#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Is Build Back Better Dead?, Desmond Tutu Dies, Celebrating Kwanzaa, Finding ways to Relax

Episode Date: December 28, 2021

12.27.2021 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Democrats want President Joe Biden to push his Build Back Better Plan through an executive order. We'll talk about if that could even work. Is the plan just dead, or will they save it by breaking it down into smaller bills?He was a South African civil rights campaigner, Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and a retired Anglican archbishop. Desmond Tutu died Sunday in Cape Town. We'll take a look a the life of the 90-year-old icon.Plus, it's the second day of Kwanzaa. The creator of the Pan-African celebration will be here to walk us through the meaning of the holiday.A Georgia man gets a great gift for Christmas, exoneration. A California navy veteran calls the police for help, but he gets arrested. Now he's suing.And now that the holidays are over, what are you doing to relax? In our Fit! Live! Win! segment, we'll tell you how hot yoga and Cryotherapy can help you soothe your stress away.#RolandMartinUnfiltered partners: Verizon | Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, now available in 50+ cities, is the fastest 5G in the world.* That means that downloads that used to take minutes now take seconds. 👉🏾https://bit.ly/30j6z9INissan | 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/3iP9zkv👀 Manage your calendar, follow along with recipes, catch up on news and more with Alexa smart displays + Stream music, order a pizza, control your smart home and more with Alexa smart speakers 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3ked4liBuick | 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. with it? I don't think so. Verizon lets you trade in your broken phone for a shiny new one. You break it, we upgrade it. You dunk it, doggy bone it, slam it, wham it, strawberry jam it, we upgrade it. Get a 5G phone on us with select plans. Every customer, current, new, or business. Because everyone deserves better. And with plans starting at just $35, better costs less than you think. Today is Monday, December 27, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin on Filter on the Black Star Network. Democrats say President Joe Biden should pass his Build Back Better plan using executive orders or break it up into smaller bills. Is that going to be the difference maker to pass the U.S.

Senate? Also, he was a small man with a huge voice and a big faith. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa passed away yesterday at the age of 90. We'll look back on his amazing life and legacy as one of the most powerful voices against the racist apartheid regime in South Africa. Also on today's show, it is the second day of Kwanzaa. We'll be joined by the creator of Kwanzaa right here to explain what it means all these years later. Also, a Georgia man gets a great gift. He's been exonerated and a California Navy veteran calls the cops for help, but he gets arrested. Now he's suing. Also, holidays are over.

Well, not really. Still got New Year's coming up. Have you ever tried cryotherapy, hot yoga? Our Fit Live Wednesday, and we'll break that whole thing down. All right, y'all. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered 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 food, the fat, the fine. Let's go. He's rollin' with Uncle Roro, yo It's Rollin' Martin, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now He's funky, fresh, he's real, the best, you know He's Rollin' Martin now No, he's rolling. Is it a passing a massive bill called Build Back Better? Some Democrats say maybe they should break the bills, make the break the massive packet into smaller bills to get it through the United States Senate. Here's Maryland Senator Ben Carton this weekend. Well, right now we don't have any Republican support. We have to recognize that we have to do this with Democratic votes alone.

I think our best strategy is to find a common spot where all Democrats can agree and move that legislation. That's what we're trying to do now. That's what the negotiations are about between the president and Joe Manchin and the Speaker of the House and the majority leader in the Senate. We are working towards getting Build Back Better agenda accomplished by 50 Democratic votes. We would love to have Republican support, but to date, we haven't seen any real movement by Republicans to help us. Now, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, of course, Washington State, she says that, you know what, President Biden, move it through executive order. That's what she's encouraging him to do. She is the head of the Progressive Caucus. The question is, can this actually be done? Democratic senators are going to be meeting this week to discuss policy priorities when the Senate returns next week. Let's go to my panel. Joining me, Dr. Julianne Malbeau.

She's the dean of the College of Ethics Studies at California State University in Los Angeles. Dr. Makongo Dabenga, professorial lecturer, School of International Service, American University. Reverend Jeff Carr, founder of the Infinity Fellowship. All right, folks, glad to have all three of you here. All right, Julianne, you're the economist. Your thoughts about this, the idea of breaking this massive bill into smaller bills. Does it make sense? At some level, it makes sense because we need the votes. Democrats need the votes and they can bring Manchin along on some things. They're not going to bring any Republicans along on anything. The flip side of that is some of the most important things for progressives are likely to be lost

