Education and Advancement Act, take the preclearance section out of that and put it into the election reform and stipulate that in federal elections,

if you make any changes to any federal law, you must get preclearance from the Justice Department or it cannot be implemented. And make it retroactive in order to cover what these states have already done. That's my suggestion. Take that bill that's going to reform the Electoral College, put preclearance in it, and then the other things that Joe Manchin thinks is fine

as well as Christian Sinema, tell him to use that as the vehicle of putting the pre-clearance in place. That's my suggestion. Uh, I don't think it's a bad one. Well, um, it is, um... It is amazing to listen to these Democrats say, well, if we do this, I mean, what happens

when we're in the minority one day? And I keep saying this, and we're seeing it right now. Luckily, the Ohio Supreme Court just threw out the gerrymandered districts. But we're seeing it happen. The For the People Act actually outlaws partisan gerrymandering. Do they understand that if nothing is passed,

Democrats are literally going to be guaranteed to be in the minority? Y'all will not be in control. There will be no Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The Senate is tied. We know that the incumbent president often loses seats in a midterm. And so the actions of Sinema, Manchin,

and a few of the Democrats could guarantee not just massive losses of their own party on Capitol Hill, it's going to lock in Republican rule on the state level for the next decade and even longer. I don't know. Are they living in the same political world that we are? They must not be.

Because I think it's more than 10 years. I think it's a generation. You remember Lyndon Johnson said when he first signed in 1965, a voting rights act, he said at the time that he knew he was signing away his party's dominance in the South for a generation. He was wrong about

that. It's been more than a generation. And it's getting worse. And so I look back on history to be informed. I do believe that we have to look at our history. That's why I had the talks I had on the floor yesterday to try to say to people, I'm the ninth person of color to represent South Carolina in the United States Congress. The ninth.

There were eight before me. But between number eight and yours truly was 95 years. 95 years. 95 years. George Washington Murray left the Congress in 1897. And until I got elected in 1992, 95 years later, no black person could get elected.

Why? laws they put in place, because the Supreme Court overturned laws back in 1872 with the Khrushchev decision and the President v. Ferguson in 1896. These things are coming back. They are coming back. The Supreme Court is now making the same kind of decisions. The Congress is now making the same kinds of laws. I'm saying to people all over, wake up. Wake up. If vigilance

is called for and we had better be very, very careful. And we can't do it alone. I mean, black people constantly, what, would we torture 13% of the population? And so we were talking about Martin Luther King Jr.

earlier, and I hate to do this, but please, King said something in his letter from the Birmingham Center Jail that I talked about, that I'm going to be talking about all this weekend. King said at the time that he was coming to the conclusion that the people of ill will in our society

was making a much better use of time than the people of good will. And he said in that letter that we are going to be made to repent in this generation, not just for the vitriolic words and deeds of bad people, but for the appalling silence of good people. It is time for the good people of this country to break their silence. What happened down in Atlanta

when the corporations spoke up about those bills that they passed? They got everybody's attention. But all of a sudden, they've gone silent. Silence gives consent. everybody's attention. But all of a sudden, they've gone silent. Silence gives consent. If they are going to be silent about this,

they are consenting for it to happen. Last question for you. I played a video yesterday of your fellow South Carolinian Senator Tim Scott, only Black Republican senator, who was very angry with President Biden's speech,

saying he was offended as a southerner. Why can't the president acknowledge how things have gotten better in America and things along those lines? And, you know, Senator Scott went on television and talked about why the George Floyd Justice Act didn't pass. And he said Democrats were trying to cut funding if police was a bridge too far. Yet he actually suggested in his own bill a year earlier to do the exact same thing.

I asked him directly on text message about it three times. He's yet to respond. I asked his staff yet to respond. Do you have you had conversations with him about this voting bill? I get it. He's a Republican. But so was Senator Edward Brooke, who understood the importance of the vote. Forgive me for saying this. I was texting back and forth with G.K. Butterfield today, and he sent me a copy of Everett Dirksen's speech back in—we were trying to pass the Civil Rights Act. It's 64, Voting Rights Act of 65. Dirksen, working with Humphrey, they put together a bipartisan group, got over 70 votes to break the filibuster.

And I said to him at the time, as I'm very familiar with this, my wife and I, we were looking at names. Uh, I said to her, if it's a boy, I would love for the name to be James Everett Clyburn in honor of J. Everett Dirksen. So, I'm familiar with all of that. Where are those talents, those kinds of people today?

One of the best speeches I ever heard on this subject was a 1964 speech from J. Everett Dirksen, the Republican leader. So I would say to my colleague, And that speech took place on June 10th. We have it right here, June 10th, 1964. I would say to my friend, my colleague,

to look up June 1964, look at J. Everett Dirksen's speech and tell me which member of the Republican Party sitting in the Senate can identify with that speech today. Are you telling me that there is no need for legislation to stop people from criminalizing, giving someone a drink of water while they're standing in line to vote?

You're telling me that there's no need for legislation to keep people from nullifying votes that they don't like, and that's what they're doing in Georgia. Come on now. You can go through those bills. And there's some more being offered today. Or yesterday. I just heard reports today that Georgia is now putting up

additional pieces of legislation to do even more damage. Yep. And so we aren't supposed to do anything to guard against that. I would also say to anybody, take a look at the Federalist Papers. I think Federalist Paper No. 59 by Alexander Hamilton, when he made it very clear that you cannot have 50 sets of laws determining who serves in Congress or in any federal office. You need to have one uniform law, and it should be at the federal level.

And so what we're trying to do, when people say, well, the states run elections, no. The states implement these elections, but they don't set the laws. The standard for elections must be set by the United States of America, and that's what Congress is all about. And Congress needs to step up to preserve these constitutional rights that rest in the United States Constitution. The 13th, 14th, 15th amendments are being run roughshod over by these states, and it's up to the

Congress to safeguard that constitutionally as well as the Federalist Papers. And I see you put that up number 59. Read that, and you'll see in that that it's clear that the United States Congress

is supposed to be doing this. Congressman Clyburn, we appreciate it. We're going to keep fighting on this issue for quite some time. And look, it's crucially important, as you said, we risk literally a generation. I'm swinging so hard. I got 13 nephews and nieces. This is about them.

Reverend William Dr. Barber is on the phone. He's been listening to you give a history lesson as we pulled up Dirksen's speech, the Federalist Paper No. 59 as well. And hopefully these modern-day white moderates will wake up and realize that they are also being targeted. White, young white voters are being targeted by these bills because they don't like young white voters voting Democrat on many of these college campuses. This ain't just black folks. And obviously the Latinos. Hey, y'all got to get this game, too.

Native Americans have been impacted. We saw the last election in Montana, in North Dakota, in South Dakota. This is not just a black thing. Absolutely. You know, on yesterday, I went back to 1895 and got Robert Smalls' speech in the 1895 South Carolina Constitutional Convention. And Robert Smalls made the point you just made. He looked out there and he said to all the people in that convention, he said to them, you're passing this law for one man, but it's going to soon come for you. And it's so clear, as it was in that speech. Ask your people sometime to share that speech with you.

Oh, come on now. Congressman, you talking to Alpha Man. I got the speech up right now. Very good. Well, you see in that speech, Smalls looked out there and said to them, and you remember one of the things they were putting in place, that in order to get the right to vote, you had to be able to interpret a section of the Constitution, the most learned judges of our Supreme Court, two of them said one thing about the Constitution, and two others said another thing about the Constitution,

and the third one said something different. He said, so who knows how they interpret the Constitution? It's kind of amazing. But if you look at what these guys were saying, with limited education, remember Robert Small was a slave until 1862? Mm-hmm. And you look at the speeches they give,

it's almost as if they could be standing on the House floor today saying the very same thing, because that's what applies to these laws they're trying to plan. Congressman Clyburn, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Appreciate you. Thanks, sir. Thank you very much. I want to transition right to Reverend Dr. William J. Barber. Reverend Barber,

this is, you know, Reverend Dr. King always talked about that as black folks, we tell America be true to what you put on paper. And the reality is this voting battle is about what they put on paper, but it's for them and not us. Yeah.

Well, you know, Roland, as I'm sitting here listening, and by the way, Robert Falls, Maul's great-great-nephew works on my staff. Wow. He's actually leading our youth mobilization, pulling together Black, white, Latino, and Native and Asian young people who are mobilizing with the Poor People's Campaign

a national call for Maul revival. Part of what we also got to just do something, and I'm going to say it in all the love I can say it, is that we cannot just talk about what Manchin and Sinema and Republicans are going to do. You know, one of the geniuses of Dr. King is when they lost the battle in Albany, the campaign, he sat down and said, what did we do wrong? Now, there's been some critical mistakes in this process. When we got into this year, when we started in the Poor People's Campaign, we said we ought to keep all three of these issues together and not separate. You said it. A lot of folks said it. The infrastructure of our democracy, the infrastructure of our daily lives, wages and those things,

infrastructure of our roads and bridges and technology. The president should go to the well of the Congress and lay that out. He should meet with a multiracial group of far religious leaders, impacted people from West Virginia, Arizona, other places, and people who would be impacted by his policies and then come out and let them have the microphone and put a face on this.

That did not happen. And request after request after request has been made, and it did not happen. Some of our Black organizations chose to make this a black issue rather than we're saying it now. and bringing together their constituencies to put a face on what Kamala Harris said the other day, were 55 million people who could lose their option to vote that they used in 2020. We, you know, many of the politicians, Schumer even wanted people to stay with voting rights, not bring up the living wage piece, not combine the issue. You know, we're finding out there was never an intention to put voting rights first.

It was always infrastructure first. Even the other day when they went to Georgia, even Bernice King said voting is not just a black issue. Many of us were screaming, don't go to Georgia. And first of all, without talking to the activists on the ground, and then make sure that the backdrop and the front drop and all look like what you just named, all the people that's going to be hurt. We've had some of our own leaders call people being in the strength performance activism when, in fact, we need more activism. We should have we everybody should have gone into West Virginia. If you've got troops there in Arizona. I just heard a black female commentator when somebody asked on another station said,

shouldn't Biden at least go to West Virginia? Oh, no. Ain't no there's no reason for him to go. Why are you the president of the whole country where, you know, Trump won by so-and-so? Look at the numbers. Look at the people who did not vote. Look at what poor, low-wealth people could do that are organized. But even if he has won, that's not the point. The point is, if you're fighting policies to help poor people and the poor people people in that state go there and elevate those people, change the debate from being you versus Manchin or you versus $3 million or $3 million, or you versus the filibuster to the people, the politician versus the people. And then don't set

ceremonial artificial deadlines. Our deadline is victory. You know, Roland, you and I talk sometimes too late at night. By the way, let me thank you for your prayers that I've been battling COVID as well. But you know, how many times have you and I said, talk about Dr. King, he never had a rally or an event. He had campaigns.

