#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Howard University Poor Living Conditions; Dads on Duty; Biden's Build Back Agenda

Episode Date: October 26, 2021

10.25.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: The students at one of the most prestigious HBCU's are protesting living conditions and lack of voice. Students have taken to sleeping outside to get the administration's attention to address what they are calling "poor" and "unlivable" conditions in the college dormitories. It's something we've all thought happened; now, organizers of the January 6 insurrection are confirming several top Republicans helped them plan the violent attack. President Biden highlights how his domestic policy agenda would benefit Americans as Democrats try to reach a deal on the president's social spending and climate package. Jury selection for the trial of the three white men charged with chasing and killing Ahmaud Arbery enters into its second week. A former Georgia prosecutor will explain why it's taking so long to seat this jury. Some Louisiana fathers saw a need and jumped into action. We'll have the founders of Dads on Duty, the fathers who intervened after violence spikes at Louisiana high school. In our Live Fit Win segment, Gym Jonez will take on "the miseducation of the Black diet" by giving us three principles we can integrate into the Black culture without putting ourselves at risk of diabetes and high blood pressure. #RolandMartinUnfiltered partners:Nissan | Check out the ALL NEW 2022 Nissan Frontier! As Efficient As It Is Powerful! 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3FqR7bPAmazon | Get 2-hour grocery delivery, set up you Amazon Day deliveries, watch Amazon Originals with Prime Video and save up to 80% on meds with Amazon Prime 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3ArwxEh+ Don’t miss Epic Daily Deals that rival Black Friday blockbuster sales 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3iP9zkvBuick | It's ALL about you! The 2022 Envision has more than enough style, power and technology to make every day an occasion. 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3iJ6ouPSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfilteredDownload the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com#RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Today is Monday, October 25th, 2021. Coming up, a Roland Martin unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. Students at Howard University occupy Blackburn Center. They are demanding massive changes in accountability when it comes to housing and living conditions. The university response say they are meeting the needs of the students. We'll hear from both perspectives right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered.

It's something we've all thought of happen. Now organizers of the January 6th insurrection are confirming several top Republicans in the House helped them plan the violent attack. President Joe Biden highlights how his domestic policy agenda would benefit Americans as Democrats try to reach a deal on the president's social spending and climate package. Jury selection for the trial of the three white men

charged with chasing and murdering Ahmaud Arbery entered a second week. A former Georgia prosecutor will explain why it's taking so long to seat this jury. A group of black men in Louisiana got sick and tired of students fighting, so they said, we will step in, show up and show out. We'll talk to the founders of Dad's on Duty

about what they are doing in that school. Plus, in our Fit and Live Win segment, Jim Jones says you can't eat soul food and still be healthy. Really? It's time to bring the funk. Roland Martin, Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network.

Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the biz, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's Roland. Best belief he's 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, yeah With some go-go-royale Yeah, yeah It's rolling, Martin, yeah Yeah, yeah Rolling with rolling now Martin, yeah. Rolling with Roland now. He's broke, he's fresh, he's real the best.

You know he's Roland Martin now. Martin. For the last two weeks, students at Howard University, they have been living in what we can describe as tent city outside of the university's Blackburn Center, demanding changes to the housing conditions at the university. They have made a series of allegations, been posting on social media what they call deplorable living conditions, rat infested, rodent infested conditions, clothes being wet, you name it. They've had a number of students who have been living outside of the Blackburn Center for the last two weeks demanding attention from the university.

They say their requests are not being heeded, even though they say they're paying tuition. And last week was the university's homecoming. However, festivities were overshadowed by these protests. Now, several organizations and notable figures are speaking out against the conditions, including rapper Gucci Mane, who was slated to perform in FMECA's Yard Fest. Now, the artist pulled out of the concert and decided to stand in solidarity with the students on campus.

Now, we went to Howard University today and met with Dr. Toshney. First of all, again, first of all, we met with several different people at Howard University, first and foremost, meeting with the university. I was talking with them last week, and we wanted to be able to come on campus

So dr. Tosh need a de Broglie who was the CEO of our University Talked with me as we walked through one of the dormitories at all female dormitory on the campus of how university This is what she had to say about the protest and about what's happening on campus. Dr. Tosh, so we've had for nearly two weeks now numerous students laying out a litany of complaints. So let's deal with a baseline. First of all, how many dormitories are we talking about across campus? We have over 2,700 rooms, and we have about 5,500 students that are in our residence. So what analysis have you done? and we have about 5,500 students that are in our residence hall.

So what analysis have you done? Has there been an inspection of every single dorm room on campus? And the issues that are being raised, mold, flooding, rats, roaches, what has been the analysis of the inspections? So every single residence hall has been inspected, not only by DCRA but also by our folks on campus. What is DCRA? So that's the district's team that does inspections of our residence halls etc. So whenever we have an incident they conduct a spot check on us and we have to send a report especially since this um our students

concerns have been so well published and publicized um dcr has been on our cameras to do those inspections as well in particular at the towers because that's where the flooding occurred and i can show you where that's the site of the incident okay so we are in so this is the quad this is the quad. This is the quad. This is our primary residence hall for young women and older students. And how many students are in here?

About a thousand because the quad has about five buildings that are part of it. Gotcha. And it's called the Harriet Tubman Quajangle, officially. And so, your lady you were just talking to let out litany of complaints saying that they've been complaining since August about the issue. What is the process if a student has an issue with a shower or a room or a mold or anything like that?

So when a student has a complaint, because all of our campus housing is outsourced, they actually send it through the campus housing provider's maintenance work order system. In this particular case, Corvias manages our residence halls like the quad, towers, drew, etc. and a student would input a maintenance work order and then there are stated times for which a work or within which a work order is completed. Okay so when she laid out, say they've been trying to do this stuff since August and that was being unresponsive, how are you able to track that?

How are you able to verify that? So we can look in the system to see when the ticket was submitted. There are times when our students don't submit a ticket, but they'll tell an RA instead, and the response time may vary. But there is truth to times when we have seen that a mental maintenance work order has not been

tended to in the stated times and so it's it's us holding Corvus accountable to ensure that they do what they commit to doing when a student has a complaint okay so we're headed now to where? So I want to take you through the quad just so that you can see some of the spaces that we're speaking. Okay. Actually, you want to go up the stairs or you want to take care? Let's go upstairs. Well, you know, it doesn't matter. We can do this too. I didn't want you to have to wait. But this is a recently renovated residence hall. Within the last three years, we renovated it.

And, you know, over the pandemic, it sat for a little while without any students. So for about 18 months. And then we had to ensure that it was habitable, that people could come back in in and it was done by Corvus on the first of these. So prior to students coming back they were supposed to get the building ready for all students? That's correct so they have to do wipe downs they have to do summer readiness is what we call it and it's the usual maintenance that is required so that the dorms can be populated. So you're gonna find on our campus right now that we're being hypersensitive to our students. So every single day there are tons of crews coming through

to make sure that our residence halls are clean. Now, were those crews down, was that a regular occurrence prior to their complaints and their protests? There is usual maintenance prior to the protests, but now it's, when I say we've ramped it up, we have ramped it up. Because we want to ensure that whatever needs our students have, that they're being tended to. As a matter of fact we went above and beyond Corvius to start ensuring that there are more contractors in here coming to look to see if there's a need and wherever there's a need it's being met. Now are you also are you also analyzing are you also have having them to answer some questions in terms of in terms of their responsibility because is that if that is a issue yes if they're not doing their job so so what conversations are being had there for legal reasons I'm not gonna say

everything that's happening right but we are having very strict conversations with them to discuss, you know, all the complaints that our students are bringing to the fore. So these crews, for example, these are part of the heightened response that we've had to make sure that the doors, not only are they experiencing microbial white downs at this time with regards to the complaints that we've heard about more, but also just general cleaning in all of our residence hall spaces and filter changes and HVAC deep cleaning as well. So this is a typical residence hall. As I mentioned, it's populated by our women and so we just have to ensure that every

single time that a student raises a complaint that it's being tended to in real time and and that there are no extended maintenance responses okay and so in terms of the continuation of complaints from the students, what is happening with those right now in terms of how they're being processed, how they're being dealt with? Yes. So there are students who are protesting right now, some of whom don't live in the dorms. So they may not be able to see that we're actively doing something to be responsive to their needs. We've made the announcements and the crews are here. The evidence is in the volume of people that you're seeing on our campus right now and it is in direct response to our students' concerns. One of the big complaints, young lady downstairs was talking about mold. Of the dormitories that you inspected, how many of them had a mold issue?

How many had a significant or substantial mold issue? 34 rooms out of the 2,700 plus had a mold or moisture or fungal growth issue. And of the ones that we inspected, five of them had a severe issue. That represents less than 2% of the rooms that we offer on the campus. And so when we speak about a building-wide issue, we're not seeing that. Do we see where there is mold perhaps at refrigerator curbs and on microwave systems? Yes. And that is the microbial wipe down and the motor mediation that is being done. So what she was talking about was also in the air vents, things on those lines.

Have those also been inspected? So the reality is we don't have common air ducts throughout our residence halls. So that's why when people are saying there's a building-wide issue, we can be confident in the fact that, you know, when we're looking at the air quality samples, we're just not seeing that. And each dorm or pardon me, each room is not connected to the next from a venting system. So each room actually has its own HVAC equipment, but there are no common ducts going through each room. What about the when they said they were flooding, where was that and what was

the issue there? It was in the towers, but I'll tell you what happens. In a residence hall, each year we bring in quite a bit of young people. They're now acclimating to doing laundry on their own. They're acclimating to sprinkler systems that are often not in people's homes, you generally don't see that. And they're also having to acclimate them to living on their own. And in this case where you saw the flooding, one student placed a hair accessory on a hanger and then placed the hanger on the sprinkler system. Now, these are systems that have very sensitive mechanisms to activate a sprinkler.

And that's what happened. The glass broke on the sprinkler, and it activated it, and in no time, one part of the towers was flooded, and it went down to multiple floors. So I can show you that as well. The common response is, that's called an emergency. That's an emergency response. You're going to have people coming out to, number one, turn off the sprinkler system, look to see if there's a fire, and do the due diligence to

ensure that life safety systems are in place, everybody's safe and healthy. And then the next phase of it involves a dryout, and that was completed already. And now we'll do the putback or the restoration. And that is yet to be done because the students were all removed permanently from their rooms and relocated to another space within the residence. How many students were that? That affected 19 students, not as severely for everybody, but anybody who wanted to be relocated was relocated. So for students that are being economically impacted, what resources are being provided to them? Again, we've heard numerous allegations. What is happening there? So there's a huge insurance claim at play. It's

about a $600,000 insurance claim that Corvus is managing at this time. And as part of their system, if there are students that are severely impacted, they usually document what parts of their belongings are no longer being salvaged, and then they are financially compensated. And that's well documented. It wouldn't be the first time that we've had an issue of this kind and a student has to be financially assisted to do a placement that is of a compliance. There are times when students will have wet clothing, right? And it's a fact with the insurance company to get a reimbursement for wet clothes.

If you have wet clothes, the common response that the insurance company usually asks us to do is ensure that it can be washed and dried and that there's not a problem there. If there are any incidents of mold, remediation can be done on one's clothing as well. But generally, if a student needs to be reimbursed, they can be and will be.

And it has been done. So there are students who are reimbursed are not necessarily going to come on camera and tweet about it, but we have the documentation, and they actually sign for it and that's done through Corvus as well and tomorrow I know that they're doing another set of disbursements as well. Okay, alright.

So how are you from a communication standpoint, how are you now, what are you communicating to the parent, what are you communicating to the student body? Because again, one of the complaints is that University of Minnesota went silent. It should have been more out front. So what is happening on that front? Because there's a lot of stuff you said on social media, other media reports. How are you dealing with that, communicating to students and parents? Well, we have been communicating with our students. And one part of that communication not only is through our main communication system, our HUcom,

but also we've been on the ground. I've been here on a nightly basis along with other VPs doing what's called hypercare. We're trying to speak to students personally to find out if there are any needs that have gone unmet. Some students express their ire because they feel as if the residence hall provider has been unresponsive and so we that's why we're doing this hypercare to ensure that they see us, they can talk to us, they can lodge complaints with us and and then we ensure that it gets fixed. What about the complaint, I guess, of students at a university police pulled a baton out on the students?

