#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Fighting NC voter suppression/intimidation; Breonna Taylor's boyfriend sued; HBCU Heroes mobilize

Episode Date: October 31, 2020

10.30.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Fighting NC voter suppression/intimidation; Breonna Taylor's boyfriend sued by cop; In Texas more than 9 million ballots had been cast as of this morning ... way more than election day in 2016; HBCU Heroes mobilize to get students to the polls; In Mississippi, Black and Hispanic voters have been moved to a crowded precinct with very little warning; DeVon Franklin talks about Hollywood's efforts to get out the vote.Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered Partner: Ceek Whether you’re a music enthusiast or an ultra-base lover. CEEK’s newly released headphones hear sound above, below and from multiple directions unlike traditional headphones where users only hear sound from left and right speakers. Be the first to own the world's first 4D, 360 Audio Headphones and mobile VR Headset. Check it out on www.ceek.com and use the promo code RMVIP2020 #RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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at taylorpapersilling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Today is Friday, October 30th, 2020. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. In North Carolina, a hotline has been set up to deal with voter issues like intimidation and suppression. In Texas, more than 9 million ballots have been cast as of this morning. That's far more than who voted in 2016. HBCU heroes to prevent a repeat of 2016's drop in student voter turnout will talk with Kwame Jackson, one of the founders. In Mississippi, Black and Hispanic voters have been moved to a crowded precinct with very little warning.

An officer involved in the death of Breonna Taylor is suing her boyfriend. We'll give you those details, and Devon Franklin will join us to talk about Black Hollywood's effort to get out the vote. It's time to bring the funk on Roller Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. Best believe he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's Rolling Martin Rolling with rolling now

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he. Rolling with rolling now. Yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martin. Now. Martin. Democracy North Carolina, along with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice and Forward Justice, are available to voters on the voter hotline to answer questions about absentee ballots and voter suppression, as well as intimidation. The nonpartisan voter hotline continues to break records, answering nearly 4,000 calls in just the first week of in-person early voting. And by October 22nd, more calls were received than early voting and Election Day in 2016.

Joining me now is Tomas Lopez, executive director. Actually, in a bit, I'm going to talk with Tomas Lopez, executive director of Democracy North Carolina. Folks, we're just, of course, four days away from Election Day. This is the final weekend of early voting in many places. And of course, on November 3rd, we have seen record turnout all across the country. We have seen folks turning out in significant numbers in Florida, in Texas, in North Carolina, in so many different states. But we've also seen Republican efforts to actually try to stop folks from voting. We have seen them use the courts to change the rules. So, for instance, in Minnesota last night, the judges decided that they could not accept the ballots after 8 p.m. November 3rd, even though three months ago, three months ago in Minnesota, they decided how long they were going to accept except ballots. This is what is happening, y'all. There's a concerted effort by Republicans working with states attorney generals to use the courts to stop the counting

of ballots past Tuesday. I'm going to break down more of that with our panel, but joining me right now is Tomas Lopez. Tomas Lopez, of course, with Democracy North Carolina. So give us a sense of what's been happening in that state as well, because again, we are seeing, we're seeing the courts used for voter suppression across the country. What's been happening in North Carolina? It's good to be on with you, Roland. Thank you for having me. I can report, thankfully, from here in North Carolina that we've actually had some positive developments in our courts. Number one, our federal courts have upheld the ability for voters who have issues with their absentee ballots, a process for them to correct those issues without having to

cast a new ballot. That's number one. Number two, the U.S. Supreme Court also actually decided not to push back the deadline by which people have to have their ballots received. So what that means is that in North Carolina, if you get your ballot in the mail postmarked by 5 p.m. on November 3rd, it can be received and counted as long as it's received by 5 p.m. on November 12th. Now, that's different from some other states. That's pretty, you know, what we saw with Wisconsin recently. But so far, you know, we have had some good results in the courts here in North Carolina.

Of course, we're very mindful that, you know, really the courtroom situation is only going to continue in many circumstances. Well, you're absolutely right, because, again, that's their strategy. It's very interesting. I just saw this tweet where somebody said Donald Trump would get blown out on Tuesday. The race will be called for Joe Biden and then Donald Trump will start demanding, please count all votes. And again, it's just crazy, crazy, crazy what is going on. I was in Raleigh, North Carolina last week. Give us a sense of have there been intimidation efforts? I know some groups are actually at the polls watching, making sure other folks who, frankly, are Trump supporters don't show up to intimidate voters. We are concerned about intimidation. We have seen, you know, I think what we've seen over the course of the last two weeks, North Carolina voters have been voting in person since two weeks ago yesterday. Increased incidents.

One big category of this is aggressive electioneering. So candidates getting in people's faces, people campaigning getting in people's faces, you know, people invoking the public health crisis, the coronavirus in doing so. I think as we go into the final days of in-person voting, so our last day of early voting is tomorrow, and then, of course, Election Day is Tuesday, you know, we are concerned about incidents where, you know, we could see people taking further action to try to deter or interrupt voting. You know, the thing here, what is happening in North Carolina, we had Cynthia Wallace on yesterday who's running for Congress. I mean, y'all have really been ground zero for the type of crazy, deranged attacks by Republicans to stifle the vote. I mean, the last decade has been outlandish in North Carolina. It's hard to counter what you said,

Roland. I mean, we have seen in North Carolina, both through structure and through practice, attempts to attack voting access. And when those have failed, further attempts to attack voting access. Where we are now, thankfully, is we've got a strong community of folks on the ground who have been fighting for voters at the local level, at the state level. And so even though there have been a lot of attempts to restrict voting access, we've got 17 days of early voting. We don't have a photo ID requirement in place. People can go to vote tomorrow and they can register in one stop. So we're really pushing people to use that last early voting day if they think they might have any registration issues. So we are trying to keep people focused on what's available to them and be vigilant about efforts that are trying to

restrict people's rights. All right, then, Tomas Lopez, I would certainly appreciate, if they're in North Carolina, what number should they call? In North Carolina, you can call 888-R-VOTE. You can also call 866-R-VOTE. That's the National Election Protection Number that will forward to the hotline that we and partners are running and staffing with volunteer lawyers. And we will have volunteers in yellow shirts at polling sites across the state, both tomorrow and on Tuesday. All right, then. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. All right. Thank you. Folks, you also see there in the crawl on the show here, you see where it says having trouble voting. Call 1-866-OUR-VOTE. We've been running that for the past week. We thank the Lawrence Community for Civil Rights and the Law, all the work that they have been doing.

Let's bring in my panel, Michael Brown, former vice chair, DNC Finance Committee. Michael Imhotep hosts the African History Network. Dr. Julian Malveaux, economist and president emerita at Bennett College. I want to start with you, Michael Brown. Where we sit today is far different than where we sat four years ago. Hillary Clinton's campaign was going crazy, trying to drop as much money as they can in black media because they saw what numbers were looking at because they ignored others who was telling them three, four months earlier where to invest. You have the Biden campaign tomorrow. They're going to be going to Michigan.

Joe Biden will be there with President Barack Obama. Stevie Wonder will be there as well. They're hitting two states tomorrow as well. You look at the polling data here, it has been remaining very consistent, significant turnout. And history has always said that when you have a much larger turnout, that benefits Democrats more than Republicans. Give us a sense from your perspective, the state of the race as we sit four days away. Well, I think certainly if you're a Democrat like I am, you're pleased about these polls, but you also should not get overexcited about these polls either. We all know

that the race is going to tighten or is tightening as we speak. There's certainly a lot of Trump voters that saw the wave of Democratic voters coming out in early voting in states. And now they're coming out. So we have to wait and see certainly what happens. I think it's great. You're right that the larger turnout is usually better for Democrats, not just at the top of the ticket, but going down. I think we'll also see a lot of split ticket voting in this particular race. For Maine, example, you can see a lot of folks not voting for President Trump, but voting for Senator Collins or in reverse. So there are a lot of split tickets that could happen, whether that's a big number or a small number. Again, we'll have to wait and see. We know the states that matter the most.

Florida, the president cannot win without Florida. Same with Pennsylvania. It's going to be very difficult for Biden. He has several pathways to 270 electoral votes without Florida, even without Pennsylvania. But it's certainly, since that's its home state, it would be better if he won Pennsylvania. Certainly the blue wall in the Midwest is certainly somewhere where Hillary Clinton neglected, as you kind of mentioned in your opening. And obviously the vice president is not taking that for granted, as you can see what they're doing this weekend. So everyone's doing what they're supposed to do. Get out the vote is going to be extremely important. Folks have to be patient if you haven't early voted. It's now too late to mail your ballot.

So if you're still thinking, oh, I can just put my ballot in the mailbox, I wouldn't trust that. It's too late for that. You can certainly do a drop-off at an authorized drop-off box, or you can still vote early in a lot of jurisdictions around the country. And then, of course, you still have Tuesday, November 3rd, wear a mask and just be prepared to stand in line. So we're feeling pretty good about where we are, not just at the top of the ticket, but also the United States Senate as well. I want to show you this here, Julian. This young brother, Keon McGee, he is the leader of the Democratic House leader in Florida. He posted this tweet here.

