#RolandMartinUnfiltered - George Floyd Act, HR1 pass House; Mike Brown's dad wants $20M from BLM; TX, MS lift COVID rules

Episode Date: March 5, 2021

3.4.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: George Floyd Act, voting rights pass House; Wes Moore, CEO of Robin Hood talks child tax credit; Mike Brown's dad, activists wants $20M from BLM for their organizing efforts; Tampa police union wants Black cop reinstated after being caught on camera for using n-word; TX, MS lift COVID rules as variants begin to spread; Jerk at Night in D.C. is being forced out of their location.Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. 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. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.

We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You say you never give in to a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, know it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens.

Before you leave the car, always stop, look, lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Today is Thursday, March 4th, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, three major issues on Capitol Hill. First, last night, the House passes the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Of course, no Republicans voted for it. We'll break down that particular bill. Also, the House passed H.R.1, the voting rights bill. Now it moves over to the United States Senate.

Speaking of the Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris broke the tie, causing the COVID bill to move forward. As we speak, there's a reading of the bill because Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson wants to be an ass. So therefore, he has the House clerk reading the entire 628 28 page bill. It's all good and increasing the child tax credit could go a long way. Reducing poverty in this country will talk with Westmore, CEO of Robin Hood,

Michael Brown's father, and Ferguson activists. They want Black Lives Matter to pay them $20 million for their organizing efforts to Tampa Florida Police Union. Once the black officer who used the They want Black Lives Matter to pay them $20 million for their organizing efforts. The Tampa, Florida police union wants the black officer who used the N-word to actually get his job back. Hmm, ain't that special. No, I'm sorry.

Ain't that special. But you know what? If he actually shot somebody, he would simply have been suspended. Texas and Mississippi are both eliminating their COVID restrictions in spite of warnings. But it's too soon. And a D.C. favorite restaurant, Jerk at Night, is being forced out of their location. We'll tell you why. It is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the mess, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling, best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks, he's rolling.

It's on for a roll, y'all. It's rolling, go, yo. Yeah, yeah. It's Rollin' Martin. Yeah, yeah. Rollin' with Rollin' now. Yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Rollin' Martin. Yeah. Martin. All right, folks, a lot of development is happening on Capitol Hill. Let's start with what is happening right now.

Pretty interesting. In the United States Senate, they're actually reading the entire 628 COVID relief bill. Please go live to the Capitol. Check this out. This is what is being happening right now. Why? Because Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson,

he told them that they need to actually read the entire bill before they move forward. Now, what happened earlier, Vice President Kamala Harris, she broke a tie to allow the moving of this bill forward. This is the look. You can hear the clerk reading the bill right now. So Johnson is trying all kinds of delay tactics. Folks, this man needs to be defeated when the election takes place next year.

But this is the bill right here. Listen. loan limit. The term conforming loan limit means the applicable limitation governing the maximum original principal obligation of a mortgage secured by a single family. Again, what they want to do is try to delay this bill as much as possible. They don't really give a damn about the voters out there. It's all about them and their particular arrogant interest. Dr. Greg Carr is chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University, Recy Colbert. She is Black Women Views. Erica cannot join us this week, so we'll join by Kelly Bethea, Communications Strategist.

Bottom line here, Greg, look, they're asses. That's who they are. That's who Senator Ron Johnson is. Senator Chuck Schumer said, hey, you want folks to read the bill? We'll be more than happy to listen to this entire bill.

No problem. And so it will take several hours to actually go through it. But the bottom line is it's moving forward and not a single Republican in the House supported this bill. Likely no Republican in the Senate is going to support this bill. That's all President Joe Biden needs to know and understand. Republicans are not going to work with him. They're not going to do anything with him. They are going to obstruct as much as they can. This is going to be the norm between now and the 2022 election. I think it's probably going to be the norm. Absolutely. Absolutely. Until the 2022 election and from now on, as long as there is a United States of America. This bill will attract no white national support because these white nationalists have chosen their whiteness over their lives.

They've chosen the whiteness of their constituents over their lives, their white constituents. And on a day when Johnson & Johnson has now been approved for the one-shot emergency dosage, a day when the United States has now gone over the two million a day capacity mark, a day when Joe Biden has announced, of course, that he's going to evoke the Defense Production Act, and that Merck is actually partnering with Johnson to ramp up production, on a day, you know, when FEMA has announced they've approved seven mega sites in Texas and California. Thank God, Texas.

And we've got about eight and a half percent of the population has gotten the full dosage and 16 percent has one dose. The White Nationalist Party has said that rather than support anything, anything that will help humanity, they're going to choose their whiteness. Congratulations, because your little country and the dream country in your mind, Ron Johnson, you rotting politician, is going to implode. And hopefully it will take and wash the memory of you and the rest of your white nationalist colleagues with you. Finally, I'll mention that one of the reporters is reporting that even though he did that, threw the rock and hit his hand, he left. Johnson left the chamber and was spotted talking to Collins, talking to Rob Portman of Ohio and talking to Joe damn Manchin. Joe damn Manchin. Let's be very clear. But the bills you're going to talk about in a minute, this filibuster has to be broken. Joe Manchin, Joe Manchin, you political hack.

We've known that this was going to come down to you. And this thing we're going to have to run over you, heck. We've known that this was going to come down to you. And this thing, we're going to have to run over you, bruh. You got to be run over. You ain't going to choose your whiteness over your life. We'll stand you up with that blow dry haircut coming out them coal mines. And you're going to vote the right way. Or we're going to move on up over you too.

The only reason this is actually being read as we speak, as I say, this is because Vice President Kamala Harris broke the tie. This is what took place earlier today. The nays are 50, the Senate being equally divided. The Vice President votes in the affirmative, and the motion to proceed is agreed to. Madam President. Mr. Majority Leader. I have an amendment at the desk, and I ask for its immediate consideration.

Oh, excuse me. The clerk will report the bill, please. Calendar number 10, H.R. 1319, an act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to Title II of S. Conrads V. Majority Leader. Madam President, I have an amendment at the desk, and I ask for its immediate consideration. The clerk will report the amendment, please. The senator from New York, Mr. Schumer, for himself and others, proposes an amendment numbered 891. Strike all after the first word.

See, that's the action we should see when it comes to the filibuster, when it comes to the George Floyd Justice Act, when it comes to the voting bill. If Democrats stick together and you have all 50 votes, they can do this to pass whatever they want to, but they've got to stick together to make it happen. Absolutely. And I'm so glad that Dr. Carr brought up Joe Manchin, Senator Joe Manchin. I also heard that Johnson was huddling with Kyrsten Sinema, who totally gets a pass at all of this stuff as well. What I want to comment on is the fact that, you know, a lot of people, there's a little bit of an intraparty war going on right now with progressives making Kamala Harris, Vice President Kamala Harris, the black boogie woman and the shield for the Democratic Party, and the fact that you actually have Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who are the ones who are blocking anything, really all of the progressive agenda items of not just the progressives, but the Biden-Harris administration. The only way for this to work eventually, I mean, we're getting through the budget

reconciliation bill. Shout out to VP Harris for being the tiebreaker. But you cannot pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act through reconciliation or the Voting Rights Act or the For the People Act. And so you're going to have to get rid of the filibuster. And Manchin and Sinema have been ten toes down and being completely belligerent about maintaining this Jim Crow relic. And there's going to have to be some will and a deal. And I don't know what that looks like. I'm not a senator. I'm not the majority leader. And I'm not the majority whip Dick Durbin, who nobody even talks about either. But they're going to have to figure out some arm twisting.

I don't know what you got to do, but you got to do it. And you got to do it fast. Because after this budget bill, there's nothing else left to do without getting rid of the filibuster, nothing of any real substance. And so they're going to have to act fast. They're going to have to put all of this energy that people have in writing editorials and going on all these networks

and trying to pin everything on Kamala Harris, on the VP, channel that energy towards Manchin and Sinema and get them on board with getting rid of the filibuster. Amy Klobuchar came on board with getting rid of the filibuster to pass the Voting Rights Act. Do what you got to do, Chuck Schumer. It's your turn. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker Pelosi, has done her job. You got to step up. That point there, Kelly. Again, look, the COVID bill,

they're moving forward. It's likely going to be passed. It is going to be signed into law. Now comes the heavy work, and that is how aggressive will Democrats, and again, I said last week, and also for all those ADOS and other people out there who run their mouths like, oh man, you out here, you talking tough. What did I say in Jacksonville last week the Democrats should do next? Oh, I recall me saying they should pass the George Floyd Justice Act. They should pass the voting bill, H.R. 1. I'm sorry. What did they do last night? So while y'all sitting, y'all asses around, OK, complaining, it's about mobilizing people to drive this issue, which is critically important, Kelly. You're absolutely right. I want to piggyback off of my other my other colleagues regarding Manchin and Sinema. These are the boogeymen, so to speak, as previously stated. And they are the ones who have to turn the corner in terms of getting these bills passed,

especially when it comes to the filibusters, especially when it comes to these other bills coming down the pipe. My issue is with Democrats being so splintered. I think it's interesting how we see the splintering in the Democratic Party, and we see the splintering when it comes to the Republican Party. But the difference is the Republican Party, for better or for worse, will unite against anything so long as there is a united front. Something tells me that there are Republicans in the Senate who agree with the bill, but because they understand the power of the party as a whole, they fall in line. Democrats need to do the same. And in any case, we actually are in the right

to do the same because there's nothing on our agenda that should be disputed, that should be compromised in any way. Manchin is in a very relatively red state with very blue problem. So he needs to get on board with the blue and vote accordingly. Same with Kristen Sinema. I don't understand why it is like pulling teeth to do the right thing on either side of the aisle but when it comes to these two if anything happens with any of these bills such that they do not get passed in the senate it should not be on kamala harris's shoulders it should be squarely on those two because they are the ones giving us the most grief well this is the point that i've sort of raised to people constantly. Again, the people who run their mouths on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook who don't clearly they skip civics class.

And that is the people who say, oh, you should have demanded you should have demanded these things from Biden and Harris before they won. OK. And like I said, you can you can make demands of Biden Harris or you want to. They don't control how senators vote. There are three branches of government. There's executive, Biden-Harris. There's legislative, the House, the Senate. There's judicial, Supreme Court, the federal bench. The reality is Manchin, Sinema, Feinstein, Sanders, any of them, they are United States senators. They can vote however they want to. And so folks have to understand that. Now, as we've been talking about, the pressure now comes in. How now, what kind of pressure is now brought to bear? And this is now where external groups are going to play a role.