when you start breaking this thing up. The child tax credit. They're just a long list of things that progressives have said they really wanted. And when they start breaking it up, some of those less popular things, less popular to conservative Democrats are going to fall between the cracks. The problem with that, Roland, as you know, is that the basically the young people and others who came out in droves to elect President Biden, they want some takeaways. They want student loan forgiveness. You know, they want their parents to be better off. And, you know, where you have all this macro conversation about how well the economy is doing. And of course, spending was up by 10%, according to MasterCard, by 10% over the holiday season of 2019 before we hit COVID. Spending is up, but everybody's not feeling it. And so if you start breaking it off,

basically corporate Democrats are going to be able to get their way and the rest of the folks are not here's Congresswoman JPL talking about this to Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC I hope that we go back to you know somewhere between that framework and what the house passed and let's get this through as quickly as possible but, I do have to say that I am an optimist and I'm always happy to be the optimist in chief of the Rachel Maddow show or, you know, anywhere else. But I am also very realistic. And I do think that we also can't just hang our hat on the legislation passing because we thought we had an agreement. Now we don't. And what's to say whether we're going to get an agreement? And so we did, the executive board

of the Progressive Caucus met two nights ago. We put out a statement today that comes from all of us at the executive board to say that we have to push on Build Back Better and we have to have a two-track strategy where we also ask the president of the United States to use the executive power that he has to implement as many executive actions as he can to immediately lower costs, to immediately address health care concerns because of surging Omicron, and to immediately show the world that we are serious about our leadership on climate change. Now, there may be some other things we come up with as well, but those were three categories that the executive board felt very strongly the president could immediately take executive action

on. And I'm very happy to say, Lawrence, that we saw the beginning of that with the moratorium on student debt being a pause. And we are calling for another cancellation of $50,000 on student debt being a pause and we are calling for another cancellation of fifty thousand dollars of student debt which would have an enormous positive impact on the economy but most importantly would give people some certainty in this time of tremendous economic uncertainty to put money in their pockets because it's going to be probably a little longer before we get built back better path. Omokongo, your thoughts? I think that she makes good points. My concern when you do these executive actions is that they can easily be reversed by a new administration. Now, of course, there are some things that could go into effect that people can need help on right now.

But case in point, when former President Trump had his executive order banning people from speaking on issues relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion, I would go to corporations and government groups and they will say, well, you can't really say this today. You can't really say that now because of this executive order. Of course, Biden came in and it changed and I was able to do everything I was doing before at these organizations. So one of the reasons why it's more important to focus on the legislative aspect of this is because it's going to be long term and it's going to be enshrined into law and it's going to be harder to go against those policies. But again, on the flip side, going off of what Representative Jayapal and others have

been saying, there are people who are hurting right now who can use whatever is going to happen with these executive orders right now or for the next year. Say they do something on the child tax credit, which ended, you know, the last payment just went out, right? Say if they do something on that and people start getting that again immediately. So I understand, but if they're going to do it, they should focus on the things that are going to get immediate help to the people as opposed to being implemented six months down the line because of technicalities and logistics. Jeff. Oh, gotcha, man. Can y'all hear me? Yes, go ahead. Happy holidays. Good to be here with you all during this season to see everybody

healthy and glowing. When we talk about child rearing, I always think about things in two contexts. One is child rearing and one is the game of life. When I talk about child rearing, I always think about things in two contexts. One is child rearing and one is the game of life. When I think about child rearing, there's a point where when you're teaching them how to use the potty, you have to look them square in the eye when they're playing and say, listen, it's time to do it or get off the pot. I think when we talk about America, many people who had high expectations for the Democratic Party being in power now and for us seeing a new wave of compassion and a new wave of action, whether it was a COVID response or whether it was a new economic stimulus. Now people are saying to Democrats, hey, it's time to do something or get off the pot. We have been waiting. We've been

waiting for relief from student loans. And yes, we have a moratorium on student loan payback right now, but that expires in May. What happens after that? We haven't seen the promises come through with student loan forgiveness. We have not seen paid family leave. Every time we talk about Build Back Better, everything that seemed to be the most popular components has been hacked away little by little. When you're in the context of the game of life, I think about baseball as a metaphor. And anytime you're rooting for the home team, every batter that gets up wants to hit a home run immediately. Joe Biden wanted to hit a home run. And on several levels in terms of taking action immediately in the first 100 days, he did. He got some home runs. He got some triples.