Raw footage of mailroom and post office here in Miami-Dade. Source revealed, quote, mail-in ballots are within these piled up in bins on the floor. Mail has been sitting for over a week. Per source, both Postmaster and Postal Inspector are aware of this issue at the Princeton Post Office. Postmaster is taking photos and videos of the matter and expects sorting to take them past Tuesday. This is the actual video here. And so the people who have mailed in ballots, the concern there is whether or not those ballots are actually going to get counted. This was what people were Democrats were fighting against the postmaster last month because they feared that he was issuing directives to do exactly this.

So ballots would not be getting there in time. And so they use the courts to say, hey, not received by 8 p.m. on Tuesday, that can't be used. This is part of the strategy. This is the part of Republican voter suppression. Let me tell you, my postman is a brother who we've talked to a number of times. He told me that they're about 20% down

in terms of workers. And he's like, I will tell anybody to put their ballot in the mail. Meanwhile, on social media, I got my ballot on October 5th. I said, I'm going to mail this. Somebody tracked me down, which isn't that hard, but tracked me down and said, take it to the Dropbox, which I did. This is, many people are putting their ballots in the mail. If they get there, it's not clear

that they're going to get to the place where they need to be. This is a crisis. And it's a crisis that's been engineered by Mr. Joy, 45's selected slowdown dude, who has decided that he does not want to basically shore up the post office. So what's happened is some people are leaving because they had some layoffs. Some are leaving because they either have COVID or are exposed to COVID or have people in their household exposed to COVID. And then you have women, and African-American women do work at the post office,

and you have women who are trying to take care of their kids and trying to do their work. This has been rigged. The word is rigged to basically disfavored the least of the left out. Well, Michael, the thing here is this here. Donald Trump and his imps, they saw exactly what was happening. Donald Trump did not get more than 50 percent of the vote in 2016. He has never gone above 50 percent approval rating during his entire presidency. He knows he cannot get to 50%. So what he is trying to do is to keep the threshold below 50 so he can be able to try to steal the election.

That's the strategy. It's perfectly clear. And they're using the courts because these Trump appointees are ruling against these states. That's what's also going on. Well, see, once again, Republicans are playing the long game, Roland, and we have to understand this. Politics is the legal distribution that scares wealth, power, and resources. And the writing of law, statutes, ordinances, amendments, and treaties, the adoption, interpretation, and enforcement. We don't understand the judicial branch of the government.

They're using the federal courts. And then they ran through, look how devious, not just Trump, but Moscow Mitch McConnell, who needs to be voted out of office this election. They ran through Amy Coney Barrett, OK, through the Senate, got her approved. And then the very next day announced that the Senate was on recess until November 9th without passing a coronavirus bill, coming to an agreement with Democrats in the House and Democrats in the Senate to pass a coronavirus bill to bail out the American people, bail out small businesses, bail out small African-American owned businesses. They sent it on recess. So we have to understand the judicial branch and how this works as well. And all this is tied to who you vote for. We also

have to understand how the electoral college works, because a lot of our people are running around confused and think that the popular vote does not matter. The popular vote does matter, but it's the popular vote per state that matters. That's what determines who gets the electoral college votes associated with your state, not the national popular vote. Because as you have said before, Roland, there really is no national election. You have 50 individual state elections. Brother, so once again, we have to understand this, man, because our numbers are there, not just African-Americans, but people who want to vote Trump out of office and people who understand that racial justice is on the ballot. A living wage is on the ballot. But we have to understand the law and how this works. Well, the issue really here is, again, recognizing what they're doing.

And let me just go ahead. Stop listening to some of these damn rappers out here. I don't know what the hell they're talking about. Uh-oh. Hello. KRS-One was, I mean, was talking about that crap. And I was like, what the hell are you talking about? First of all, they kept calling it the electoral college. It's the electoral. Exactly. So you're pronouncing it wrong. But again, this is where, this is where I need our people to stop listening to people who don't know what the hell they're talking about, who and where the facts are all wrong, you know, and that's the problem here.

And so we're dealing with that. Now, I do. I do look at, again, the level of intensity that's out here. We talked about this with Beto O'Rourke. We had him on the show last week in Texas. More than 9 million ballots have been cast as of this morning, exceeding its 8.9-plus million votes four years ago. That means, folks, more people, more people have voted already in Texas than who voted four years ago. And we still have another day of early voting in Texas and then on Tuesday. Now, according to the Associated Press, the tally of Texas, Texas, Texas, early voting data. Texas is the first state to hit the milestone of exceeding its 2016 turnout. This year's numbers were aided by Democratic activists challenging in court and winning the right to extend early voting by one week during the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, Texas was supposed to start early voting October 19th. They went to court and it started October 13th. That's what happened there in Texas. Now, all of this is important because we have to understand the power of our vote and how we use it and where it comes from. And so we're seeing a level of turnout. This also, as we talked about on this show yesterday and all week in the last several months, why local elections also matter, who you put in office and what those folks are doing. All of those things absolutely matter, folks, when it comes to voting. I think we also, as we begin to examine at this latest juncture, it's all right now, Michael, it's all about, again, trying to drive your people, trying to

drive your people. That's where we are right now. The rally is going to be taking place over the weekend. Senator Kamala Harris today was in Texas. She actually returns to Georgia on Sunday. That gives you a sense. That gives you a sense of exactly where we stand in this election. The fact that the Democratic VP nominee would be in Texas and Georgia with four days left in the election. That shows you that they have a shot at picking off those two historically, well, in the last 20 years, red states. And that's great to see that, that Georgia and Texas are in play. And now that you've focused on Texas, Roland, you're exactly right. It's interesting, Texas, the only way they can deal, and you mentioned obviously this earlier in the segment,

is how to suppress the vote. What happened in Harris County last week was a disgrace. The fact that the Texas Supreme Court says it's okay to have just one drop box in Harris County. Harris County is larger than many states in our country. And in fact, the Texas Supreme Court was not meeting in person because of COVID. You're right. And that is it's actually

obviously a disgrace. People have to drive, whatever it is. Some folks have to drive two hours. I talked to some folks in Houston the other day and they're trying to figure out either how to get there or they're just going to have to stand in line, do early voting. And so it's just too bad that suppression is just this out in your face. And until, and Roland, you and I have talked about this before,

until we have a national, not state, national regulations on voting that are uniform, then county, local county clerks, local judges can determine what voter suppression looks like. We have to have a national reckoning and a national regulation for what voting should look like in this country, including a national holiday on election day. But that's down the road. We'll figure out how to do that when President Biden is in office, and we'll figure that out then. Well, Julian, that's, I mean, look,

I asked, I talked to Senator Chuck Schumer about that yesterday, and I'm telling you, if the Democrats get control of the United States Senate, they will control the House. The first bill should be a massive voter protection act that includes really putting the teeth in, getting rid of that sunset provision for the Voting Rights Act, and making it permanent. That's what should happen. It absolutely should. I mean, Congresswoman Marsha Fudge said at the beginning of the last congressional session, that's what she wanted to do.

People were shilly-shallying around it for any number of reasons. But the bottom line is that we have to ensure people's right to vote. We can't do states' rights. But as Michael was talking, what occurred to me is that the challenge and the tension has been around states' rights versus national rights. I mean, whatever happened to the notion of a nation, we have to make sure that whether you're in Mississippi or Maine, you have the opportunity to vote. Now, we have a number of issues beneath that. Do we still need an electoral college? But the fact is that if you go from state to state, you see this these shenanigans, which reflect the Jim Crow era, where, as in Florida, Roland, you were just there.

You know, you have to pay your fines before you can vote. This is like a poll tax. It slaps us in the face, especially when we go to other countries and tell them what they need to do that we don't even do here. So we have a dilemma on our hands, but this administration has exacerbated the dilemma, and we're hoping that a new administration will grapple with it. Michael, again, I think when we examine what is going on in this country right now, when you look at how desperate Republicans are acting, look, I'm not even confusing anything here. This is why. And I've said it. Hashtag fire Trump in November. Hashtag fire GOP in November. Look at people who literally want to steal

an election, who want to keep folks from voting. None of these people deserve to be in office. And so I don't want to hear the people who say, Ronald, are you trying to get us to vote Democrat? No. I'm trying to get you to actually vote for people who are not going to screw you, who are not going to sit here and try to

run rush out over you. And that's what they're doing. It's abundantly clear that's what they're doing. It's abundantly clear. That's what they're doing. Absolutely, Roland. Well, I think what's important to understand, I think what's important for people to understand, especially African-Americans, is to look at whose policies best line up with your interests and your agenda? OK, not political party. OK, I don't I don't belong to any political party, not political party. But whose policies best line up with your agenda? OK. And then who is constantly blocking policies from passing being passed in the law that will help you? Like who blocked the George Floyd Police and Justice Act?