We talk about the George Floyd Justice Act. OK, this is Congressman Hakeem Jeffries last night on the floor of the U.S. House prior to them voting. We respect every single officer who has died in the line of duty. The question is, why don't you respect those black and Latino individuals who were shot in the back, choked to death, beaten, nearly unconscious, or have a knee to the neck, strangling the life out of them for eight minutes and 46 seconds? Why don't you respect them? That's what the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is all about. We respect police officers, those who protect them.

We respect every single officer who has died in the line of duty. The question is, why don't you respect those black and Latino individuals who were shot in the back, choked to death, beaten nearly unconscious, or have a knee to the neck strangling the life out of them for eight minutes and 46 seconds. Why don't you respect them? That's what the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is all about. We respect police officers, those who protect and serve, but we have a challenge with police violence police brutality and the police abuse of force cannot be denied video after video after video don't believe us believe your own eyes we respect every single officer absolutely right there uh this is again, it is going to be a battle. Let's go to our guest right now. One of George Floyd's uncles who joins us right now.

Selvin Jones. Selvin, glad to have you in Rolling Mark Unfiltered. As I said, you have the trial next week starting of Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis. But you have this going on on Capitol Hill as well. Is your family, what is your family prepared to come to Capitol Hill, to go to these Democratic senators who support the filibuster, to go to them and say you need to break the filibuster to pass this George Floyd Justice Act? We're ready to go. We're ready to go. I'm ready to go, Mr. Rowland. I've been all over the country expressing my want

with the George Floyd Policing Act because we got to have it. If we don't have it, we're not slowing anybody down. And they're going to continue to treat us like second-class human beings. You know, somebody mentioned getting shot in the back.

Well, the militarized way that they're taught is obviously not working. The mental capacity that most officers go out with is a little bit aggressive. We know they want to go home. But I sure would love to have my nephew with me for Thanksgiving, Christmas, summer. And this is all you got to think about. Imagine somebody being someplace and they couldn't leave. You've seen my nephew fight. You've seen him struggle. You've seen him beg.

You've seen him plead. He pretty much narrated his own death. And after about four minutes, he literally had to sit there and wait to die. And that's the only way he could leave. So that George Floyd police and that, we've got to push it through. So we got a bus load. You know, we got room for others, because I know I'll be there. The Speaker Nancy Pelosi, she spoke earlier today and she said that it is Congresswoman Karen Bass who's negotiating on the Senate side to move this forward. Look, it is not going to be easy, again, because what you have is you have forces in this country who are supportive

of police unions, of police departments who don't want to hold them accountable. And so, I mean, you know, that's real. It's there. We know exactly the kind of pressure they're going to be bringing to bear. But this is to me where people power also is important. This is where the families of victims of police brutality must be in the face of these Democrats and say, you are in the majority because black people voted for you. You're in the majority because black people went out to the polls and they actually cast ballots for you. Now is the time for you to pay folks back. That's what has to happen right now, Selvin. Do we still have Selvin? I think we lost him. Let me know when we get him back.

That's the issue right there, Recy. Again, they have to feel the pressure. I constantly said during the election and voting is the, is, is one process after the election is another process for all these people who run in their mouths, who want to sit back and say, Ooh, what is Joe Biden done for us? He ain't done nothing for black people. Who's been there six weeks. I say it, You got to do work after the election. You can't sit back and go, hey, I had a meeting. They said they were going to do this. It's all good. No, you have to be there. Looks like we have Selwyn back. Selwyn, that public pressure has to be brought to bear on people. Selwyn, go ahead.

Now, repeat that again. What were you saying? I said that the public pressure has to be brought to bear on these politicians to make them do what is necessary. education, conversation, and communication, communication, conversation, education, and irritation. Things don't work unless somebody shapes something up. So if we got to get in their face, if we got to sleep in their front yard, you know, me being a 54-year-old Jim Crow black man born in a little rural town of Goldsboro, North Carolina, I've seen this power and control my whole life. And what we literally saw in Minneapolis was probably one of the most heinous things I've ever seen. And it's just so crazy. Why can't everybody get together and do what's best for the country and do what's best for all races, black, white, green, yellow, orange? Because this is all the human race. We have to live here together. Why can't we figure out a way to be peaceful? You know? Well, that is the desire, but the reality is this here,

and that is when you give people the power of guns and badges and they believe that they are all powerful and all-knowing, this is the issue that we're dealing with. It's horrible because, you know what, Mr. Rowland? What gets me is I go back January the 6th. And that's probably the most despicable thing that I've ever seen. To think that we live in a country and us as black Americans know that if that would have been us touching the fence, we would have all been executed and shot. But yet we can have 467 people arrested in Black Lives Matter March in July, and they're still at, what, 140, 150? So these different standards for black or white,

Asian, Hispanic, somehow or another, we have to put them where they need to be. And that's not in the place. Because, you know, man, this is a conversation we can talk about

until we're green in the face. We have to have leadership to make the right decisions. Because as far as I see, as far as a lot of people see, a lot of right decisions haven't been made for black people. You know, and that's why we ask. We don't ask. I don't want no special treatment.

I just want the same thing that the other people get. They don't get shot at. They don't get hung. They don't get lynched. They don't get killed in the middle of the street. Why do that to us? Because I have my whole life to wonder how would my nephew look to be 65?

What about next Christmas? What about his daughter? I get to go to a graduation, but he doesn't. Right there, big Floyd. It's all right, man, because we're going to we are making a change for you and the whole world is with you, my man. Selwyn Jones, I appreciate it, sir. Thank you so very much. God bless you, my man. Thank you very much. Recy, pressure.

I mean, for the people who just think, hey, you know what? I voted. I'm good. No. It's not going to happen without that pressure. Yeah. Right. I need people to set aside the 2024 presidential primaries. First of all, there's a possibility that President Joe Biden might run

again. I know he's old, but he might decide to run again. So set aside that. Set aside the political posturing to try to undercut, you know, VP Kamala Harris and focus on where the work lies, which is in the Senate, which is with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. It's time for him to step the hell up. It's time for him to feel the pressure. I don't see that he feels like he's under any pressure. I haven't seen it. You don't even hear his name mentioned. If it was Speaker Pelosi who had trouble wrangling AOC and Conor Lamb, it would be nonstop coverage of it. But we see Chuck Schumer and a majority with Dick Durbin getting a total pass. We see Senator Manchin getting a total pass.

What has to be impressed upon them, and I hate that we even have to make this argument, because why do we have to continue to justify our humanity to these people? But we have to press upon them that the humanity and the full citizenship of Black people and brown people in this country goes above and beyond this Jim Crow relic. And they have this allegiance to so-called procedures and so-called standards that keep their foot on our necks. And so that's unacceptable. So I don't, like I said, I don't have the answer sway. I really don't. I wish I did, but this is not a matter of tradition. This is not a matter of, well, what we can, we have to keep the filibuster

in case the Republicans get in and what they're going to, they're going to do whatever the hell they want to do. That's what they did to get all these 200 plus judges, plus three Supreme Court justices. They're going to do whatever it takes. It's time for the Democrats, specifically the Senate Democrats, to step up. And everybody who cares about this activity, I'm sorry, about these acts passing, they need to be pressuring the Senate folks, okay? The Senate folks. That's where the ball is in their court. The House is done. This is now a Senate issue. Put all guns blazing there.

I'm not saying have it a firing squad, but you have to ride their asses. Period. This is a video that Congresswoman Karen Bass posted on her Twitter page. Go to my iPad, please.

And then, of course, it reminds folks of what took place with George Floyd last year. Also, right there, 100 unarmed people, brutalized and killed by police since George Floyd was murdered. Since that speaks volumes that goes beyond George Floyd, that you have to address this issue among these out of control cops, Kelly. The fact that we are still in this predicament day in, day out, decade after decade, it just shows you just how stagnant, how slow, and frankly, how comfortable we are as a nation with this happening. Certainly not Black people, but as a nation, we are comfortable with Black bodies dying,

certainly because of the systemic racism that lives within. But thankfully, with this bill, one of the main things that is a part of it is a national registry for these crimes committed by police officers to actually be documented and logged in, similar to how you have a national DNA database for criminals. There would be a nationwide database for crimes that cops do. And if you are a cop who kills unnecessarily, you should be treated like the criminal that you are. So this is a great step in that direction. Now, to Recy's point and your point, Roland, regarding applying pressure specifically in the Senate, it is it is not the irony is not lost on me that once again, Democrats are relying on a black woman to get things done. being Manchin and Sinema, who will thwart her efforts, so to speak, regardless of whether Democrats are united. So when it comes to applying the pressure, it's holding people accountable. It's making sure that we don't wait until 2024 to think that things are going to change. It means not even waiting until next year, 2022, trying to make things

change. We need to act now. We need to make those phone calls to our senators now. We need to hold not just Kamala Harris accountable, not just Biden accountable, but your specific senators, your local government, your House representatives as well, because they are the ones who pass it in order to get to the Senate. So these are the civics lessons that should be ingrained in everybody. But clearly they are not. So absolutely. I agree with everybody on the panel here in regards to applying the pressure. But the irony that we are relying on black women, a black woman specifically, one, being the vice president once again, and then for a Democrat as a whole not to have her back because we still have two, two, two like going rogue.

That is beyond insulting, beyond insulting to anybody, specifically this black woman here. And I'm sure she can agree. I see her nodding. Greg, again, when we talk about pressure, I keep telling folks, show me what black folks have gotten in this country without pressure. And again, and for the people who keep running their mouths like, well, no, the George Floyd Justice Act, that's not specifically helping black people. The voting bill not specifically helping black people. The voting bill, not specifically helping black people. Well, guess what?

OK, while y'all sitting here waiting on that, the rest of us are busy trying to make things better for black folks. Yeah, brother, I mean, let's be very clear. There'll be a lot of people who get checks with the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill that no Republican, no member of the white nationalist party voted for and will vote for. That's a fifth of that bill. Twenty-two percent of that bill is direct payments. That means black people, your money will spend, too. You'll get that money. What this is exposing, again, reminding us of, unfortunately,

is the truth of the political immaturity of the American electorate. You know, this is years of being dumbed down through, you know, silly-minded media, and of course, social media is only weaponized. I'm glad you wore that shirt today, brother, because right now, while we're here in Haiti, the Haitians are like, this president got to go. February 7th was your last day, bruh. You got to go. The Constitution says that. And the Supreme Court and the courts in Haiti have ruled on that. In some countries, they just won't stand for it.