Yes. That was one of the, I know there's a news conference they're holding as well, talking about their treatment by university personnel. So the one that I saw in particular was that a police officer had choked a young lady. I have not seen anyone who has been able to say, you know, Dr. DeBord, here's the footage of what we have. The cameras are rolling all the time on social media, but I'm not seeing that. And if somebody can show me where a campus police officer did that, I would be 100% committed to removing that officer from our force.

And that's the real reality. So folks have said this happened, but you haven't seen the evidence? Nobody can show us anything that shows us that a police officer actually did that. I heard it, and the cameras have been rolling continuously, but that footage is missing. Okay. Robert Tramble is the VP for Communications for Howard University. He did address the issue of the officer pulling his baton out, and it reports that it was a student. This is what he had to say.

All right. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. To clarify, the Baton incident was actually not with a Howard student. It was, yeah, yeah, Chief Lyles confirmed that. Do you want me to sit on that camera? Yeah. No, go ahead. We're still rolling.

Let's see. That particular incident, there are non-members of the Howard community who are participating in this sit-in, and that was an adult that engaged with one of our community who are participating in this sit-in and that was an adult that engaged with one of our officers who responded with the importance of their policy. So that was not an actual student. The baton incident was not a student. It was actually an adult who was pushing one of our officers. So an adult pushed one of the officers, and that's when the officer responded by pulling his baton out? Correct. It was not a student. Got it. Okay. Okay.

How university students held a news conference on campus after we talked with university administrators. Here's some of that news conference. to be sit on my back on our own campus. They have put an enormous burden on the students who only want them to be honest, responsible, and accountable. Teachers want to breathe. And right now, I can't breathe at Howard University. Stop threatening us, protect us, do your job and respect us because we are not the enemy.

This is the latest edition of the Hilltop newspaper. On the back of this newspaper, there's a section called speak out. I wasn't planning on reading off of this but I feel that it's appropriate. There's a section that says what is the best and worst thing about Howard and some of the great things that students said, the connections, the friendships, the partnerships with faculty and alumni. Those were all wonderful things to hear about. But when you start hearing about the negative things,

the things that we wish the administration would listen to us about, it's all the same things. And the students that are listed here are not even the students that are inside protesting or outside protesting. They're just students that are speaking their piece and their experience. The worst part is the lack of communication between the students and the administration. The worst part is the lack of communication between the administration and the students. On the other hand, our grievances with the university as students continue to be ignored

and it has been frustrating to witness. Number four, the worst thing is that students have to deal with respiratory issues due to the mold in the dorms that they are paying for. Number five, the worst part about Howard is how administration handles student affairs and continuously disregards critique from the student body. Number six, the worst is the inability for people in positions of power at Howard to hold themselves accountable for the mistakes they've made and continue to make. This is why we have to protest now. Worst is the resources, the facilities. We should have more, newer buildings and resources based on our contributions to the university alone.

Why is there mold and barely running water in the chemistry building? Why does the fine arts building flood every winter? The worst thing about Howard this year is that the administration has no care for the sense of community and is completely and totally incompetent and negligent in their duties. President Wayne Frederick, Dr. Evers, the Board of Trustees, all of them do not deserve the jobs that they have. Their duty is to the students and they are failing in their duty. Listen to your students! It hasn't been a great experience since I've been here.

It honestly really hurts because I pay $50,000 like the rest of you. My parents worked very hard to keep me at this school. My mom is an alumni, Howard is a family school. My uncle and aunt went here and they were dealing with the same issues. They're class of 2000, they're class of 90, they're class of 91 and they're still dealing with the same issues. Why are we still fighting for issues that have been going on since 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago? There have been protests since 1968 about this.

Homeless at Howard is a running joke between the student body. Upperclassmen are consistently homeless. There are upperclassmen living in their cars and having to wash up at Burge and Daisy. And they're paying $50,000 to live in their cars. Harvard doesn't have adequate on-campus housing. Harvard doesn't have adequate on-campus housing. There are 17-year-olds, 18-year-olds, me, I'm a 19-year-old living in these buildings,

living in these dorms. They're doing these to kids. The efforts will only be speaking to President Frederick and the board. Again, who have not been here. We have been out here for two weeks. There is no reason in the world I am 19 fighting for a right to have safe and adequate housing, for a right to have clean classrooms.

There's no way I'm fighting for this. Also, our second demand, students were removed off of the Board of Trustees this summer, this summer. Students, alumni, and faculty positions were all removed. Where is our voice supposed to be heard? In our first event in a town hall that President Frederick has actively worked against. Like some of my peers have said, how are you a president of a university and can't speak to your own students? That doesn't make sense. That doesn't

make sense at all, at all. The last statement that the administration put out was October 14th. What day is it? What day is it? The 25th. The 25th? The 25th. The 25th and that's the last time they said something to us.

That's crazy. This was my dream school. This was my dream school from six years old. I love Howard. I love the people at Howard. I love the friendships I made at Howard. I love Howard University. But just because I love Howard University does not mean I love the friendships I've made at Howard. I love Howard University. But just because I love Howard University does not mean I cannot hold my school accountable.

It does not mean I cannot hold my HBCU accountable. Because I'm fighting for past generations. I'm fighting for current Bison. And I'm also fighting for future Bison. I'm fighting for 8th through 26th, 8th through 27th, 8th through 28th. I want my kids to be able to go here. But not right now. Not the way this university is set up. Not the way this administration is set up. Not the way this board is set up. They will not be a third generation from my family coming to Howard University until these issues are fixed. And this needs to be the last protest happening. The last one. Because this hasn't been going on since 1968. And then there was another one in 89. Another one in 2018.

Now here we are in 2021 still fighting for these same issues. That's crazy to me. That's crazy. $50,000 to be fighting for adequate housing. To fight for my voice to be heard. Howard loves to say they're going to be creating leaders. They're creating new MLKs, new Malcolm Xs. What am I doing?

I'm protesting. I'm fighting for my bison, one bison, all bison. One bison, all bison. And I'm fighting and I'm a leader. I'm a leader. And you're actively dismissing me. You're saying I'm lying. You're calling me a liar. That's crazy. That's crazy. We then visited with the students who were in Blackburn Center and we actually went inside of the facility. Now, they had a rule that no media was allowed to shoot any video on the inside, but then they said, we're different.. We got a grand entrance. Appreciate it.

The electrical, basically the electricity of the building is not finished and it's been considered unhabitable. So some of the things have not been approved. Several existing panels that new work ties into are missing safety panels and are unlocked. Emergency exit lighting do not properly illuminate stairs from second floor lobby to first floor lobby. Basically it's going over the details of how it's inhabitable. So why did y'all decide, so how did the building start? Why did y'all decide to take over? It started with a town hall hosted by HUSA, which is our student association, that all of administration was invited to and they did not show up. They gave excuses such as they were out of town or they had

scheduling conflicts or other meetings, which the whole point of the town hall was for us to be talking with administration about our issues with administration. So you had the town hall, they didn't show up, then what happened? I believe it was Anaya and Erica decided that they were fed up and Anaya stepped outside to make some phone calls and then she came back in and she announced that we were not going to be leaving the building. Okay and that was when? October 12th. So since then, how many students are inside, how many outside? Ah, the numbers really fluctuate through the day, yeah, dozens and tens. Roughly a total of 150 students in all.

So you have folks who are, when you say not leaving the building, folks are living in here, studying in here, eating in here, all this other stuff like that? I've been here since day two, I haven't left since. I've been here since the town hall. I have my own little air mattress. Okay, alright. Let's take a look at what you got.

This building hasn't been in use because it's not multiple problems. The building actually has been used. But it's not physical. We could only use about two floors of the building. This floor and the basement, which is supposed to hold our book calendar and the lounge for the school newspaper and the hilltop, is under construction and unusable. This is the top floor with the bathroom with no running water. That in there was supposed to be our ballroom.

Out here is supposed to be the balcony that also only has one row of tiling, which we'll see over here. Uh-huh. We'll see over here. We'll talk to you later. Okay. And then when we step out there,

you can also see what they're stepping on. We gotta move up, we gotta move up. So it's a little scary. Ooh. You can see we have one row of tiling done. That's all that floor. Maybe two if you want to count those as two. Yeah. Alright. That's it for it here. Alright, where are we headed next? To the main floor. This side is the main floor. Oh, I see.

So, we're going to go to the main floor. Yeah. So, we're going to go to the main floor. Yeah. So, we're going to go to the main floor. Yeah. So, we're going to go to the main floor. Yeah.

So, we're going to go to the main floor. Yeah. So, we're going to go to the main floor. Yeah. So, we're going to go to the main floor. Yeah. So, we're going to go to the main floor. Yeah. So, we're going to go to the main floor. Yeah. So, we're going to go to the main floor. Yeah. That's it for it here.

All right, where are we headed next? The main floor. The second floor. Hold on a second. Come on, come on, come on. No, go down steps, go down steps. So just go down to the second floor. Sit down there. steps you did you uh so just uh get off the second floor

instead of railing we have a caution tape which is somewhat successful in a way if you quote as you can see over here we also have railing that was put up, but it's still falling. This is our main floor. Again, if you don't want to mask up. This is our main floor, our hospitality area, our food area, as you can see, some people sleep here. Unfortunately. But you're saying you started this here,

this building was in use even though most of this had not even been built. Building our second day and tried to say that it was our fault that the building was shut down, even though we were originally only occupying that first floor that you just saw, so we had nothing to do with them shutting down the cafeteria. This is another restroom on a mainly used floor with no working water and barely has a ceiling. There's a Democratic seminar room back here, which we sometimes use for meetings, but none of us had any clue it was back here because this floor wasn't open until like three weeks ago. The first time I saw this floor was the day before the protest happened.

The first time. This is the auditorium over here. This is where most of the meetings are held with the Blackburn Takeover family. We discussed like logistics, strategy. Also didn't know this existed until the day before the protest started. Some people also sleep in this hallway. They also sleep down here. They also sleep in the auditorium. Pretty much anywhere you can fit an air mattress. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen.

This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen.

This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen.

This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. This is a kitchen. I believe this is supposed to be a classroom at some point. A little ATM over there. Some kind of ceiling. So here's a question. What exactly do you want from the university? What do you want them to do? We want them not only to speak to us first,

because in order to speak about our demands, they need to contact us. We've reached out multiple times, and they refuse to do so. So y'all haven't had a sit down with university leadership? No, they refuse to do so. They have sent a spokesperson to Vice President of Student Affairs, Dr. Cynthia Evers. And all that she does when she comes in here is threaten us with expulsion and attempt to intimidate us by bringing more police who further escalate a peaceful

protest. And so if you do meet with him, what do you want? What do you want to actually, what are your demands? What do you exactly want from, you know? Well, they're listed outside of the door, but demand number one is to have a town hall with President Frederick so students can air their grievances out. Demand number two is to have student affiliate trustee positions reinstated back onto the board permanently.

We were removed this summer along with faculty and alumni seats. Was an explanation provided by the board as to why those positions were removed? No, the very basic explanation they gave in the press release when they announced that our seats were being removed was to make the board a more fiduciary board and specifically for money. And I don't understand why students couldn't be on that board because I do pay tuition here. I pay $50,000 along with the rest of my peers. There are at least $2 million of tuition dollars in this room right now in this building.

And we don't know where that goes. And we don't know where it goes. This institution has a major issue with financial transparency. A lot of our buildings are run down our dorms are run down that Howard loves to claim that the dorms were renovated They weren't or they were renovated poorly by Corvias the housing management company right now The man number three is to have a comprehensive housing plan actually given to us by the university and by administration to Have a plan to fix the mold issues to have a plan to fix the water damage that's going on right now. Now in talking to COO, for the 2,700 dorms on campus, 34 had mold issues, five were serious. When I asked about the flooding issue, I was told that was a result of a student hanging

something from a sprinkler. And so when you talk about the mold issue, what have you done in terms of, have you pulled together numbers from other students and then documented? So from your perspective, how extensive is the mold issue? I can tell you from the testimony of two RAs that they have more than 34 rooms with the two floors they manage. Two floors.