Right. It was never one. It wasn't the Selma. The Montgomery was a campaign. The Montgomery bus broke out campaign, Birmingham campaign, campaigns. That meant when they, when they, that when their deadline was not the politician's deadline, their deadline was once we start, we're going to stay with this. We're going to change the moral focus. Lyndon Baines Johnson looked the king in his face and said, I'm not doing this.

They did a campaign. The very president said he wouldn't do it, end up doing it. Think about it. They did not have an election in 1965. The people, the movement chose and elected to change the context. And they advanced the country on the world stage and made other countries start calling in women. How in the world can you claim to be the number one democracy

and you're doing it? That's what we have to do. And that's why today we announced that we've been working and planning that on June 18th we're going to have a mass poor people's low-wage workers assembly, moral march on Washington, and to the polls, not as a day or remembrance, but a declaration of a movement. And we're going to push and push from now to then and beyond. And because we've got work to do.

I think Congressman Clyburn wanted to jump in there. Correct, Congressman? Jump in. I'm just listening. I'm just listening. I'm just listening. Okay, all right. But to the point that Barbara made there, Congressman, when he said, look, even if the vote's

taken next week or the week after, unless he doesn't pass, he's saying it can't just be like some Democrats, some Democratic pollsters and campaign folks been saying, well, look, the vote ends, move on. We got to move on.

I'm with Barbara. We can't move on. Absolutely not. We ain't going to move on. No, no, no, no. No. Yeah, that's exactly right. It ain't much of a lot.

You're talking about voting. You're talking about the foundation upon which all democracies are built. You can't move on. We've got to redouble our efforts. We got to find out. That's why I'm now saying that, look, we're looking at two bills. But every time I look around, somebody tell me, well, you know, we got bipartisan support to do something to reform the electoral college. And we got more than 10 Republicans who will vote for that. Put that on the floor as the vehicle and put preclearance in there.

And make them vote. And make them vote on it. I'm putting down, not just preclearance, there are a couple of other things that even Joe Manchin said that he is for, but he wasn't for the other things. Put that on the floor and put those amendments up

and vote on that. We can still do this if we concentrate on it. I ain't ever going to give up. And Congressman Clyburn lifted up one of your other... It was an AME Zion preacher from South Carolina, and he was in the middle of slavery. I'll call his name in a minute. And he said, even in slavery, you got to decide

who your God is, the master for your freedom. Absolutely. He said, every day, you got to wake up. And what I'm simply saying is Dr. King said, he said, the threat of the free exercise of the vote by black and white, this King now, 65, black and white, he said the threat of that is what created the segregated society and voter suppression because of the fear of a constituency that could change the economic architecture of the country. So one of the things with Manchin and others, we've got the bill they're trying to pass in West Virginia, the state is as bad as the one in Texas.

There ain't no black folk in West Virginia. But one of the things we've got to do is bring those folk out to the floor, and that's what our campaign, and all of us may have made some mistakes here. We don't agree with it. But now, in this moment, we're saying that, for instance, when Manchin voted against living wages, that was a racist vote as well as a class vote. He should have been called on it because he blocked 41 percent of black people with that one vote from coming out of poverty and low wealth and 31% of Americans.

We have to now have a change, shift the narrative. Joseph Stickler said it like this. We can't allow ever a politician like somebody to get us talking about whether something is $3 trillion or $1 trillion. The issue is not how much does it cost if we do it, how much does it cost if we don't, and put a face on that. We got to draw a direct line from the denial of voting rights to folk dying, to people not having enough money to buy food, to people not having health care. And as Dr. King did, keep them together. And look, I don't know when ultimately we're going to win, but I know one thing, we're not going to stop until we win,

and we've got to have a massive, massive, massive movement. And that's what we're committed to, Roland. Today, let me tell you something. Today we had on that call, you were there, we had poor and low- wealth people from 45 states. We had the council of churches got 42, represent some 30 million people. the Sam Proctor group, the reformed Jews, I could go on and on down the line, are saying it's time for us to build this multiracial interfaith movement that's not going to just meet on a day, but is going to declare that we're not stopping until we finish and finish his victory on all of this, the economics and the voting. Well, I'll tell you what, Congressman Clyburn, I have been seeing this as well.

All those folks across the country, all those white folks and Latino folks and young folks and Asian folks, all those folks who were out after George Floyd got killed, bring that same energy on this because you can't change police departments unless you change who oversees the police chief. That's the mayor and the city council. You can't change the Bill of Rights in the state legislature if you don't change those politicians. And so it's getting folks to understand, and I'm with Reverend Barber,

and it was about eight years ago at CBCF, AOC, I told the voting rights people, I said, y'all got to broaden this thing among black folks, I said, because these white folks are being targeted. They're being targeted too. I said, so don't twist it. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, to stop believing the lie that poor, low-wealth white folk and others are voting against it. In Georgia, 55 percent of poor and low-wealth people voted for Biden-Harris in Georgia. Watch this. Poor and low-wealth people now make up 30 percent of the electorate in general,

and 45 percent of the electorate in every state where the margin of victory was less than three percent. The study we did with Columbia University asked them, why did they vote? It never was. First of all, most of them don't didn't vote. And I'm talking about poor and low wealth, period. Why? Because because they don't even hear poverty talked about. They don't even hear their situation called. But they said, we would engage ourselves in a movement that's named after us because we are hurting out here. And then we just did another quick study because we would, you know, there are a lot of lies out here. You know, people thought the insurrection was poor folk. No, it wasn't.

Those were middle, upper class white people. Yep. The guy leading the Oath Keepers was an attorney from Yale University. That's where he went to school. So we keep putting this, it's deliberate. It was designed to divide poor, low wealth folk from each other. So anyway, we did a study and it showed that in 15 states, watch this, in 15 states from Michigan to Texas, that anywhere between 1 and 22 percent of poor and low wealth folk who are already registered to vote but haven't voted, if that number would vote, 1 percent in Michigan, 4 percent in Florida, 8% in Georgia. I could forget all, 19% in North Carolina.

They could determine, even in a mid-year where we've already decided how it's going to go, they could chain upset the pundits and determine who sits in the governor's mansion, the House, the Congress, the Senate. There's a power out here that has not been tapped. And Dr. King told us that there would be everything would be done to keep that power base from coming together. Well, now, if they are afraid of poor and low wealth people coming together and voting, we need to actualize their fears. And that's what our campaign is intended on doing. And we look into work with any and everybody that's

about it. And we're not talking about just for this year either, as long as it takes. Well, we here at Roland Martin Unfiltered Black Star Network are one of the media partners for that event in June 2022. We stand, we also are restreaming today's news conference on our platform

as well. I think we already did it, but we're going to be restreaming it this weekend as well. So, Reverend Barber, we appreciate it. Love you all. Thank you. Congressman Clyburn, we appreciate it. Keep everybody in your presence. Okay, buddy. All right, thanks a bunch. Y'all take care.

Folks, I'm going to go to a break. We come back. We'll talk with our panel about what's next. Also, today for the first time, y'all get to weigh in with the phone line. We get to hear from you what you have to say. This is the first day we're going to try it. Oh, by the way, only our Bring the Funk fan club members can call in. Membership has its privileges.

They're the ones paying for this. And so, if you want to participate, hey, you want to join the Bring the Funk fan club, it's never too late. What we're doing, our goal is to ask 20,000 of our fans to contribute on an annual basis, 50 bucks minimum each. If you can't do that, you can give less. That's fine. You can give more. That's wonderful.

Had somebody who sent us $1,000 the other day. Of course, Cash App is dollar sign RM unfiltered. Paypal is R Martin unfiltered App is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered. Paypal is R Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. They have the list of all the folk, of course,

who are on our Bring the Funk Fan Club list. And so, again, we'll be taking phone calls in 45 minutes. And so, y'all, get ready, get ready. And, yeah, don't worry about it. They got a whole list of everybody who's giving. And so, and if you're giving via Cash app or some of the other platforms, and we don't have your name, just give us our name. We can check it.

Y'all know how we do. Let me go to a break. I'll be back. Roland Martin, I'm Phil Phillips on the Black Sunday at 1. I'm sorry. Shit. Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches! A real revolutionary right now. Black crowd. Support this man, Black Media.

He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roland. Stay black. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scary.

It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? What's up, y'all? I'm Will Packer. Hello, I'm Bishop T.J. What up? Lonnie Wells. And you are watching Rolling Martin Unfiltered. Just so you understand what's already happening, mail-in voting applications in Travis County in Texas, they have

been rejected due to the new Texas voting law. Senate Bill 1 was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott in September. The law placed a significant emphasis on proof of identification concerning mail-in voting and absentee applications. It also prevents counties from sending

out mail-in ballot applications to those who have not explicitly requested them. The law further asks people who intend to vote by mail to provide either a driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number, and all the information has to be precisely the same. Now, voters can check their status by going to the Texas Secretary of State's website. You also heard there where Congressman Clyburn said, Georgia, they're going to be adding more voting restrictions. Michael M. Hotep is the host of the African History

Network show. Kelly Bethea is communications strategist, Matt Manning, civil rights attorney. Matt, I want to start with you. Again, the game plan is clear. Republicans know in order for them to win,

they stand a better shot when they shrink the electorate. It's clear. When you expand the electorate, Democrats have a better shot. The reason Trump and the Republicans were angry with last year is because it was expanded to have ballot drop boxes so folks wouldn't have to stand in line because they didn't want to get COVID. Well, what do Republicans do? Pass laws,

dropping drop boxes. Georgia goes from 111 to 23. Ohio tried to ban them. A judge yesterday, two days ago in Wisconsin, ruled no ballot drop boxes allowed in Wisconsin. Texas is limiting them to one per county. And so these are the efforts that if preclearance was still in place, Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, those states that previously discriminated against folks because of voting would not be allowed to do it. All of these things started after a black man was elected president. Absolutely. And they are not coincidental. You know, the thing that's especially interesting to me about this is Travis County is my home county where I was born and raised.