Here in the United States, however, a dumbed-down country, we don't even have the momentum of memory. And, you know, today, for example, I was talking with my students, and I teach this hip-hop class, and we were reviewing what happened in the late 80s, early 90s around these insurrections. And many of them had never seen the murder of LaTosha Harlins out there or that white judge that let that Korean lady go for doing it. Many of them hadn't seen the Rodney King footage. And so we talked about that. And that's not the fault of these young people. That's the fault of those of us with so-called platforms who don't continue to remind folk that there's nothing in the George Floyd

bill that is new. In a minute, when we talk about this Black Lives Matter money, all the money going to HBCUs, all this money that's going out, this money is washed in the blood of Breonna Taylor. It's washed in the blood of Ahmaud Arbery. We've seen this show before. In other words, this country is a criminal enterprise that was set up on dispossessing people of their land,

and it's basically a business enterprise. And to keep that going, there will be politicians put in place to continue that momentum. Now, the problem the Democrats have, finally, is that those who back them in terms of lobbying, and I know we're going to talk about H.R. 1, and that's very important to think about this question of limiting donations and things like that — the people who must vote for the Democrats look more like us. The white nationalists have completely doubled down. And so I think we have to now, rather than — in addition to putting pressure on the Democrats, you know, I got a question for that buck-toothed Ben Sasse

in Nebraska. I got a question for those white nationalists who think they're going to win a national election. We have to now show political maturity to not only get on the Democrats and say what's going on, but we need to elevate and scream to high bloody heaven.

You white nationalists over there who are getting a complete pass because nobody expects you to do anything different, we're going to put your faces up next to these toothless, ain't getting no vaccine, homeless, lights out in Texas, white people who you have deceived and we're going to make, we're going to

posterize y'all because y'all getting a whole pass to stand up and saying, no, we're acting like there's only 50 people in the United States damn Senate. No, every member of the White Nationalist Party must now be crucified on the altar of common humanity. They are enemies of humanity.

The reason they had to have a late session last night is because their friends threatened to come back down here and repeat what they did on January 6th today. You're white nationalists, you're enemies of humanity, and you must be destroyed politically. You don't get a pass because you're not behaving as human beings. But then when I say put pressure, what I'm talking about is, remember, we are still constituents. And that is black folks in Nebraska. That's right. Put that pressure on SAS. Black folks in Utah, and many of y'all put that pressure on Mitt Romney. Black folks in Milwaukee and Wisconsin, that's right.

Come and put that pressure on Senator Ron Johnson. That is the only way these things are actually going to happen. It doesn't matter what the issue is. It doesn't matter if we're talking H.R. 1, George Floyd Justice Act, if we're talking about Democrats' plan to increase the child tax credit of $3,000 per school-age child, it does not matter. It's about pressure. Speaking of that tax credit, it will lift nearly 10 million children above or closer to the poverty line, according to the Center on Budget and Public Policy Priorities. Now, while the legislation

only calls for a temporary year-long increase, several Democratic senators say that they're not going to let these new enhancements expired if they can help it. Joining us right now is Wes Moore. He's the CEO of Robin Hood, one of the largest anti-poverty organizations in the country. I talked about pressure, Wes. This is one of those issues that, again, well, people have to realize we've always done it. We've always seen the activism of African-Americans. But what has to happen is not calling for a million man march on a Saturday when Congress is not there. No, what has to happen is when those members of Congress are there Tuesday through Thursday, that's when we show up. That's when we're hitting every single person. That means that they're seeing somebody every single hour clogging their offices, clogging the hallways where they can't even get by. That's the only way you can actually force these people to do what's right. And I think helping people to understand what's at stake, you know, that when we're talking about when we're talking about child poverty,

you know, people might think, well, child poverty, that's, you know, I've seen a documentary about child poverty or there's a there's an infomercial that comes on about child poverty. Let's be clear about who we're talking about is in child poverty and how pervasive child poverty is and the fact that there is a cost to it. So every single year, the cost of child poverty is between $800 billion and $1.1 trillion a year. And that's in terms of everything from criminal justice costs, increased health expenditures, reduced adult productivity. That's the cost. This is not a zero-sum conversation that we're having. And so when it comes to putting pressure on people, it means how do we help people to understand that they have a vested stake and a vested interest in getting it done?

And then also understanding that the pressure cannot be temporary, that the pressure must be deliberate, that the pressure must be something that's going to be consistent until they actually make the moves that need to be made in order to relieve this pain and this hurt and the suffering that people continue to have to feel within this country. And so when we talk about, again, the issue of poverty, you're dealing right now with the push of $15 a living wage. And you're hearing people say, oh, my God, we can't afford that. But they had no problem with the various tax cuts. Oh, my God, you know, we can't afford that. But let's go ahead and spend billions upon billions upon billions more when it comes to defense. Now, America can afford what the hell it wants to afford when it deems it a priority. Yeah, I mean, to be very honest, this this whole conversation about the the 15 dollar minimum wage, it's not only it's it's it's so overdue at this point, it's almost laughable, right? There have been advocacy for $15 minimum wage and frankly, data to reinforce the importance of having not just a minimum wage, but a living wage for families. Since we have had these conversations, when we think about the people who've lost their jobs due to COVID-19, 24% of people who've lost their jobs due to COVID-19

were people who were living in poverty before COVID-19, right? I.e., that was the working poor, the ones who were working jobs, and in some cases, multiple jobs, and still living below the poverty line. So when people make arguments and they say, well, I just wish that, I wish people would just get a job. The reality is, is that we still have jobs in this country that are not paying anywhere near a working nor a living wage. So it's not that simple. And the data continues to reinforce how completely backwards this system of incentivizing work actually has become. So, okay. So map it out for us. What should people watching and listening be doing on this issue? I think people will need to understand the importance of the bills that are being proposed right now when people are talking about the American Rescue Plan.

And that proposes includes a proposal of making the child tax credit fully refundable and increasing its value to three thousand dollars per child, which is around $3,600 for every child under six. Why this is so important and why we need people putting pressure on their lawmakers, pressure on their lawmakers is this, is that we have this thing called a child tax credit. And that is America's largest anti-poverty policy tool. It provides around $2,000 credit per child to offset the cost of raising children, right? Here's the problem with that tax credit. Currently, right now, that tax credit leaves about 20, over 24 million children out because those children are too deep into poverty to qualify because there's an economic earn-in that you must actually get to qualify for the tax credit. Our largest anti-poverty tool actually has over 24 million children who are left out because they are too deep into poverty. So what people need to do right now is contact their lawmakers and to be able to push for two

basic caveats. One is that that must be, that tax credit must be fully refundable. The second piece is it must be fully refundable permanently. That move alone would move about 2.7 million children out of poverty by the stroke of a pen. Making it fully refundable and making it permanent would be the largest, would be the greatest thing that we could do to actually address the issue of child poverty right now inside this country. So what do you want the folks to do? Call, email, exactly what? Because at the end of the day, we got to mobilize and organize people to do something and not just talk about exactly what should happen. I want folks to remember that this is not any form of partisan issue. I want you to call your lawmakers, call your senators,

particularly if you are in states like lawmakers, call your senators, particularly if you are in states like Florida, states like Tennessee, every single state that you live in. I need you to call your lawmakers and let them know that making the child tax credit both fully refundable and permanent is a priority. And then get all your friends and all your acquaintances, all your family members to do the exact same thing. We are on the goal line of having the greatest child poverty policy issue getting into the end zone. But we need people to push their lawmakers to do better and to do better permanently and not let them off the hook. All right. Wes Moore, I appreciate it. Alpha's always leading. Thanks a bunch. Good to see you, brother. Absolutely. Go back to my panel on this one here.

What Wes laid out there, we talk about poverty in this country. Reverend Dr. William Barber in a poor people's campaign. They've been pushing, pushing and pushing and pushing this issue. I go back to this here. We see America affords what it wants to afford when it wants to afford it. Right. The good news is that it's already in the American Rescue Plan that VP Kamala Harris has broken the tie for. There is consensus among the 50 Democratic senators that need to vote for it in order for her to break the tie again to pass the bill. And so what was just discussed was really about making it more permanent. We know that in this country, particularly with the political environment that we have, these sorts of tax breaks, tax credits are usually kind of piecemeal. The Bush tax cuts were not permanent at our income level.

And so this is a typical strategy, I think, to not have it be permanent. But President Biden has indicated that he's open to making the tax credit permanent. So that is the good news. The good news also is that it actually reminds me a little bit of Senator Kamala, well, then Senator Kamala Harris's lift act, which was you could access her tax credit, the tax credit that she proposed, you can access it monthly. And that's another aspect of this child tax credit in the American Rescue Plan, that that refundable part of it can be accessed monthly instead of having to wait to the end of the year when you file your taxes and then you get a check back. So that's going to help a lot of people along the lines when you pair that with unemployment benefits, when you pair that with the stimulus check,

whatever value people are going to qualify for. This can be a very transformative policy. The numbers are there. It's going to lift 10 million children out of poverty. And so the important part is to continue to keep the focus on keeping these provisions in the bill. I don't think that there's any real danger of it falling out at this point and then driving it forward like your guest just said and making it permanent. That's the, again, addressing the issue of poverty is going to be just, look, it's not sexy, Kelly. It's not something that people really want to deal with. You always hear the phrase, poor folks don't have lobbyists in Capitol Hill.

But the organizing that Reverend Barber and the Poor People's Campaign are doing, they're doing exactly right. You're putting a face on it and you're forcing people to have to actually see people and confront this issue. Absolutely. The fact that we are still considered a minority in this country, yet we make up the majority of those who are living in poverty is an abomination in and of itself. But moreover, just because we are at the majority in that number does not mean that other races are not affected by this. The second largest group in these statistics are Hispanics and Latinos. So it affects everybody. It affects everyone. And just because we are giving people or trying to give people a higher minimum wage, that of $15, data shows that wouldn't even be enough because that doesn't even match the level of inflation that we have right now in order for people to be out of poverty, even with $15 an hour. So there definitely needs to be even more measures on top of the stroke of the pen, such as what Samora was talking about, in order to truly rectify this issue. It is unfortunate that we don't think beyond ourselves as a country anymore, specifically

when it comes to the Republican Party and the powers that be that had literally the power to change this for decades, Democrats included. But it is something to be said when the mantra for the GOP has always been pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Well, what if you don't have any boots? What if you don't have any straps for the boots? What if you just do not have what is necessary on your own in order to bring yourself out of the muck and the mire that, frankly, the government put you in in the first place? So this bill would just be the first step in a litany of steps and bills and initiatives that would need to take place in order for America to actually be great

and to make sure that the richest nation in the world is actually reflected in the people who live in this country. Greg? No, Kelly hit it on the head. I mean, I, for one, don't ever think America will ever be great, not in its current configuration. Its foundation is rotten. But that having been said, it can be better than it is. And Kelly, I think you hit it right on the head.