That's my RA. Yes. In my building alone, there are 11 floors. So in one building, on two floors with two RAs, there are more than 34 cases reported. They're trying to gaslight us. So those particular RAs, have they come forward with documentation showing these are the actual rooms and with the mold issue and how extensive it is? Yes.

My RA just sent all of that evidence in our floor group chat this morning. I just looked through all of it. It's absolutely disgusting, actually. So yes, we do actively and are still collecting that evidence. There is a lot, because a lot of students live with the mold, the water damage, the rodents, the mushrooms, just things that should not be in a dorm. They actively try and gaslight us with false numbers

to minimize their wrongdoings. I do want to speak on the water damage as well. It's not just a sprinkler that fell and caused the flooding and that caused seven floors to be stricken with water damage. When it rains, water does come through the window. It leaks through my window. It causes water damage. The only mention i've heard of water damage from um an authority figure has been my already knocking on my door one time two days into this um two days when i moved in two days from when i moved in um asking if there was water damage there's been no other um like kind of concern given by administration or any higher up my building manager doesn't care administration doesn't care president

clearly doesn't care i was actively trying to, President Fargeet clearly doesn't care. He's actively trying to gaslight us from it. I know they've tried to clean rooms and clean mold from rooms so they can do photo ops and so they can do press conferences in them to try to actively minimize this protest and actively minimize our efforts to have clean and safe living conditions.

And also, I'm one person, and I know four people whose rooms were, have water damage caused by just Howard, faulty pipes, pipes bursting downstairs, upstairs in the walls causing them to leave, their items being destroyed, they have to leave this place with nowhere to go without Howard's help. And me personally, I do live on the top floor in my dorm, so I have had like water come through my ceiling. That's not a meeting. That's how

anything else? So y'all plan on staying. So your deals until you can tell you meet with university officials. You're gonna stay correct. All right, cool. Appreciate it. All right. Thanks a lot. All right. Cool. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Thanks a lot.

Thank you. All right. Y'all take care. Thank you. All right, folks. That's a whole lot to digest. Let's go to our panel. Dr. Amakango Dabinga,

Professor of Lecture, School of International Service, American University. Brianna Cartwright, Political Strategist. Dr. Julianne Malveaux, Dean, College of Ethnic Studies, California State University, LA.

President, Emerita Bennett College. Julianne, I'll start Dean, College of Ethnic Studies, California State University, L.A., President Emerita Bennett College. Julianne, I'll start with you, first and foremost. Look, you run an HBCU. You know what it's like to deal with facilities, deal with student unrest. Your assessment of what's happening on the campus of Howard. Well, two things. First of all, all of our HBCUs have infrastructure issues. Our buildings are old.

I'm not surprised. I had a building flood on me when I was at Bennett. My chemistry lab just, you know, just flooded. I think that's the day I cried, sat in front of my steps and cried because I just didn't know what to do, didn't have the resources. So all of our buildings, most of our buildings on most of our campuses are just very old. Students have to understand that. But at the same time, I don't understand why President Frederick will not meet with his students. That's the very minimum that he can do is to meet with his students. Sending Dr. DeBroy, the COO, or the woman who is the VP for Student Affairs, because I'm from the media, she's just not saying anything.

These students deserve to be heard. Throwing the students off the trustee board as well is a bad move. This generation wants to be heard. Howard has a lot to do to clean this one up. Omokongo. It's sad, man. I've been seeing these stories since I was a student

in D.C. in the 90s about Howard University and the campus. The students need to be respected, number one. Howard, all of this prestige over the last summer, Latanya Hasekult's coming, Nicole Hannah-Jones, Felicia Rashad, the Chadwick Boseman building. But all of that is beautiful and important and necessary,

but it all comes down to the fundamental respect for the students. And so Howard has a lot of work to do right now to make sure those student voices are being heard, because the world is hearing them right now. But if they don't feel like their leadership at the school is hearing them, the university leadership is going to be in for

a very bumpy ride. We need to respect and take care of our babies, man. This is sad. It's not just Howard University, Brianna. This is a story just seven days ago in Atlanta. Go to my computer, please. Atlanta students protest for better housing and more funding for HBCUs, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Students from Morehouse, from Clark Atlanta, you know, joined together for this particular protest again. So what you're seeing is you're seeing students look at what happened on one campus and say, you know what, let's raise our voices on the other. Absolutely, Roland. As it's previously been stated, our HBCUs are subjected to disparate conditions and they deserve better. And Howard is one of the better known ones. And so this is very sad. As you see also in Atlanta, this is just not isolated to one HBCU. It's not isolated to Howard. It's not even isolated region-wise. Turning to Virginia, I know we've previously talked about the governor's race there.

And honestly, you know, there hasn't ever been anything. They never left a finger for the state of Virginia Union, Hampton, Virginia University of Lynchburg. And so, I mean, there's no way that there can be a governor's race, no Democrat. Well, first of all, hold on. Here's what you have. First of all, Hampton is private. And so you have Virginia State, Norfolk State, your public HBCUs where they actually, when it comes to funding from the state, but it's different when you talk about private. Howard is also in a different situation because of the special designation, the federal funds that they get, but Howard is also private. And so you have that distinction. That's why it's different on the state level than Howard, which is dealing with

funds from Congress. Right, right. However, there was a request for in the special session of the General Assembly to allocate $50 million to Virginia HBCUs under the American Rescue Plan Act, and there was a deliberate denial. And so of, you know, Northam's $4.3 billion, not a penny went to HBCUs. So we see that over and over again in the states of there not being a priority of helping HBCUs. And also, I mean, honestly, Congressman Scott should answer about whether they've complied with the court's rulings in the Adams case, because there has been shown that Virginia has discriminated against HBCUs. So we've seen this in... Sorry.

No, no, go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah, we've seen this in many different states, and I think that it needs to be focused on from also a political standpoint, because no Democrat is going to be able to win the state of Virginia without the support of black people. Well, here's the deal. What's happening at Howard University, look, it's a combination of things, first and foremost. So first, what Howard University should be doing is being far more aggressive with their messaging, talking to those particular students, faculty, staff, parents as well. You heard Toshdie DeBroy talk about how they're bringing in the various teams,

that the people who are managing the housing is an outside entity. They should be examining them, making demands of them as well. They're bringing in additional crews. And so that's one of the things that they must do. I agree they all should be sitting down with the students going over these various things. Also when you come to an understanding of what the actual information is, okay, because again students are saying one thing, administration is saying another. And so, you have this social media

war that's going on. At the end of the day, you want to resolve the issues. And so, it's going to continue. We're going to keep covering this story. Hopefully, the two sides will indeed sit down and have a conversation because the reality is, this is not in the best

interest of Howard University or the student body. You want a wholesome campus. You want students focused on learning and not focused on whether or not there are issues with their rooms, with water seeping in, all those sort of issues. And so I do hope that that actually happens. And I also think it would be very wise for President Wayne Frederick to actually hold a campus-wide town hall to actually discuss these things. But you also have student leaders there as well. And so one of the issues that the student protesters are going to have to deal with is what is their relationship with the Student Government Association that's also dealing with this. And so, again, you have all of these different factions that are going on.

At the end of the day, it's about solving the problem. I gotta go to break, we come back. We're gonna talk to some brothers in Louisiana, talking about solving the problem. They got sick and tired of some kids fighting. So a 40 black man said, we gonna show the hell up and see if y'all wanna act a fool while we walk in these halls.

Hmm, reminds me of my own daddy. We'll talk about these brothers out of Louisiana next on Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. НАПРЯЖЕННАЯ МУЗЫКА Betty is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon So now She's free to become Bear Hug Betty. Settle in, kids. You'll be there a while. Where you going? They're called Dads on Duty.

A group of 40 black men helping to create a safe learning environment for students at Southwood High School in Shreveport, Louisiana. Over three days, 23 students were arrested for fighting. These brothers knew they had to step in, so they decided to come together, roam the hallways, and let's just say bring a little base to the hallways. Joining me now, the founders of Dads on Duty. We have Michael Lafitte II,

Zachary Johnson, Michael Morgan Sr., Tracy Harris, David Telsey III from Shreveport, Louisiana. Gentlemen, glad to have you all here. You know what? As I was sitting in the break, I immediately thought about Deacons of Defense. There's a movie that was actually made, Forrest Whitaker starred in that, where you had some brothers who protected black neighborhoods from the Klan. They were armed.

And there were Deacons of defense chapters that were all over the South that protected civil rights workers fighting Jim Crow. In this case, y'all said, okay, y'all want to keep acting a fool? Let's see if you do it with us in the hallways. Who first of all said, I need to call these brothers together and let's do something. So how did it first start? Thank you, Roland. It initially started by after the call out of all the negativity that was going on in the media at our children's school.

So I sat down and I realized that, you know what, we're not going to allow this to happen. We're not going to allow this to continue to unfold. So I sent out a text message, made a few phone calls to some of these active fathers that I see at the campus all the time to see, you know what, exactly what is it that we can do to help navigate us through the things that are going forth. So we set up a meeting at a wonderful place in downtown Shreveport called the Office Hub and just came together with a plan. We put that meeting together on a Sunday. We were boots on the ground that Monday. OK, so first of all, how did you also get into the school? There are a lot of schools that don't allow parents and others to roam the hallways and do things along those lines. And so how did that happen? How did they embrace that? And exactly how long are you there at the school?

Are you there in the morning? Are you there all day in the afternoon after school? So our way of getting into the school is that we are active fathers who are at the campus all the time. So we're not strangers to the campus. In addition to that, the principal at the at Southwood High School, Dr. Kim Pendleton, has a great open door policy. She welcomes these type of programs on the campus. And that's through the leadership of Dr. Lamar Goree, who is our superintendent of cattle pair schools. So they welcomed these type of programs, positive programs, onto the campus. So it was simple to be able to get in there. But once we got there, we knew that we had to do what was needed to take back our campus. In terms of time, what's the time commitment of Dad's on? So daily we get there probably around about 740 in the morning and we pretty much roll out shifts.

So keep in mind, we're all we're all working. You know, we've got to go to work. We've got to run businesses. We've got to do community work. But there's nothing more important than our children. So we'll get there probably around 740 or so in the morning and we'll go from where I'm committed to maybe 7.40 till about 9 o'clock. I've got to be in the office at 9.30. You got others like Zach and Mike who will come, and they'll stay a little bit later, and you've got other brothers who may come through, and they'll work during their lunch shift. They'll spend their hour lunch break on the campus alleviating some time to other educators so they can spend time, you know, getting a lesson plan together or just taking a brief mental health break. How has it, first of all, how has it been for, first of all, let me ask that question.

Do each one of you have a child at the school right now? Yes, sir. Yes. I have two. ask that question. Do each one of you have a child at the school right now? Yes, sir. I have two. I have four. You have two, you have four. I have a ninth grader and a tenth grader. I have three juniors and a freshman. I've got one 16-year-old daughter.

I've got one 15-year-old son. And I'm the odd one out. I do the grad school advocacy. I do the grassroots advocacy. I work with them. So what were your kids' reactions to all of a sudden seeing daddy in the hallway? You know, yeah, it was great. I think it was typical to where I think the first time they saw us, they was like, okay, what are you doing here? And then you get to a point to where you're coming one

way and your kid goes another way because they do not want to see you. Now it's to the point to where they're used to it. Everybody's kid is coming up to you, giving you a dab, shaking your hand. Absolutely. It's positively embraced now.

I think one of the other fathers want to say something. Go ahead. First morning, I pulled up to the school and I bring my son to school. He thought I was bringing him to school, but I got out the truck and I'm here. I threw him for a loop. Well, I went home and came back.