And some of my father's proficient parishioners are probably trying to send in mail in ballots that are not being accepted by the Travis County clerk. This is a plan that is put in place and that is coming to fruition. And the reality of it is, a lot of it is with the subterfuge of voter fraud, which we know is not a real thing. So it's sad to me because we hear so much fluff from Republicans about people participating in integrity in the system, but they're doing what they can to openly undermine that. And frankly, the Democrats have not had a strong enough, you know, response to stop that. So what we're seeing is a plan that came to place

after President Obama, and we know this was gonna happen, and we're seeing it come to pass now. Well, the issue here, Kelly, is who could... Look, it's power. It's who has the power. And again, going back 12 years, 2010, Obama gets reelected 2008, massive turnout, broad coalition. That coalition does not turn out in the same way in the midterms in 2010. 16 state legislatures flip in 2010, where they went from being split,

Democrat, Republican, to totally Republicans. They picked up gubernatorial mansions. Right now, you got 31 Republican governors in the country. So they are able, especially in southern states, and we're talking about run the line, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Texas, Arkansas. We can go on and on and on.

Well, they control the House and the Senate and the governor's mansion, so they can run the table. Then you talk about Iowa. Then you start talking about some of the other states. Republicans right now are about to put forth a voter suppression bill in New Hampshire. It's crazy, right? It was interesting listening to Representative Clyburn just now when he was saying how, and if I quoted correctly, that we are teetering on losing democracy. And I would have to push back on that a little bit.

I don't think we're necessarily losing democracy. We're just losing votes. We're losing the black voice. We're losing the Black voice. We're losing the Brown voice. We're losing our diverse voice in these political spaces because, frankly, Democrats are using bipartisanship, or lack thereof, as a scapegoat for not doing their jobs, as opposed to really facing on head-on the fact that a lot of this, all of this really is rooted in white supremacy.

And like you said, it is rooted in maintaining the status quo and maintaining white supremacy, racism and white power in this country. And like you said, you know, the fact I think he said something else where he said, what if Democrats become the minority? Or I think Sinema is worried about what if Democrats become the minority and, you know, Republicans rule and we have a situation in which, you know, we're at their mercy. I don't understand the what if statement, because frankly, we're already there by what you just said. Look at all the jurisdictions on the state level and lower. It's all red. And we are already suffering as a result of this. We are already seeing our rights being peeled away

and pushed back and suppressed because Republicans understand that when you fall in line with one agenda and have, you know, a plan in place to keep racism, white supremacy going, it doesn't matter if you have outliers saying otherwise, the majority of them are going to push through. And considering that all of this is happening during MLK Day, right, or MLK weekend, and we're about to see the onslaught, if we haven't already, the onslaught of misquoted and misinterpreted and misused and displaced? 1967, Chaos or Community, he says, quote, white Americans must recognize that justice for black people cannot be achieved without radical changes in the structure of our society. And here we are right now in a position of power as

Democrats and people of color to actually change our society for the better, and the Senate is holding it up because of lack of bipartisanship, I'd call BS on that. Michael, Angela Rod tweeted this earlier today. She talked about really what's going on here. She first of all mentioned the King holiday, the vote in 1983. It passed the House 338 to 90, bipartisan.

Then she talked about the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It passed the House with 217 Democrats, 111 Republicans. In the Senate, 49 Democrats, 30 Republicans. A super majority, bipartisan. Then she said five times since 1965 the Voting Rights Act had been reauthorized. In 1970, on the Senate side,

it was 64 to 12. On the House, 237 to 132. In 1975, 77 to 12 in the Senate, 341 to 70 in the House. In 1982, it was 85 to 8 in the Senate, 341 to 70 in the House. In 1982, it was 85 to 8 in the Senate, 389 to 24 in the House. In 1992, the Senate, 75 to 20. In the House, 237 to 125. In 2006, it was unanimous in the Senate. In the House, it was 390 to 33.

But, but, this is interesting. This is what she tweets. Every reauthorization has been signed into law by Republican presidents. Then she said, what changed after the reauthorization in 2006? The election of President Barack Hussein Obama. And ever since that election, you saw the complete gutting of the efforts. And then when they sued and the Supreme Court beat back, ruled in favor of the racist, they immediately in 2013

they began, first of all in 2010 when they took control of the legislatures, they put in place voter ID other laws. Then they put the laws in place so to go to the courts, the conservative Supreme Court 5-4,

gutted Section 4, and ever since 2013, these Republicans, oh my God, they have been like crazy, demented people on the streets, yelling and screaming who need mental help when it comes to passing these bills, and they

have done it consistently since 2013. Absolutely, Roland. A lot of this is a backlash to two terms of President Barack Obama. When he was reelected in 2012, you had 66.6 percent of African Americans registered to vote who came out and voted. That scared the hell out of white Republicans. The percentage, that was the first time in history, in the presidential election, that the percentage of African Americans

registered to vote who actually voted was greater than the percentage of white people who registered to vote that actually voted. They-they struck back. See, white people attack us, with the exception of January 6th, where it was a physical attack. White people attack us in the courts.

And unless you understand law and politics, you don't see that coming in history. You don't see that coming. They attacked us in the courts. No, no, no, hold on, hold on, hold on. No, no, you got to pause that. Because the reason they attack us in the courts is because it was the courts

that ruled Brown v. Board of Education 1 and 2. It was the courts that ruled against when it came to Education 1 and 2. It was the courts that ruled against when it came to civil rights, when it came to voting rights. So they said, oh, we need to control the courts because y'all used the courts to

dare to get your rights. But it's also because of the longevity of a court decision. No, no, no, that's my point. They saw what happened. They were like, Mercer, Robert Mercer. Robert Mercer is on record as saying the worst thing that happened

was when black folks got those rights in the 60s because of those decisions. Michael, go ahead and finish. And just for people who don't know who Robert Mercer is, Robert Mercer was one of the early financiers of Donald Trump. And, hold up, and Cambridge Analytica, and Cambridge Analytica, and Breitbart.

And him and his daughter were initially behind Ted Cruz before they got behind Donald Trump. Exactly. So Kellyanne Conway... And Steve Bannon. See, connect the dots. Steve Bannon ran Breitbart. Kellyanne Conway was managing Robert Mercer's

family's super PAC. I think it was a super PAC. All that stuff. All those people are connected. But let me get back to this point here. 16 Republicans who are in the Senate right now voted to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act in 2006. That bill passed in 2006 by a vote of 98-0 in the Senate.

Senator Mitch McConnell, Senator Grassley, Senator Susan Collins, punk-ass Lindsey Graham, all of them in 2006 voted to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act. None of them are doing it today. So, brother, this fight is not over till we win. We got to put pressure on these 150 companies that came out in July of 2021 and signed on to a letter

and said they supported the passing of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, but they're all silent now. They have laryngitis and amnesia, as Representative James Clyburn was talking about. But also, Roland, very quickly here, January 21, 2017, hundreds of thousands of women, especially white women, rallied in Washington, D.C.

That was the day after Trump was inaugurated. Where are all these white women now? When voting rights is at stake, their voting rights are at stake also. They rallied in protest of Donald Trump. So there has to be, as Reverend Barber is saying, there has to be a multiracial, massive mobilization across the country. College students, 38 million disabled Americans who registered to vote, Latinos, Asian Americans, white women, white feminists, all of this. And also, we not just put pressure on Sinema and Manchin, but the Republicans as well, especially those 16 Republicans in the Senate

who voted to reauthorize the 2006 Voting Rights Act, but they're not voting for it today. Let me say this here, because I want people to understand why we have been going hard on this for the whole hour. Because I'm telling you, I get it. I hear folks all the time, they're like, man, Ronald, you be talking about this whole voting thing.

Let me reiterate this because I think people just totally forget this. There is no facet of your life. I don't care whether you support reparations or you don't. I don't care whether you ADOS, FDA, B1, B12. I don't care whether you conservative. I don't care whether you conservative, I don't care whether you liberal, whether you a pan-Africanist, a black nationalist,

I don't care whether you, I don't care what your distinction, I don't care what you call yourself, don't matter. There literally is no part of your life and your existence in this world that is not impacted by government. Federal, state, county, city, school board, judicial decisions on the local, state, federal level, none.

Water, what you eat, how you sleep, housing, your car you drive. Some of y'all hop into a car and you put a seatbelt on. That was a result of government. Oh, man, hey, man, I only, I get lots of mileage on my car. Government. Your windshield wipers. Safety feature. Headlights

on a car. Speed bump. Stop sign. Railroad crossing lights. Folks, we're trying to get you to understand what's going on. I got somebody sitting here hollering on YouTube, no reparations, no vote. How your ass going to get reparations?

They can't tell you how to get it. Let me say it again. How you going to get no reparations, no vote? How you going to get it? Who going to give it to you? Do you understand what you're even saying? No, they don't. You're just throwing out no reparations, no vote.

Folks like, no tangibles, no vote. Well, first of all, you can't get tangibles unless you put the people in place and not the president, because now unless executive order, you can't get no bill passed unless you put the right folks in the House, unless you put them in the Senate.

I need some of y'all to read the Constitution. If there is something that you want that's economics, the Constitution says it has to start in the House. So if you sit out congressional elections, you ain't getting nothing. If you sit out city council elections, county government elections, school board elections, folks, what I'm trying to get you to understand, this is, look, call this shit Schoolhouse Rock 2.0.

But I'm trying to get folks to understand. You can't go, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. If I don't get this, I'm not voting. Your ass guaranteed to get nothing. But I do want y'all to understand. Your opponents get it.

Exactly. Oh, they understand. See, Andrew Gillum lost by 30,000 votes in Florida when he ran for governor. 30,000 votes. The Tallahassee Democrat newspaper showed a graphic. They said, how did Gillum lose? And they showed the 20 highest voting counties in Florida. Do y'all realize that the top 10 counties,

more than 65% of the eligible voters voted and they were red. You had to come down, it was, I think, 14 to get to the first blue county, and the turnout was 57%. What I'm trying to get y'all to understand is it's a numbers game. And that's why they want to limit the mail-in vote. Oh, no, no, no.