But at this point, maybe it's time to just focus on getting a base hit. Sometimes you're going to get a walk. But if you don't get something to inspire the home team, you risk losing momentum. And in this case, what we're talking about is getting something done by any and all means necessary. If there are parts that you can get done with an executive order, so be it. If there's parts that you can parcel out into legislation, so be it. It looks like we're at a space of paralysis in terms of passing the entire package. And we run the risk of passing a package that has been so hacked out, so cannibalized that it's not even what everybody got excited about. So this is the crossroads. I say at this point, it's time to do whatever you can do in any context

you can do it to get something done so that we can see some momentum toward everyone truly building building back better. Can't hear you, Roland. That's about one of the things that's important for us to continue to put the pressure on Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and doing what the Poor People's Campaign has been doing, and that is using folks from West Virginia to make the pressure on Senator Joe Manchin in West Virginia and doing what the Poor People's Campaign has been doing, and that is using folks from West Virginia to make the case. And here are some of the things that they have been saying and doing. You know,

we're ready to move on from the coal industry. We only have about 10,000 miners. He's going to sacrifice 98% of us to keep the same, telling us, well, I can't change nothing. I've got to keep the status quo. Well, you know, West Virginians, we're beyond the status quo.

We're at the bottom trying to fall. We're on fire trying to get his attention. You should stand with the ordinary people of West Virginia and the country. West Virginians and the rest of the country deserve jobs that don't make us choose between employment and our health and our environment. Support the Build Better Act with us. Stand with us, Joe Manchin. Take a step forward and take your place in history. Everybody knows ours is one of the poorest states in the country. It's a damn shame that the senior senator, a Democrat, cannot support his state and the people in his state. Nobody has more to gain in terms of good union family sustaining jobs than West Virginia.

Everybody knows his major contributions are coal and oil and gas and the fossil fuel industry, while he pays no attention to the poor people and the working people in his state. And I don't think America knows the impact this bill will have. If the children are cared for and the women and men who work can afford daycare, then America will get back to work. We'll begin to prosper and we'll see things change he says he ain't heard from us julian julie julian go ahead oh no i think these people in virginia west virginia are saying the right things i think it's really important to hear from them because Mr. Manchin behaves as if he has the support of his state. And at some level he does. But at some level you're hearing from people.

And we have to give kudos to Reverend Barber who has done the work. We're hearing from people who are saying coal is dying. There is not that much more coal left and not many more coal miners left. As the sister just said a few minutes ago, you're going to sacrifice all of us, hundreds of thousands of us, because you have 2,000 coal miners left. I mean, this does not make economic sense. It does not make political sense. It makes predatory capitalist sense. And that's what Joe Manchin is all about. Well, that is certainly the case.

And so we'll see what happens next all right folks gotta go to break we come back more a roland martin unfiltered on the black star network including uh a man who got got exonerated as a result uh on the christmas holidays but also a navy veteran out of california who is suing after he called the cops for help, he ends up getting arrested. Discuss that next in Roller Mudder. so so Thank you. folks black star network is here i'm real uh revolutionary right now black media he makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of black America,

Roller. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be black-owned media

and be scape. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? you want me to do something crazy but i don't know what to do i'd rather just sit here hi this is cheryl lee ralph and you are watching Roland Martin, unfiltered. I mean, could it be any other way? Really, it's Roland Martin. © BF-WATCH TV 2021 Folks, yesterday we got the sad news out of South Africa that Archbishop Desmond Tutu passed away at the age of 90 years old.

He was one of the fiercest forces speaking out against apartheid over the last several decades. When you think about central figures of the 20th century, 21st century, you think of Nelson Mandela, but you also think of Winnie Mandela and indeed Desmond Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was a small man who loved to laugh, but he was fierce when it came to preaching. And he was one of those voices, again,

who spoke out against apartheid and who was known all around the world for being a fierce figure. But he didn't just speak out against apartheid. After the African National Congress took over the country, he was just as critical of them for their management of the country. And he was very vocal against several several ANC leaders saying that their leadership was even worse than the apartheid regime because they were black. He was someone, again, who preached the word of God, the Anglican Church. They've they, of course, they've been honoring him as well. There's going to be a week of mourning in South Africa as a result of his passing.

Tributes have been pouring in since the news broke yesterday of his passing as well. Folks have been visiting the home, his home, visiting with his family. The president of the country has done so as well. And again, he was, you know, quite the voice, even though he was up in age, he also appeal to young folks as well. This is him speaking just a few years ago to the One Young World Conference. Here's just some of what Bishop Desmond Tutu had to say. Good evening. Oh, that's lousy.

Hello. Well, despite all appearances to the contrary, I am old. A few years ago they named a school after me in the Netherlands. That's not the important thing. The school was celebrating its 400th anniversary and my wife and I went to this little village in Holland and when we arrived a little girl came up to me and said, were you here when the school started? I thought I knew I was decrepit but not quite quite that decrepit well why have I come I have come actually because it is a very great privilege for me and

the privilege is I want to salute you for you are a bunch of human beings. I mean you have amongst you people who are already leaders. The youngest racing pilot. You have a young man who is going to be the youngest to walk to the Arctic North Pole. It's cold yet. I don't know what it would be like there. And then you gave a warm clap for someone who survived the Haiti disaster.