Who blocked the, who's blocking the living wage, raising the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour? And it passed the House of Representatives in about July 2019. Who's blocking that in the Senate? Okay. Who's blocking the John Lewis Voting Rights Act? Who's blocking that after it passes the House? So when we start seeing, well, wait a second, these bills are passed in the House of Representatives, OK, and then they go to the Senate and they die in the Senate or they're being blocked in the Senate like the anti-lynching law blocked by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky through unanimous consent. And then the Juneteenth bill, Senator Kamala Harris and Senator Cory Booker tried to get the Juneteenth bill passed in the Senate.

That was blocked by Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin using a unanimous consent rule as well. So it's not what's important for our people to understand is not about political party. It's about whose policies are going to be most beneficial to us, whose policies are going to do the least amount of harm, who keeps blocking these policies from being passed in the law, and who is trying to take away policies that already exist that are beneficial to you. OK, so then when you start looking at that, then you can start figuring this, you can start a better understanding this. Look, folks, what we are dealing with right now, of course, is a sea change in this country. And what we must begin to understand is that every vote is indeed going to count every opportunity to get out there.

Look, if you are in I'm telling you, I'm telling right now, I was in Michigan on Wednesday. I'm telling you right now, you have got to be crazy and stuck on stupid. If you're in Michigan to vote for John James for the United States Senate. I don't care if he's black. I don't care if he's a black man. John James is no Ed Brooke. John James is the kind of black man who is going to be in the pocket of Mitch McConnell. How many times has Senator Tim Scott actually really, really stood up to Mitch McConnell? The cameras, these judges, man, once or twice. Michael, when we were there, I saw the billboards.

John James, he doesn't even want to mention he's a Republican. And the deal is this here. This is what black people have to decide. And this is real simple. You got Senator Gary Peters is a Democrat. John James, black man, is a Republican. Peters is white. James is black.

It's real simple. Which judges will John James vote for? Mitch McConnell judges. Will John James vote for voting rights? Did John James say that Donald Trump, he backs him 2,000 percent? It's a tight race there in Michigan. It's a tight race there in Minnesota as well. If you're in Alabama, if you're black in Alabama, don't say your vote doesn't count.

You should be voting for Doug Jones over Tommy Tuberville. The same Tommy Tuberville who could not even, who gave one of the most unbelievably crackhead ish answers I've ever heard with regards to the Voting Rights Act. In fact, let me just try to find that video. Michael, give our folks our perspective on what's happening there in Michigan with John James and black voters. While I find this video, go ahead. All right. Oh, I'm not sure which Michael. Sorry. Sorry, Michael. Sorry, Michael.

Okay. Okay. So with John James was very interesting in a lot of the commercials for John James. He does not mention that he is a Republican. I just saw an interview that my friend Mr. Hood did on TV with John James, and when asked how he was going to help African-American-owned businesses, he did not give specific answers. He sidestepped the issue. He plays on the fact that, hey, I'm here in Detroit. I came back to Detroit to help. I'm a business owner here in Detroit. That's good. But what's important for people to understand, when you deal with the U.S. Senate, you're dealing with confirmations of an attorney general. You're dealing with confirmations

of a secretary of education, confirmations of U.S. Supreme Court, federal judges, but also the cabinet positions, okay? And then where does he stand on the George Floyd Police and Justice Act? Okay. Where does he stand on the voting rights or raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour? These bills that are being blocked in the House, they're being blocked in the Senate. There are only 100 senators. So every U.S. senator is extremely important. And to me, it's not about race. It's about their ideology. It's about their policies and how would they vote on these critical issues. Not only did he say that he supports Donald Trump 2,000 percent, okay, which right there is a no-brainer. OK, right there that disqualifies him.

But he also said there's another video of him saying that they need to repeal the entire Affordable Health Care Act and repeal this monstrosity. I could not answer how would you replace it? But so they don't have nothing to write. They don't. But I want people to understand what's happening. And I've heard black people say, my vote don't matter in Alabama. I want y'all to listen to who these right wing white Republicans in Alabama are going to likely elect over Doug Jones for United States Senator. This is, this is an answer that Tommy Tuberville, whose resume is that of a football

coach. A football coach. Right. I want y'all to listen. This man could very well be could likely be the next U.S. Senator from Alabama,

I want you all to listen to what this man had to say about the Voting Rights Act, which was born out of Alabama. Listen. The thing about the Voting Rights Act is, it's, you know, there's a lot of different things you can look at it as, you know, who's going to help? You know, what direction do we need to go with it?

I think it's important that with everything we do, we keep secure. We keep an eye on it. It's run by our government and it's run to the point that we, it's got structure to it. It's like education. I mean, it's got to have structure. Now, for some reason, we look at things to change, to think we're going to make it better, but we'd better do a lot of work on it before we make that change. Julian, what are you drinking? La Croix water.

Lord, I'm like, you sitting here taking a swig on air. Lord, okay. I didn't say I was on air, but it was just like a little, you know, fizzy fizz. Can y'all make out what the hell that man just said? No.

I was paying attention even though I was swinging. I mean, you know what? In case somebody missed it, let me play it again. You just want to mess with us, right? No, no, no.

I need the black people in Alabama who are watching us. I need the black people in Alabama who think their vote doesn't count. This is why you have to vote for Doug Jones. And I got some fool on YouTube saying, Roller, you say vote for Democrats. What's your choice? See, before I play this, let me say this again. There is one party

that is hell-bent on suppressing your vote. There is one party that blocked Juneteenth as a national holiday. There's one party that blocked the anti-lynching bill. There's one party that blocked Juneteenth as a national holiday. There's one party that blocked the anti-lynching bill. There's one party, there's one party that is advancing federal judges who don't support civil rights.

So for all y'all stuck on stupid folks who are saying, well, I don't get why you saying vote for them, but please by all means, show me, provide me the proof where, where Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Tommy Tuberville, Tom Tillis in North Carolina, David Perdue in Georgia, Kelly Loeffler in Georgia, Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi. Show me

where they are right now voting to advance anything on behalf of black people. Show me the proof where John James in Michigan is

advancing anything with black people. I'll wait. Show me where Lindsey Graham is advancing anything for black people. Convince me that Lindsey Graham would be better for black people. Convince me that Lindsey Graham would be better

for black people in South Carolina than Jamie Harrison. Convince me that Mike Espy, that Cindy Hyde-Smith, who had no problem ambassing in a Confederate flag, would be better than Mike Espy. Show me,

show me, show me please where David Perdue who sat there and had insider trading will be better for us than John Ossoff. For all y'all fools running y'all mind,

I want one of y'all to bring the facts to the table. And you can't bring that trash-ass platinum plan with you. Michael Brown, go ahead. Yeah, and I think you've called it the aluminum foil plan. You don't even call it that. Right, called it the aluminum foil plan. You don't even call it that. Right, it's an aluminum foil plan.

You know what? Those folks that are texting you and have texted me and we see on similar shows that, you know, and certainly they, you know, act like they understand kind of politics and what's going on in the world, they're falling for the okie doke. And it's very disappointing to see how they're falling for it because it's so obvious. And one of the more disgusting things, and Roland, you went through all the different candidates, in particular the Republican candidates who are black. That attorney general in Kentucky is a disgrace.

And he's clearly following the particular roadmap that Tim Scott followed, that now James is following in Michigan, because he wants to be the governor or a senator. And he's like, look, if I have to be in the pocket of 45, or if I have to commit to being in the pocket of Mitch McConnell, fine. Tell me what I have to say. Give me the money so I can run an effective campaign, and I'll be on your side, I'll be on your team. And it's the typical sellout. And it's very disappointing that so many folks are falling for the okey-doke.

And I'm talking directly to some of those people that are texting you, Roland. They should be ashamed of themselves. These folks... There are so many people that are texting you, Roland, they should be ashamed of themselves. These folks... There are so many people who are really funded by these Republican trolls. I'm thinking about this

young man who is running against Maxine Waters, who has about $8 million. I mean, this is a small inner-city district. First of all, he about as dumb as a doorknob. That's the kindest thing anybody can say about him, Roland. But, you know, he has Trump money.

He has other money. Ain't nobody going to move Auntie Max. But the point is that they are setting us up. The other thing, you know, when you look at Mike Espy, the Democrats have finally gotten it, but he should have had support all along. Cindy High Smith said she would go to a public hanging. Did the woman actually say she would attend a lynching in Mississippi, which had the most lynchings? Well, not the most, maybe the second most, but one of the most lynchings in our nation.

I mean, and she now represents a state that's more than 30 percent black. This is nonsense. And it's the reckoning right now is the reckoning. These folks can't get away with this nonsense anymore. I'm just astounded again at the level of stupidity from people who don't know how to put two and two together and realize what's going on. All right, I got to go to a break. We come back and roll about unfiltered. great video that lays out how poor people and low-income Americans could very well swing the election if they voted for the interest by just voting. We're going to show you that next in Roller Martin Unfiltered. These younger group, you know, of millennials becoming much more politically savvy, much more politically activated and organized right organization is key it's like you know an ant by itself can't do anything but ants working together you know can do things well beyond their own capacity and i think the

same thing goes for this younger generation to become united and active guys on what's happening hey michigan this is tracy ellis ross and i have four quick things to tell you one you have until october 19th to register to vote two you can vote early in person until november 2nd three if you need a free ride to the polls use the promo code vote to live MI in your Lyft app. And yes, voting is easy and secure. So please vote and visit votetolive.org for more information and to make a plan to vote today. Paid for by Collective Future. Everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond.