You got match, match, match. One error gets thrown out. Oh, no, no, no. Drop boxes. That's why Georgia passed a law that says if my daddy vote by mail-in ballot, I vote by mail-in ballot. I cannot, it is against the law for me to take,

if my daddy said, son, please drop my ballot off, my dad's 74, the law says I can't. He has to physically drop his ballot off. And the law also says the ballot drop box ain't open 24 hours, it's only open during the same hours as the early voting place. Oh, you work. You can't get there. Sorry.

Sorry, you can't drop your ballot off. Remember, they reduced it in Georgia from 111 down to 23. Now make it even harder. Texas, bigger than about eight states. Harris County, larger than about eight states in America, one drop box for the whole county. Y'all, game, recognize game. And so I'm trying to get folks to understand

that we are in a midterm elections. They are executing their game plan to the T. Steve Bannon and those crazy maggots out there, those MAGA maggots, they are literally placing people on elections boards. They are looking and they're taking over election boards, throwing off black Democrats in Georgia, replacing them with white Republicans.

It's happening right now. They are put, listen to me clearly, black America and everybody who's watching, they are putting into place the infrastructure to overturn the will of the voters if you do not elect Republicans. And 2022 is going to be their test run for 2024. So whatever they did not get right in 2022, they are going to then fix it in 2024. And if Republicans take control of the U.S. House in January of 23, if they control the United States Senate in January of 23,

they are going to run the table and they will control the House and the Senate and 30 state legislatures and governor's mansions. And they won't even represent a majority of America. It's happening, folks. We're trying to tell you, you better pay attention. Going to a break. We'll be back. I'm Roland Martin, unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. It's going to work. ТРЕВОЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go.

I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go.

I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go.

I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. It ain't just about hurting black folk. Right. You got to 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. I'm Chrisette Michelle. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Folks, the Council on American and Islamic Relations, and the found two informants were releasing private and sensitive information to the investigative project on terrorism, a D.C.-based organization that many consider to be an anti-Muslim extremist group. One of the individuals is an African-American here in Virginia. Joining us right now to talk about this story, Edward Ahmed Mitchell.

He's the deputy director of the Council on American Islamic Relations. Glad to have you here. This was a shocking story. One of your officials out of Ohio, someone had reached out to the organization, said there's a mole in your organization, and through various work they were able to discover this individual in Ohio. Then there was an individual here in Virginia who was with a mosque here. This extremist group had funneled this person more than $100,000 to give them information.

They were turning over e-mail messages, recordings, and text messages. I mean, this was a major, major breach of sensitive information within care. First, thank you for having me, Roland. You're absolutely right. So it was a little over a year ago that we first received an indication that there might be some sort of spy somewhere within our organization. A whistleblower alerted us to that possibility. And then in the subsequent months, we were obviously investigating, gathering more information, audio recordings, transcripts that very clearly indicated there was a mole. We were able to identify that mole as the director of our Ohio chapter confronted him. He confessed he was terminated. More concerning than that was we

found that this hate group was systematically spying on nearly every other major American Muslim organization and prominent Muslim leaders, including former Congressman Keith Ellison, and doing all this, according to the IPT whistleblower, to benefit a foreign government, the Israeli government. So we have been investigating and releasing information as we get it. There is still more to find out. It appears this hate group was working with certain Republican members of Congress. We've already released emails showing them interacting with Israeli intelligence officials. And obviously we are still trying to hunt down

any remaining spies in the community. But yes, one individual in Virginia did come forward voluntarily to confess, to apologize and to cooperate. And we encourage anyone who is engaged in this behavior to do the same, come forward before you are caught. One of the things that I was reading the story and, you know, the brother in Virginia

thought that this was a group who was supportive of Muslims. There is nothing that says that that was the case. And Muslims in this country have been under vicious attack and surveillance since 9-11. And this was one of the greatest fears. And what really shocked so many people was that this happened inside the organization. This wasn't, you know, COINTELPRO and the federal government, what they did to black organizations.

This was literally another organization that was able to flip individuals on the inside and basically get them to share information that they were then passing on to other groups that don't like Muslims. Yeah, exactly. And I would note that the surveillance and targeting Muslims is going on well before 9-11. Malcolm X was perhaps the most prominent Muslim who was targeted by surveillance, being stalked and harassed, and it's continued since then. The one thing I want to emphasize is there is actually only one individual within CARE, and that was Roman Iqbal, the director of CARE Ohio, who is engaged in this behavior.

The other individuals are completely outside and unrelated to CARE and were targeting the broader Muslim community. They were able to touch or spy on or surveil pretty much every major Muslim organization. The other thing I want to emphasize, Roland, is that the great irony of the situation, they were doing this for years, over a decade, and they found nothing, nothing damaging about the Muslim community because there is nothing to find. We're doing civil rights work. We're doing advocacy work, interfaith dialogue. The most damaging thing they were able to use was Keith Ellison correctly observing that concerns about the Israeli government dictate American foreign policy in the Middle East. And they leaked that

audio when he was running for DNC chair to harm him. Short of that, they have not been able to find anything to harm us. And that's a testament to the integrity of our community and to the dishonesty of these groups, which continually claim that Muslims are a threat and subversive. And they know it's not true because they've been able to see what we're doing internally for so many years. So these are bigots, they're dangerous, and they must be held accountable. Questions from our panel. I'll start with you, Kelly. First and foremost, thank you for coming on the show

and just explaining to us exactly what this means. I guess my question for you is the level of betrayal that you must feel. Can you expound on that and talk about steps that you are taking or should be taking, will be taking regarding making sure that something like this doesn't happen again within the org? Absolutely. So, I mean, when we first found out there was a mold, it was obviously very upsetting. We were very upset. But we also understood that we were not truly surprised, should not be truly surprised, because, again, Muslims have been targeted like this, and activist groups and

civil rights groups have been targeted by this, including by moles. We now know that some of Malcolm X's bodyguards who were there when he was assassinated were agents of the New York Police Department. And so we weren't truly surprised, but definitely there is an intense feeling of betrayal when you find out a high-ranking member of your organization was doing this. And I would note that it appears, we're not sure yet, but it appears this may have been going on since he first joined the organization. In other words, that he wasn't flipped, but rather inserted in the organization after he attended law school for this purpose. That's still being investigated. But it just shows you how obsessed anti-Muslim hate groups are with our community, and it shows you how important our community is. The IPT whistleblower who told us all this, they said it was very explicitly that the reason this hate group was doing this is they are terrified that American Muslims become civically, politically engaged and strong,

and then reorient American policy in a more just and humanitarian way here and abroad. And they want to undermine us to prevent that from happening, and they're not going to win. We have been advancing good work, and we're going to keep advancing good work no matter what these people think of it, God willing. Matt Manning. My question for you, Mr. Mitchell, is what has been the effect of the FBI refusing to investigate this? What really struck me is that my understanding is the organization reached out and was concerned about laws having been broken through this surveillance and through these moles activity, and there's been radio silence from the FBI. So how are you addressing law enforcement's reticence to actually investigate this from the criminal element?

Well, first, I want to emphasize that as Muslim Americans, we are not waiting for anyone else to defend us or to help us. We are not dependent on anyone else. We are dependent on God, and we rely on ourselves. Having said that, we are Americans, and we expect our government to protect the American people from hate groups that try to spy on and harm Americans for the benefit of a foreign government. So we have been in contact with the FBI. The communications are ongoing. So far, we are not happy with what we have heard. But we're continuing to gather more information and provide evidence. And eventually, I think we're going to get to a point where law enforcement has no choice but to investigate. And I would also note that locally, there's no—I'm a former

prosecutor. I can tell you there's no question this hate group was violating at least state laws. When you record people without their permission, that is illegal in numerous states. And they were doing this systematically to Muslims across the country, including a sitting member of Congress. So state law violations are clear. The question is, do they violate any federal laws? Were they acting as an agent of a foreign government? If they were, that would be a huge, major federal crime, and that's something law enforcement has to figure out. Michael.

All right. Thanks, Brother Mitchell, for coming on today. That was one of the questions I had. What local laws were broken? What are local authorities doing? I saw remarks about the press conference on Wednesday and mentioning about the FBI investigating and the FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment in the article from The Washington Post, things like this. So what what can be done at the local level to hold these people accountable and also make sure this doesn't happen again as well? Yeah, absolutely. So number one, we're considering all our legal options.

I mean, there are certainly obvious and clear potential civil violations that this hate group and the people who spied for it may have committed and should be held accountable for. Obviously, you know, as Muslims, as a Muslim organization, we're used to being targeted. We've got Chinese entities that try to hack us because we speak out against China's genocide of Uyghur Muslims. We've got even Middle Eastern dictatorships that come after us because we speak up for freedom and democracy in that region.

So we're not surprised by this. So we already have very strong security protocols, technological and otherwise. The thing we could not protect against was one individual being willing to sell out his colleagues and do it in a very rudimentary way, using a cell phone to record conversations and forwarding emails. I mean, there's really no way to stop that. But the key thing I think for Muslims is to do what I think the African-American community did when they were targeted during the civil rights movement. Don't turn against each other. Don't become paranoid. Don't start worrying about the person praying next to you or the person sitting next to you in your office. We can't become like that, and we're not going to become

like that. So yes, we'll be safe. We'll be vigilant. We'll review our procedures, but we're not going to become paranoid about our neighbors, about our fellow Muslim brothers and sisters. We're not going to let hate groups do that to us. We're going to carry on with our work, God willing, and we're going to continue to advance progress. And yeah, it's going to make hate groups do that to us. We're going to carry on with our work, God willing, and we're going to continue to advance progress. And yeah, it's going to make them upset, but that's a good sign. It's a good sign they're obsessed with our work. They know our work is important. Edward Mitchell would care. We truly appreciate it.

Thank you so very much. When I was in Chicago, I was honored by the Chicago chapter with one of their media awards. I think what came with it was a trip to Turkey. I haven't gotten that trip yet. I need to give them a call. I'll follow up with it for you, Roland.

All right, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks, we come back. More on Roland Martin Unfiltered, including Black and Missing. And later in the show, our Education Matters segment. Plus, taking your phone calls for the first time,

seeing what your thoughts are about the news of the day. You're watching Roland Rotten Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. Nå er det en hel del av. Kjell Krona Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches. I'm real revolutionary right now. Black power. We support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told.

I thank you for being the voice of Black America, Rollins. Be Black. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared.