Like COVID, you know, hunger doesn't know a race. And yes, black and brown children are the most at risk. But let's think about this for a minute. And Kelly, I mean, I can't really, you know, echo enough what you said. The poverty guidelines. a lot of you don't even know. A family of three, $21,960. Where they doing at?

A family of six, $35,500. And anybody over eight, you get $4,540 for that additional hit. Can't nobody, are y'all serious right now? In other words, even, you know, and I agree with you, Recy,

this will probably pass. I mean, you know, now, as you say, Kelly, it's going to be made permanent. Do we need to push, you know, and I agree with Brother Moore. Wes is like, call your senators. Call Tennessee. Shit, Marsha Blackburn out here caping for Neanderthals. So, I mean, let's be very clear.

Just had it as a compliment. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, sure, exactly right. But in them, and I'm from Tennessee, in East Tennessee, in them hills, down in Middle Tennessee, and in West Tennessee, down in Mississippi, you got children who don't have enough to eat who are all colors. And if she don't give a

damn to break her damn political back, if this country's going to be something other than what it is, it's going to take more than black and brown people trying to drag the dead carcass of white nationals across the finish line. Because they, at this point, seem to be poised, they're politicians anyway, to say, we will let you starve, we will let you die,

rather than work in your interest. Some of y'all who don't look like us, you better wake up before you go to sleep forever. Because eating is something we all have to do. And if you put a child in harm's way, then damn it. Forget great. The only question is, if there's a hell below, how many of y'all going to go? Folks, got to go to break.

We come back. Michael Brown, his dad, says Black Lives Matter. Y'all raise 90 million dollars. Y'all should send 20 million of that to the folks in Ferguson. Can't wait to hear my parents to say about that when we come back on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Donald Trump is not done dividing America. He's come out of hiding to find his old friend the spotlight. On Sunday, he took the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, where he lobbed insults, spread conspiracies, and lied. The same things he's done for four years, with no concern for the destruction he leaves behind.

He'll get the attention he craves. After all, even condemning him feeds his insatiable need to be seen. Which is why it's more important than ever to remind ourselves that in November, one thing became clear. America is not Donald Trump. America is the people whose names you may never hear, whose only fame will be among those whose lives they touch, but who are the best of America, all the same. They're doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, the people working tirelessly to get every American vaccinated against COVID-19. They're the disaster relief workers and first responders holding up their Texas neighbors

during the harshest winter the state has ever seen. They're the people who show up, lend a hand, and give a damn when their fellow Americans are in need. Remember them. The lives they lead are the best proof that Trump is a liar. Because America's greatness comes from us, not him. Are you geolocating people through the FBI based on where they were on January 6th? He asked you about the geolocation and metadata aspects and gathering related to gathering of metadata that is related to your investigation

of the January 6th riot. Tell me what you know about this. So it was the FBI accessing cell phone tower metadata from telecommunications companies. Shortly after 2 p.m., as the siege was fully underway, Senator Lee describes it, phone rang, it was Donald Trump. I hope you can understand my concern. Sure, you can appreciate my concern here. Unfiltered. Unfiltered. Russell, Ferguson Frontline Organizer, and on the behalf of many activists in the St. Louis area, I'm joined with Mike Brown Sr., the father of Mike Brown Jr. Today, we hold Black Lives Matter accountable. The movement that has catapulted into the limelight has forgotten about Ferguson and the freedom fighters. Freedom fighters like King D. Seals, Edward Crawford, and Donye Jones

have literally given their lives to the struggle, but have rarely spoken about and families are not taken care of. Brother Ali, Joshua Williams, and many other political prisoners from the Ferguson movement are incarcerated or have been and still has received no assistance from Black Lives Matter. What kind of movement are we building where we're saying Black Lives Matter, but the freedom fighters and the families are being left behind? Where is our restitution? Where is our organizing?

Where is our building of a movement? We have groups like the Lost Voices and the Freedom Fighters here, and thousands of other youth activists in their 20s and 30s have been out in the streets protesting for months and months and years for years, still forgot. We're asking that Black Lives Matter leadership funds $20 million to Ferguson organizers, organizations, and community foundations to do the work. We're not begging for a handout. We're

coming for what we deserve. Today as we demand the 20 million dollars to go to Ferguson as restorative measures so we can continue what we started, here's what we'll be organizing. Annual commemorations around Mike Brown Jr's life, mutual aid programs, Black Panther-style programs and services to meet the needs of the people, community gardens and farms, and also organizing fellowships and stipends so we can fight white supremacy full-time. This is what we started in Ferguson, and this is what we will continue.

This request comes after the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation revealed it received more than $90 million in donations in 2020, mostly after the death of George Floyd. Now, of course, the movement gave national attention following the protests that took place, with, in many ways, a level of energy after Mike Brown. But remember, you also had events taking place before that where you had John Crawford III. It took place in Beaver Creek, Ohio. You had, of course, Eric Garner in New York, previous deaths as well.

This is the question that has to be put out there, Greg. Black Lives Matter Foundation, they've come forward and announced they've got $90 million. How much has the NAACP got? How much has the National Urban League gotten? How much has other black organizations gotten? And now the question is, and this is real.

If if all of these groups we had Derek on and, you know, I've been told the NAACP has gotten in excess of one hundred million dollars. So the question now, so if you let's just say the NAACP got one hundred million and the Urban League got got 100 million and Black Lives Matter got 90 million. That's nearly 300 million dollars that has come in after the death of George Floyd. The point they're raising is, which is a legitimate question, should the local organizations that sparked these protests that made the story go national, what are they owed? Roland, you made a very good point the other day, brother, when you were engaging in the conversation about the nature of relationship between national organizations and local branches or local chapters. This isn't anything new. We made that point with NLB-CP, with the Urban League.

The distinction between those formations and Black Lives Matter is that Black Lives Matter really started as a kind of social media phenomenon. It very quickly pulled into formation long-distance runners, folk who had been involved in movement work, folk who were new to movement work, folk who came in to pose and take pictures and grift off movement work, and the epicenter of Ferguson. And as you said, I mean, we go back to 2014 with Trayvon Martin. The idea then, the impact of social media is now you have formations that didn't begin as formations. When they called the meeting at Cooper's Union in 1909 to form what became the NAACP, black people were in the minority. In fact, they kept Adebayo Wells off of the elite.

And so what you've always had with the NAACP is a tension between local chapters and local branches, college chapters and the national, which has been heavily influenced by corporate donations. And here's where I'm going with this. You see, liberation struggles are not subsidized. And if history has taught us anything, certainly in the previous iteration in the 60s with SNCC, with the Panthers, what you see is that the minute there are huge infusions of cash in clusters, and what was not released last week were the names of the big donors. You're seeing an attempt to influence the direction of a movement. This country is a corporation that uses politics as a shield. When Billie Holiday in the first chapter of her memoir, Lady Sings the Blues, not the first chapter, it's one of the subsequent chapters, when she says,

when it was the United States versus Billie Holiday, she said, I felt like it was the whole United States versus me. Sis, you're right. It is the United States versus black people.

It is the police versus black people. It is state violence. So while they give you some money to try to generate some data and build a network, meanwhile, the killings keep going. Meanwhile, the state is surveilling you.

Meanwhile, you have to worry about where you're going to lay your head at night. So redistributing this money in any way that could actually lead to liberation work might mean the money dries up as SNCC. And that is the devil's balance, that this new formation that's trying to build itself at the same time it's trying to fight is trying to strike. So this isn't anything new at all. If people are trying to pay for your liberation, you're in trouble. You need to crowdsource it. The demand is quite interesting, Kelly, because there were a lot of people who fundraised off of Ferguson have gotten book deals, podcasting deals, speaking deals, have flown all around the world, been the guest of folks in Hollywood and Oscar parties and and all sorts of stuff. But I go back to what do we do about the entities, the people who are still there, who are still on the ground, who are still fighting for change in Ferguson? We were there in St. Louis. You had Tashara Jones, who just took first place in the mayoral election. You got the runoff taking place on April 6th. You have Wesley Bale, who elected DA there, Kim Gardner, and those black folks are catching hell. Trust me,

St. Louis is about to, the white folks in St. Louis is about to really go crazy if you're going to have a black mayor, a black city DA, a black county DA, all of them at the same time. Oh yeah, it's about to be some problems. So what do national organizations owe local organizers? I feel like they owe them everything, especially when it comes to Black Lives Matter. I can't speak on NAACP. I can't speak on the National Urban League because, frankly, the structure of each of those organizations are something in which actually feels like a corporation. So any monies that go into those organizations, it actually is

understandable why they have that influx of cash. No, no, no, but let's remember, the money came in, Kelly, after George Floyd's death. So companies were trying to park it somewhere, but the question still, even for the NAACP, Urban League or any other national group, what do they owe the local people? What do they owe the local organizers in Minneapolis? What do they owe them in Ferguson? What do they owe them in Louisville with Breonna Taylor? I understand that. That's

what I was getting to. So when it comes to National Urban League and NAACP, it is a true organization. So what I'm saying by that, I mean they have lawyers on deck to actually try these cases that come through regarding police brutality, regarding race discrimination and the like. They have a team. When it comes to National Urban League, I see the monies that go out, at least I live in D.C., so I see where that money is going when it comes to National Urban League. I can't tell you exactly where the benefit is coming from regarding Black Lives Matter money. I do not see Black Lives Matter things or initiatives happening in my community. I don't see them happening in the Baltimore community,

which is where I was born and my family still lives. I don't see Black Lives Matter anywhere, but I do see the NAACP, but I do see National Urban League. So when it comes to the 90 million that got to Black Lives Matter, where exactly did it go? Because if you don't have an answer for that, then the then the conclusion that I have to come to, frankly, is that those monies, when you do find them, it needs to go to those families. There should be no reason why Michael Brown's family is in the predicament that they're in scraping for funds to commemorate their son, because there would be no Black Lives Matter

without Michael Brown. There would be no Black Lives Matter without Freddie Gray or Trayvon Martin or anybody that has come since the movement started. So the fact that we are, that Black Lives Matter is in this predicament, frankly, I saw it as a long time coming. I did not think it was nearly as much as $90 million, but I was wondering what they were doing with this money. Because the local chapters don't have it. The regional chapters

don't have it if they have a regional chapter. So national Black Lives Matter movement, I don't even know who the head is really i know who founded it when i go online i see what their policy is what their initiatives are but well we've had patrice but first of all we've had patrice colors on the show uh who is the leader of the global network who'd explain all of that uh but the point that you're raising, Recy, I've heard some NAACP chapters say we ain't seeing the money. So, I mean, again, so, I mean, let's just be real. I'm

talking about, and I've been on the ground. I've been on the ground in multiple states where I've heard folks say, hey, national isn't kicking that money back. I've already heard folks even raising the question. All right. All this money came in. The bottom line is this here. And when I talk about the money, I look at the money from equity indexes, scorecards are being established by these entities. So here's what I mean. If you're Black Lives Matter Global Network and the foundation and money is coming in. And if you're the NAACP and money's coming in and you're the National Urban League and money's coming in and you're the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and lawyers committee and money's coming, money's coming in. I want to know all those organizations looking at the check and saying, OK, you're donating a million dollars.