You have some people here who are already investment bankers. Fantastic. And I come to salute you. I come because young people are such a fantastic group of people. You dream, you dream dreams. You dream dreams of a world that is without war. You dream dreams and you say, let us make poverty history. And I get very upset with you media.

I get very upset with you because you go around telling people what is only part of the truth. You say, just look at these young people who go off the rails. Of course there are young people who do go off the rails. But it's amazing. It's amazing. You know, when I was growing up, the only drug they had around was marijuana. What about today?

You young people are exposed to some of the most horrendous things. Cocaine, all of the rough stuff, man. And you are people who are exposed to some of the most awful, pressured advertising. They tell you, if you want to be cool, man, you've got to buy this, you've got to buy the other, you've got to buy... When I was growing up, we didn't have internet. And I'm told, I'm told, I'm told there are some extraordinary things you can see on the internet. Oy, oy, oy, oy.

I don't know. I haven't seen them. I have been told. And what happens? Young people like yourselves are exposed to all of these pressures. What ought to surprise us is not that some young people succumb and go off the rails. What should be surprising us? What should be making us say, they really are fantastic, is that so many don't. What should be surprising us? What should be surprising us?

They really are fantastic, is that so many don't. And I've visited a number of poor countries. us. I've visited a number of poor countries. I'm going to go to Reverend Jeff Carr. He was a strong moral voice desperately needed at a very difficult time in South Africa. Working away hidden.

Teaching schools in far remote villages. Yeah, we got you, Reverend Cargill. Oh, we got me here. Okay. I think you summed it up very well, Roland. When I think about Bishop Desmond Tutu,

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, I think about the experiences that I had with him indirectly, having not ever met the man physically, but observing him as a mentor from afar, coming out of high school at the height of the apartheid, the anti-apartheid movement, going and traveling when Nelson Mandela got out of jail to Atlanta to hear him speak at a massive stadium at Georgia Tech in my early 20s when I'd just gotten out of school, following the work of this Nobel laureate, listening to his words, adapting and adopting some of his humor, seeing him as very much a template or a model for what we all strive to do,

hopefully when we're in touch with our divine purpose. I think Vine Deloria Jr., one of the great First Nations activists, summed it up pretty clearly when he talked about the difference between spirituality and religion. He said, religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for people who've already been there. So when we talk about the transcendent energy in someone like a Desmond Tutu, we talk about the legacy that we pour libations to. We talk about the legacy of his joyfulness, the legacy of his intellect, the legacy of his ability to connect with so many people. And even as we talk about that, there are going to be some conversations that come up. They already emerged on something that Bishop Tutu himself said he pretty much didn't fool with,

and that's the internet. So we have the voices on the internet reminding us of the clips from the Justice and Reconciliation Committee, where he begged Winnie Mandela, sister Winnie Mandela, to ask for forgiveness and to apologize. That didn't sit well with a lot of people. It still doesn't sit well with a lot of people. Some people would look at that and say, well, no, here's fault to point out. But I always notice that the largest detractors are the people who don't have anywhere close to the legacy of the people that they're criticizing. So I will say that the larger legacy of this giant, this elder who made it to the ripe age of 90, is that you've got to love beyond. You've got to commit to love and you've got to put yourself in a place of non-neutrality. I'll close with this. When I'm teaching spirituality to my students and people in world religion classes, I always

point out a great book by Dr. David Hawkins. It's called Power Versus Force. And it talks about neutrality being a particularly high vibration because it keeps you in a space where you can make decisions from a good place. When you talk about neutrality in terms of injustice, that's a different thing altogether. And one great quote that I pulled that Bishop Tutu put into the world is this. If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. So I'm so thankful for the life and legacy of this strong brother and this leader. And may he continue to inspire us now that he has transitioned to the space of life after life to live and walk in our divine purposes as

well. He was indeed a significant voice. So I want to bring in John Hope Bryant, founder of Operation Hope. John, of course, posted a number of images and thoughts and reflections about Bishop Tutu yesterday and today on his social media account. Your path often crossed, John, you called him a supporter of your work, but also a protector there as well. Just share us your thoughts and reflections of this small but giant of a man. Yeah, I'm actually, thanks for doing this, Roland. I'm actually sitting here trying to find my emails. For those who think that Archbishop Desmond Tutu, he asked me to call him Arch, by the way. He asked his friends to call him Arch. ipad so for those who didn't think that he was part of the maybe at a time when he did that interview he was not on the internet so to speak but in 2018 2019 he was emailing me from his ipad