I played it up. So, the thing is, first of all, the reason when I saw this story, it resonated with me because, look, everybody at the school knew my parents. Everybody. In fact, back then, of course, we allowed corporal punishment. My parents would, like,, we allowed corporal punishment. My parents, my parents would like, I couldn't bring it home. They were like, yo, where's the sheet? So they demanded the sheet and signed it. They were like, yeah, absolutely. We're going to allow that. And my dad was sort of the same way. He stopped many fights, followed kids home, checked mamas and daddies. I used to be in the car like, this negro

is crazy. It's us. So I take it each one of you have your own story that prior to this how other kids were like, man, your daddy, he out of his mind. He don't care. You know, the thing about it is we operate in individual silos, but we're trying to accomplish the same mission.

So the fine brothers who are in tune with the same exact mission because we serve the same cause and purpose, I mean, what can stop us? You know, to see a unified front of men, although you see this front of black men, we have some other brothers of other colors that are involved. But to just see men on the forefront to take back our school, to take back our community, what more can you say?

What can you say that's negative? Craig, I want to bring you up in here. What has been, first of all, when you talk about this fighting that was going on, all of a sudden they now see and feel your presence and my understanding, all the fighting has ceased? At this stage of the ballgame, yes. But that's

a combination of what Dad's on duty is doing with the current security there, the relationship with the administration, with Dr. Pendleton, with the sheriff's department at patrols. So it's a combination of it. When you have a situation, and let me explain my role in this, because my exact, all of

these guys, like I said, they're the fathers. This is 26 years for me doing grassroots advocacy. So I advocate for all children anyway. And so Mike and I worked together with the NAACP. So we were talking about the situation. So now I come and assist and I'm also their consultant. But it's just beautiful to see the father step up. So it's also encouraging for people who don't have children, alumni of the institution, grandfathers, uncles get involved in the situation so that now you can help to rectify some of these negatives and turn them into positives.

David, his was interesting. When I ran the Chicago Defender, politicians would come in, they would seek our endorsement. I would always ask them the same question. I said, how are you challenging parents? They would say, well, what do you mean? I said, well, I said, you know, when you go to these town hall meetings and you got a parent who's jamming you up, I said, is your response to the parents, well, what do you mean? I said, well, I said, you know, when you go to these town hall meetings and you've got a parent who's jamming you up, I said, is your response to the parents, well, do you belong to the PTA?

What is your involvement? And they would go, no, I don't do that. I said, well, why not? Because for me, and again, look, my parents had five kids, okay, and they were always at the school. Now, look, I got parents. Neither one went to college. No one has a college degree. My parents never made combined more than $50,000.

But they were very active in our education. And they made it clear that if something happened, we're going to deal with it on the spot there. Has this also led other parents to realize, you know what? I need to step my game up and get more involved. Of course. A lot. I mean, you got guys all over the world just saying, hey, why don't I get up and go check on my kids? I mean, it's a trend.

I mean, it's just something simple. All we want to do is just check on our kids and everyone else's kids. And you spoke on the diggings for the fence when you say love. The only thing we took to the school, we didn't have weapons. We took love. That was the key ingredient. Fatherly love sometimes helps the generation along, you know. That's why I was interested in

this idea. That's why I got in it. There's love, but there's also that, now you know I'd whoop your ass if need to. You got to have it right. Oh, that look? So all y'all got your own look?

I mean, we don't have a teacher's look. We have a home president's look. It's a dad's look. Hey, let's keep it moving. I mean, because we joke around with them, we make them feel safe, but at the same time, we match their energy. That's the biggest thing about it. That's what I'm saying.

And I've seen some video. Y'all joke with them, but it's sort of like, again, my daddy. We would joke with my daddy. Then there was a certain point when it was like, okay, we're going to go play with Mama because he's like, okay, I'm done joking with y'all ass. Y'all go on, go on. You got to look right there.

He's like, yeah. Yeah. The biggest thing is, you know, it's Brandon, his dad's on duty, but the approach is more or less the cool uncle. You know, everybody's got that cool uncle who's stern, who's firm, who you want to hang out with and you want to get great advice from. But

he'll wheel you back in and he'll be able to give you those life nuggets. And that's our approach. There are a lot of children, not only at our campus, but throughout campuses and schools throughout the world that don't have a male, a strong male presence in the home or in their life we want to be that we want to be that unicorn we want to be that uh utopia that kids can see that hey there are men in the community that work every day we ain't no superstars. We're just normal, hardworking dads who have a love for our children and our community.

I'm going to go to the panelists. Each one is going to get a question to ask you all. But it's so interesting, as you were saying, that, look, I don't have any biological children. My wife and I, we've raised six of my nieces. And when you talk about that presence, I remember one of my nieces was in school. For some reason, she was not doing her homework.

And see, so her mama was living with us, and so it was my sister dealing with this, then it was my wife dealing with it. See, then it got to me, there was no more dialogue. There was no more... So, see, when I had to go up to the school,

then the problem escalated. In fact, my staff has already said, Roland is the brother who's behind the glass. Break in case of emergency. Break that glass. Ain't no more conversation. So I

go up to the school and I go to the class and I say, where does she sit? And so I start pulling stuff out the desk. I mean, I'm pulling out homework assignments, all kind of crap. And I'm like, I need to know

how long has this been going on? So when I left, they would come back from lunch. I'd turn the corner and when I say the look in her eye when she saw me hit that corner, I mean, it was like, oh my God. And I said, I'll deal with your ass after school.

And when I picked her up, we picked her up. Now mind you, we ain't live far from the school. I said, I need to understand. I said, you were not doing your homework, right? No, I said, what's going to happen when we get home? And, oh, I'm going to get a whipping? No, no, you're not going to get a whipping.

I'm going to beat your ass. Now, some people out there, I know some of y'all out there, y'all don't believe in that. That's your damn problem. But when you ignore your mama and ignore my wife and get to me, we ain't having no more conversations. And so I had to whoop that ass.

When we got home, never again was homework left at the school. Now, Julian, you can shake your head all damn day you want to, but I will beat a kid's ass for not... If you keep ignoring directives from parents, we're going to have a problem. So I'm happy to hear

the students got a lot of act right now that y'all roaming them halls. Let me see here. Omokongo, you a brother. Brother's going to get the first question. Well, first of all, I appreciate it. And in Kongo, you a brother. Brother's going to get the first question. Well, first of all, I appreciate it. And in my book, you all are stars. I've been following the story all day and it's just really amazing. So the question that I have is we've talked a lot about the influence you have on the students. But one question I have is what influence are you having

on the teachers? Are the teachers treating the students a little differently now? Are they less likely to maybe kick them out of class, reprimand them? Are they responding to you all in a different way that's having a positive impact on the students as well? So what the teachers have done is, you know, there's a great group of teachers that are there. They're young young they're understanding and they have the utmost respect for not only us but to the students as well so there there's really not a whole lot of disciplinary issues such as that and i know you said well okay well mike that seems very oxymoronic that you say there's no disciplinary uh issues on the campus when there were several fights that came, which brought us to this point.

But the few instances that I've seen since we've been there, you know, as we patrol the halls, you may see a student that's outside. And it may be for something simple. You know, kid may have on a durag or they may have on a hat in class. It's something very, very minute. Something that, hey, the teacher may be a little frustrated because they've told John Doe to take the hat off five or six times and now he's to the point where he's a little disruptive and you

ask John Doe to step outside the class. Boom. We hit the corner. We see John. What's going on? John, what is going on? Why is his hat on your head? Well, hey, Mr. Mike, my haircut's messed up. You know, I tried to give myself an edge and I messed up. So it's just a matter of talking to the kids and finding out exactly what the issue may be. So, you know, we're dealing with teenage boys.

What do you do if his edge is messed up? You roast him a little bit. He roasts you back. He takes the hat off and he gets back into some instruction. And that's all we want to do is get the kids back into a positive learning environment. Thank you. I'll also say this. What I'm seeing with the teachers, I see a confidence when they see these guys, and they smile, and it's like a thumbs up.

Because oftentimes in most schools, people drop their children off, and it's like whatever they got going on at the house, fix my child, teach my child, discipline my child, everything. And so I think now that teachers see some reinforcement, it makes them feel relieved. That's what I've seen more than anything. And we don't just walk around. We actually stick our heads in the doors of the classrooms. Hello, how's everyone? It makes a difference for the teacher, just a little bit less load on the teacher show. Absolutely. Julianne, your question, Julianne. Thank you.

There's been a lot of research about teacher shortages, shortage of substitutes, essentially fraying infrastructure of our schools. Are you all experiencing or noticing that? And what would you tell someone who wanted to be a teacher but is sort of intimidated or frightened by the current climate in education? You know, I would tell anyone that one of the greatest things in life other than having great parents and great structures, having great teaching. You know, we do need strong teachers. We do need well-qualified teachers. But most importantly, we need to see more teachers who look like us in the classrooms. So I would definitely encourage those to go into the educational field and to not only learn it, master it, but to give back. And you can give back by becoming a teacher.

We do know that sometimes being an educator appears to be a thankless job. But those who have that mentality that education is a thankless job, that's why you have men such as us who stand before. Yep. Brianna, your question. Education is a thankless job. That's why you have men such as us who stand before you. Yep. Brianna, your question. Yes. Thank you so much for doing this. Just like Roland, my dad was one of the people who would show up in the hallways if there was any issues.

I remember in high school that someone asked if he had a job because he was literally always there. So I really appreciate this. And, you know, it's really one of the best ways to create a positive learning environment for every student and having this be the solution. So kudos in the school for allowing you to create this community built on a parent-teacher relationship. My question is, what actions did you first have to take to establish data on duties with the administration? Was it instant where you said, okay, there's a problem, and they called you and they said, we'll be here? Or what was those beginning steps for the solution?

That's a great question. So the first thing that we had to do, of course, is get permission from the principal as well as through the district. After doing so, we set our own protocol and parameters to make sure that everybody who goes up there has the best interest of our children. And some of those protocols that we set in place were being background checked, criminal background checked, and fingerprinted. We don't want any of those type of things to come about. There are some folks that want to do great things within the community, but things may have happened to where we don't want to mess up the branding and we don't mess up the great work that we're doing. So those are some parameters that we personally set in place.

All right then. Landy, come here. So that is the thing. Look, what y'all are doing, I think, is most important. And again, I'm glad to see the attention that you're getting. I wanted to make sure that we had y'all on the show. Come here. So come here. So just so y'all know that Nisa wouldn't turn her homework in. She worked on my show. She's still right now. Uh... Just... Just know she's still not doing her damn homework

and now she's gone. And like I told... Like my daddy told me, don't matter how old you get, I'll still beat your ass. Go back to work. go back to work. Go on back to work. Go on back to work. Your mama don't pay you, I do.

All right. Gentlemen, I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Y'all keep holding it down. And hopefully we look forward to seeing more chapters of Dad's on Duty all across the country. Absolutely. Thank you, brother. Thank you for having us.

All right, y'all take care. All right, y'all. Real quick break. We come back. We're going to talk about the Ahmaud Arbery case. Why is your selection taking so long? We'll break it down next with a former prosecutor right here, Roland Martin, unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. Oh, that spin class was brutal. Well, you can try using

the Buick's massaging seat. Oh, yeah, that's nice. Can I use Apple CarPlay to put some music on? Sure. It's wireless. Pick something we all like. Okay, hold on. What's your Buick's Wi-Fi password? Buick Envision 2021. Oh, you should pick something stronger. That's really predictable. That's a really tight spot. Don't worry. I used to hate parallel parking. Me too. Hey. Really outdid yourself. Yes, we. The all new Buick Envision. An SUV built around you. All of you. Once upon a time there lived a princess with really long hair who was waiting for a prince to come save her. But really, who has time for that? She ordered herself a ladder with prime one day delivery.

And she was out of there. Now, her hairdressing empire is killing it. And the prince, well, who cares? Prime changes everything. All right, folks. So we've been covering, of course, the Ahmaud Arbery case since he was chased down, shot and killed, of course, the Ahmaud Arbery case, since he was chased down, shot, and killed, of course. Remember, it was really the public pressure that led to the case being expanded and led to the three white men who were accused of chasing him down to be arrested and indicted. Well, now they're going through jury selection in Georgia to seat this particular jury.