I'm Dion Cole, you're watching... Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Stay woke. All right, I want to thank the people with Seek.com, Mary Spio, founder of the company, for being a partner here at Roland Martin Unfiltered. They, of course, have their various products here. They have their virtual reality headset. It allows you to watch their virtual reality video right through your phone. You can go to look at the content on their site, seek.com, C-E-E-K.com, to watch the content.

You also, of course, have the 360-degree 4D headset, a tremendous base. You also can use this for gaming, for videos, a fabulous, fabulous headset for you to listen to music. Go to seek.com, C-E-E-K.com. Use the promo code RMVIP2020, RMVIP2020, to be able to get these products. And so we certainly support and we thank them for being partners here at Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks.

Poor voters and low income voters really, really could make a huge difference in the election. For the past several years, we have been emphasizing covering the poor people's campaign, the work that Dr. William Barber and others have been doing when it comes to the election, when it comes to training and teaching, things along those lines. Well, he partnered with Robert Reich, former labor secretary, and they put together this great video that really gives you an understanding of what could happen if poor folks in America and low income people in America, if they actually use their power and voted.

Watch this. Across the country, everyday people have secured structural democracy reforms that have led to major wins that move our country forward. Our system is rigged in favor of the wealthy. These elites use their wealth to purchase political power and buy off politicians who will keep enacting policies that overwhelmingly benefit them and keep the rest of us from fully participating in our democracy. Sowing division is their main strategy for holding on to power. Now, it's easy to feel downtrodden as every aspect of our broken system is laid bare. As the country reels from the death

of those like Breonna Taylor and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the rights of millions of Americans hang in the balance, it feels more and more like the system is stacked against us. I've been working to overhaul our broken system for decades. I know firsthand how hard the struggle for true justice and equality is. My mother worked on it. My father worked on it and those before them. Others led this struggle long before I came along, and I've tried to do what I can to link up with others and take up the baton of welfare rights workers and Martin Luther King Jr. and those who started the Poor People's Campaign to unite poor and working-class Americans and demand bold policies that lift everyone out of poverty. At every turn, our movement for a moral revival

has faced intense backlash from those in power. My faith tradition tells me we are not of those who shrink back onto destruction, but we are those who persevere until the salvation of the soul. We cannot become cynics. We will not give up. Take a look at Seattle. In 2015, the city adopted an innovative small donor system for funding its local campaigns. The city gave four $25 democracy vouchers for every registered voter that could be donated to candidates who pledged to only accept cast donations under $250, among other stipulations. The program faced its first major test in 2019 when Amazon poured $1.5 million into city council races to defeat candidates and boost corporate ones. The result

of the six elections where Amazon and publicly financed progressives went head to head, only one of Amazon's candidates won. And the use of the vouchers increased the number of non-voucher small dollar donations and boosted grassroots participation. When big money doesn't dominate our political system, the people can actually have their voices heard. Now let's go across the country to Missouri. In 2018, a grassroots coalition secured two major ballot victories. Clean Missouri, a ballot initiative that limited campaign contributions in addition to other democracy reforms. And Proposition B, which raised the minimum wage. The same coalition behind the 2018 measures came together again and won Medicaid expansion for 230,000 Missourians by a resounding margin.

These victories show game-changing shifts in Missouri with a burgeoning political coalition that is building a system that works for everyday Missourians instead of just the state's wealthy elites. Democracy reforms have also led to major policy wins in Connecticut. In 2008, the state enacted small donor public financing into law. In addition to diversifying the legislature, allowing more people to run for office, and boosting candidates' interaction with voters, the public financing system opened the gates for bold legislation that helps working people thrive. In 2012, Connecticut became the first state to require companies to provide paid sick leave for their employees.

And in 2020, the state adopted a minimum wage increase, two policies that are notoriously opposed by big money donors. In North Carolina, when extremists in the state legislature passed a monster voter suppression bill after the Supreme Court's Shelby decision gutted the preclearance protections from the Voting Rights Act,

the Forward Together, Moral Mondays movement challenged the law in the courts and marched in the street to raise awareness about voter suppression. The NAACP filed suit suit and we not only won the case with a federal court finding that the politicians who wrote the law had targeted African Americans with almost surgical precision, we also made clear to the people of North Carolina that the governor who signed the law was not

serving the people. It is easy my my friends, to be pessimistic about the state of our democracy. Some states are restricting voting access, dark money is flooding some political campaigns, and some politicians governing for their wealthy donors at the expense of everyone else. But we can build on the momentum of grassroots victories and let these inspire us to get bold reforms enacted on the federal level. Poor and low wealth people now make up over 30% of the electorate. One third of all poor people live in the South. Every state that is a voter suppression state blocks living wages and blocks health care.

We have the potential to mobilize and historic turnout in this election, giving tens of millions of poor and low wealth eligible voters hope that their participation in this election could lead to real transformative change. 2020 has awakened the country to the full breadth of the injustices that have plagued us for centuries and pushed us to the point where transformational change is the only path forward, where we must engage in moral fusion organized for moral analysis, moral action, moral articulation. We must engage in lifting our voices at the ballot box and declaring what one old song said, make them hear us.

This is just the beginning. Together, we can unrig the system and create a true, genuine democracy, the likes of which America has not yet seen, but must see. Michael M. Hotep, I want to show that video because I wanted people to really understand how the dots are connected. Yes. I also want to show that video because I need our people to also understand that when people say, I don't have power, that right there exposes how folk with small money, but who care enough about the issues, mobilize and

organize to defeat big money. We do not live in a nation where billionaires have to control everything. That billionaire might be worth $2, $3, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100 billion, but his ass got one vote. A billionaire has the same number of votes as a homeless person. But one of them uses it. And that's one of the reasons why that video was important. Yeah. You know, it's a very important video. Number one, Dr. Reverend William Barber III does some great work. I've been following him for a few years now. And he really speaks to understanding laws and policies and conditions, laws and policies and conditions. Now, the reason why many of our people don't fight back is because many of our people don't think they're worth fighting for, because their self-esteem has been so devalued, has been attacked so much that a lot of our people feel hopeless. Okay. But it's not just the vote that's a weapon. It's also our dollars that are a weapon as well.

Because when we study the civil rights movement, we study economic boycotts. Okay. But we have to understand leveraging our dollars to enforce our politics and enforce our ideologies. And one of the examples is what Color Change did when they got Bill O'Reilly removed off the air, OK, off of Fox News. It was a massive number of organizations, including Color Change, and they put pressure, they put economic pressure on 80 corporations that withdrew their advertising dollars from Bill O'Reilly's show, who was the number one cable news show, OK, at the time in the market. And they and it got to the point where his show was no longer profitable and Fox News fired him. OK, so this is not just understanding the vote that's a weapon and, and our vote follows our mindset. We vote for policies

that have been official to us. Okay. But then we also, you weaponize our dollars. We have to understand weaponizing our dollars as well. But if we think that we don't matter, then we're just going to allow people to beat the hell out of us and complain about it every day on radio shows and on your timeline, but not understand all this is tied

to policies and who wrote the policies. And they got into office by either being voted in the office or they were put in the office by somebody who was elected. Well, and again, Michael Brown, it is is when people begin to join together in a line, they can make a difference. But again, you can protest. But if you don't vote, your protest really was a waste because that's the policymakers who are actually going to be the ones to make the change. You know, Roland, you're absolutely right about the issue. Hold on, Julianne. That's Mike Brown. I'm going to Mike Brown, then you.

And I do want to also congratulate Reverend Barber. Great piece of work, the kind of work he does. Just a great leader. And we're lucky to have him out there in the front lines. But, you know, also with folks that are kind of at least the last in the losses, our former mayor here in D.C., Marion Barry, used to say and coined that phrase, is that folks are also, it's not just a frustration, but when you're basically in a fight for your life every day on how to put food on the table, how to take care of your kids, how many jobs you have, whether gunshots are going to be ringing in your neighborhood and a whole host of other issues related to the social injustice in our communities. It's very difficult then to say, oh, and you know what? Voting also has to be on my to-do list because we haven't made it. We have to do so much work with folks

that are from our communities to help them understand that if you do participate and do vote, then your life can be better. We can't guarantee, you know, remember in the Constitution, pursuit of happiness. You just want to have the opportunity to get that pursuit. But right now, a lot of folks, it's just about survival and how to make it to the next day. And we have to make sure that we put voting and political participation on their to-do list. But it's very difficult when folks are battling every day just to survive. Julianne, go ahead. I think that Michael Imhotep has a more limited view of our people.