I need to see the blacks on your board of directors. I need to see who your black senior officers. I need to see what is your supplier development with black businesses. I need to see, are you investing money in black banks? I need to see, are you also spending money on black media? I need to see, are you using black law firms? I need to see, are you using black bond companies? I need to see, are you using black bond companies? I need to see are you using black advertising agencies? See, if you start asking those questions, that million dollars they gave could be paltry compared to the monies that black entities could be receiving by virtue of doing business with the company. I don't know if those questions are being asked and demanded before the checks are being deposited. That's a good point, Roland. I think, you know, the issue, one of the issues that we have is that

we go by what's most popular and it's easier to write a check to a big name, whether, and I have great respect for the NAACP, particularly the legal defense fund, which does amazing work and the urban league and even the black lives matter movement. But I think what the issue is, is to,

is that all this money flows through them. And so they're the middleman or they're cash hoarders. I can't speak on the positions of NAACP and Urban League, but specifically with Black Lives Matter, they have $60 million cash on hand out of the $90 million. So the money is still there, but essentially they don't have the protocols in place. They don't have the criteria in place to really distribute that money in a timely manner. And maybe perhaps they're concerned about it drying up and they don't want to make promises and things of that nature. But the bottom line is that I make this point about, you know, validating black outlets, black creators, black businesses,

is that we have to sometimes ourselves shy, think beyond the big names and actually look at what's happening in our local communities. And sometimes we have a mistrust of our local community organizations, you know, because we feel like if they're not big enough, then they're not credible or that they're not doing the work. And we want to see, you know, an organization that has image awards

and has, you know, galas and has all these other things that make us feel like, oh, they're legitimate and they're major. And so I think that one of the things that we can do as individuals who want to see change is actually funnel our own money into these local organizations.

It's not going to make headlines, not going to make national headlines, but it can actually impact your community. And what the NAACP, the Black Lives Matter movement, all those other places can do is actually vet these organizations. The NAACP has extensive number of chapters, far more than Black Lives Matter does, but actually funnel that money to local organizations. The NAACP has an extensive number of chapters, far more than Black Lives Matter does, but actually funnel that money to local organizations. It's the same thing that we

saw during the 2020 election, where local voting rights and voting activists and community organizations were galvanizing people, and we saw the results of that in Georgia. And so I think that we have to shift the way that we look at philanthropy, the shift, whether we look at activism, shift the way that we look at how our money is being spent and actually do the research ourselves instead of just writing a check to a big name organization. Or in some cases, people create their own organizations that have high overhead that don't, like you said, don't recycle black dollars and nothing is getting solved. $300 million can go a long way, but if you're only funneling that money to the big name organizations and the food bank down the street, or the people who take, you know, uh, that provide, um, you know, relief to people in their community, they get asked out like the Michael, like Michael Brown is saying, I don't know where $20 million comes from.

But, you know, to their point, the local people, the people that are doing the work, if they get shut out, that's a problem. So if you can't spend the money, then get the money to the organizations that can. The last thing I'll say is this is something that they did particularly with the immigration aspect when there was the child separation that was happening, where you had the immigrant activist organizations where they said, okay, we have too much money. These are other organizations that you should be sending the money to at this point. And so sometimes organizations have to say, hey, time out. Don't just donate to us. Donate to these organizations. If it's a Minneapolis thing, go talk to the Minneapolis bail fund or whatever the situation may be and try to not necessarily hoard all the money themselves.

This is also for people who don't even understand, who have no understanding of history. Greg, this is not new. The reality is Ella Baker was a huge critic of national entities coming into cities, sucking up the media attention, coming in, raising money, and then taking that money out. Now, DeKing was very cognizant of that. April 3rd, 1968, at that speech at Mason Temple, the mountaintop speech, he talked about the SCLC opening a bank account with a black bank there in Memphis. Folks were being very deliberate with that. What I hear from Michael Brown's dad and this organization is we are here doing the work. We are starving in order to mobilize and organize our people to actually affect change.

Yet all of y'all others came in and raised money off of us. And none of that money ever came back to our community. Right. Well, Roland, you're right. I mean, I'm glad you raised the name of Ella Baker in that regard. You know, it's funny. I was just reading a book, small book that was published by the congregation at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Dr. King, in that call, you know, he has direct experience with that. During the Montgomery bus boycott, as they were raising money literally from pennies to dollars from black communities and others all over the country, every time they would get money in Montgomery, they put that, they distributed that money across 10 black banks in the country. That allowed them to buy a fleet of cars. That allowed them to pay for repairs for those cars. That allowed them to

pay for fines as the Montgomery police tried to put them out of business by fining the taxis for not paying the fare, whatever. In other words, it was, and Recy's point is the point we really have to really consider, I think, and you're making the same point. When each gives a little from what we have, we don't have to do a lot. No individual has to do a whole lot. That is the philosophy if you're talking about a liberation struggle. We live in a capitalist society. The black, the tiny black elite, the tiny black upper class has benefited from the black movements that have taken place in this country. But in a capitalist structure,

it is created in a way to engender this aspiration to become a member of that tiny group, not realizing that there's a cap on that number of people that can be in that class in a capitalist system. So when you're dealing with the poor, when you're dealing with folks out on the streets of Ferguson, these corporations, these big donors are given money, but the money will then go to reinforce the structure of civil and human rights work, the template for which is set by the political economy of the country. So then what you're going to see is these emerging institutions will look like the legacy institutions.

They'll have directors. They'll have secretaries. They'll have offices. They'll be paying rent in buildings they don't own. They'll be flying in car and staying in hotels they don't own. And in other words, and they'll be pushing for policy, incremental policy change. And if they do go out and hire black folk, if these corporations hire, it'll be individuals. It's the same kind of model that creates the slim, well, not slim possibility.

What Randall Robinson critiqued in his memoir when he was talking about the late Vernon Jordan, our new ancestor. He called it Vernon Jordan syndrome. Because remember, Vernon Jordan left the Urban League and went into private practice and said famously, I ain't no civil rights leader. In other words, when you have individuals make advancement as a result of group movement, you're not going to see in the society those who are at the top, because that ain't the black middle class, who are hanging on this precarious perch by their fingernails. You're going to see in the society those who are at the top, because that ain't the black middle class, who are hanging on this precarious perch by their fingernails. You're going to see those at the top top. They're going to invest in keeping that system going. They may let a few Negroes in, but them people on the streets of Ferguson?

Hell no. That's why the police attack them. The only choice, well, I won't say the only choice, the best strategy we have, as Recy just said, every one of us needs to do and follow the model that you're building here with Roland Martin and Filter. Everybody put something on it. And if anything comes from other places on top of that, let's work so that that's gravy. Because, see, the minute they do that, as the great Lauryn Hill once said, funny how money change a situation. They're investing. They're not donating. Recy's right.

We've got to rethink this notion of philanthropy. of the race index because what it does is it forces the true change in these companies and it doesn't give them the out when they come with a few dollars uh and and that's to me and again that's how the thinking has to be different, because what we have to realize is that when an individual or an entity, a corporation decides to make that donation, they're doing it for a reason. They are those who are doing it for the purpose of generating positive attention. They're those who are doing it, uh, to be able to say they're associated, uh, with someone, but we have to not be as so desperate for the check to go, hold up one second. Let's have a broader conversation about your company and what it is that you're doing.

See, we were discussing the other day Walter Gere's criticism with regards to AdC color and them hiring a company with Drago. I got an email from them, from the folks with them, and they said that, no, they didn't hire them. He had his facts wrong. That wasn't the case. But I asked the same question when organizations hand out diversity awards. And we're living right now in a time where everything is D.I. D.I. D.I. D.I. D.I. D.I. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, D.I. And I go, well, who's actually benefiting other than the other than the person y'all hired?

See, I think our. Demands have to be far deeper. And bring a much different level of accountability. I go back to, and y'all keep hearing me talk about it, I go back to Operation Breadbasket. They did not, starting with Reverend Leon Sullivan in Philadelphia, going to SCLC, moving to Chicago, they didn't go to companies and say, hire black people. They didn't go to companies and say, well, donate to our cause. No, they approached them in a vertical and a horizontal way. They said, we want to see people here, here, here, here, here, here.

Money going here, here, here. To me, the power of organization is when a company comes with a check and you say, thanks for the check, but let's talk about some other stuff. Say a company. What partnership do you have in any way with your nearest HBCU? Good question. If there's no HBCU that's in your city or in your state, okay, what partnerships do you have with your predominantly black high

schools to drive folks to two-year, four-year institutions? See, this is where, to me, because to Reese's point and to Greg's point about. If the power of the organization drives value to the black law firm, the black accounting firm, the black engineering firm, the black architecture firm, the black bond company, the black ad agency, black owned media and all the black you now are creating not a million dollar check but you're now creating five eight ten twenty thirty fifty million dollars in business and so now those very black institutions can in turn give a check to the NAACP give a check to the NAACP. Give a check to the National Urban League, which then makes it where you don't have to depend on the corporate support. You're depending on your people funding you

so you have the freedom to make those very demands. That's right. And that makes perfect sense. But at the same time, that is a very forward-thinking, in-the-future perspective. No, it's not. It's right now. It's not in the future.