um with pretty humorous stuff by the way he had a wonderful sense of humor my relationship with him i'm trying to find this when i'm talking to you roland my relationship with him um really changed over time and let me first say that i met him reputationally i think he trusted me because of my relationship with ambassador andrew young um and before that i knew i knew mandela just very modestly but um i think that's because he knew i was ambassador young's guy he trusted me and then we worked together on global dignity together with the crown prince of norway and checking him out of finland and we were there's a funny clip you should show later on where doesn't tutu and i are dancing on stage in Finland at the, there's a song, I can't remember the name of the song, it was on Dignity. You can find it on YouTube. And when you first see it, he's very

stiff. He has given his proper speech. He was the president of Finland. He was the Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Desmond Tutu that we all know, the freedom fighter, the spiritual leader. I don't know if i started dancing first or he started dancing first we were the only two brothers on stage um but at some point one of us started rocking and then you'll see in the video the other started rocking i don't want to give myself credit for getting desmond tutu to relax arch but it probably was him that started dancing because he's got that south african joy and after a while roland you'll see in this video he's i mean he is in it um this was the two sides of arch of archbishop desmond tutu um this formal intellectual spiritual giant that was just talked about in very eloquent terms.

And then this over time I got to know him more as a human being, as a person, who had an incredible sense of humor, who was really funny, who took life seriously but never himself seriously. I've learned that lesson from him and Ambassador Young, never take yourself too seriously. And then he talked talking about the work of operation hope and how that was he thought the next generation of what south africa needed uh this economic empowerment piece and so he helped me open the door in south africa really i was trusted in south africa because of him. And there's a lot of stuff on the internet about that.

I won't take up time on that. But he was my credibility in South Africa. He opened doors. He gave us cover. And we helped tens of thousands of struggling women there to get self-reliance because he thought that the journey was not over. The movement, this was a decade or more ago more ago rolling he thought the next movement was economics that the color in South Africa was not black or white it was the color of poverty or wealth the lack thereof and that would give people some measure of

self-determination and freedom so he was a multi did the multi-dimensional person and he had again a ferocious ferocious sense of humor i just found a text from him from april 2017 i don't know if you can see that rolling i mean that's an that's an ipad note okay and it might even say from my ipad yeah yeah we actually see it thank you young friend i trust you you always had a blessed and happy easter yeah we see it yeah yeah sorry about that yeah so uh and i don't know what else it says i hope it's nothing private uh yeah yeah you know it'll be nice to see you when you're with you when you're here so uh you know we had this incredible relationship and we got i got

engaged at um a game park in south africa he called to wish me and Chetra his best. And I even talked to him when he was in the hospital. But once he transitioned completely, this was before the pandemic. He slowed down a lot. Then his assistants did a lot of his work. But he still was engaged and he still responded. And he never gave up. He never gave in. He never stopped fighting for justice. He never stopped fighting for truth. One of the things that, um, when you talk about the economic piece,

that was something that, uh, like I say, he was highly critical of the ANC after they took over. Uh, he said, because black South Africans, uh, because black South Africans needed an economic boost, and he felt that the corruption that was existing, that they were actually wasting what the people handed them by giving them power. And so he was not going to be shy about criticizing white leaders under apartheid or black leaders uh in the anc correct and i also want to i want to go back to something that the good brother said before me um and he was so eloquent eloquent and elegant elegant and what he said about about archbishop but there was a misunderstanding i think about um the whole thing with Ms. Mandela, with Winnie.

Let's keep in mind that Mr. Mandela divorced Winnie. We're not in their relationship. We don't know what happened, but he divorced Winnie. So don't think that there was not a backstory conversation going on about what people thought was the right way to approach justice. And, you know, there's different styles to do everything. You and I talk about the Martin Luther King style and the Malcolm X style all the time and other styles of getting things done, the protest style from the partnership style. And I can see Archbishop Desmond Tutu saying, I love you, Winnie, but this was wrong.

I love you, Winnie, but we are winning the battles here, not winning the war. This is not the way. We don't do to others what they're doing to us. So I think that was a complicated set of relationships. And I think we should trust that Archbishop followed his heart. And as he always did, spoke truth to power, no matter what the repercussions no matter what anybody thought about it even though this is economic thing you're talking about i mean he wasn't talking about economics from the comforts of another country he was talking about the the economic condition of in the economic exploitation from south africa where he lived. And this was well after the apartheid movement had ended or transitioned, I'm sorry.

And he could have just chilled as we would say. He wouldn't have it. And man, wouldn't it be beautiful to have people like that in power today who spoke truth to power. President Bill Clinton once said, Roland, it's hard to get somebody to agree to the truth when the lie is paying their paycheck. And the lie never paid Archbishop Desmond Tutu a dime. He wouldn't let me pay him even for his expenses.