It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Hi, how's it going? It's your favorite Waco, Texas. The 15-year-old is 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighs 270 pounds, with black hair and dark brown eyes. If you have any information, please contact the Waco Police Department at 254-750-7500. 254-750-7500. 254-750-7500. All right, y'all, get this.

A black man is suing two Nevada police departments after he was wrongfully arrested for a warrant describing a white man with the same name. Yeah, Shane Lee Brown spent six days in jail after the enforcement officers from Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the Henderson Police Department mixed him up with another man. The black Shane Lee Brown is 23 years old, five feet, seven inches tall. And he's black. The white man, the same name is described on the arrest warrant as being 49 years old,

5 feet 11 inches tall, with a bushy white beard and blue eyes. The arresting officers failed to verify the person listed on the warrant properly. If they followed protocol, they would have noticed that Shane Brown wasn't the same one. They also would have known that the Shane Brown they were looking for had a conviction in 1994, two years before the black Shane Brown was born. Matt, this is sort of strange that you would just go with the name, okay, that's it. I mean, the reason I say that is people realize I go, like, just go to my computer, please.

So people need to understand why I use Roland S. Martin. Well, I use Roland S. Martin because when I was in the seventh grade, I was reading the newspaper about a Roland Martin who won a bass fishing tournament, who won $70,000. This right here is Roland Martin. He's a large white man. So imagine if he did something and folks like, oh, that's Roland Martin. How you not look at it and go,

the suspect we're looking for is a white dude. This a brother. Matt, you're an attorney. How much money he gonna get? I don't know, brother, but they're about to run him that check. They're gonna run him that check. Let's make it simple. They have

way too many checks to determine if they have probable cause, especially when they're arresting somebody on a warrant. And the law is pretty simple on this. Basically, as long as they don't ultimately find probable cause, either from a jury, a grand jury, excuse me, or the person's otherwise indicted, then they can bring this kind of case. I think he's going to get a nice check. And I think he should, because this is really absurd. There's no way that you don't look at the warrant and see that he doesn't meet the description at all. I think this is frankly not even going to be a qualified immunity type situation.

I think that the municipalities are going to try to settle this out of court and do what they can to avoid the embarrassment, believe it or not, because it's indefensible. It's just wholly indefensible that you don't even read the basic description on the warrant. It obviously doesn't match that. So I think he's going to do well in this case. You know, Kelly, I do get, you know, for a long time, Roland Martin, the famous bass fisherman

and I were going back and forth on Google in terms of that top spot back and forth, back and forth. I think it was about three years and finally I overtook him. And I think my name's out of the top five. But that ain't me. Like this right here, this ain't Ro.

And I hate fishing. I hate fishing. I like, that's boring as hell. So, I mean, I can only imagine Homeboy going, "'Yo, that is not me. "'You only looked at the name? I mean, it is the epitome of incompetence that, you know, that this happened.

And it'd be one thing if he was, you know, apprehended and let go, you know, in a reasonable amount of time, and, you know, with their apologies. Six days! Six days. He was in jail for six days. And I can only imagine on every single one of those six days, he tried to convince somebody in his vicinity

who had a modicum of power to get him out, hey, this is not me. Hey, you're looking for the wrong person. Or even ask the question, how can I help you prove that this was not me? You know, and the fact of the matter is when police officers are so ingrained in their own self-righteousness and just are convinced that they are right, come hell or high water, it is very difficult, especially when you are dealing with a black man,

to believe the black man over your blue uniform. And this is a perfect example of that. And it is absolutely absurd that a man was in jail for six days based off a description that doesn't describe him at all. Michael? Yeah, Roland, you know, at first I thought this was something that Barney Fife would do in Mayberry,

but I remembered there weren't that many black people in Mayberry, so they knew all of them, so this wouldn't happen. This is crazy. This brother spent six days in jail behind this, and they didn't even do a basic review of the warrant or anything like that. So, you know, this is another example of why some people should not be police officers. So, you know, he should definitely sue. The lawsuit is for $500,000 under federal law. And the suit is seeking compensatory damages of $500,000 under federal law, at least $50,000 under state law. So, yeah, you know, and they need to make sure they need to explain how did something like this happen with the police departments?

And to what measure measures are they putting in place to make sure this never happens again? Yeah. How about this? Damn eyeglasses. How about how about how about some eyeglasses? All right, y'all. The second highest ranking officer of the Louisiana State Police is accused of covering up the 2019 killing of a black man during a traffic stop. Lieutenant Colonel Doug Kane is accused of covering up information and leaking information to a former boss. Green was tased and brutally beaten after an alleged high-speed chase that didn't even exist. The troopers initially told Green's family

he died from a car crash. Green died from the injuries he sustained after being beaten by troopers. Kane and several other Louisiana State troopers are implicated in concealing the truth about Ronald Green's death. We've been covering that story, and we're going to continue to do so.

Boy, folks, it's how crazy they are, y'all. Going to a break. We come back. We're taking your phone calls for the first time. If you're a member of our Bring the fan club, you get to call in. And, yes, we're checking names on the list. And so some of y'all have already given. Let me pull up right here.

I've seen y'all give on Cash App. Carnell Scruggs. I see Evelyn Hill. I see Total Life Changes, Tracy Maxey, Joy Sale. All right, so here's the deal. If you gave on Cash App, if you gave on Cash App, what you need to do is send us an email to info at blackstarnetwork.com. That way we can put your email in our database and have your name in

so when you call in, we can cross-reference it. So if you call in right now, what's going to happen is I have all the people in my email who have given on Cash App. I can do a check. It's not a problem. And so we're going to do that. So y'all go ahead and put your phone calls in right now. And so we already got folks holding.

Deborah Bonaparte, Angel Perry, Donna White, they're already holding. We can have 30 phone callers in the queue. So y'all drop that line when we come back. If you want to join the Bring the Funk fan club, which allows you to be able to call in, we're going to do call-ins, y'all, every day on the show. Then again, Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered.

We have, of course, come on, y'all. Pull it up, please. Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered. Venmo, RM Unfiltered. Paypal is rmartinunfiltered. Zelle is roland at rolandsmartin.com. Roland at rolandsmartin.com. I'll be back in a moment.

Take your phone calls on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. ДИНАМИЧНАЯ МУЗЫКА 1. Skruva avgjørelsen av støtdelen. 2. Skruva av støtdelen. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go.

I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go.

I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm Vivian Green. Hi, I'm Wendell Pierce, actor and author of The Wind in the Reeds. Hey, yo, peace world. What's going on?

It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, welcome back to Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. All right, I told y'all in 2022 we had some great things planned, and we just added, of course, the call-in feature to the show, allowing you to be able to call in and share your thoughts with us

about today's subject, voting rights, as well. So let's get right to it. First caller, Deborah Bonaparte from Germantown, Maryland. Deborah, welcome to the show. How you doing? I'm here. I'm fine. How are you? Doing great. Happy New Year. Yes, indeed. What's on your mind?

Well, if it comes to voting rights, we risked our lives in COVID to bring all three houses of government and the Department of Justice. I don't have any problem with them having the power. Do they have the will to use it? Don't come to me in September and October with a, you know, come vote for me. Show me. It's been a year. Okay. We got one sedition charge with the attack on the Capitol, 750 people arrested. It took them 14,000 Black Lives Matter people were arrested last summer in two months. A lot of them sat in jail for months. I donated to the NAACP defense fund trying to get them out. It's the Democratic Party.

And what I'm hearing from the young people, I had to beg my sons to vote for Biden. I wanted to vote for him. But the younger people are disillusioned. They do not believe this Democratic Party has their best interest at heart, and they are going by history. Time after time and through the entire Obama, I love Obama. Let me tell you what Obama did for me. W-I-O-A, Workforce Investment Opportunity Act. That is how he got around the jobs bill.

He put it in the Department of Unemployment. So I went back to school. But I was out of a job through Obama's entire eight years. Not out of a job, but contracting. Six months on, three months on, you know, that kind of thing. I didn't get a job until Trump got in. But these young people do not see a future. Both my kids have degrees.

They're working for, you know, $20, $25 an hour right now. It's serious out here. And the Democratic Party does not seem to realize that they are using 80 million votes and flushing them down the toilet. We will not do this again. I know we will do something else. Raise another party, raise up some babies in the Democratic Party, whatever. But we've got to do something and we've got to do it now. You can't wait till September. I'll give you $5 per black person. You got to invest in order to make this thing happen. Give to the people who are willing to fight for you. I love Jamie and I've

written to him many times. Listen, we want to give you the money, but we're going to find a different way to support the people who are willing to fight. And that's what... Well, I'll tell you, Debra, here's my whole deal. As opposed to giving to the party, give to groups like Black Voters Matter. Give to New Georgia Voter Project.

Give to the people on the ground. That money, that's, to me, same thing. Look, Warnock is raising lots of money. That's important for the campaign, for staff, and for TV ads. But the reality is when we're also giving to the people on the ground, they're the ones who are going into these communities, reaching these people. I would dare say, Deborah, that's where you can also place your money, okay?

Yes. Deborah, I appreciate it. Thanks for calling. Look forward to you calling us again. All right, folks, let's go to, let's see here. Angel Perry calling from Woodstock, Georgia. Angel, you there? Hey.

Yes, I am. Hey, bro. How you doing? I'm good, I'm good. Thank you, I am. Hey, brother. How you doing? I'm good. I'm good. Thank you. I'm sorry my voice is hoarse. I got a doberman.

I've been chasing him. I'm glad you took my call. I am not as well-versed as your panel and everyone else on your panel. I want to give them a compliment, but I need to say to you, brother, I have watched you since I was a teenager. The energy that you bring for our people is unmatched. No one else fights for us as hard as you do, and I really appreciate you. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. What's on your mind? Well, what's on my mind is I come up in Kentucky, Louisville, Kentucky, under Mitch McConnell. And I have watched generation after generation after generation, even in my family, bear the effects of the hands of this man and everything that he had to do with not only my grandmother, but the entire state.

It's just under a blanket of despair. And to even bring you in to their homes today, they get nervous as if they don't know we're free. We're free. However, I heard you mention you have that trip to Liberia. I know y'all need a nurse. You got a four-person crew. Bring me with you because that's what we really need to do. We need to go home. We did not ask to be here. Roland, you know we did not ask to be here. I got you.