From the perspective that you talk about self-esteem, it's not about self-esteem. It's about survival. When you look at our history, we have voted. People have been killed for voting. And even now, people are not being killed, but they're very significant barriers to our civic participation. We have to acknowledge that if we're leaders, if we're thought leaders, if we're thinkers. More than that, we have to deal with the hurdles that Black people have to clear to do the work that we need to survive. Our kids are being so short-changed

that it's frightening to me. It really is. We have Black kids who are now a year behind in terms of education. This is going to show up in the rest of their lives. Let me give you a hypothetical. Single mom, three kids, one computer in the house. All three kids are supposed to be online. She's not seen as needy because she has a computer. But that one computer cannot accommodate those three kids. There's so many stories like that, and we need to deal with that. And so I'm not trying to blame my people and say, oh, we're scared and we're not that. We are dealing, we are managing, and we have been oppressed. And we can't ever forget that. And so talking about we scared, we ain't scared. We're maintaining. So, Michael, I just challenge you on that.

Michael, quickly, your response. I'm speaking of a certain segment of our population who have been taught to hate themselves. I'm not talking about all African-Americans. I'm talking about a certain segment who I'm very familiar with the history. I just talked about the Okoye massacre, November 2nd, 1920 in Florida on my show a couple of nights ago. Yeah, even when we were poor, we still fought back and we still voted. But I'm talking about a certain segment of our population who've been so psychologically damaged that they have bought into this, your vote doesn't matter.

Rowling knows what I'm talking about, okay? They've bought into this, and they're listening to certain people who are convincing them that their vote doesn't matter. There's a whole voter depression, not voter suppression. There's a whole voter depression campaign going on right now on social media. NBC News just did a big piece on this. I talked about this on my show. That is convincing people that their vote does not matter and that they're insignificant, which is different than voter suppression. So I'm talking about something very narrow. I'm not talking about all of our people that don't vote, Dr. Malvo.

So what percentage of our people are you talking about? I'm not talking about, I'm not sure of the percentage right now, but it exists. And we see it on Facebook. We see it on Instagram. And it's people who will focus on making their followers feel like their vote does not count and they don't matter. OK, this is this is something very specific. So we have to fight against this. But the other thing is, is that a lot of our people don't understand how all of this is connected, how the policies, how who you vote for are tied to the policies that get put into place.

How the House of Representatives is connected to the U.S. Senate. How the federal judges that will complain about comes are confirmed by the U.S. Senate. How the president and see when the big when the biggest misconceptions is, is misunderstanding the Electoral College. I saw some of the video that Roland talked about KRS-One. KRS-One is a conscious brother, but that was nonsense, okay? And this is why I said what I did about the Electoral College. I've done an entire lecture dealing with this. Many of our people don't understand. See, Republicans understand this much better than many of our people do, okay? Republicans have won two presidential elections in the last 20 years in the Electoral College

after losing the popular vote. This is why they engage in voter suppression so much. Okay? But a lot of our people don't understand how all this comes together. And very quickly, I'll wrap up with this. The Electoral College is not voting until the first Monday following the second Wednesday in December. In 2016, that fell on December 19th, 2016. Donald Trump became president-elect the morning of

November 9th, 2016, because he got over 270 Electoral College votes, okay? So he won that because he won the popular votes in the state. When you win the popular votes in the state, like the 16 he won in Michigan, because he won Michigan by 10,704 votes. He got the 16 electoral college votes in the state. But a lot of our people don't understand how all of this is connected. That's what I'm talking about. I think you're selling our people short, although I agree with you that most people don't understand the connections with the electoral college. But I also think that you're selling our people short, And I just kind of have to push back on that. I think that what, you know, what the both Gore loss and Clinton,

Hillary Clinton loss show us is that this is a occasion for activism. It's an occasion for changing aspects of the Constitution. And it's not an occasion for embracing our deficiencies when we know that in the past 20 years, we have seen a withdrawal of funds on civic education. I think that much of what you're saying is right on time, but I also think that there's an approach to our people that kind of doesn't sit so well with me. Well, okay.

Folks, what reality is that here? This is what's happening to our people. Stuff is being done to impact them and hurt them from voting. In Ridgeland, Mississippi, 22,550 mostly black and Hispanic voters in southeast Ridgeland, Mississippi, a historic white flight suburb outside of Jackson, were quietly rezoned out of their racially mixed precinct this summer. They were placed instead into an already majority non-white precinct. Carol Mann, a Democratic candidate for District 1 Election Commissioner,

told the Mississippi Free Press that the voters are being moved from a location with adequate polling stations and adequate parking to an extremely cramped polling place and that change will cause chaos and confusion. Folks, that's the kind of things that Republicans are doing all across this country that's negatively impacting black people. What we also saw in the last election, and we even

see it to some degree in this election, an increasing number of young black voters who say my vote really doesn't make any sense. In an effort to prevent a repeat of 2016's drop in student voter turnout, HBCU Heroes, which was founded by NBA veteran George Lynch, marketing entrepreneur Tracy Pennywell, and media personality and branding strategist Kwame Jackson, to rally the support of celebrities, HBCU alumni, leaders, and community groups to educate students on the importance of voting and encourage them to go vote on election day. This is their promotional video.

When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, say something, do something. Get in travel, good travel. There's a lot of people who grew up in the inner city, they don't believe that they vote count, so they don't even go. Because if you feel like that, a few of your homies might feel like that, right? so then that's 20 of y'all i feel like that and then if they spread that same feeling to their family members that's a few hundred i am michael strahan a proud hbc alum what's up everybody what's up it's mike vick this is chris broussard of fox sports please make sure to go out and vote you go out and vote. Vote. Be a part of the change. Just vote.

I'm Shannon Shaw from Skip and Shannon Understudent. I'm an HBCU alum from Savannah State University. Hey, I'm Bill Bellamy. I wish a boy to kill spikes. Hi, I'm Kyle O'Quinn from the Philadelphia 76ers. I'm Jasmine Burke. Hugh Douglas here. What's up, everybody? I'm Renee Montgomery. My name is George Spikes. I'm Tracy Quinn from the Philadelphia 76ers. I'm Jasmine Burke. Drew Douglas here. What's up everybody? I'm Renee Montgomery.

My name is George Fletcher. I'm Tracey Pennywell. Hi, my name is Kwame Jackson of HBCU Heroes. If you have never ever considered going to an HBCU, now is the time. This is our next generation. These are our new leaders. The right to vote is precious, almost sacred. It's Akbar Bajabiamila, host of American Ninja Warrior. And more so than ever, it is important to vote. I know people are getting serious about it, but that's all right.

It's fun, too. So make sure you go out there and make your voice heard. Vote. All right, joining us right now is that cap of Kwame Jackson. What's up, Kwame? What's up, my man, Roland? How you doing? So let's talk about this here, man. We saw a big dropout, big drop off, if you will. And I remember being in Ohio and I was talking to a couple of young folks and they were like, yeah, yeah, we voted.

We really want to vote for Hillary Clinton. I would love to talk to those two young folks today and ask them, what have you thought about the last four years? And I think that was really, I mean, I got a lot of that out of folks four years ago who was saying, man, I ain't feeling her. I don't like her. Yeah, we ain't gonna lose much with Trump.

He the same as Hillary Clinton. And then it was like six months later, what the hell? I'm like, hashtag, we tried to tell you. We did try to tell you. We did try to tell you. And, you know, we're trying to amp up that enthusiasm level. A lot of that enthusiasm was lost that last time around. And HBCU Heroes is really focused on that HBCU vote.

We're all about creating an opportunity for the HBCU community to come together with their power to harness it, along with our celebrities, the power of our culture, to create a voting party atmosphere. And that's what we're doing on Monday as part of our HBCU Good Trouble Takeover in the spirit of John Lewis,

a fellow HBCU grad of Fisk University. And see, the thing that I made perfectly clear is I'm not asking you to be in love with Joe Biden. I'm not saying that Biden is perfect and it's all of that, but I can judge evil. I can say who absolutely has policies that are going to screw me and my people. And again, it's getting people to understand that. And I don't, I don't play all that lesser to evil's crap as well. It is abundantly clear. It is not hard to figure out what will happen if you don't vote. Yeah. And for people who don't see the immediacy of their vote, you just have to think about what's going on right in front of us. You don't have to harken back to, you know, our ancestors and the

things that we struggled through, even though I always give legacy and credit to them, obviously, for getting us this far. But you can look at Trayvon Martin. You can look at George Floyd. You can look at Tamir Rice. You can look at all the people who have died under our watch right here in Gen Z and Gen X and really know that we have to get out and move towards legislation and local prosecutors and district attorneys and anti-voter suppression laws in our own communities that will make a difference. And that's what HBCU Heroes is about. And so how are you reaching them? Any numbers in terms of folks you've connected with? Yes. So there are 107 HBCUs nationwide. There's 228,000 students and even more alumni.

And so what we're doing on Monday from 6 to 9 p.m. Eastern is we're doing an HBCU Good Trouble takeover. We've been sharing the John Lewis Good Trouble film with HBCUs all week. And after we celebrate that, we're going to have this big celebrity bash where we're reaching out to all types of people for good trouble. We're going to have NFL players, NBA players, politicians, celebrities talking about the importance of vote. We're going to have great HBCU band performances,

rap performances, step shows, and really create a party atmosphere of people going to the polls. And where is it going to be streaming? It's going to be streaming on Twitch, YouTube, Facebook Live, and our partners, Yahoo Entertainment, as well as Revolt TV, are going to simulcast it at the same time. So we've got great partners like Citibank, Verizon, Yahoo Entertainment, the Arthur Blank Foundation, and even Intel Corporation who've come aboard to make this film possible for all HBCUs. And now this party is going to be the culmination.