He just, he wanted to be independent of everything and do what was right in his own his own heart and soul uh archbishop uh thabo magoba um talked to one of the local tv on local outlets in south africa and he talked about the final moments uh with bishop desmond to to listen to this what is your last moment something your last words your last moments words that you shared with the conversation it was mainly a prayer really there's a powerful prayer in the and you can write when you pray with somebody who are dying from the point of death and you just read prayers and they end up giving you to start Amen, Hallelujah. Basically we're handing over everything to God. It's not about him, it's not about me, but it's up to God. That was the thing there, Dr. Julian Malvo. He was a strong person of faith. Tim, and I agree with Brother Bryant about his ability to speak to power,

even when it was uncomfortable, even when he was speaking to other Black people about the abuses, frankly, that we saw with A&C. And I'm not in it in terms of, I don't live in South Africa. I've been there a couple of times. But the fact is that there was an opportunity that might have been squandered in terms of some of the things that occurred. What I think of mostly importantly about. Well, first of all, I had the pleasure of meeting Archbishop Tutu a couple of times. And what I enjoyed about him was just his humor. I mean, he enjoyed life. And that's something that I think that we in Black America, we always talk about with the challenges we face. Enslaved people found joy. And Archbishop Tutu found joy. I mean, even as

he protested, he found joy. And that's something I think Betty Shabazz used to say, find the good and praise it. is that he got that and he tried to share that. And, you know, while Black South Africans had the political power, they did not have the economic power. And I think that's also the case in places like Atlanta and other places where Black people have seized political power, but not economic power. It really gives us a lot to think about. But all I can say about Archbishop Tutu is just thinking about him makes me smile. This is a photo from 2009. I had an opportunity to emcee the Black Church Bowl at the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009. Bishop Tutu was one of the folks who was honored. This was one of the photos

that I found with my brother, his wife, and there are others that I'm actually looking through all my archives because we were all backstage. That was a thing on Macongo. He was indeed a small man, but his

laugh was unmistakable. And that was one of the things that I enjoyed in terms of chatting with him. Yeah. I mean, the sense of humor is legendary. I can't think of anyone who I've spoken to who hasn't mentioned that before. And when you think about what he went through and what his people went through, and to have that as he aged gracefully, it's just really amazing. And it's really a lesson for all of us. One of the things that's also important to me, you know, fighting against apartheid was the first social justice campaign I can remember being involved in. My parents had me out there when I was like seven years old with signs, you know, fighting for the end of that regime. And I have the image of him dancing in the streets when Mandela was released and the like.

But I think it's also important to remember that he was an international icon, not only just because of what he did in South Africa, but the causes that he championed across the globe. He was very pro-Palestinian, which, you know, got the ire of many from the Israeli government who didn't like some of his stances there. He was also a big advocate for the LGBTQ plus community. He said, if gay people aren't allowed in heaven, that's not a place I want to go to. I'd rather go to the other place. Right. And he was also a big advocate for climate change as well. And he wanted to make sure that some of the pipeline that we're having here from the U.S. to Canada wasn't going to happen because he saw how that would affect indigenous rights.

So he is somebody who realized, as Dr. King said, that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And he fought for that. And that's why there are so many people who are not engaged in the South Africa movement for freedom who know who this man is because of the stances that he took in support of them as well. Black Lives Matter, the list goes on and on. Whatever there was in injustice, he was right there fighting for it. And we should all be mindful of that and really carry on that legacy as well. John, I first met him years ago when he was honored at the Trumpet Awards in Atlanta. And I remember it was a long night. I swear the taping took forever. One of the things that Tutu said there was, he thanked Black America.

And what he said to every African American who was sitting in that room, he said, "'Y'all need to understand. He said, when we were children, we would be in the trees and playing. And he said he remembered an image of a torn Ebony magazine that was on the ground. And he said it was that image, seeing how African Americans were living, that inspired and gave them hope there in South Africa. Correct. And as usual, Roland, you are ahead of your time in the way you're framing and seeing

things. By the way, I want to give respect to Dr. Malvo. Dr. Malvo, one of our few Black economists in this country who does an extraordinary job. I don't want to waste time reading the quote. I guess you can find it online if you're looking for it. But when he was 84 years old, rolling to this point, after we had talked about dignity and how important that was in the world, it was pretty non-controversial to talk about dignity. I mean, it translates important that was in the world, it was pretty non-controversial talk about dignity. I mean, it translates in every country in the world. And we started

talking about this more difficult issue of capitalism, which, you know, and money, which is religion. People confuse in our church, in the Black church, people would say, oh, the money is evil. And then he would correct and say, no, no, no. The love of money is evil, Desmond Tucci would say, Archbishop. And he wanted to bring this conversation that he thought had succeeded in pivoting Blacks in America into the next battle for freedom, the economic battle. I call it civil rights.