Well, I will tell you this here. It's also an issue there between the AmeriCo Liberians and the indigenous people. And so even that's a battle there because the indigenous people see the Americo-Liberians as being colonizers. So I hear your point. And I've been doing a lot of research lately as a result of that. So you have different factions, even in Liberia, as a result of the last 200 years. But I understand your point. Angel, I appreciate it. I look forward to you calling us again, OK? I thank you for your time, brother. Keep doing your point. Angel, I appreciate it. I look forward to you calling us again, okay? I thank you for your time, brother. Keep doing what you're doing.

I will do, thanks a bunch. All right, panel, let's go to Paris, France. Ernest Olivier Embong. Ernest, how you doing? Ernest? Hello, Roland, how are you? You call up from Paris, France? Exactly, I'm calling from Paris, France. I'm spending my night watching you

every single day. It's been around two years already. Oh, I know, because you sent me an email because I told you, you know, I look up everybody's name. We double-check. You sent me an email just last month. I got you, you know, I look up everybody's name. We double-check. You sent me an email just last month.

I got you. No. Exactly. No, no, you sent me an email December 3, 2020. I got you. My goodness. You got to record everything. That's why you're good.

I got receipts. What's on your mind? Okay, just one. First of all, I would like like to thank the other panel those who are there tonight and the whole day especially for the day on dr car and then this guy is just fire okay i'd like to thank for all of you because this show you're doing is just providing an excerpt inside of the u.S., how people are treated there. And it's very important for us, for someone like me from Africa, to see the information from my brother's eyes, not from white, mainstream media. We're showing what they want to show. I mean, it's the same thing you're living here.

Down there is exactly what we're living under. The same white supremacists were. You are dealing with daily, on daily basis, in centuries, they are the same guys who are treating us like, I don't want to say the word, but you know it's shit, okay? So it's really important what you're doing, the job you're doing. It's so efficient. It's so important. I just want to, I cannot vote in the U.S.,

but it's really important every single fact you are bringing on the table, that people must understand how efficient, how critical what you're doing and all the panelists, what you are bringing information to for us, it's so important, Roland. I just want to bless you and bless all the panelists and tell you how important the work you're doing is for us, for every African worldwide. So keep doing what you're doing. I'm supporting as well as I can. My little contribution every single month, but if I can do more, I will. If you need to have contact in Cameroon, for instance,

right now we have African Cup of Nations. I was wishing that maybe both guys on your panel, I don't know if on the final or whatever, everything I can do, just send me an email. I will try to do my best because it's so important. I'm doing it because I know what you're doing is so important. I appreciate it. And we'll definitely do that.

You said Cameroon? Cameroon. Okay. Yes. All right. Two, three, seven. All right. Ernest, I appreciate it. I call my All right. Two, three, seven. All right. Ernst, I appreciate it. We call my country the Little Africa, so you know what I mean.

I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you very much. Thank you. God bless. Thank you very much. See, that's the thing, Matt, Kelly, Michael, that people, I keep telling people that, no, this isn't for us.

This is not just a thing that's just happening here. The ability for us to be able, by streaming on these platforms, we're talking to people all across the world. When I look up our analytics, we're able to break down the analytics when I pull them up on YouTube. And they're showing me, in terms of the countries,

the you know, the content, things along those lines. You know, it's showing us I mean, the Caribbean is showing us is showing us all these different places where they're actually are seeing us. Like I'm looking here, audience stuff along those lines and top geographies, U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, South Africa. And so we're just not just talking to us in the 50 states. Right, right.

And that's what that's what it's about. You know, this information has to get out worldwide. We're dealing with a lot of people. We've done with African people around the world, people of African descent around the world. We're dealing with Pan-Africanism, and we have to understand how what happens in other areas of the world impacts African Americans here.

What happens here impacts African people around the world as well. So this is why this vehicle is so important. You know, to that point, Kelly, it's really interesting. I was sent something on Facebook. It's a sister. She teaches in Shanghai. And she goes, oh, we've met.

I'm like, when do we meet? She says, oh, I was at your CBCF party. She's like, yeah, I live in the state. She said, I'm from Houston. I was at your party. And then sent the photo. And I was like, yo. And so she wants us to do a segment for Education Matters on African-Americans who are teaching right now in China. I was like, all right, we can do that. So again, that's the thing that people have to understand in terms of how we're able to reach folks, not just here, but also abroad.

Well, that's the beauty of streaming and the way in which you have decided to basically share the news, and specifically news that affects Black people across the globe. Platforms like YouTube, Facebook, even the Black Star Network, all of these things aren't just siloed to digital TV or analog even,

if that even still exists at this point. It is global now. This is a global news show that happens to talk about mainly American issues. And I think that's what's beautiful about your show, the fact that it has room to grow and is growing both in reach and in topics that affect Black people across the diaspora. The fact that this woman is in Shanghai right now, there are issues, good and or bad, that affect Black people in other countries. You know, Black Americans

who are expats have a completely different experience than expats of other races and the like. So bringing that onto your show is absolutely something that can be addressed. And, you know, it is, again, what makes this show so amazing, the fact that because it's yours, you have the power to do it all without having to go through so many steps and bureaucracies to get the message out. Well, shout out to Jessica Rugley. She is the teacher. She's from Houston.

And so shout out to her. She's a teacher in Shanghai. So look forward to having her on the show soon. All right, y'all. Donald White from New Jersey. Donald? Let me click the talk button. Donald, how you doing?

Yeah, I'm good, brother. How you doing? Doing great. What's on your mind? First of all, happy new year to you and the new studio. I love it. I appreciate it. All right.

So I saw the show yesterday, which I've been, whoo, you lit that jiggle on fire. So I'm going to get right to the point. To the panel. Let's say you got a Isaiah Montgomery within your household. How do you deal with that? Uh-oh. Matt, I'm gonna let you

answer that one. If you got an Isaiah T. Montgomery, the brother who, the only black guy at the Mississippi Constitutional Convention in 1890 who voted with the white races to take the vote away from black people, what you gonna do? Call his ass out?

Can I say it like that? You gotta speak right to him. You gotta speak right to him. We can't, you know, half-step around it. It's gotta be exactly what it is. And what I wanted to say, Roland, is, look, the thing I really appreciated tonight is all these people that called in, I feel like

every single one of them is family. When we're talking family, we gotta talk truth. And if this brother's in my family, I gotta tell him, Uncle, you sound crazy. You need to not be talking like that, and you need to do what needs to be done. So we need to call him out. Simple. I don't think there's anything else to say beyond that.

You cool with that, Donald? Uh, uh, alright, that was cool. All right, so here's the second question. So you got people trying to press on these voting rights acts, right? And nothing is getting pushed through because of Manchin and Sinema. But how about this one here? What is taking so long to get rid of Mr. DeJoy

from the post office? Ah! All right. Kelly, Michael, y'all want to tackle that? I'd be able to. With Mr. DeJoy, he's on his way out. It's not, with that position, that's not a position that the president can just fire.

It's, my understanding, it's a panel that has to oust him. But he's on his way out, Mr. DeJoy. If you've been following that, NBC News, New York Times, Washington Post has been covering that. Mr. DeJoy's on his way out. Right. So, that's the actual, first of all, the U.S. Postal Service,

people don't, it's a quasi-government thing. People don't understand how that works. And so, the president appoints the Board of Governors. The Board of Governors hires and fires the position that DeJoy has. And so Biden just named a new chairman of the board.

DeJoy Sikofat is out. A new person is in. They now have, he now, Biden now has a majority of his appointees who are on the board. And so, yeah, don't be surprised when you see him out of a job real soon. Donald, we appreciate it, my brother. We look forward to you calling back. Right on, my brother. Keep the power moving.

Thanks for supporting the show. Let's go to Wayne Booth. Wayne Booth is calling from, let's see, Wayne Booth is calling from Maryland. What up, Wayne? Hello, how are you? Great. What's on your mind? I wanted to express my appreciation for what you do and the way you do it.

I wish that I could make more of a contribution myself. Well, we appreciate whatever you've given. We appreciate it. And I'm spreading the word as well. I have a consideration, if you would. Yep. I'm concerned. I'm concerned about what looks like our people's perception of what's going on. I'm seeing considerable distractions. If it isn't one thing, it's another. But it seems that the other side has been successful in getting the voting laws changed so that they can maintain control of Congress.

When you say distractions, how? What distractions? Okay. They make these issues about, for example, with the COVID, the pandemic, the distractions with constitutional rights versus wearing a mask. They make distractions with, when we talk about defund the police, they turn it into something other than what it is. They're busy throwing blame to Black Lives Matter and other groups so that we stay distracted from trying to get Congress in order. So what do you want us to be focusing on? Well, it's more of a question. Okay.

Is there anything that can be done to help us focus and get away from these distractions. Let's see here. Who on a pound do you want to tackle that first, Matt, Kelly, or Michael? Wayne? I'm here. Who do you want to answer that first, Matt, Kelly, or Michael? Let's start with Kelly. Kelly, go.

The question being how do we get rid of distractions or how do we refocus? How do we get our folks to focus on the issues that matter? Well, it depends on what issues we're talking about, though, because my thing is the list of issues that he stated, those are important issues. And you can walk and chew gum at the same time, right? You can focus on more than one issue and get things done. The problem is when you have a Congress that does not want to do its job for the sake of lack of bipartisanship, as if bipartisanship is like the key or the golden egg and will make everything better. That's not what's happening right now. I personally believe that as a conglomerate, Black people are actually quite focused. The problem is we have so many issues and all of them need to be addressed.

So it's not that we don't have focus. We don't have a Congress that understands what our focuses are. And until we get to that point, we're gonna be going, um... We're gonna be keep having this issue, um, time and time again, because we have a Congress right now,

specifically a Senate right now, specifically a Senate right now, that does not understand the urgency of now. All right. Wayne, you good? It helps. All right. Wayne, I appreciate it. Thank you so very much.

We look forward to your call again. Thank you. Ainsley Reynolds from New Jersey. Hey, Ainsley. Ainsley? Yes. Yes, you're on the air. Oh, Brother Roland, my good brother.

I just wanted to call in to say congratulations on the new studio and that I will continue donating. I did have one question unrelated to the topics today. Sure, go ahead. OTT, you mentioned the OTT network. Can you just explain exactly what that is? Okay, all right. So this is what OTT is.