For BLM, it is in the future because right now they have $90 million and they're not giving it to people who are on the ground. No, no, no, no, no. It's not forward. It's right now. While we were having this conversation, Kelly, I literally sent a text to one of the Black Lives Matter people. And I specifically said, hey, is BLM establishing a race equity index for those corporations giving them money? The response was, hmm, let me check. That's what I know of. After this show, I'm going to be on the phone with him.

See, I'm not waiting for the future. What I'm asking, what I'm saying right now, I'm going to send the very same same text to Derek Johnson of the NAACP and to Mark state branches, local chapters, same thing. What I'm saying is this should be modus operandi for any black institution. be able to say, I stand with the Freemasons, I stand with East of the Star, I stand with the Alphas, do you have a race index that is 360 degrees supporting a black? If not, you can't stand with us. And that makes perfect sense. And I agree with you. But even though you just sent that text

message out right now, right now, that is not the case. That's what I mean by in the future. It will happen. But right now, it's not. Right. So right now, right now, that is not the case. That's what I mean by in the future. It will happen, but right now it's not. So right now they have $90 million and right now Michael Ferguson's family is asking for $20 million because the $90 million that BLM has is due in part because of the work that the Ferguson family put in on the ground when their son died. It is due in part to the people who were killed by police after Michael Ferguson. I'm not talking about police brutality.

I'm talking about the people found in their cars burnt up down in Ferguson, Missouri. You know, it's due in part to those things. So right now, I would say that they need this $20 million. Right now, I would say whatever's going on with BLM, until they get that race index that you talked about, which they absolutely need, they need to give the money that they have right now to these local chapters, to the family of Michael Ferguson, to the family of Michael Brown, to the family of George Floyd and Trayvon Martin and the like, because it appears to me right now that those families, that those organizations associated with those families are actually doing more work on the ground than BLM and their 90 million dollars. Well, I think it's important, as you say, Kelly, I mean, OK, one thing is the network doesn't have the infrastructure. So part of it is is building the infrastructure. And that was, for example, one of the key actually building that on the fly. They're literally building on the fly. No question about it. Which which is one of which was one of the great values of having an eligible Baker who had deep experience with the civil rights organizations stand between the Interblade CP,

between Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the young people of SNCC to help them see how to do that. Now, if you look at Black Futures Lab, Alicia Garza, who's not in the other information. That type of research-based, driven model is there. But the challenge is, and I think, Kelly, you hit it right on the head you know if they want and you know i've been listening to i know some of the people in black lives matter dc blm philly uh some of the places saying we're not getting this money one of the excuses that has been offered is well if you all don't have bank accounts if you don't have the infrastructure then we can't do the transfers. We've got these grants of up to half a million dollars or $50,000. But here's the problem. The movement is not based on an infrastructure like that.

No, it's not. These young people out here at BLMDC who are taking on gentrification, who are out here putting themselves in harm's way, who are really interacting with and dealing with our people who are food insecure and housing insecure. They haven't set up a place for the transfer, and that really speaks to the fundamental problem we have here. See, Roland, what you're talking about is developing a model that has existed in previous generations, but this was the genius in some ways of Whitney Young, which is what made his loss so tragic in the

Urban League formation. Whitney Young would ask those kind of questions, but he wasn't a civil rights leader in the mold of a Dorothy Hite who had an independent base with the black women. He wasn't the same model as Sturdy Carmichael or John Lewis and the SNCC formation,

James Foreman and them. He was part of that, but his job was to ask those kinds of questions, which leads me finally to the question, how is BLM, how are any of our organizations operating? I know there's a Leadership Council of Civil Rights. I know there are formations that come together, but how are these organizations interfacing with each other so that everybody doesn't have to play every role and we can advance together?

That's a very good point. I don't know that we'll ever get over the class tensions that some kind of coalition like that would unearth because, quite frankly, since the end of legal segregation, the common objective has fractured. Rishi, go ahead. Yeah fractured. Quite absolutely. Rishi, go ahead. Yeah, so many excellent points. I think that there's a two-pronged thing. They're not mutually exclusive. I think what Roland is talking about with the racial equity index is you give me a check

and I don't just say thank you, I hold you accountable. And that's the opening part of a conversation. It's not the end part of the conversation. So I think there's that aspect. And then there's the aspect of, okay, once you get that check, what are you doing with it? And that's where the infrastructure comes in. And I think that to Dr. Carr's point about that class tension is just my perception. But a lot of times when you have the movement, right, you have the activists, you have the people who really are every day putting their life on the line. And there seems to be sometimes, my perception again, there's this adversarialness between like a corporate person.

To Roland's point, you've got to have an accountant. You have to have lawyers. You have to have people that have the skills to implement that infrastructure. And so many times there's this purity test where it seems like we're on opposite ends instead of looking at, well, listen, maybe I don't have all of the talking points. Maybe I don't have the rah-rah, get out on the street, put my body on the line spirit that you do. But I do have the knowledge and skills to make this infrastructure work so that you can actually implement these goals and be impactful and find a way and find a manner in which you can distribute to the community. And so part of the things that has to happen is we have

to resolve that class tension. We have to resolve these litmus tests, these purity tests that alienate people who actually can help in their own way. And so everybody's not going to be an activist. I'm not, I, people, I hate when people call me activist because I'm like, I think that's an overstatement. I don't think that I deserve that title, but I have a lot of skills. I'm a financial manager. I have a lot of things that I can contribute to the, to the situation as well. So that's where we have to find a role for everybody within these organizations and stop having this adversarial approach towards each other. We have to use, when you have the organization,

Black people who have the skills in each of those roles and let everybody play their position. And I think that's a big part of the problem, too, is that, to your point again, Dr. Carr, people are trying to play every position in the role, and you can't physically do it. And so to what Kelly is saying, you don't have the infrastructure.

You need the infrastructure, because then you've got to figure out a way to explain $90 million to people. Well, my thing is, if you don't have the infrastructure, but my biggest problem is, if you don't have the infrastructure, why are you accepting $90 million? Well, so let me unpack that.

Because I do think I think we've got to understand what's going on here. And that is this here. What Black Lives Matter is doing right now, folks now is no different from the progressive national baptist convention when dr king and others were in the national baptist convention usa there was a scuffle on the podium king wasn't there's right. Where a preacher was knocked down, fell off the podium, hit his head, and he died. Yes. They were kicked out of the National Baptist Convention USA

and they went and established what is now the PNBC, the Progressive National Baptist Convention. What did that mean? That meant they needed an office. They needed a phone line. They needed lights turned on.

They needed a bank account. They needed corporate papers. They had to literally create an entity on the fly in the midst of activism. But then, brother, where was the money coming from?

And that's my point. Hold on, hold on, hold on. I'm not done yet. I'm not done yet. Okay, my bad. Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Same thing. As CEO sees money

came from labor unions. Walter Ruther and others. But also the donations of black people. Right. Now, here's the fundamental issue that, again, I understand the criticism of BLM, but I also understand BLM. BLM did not start as an organization. Right. It started as a hashtag. Yes, it did.

They tried to even because Black Lives Matter was already phrase, because it was a perfect, all encompassing phrase. Then it was like, well, damn. People are asking us to do stuff, do this, do that. Now we have to create something to meet the demand of the very people because the people were saying, no, no, no, no. We tried to align with the NAACP, the Urban League, National Action Network, Rainbow Push. We want something separate. So what they did was do actually something that you never do. You don't create a national entity after branches were already established. Normally it's branch branches,

state region, national BLM is actually the inverse brand. No, actually even the inverse is branches national. Some branches tied to them, some not. So you have, you have BLM branches that are actually not even affiliated with the national, because imagine having a NAACP chapters that are literally called NAACP

chapters, not with NAACP. So you now are different from a branding standpoint. You now dealing with people saying BLMs did this. And they like that ain't us, but because they have the name BLm it's all a compliment so you're so so you're dealing with people who are not so you're trying to like how can i catch up so i'm gonna give the blm organizers some leeway and trying to construct because let me also say this here, there were a lot of black activists, young black activists, who shitted on the NAACP and the Urban League, them old ass groups. And you know what happened after Trayvon Martin? You know what happened after the protest when Obama was there?

The same people who like, we ain't got we we got uh uh leaderless organizations they realize the value of infrastructure and that's my point so now they're scrambling now it's like they're trying to catch up and it's it is absolutely hard to try to build a building and work in the same building when you're trying to build it it's damn near impossible and so that's at the struggle that's going on so that's why when patrice colors was on and when she was trying to and i was like okay i'm trying to understand what's the foundation what's the global network what's this and i was sitting like okay patrice i really don't know what the hell you're talking about because they are trying to literally create an infrastructure with a runaway train and that's hard as hell y'all go ahead yeah and i i completely understand that and i am all

forgiving black lives matters great because like said, it is a daunting task, a seemingly impossible task. But my point is not only is it possible, it actually needs to be done. And frankly, how much grace are we going to give BLM? Because it's been at least four years. That's what it has.

No, it hasn't. No, it hasn't. That's what I'm trying to explain to you. It hasn't. The problem it hasn't. No, it hasn't. And so I'm trying to explain to you, it hasn't. The problem that they've been having is they have been this. It hasn't been how you truly start an organization. And so I understand that. And so here's the deal. I understand that point. Here's the deal. First of all, I'm not in the organization. So I don't have to get out so I don't have a dog in the hunt.

No, and I get that, too. What I do see happening is they are grappling with how do you harness this thing, create hierarchy, because this is one of the problems, Greg, because all these books you've got behind you, I want you to speak to this. I don't care what you say. Y'all can go with that leaderless stuff all y'all want to. You can't

show me any organization that doesn't have hierarchy. And their struggle, in my opinion, has been because they want to make group decisions. You can't make group decisions. You gotta have

people in charge of fundraising, membership, public policy, boards. You gotta have leadership, and they're trying to do this thing leaderless. And that's a little hard, and they've learned that. So what happened? When Patrice made

herself head of the organization, people were like, what are you doing? Why'd you do that? Because somebody had to be the leader. So I see what's going on and I see why people are frustrated. But this is just pure y'all organization building. It's the growing pains. And guess what no black organization has ever had 90 million dollars from at at in at the outset and now you're trying to figure out what the hell do we even do that's what's going on here and i get it greg go ahead no i'm gonna say that's a problem roland you're right what you

just described i mean you know when you, when you mentioned the Baptist Convention and the Progressive National Baptist, it's funny, man, because I went down a rabbit hole the other night. I started reading a collection of essays by Louis Clayton Jones, who was a lawyer, very important civil rights figure. But his brother was William Augustus Jones, who, as you know, followed King out and was one of the founders of the Progressive National Baptist. And it was the pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in New York. And I raise that because, you know, as many times as I, as a 15-year-old, my grass-cutting money gave up 10 percent when the man got up in the pool pit and asked, will a man rob God? We understand that even with the split, they had a steady source

of income from the churches where people paid their tithes. Now, why is that important? Individuals don't beat institutions. So when you're trying to build an institution around a concept or an idea or a feeling or a protest or a general strike against the social order, unlike the black church, which was the foundation for so much of what we've been able to push forward. And I'm not saying the black church exclusively, because what you mentioned, for example, in terms of faith-based organizations, for example, you see a fracturing among the Muslims. Remember when Father Allah or Clarence 13X, leaves, and then you have the nations of gods and earths came out of the nation of Islam.