He wanted to bring that conversation to South Africa. And so I wrote a book that needed credibility. It's called The Memo. And I went to Archbishop and I said, this is I know this is not your topic. And you may actually think you want to end our friendship now. I'm talking about capitalism, free enterprise, economics, ownership and opportunities, a way to a mechanism honorably to set us free. And he said, no, no, no, no, no. You misunderstand me myself. And I'm going to see if I can just read one line from his quote. He said, we regrettably live in a system of haves and have nots.

And then he goes on. Our creators intended each of us to share in the earth's bounty. None of us should be without the means to achieve prosperity and wellness. And he goes on. But then, so I asked him to just confirm, because this came from his secretary, Roland, just confirm that this is what you want me to say. He said more than this. And he wrote this back. Thanks.

Go with it. God bless you. Arch. Arch. Now, this is, Arch. This is May. Can you see that? May 2017. Am I doing that right? Yeah. Yeah.

May 2017. So that makes him, what, 86 when he did that? Yep. Still, I mean, just banging on the walls of justice, banging on the door saying, let my people in. He's like, fine, that was great. We finished with apartheid, great. The new problem in South Africa and Africa is poverty. Let's now deal with that. And he wanted to be an instigator for good.

And that's why he gave me that quote. And that's why he pushed that and other things we were doing there. And just me a lot of other people but um yeah he's ahead of his time truly uh an extraordinary figure um i'm going to uh close out our segment um on bishop desmond tutu before we go to break uh uh this was uh a the number of videos with him with the dalai lama and first of all i mean you want to see the two two individuals uh loving on each other laughing uh each other uh but to john's point uh this to julian's point uh here is uh archbishop desmond tutu uh talk with the joy. So now here you, Tutu, my long time my friend, you see you have I think great potential.

Potential? Great potential, yes. I mean, great potential, you see, to create more happier humanity. Yes. So even, you see, just look, you see your face, I think many people, you always loving, always joyful. That itself, very positive message. Itu sendiri adalah pesanan yang positif. Kadang-kadang, jika saya berkata begitu, pemimpin politik atau pemimpin rohani, mereka akan melihat muka mereka yang serius. Selepas mereka melihat muka mereka yang serius,

mereka akan berterima kasih. Sedikit-sedikit. Tidak, tidak. Tidak. little little little hesitant hesitant so see your face itself this is something it's a big noosh and sometimes you see your eyes look

big round that sometimes scares me so I really appreciate you come and join us. Join us. He said something, John,

in that interview that I thought was interesting. Again, it's an amazing interview. And he said, Dalai Lama said, the interviewer asked him a question about both of them thinking about death the Dalai Lama said I would hope that the last image I would have before I leave would be his face and that smile yeah and by the way yeah no go ahead go ahead I know you're wrapping up I found him dancing your time for this yeah I don't know if I do that you

do this yeah text me the link I was looking forward to why you were talking yeah I'll just text it to you can put it on your show later or whatever yeah if it is inspiring you guys inspiring us even in in physical death he's been promoted he's gone he's chilling in heaven and we still dealing with taxes well bishop desmond tutu was indeed uh an amazing man we want to pay tribute to him for an extraordinary life passed with the age of 90 years old john hope brown i, I appreciate it, man. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Love and light. Folks, got to go to a break.

We come back. We'll talk with the founder of Kwanzaa right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. so Thank you. I believe that people our age have lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing. The challenges, there's so many of them and they're complex and we need to be moving to address them. But I'm able to say, watch out, Tiffany. I know this road. That is so freaking dope I'm Israel Houghton. Apparently the other message I did was not fun enough. So this is fun You are watching Roland Martin my man unfiltered. All right, folks. Here's this young man here is missing.

We've got a black and missing segment that we feature every day. 14-year-old Isaac Martis left his Roseville, Minnesota home for school on December 14th. He never arrived and has not been heard from since. Isaac is 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighs 110 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a puffy gray coat with a red hooded sweatshirt underneath, black sweatpants, a Minnesota Twins winter stocking cap, and a Minnesota Twins backpack. If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact the Roseville Minnesota Police Department at 651-767-0640, 651-767-0640.

Folks, the CDC, they've now revised their rules and regulations regarding folks who are asymptomatic of COVID moving in from 10 days to five days. We wanted to get an explanation of what this means. Joining us now is Dr. Justin Turner, CEO of TurnerCare. Doc, glad to have you here. You're there, of course, out of Mississippi. And so can you explain what this really means now going from 10 to five days? It is for people who are not showing symptoms or those who are showing symptoms. Well, first of all, thank you so much, Roland Martin, for having me on your show.