And so when you're watching ABC, NBC, CBS, that's broadcast television. When you're watching cable television, obviously that's cable, meaning you have to have cable to get it. So broadcast is called over the air. That's O-T-A.

Over the air, meaning your antenna picks the channels up. Then you have cable television. It has to come into your home. OTT is called over the top, meaning it's not. And so when you see linear television, you hear that phrase, linear television is describing broadcast and cable. Over the top is really talking about essentially apps, meaning it's not broadcast. You don't need broadcast. You don't need cable. It's over the top. And so that's what OTT is. And so the Black Star Network is an app, meaning you can stream it. You can have it on your Apple phone, Android phone, Roku,

all different platforms where you can watch TV, if you will, or streaming TV, that's what OTT is. And so, you know, it costs a lot, a lot to do a broadcast television. It costs a lot, you know, to have your cable network, but OTT is a lot cheaper, easier for us to be able to reach. And so we stream on YouTube, we stream on Facebook, but this means this is our own network, our own channel. We set the rules. We abide by the rules. So, perfect example. There are things that we can and cannot do on

YouTube and Facebook. Well, because we own Black Star Network, then we can actually do that. Facebook used to have a four-hour limit when you live stream. Four hours and then it would cut off. Well, our OTT platform, we're simply unlimited. And so that's actually what it is.

And so when you're out there, so look what the networks have done. NBC has launched Peacock. That's their OTT platform, their streaming network. You've got Discovery Plus. CNN is launching CNN Plus. Fox launched Fox Nation. That's their OTT platform, their streaming network. You've got Discovery Plus, CNN is launching CNN Plus. Fox launched Fox Nation. And so all of these networks are launching

their own OTT channels in order to be able to get you watching streaming. So give me a wide shot, folks, just so y'all understand. So you're gonna see right here with this wide shot here, I've got laptop here, iPad here, I got two iPhones. That right there Ainsley is when I, the app is on all of these platforms, that's OTT. And so that's what it is.

So you don't need an antenna, you don't need cable, all you need is to download it onto one of your devices. And so if you're at home, so let's say, you know what? You don't want to watch on, you know, this little thing. You don't want to watch on your laptop or on your iPad. You can get the Roku device. You can get, again, all kinds of different devices. You can get Apple TV.

They're different devices. You can get Apple TV. They're different devices. So therefore, if you've got a 65-inch TV, an 82-inch TV, you can literally plug that device up to it and then literally watch this show on your television. You can download the app and boom, you're just sitting there, click, boom, boom, boom.

Next thing you know, you're watching the show. So it's no different. Last point, Samsung, boom, boom. Next thing you know, you're watching the show. So it's no different. Last point, Samsung, and I think Vizio and LG as well, they literally have their own programming grid inside of their television. So it's called Samsung Plus. And so their newer TVs, they actually have their own channel lineup.

And so you can sit here and go to Newsy, go to Cheddar, and literally it's like a guide, a grid, same as for your cable, and see those channels. Our goal is to launch a 24-hour streaming channel this year, so the exact same thing. So in this case here, this is the last point I'll make. You're watching this show right now, so when we go off, so to show, we just sort of stop streaming, then that's it. We might stream something else. Well, we're going to be launching a 24-hour streaming channel. So just

like when you're watching ABC and you turn it on and a program is already on, and what's the next one? The same thing with the cable network. We're going to have one of those channels. And so we're going to be taking a lot of our library content, our interviews with people like Fred Gray and Jim Lawson and Glenn Turman and others, events that we've covered, speeches that I've given, panels that I've been on, taking our news shows. We're launching four news shows on Black Star Network on the week of February 1st. A business show with Deborah Owens. A wellness show with Reverend Dr. Jackie Hood Martin.

We're launching a daily For the Culture show with Faraji Muhammad. We're launching a weekly show, The Black Table, with Dr. Greg Carr. And the Goals launched four more shows at the end of the year. So you'll be able to see those shows. You just go to the app, boom, click it.

I want to see that show. But eventually, you'll see those shows programmed on our 24-hour streaming channel. Fantastic. So when you've given, whatever you've given, that's what you're giving to support. Not just the show, not just the development of the studio, not just the building out the OTT app, which costs us $160,000 a year, but it's also bringing on these new shows.

So when you see MSNBC with all of their shows and CNN, well, guess what? We want to have the exact same thing, our own network, Black Star Network. Thank you, my brother. One other thing, I need you to give Reese a show. Don't worry. First of all, Reese got a job.

So Reese got a job, and she's doing Black Women's Views. But trust me, that is on the radar. And I love all of the black women that you have on I don't know of any other show that has all of those intelligent black women that come on the show keep it up my brother don't have too many more sigmas and q's and kappas

on the show just keep it to where it's at and bring on some more alphas you just heard Michael's feelings alright my brother I appreciate it what did you say Michael You just hurt Michael's feelings. All right, my brother. All right, brother Reynolds. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. All right.

What'd you say, Michael? We made Roland look good. You know, it's a team effort. Now you know a Sigma ain't never made no Alpha look good. Oh, yeah. I was about to say, I'm not exactly sure what he's talking about. I don't know what he's talking about. Sometimes you got people that's on your show.

I don't know. Matt, you in a frat? That's a long story? That's a long story. That's a long story. No, I'm not. Not D9 at least. What? You in a white frat? You in a band frat? You in out?

No, no, no. I'm going to find you out for brother, but I'm a legacy for something, so we'll talk later, Roman. All right. I'm just checking. All right. Aisley, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. All right, y'all. I got to get in one more break, and then

I got one more break, right? Okay, I'm going to get in one more break, and we're going to come back. We're going to take a couple of more callers, then we're going to close it out, y'all, to kick off MLK weekend. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered, taking phone calls for the first time

right here on the Black Star Network. We'll be back in a moment. When you study the music, you get black history by default. And so no other craft could carry as many words as rap music. I try to intertwine that and make that create whatever I'm supposed to send out to the universe.

A rapper, you know, for the longest period of time has gone through phases. I love the word, I hate what it's become, you know, and to this generation, the way they visualize it. Its narrative kind of like has gotten away and spun away from, I guess, the ascension of Black people. I am to be smart. Roland Martin's doing this every day.

Oh, no punches! Thank you, Roland Martin, for always giving voice to the issues. Look for Roland Martin in the whirlwind, to quote Marcus Garvey again. The video looks phenomenal, so I'm really excited to see it on my big screen. I support this man, Black Media.

He makes sure that our stories are told. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. I gotta defer to the brilliance of Dr. Carr and to the brilliance of the Black Star Network. I am rolling with Roland all the way. Honestly, on the show that you own, a Black man owns the show.

Folks, Black Star Network is here. I'm real revolutionary right now. I'm proud. Roland was amazing on that. Hey, Blake, I love y'all. I can't commend you enough about this platform that you've created for us to be able to share who we are, what we're doing in the world, and the impact that we're having.

Let's be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You can't be Black on media and be scared. You dig? I'm Angie Stone. Hi, I'm Teresa Griffin. Oh, Roland. Hey, Roland. I am so disappointed that you are not here, first of all.

Where's our dance? It's like we get a dance in every time I see you. And so now you're not here for me to dance with, sir. You and your ascot. I need it. I need that in my life right now. Okay. Um, I love you, Roland. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered.

-♪ Man, I just came... Just saw this news right here, Ben. My goodness. Uh, breaking U.S. reports. Man, I just saw this news right here. My goodness. Breaking U.S. reports, 926,693 new coronavirus cases in one day, setting a world record. Omicron is not playing, y'all. This is just one of those things, Matt, Kelly, and Michael, that get used to, get

adapted to. You just don't know. Literally, you could be walking around and you don't know. Some folks are asymptomatic and then some folks, they might get sick and they might be coughing or sniffling. Now it's sort of like, uh-oh, uh-oh, they got the COVID?

They got the COVID? Or is it allergies? Or is it the cold? I mean, you literally just have no idea. And so when I start thinking about, you know, they said we're going to have an Essence Music Festival this summer, you know, NBA All-Star Game, Image Awards. I don't know.

Not sure. They may have to do a virtual music festival. I'm not sure about that. All that stuff is tentative. It's based upon the COVID levels at that time. All that is tentative. Yeah. It's just crazy.

But again, 926,000 cases setting a world record. All right. Let's get these calls out of the way so we can get right to the weekend, y'all. Kenneth McRae from Los Angeles. What up, Kenneth? Kenneth, what's on your mind? What's happening, Roland? All good.

What's happening, Roland? All right, man. I just called to say congratulations, man. I was with you when you was with TV One. I was with you when you left TV One and was going live from the house and taking calls at the house. You know, I was one of the original Bring the Funk Fan Club members with you at Roland Martin Live, man.

Just wanted to say congratulations. I'm an audio guy. I'm a lighting guy. Man, you sound good. Lighting is popping. Back lighting is popping. Everything is popping, man. Just wanted to say congratulations. I'm an audio guy. I'm a lighting guy. Man, you sound good. Lighting is popping. Back lighting is popping. Everything is popping. Man, I got one request, though. Yes. Can we get a Black History segment?

Maybe once a week. I'd be willing to put some money in. Black History segment. Like what? Define it. Like what? What do you mean? Like, you know, you got two brothers there, Dr. Carr and Brother Michael Imhotep. Both can definitely go hard in the paint. They can talk about, you know, the black experience in America, all of our heroes here.

But then also the greater aspects of our history that deal with what we did before the enslavement period. Okay. All right. I think it's equally, in some instances, more important. All right. We'll think about that. We ain't got no problem accepting more donations to make that happen. Yes, sir, brother. Just congratulations.

Keep going, brother. I appreciate it, Kenan. Thanks a lot. Thanks for watching. Be sure to call in again. Let's stay in California. Dick Goodwin. Dick, you're on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. First time caller because it's the first day. It's Vic Goodwin.

Say it again. I said it's Vic Goodwin. Vic. Vic. All right. Got it. Yep. Vic Wicked on YouTube. Got it. All right. Hey, shout out to Hankster. He asked for a shout out. All right. Got it. Yep. Vic Wicked on YouTube.

Got it. All right. Hey, shout out to Hankster. He asked for a shout out. All right, Hankster. Kelly, looking wonderful as always. Michael, keep it up. Matt, nice to see you, brother.