Now, a lot of people are not familiar with this process, how long these things take. And so these things are happening. And so now they're entering the second week, the second week of jury selection in this case. Now, again, the question, can there be an impartial jury that is seated? Joining us now is former DeKalb County DA Robert James, who's been filing the case. Robert, glad to have you here. First of all, how long was your service DA? I was the elected DA for six years. I was a prosecutor in all for about 18 years. So walk folks through this because, look, if you're the defense, you want to make sure that you get it right,

that you have the right folks on the jury, but you're the prosecution, you want to take your time as well and not rush the process. Well, you know, it's important to get a fair and impartial jury. I don't care how good of a lawyer you are. I mean, you can, you know, we can, you know, bring the, you know, the fame and esteemed and legendary Johnny Cochran back if that were possible. And it wouldn't matter if you don't have a jury that's going to listen to the evidence and judge it impartially. And one of the biggest problems in this case is that everybody's heard about it. Everybody's formed an

opinion. And, you know, it's one of the hottest topics, if not the hottest topic in and not just America, but the world over the last two years. And so it's controversial. People are impassioned when they talk about the issue of race and policing and and criminalization and over criminalization and things of that nature. So so, you know, it's going to be difficult to find people that can set that aside and say, I can be impartial. And so as they're walking through this, first of all, we heard this weird thing the other day where they uploaded some evidence on a Web site. But that I don't want to say how the hell that happens, how some suppressed evidence can be made available on a public portion of the website that impacts jury selection? Yeah, I've never seen it, right? You know, typically in cases like this, and I've been involved in high profile cases before, even national cases, prosecutors, defense lawyers, court personnel, you know, they're typically extra careful in a case like this because there's

already a high level of scrutiny because the entire world is watching. this because there's already a high level of scrutiny because the entire world is watching. And then there's already the, you know, the issue of bias that you're dealing with with prospective jurors, you know, people and God forbid someone, you know, that's going to serve as the juror in this case, potentially see something that's oppressed that they should not see. You know, are we naive enough to believe that that's not going to affect their opinion, right? So how long do you see jury selection going before this trial actually starts? Well, you know, that's an open question and I don't think anybody, you know, has a, you know, has, you know, the magic ball here or the magic answer. It could take weeks. You know, I've been involved in trials where jury selection has taken several weeks. And in a case like this, where number one,

it's a small community. And that's what we don't, that's what we're not really putting in context when we talk about this case. It's in a very small community. And a lot of people in this community, you know, they know, they knew Ahmaud. A lot of folks in this community know the individuals that are charged with murder. They know him well. And if they don't know them, they know someone that knows them. And then the next level is that, you know, you have, you know, you've got some pretty serious and significant, you know, racial bias going along. You know, you have people that come to the table and they already have these issues, you know, when you're asking them to be fair and impartial, are they even capable? So as a prosecutor, you actually want people to be open and honest. The last thing is that you want somebody to get on a jury that has

issues with young black men, you know, running through white neighborhoods and have the same level of suspicion or bias that, you know, that the defendants did for Mr. Arbery getting on your jury. You don't want a Arbery getting on your jury. You don't want a person like that on your jury. So you want them to say, no, I can't be fair and impartial. And if those people are honest, this could take weeks. I honestly don't expect it to be done next week, not the way that it's been going. All right, then.

Well, look, it's going to be something that we're going to be paying a lot of attention to. Robert James, we appreciate it. Thanks for providing. And I look forward to having you back once a jury is seated and the trial gets underway. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Folks, got to pay some bills when we come back. Rolling Stone drops a major explosive story over the weekend detailing House lawmakers, Republicans, who were in on the planning of the insurrection on January 6th. Move on now, Connelly's rights. We'll discuss next. НАПРЯЖЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА I'm going to go get some food. Maureen is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now she's free to become Maureen the Marrier.

Food is her love language. And she really loves her grandson. Like, really loves. Well, I think it's really politically expedient for for Mitch McConnell to say, let's move on and let's move on, especially when the former twice impeached disgraced president enjoys attacking Mitch McConnell. But the problem is that past will become prologue if we don't find out exactly what happened January. And we will. It's not it's not time right now. We will we will find out. We will find out. We must find out before moving on.

We will find out. But I'm going to tell you, I live in California, not Washington, D.C. And the American people do have other concerns that we ought to be thinking about and talking about. Respectfully, Madam Secretary. Well, let me finish now, Sunny, because... Well, I think it's really politically... So that was Colleen Rice last week on The View saying, you know what, it's time for us to move on. Hmm. Rolling Stone dropped this on the weekend. Several January 6th organizers say they met with several House Republican lawmakers leading up to the events of the deadly insurrection. In an exclusive report with Rolling Stone, the organizers identified the members of Congress who allegedly took part in these conversations or were represented by senior staffers.

Hmm. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Paul Gosar of Arizona, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Louie Gomer of Texas. The sources claim that Representative Gosar promised pardons for the organizers on several occasions. Democratic lawmakers chimed in on the report

in a calling for the expulsion of any congressional member involved in the events. This is what Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. Any member of Congress who helped plot a terrorist attack on our nation's capital must be expelled. This was a terror attack.

138 injured, almost 10 dead. Those responsible remain a danger to our democracy, our country and human life in the vicinity of our capital and beyond. You know what, Omicongo? The Republicans fought real hard not to have this committee established. Kevin McCarthy wanted to appoint his own folks. He wanted to put someone like Jim Jordan on here. They've been vigorous in their defense against the likes of Donald Trump and the thugs associated with him, folks like Matt Gaetz as well. In fact, when they had the House discussion regarding enforcing a subpoena against Steve

Bannon, it was quite interesting to listen to the vigorous back and forth. And then also Republicans. Remember, Kevin McCarthy was real angry. Democrats, how dare you seek our phone records? Then, of course, Jordan not really wanting to say how many times he talked to Donald Trump on January 6th. Listen. News, if you talk to the former president on January 6th and you you didn't give a clear answer, you said and I quote, I've talked to the president so many I can't remember all the days I've talked to him, but I've certainly talked to the president, end quote.

The next day, on July 28th, you confirmed to Spectrum News that you spoke with the former president on January 6th. When asked by a Spectrum News reporter, Taylor Populars, whether you spoke to the president before, during, or after the Capitol was attacked, you said, and I quote, I spoke with him that day after, I think after, I don't know if I spoke with him in the morning or not. I just don't know. I have to get back to you. I don't know when those conversations happened, end quote. So my question is, you've had 84 days since that interview to go back and check the records. So when did you speak with the former president on January 6th?

Did you talk to the former president before, during, or after the attack on the Capitol? Of course I've talked to the record. So when did you speak with the former president on January 6th? Did you talk to the former president before, during, or after the attack on the Capitol? Of course I've talked to the president. Of course I've talked to the president. I've been clear about that. I talk to him all the time. This is not about me, Mr. Chairman. I know you want to make it about me. You want to make it about individuals, other individuals. But this is about the lack of a proper security presence that day. That's what this committee, if this committee is going to do something that's worthwhile, that's what they should be investigating. Of course, I talked to the president. I talked to him that day.

I've been clear about that. I don't recall the number of times, but it's not about me. I know you want to make it about that. But this is about the why was it? How about this? Why wasn't the National Guard here that day, Mr. Chairman? Boy, they they trying all they best to deflect i'm a congo my goodness man let me calm myself look these guys think they are so big and bad and i'm just thinking if the rolling stones was able to get this information, imagine what Congressman

Bennie Thompson and the January 6th committee have in terms of the treasure trove of information that they have and they are still getting about the corruption of these guys. Ocasio-Cortez is exactly correct. These guys need to be expelled, prosecuted, whatever needs to happen to them. They are traitors to this country. The biggest concern I have right now, and don't forget, Kevin McCarthy also threatened to go after the telecommunications companies if they get into power in the midterms for giving up these records. The main concern I have right now, really, is Roland Martin, is Merrick Garland and how slow the Justice Department seems to be moving.

Now, I know they can't have press conferences and give the public updates every single minute, but sometimes I just feel like Merrick Garland is acting more like a judge than a prosecutor to be, what, nine, ten months after the insurrection or whatever time we are right now, and there hasn't been major heads to roll metaphorically. It's really problematic. And people like Steve Bannon and these others, they really believe that they can just run out the clock. And while the Justice Department needs to be going after these guys who are in there walking around with the Confederate flags and all of that, they need to go after these ringleaders and they need to go after them hard and they need to go after them right now because there's no other word to describe these guys

than traitors. That is what they did. And right now they're sitting walking around like everything is all cool and they need to have the hammer dropped on them. Um, Brianna, to that particular point there, I mean, he's right. You trying to convince me it takes 10 months for a real arrest. They're still sitting here asking the public, Hey, do you know who's in this photo right here? Uh, and it's sort of like, it's timid in terms of really holding these folks accountable. Let's be real clear. The actions of the committee are completely different than a criminal investigation. The committee does not have to wait or take the precedent over the criminal investigation.

Yeah. I mean, just as you said, just going from Condi, right, they know it's a lie. They know the attack was a porn. But they won't say anything because donations are flying in. They're getting booked on Fox News. And they're staying in Donald Trump's good graces. It's disgusting. But, you know, it's obvious that they won't drop the big lie or denounce the attack on the U.S.

Capitol. We've seen the deaths. We've seen the issue. So, I mean, the fact that they're taking this low is, is, is, is tear and it's ridiculous, but it's also more terrifying that there's literally, um, interactionists that are, um, running for Congress that, you know, so we know that we have current member of Congress that has been, you know, one of the ringleaders in Trump's attempt to overturn election. And we're still at the same point. And we never thought the danger would be coming from inside the House. But we're here.

And so, I mean, it's something that needs to be addressed ASAP, especially as we're going into the midterms. Julian, listen to this little pissant Matt Gaetz out of Florida. To people who had not requested them, that Donald Trump would be sitting behind the Resolute Desk. Okay, but you don't think that there is, legally speaking, I know you're a lawyer because you went to the great law school, William & Mary. Legally speaking, there was no election fraud or no election corruption. Let's put it this way. Do you agree that 61 different federal and state courts, including eight judges that Donald Trump appointed himself to the federal bench, have rejected every claim of electoral corruption or fraud that have been advanced? Do you agree with that?

I don't. And the reason is those claims are not evaluated because in many of the circumstances you referenced, jurisdiction was the principal question. So I think it requires a review of the procedure. Do you have any case authority in the land of those 61 cases or any other cases where a court has determined that there was electoral corruption or electoral fraud that materially affected the outcome of the election in any state in the union? Do you have one? Which I believe is a real failure of the judiciary. I think the Article III courts failed our country by not exercising more jurisdiction over those questions. Now, there's a difference in whether or not fraud existed and whether or not there's an adequate remedy. And I think also a number of those cases

were kicked on remedies. No court has said that fraud existed. And so there's no remedy because there's no violation, Mr. Gates. There's no violation. There's no fraud. There was no fraud if they didn't take up the question and review the facts on jurisdiction or remedy. You know what? That might work on Steve Bannon's podcast, but that's not going to work in the Rules Committee of the United States House of Representatives. I'm sorry, Mr. Gates. Forgive me. Woo. Woo.

Julian? Well, first of all, we've got to give high props to Jamie Raskin, Congressman Jamie Raskin. He's been doing a great job. And frankly, in the midst of personal tragedy, he's been doing a great job. Secondly, I don't know what's wrong with Condoleezza. Truly, truly, I do not. She was a mentee of Colin Powell, the recently deceased Colin Powell, who had been calling this thing out. You know, he said he could no longer be considered a Republican. But she's sitting there talking about, well, we need to move on. No, we do not need to move on. You called a man a pissant.

That was a compliment, Roland. I mean, pissants would be insulted to be in the room with him. That man is an idiot. And that's kind, too. What we have here is a Congress who conspired with insurrectionists. Some of them probably opened the door for them. But I'm not surprised. The Rolling Stone piece is excellent reporting. We learned a lot more than we knew. But many of us suspected that somehow those folks were able to bypass security.