You know, we're going to be pregame. You know, we're going to get excited. We're going to have some great HBCU spirit. And we're going to make sure everybody is pulled in. And for people to find out more, just visit us on our social media handles at HBCU Heroes, Instagram and Twitter. All right. Kwame Jackson, I appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot.

Yes. Join us and don't forget to vote 6 to 9, Monday night. We'll see you there. Join us for the HBCU Takeover Party. All right. Sounds great. All right, folks. I've got to go to commercial break.

When we come back, we'll talk about the Louisville cop who is suing the boyfriend of Breonna Taylor. What the hell is that about? We'll also, we'll talk with Devon Franklin about how Hollywood is actually getting out and moving folks to vote. And Otis Moss III, pastor of Trinity Church of Christ in Chicago, has worked on this particular film showing three generations of his family, including his father. Of course, a civil rights legend, Reverend Otis Moss. It's a very interesting film,

and we're going to actually show you that as well right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. We'll be back in a moment. I thought I caught my first feeling when I was 17 years old. I felt like basically I just, I didn't count. My probation told me, you can't vote, you got a felony. It just made me feel like I wasn't wanted or I wasn't supposed to be involved.

My mama told me like, son, you need to be, get involved. There's a lot of things going on in the world. Your voice matter. And I'm like, I can't, I ain't got no voice. I can't vote. And she was like, oh yeah, yes you can. So I called my lawyers, because I wanted to make sure

that I wasn't doing anything wrong. And I figured out I qualified, and I just felt like, damn, let's do this. To me, it was an accomplishment. Like, damn, like I graduated high school or something. Look what we done done so far. It still need to be 10 times better, but you gotta vote. That's what changed the rules.

That's what changed the laws. I really felt good voting. Like, because I was told I couldn't. Or I was told I wouldn't be able to clean up or get away from my past. And look where I'm at now. I voted. And I was able to be a part of where I live, which is here at home in America.

My voice matters. Hey, it's Nia Long. Listen, I'm where I am today because a lot of people believed in me. They knew I could make an impact if I had a chance to have my voice heard. In this election, voting is our chance to make an impact. So please, South Carolina, vote early, in person, between October 5th and November 2nd. And if you need a free ride to vote, use promo code VOTETOLIVESC in your Lyft app.

Visit VOTETOLIVE.ORG for more information. Paid for by Collective Future. Hi, I'm Eric Nolan. What's up, y'all? I'm Will Packer. I'm Chrisette Michelle. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. The guy in the White House is a mortal, not a god. The members of the Congress, they are mortals, not gods.

Bowing down is not enough. We will stand up again. We will march again. We will preach again. We will organize again. We are black. We are white. We are Latino.

We are Native American. We are Democrat. We are Republican. We are black, we are white, we are Latino, we are Native American, we are Democrat, we are Republican, we are independent, we are people of faith, we are people not of faith, we are natives and immigrants, we are business leaders and workers and unemployed, we are doctors and the uninsured, we are gay, we are straight, we are students, we are parents, we are retirees. We are America! And we're here and we ain't going nowhere. Louisville Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly, the officer involved in the fatal shooting of

Breonna Taylor, has filed a civil suit against her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, for emotional distress, assault, and battery on the night she was killed. The lawsuit claims that Mattingly experienced severe trauma, mental anguish, and emotional distress because of Walker's actions on March 13th. I'm greatly confused here, Julian Malveaux. That, I'm confused. I'm confused. Michael, I'm confused. I'm confused. Michael, I'm confused. I'm confused. Michael Imhotep and Michael Brown.

I'm confused here. How does the guy who got shot, how does the guy who got shot, who lawfully had a firearm, and when folks tried to bust down the apartment and fired at them, how does he create emotional distress when he was the one

who got arrested? Michael, go ahead. Well, you know, Roland, this is another twist and turn in this case that really looks and smells like a cover up. Severe trauma, mental anguish and emotional distress because of Kenneth Walker's actions on March 13th. But but what's very interesting here, because I read the article from CBS News, I read the article from NBC, what's very interesting is they leave out what the Kentucky State Police report said, because the Kentucky State Police report, as reported by USA Today September 27th, what they said was, due to limited markings of comparative value, the nine millimeter bullet that hit and

exited Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly, who's filing this civil lawsuit, was neither quote identified nor eliminated as having been fired from Kenneth Walker's gun. So when you look at the report from the Kentucky State Police, they're saying the ballistics are of the bullet that came from Mattingly, it is inconclusive that it came from Kenneth Walker's gun. But that's not what Attorney General Cameron said, Daniel Cameron said when he did his press conference. So you got to put these pieces together, man.

This is another layer of this cover-up, which once again goes back to politics who was elected because Daniel Cameron was elected and he's a mentee of Moscow Mitch McConnell. I mean, it is astounding. It's astounding how these people, this reminds me, Julian, of the cop who, the cop who pushed and shoved the general manager of the Toronto Raptors, who filed this report talking about

how he was punched and he was sore. He had to go to the doctor and he had mental anguish. And then the video was released, the body cam video. He was never touched. He was lying. You know, our people, Roland, have been thingified. And this goes from post-reconstruction until now. We have been thingified,

which means we're not people in some people's eyes. So they can do whatever they want to do. Take our baby girls and grab them by their braids, put your knee on somebody's neck and not worry about what it means. Beat the you know what out of somebody, bruise and say, oh, that just didn't happen. And this is really a wake-up call. I thought after George Floyd that there would be an opportunity

for some of these racist you-know-whats to reflect on themselves. But their reflection is that we can still do whatever we want to do. And, you know, I'm writing about money and reconstruction and all that, and I can't finish because every time I start reading something, I go crazy. But the bottom line is that our people have been marginalized and thingified. And when you thingify someone, you don't have to treat them as a human being. So you can beat them, put your knee on their neck, do whatever you want to do. And there are no consequences. And that's the issue. There are no consequences. Absolutely. Mike Brown, go ahead.

Yeah, it's interesting relative to Kentucky and Michael touched on it. I think the bullet and the shooting is certainly part of what he is going, what he's suing for. And I imagine the lawyers are actually going to use the emotional distress of the aftermath that he was being called a racist and a killer and that he is so far from that that he was emotionally distressed from it. I bet that's more the the the linchpin of their suit for the emotional distress of how dare you accuse me of being racist and killing this woman. I didn't. I'm not racist and I didn't kill her intentionally. That's probably where the crux of the emotional distress lawsuit is coming from. And I'm sure Kenneth Walker's lawyers are thinking of a counter suit is my guess for their emotional distress, which is certainly much more justified than the police officers. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right, folks. Mississippi Senate candidate

Mike Espin released this video from Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr., supporting his campaign. Check this out. People follow my example versus understanding why they're doing that. So I really thank you for coming out here and making people see you out here, you know, instead of just TV or having a campaign. That's a pleasure. ...was killed in Jackson, Mississippi, trying to raise the people to vote. Another king spoke to us in Washington, there was only one block of fish in the whole South. So the video was the muffle there.

So what I want to do is I want to start that video over. You can hear this ad that Irvin Jackson did for Mike Espy. I cannot forget 1964, in Pennsylvania, Mississippi, trying to have a black-white delegation in Atlantic City. June 7, 1963, Mike Evans was killed in Jackson, Mississippi, trying to raise the people to vote. Dr. King spoke to us in Washington, there was only one block of fish

in the whole South. Now the chance you have a U.S. Senator from Mississippi. For change we've had through much suffering, much work. We thank God for Mike Esper, former Congressman, Agricultural Secretary, and now U.S. Senator to be. We're grateful to God today for delivering this time. Now, folks, we've talked about some of these rappers out here who've just been running their miles and doing nothing. Common is not in that category. We've actually run to him in three different cities in Orlando, South Carolina, and Atlanta. He's been traveling all around the country, folks,

really getting people excited about the right to vote. He tweeted this out. This was a brother. This brother inspired me. He already voted, but he's texting hundreds of people to go out and vote, and he's driving family members to the polls. It's a beautiful thing.

Listen to their conversation. You can't be free. Man, I love that. Yeah, we have to stand up. You have a right to make sure that we cover us. And I'm not just saying that people in general, but we can't allow our politicians, our government, we have a right to start standing up and trying to find a way for us to be honest, normal, you know, open some cup.

You reach one, teach one. Yes sir. You understand if you ain't reaching one, teaching one, you're not doing nothing. You understand? That's all. That's what I'm about. Yeah, so we try to get,

we gotta get these people out here in public for early voting is over with and we need to get these people at the polls by the third. I understand. You know, if everybody came out for Obama, then everybody need to come out for Biden. So I'm here, you can't let color be the reason why you're color.