Roland, man, you are breaking all types of barriers down with everything that you're doing, my brother. I appreciate what you're doing, how you're pushing the culture forward, how you are informing us and keeping us engaged. The worst thing that ever happened was for them to start taking rights away from us. And now that we woke, they're hoping we go back to sleep. But we ain't going back to sleep. So that's the whole reason why they're doing this suppression and everything, man. I'd like to get Brother Matt's thoughts on what they're trying to do to Marilyn Mosby. Mm.

I'm glad you asked that question, Brother. Vic, thanks a lot. I appreciate it. Matt, go ahead. I don't know what they're doing beyond what they always do, which is when you see a black person flying high, you try to shoot them down. That's what it is. Marilyn's done a lot of great work there. When I was in the DA's office here, in fact, the DA I worked with sat on the panel with her

and that has never seen the light of day. But the work she's done in Baltimore has been really strong work, her and her husband. So I think they're out to get her. I haven't seen the evidence, but I know that her attorney, Scott Bolden, is one of the best in the country. So she will have top-flight representation, and hopefully we'll learn that this is a witch hunt. All right. We appreciate it.

Let's go to Chicago. Z, Z, how you doing? Hi, Roland. How are you? Doing great. I can't believe I'm talking to you. How y'all doing? Kelly, the baby dad, she's so pretty. She are you? Doing great. I can't believe I'm talking to you. How y'all doing? Kelly, the baby doll, she's so pretty. She looks just like my baby. However, I need to turn my TV down.

Okay, hi. So I got so much to say. But anyway, Roland, I'm one of those two lifelongers. I got you still on my TiVo. Over 300 shows when you was on Washington Watch. Wow! Are you serious? Right. Yes, yes. You know what? Right now on my TiVo. Over 300 shows when you was on Washington Watch. Wow! Are you serious? Right.

Yes, yes. You know what? Right now I'm on my TVI. I might need to send Kenan to your house so we can extract as many of those because, you know, he was actually in Chicago, and he would record the show, and we will upload it. And so there's some episodes he missed. So, yeah, we might get your number

and go through your collection of shows to track down some of the good stuff. And stuff on, yeah. And I got you two on my DVR right now, 300 shows. So I'm fighting every day when the recording comes on. It's trying to raise the old ones. Anyway, there's so many different connections. You spoke at, I'm a member of Salem. You spoke at my Arise 2014. You was our keynote speaker. So you did so many things,

but I love you guys. I mean, people get tired of me. Would you shut up about what Roland said? I've got so many members. I've actually got a couple of ancestors. My grand, I mean, people get tired of me. Would you shut up about what Roland said? I've got so many members. I've actually got a couple of ancestors. My great aunt just passed in November. She loved to watch me. She was an educator, kindergarten teacher for 40 years. She just said, tell him to stop screaming and hollering at people so much.

Turn him off. He's hollering too much. Getting on my nerves. So be a little gentle to the women. You know, you always speak some people sometimes and that's uh uh criticism it's all good but anyway i just love you sometimes i gotta holler at something i gotta holler at some people no let them get their thoughts out sometime because what you do is you jump in and they never come back to get their thought i want

to hear everybody's point of view because I love you all. And Dr. Carl, oh, my God. He's just amazing. He really is. You know, he does so much for the ancestors, but I get emotional thinking about it. Well, look, we appreciate. Thank God for you all.

Well, Z, we appreciate you watching all of these years. Sorry to hear about the loss in your family. And we're going to keep bringing the funk regardless of what anybody else says. We appreciate it. Absolutely, absolutely. All right, look forward to you calling back. And, y'all, get Z's number. We've got to go to her house and download some of them shows, 300 shows.

Z, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Love you. All right, thanks a lot. Y'all, we're going to our last caller for today, Sonia Little. She's out of Atlanta. Thanks a lot. Love you. All right. Thanks a lot. Y'all, we got our last caller for today, Sonya Little. She's out of Atlanta. Sonya Little, you're gonna be the last caller we gonna chat with. Glad to have you on Roller Mark Unfiltered.

What's up? Hey, hey, hey, hey. Lee the best for last. I just wanna say it is a pleasure speaking with you. I'm so glad that you are doing this. One, you got the best panelists. Speaking to Kelly, Michael, Matt, just really seeing him. But all of your panelists, Monday through Friday, are awesome.

I've been watching you from CNN on down to One, and here we are, the Black Star Network. I don't have a comment. I'm just enjoying what you are doing for the Black community. And I

love it. Because when I you know, the pandemic made all of us start watching, what, YouTube and everything. And I said, woo, that's where my man is. I said, okay, let's see where he's going to stay. And I said, man, if I don't support this man, I'll be a fool. Baby, I just want to say you got it going on. I'm going to keep supporting.

I love you. I love the colors. Like I said, you got the best. Monday through Friday, no matter which one we get. Kelly, love you. Sometimes I laugh at them when they don't get your color right. Michael, you up on it. And, Matt, I might call you just because I don't need to know you. Yes, I appreciate it.

Sonia, I appreciate it. Thank you so very much for all the support. We love you as well. Thanks a lot. Bye-bye. Oh, man. Wow. That's awesome there.

These folks gonna make me tear up. I mean, look, this is... We created this from day one. It's so funny. When the brother called, he talked about me doing a show from the crib. There were people who, they were like, oh, man, what you doing?

I'm like, trust me, we building something. And all of this, and I just want people to understand, all of this was exactly what was the vision a long time ago. It was the vision a long time ago. But you got to build it. You got to build it. And it's simple as that. MLK weekend, protest tomorrow in Arizona.

We'll be sharing that news. And I'll say this here, Matt, Kelly, and Michael, any politician, any company that puts up an MLK quote or a comment, we need to be asking, what you

doing to stay with King? If you're a corporation, you're saluting King, how many blacks are on your board? Who are your black senior executives? What black-owned media are you supporting? What black institutions are you supporting? Do not let people pimp this weekend like they always do. Y'all, each one, final comment, take us home.

Let's go, Kelly first. I just want to thank you for this opportunity coming on your show every week. And the fact that this was your first time having all these callers, it was so much fun to just hear everybody's point of view and hearing their voices as opposed to seeing it in the chat. It was just a real treat and a really wonderful way to end my Friday. As for MLK Day, again, just have it in your heart to have the courage to tell people to stop using his quotes as performance art. You know, if you're going to talk about it, be about it. And we go through this every single year. But with this being an election year, it is now more important than ever to really get the message home

that MLK was more about radical justice as opposed to, you know, placating white people. And we need to keep that in mind in order to honor his memory the right way. Mm, absolutely. Matt? All I'm gonna say, brother, is that I just feel like all of y'all are family.

And I'm so blessed to be here with you and honored to be on your show every week and to learn from you. And all the callers today were a testament to the profound effect you've had for our community. So thank you for what you continue to do. Thank you for letting me be a part of it. And thank you for all the people who are calling in, because I feel like every single one of my aunties and uncles have called in tonight. So I appreciate it. Michael. All right. Well, you know, Roland, this is great. The callers are great as well. And if if in addition to what you said about the corporations posting on social media, we also need to press them. If you speak out about Dr. King, where do you stand on the John Lewis Voting Rights Act?

What are you doing to get it passed on Dr. King Day? I'll be in West Virginia, my first time in West Virginia. I'll be in Joe Manchin State. I'll be speaking at Davidson Elkins College. The Black Student Union is bringing me there to speak for that Dr. King Day celebration. And then Saturday, I'm teaching an online class from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power, 1865 to 1968. So people can follow me on social media for more information about that

or visit africanhistorynetwork.com. But once again, thanks, Roland. And John Lewis was a Sigma. Dr. King was an Alpha. They worked together. So that's what we're doing. There you go. But the key, he was an Alpha.

All right, y'all. together. So that's what we're doing. There you go. But the key, he was an alpha. Alright, y'all. I will not be on the road this King weekend. It's probably been the first time in a long time, but it's all good because we will be live on Monday right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. That's a work day for us

because we cannot allow mainstream media to present that civil rights, what I call a civil rights bobblehead, the civil rights mascot. That's how they sort of present Dr. King. No, we will be sharing with you the radical Dr. King. You also want to tune in over the weekend because we have some amazing interviews lined up. Folks, I've done interviews in the past with people who worked with Dr. King, Sardona Clayton,

Reverend Jim Lawson, Bill Lucy, Clance Jones, who was his attorney, Dorothy Cotton, who was the only woman in the inner circle of SCLC. We've got Claiborne Clark Carson with the King Institute at Stanford University. We got all of

that, and we will be streaming that this weekend. Yo, let me just guarantee y'all this right now. Ain't no black-targeted or black-owned network. There is no other black newspaper or black digital operation that is going to have the kind of coverage we will have this weekend for people who knew King, who worked with King, who still

are moving forward with this memory. So trust me, you want to download the Black Star Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire Stick, Samsung, as well as Xbox. And, of course, please support us in what we do.

Your dollars make this possible. Yes, we've gotten some advertising. Yes, we want to get more. But trust me, your dollars are critical for what we do. So join the Bring the Funk fan club. Cash app, dollar sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal is rmartinunfiltered. Venmo is rmunfiltered.

Zelle is roland at roland.smartin.com. Roland at rolandmartinunfiltered.com. If you have given to us via Cash App, Venmo, or Zelle, send an email to info at Black Star Network. Info, I-N-F-O at Black Star Network. So we can put your name and your email in the database, so you'll be on our email list and our email blast. And again, I'm just letting y'all know, only Bring the Funk fan club members are going to be able to call in.

That's one of the perks. Again, we don't put a limit, we don't put a minimum contribution on it, but it is important for us to pay for this, y'all, because it ain't free. And I got no problem telling y'all, because it ain't free. And I got no problem telling y'all, this is $15,500 a month. Our live streaming equipment, look, just taking those

phone calls, that's a cloud based solution. That costs us as well. None of this stuff is free. That's why we appreciate all of y'all who support what we do. We close the show out every single Friday, but we run all of y'all who support what we do. We close the show out every single Friday, but we run all the names of our Bring the Funk fan club members. Since we launched this show, my man, since we launched the show,

we've had 22,018 people who have contributed to this show, and probably another 50 have come in since we've been on the air. So thank you so very much. I'll see you guys Monday, King Day. Roland Martin, unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Holla! Să ne vedem la următoarea mea rețetă! Thank you. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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