Mr. Gates wants to know how come there was not more security. The question he has to ask is, how did you get past security? You got past security with sticks, and you beat security. That's how you got past security. And so hopefully, at some level, we're going to have the opportunity, and good for what they're doing, to have the opportunity to have this all laid out. But as it's all laid out, what's next? Because these folks, they have been emboldened and there have been no consequences. There have been no consequences to the members of Congress who conspired. And there have to be consequences. Roland, you're absolutely right about Merrick Garland. He is moving like a judge. He's trying

to be deliberate. But there is no deliberation when you see that stuff that we just showed on screen. There is no deliberation when you have people who essentially killed someone, two suicides, injuries. This is absurd, but it's absurd with congressional concurrence. And that's the part that is so disgusting. I mean, I'm going to play a little bit more of what Connelly's rights had to say because the problem is this here. When someone like her goes on The View, they are in essence putting their credibility

up as collateral to be able to say, I'm speaking as a calm, sensible person. So just listen to this nonsense. First of all, let me be very clear. I said at the time January 6th was wrong. I called it an assault on law and order and an assault on our democratic processes. So full stop, it was wrong. Law enforcement will determine what happened there and those who violated the law ought to

be punished. I also, on January 6th, for the first time since I was a national security adviser on September 11th. I cried that day. I thought I study countries that do this. I didn't think it would happen in my own country. It was a terrible moment. I will say that that night when they filed back into the capital

after it was secured and they certified that election, I had new faith in our institution. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. I was so happy. say that that night when they filed back into the Capitol after it was secured and they certified that election I had new faith in our institutions and the people who were protecting them so we came through that as a country that ultimately upheld the law now I think what Senator McConnell may be referencing is yes it's time to move on in a lot

of ways. I'm one who believes that the American people are now concerned about their what we call kitchen table issues, the price of gasoline, inflation, what's happening to kids in school.

I think we're going to talk a little bit more about that. I will say that as somebody who was a national security expert, maybe didn't see in quite the same way the rise of China in ways that we're seeing it now. And so we do have a lot of issues. And I hope that what we will do is move on to the next generation of leadership.

Because even people like me, I was in Washington a total of 10 years, two years with George H.W. Bush, eight years with George W. Bush. I shouldn't go back. We ought to move on to the next generation, move ahead and deal with the American people's issues. So you wouldn't go back if they asked you?

I have no desire to go back to Washington, D.C. Absolutely zero. Well, I think it's really politically expedient for Mitch McConnell to say let's move on, let's move on, especially when the former twice impeached disgraced president enjoys attacking Mitch McConnell. But the problem is that past will become prologue if we don't find out exactly what happened January 6th. And we will.

It's not time right now. We will find out. We must find out before moving on. We will find out. But I'm going to tell you, I live in California, not Washington, D.C. And the American people do have other concerns that we ought to be thinking about and talking about. Respectfully, Madam Secretary. Well, let me finish now, Sunny. Because, as I said, I thought this would happen in countries I studied, not countries that I lived in. Our institutions have to be upheld.

What happened on January 6th was wrong. I don't know how much more strongly I can say what happened on January 6th was wrong. I also know that as a government and as a country, we've got to be concerned about the things that are making life hard for Americans and hard for American families. And that's what I'm ready to do. But when you have 80 percent of Republicans wanting to see Trump run in 2024, perhaps it goes 80 percent. You know what? I'm a political scientist, all right?

And unless I could see the questions that were actually in that poll, unless I could see the assumptions that were actually in that poll, I'm not going to take for granted that that poll is correct. So Quinnipiac, you don't believe in those polls? No, I said I'm a political scientist. I understand polls. And unless I really knew what was in that poll, I just want to repeat as to what I want to see in my party. I want to see the next generation of leadership step up. I want those of us who have been there, done that, to step back. And I want to move on to a better America. Oh, so how about this, Miss I'm a political scientist, the people who participated in the insurrection are still in power.

How about this, Miss political scientist, Republicans could gerrymander themselves into the majority and they literally could name Donald Trump Speaker of the House. For all of you who are watching at home, some of you may be saying, Roland, that's impossible. Donald Trump is not a member of the House of Representatives. Then you might want to read the Constitution. The Constitution of the United States does not require, does not require the Speaker of the House to be a member of the House. In fact, any American can qualify to be selected as Speaker of the House.

So, Ms. Let's Move On is in total denial, Omicongo, over the fact that the very people who participated in this insurrection are still in power. Exactly. And another thing she called on, she called on new leadership to come in. Well, look, all of those people that most of those people that we're talking about, they're they're under 50, under 40. I believe Madison Cawthorn is like 25 or something like in his 20s. You got Matt Gaetz, who's young, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who's young. So we're talking about this. She wants a new generation of leadership.

These new generation, they're part of this insurrection. So really, at the end of the day, what are you really talking about? And what Secretary Rice did is she used her credentials to basically say this is fake news or alternative facts, talking about these polls when she knows what the truth is. I mean, this is somebody who has seen hate firsthand. I mean, she was in the church where four girls lost their lives. That was Bond. I mean, she's seen this. So she can't keep talking about people want to see, want to move on when the insurrection is still going on right now.

That was a major manifestation of it. But it's still going on in the streets. It's still going on in the Capitol. We have, what, over 400 potential bills that were passed across the country to suppress our voting rights in 49 states. It's happening every single day. So I'm sorry, Madam Secretary, when you're talking about these kitchen table issues, losing my freedom to vote in this country from guys who are in there plotting insurrections and working with people who are out there as criminals and thugs and terrorists, that's a kitchen table issue for me.

Brianna. Yes, I agree. It's awful. I mean, to really think about on January 6th, there was an assault on the Capitol, and it was in front to everything we have fought to create in America. And we watched it as 140 metropolitan police officers were injured. And literally some were being with their inches of their lives while members of Congress echoed the rioters, you know, trying to, didn't know what was occurring, trying to fight for their safety, hiding. And then this was all in the sense of overturning a free and fair election. As Condoleezza Rice said, you would think that would happen in some other country, but it happened here. And it's like it's literally one of the most lowest points in American history. And it's our responsibility to search for the truth and make sure it never happens again and not keep elevating these people and giving them privilege passes.

It's time to just stop the shit and focus on, you know, our voting rights, focus on protecting us. You know, we can do both. We can walk and chew gum. So for her to say, you know, we just need to focus on table issues, it's just not fair, because we can't really focus on those issues while we know that there's people who are in the House who are literally, you know, trying to, you know, take an election through force and intimidation and fear, and they don't want to really care about the issues at all because they don't care about us. Bottom line here, Julianne,

for Condoleezza Rice to say, oh, no, let's just move on. People like her, they are part of the problem. They do not want accountability for the actions of these thugs. You know, Condoleezza is being extremely disingenuous, and she knows she is. For her to, how many times she said, I'm a political scientist. So, you know, I'm an economist.

Right. You know, most social scientists understand polling. She's absolutely right that depending on what the question is, the answers can be skewed. But we know that this is not the case, because consistently Republicans have talked about what they want to do and what they want that orange orangutan back in the Oval Office. Here's the deal. The same obstructionist tactics that propelled January 6 are the obstructionist tactics that refuse to let us have our voting rights, the the obstructionist tactics that refuse to let us have our voting rights, the same obstructionist tactics that refuse to deal with Build Back Better, even though the majority of American people say they want the Build Back Better plan, the same obstructionist

tactics that essentially allowed that little pissant, as you called him, to talk over Jamie Raskin because he doesn't have anything to say but talk over. So with all due respect to the former Secretary of State, stick to running Stanford, sister. Stick to trying to run Stanford because you don't have anything to say about this if all you have to say is move on. All right, folks, got to go to break. We come back, our Black and Missing. Also some other news, and of course we'll talk with Jim Jones, who says, y'all, soul food ain't bad. Really?

How does that mesh with working out and your health? All of that, Roland Martin, Unfiltered, on the Black Star Network. Oh, that spin class was brutal. You can try using the P.O.X. massaging seat. Oh, that spin class was brutal. Well, you can try using the Buick's massaging seat. Oh, yeah, that's nice. Can I use Apple CarPlay to put some music on? Sure. It's wireless.

Pick something we all like. Okay, hold on. What's your Buick's Wi-Fi password? Buick Envision 2021. Oh, you should pick something stronger. That's really predictable. That's a really tight spot. Don't worry.

I used to hate parallel parking. Me too. Hey. Really outdid yourself. Yes, we did. The all-new Buick Envision, an SUV built around you, all of you. Once upon a time, there lived a princess with really long hair who was waiting for a prince to come save her. But really, who has time for that? She ordered herself a ladder with Prime One Day Delivery. And she was out of there. Now, her hairdressing empire is killing it. And the prince? Well, who cares?

Prime changes everything. 16-year-old Kadia Babers-Lamelle was last seen on August 12, 2021 in Ukiah, California. She is 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighs 170 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. If you have any information regarding her whereabouts, contact the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office at 707-463-4086. 707-463-4086. Folks, Riverdissy Jackson Sr. and the Rainbow Push Coalition

will host a rally for Jelani Day tomorrow in Peru, Illinois. Day, an Illinois State University graduate student, went missing on August 24th, and his body was later discovered floating in the Illinois River on September 4th. A multi-jurisdictional task force, including the Illinois State Police, the Bloomington and Peru Police Departments, LaSalle County Sheriff's Office and Coroner's Office, and FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit are investigating Day's death. His family is waiting for answers on how Day ended up in the river. Also, Julius Jones' request for a state of execution was denied by an Oklahoma City federal judge today. Jones is on death row for killing an insurance executive in 1999. Jones maintains his innocence and says he was at home with his family

at the time of the murder. His clemency hearing is tomorrow. If his clemency is denied, he will face execution on November 18th. Tomorrow, we'll be hearing from Tiffany Lofton, who's literally traveling to Oklahoma as we speak for that particular hearing. Also, deliberations resumed today in the trial of three former Georgia Sheriff's deputies accused of killing Uri Martin. Martin was killed in 2017 after being tased repeatedly by the officers. The judge did not have jurors' request

to be released from the case this morning. Jurors asked to view the cell phone video from a witness who testified earlier during the trial. All right, folks, the NAACP is putting in check its Atlanta branch president. Told you last week that the president of the Atlanta chapter blasted former Mayor Kasim Reed, who was running for his old office, saying he was simply unfit to serve the citizens of Atlanta. Well, today, Kasim Reed was sent this letter. It was a statement that was put out by the NAACP general counsel.

It went to the president of the branch saying that this person violated NAACP policy, violated their bylaws for endorsing candidates, also violated the rules and procedures when it comes to following the NAACP's directives. This is what they wrote. By issuing a public partisan statement opposing Mr. Reid's candidacy and by essentially endorsing other candidates, you clearly violated Article II, Section 2 of the bylaws. Your conduct is not in accord with the NAACP's principles, aims, and purposes. They are calling on him to immediately cease and desist

from making remarks repudiating Atlanta mayoral candidate Kasim Reid. We further demand that you immediately cease and desist from making remarks repudiating Atlanta mayoral candidate Kasim Reed. We further demand that you immediately cease and desist from endorsing political candidates and or political parties. Finally, we demand that you immediately retract your statements repudiating Mr. Reed. If you fail to comply, you may be subjected to suspension, expulsion, or other disciplinary action. And again, this is Jeanette McCarthy-Wallace, General Counsel for the NAACP.