You have to understand that things can be taken from us, and we can't go back to the worst. If nobody doesn't go back and stand up for the good of the world, we have to be a change. Yeah, so I'm on board with y'all, I'm down for what's going on, you know, I appreciate you all coming out to me. Some people are followed by example versus understanding why they're doing something. So I really thank you, brother, for coming out here and making people see you out here, you know, instead of just TV or having it. Hey, man, it's a pleasure, brother.

Thank you, you know. I ain't got to go in here and wait on the show to come out and see you tonight. You know, I appreciate you, man. This is a blessing. God is good. He woke us up, man. We get a chance to get out here. You see some more people just walking around.

I got my car. I can pick some people up. I can take some people. Right around here, too. It's really helpful. I appreciate you, man. You're a light, bro. You're a light. You're a light on us, man.

I was telling him, y'all a little too early. You ain't gonna come out like that. Right, right, right. You come back over here in the evening time, and let them see you. You can get some people to walk around and meet you. A lot of people still sleeping. Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying?

You can be real quick. Try to be productive, but some people don't sleep all day. It's sleep. Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? You can end up trying to be productive, but some people don't sleep all night. It's free. Yeah, yeah. You come back and you can get some people to meet you. You can bring some bands with you, some cars. You can get some people around the corner.

Yeah. Well, man, thank you for... Again, that was a great, great, great thing there that Common did. And, of course, folks were also in line. So he decided to give them a little freestyle. Right now I'm rocking it for my people here in Houston. Yeah, you know.

Don't even try to count me out because I'm here right now here in Harris County letting you know, yo, I see I've never been careless. That's why I'm talking Biden-Harris. Harris in the county, we here to appear. The brother comes in, my thoughts are sort of clear That's why I say feed the people Come to the H and do the type of things that gotta be great That means look your people in the eyes and see the whys We don't need no Trump and we don't need no lies

Cause that's just a disguise to bring us all down I knew that when I was a shorty at Chi-town. Now I'm in H-town and it's a great town. I'm telling you, freedom, y'all, we gonna escape now. Cause they been telling my people to keep us locked down. But I be telling them, no, no, no, not now. Not on my watch. I just rock the spot.

I come to Houston cause I rap a lot. This is how it be, yo. Praise to the Lord. Earlier today we was at the third ward and I told you, Kyle says this is hip-hop. Shout to my people from the top, yo. Hey, man, y'all show

Kyle this love. Kyle show Kyle this love. So again, you got folks out there who are doing the work. First of all, it's important to show that Kyle was talking to that brother, a brother who was out there texting 100 hundreds of people, taking them to the polls. That's important for us because, look, sisters are out there. They are doing it. But also the folks at Black Lives, Black Voters Matter. They're also doing it. And they've been on a they've been on a constant trip. They dropped this video on September 26.

Latasha Brown and Cliff Albright, them hitting all these different cities. And so I just want to show you this is the video they did on September 26, announcing their 12, the 12 state 40 day tour. We ran into them when we were in Detroit on Wednesday. So check this out. We got power. We're about to get ready to launch our We Got Power Tour. Cliff and I are going on the Blackest Bus in America. We're hitting the streets again.

We're going to be going through at least 12 states, maybe more. I'm just really excited. Now, it's a little bit different this time because COVID-19, we've got to wear masks, we've got to be socially distant, but we are very committed that we've got to get in the streets and inspire and encourage our people in ways that are socially distant, but we are very committed that we've got to get in the streets and inspire and encourage our people in ways that are socially distant. Ready to hit the road, ready to see our folks, ready to be socially distant, ready to mask up.

On our way to Pennsylvania, we'll be there for two days and then we're headed to Ohio to Cleveland. We're gonna be just spreading a lot of love and building a lot of power. The very last day, we're going to be out here on the ground in these streets because our people need us. Can't stop. Won't stop.

Register to vote. You can even request your online vote-by-mail ballot by clicking the link or by scanning our QR code with your camera. Vote early. Vote today. Because we got power. Of course, they've been doing that and putting in the work. Like I say, we ran into them in Detroit.

And my man Cliff there, he's always outvoking, always outworking. A lot of people. See Latasha out there. Cliff is doing it. And here's a video they dropped of Cliff Albright out there really pushing and encouraging folks to vote. Watch this. We're saying we try to turn everybody into an organizer. So we had people out here sending five texts, 10 texts, 50 texts. And then we had some folks who were like, look, I don't even want the shirt, I just want to be a part. I just want to help y'all spread the word. Real quick, give them a mask, give them a card.

We can tell them to pull in and text because we don't want to be having too long of a conversation. All right now! You get to do that text, and then when you get the message back, you send that to 10 people and we got a shirt for you. You get a shirt and you build power. You can't beat that! And you get the message back, they send that to ten people, and we got a shirt in it. You get a shirt and you build power. You can't beat that, and you get lunch!

Live, Silver Star Road, y'all riding fast, y'all see that big old bus on there? It's because of this brother right here. People are excited right now. You see it every day. People are breaking records at the polling place in state after state after state. Let me hear everybody say power. Power!

Right? Groups like, I'll say this here, Michael Brown, groups like Black Voters Matter are so critical because they are doing the work. A lot of people spend time and energy focusing on celebrities and what they're doing when somebody drops a commercial. But I know what LaTosha and Cliff are doing. They were there in Detroit, man, the other day. They were, it was in the rain. LaTosha was like, look, sister just got a hair did.

And so they've been out there and they have been putting in the work for the last man, you know, three, four years. And that's how it gets done with Reverend Barber and the poor people's campaign doing putting in the work. You've got to hit the ground to touch folk and be able to reach them. And first, absolutely. But firstly, I comment on engagement. I want to comment on Common and the brother he was talking to. First of all, thank you to Common and congratulations for him to be out in the street and spreading the word.

And to the brother he was talking to, that brother clearly hasn't fallen for the okie doke and is now listening to a couple of these rappers who are clearly off and don't understand what's going on. So congratulations to both of them. On the engagement part, you've got to have what they're doing is folks can talk about engagement and theoretically what needs to be done. But until you put boots on the ground is exactly what they are doing and other organizations, exactly what folks are doing.

You've got to get in folks' face. You have to explain to them why it's important. And if you give them lunch and a T-shirt at the same time, great, nothing wrong with it. That's part of the engagement process. And as long as they keep doing what they're doing in other organizations, hopefully we can make a difference on Tuesday and obviously have a positive outcome. And obviously, Vice President Biden and Senator Harris become the next president, vice president of the United States. 30 seconds each. Julianne and Michael Imhotep.

First of all, let me give a shout out to LaCroix water, which I swig. I hear that y'all think I'm drinking beer. I don't like beer. I do love LaCroix. So just for the record. Secondly... Taking a swig.

Huh? Taking a swig. Go ahead, go ahead. But secondly, the whole issue of how we manage this common is the bomb he was with uh you were with him in south carolina a few days ago and he's just been out there for us and i appreciate that from him and i appreciate that from all the superstars who've been out there. But Latasha Brown and the folks who are on the ground floor are the ones that we also need to celebrate. The fact is that we're a few days out. The fact is that there's a lot of nonsense going on in some states.

People are not being able to vote. I was on a radio thing last evening where even though Philadelphia is supposed to be okay, a woman said she went to get her ballot at 545, the place supposed to close at 6. They said, we don't want to deal with you. So we have to show persistence and resilience in the face of this. We have to one of the key issues in this election. And this is why we have, okay, I'm not going to go there, someone who likes to inflame racial tensions and someone else who wants to tamp them down. We are in the middle of a crisis. And in the middle of this crisis, we know there are folks like Latasha, like Melanie Campbell, like you, Roland. You've been doing a great job. People who are stepping it up and saying, come on, y'all, let's get it done.

Michael, I'm going to tap real quick. Yeah. Well, shout out to Latasha and Cliff for what they're doing. I mean, this is grassroots at its best. And they're out and they're engaged. They're making it fun. They're talking to people about voting, the importance of voting. But also what's extremely important is to tie these conditions that we talk about and fight against, tie that to the laws and policies of who you vote for in office. And then the other part that you talk about also, Roland, is the engagement on the other side of the election. Holding them accountable. Holding the elected officials accountable.

And brothers are out here working and organizing also along with the sisters as well. Absolutely. Absolutely. Julianne, Michael, Brian, and Michael, I really appreciate it. Thanks for joining us on our panel today. Thanks, Roland. Thank you, Roland. Keep it up.