You got Silas Muhammad. They still selling Muhammad Speaks because they have the right to have that because they were able to trademark it, and the nation of Islam has the final call because they can't even use the name after Elijah Muhammad died in 75, so on and so on. But if you say Muslims, black, even the Sunni or Shia Muslims, people think you're talking about the nation of Islam. No, no, no, no, no.

Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. I need you to go back right there, because I think some people just missed what you said. When the nation of Islam, when Elijah Muhammad dies, and his sons take them into a mainstream Islamic organization, when Farrakhan says, I want to rebuild the nation, he couldn't just do it. There were things he could not say and do. Legally, that's right.

That's why they have to sell the final call. That's why it's not called Muhammad Speaks. He didn't own the call. In fact, what do they call it in the nation, Roland? What do they call it? The second, the resurrection, or I'll get the phrase. Anyway, I'm saying all this to say the point you're making is very critical. If you're trying to build an organization around a concept, but you have no pre-existing infrastructure, that's a setup to begin with. And you almost got to do it very incrementally, as you said, from the grassroots up. But then here come these people who have an investment. What's their investment? They want the social order to continue and they want to be to have it as smooth as possible. They come in and write you a big ass check.

That could be a recipe for chaos. Right. You know what I'm saying? Anyway, I'll stop there because what you're really doing, Roland, is trying to help people think through how they can do something that literally hasn't been done before, not to my knowledge in this country. And Kelly, that's why the difference between BLM and Color of Change is Color of Change doesn't accept any corporate donations, but they also were structured from the beginning like an organization.

So when they grew, you didn't have all this drama. Go ahead. No, I completely agree with the points being made right now. I don't want to come off as if I disagree with you, Roland, or anybody. No, no one's disagreeing. We're just walking through a set of facts because a lot of people really have no idea what the hell we're talking about. There are a lot of people out there who just say stuff, who have no who don't even understand how it started, how it's constructed. They don't even realize that there were three founders of Black Lives Matter and two of them are not with the group.

Alicia Garza has a separate organization. Opo is not there. Patrice Cullors is only of the last of the three original who's actually leading the organization. Most folks don't even understand that. Alicia Garza still gets jammed up about Black Lives Matter. She's like, y'all, I'm just going back to the point of the Ferguson and the Brown family wants $20 million from BLM because they have not seen basically the fruit of their labor since 2014. And when you go on BlackLivesMatter.com, their about page is centered on ferguson missouri and michael brown so the fact that the brown family has not received anything of significant weight from this movement from this now foundation i don't care how long or short it has been since the formation of they now have 90 million dollars because of this family, because of the

boots on the ground people in Ferguson, Missouri. But that's not true. That's not true. The 90 million is because George Floyd got killed. Look, the bulk of the money, Kelly, is not true. That's what I'm trying to, the point I'm trying to make,

and this is the struggle. This is the struggle, and I totally get Mike Brown. Because here's the piece. When Mike Brown lays out, Ferguson and Mike Brown's killing took the movement to another level. But do you ignore John Crawford III? Do you ignore that activism?

Do you ignore the activism around Eric Garner, which happened a month before Michael Brown? So, but the bulk of the money came in because of the death of George Floyd. So the question which I threw out originally was, OK, do you give the money to Mike Brown, 20 million in Ferguson? When really the money is because the death of George Floyd, what responsibility do they have to give to the local groups? And that's and that's how I started this whole deal. But the money didn't come in because of Mike Brown. Some may have come at that particular point and there was money that was raised then, but the bulk of the 90 is because of George Floyd. Interesting. So what do we do now? It happened in the past year. I think, I think that,

I think that the thing about it is like with, with the Ferguson argument, I get the argument that, Hey, we've been on the front lines and we are activists and we have, you know, had our blood, sweat and tears on this. That's almost like a reparations type of argument in terms of like a restorative justice. Hey, you know, give us a piece of the pie. I think if you say like what they're saying, but they're not saying that per se. They're also saying that, well, we're going to do all these at these things with the money. OK, well, then how do you, Michael Brown's organization, spend $20 million? Because Black Lives Matter hasn't been able to spend $90 million.

They still have $60 million left over, $30 million they've given away to various causes, local chapters, et cetera, et cetera. So the question is not just a matter of who deserves what, but it's what are you going to do with the money? And that was what my original point was, is instead of always looking at the national, the big name organizations, we can make that decision ourselves to donate to local causes. They're not as attractive because they don't have the big names and you don't get to necessarily have a hashtag that's going to go viral, but they are doing the work. And for these national organizations, if you have a situation where you have an influx of cash, like what happened after the George Floyd death, then you have some sort of system in place to how you distribute that money, not just amongst

Black Lives Matter chapters, which there are chapters that are complaining about not getting any money from the national organization because the national organization has criteria for them, but all kinds of organizations that are credible organizations that are already on the ground doing the work. That is a way of actually making sure that everybody wins. It's recycling dollars. It's putting money back into the communities. But even still, $60 million is not going to solve all the problems of Black America. Neither is $300 million. But there has to be some sort of system when you do have these massive influxes of cash and you don't have the way of scaling up quickly enough to do something with it. You don't have an infrastructure to do something with it.

Then my proposal would be, well, at least put in the research and the efforts to identify local organizations, Black Lives Matter or not, to give the money to and let them do something. And I can tell you all three of y'all when and after we got to Breonna Taylor, there were individuals in Louisville who were complaining about

Until Freedom. Oh, sure. But then Until Freedom was telling people what local groups to support uh i i know some activists in louisville felt one of one other activists was used some money to buy a suv and damn it ran out of town see so so, so what I'm laying out here is this is this conundrum. When you have one of these incidents and someone is killed and fundraising takes off, local groups, look, I'm vice president digital for the National Association of Black Journalists. We got local chapters who complain when we have the national convention in a city and say we ain't getting none of that money. Right. So so I can take you through numerous national organizations where chapters complain.

Y'all not helping us. The problem here, which is what Reese alluded to. Kelly spoke of as well that the problem here is. You have already established entities that have infrastructure that are able to accept donations. I can tell you what. Oh, man, I can't remember the brother's name. Oh, man. Jaziri X. Oh, yeah. Sure.

Pittsburgh. We were doing. I said, all right, I'm going to pick an organization to push on social media to give. I chose Jaziri X. He had no donate button on his website. And I was like, Jaziri, you're doing some great stuff. Bruh, how do we give? You need a donate button there were a lot of entities

that had no way of giving money because they did not have infrastructure so this thing is I mean it becomes you know a catch 22 cause like we got infrastructure we don't what do we do?

And to Reese's point, that's a great point, how did Mike Brown and the folks there arrive at $20 million? Like, where did that number come from? And what are you going to do with $20 million? Now, what if BLM comes in and says, we're going to give a million dollars to local organizers in Ferguson? Are folks going to reject it or accept it? Accept.

I just think that this is a function of what happens when people reject established organizations, which that's their right, but if you don't create that thing the right way when you launch it, these are the headaches you're going to have. It's true. These are the headaches you're going to have.

Can I say one more thing, too? Final comment from each one of you before I go to break. Go. Okay, yeah, I was looking at the comments in Facebook, and again, it goes back to what Dr. Carr said about this class tension. Somebody, for some strange reason, interpreted my comment to say that

I don't want to be an activist. What I stated was I'm not an activist but I can contribute to the cause as a person who has skills such as project management, financial management, accounting. You're not defining yourself as an activist. That's all you're saying.

You're like, that's not how I'm defining myself. Right, but my point is this all goes, all of this stuff plays together. You can't have an infrastructure without people who have the skills to execute it. In my line of profession, I'm not a rocket scientist, but the rocket scientists need me to execute their program. And it's the same thing when it comes to activism.

If you're going to accept money, if you're just out there marching on the streets and you're not a part of any affiliate, you're not affiliated and you're not getting money, more power to you. But when you have a $90 million organization, you need infrastructure. And so my whole point,

which I just want to reiterate again, is when it comes to the infrastructure, then that's when you pull in other, to your point, Roland, Black people who have the skills, the law skills, the accounting skills, et cetera. You got to take some of the class tension out, take some of the purity politics out of it, and seek those people out. Because what ends up happening is when they do finally scale up, a lot of times they don't look at us. They look at the white folks or somebody else. They feel like they're more established or they're more credible. So we have the ability within our communities to build the infrastructure. It might not be with all the

slogans and all of the purity politics, but seek those people out and marry that together. And then you can actually do something with the money that you're getting instead of having to sit there and account. And then everybody's pissed off at you. That's right. That's right. That's right. I would just, I would just say, I agree with you, Recy. Everybody has skills. They can contribute. And the only way we're going to advance collectively is to do it in collective formation networks. Call on people who have these skills. One of the reasons that the federal government decided that the Black Panthers were the greatest threat to American national security was because they were organizing from the ground up.