NAACP makes it clearly a nonpartisan organization. Julian, this is a shot across the bow to the president. First of all, we don't have Julian right now. I'm going to go to Makongo. Certainly a shot across the bow to that president by saying your actions by endorsing a candidate

can put into question the 501c3 status of the chapter. Yeah, this is like a real bombshell, I mean, hearing that letter. And we have to really be on notice as it relates to the NAACP, because really, you already have this organization where everybody has a target on the NAACP. People are looking for reasons to come at you. And I feel like they need to be better than this as it relates to that. Now, I know that there are people out there who are saying, well, look what happened in the last election. And you got churches and different, you know, evangelists that, you know, endorse Trump and all of this other. And they're not supposed to do that. And their status. Look, we can't get into all of that when it comes to our own organizations. There's always going to be another higher level of scrutiny that comes towards groups like us. And so I really hope

that the NAACP chapter there works this out because we really don't want to get in trouble risking that type of status. And you can make statements and call people out, call folks to action, call them to do certain things that you feel like they may not have done before without putting it in a way that makes it seem like you're endorsing somebody else. And so I think the NAACP has a lot of cleanup to do right now. And I think that letter speaks to that. And for folks to realize you can speak to issues, but you cannot make endorsements of candidates, Brianna. Yes, that's absolutely right. And anybody within the NAACP, especially as the president, should know this. As you are part of the D9 as well, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated is also a nonprofit,

and we are not able to speak on behalf of candidates and so forth. We get out the vote and make sure everyone's educated, but you can't be partisan, and we know this. And so I find it appalling, and I don't think a mistake for that to occur because- Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This was not a mistake. If you saw his initial statement, he went off. And he signed it. And it. He signed, and in that letter, NAACP general counsel was like, you did this on NAACP letterhead. So here's the deal.

Here's the deal. You as an individual, as an individual, you can speak out. And we've seen this before where NAACP presidents have spoken in their personal capacity, endorsing a candidate. Now we know how to can this, run it by saying, NAACP

president, endorse me. But this person put it on letterhead. Yeah, I don't know what he was thinking or why he thought that was okay. We know why. He don't want Kasim sitting right in front of us, Brianna. He don't want Kasim to be mayor. Well, I mean, and he could not want him to be mayor

and still not take such an egregious action. And I can say maybe I understand why he doesn't want him to be mayor, but that's an irrelevant point, and there's reasons why, you know, we have 501c4s and 501C3s and you need to respect it when you're in that space. And there is other ways that he could work to make sure that he wasn't mayor in his own individual capacity versus, you know, really throwing out NAACP when, you know, NAACP is in certain ways still at vulnerable stages. And, yeah, I just I just don't think that was right for him as a president. All right, folks. Got to go to break.

We come back. We're going to talk about food, the power of food, especially soul food. Can that really work with your diet? We'll ask Jim Jones that question next at Roll muntin and filter ДИНАМИЧНАЯ МУЗЫКА Norske Råd Maureen is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now she's free to become Maureen the Marrier. Food is her love language. And she really loves her grandson Like really loves

How many times have you heard somebody say Oh that slave diet is killing you? Really? Well, fitness expert Jim Jones joins us right now to talk about soul food and whether or not it's good for us, whether we should be eating it. All right, Jim. A lot of folks love a pork chop, collard greens,

love all of this old food. So is it do you tell your people stay away, don't go near all that food it's horrible, it's bad for you. Right. You know Roland, it's the thing it's the miseducation of the black diet is where my problem is, right?

I think from birth, you know I tell people, if you're black, no matter how much money your parents made, no matter where you lived at, no matter what your background was, you had them after church Sunday dinners. You had them being black, right? And we don't know that. That's early conditioning from birth. We associate bad food on a weekly basis, right? So my thing is, I just wanted to change the conditioning. There's nothing wrong with the soul food. Nothing wrong with it. But let's redefine what soul food actually is. Maybe a baked chicken, a baked fish. We got to mix it up a little bit because what's happening here is, as black people, we learn early, early that how you celebrate is with that bad food, Roland.

We got to shift that narrative. But what is, okay, so, but what is bad? I mean, so, for instance, okay. If you, like, I've heard some people, if you talk, okay, if you've got cabbage, all right, well, isn't the, when you talk about what's bad, how much extra stuff you're putting in it? And it's also, where does moderation come in? So, I mean, let's say you eat, but let's just say you eat soul food once every three months. Let's say you eat, okay, all of a sudden, I get people like, oh, my God, right there. That's a stroke.

That's a heart attack. That's diabetes. And you're going, you know I don't eat this all the time. The difference is when you're eating it every day. If bacon is in your diet every day. Right. No, exactly, Rowan. You nailed it.

And so I tell people, it's that the cabbage and how you cook the cabbage. You can't fry it down, season it, because at that point, you've cooked out all the nutrients, right? So my thing is, as black people, I don't want us to eliminate soul food because I eat it myself from time to time. I got to change our relationship with the soul food.

I think that's the thing. Educating people, like, listen, we can have this stuff, but we do not have to think that every baby shower, every Sunday, every time we have a celebration, y'all want to bring in the fried chicken, the macaroni and cheese, the meatballs. We don't always have to associate. We don't have to associate celebrating

in a weekly tradition with soul food. So we just got to just tweak our relationship with the food. That's all I want, Roman. But isn't it also a matter of if you eat it and your ass not walking, you're not exercising, you're not drinking water.

I mean, again, it's all of that. I see somebody talking about it's the salt. Well, again, it's not just the salt. Hell, I was at a seafood restaurant the other day, and I swear, the salad was salty, the rolls were salty. I was like, damn. There wasn't no soul food restaurant.

It literally was one of the top seafood restaurants in D.C. And I was like, yo, who the hell in the kitchen with the salt shaker? Right. You know, Roland, and that's the thing, Roland. I tell people, you can eat the food, but we also got to associate as African-Americans. I want us to have, of course, I want us to have the good food, but we got to focus on doing a little bit of exercise, too. Right. You know, it's OK on Sunday dinners if you want to have that. Right. But in the morning, let's let me get a Sunday squat challenge.

Right. Let me get a Sunday walk. So we got it. We have to link diet and exercise. Right. To the to the foods, which we have to link diet and exercise to the foods, which we love to celebrate with. Because like I said, if you black soul food tradition, I love it myself, but it can't just be soul food sundry. Give me soul food and squats. That's the new hashtag, Roman.

I need you to go ahead and tweet that for me right now, Roman. Soul food is squats. But also, here's one thing before I go to Brianna on the Congo with a question for you. It's also what people are not regularly checking their stats. So I was in Atlanta last week and I decided to go to the CVS for some chips. And I threw that in. Calm down. Calm the hell down. And so they were doing they were doing blood pressure checks.

They were doing cholesterol checks. They were doing they were doing glucose checks. OK. And it was very interesting to me. All of the folk who were walking the folk who were walking by. Who were walking by. And so I stopped being, they were like, hey, you want to get checked? I was like, yeah, all right, that's fine. They were like, well, you know, we got $10 free CVS bucks. I was like, man, I'm good.

I said, come on. And I'm out a real bit of knowledge to learn about. And I just saw all y'all people think I'm lying. Okay, see, boom, right there. You get that documentation. And here was the whole deal. And so, again, to me, I don't understand why you pass up a free damn check. It's free.

You know, so they did blood pressure, 118 over 78. And they said the goal is 120 over 80. I'm underneath. Then they said glucose, fasting under 100, non-fasting under 140. Mine was 72, but I wasn't even fasting. I had eaten six hours earlier. And then they had total cholesterol. Gold 200. Mine was 135.

Okay. And so I was like, all right, we good. And now it doesn't mean, oh, we about to go to the soul food restaurant and stock up. But the whole point, I just think a lot of people, people berate folks. And it's kind of like, no. If you do moderation, like occasionally, but yeah, if you're doing it every Sunday, if you got fried chicken and pork chops every Sunday with the greens smothered and with the ham hocks and the ham and all kind of other stuff,

every Sunday, you're going to have a problem. And that's what I'm saying, Roland. I feel like we're losing more people to diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, the same thing to the gun violence, right? So, yeah, Roland, and in the South, too. Roland, you're from Houston. You know how y'all do in the South. Y'all really love y'all soul food in that South, Roland.

You know that. Yeah, but hold up. As you guys said, my maternal folk from Louisiana, so hell, we do more gumbo and seafood than anything else. So, I mean, I don't eat a lot. First of all, I can't stand most soul food items

anyway. I can't because my babysitter, and I love Miss Elkins and all her kids. I could not stand the smell of them damn greens. All the greens. Oh, I could. To this, do you understand I could smell right now in my nose

them damn beets? They had all that soul food. Man, look, I don't eat most of that. I can't stand the smell. So that's just me. Brianna, you got a question for Jim Jones about soul food, nutrition, and working it out.

Absolutely, absolutely. I am not like Uncle Ro. I love my soul food. I love cooking it. I love eating it. I can't think about a celebration or a meeting without food food not necessarily soul food but it's food is is the life yes very much comfort so i'm gonna i'm gonna play in on your

whole uh squats for soul food yeah so if we were if ionna, when was the last time you did a squat? I have it. That's what I'm asking. How many do I need to do in order to keep eating my soul food? When was the last time you did a squat? Breonna, can you even stand up right now and drop a squat? I can, but I will not. You can? I can.

I wear heels, Roland. Take them off. Flat footed. No, I'm saying we have a little exercise with the heels and having to go to the bathroom and the public. But we won't go there. But anyway, yeah, so you don't touch the seat. You have to squat to go to the bathroom. That shit don't count.

Oh, I don't know. That don't count. Come on now, Brad. Don't do that. Hell, hell, look, we don't wear heels. We got to squat sometimes, too. All right. Right. Right. Well, how many squats do

we need to have, or what can we incorporate for our... Do three right now. I am not doing that. Come on. Go ahead. You see, she's like, damn, now he put me on the spot. Now I got to... I am not doing that. Come on. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. You see she like, damn, now he put me on the spot.

Now I got to. So if I do three squats right now, what can I do tonight? Three. Three, I can eat one tonight. Hold up. I said do three, and you say I don't do one tonight? I said if I squat three squats right now, what do I get to eat tonight? Okay, so you get to eat tonight what you're probably already going to eat.

Oh, three things. No, bro. No, no, no, no. No. Eat what you're going to eat because I'm willing to take a guess right now. I might not approve of what your dinner is. So just go ahead and give me them three squats off the top. No, hell no.

No, no, no. First of all, let's see if she can do three. We're waiting. I mean, the man put you on the spot. Nah, hell nah. Nah, nah, nah. First of all, let's see if she can do three. Brad, we're waiting. I mean, the man put you on the spot. This is awkward. Hold up. Hold up.

I'm going to go over here too. Come on. Let's see what you can do. Hold up. Zoom the camera out. Okay. First of all, you ain't even squatting.

Three. You ain't even squatting. Zoom the camera out. You ain't even squatting. This is what you, you bending over. Right, right, right. You ain't, squatting. You bending over. You bending over. Brianna,

you bend over. That ain't no squat. He said squat. He said squat. Come on. Go down. Come on, Brianna. Squat, damn it, squat. Come on. I'm squatting. My back is squat. Come on. I've squatted.

My back is straight. Oh, hell no. Come on. You bending over. You ain't going nowhere, Brianna. You not going nowhere. You bending over. Stop tripping. Oh, Macongo, ask your question. Brianna tripping. She know she bending over. She over here, Sidney. She over here.

You guys are just trying to make me do too much. I did them. You bending over. You just poking your butt out and then coming back up. You guys are just trying to make me do too much. I did them. You're bending over. You're just poking your butt out and then coming back up. You ain't in front. Today is Mediterranean Monday, so I was going to eat soul food anyways. I asked your question.

I'm loving this. I'm loving this. Jim Jones, it's always a pleasure to talk to you, man. I've taken so much of your advice over these sessions, and I just appreciate everything you do. Is there a room for alternative meats and things in the soul food diet? You know, people don't eat beef who've taken up Impossible and Beyond Burgers and different things like that. Or are you of the opinion of once you start putting in the substitutes, it's just not soul food anymore?

Is that something we can look into as well? No, you know what? We got to try it. And like I said before, we got to kind of change what defines soul food, right? Soul food doesn't have to be the fried chicken. It doesn't have to be the ham, the macaroni and cheese. Soul food can be whatever you want it to be. Just make it taste okay, right?