Will do. Keep it rolling. All right, appreciate it. All right, folks. Good work. Folks, recently Christian television and film producer Devon Franklin and his wife, actress Megan Good, hosted a faith-inspired Biden for President event. It's just one example of how Hollywood is turning out to get voters to the polls, and

Devon shows us right now. Devon, what's up? What's up, man? How you doing? I'm doing good, man. We talked a couple of years ago. We played the clip earlier in our B-Woke Vote interview

where we talked about, again, the value of voting. And it's been real interesting because what a lot of people don't understand is that, yes, you've got all of a sudden a few rappers jumping out here, don't know what the hell

they talking about, saying crazy stuff. But there are other folks who are very much who might who might be entertainers, but who are very much invested in the issues. Kerry Washington is one of those folks. Erica Ash is one of those folks. And I can go on Shirley Ralph. We had her on two days ago. We had Lou Nilla on last night. And so I'm never one of those people who say entertainers should not and cannot be involved in this. But like anybody else, I want folks with platforms know what the hell they're talking about. Well, that isn't always, as we know, the case. And what I would say is

that there's a lot of entertainers that don't always get the same sort of attraction in the media, but are incredibly engaged and incredibly connected and incredibly informed. I mean, I've seen more engagement in the entertainment community around this election than anyone before. So I'm encouraged by that for sure. And I think and I'm hoping this is the beginning of more engagement consistency. I saw your interview you did with Ice Cube, which I thought was great. And I thought how you brought in the young sister to really add some substance and some context, I thought was fantastic. And I'm hoping that sort of education really continues because it's really required to make real change.

And again, I don't care who it is. It's about being educated on the issue. So when you step out there and speak, you are informing people. You know, I was very critical of a K.R.S. one video that he put out where he was talking about the electoral college. And I'm going, no, don't tell people that your vote doesn't matter. It does. Your vote actually your vote actually informs how the electoral college must vote. The Supreme Court has already ruled that faithful electors must follow the popular vote in their state. It does matter. It sure does. It does. I just did a video where I said something similar to what you're saying. I'm like, listen, I know there's all these conspiracy theories out there that float around

and all these ideas. The vote doesn't matter. It's like, no, it matters. You vote. They count the votes. Those votes ultimately get tallied up. And the Electoral College takes its cues from the local level. So, yes, voting matters. It's important. And do it. You stand to gain more if you do it than you stand to lose if you don't. So go ahead and do it.

It really does matter. So I completely agree, Roman. And, of course, many of y'all are gearing up what's happening there in California as a ballot initiative that folks are really advocating for. Just explain to our folks what that's all about. Yeah, you know, Prop 16 is critical. It's all about bringing back affirmative action and to make sure that there's equal representation under the law for people of color. Years ago, under previous administrations, you know, affirmative action was taken away. And I know people have all these feelings about it,

sometimes in a negative way. But I'm a governor for the academy. And I just co-chaired the task force that was successful in getting the academy to change their rules. And so now, after over 90 years of the history of the academy, this is the first time in the history where you now have to consider diversity and inclusion as one of the standards for best picture. So I can tell you that without the actual policy to back up intent, sometimes this goal for representation,

diversity and inclusion only becomes that, a goal. So with Prop 16, it's all about saying yes on Prop 16 so that we can ensure that when it comes to education, when it comes to opportunities, that we as people of color don't get left behind. And that's what we have been seeing since affirmative action has been taken away. And the thing that I think also is important, people have to recognize top of the ticket is huge, but those ballot initiatives are also critical. You got to vote top to bottom. Absolutely. And the thing that happens is because there's so much energy and effort and money put towards the top of the ticket.

These really important initiatives like Prop 16 sometimes don't get the publicity and the education that they need. So it's very important for voters to know, especially voters of color, yes, on Prop 16 is going to have immediate positive ramifications on your day to day life. Don't get me wrong. Of course, what happens at the top of the ticket is important, but not at the expense of not focusing on the bottom of the ticket. And Prop 16 is a critical bottom of the ticket initiative that needs support in California. All right, Devon Franklin, we still appreciate it, man. Thank you so very much. You got it, man. Thanks for having me. All right, brother, take care.

Folks, we want you to support Roland Martin Unfiltered by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar you give goes to support this show. There are some things that, man, we're gearing up for. We're going to be broadcasting seven hours on election night right here. 2020 election night, Black Voters Matter. It will be simulcast on iHeartRadio's Black Information Network. Your donations make it possible.

You can give via Cash App, dollar sign RM Unfiltered. Of course, PayPal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered. Venmo.com forward slash rmartinunfiltered, venmo.com forward slash rmunfiltered. Also, of course, New Vision Media Inc., 1625 K Street, Northwest, Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 2006. Normally on Friday, what we do is we actually show our charter club members, members of our fan club. We're going to do this here. Otis Moss III, his father, Reverend Otis Moss Sr., voted in rural Georgia. He voted in rural Georgia, and they put together this film.

It'll be featured this Sunday on Oprah Winfrey's Super Soul Sunday. They put together this film. It's on their YouTube channel called Otis's Dream. And so Otis Moss III sent me a text a few moments ago and telling me about it actually a couple of hours ago. And I said, don't worry about it, brother. Yes, he's a new alpha. I said, we're going to go ahead and take care of you. His dad is an old alpha. And it's an amazing film. And I hope you enjoy it. Folks, this weekend, don't forget, we're going to be in Jackson, Mississippi, broadcasting from there for Mike Espy, GeoTV Rally. And of course, I'll see you guys back here on Monday.

But we're gonna close the show out with Otis' dream. Thanks for watching. Holla! Let me tell you a story. A story about my father, Otis Moss, Sr. It's the story of my father's determination to exercise his right to vote. One morning in the fall of 1946, he got up determined to cast his ballot. My father was a farmer, a sharecropper in the rural South. He served in the military during the First World War.

Always a man of dignity, quiet courage, and determination. Our mother, his devoted wife, had died at an early age, and my father struggled as a single parent of five children. I'm going to vote today. We were amazed, excited that our father is about to do something really significant. Go vote, Papa! Vote him out! Yeah, go get him! We love you! Go get him! Good luck! Bye! Love you! Take care! Go vote him out! He walked from the house well-dressed, well-groomed,

six miles to the town center. Now, at every age, things have been introduced to keep certain people from voting. Now, at every age, things have been introduced to keep certain people from voting, especially black people. We knew the racism, the hatred, the injustice represented in Governor Eugene Talmadge. And some of the negroes will vote if i'm your governor they won't vote in our white plunder the next four years

he was well aware of all of the dangers toys snares and roadblocks to keep him from voting. But he was willing to face all of that and exercise his right to vote. He did not know what the experience would be for him on that day, but he was well aware of what was taking place all over the South at that very moment. Mr. Goldsmith, one of my best to your family. Sir, I am Otis Moss, and I am here to vote. What did you say your name was? Otis Moss.

Otis, it looks like you've come to the wrong polling place. You need to go over to the Mountville school. I have a letter here from the county stating that I vote here. People from your side of town ought to vote in Mountville. You're supposed to get a letter, but the mail's been slow these past few weeks. Now, did he come in?

Have you seen him? I think he came in. May I have my letter back? Let me tell you a story about my grandfather. He'd already walked six miles to the first polling place. Now he's being told, you've come to the wrong place. A clear and blatant lie. Now he has to go to the Montville School.

The Montville School is in a different city. I imagine as my grandfather walked, the sounds of the world crept into his ear. You are a second class citizen. You are three-fifths of a person. You are nothing but a Negro. But in his spirit, he heard his faith and the song say ain't gonna let nobody turn me around. Not just walking, but marching to the next polling place. He steps through the doors of the Montville school, unsure of what he will face. Absolutely. Bless you. Yes?

I'm here to vote. I was sent here from the LaGrange Courthouse. You are in the wrong place. You're supposed to vote at the Rosemont School. The clerk from the courthouse said I was to come here. I don't know about that, but I know you're supposed to vote at the Rosemont School. Ma'am. Let me tell you the story of my great-grandfather.

Because of the color of his skin, he was held back from voting. Voting, a basic right of his, one of his freedoms. And because of the way he looked, he wasn't allowed to. Despite the next polling place being six more miles, despite the disappointment and the anger and the frustration, his determination, strong will, and dream to vote outweighed any disappointment that crossed his mind. Boy, I sure am sorry, but the polling place closed.

Now, if you would have been here five minutes earlier, we would have let you in. I love you. Wounded, but never give up. Denied, but never accepting that denial. Insulted but refusing to accept the insult inwardly and thereby setting an example and a memory for generations unborn. Our father was killed in an automobile accident.

Fast forward. I became a participant in the Selma March, witnessed the signing of the Voting Rights Bill, 1965. That was a great moment. It was a great victory in the civil rights struggle. It was a great accomplishment. However, no one could dig up

our father's bones and put a ballot in his hand. Some things are beyond repair. Give Papa a minute. Next time. Next time. Listen here.

Promise me. If you give a chance, you gotta vote. One of the remarkable moments in my life and in my memory is taking my son, Otis III, to vote. I paused on my side of the curtain in prayerful silence and listened for Otis III punch his ballot. That became music. Freedom music. Liberation music. The sound of my father's footsteps trying to cast his vote. Walk with me, Lord Walk with me

Walk with me, Lord Walk with me While I'm on This tedious journey I want Jesus To walk with me Walk with me, Lord Walk with me, Lord

Walk with me. Lord, walk with me. Lord, would you walk with me? While I'm on this tedious journey, I want Jesus to walk with me. Walk with me Lord Be my friend Lord

Be my friend Lord Be my friend Lord Would you be my friend While I'm Going Oh This tedious journey I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time.

Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir.

Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at the recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication. Find out more at fatherhood.gov.

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