The liberation schools, the free breakfast programs, the health clinics, and they were organizing from the ground up. The liberation schools, the free breakfast programs, the health clinics, and they were calling on folks who had expertise. You didn't have to be a Panther to give somebody checkup. Read Robin Spencer's work on the Black Panthers and their medical, you know what I'm saying? But you wanted to lend your skills. Jeffrey Haas, who was the white dude

who took the state of Illinois and Chicago and the feds to court on the murder of Fred Hampton. You know, they created the People's Law Center because the Panthers approached them in coalition with the Young Lords, with the Young Patriots, and said, look, we need lawyers. So, I mean, it's important to understand, without coalition, we're not going to be able to advance. And finally, what we saw in Ferguson, maybe one of the reasons they're calling for $20 million is because, yes, this money isn't here because of Ferguson directly,

but the catchment that kind of accrued over the last year during we've had this pandemic is a direct result of the fear from everybody from government to corporate America that there was about to be a purebred revolution in this country, so they threw some money to stop it. One of the reasons

they may be holding on to the money is they don't know if they're going to get another windfall like this. And one of the reasons Ferguson folk are saying we want 20 million is because it is the momentum over the arc of this movement, this unbroken momentum that created the concept for

these people to throw some money at. This is going to have to be worked out in some behind the scenes discussions, and everybody has a role to play. We just got to know, as at. This is going to have to be worked out in some behind the scenes discussions. And everybody has a role to play. We just got to know how to, as Reese said, we got to know where we can get in to fit in. That's all. Kelly.

Exactly. I agree with everyone on the panel. Like I said, once again, I don't have an issue with, with anything that anyone has said. I don't even have any issues with the comments that are coming in saying that I don't know what I'm talking about. I do.

But what I will say is that regardless of where the money came from, BLM would not have been in a position to receive it at all had it not been for the people in Ferguson. So the fact that they are asking for anything at this point, the fact that they have are asking for anything at this point, the fact that they have to ask for anything at this point, when frankly, Ferguson and the Michael Brown family is on their

page front and center as basically a selling point to donate. The fact that they do not receive anything, at least that's my understanding from what I've seen thus far, they do not receive anything, at least that's my understanding from what I've seen thus far, they do not receive anything significant from BLM. That is insulting. And it is a disgrace to not only the movement as a whole, but to the Brown family, because their son died and they reached out for help. BLM comes through, you know, and we have this entire movement spurred from the pain of one family. And they are still struggling to keep their son's memory alive, even though BLM is frankly now profiting off of it. Even though the $90 million came from George Floyd, they profited off of the Brown family. Where on their website are they doing that?

Where? This is the site right here. It's literally the About page on BlackLivesMatter.com under her story. Gotcha. Under the About page, under her story. In 2014, Mike Brown was murdered by Ferguson police. It was a guttural response to be with our people, our family,

in support of the brave and courageous community of Ferguson and St. Louis as they were being brutalized by law enforcement, etc., etc. But you also, you skipped over the top. This was the top. I'm not skipping over the top. No, no, hold on.

Wait, wait, wait, but hold up. I'm reading the top right now, Kelly. This is how it began. In 2013, three radical black organizers, go to my Alicia Garza, Patrice Cullors, and Opal Tometi, created a black-centered political... Hold up. A black-centered political will and movement building project

called Black Lives Matter. It was in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin's murderer, George Zimmerman. So here's the question. Does the Trayvon Martin family and the organizers in Sanford, Florida, and Orlando, should they get some money? All of it? No, but they absolutely should be getting something. Right. No, no, no. No, no. Here's what I'm saying.

I'm saying is I'm reading the body of the article and I do see where it mentions what took place with with Mike Brown. But it also mentions Tamir Scott, Tanisha Anderson, Maya Hall, Walter Scott, Sandra Bland. Then it goes into what took place in Ferguson with Mike Brown. And so it has all of that. And so the point that I am making,

now yes, the last paragraph, it says, the Black Lives Matter global network would not be recognized worldwide if it weren't for the folks in St. Louis and Ferguson who put their bodies on the line day in, day out, and who continue to show up for Black Lives. So,

what you just brought up raises the point that I brought up from the beginning. When we talk about supporting organizations, if we start going back to, well, like, what kicked off, like like what began something, I say it point blank.

At the Ferguson protests took what was happening to another level. But it started with this hashtag started with Trayvon Martin. Then after the death of Trayvon Martin, there were other cases that took place. Ayanna Jones in Detroit, Rekia Boyd in Chicago, Eric Garner in New York. So the bigger, the question I'm still asking, which I still think national organizations have to answer, and that is, if you were a national organization and you were fundraising off of these major deaths of black people, what responsibility do you have to local organizers in those cities?

What I'm saying is that I believe there is a responsibility not just for Ferguson, but also for Eric Garner in New York City, also for the black activists in Ohio with John Crawford III, also for the black activists, B-Y-M 100, I think it's B-Y-M 100,

black in Chicago with Rekia Boyd and Ayanna Jones. The biggest question that this brings is how do you stand with local entities who typically kick these things off? Kenosha, are people providing any resources to local activists in Kenosha, Wisconsin? This, to me, is what BLM, the NAACP, and others,

if you are a black group and you have gotten a windfall. Yes, sir. Because of these events. Say this, brother. You, too, should be addressing this question and not just BLM. BLM should be addressing it. And so that is a conundrum that I think folks are in because the local organizers, yes, they are frustrated by saying we still have work to do. Where y'all at? Where are the people? Where are all the people? And when I was in St. Louis, they were like, yo, where are the people who are all here, who made their names off of Ferguson?

Come on, brother. Where are those individuals who have been going to the Aspen Institute, who have been going to, who become fellows at Harvard, and who have been with the United Nations across the world? See, it's a whole bunch of folk. Come on, brother. It's a whole bunch of folk. Not tied to BLM. Unfiltered. Who got some questions they gotta have answer to because they have benefited greatly from ferguson and eric garner and all these other cases and yes george

floyd those are the questions have to be asked and so look we're gonna continue asking them bottom line is we created this platform to have this conversation is a whole bunch of other stories that I was going to get to. We're not getting to. But we've got to be able to put this out there. We've got to be able to have people who want to talk about this. We've got people who have to answer this, because if you are doing things in the public space on behalf of black people, then you have to be accountable to'm going to send an email and a text to Derrick Johnson and Mark Morial and to Sherilyn Ifill, who now leads the Lawyers Committee and also Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. We're going to ask all of them. Are y'all going to release a report on how much you've raised since the death of George Floyd?

And what are your plans for it? To me, that's a legitimate question. Sure. I think it's a legitimate question. And we'll see what their response is. Y'all want to support what we do. Please do so by going to our cash app, PayPal, Venmo, Zelle. Bottom line, folks, again, this is about having conversations. And let's be real clear. We're going to our cash app, PayPal, Venmo, Zelle. Bottom line, folks, again, this is about having

conversations. And let's be real clear. We're going to disagree. We're going to push back. Folks sitting here saying we're going to interrupt. We're going to go back and forth. But what we're going to do is we're going to keep pushing to expand the knowledge base because what I cannot stand, what I cannot stand are our people listening to folk on social media who don't know a damn thing. I got some fool on a YouTube channel named CD don't know nothing. Don't know nobody. Don't know no facts. Can't provide you with no information at all.

Y'all, it's folk over here on Facebook who do the same thing. They just sit here and they just throw stuff out. And you like, you lying. I had some some ignorant woman on Twitter today saying, well, black people lost half of our wealth under a black president. No, the home foreclosure crisis started in 2007. It went buck wild in 2008. Those women, President Bush, were president.

See, people love to just say stuff. And see, the problem we're facing now, and the reason why you got all them crazy white folks on January 6th, because they sit there and they watch Fox News, they watch OAN, they watch OAN. They watch Newsmax. And you know what? It's some of y'all who listen to some black folk who they ain't journalists. They don't deal in fact. They throw all kind of stuff out. Then they want you to send them money because they, oh, they speaking truth. It's a lot of us. And you've got to understand,

it's people out here who love to get over on black folks. Oh, they can turn a phrase. They can speak. In many ways, we fall for rhetorical flourishes. Folk, we deal in truth and fact. And if we don't know something, we're going to find the truth. If we don't know something, we deal in truth and fact. And if we

don't know something, we're going to find the truth. If we don't know something, we're going to call somebody. What we're not going to do is keep having our people walk around clueless about what's going on. We want to give you the truth about what's happening in this country. And

sometimes it's going to be painful when we talk about our own people. And if we step on toes, and sometimes it's going to be painful when we talk about our own people, and if we step on toes, deal with it. Because that's what we're supposed to do. I have a very simple philosophy. If you do good, I'll talk about you. If you do bad, I'll talk about you. At the end of the day, I'm going to talk about you.

That's the only way I've operated my entire career. Folks, if y'all want to support us on Cash App, download us at RMUnfiltered. PayPal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered. Venmo.com is forward slash rmunfiltered. You also have us, Zell at rollingnessmartin.com. Please support what we do. Your dollar's goals to make all of this possible,

to allow us to do this broadcast. We've got some amazing things that we're doing. We are looking at moving into a new space. Y'all, the plans that we have, creating different sets, that's all happening as we speak. That's going to be, you know, we're paying right now more than $7,000. It's going to cost us $15,500 a month in our new space, but it's going to give us an opportunity to be able to have multiple looks to do multiple different things build out a much larger and stronger control room

for us to be able to increase uh what we're doing so that's what we're working on right now also giving y'all an update i told you we spent 153 700 building out our ott platform uh those apps are being built as we speak. The site is being built as we speak. All those things are happening. And so we are building right now, building this thing. And I cannot wait to give you what our 2.0 is going to look like, what that next step is.

I would show y'all right now, but I can't do that. I can't. I got to resist. I got to resist the temptation to show you what we have planned. Let me shout out Abdul Waheed Muhammad, Al Bougie, Brian Conaway, Bridget Washington, Christine Rickett. Everybody who gives $50 or more gets a personal shout-out from me, on Roller Mark Unfiltered.

Corey Evans, Karani Crocker-Bay, Dana Holiday, Denise Phillips, Effie Coley, Henry Williams, Jacqueline Forts, Jay Gamble, Jeffrey Scribner, Jonathan Walker, Judy Baptiste, Carrie Ann Dawkins, Thank you all so very much for supporting us. I certainly appreciate it. And I'll see you guys tomorrow. Don't forget tomorrow, my one-hour interview with Wesley Bale, the brother who was elected DA in St. it. And I'll see you guys tomorrow. Don't forget tomorrow, my one-hour interview with Wesley Bell, the brother who was elected DA in St. Louis.

You don't want to miss that. Kim Gardner, who is at Wesley Bell, is the county DA. Kim Gardner is the city DA. I have my conversation with her the following week. Y'all, we always keep it real. And Erica, we miss you on today's show. Erica couldn't be with us.

Normally got our normal panel of Rey, Greg, and Erica. Kelly, thanks for stepping in for Erica. And I was going to mess with y'all. We got knee deep in this here. But John P. Key and all y'all out there complaining about sugar on grits, I'm going to deal with y'all another day. Letting y'all know. I got to go. Ha!

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