And that's my whole thing. I just want to change and near behind soul food. So, Brother McCongo, soul food can be whatever you feel you want. If you want to have an Impossible Burger and something else, that can be soul food. There's no, we don't have to cling to certain items that have to be soul food, if that makes sense. Like, Brother, you interpret soul food, everyone interpret it. And that's what I want people to do is change the definition of what we call soul food. It ain't got to be bad.

I mean, soul food might be a Caesar salad, Roland. You never know. You know, soul food can be. Man, soul food ain't no damn Caesar salad. Brother, brother, ain't no rules in life. You know, ain't no rules to the soul food thing. You just, you know, you live how you live. Stop.

Stop. Jim, Jim, Jim. I'm getting a salad with extra mayo. Jim. With mayo in the salad. Oh, see, why? How you even put mayo in the salad? Breon, did your ass just say. Potato salad? Breon, did your ass just say

Breon, did your ass just say mayo? She said mayo in the salad. I need 50 more squats out of you. No, hell no. Y'all not going to see Breonna is on suspension from the panel.

Now, she already made that mistake earlier talking about when I had to check her last time talking about, you know, the boomers like these damn millennials doing something. But, you know, now you're going to sit here and, girl,

don't even... Okay, look. Jim, go on to a final comment before I cuss Breonna out. She crazy. Talking about that damn mayo. Man, go on to a final comment before I cuss Breonna out. She crazy. Yeah, man, listen, man. Talking about that damn mayo. Man, ain't no mayo in my house. If y'all been following Dionne Warwick's tweets, I'm with her 100%. Hell no.

Can't stand mayonnaise. Yeah. Well, I make it homemade. I love it. You make homemade mayonnaise? Your black card is in review status. Hold up.

Did your ass just say you eat mayo with your french fries? Yeah, I like a good truffoli. Hey, y'all. Y'all, turn her microphone off. This is getting embarrassing. This is getting embarrassing. Jim, go ahead with your final comments. Jim, she

lost her mind. All I'm saying is, let's just change the narrative behind what soul food is, okay? If you need some more soul food advice, y'all can holler at me at Jim Jones, G-Y-M- J-O-N-E-Z. That's on Instagram, G-Y-M-J-O-N-E-Z. Please, y'all, holler at me for

different soul food ideas. I'm going to get y'all right. Thank you, Roland. Man, Misrespectall. Holler at me for different soul food ideas. I'm going to get y'all right. Thank you, Roland. Man, Misrespect90 said this on YouTube, but her waist snatched though. That's what they said. Yeah, they

saying, Brianna, she looked like she in shape. Y'all, don't let the looks fool you. All right, because she also looked like she in shape. Y'all, don't let the looks fool you. All right, because she also look like she wouldn't eat mayonnaise. Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy.

I'm sure a lot of your viewers eat mayonnaise, too. Hell no. You ain't gonna never see a mayonnaise advertised on this show. I guarantee you that. All right, y'all. Jim, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Let me go to a break.

Then I'll be back on the non-mayo show, Roland Martin Unfiltered. Hell no. No mayo on the Black Star Network. Oh, that spin class was brutal. Well, you can try using the Buick's massaging seat. Oh, yeah, that's nice. Can I use Apple CarPlay to put some music on?

Sure. It's wireless. Pick something we all like. Okay, hold on. What's your Buick's Wi-Fi password? Buick Envision 2021. Oh, you should pick something stronger. That's really predictable.

That's a really tight spot. Don't worry. I used to hate parallel parking. Me too. Hey. Really outdid yourself. Yes, we did. The all-new Buick Envision.

An SUV built around you. All of you. Betty is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now, she's free to become Bear Hug Betty. Settle in, kids. You'll be there a while. Ooh, where you going? No charcoal grills are allowed. I'm not where you going I'm white I got you

illegally selling water with our permit on my property I'm uncomfortable alright y'all so we do this segment because it just gets crazy being black in America when you just trying to mind your own business, you just trying to handle your business, you get confronted by folk. A Nashville comedian, Joshua Black, says he was accused of breaking into cars at a downtown apartment complex because he's black. Watch this video that he dropped on social media.

Fuck you. First off, we had break-ins here in cars. They broke into my car. They did? A long time ago? Of course. They broke into my car five times. Hi, I live here. I've been living here for about five years. And then Karen walked up to me just now, and she was pestering me about what I'm doing following her. What am I doing?

She came all the way to my car, and now she's— Did you call security yet? I called one of the officers, yeah. What did he say? He didn't answer. I was trying to do a voice message. You want me to help you call security? Sure. How long y'all been living here?

Go right ahead and call security. How long y'all been living here? How long y'all been living here? You got anything to say or no? You just, I don't give a fuck. I don't give a fuck. I pull in here where I pay $1,700 a month. That's crazy. So the description was me of the person that broke into your car? Yeah. The hoodie, everything.

They had on a pink hoodie when they were breaking in? Why? I just mentioned it. I apologize. They had on a pink hoodie, black nails, and a backpack. It's like content creating. Don't bring your voice. I mean, she did this.

I'm not content creating. I'm a fucking influencer. If I wanted to, you'd be finished. Weird fuck. If you raise your voice. No. I get more likes. I'm a fucking influencer. If I wanted to, you'd be finished. Weird fuck. If you raise your voice. No, I get more likes. I get more likes if a white woman walks up to me and asks me what I'm doing in my apartment.

She's not white. All right. She's Mexican. All right. Good day, Karen. And where the fuck you are, goof. Fucking. All right. First of all, Joshua, man, next time, brother, you shoot this video, please shoot landscape.

I mean, that way it fills the whole screen. I keep telling you, please stop shooting this way. Because then you shoot this way. Come on, do the shot. I got to put I got to put that screen on the back of the video. No, no. Go to the preview shot, please. Come on. Preview shot, go to program. Preview program. Thank you. Okay? I got to do that shot. If y'all shoot landscape, horizontal, then, of course, I can get the full video in full screen. But see, Brianna, I guarantee you she like mayonnaise. We don't know that. I guarantee you she like mayonnaise.

She may or may not. That doesn't take away from it. I guarantee you she don't eat French's I guarantee she like mayonnaise. She may or may not. That doesn't take away from the idea. I guarantee she don't eat French's mustard. But go ahead. I don't know what she eats. Whatever she eats, she needs to change that because it's not helping her mental ability. And she says she's Mexican. So I guess, you know, white Mexicans can see.

Yeah, there are, there are, there are white Latinos. So, I mean, let's just be, there is, there is, but that doesn't mean just because you're Mexican, which is a white Mexican, that means it's okay for you to be racist. And I highly doubt when, you know, he said he broken, his car got broken in five times. So this is a thing that's been going on and on and on. So when she's saying they described in a hoodie is a thing that's been going on and on and on. So when she's saying they described it in a hoodie, so that one person is going to keep on wearing that same hoodie and it's going to be pink? Right.

On the Congo, that's the one that did me. He was like, oh. So the person was wearing a pink hoodie with a backpack. With black nails on top of it. Right, with black nails. What was that for that movie? What do they call those? What are we doing? Yes. Spirit fingers. Spirit fingers. Yeah. Yeah. He got a good man. It's it's really ridiculous.

And quite honestly, you know, she lives in the building, lives in the building. He needs to go to whoever's in charge and talk about how he's being harassed. I mean, we've got to start filing reports. I'm glad the documentation is there. I'm glad, you know, the viral TikTok video happened. But I want to make sure that he's getting the protection and respect that he needs in that building. So he's got to make sure, file a report on her so he can stop being harassed because this fit the description nonsense it's just it's ridiculous but at the end of the day if security does come and you get the wrong guard you just set up for more trouble and so i think at the end of the day he needs to make sure that he's getting protected within the building from people

like her man i'm telling you brianna go ahead go ahead i think i was gonna to say that the joke in itself was he said he paid $1,700 to live there. He didn't buy a house. That's another story. He's probably a millennial. We'll have that on a different day, different conversation. Yeah. But no, these things have been occurring over and over again. Clearly, their security is not strong. But no, it's you know, he these things have been occurring over and over again.

Clearly, their security is not strong. So who is he going to have to protect himself? You know, not let alone the property. Right. So, I mean, he could keep filing these complaints. But I'm pretty sure these people who are paying all this egregious money, you know, have complained about their car being broken in. It is documented, et cetera. And I don't think the property is doing much. So I would think him as an influencer, he probably should put his name of the apartment on blast so they can start stepping up. You know what's so funny? You know, you keep talking about,

you keep talking about millennials and stuff. When I was in Atlanta, Judge Gundy, it was so funny, we were interviewing her for the show, and one of her staffers on McCongo was like, "'Judge, why are you always criticizing millennials?' She said, "'Cause y'all do millennial shit!' Dog, I hollered, I hollered!" And that's what I'm saying.

Sometimes you gotta check them, she doing millennial shit. All right, we gotta go, all right, that's what I'm saying. Sometimes you got to check them. You're doing millennial shit. All right. We got to go. All right. That's right. Such as eating mayonnaise with your damn french fries. I'm team no mayo too, Roland.

I got to keep it real. No mayo for me either. Just keep it real. Hell no. Sorry, Brianna. Mad love, mad love. But I'm team no mayo. Man, if I was single and took you out and you had some mayonnaise with fries, you'd be paying for your own meal and getting an Uber home.

I'd be like, ooh, uh-uh, daddy. No, she got to go. No. Uh-uh. Uh-uh, can't bring her home, no mayonnaise with fries. What's wrong with you? Uh-uh. What is wrong with you? I know Gen X has to have more chivalry than that over some mayonnaise. Shit, you got mayonnaise and fries?

You didn't see Pulp Fiction? Oh, goodness. You're missing a great delicacy. I'm sorry to hear it. Oh, Jesus. Man. You know what? I'm going to call some preachers.

We're going to pray for you. I'll take the prayers. Not over mayonnaise, but I'll still take over the prayers. No, they're going to lay hands on you. We're going to get some holy water or something. All right, y'all. That is it for today's show. I am going to be in Houston tomorrow.

Game one. The World Series. My Houston Astros playing at home versus the Atlanta Braves. I will be there. So game time is 8.05 Eastern. So Avis is going to be sitting in for her brother. I might pop in in the first hour from Minute Maid

Park in Houston, but she's going to be holding down Fisk University. I'm going to see you guys on Wednesday on campus. I'm a scholar in residence there, so looking forward to that. And then Friday, I'll be in Indianapolis for the State of Black America panel. Eddie Glaude, Alicia Garza. We're talking about activism, so we're going to be live streaming it here on Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Saturday, Atlanta. I'm back. Game four, Astros versus the Braves. I'll be in Atlanta for that Sunday. I'll be in Los Angeles with Eric Dickerson for his golf tournament on Monday. And so we got a great week lined up. And so busy. We're on the road.

Appreciate it. Julia Malvo should leave early. I'm a Congo. Thank you so very much. And that millennial shit, Brittany, just, my God, did you just say man days with French fries. You'll love it one day never never. I'm telling you right now. Never.

Never. Jesus will be back. But eat mayonnaise with french fries. Because you'll be in heaven. You're absolutely right. You know, you're going to go to the gate of St. Peter. He'll be like, look at here. You can't bring that mayonnaise with french fries up in here. Girl, go on.

Go on. Call Lucifer. But it ain't going to work here. It ain't going to work. That's a hell delicacy. All right, y'all. I got to go. I'll see y'all tomorrow. It ain't gonna work. That's a hell delicacy. All right, y'all. I gotta go. I'll see y'all tomorrow.

Rolling Mark Unfiltered. Holla! НАПРЯЖЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА I am to be smart. Roland Martin's doing this every day. Oh, no punches! Thank you, Roland Martin, for always giving voice to the issues. Look for Roland Martin in the whirlwind, to quote Marcus Garvey again.

The video looks phenomenal, so I'm really excited to see it on my big screen. Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. See, there's a difference

between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. I gotta defer to the brilliance of Dr. Carr and to the brilliance of Dr. Carr and to the brilliance of the Black Star Network. I am rolling with Roland all the way.

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

Let's be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You can't be black on media and be scared. You dig? you. This is an iHeart Podcast.