Yes, this news has come out and it's something that has been looked at and kind of investigated going on a couple of weeks now amid the surge of Omicron. And a lot of the evidence is basically suggesting that the Omicron variant is not as severe compared to the Delta strain. And it also appears to be less likely to cause hospital hospitalizations, less likely to cause deaths. So it looks like most people who are spreading COVID spread it within the first five days. So a lot of the guidelines are centered around if someone has COVID now, and we already see that the predominant strain, it appears to be Omicron. We saw it overseas and now we're seeing it in the United States. So very soon, Omicron is going to be the

majority of the cases. So with that being said, if someone has COVID, the prior guidelines used to be isolating and quarantining for 10, four days. But now if someone is asymptomatic, that quarantine time can be reduced to five days. But they also are saying after those five days still stay masked up as you're interacting with people. Yeah. So reduce the five days, the first five days, because like I said, in that window, that's the time where patients are more likely to possibly spread disease. After that five days, you can leave quarantine, but you still need to be masked up for an additional five days. And like I said, during that time, you're less likely to spread it. So that's part of the guideline is first reducing from what we previously knew was 10 days down to five days. Now, we also know that

with the winter surge, we're going to likely see the increased cases, the increased hospitalizations and what follows hospitalizations, deaths. We also see the hospital systems beginning to be overwhelmed. We're already seeing that again. So what does that lead to? It leads to staff shortages, nursing shortages, respiratory therapy shortages, and those shortages just basically overburden the healthcare system and make it very difficult for us to be able to treat patients. You can look in the hospital and see rooms available,

but if you don't have staff to take care of them, then what can you do? So being able to reduce the amount of days that nurses and healthcare personnel has to be out can help, you know, with our ability to provide quality care, help with the economy. You know, there are several airlines that had to cancel a whole bunch of flights not too long ago. So this new information, you know, appears to be something that's going to definitely be helpful because the Omicron does not appear to be as deadly as the Delta strain. And we also appear to see a more rapid onset of action of disease, whereas the people who are spread are not usually doing it within the first few days. All right, then. Dr. Turner, we appreciate you breaking it down for us. Thanks a lot. Yes, sir. Glad you're doing better. All right. Yeah. Getting there. Still got

a little cough, but we certainly are getting there. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Yes, sir. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it, folks. Today is day for having me I appreciate it folks today is day two of Kawanza of course began in 1966 it was founded by our next guest I'm Linda Koringa who joins us right now I was glad to chat with you doc how you doing yes and my last name is my first name Maulana that's a lot ofana. My bad. My bad. Good. It's good to see you again. And thanks for the invitation. It's always good to see and listen to you. Thanks for the good work you do. I mean, not just speaking truth to the people. I think that's priority.

Well, that's the only way we roll. That's how we do it every single day. And so this is a seven day celebration, which begins the day after Christmas, December 26. I always get a kick out of folk who whine and complain, who say this is a made up holiday. All holidays are made up. So I always get a kick out of that. I'm sure I'm sure that one also gets you to laughing and chuckling as well. Well, I don't spend any time on it because it takes time away from talking about what the holiday is. Since everybody knows anything that we do has been thought about and we do it. Some people do less thought. I did a lot. This is a result of intellectual research of many cultures, many languages, and putting this together as an intellectual project

so it's not an invention it is a creation an intellectual creation and people have to get used to that a lot of times people don't see black people as creating right there's the intellectual creation and we just have to deal with that but i don't like to spend a lot of time with that uh role i'd like to talk about the philosophy behind Kwanzaa, which is Kau'ita, about what it means, the theme for this year, which has to do with practicing Kwanzaa and the seven principles,

ensuring the wellbeing of the world. What a beautiful topic to talk about in this day when there's so much trouble, COVID pandemic, the attacks on democracy and our voting rights, right? War and conflict everywhere, failing economies, right? Massive immigration and population displacement. Those are things that we have to deal with and we can't deal with frivolities, right? Some things aren't even

worth responding to. So I would just like to stop right here and see if we could go forward. And if you have- Well, that's why I said, that's why I laugh at him. You talk about the amount of research that was put into it. How long was this process that you went through? When did it start before it eventually becomes Kwanzaa in 1966? Well, I started studying African cultures in college, right? Especially in community college. Then I went to UCLA and I met a lot of continental Africans, and I did self-study of Swahili. I chose Swahili because it was Pan-African. It's the most widely spread African language. I don't claim any ethnic group. I don't do no genealogy. I claim the whole of Africa as my heritage and all Africans as part of our extended family. So I did this research over a long period of time during college. And then when I got out of the university,

I studied even more. And I did this in the early 60s. I left college, I should say university, in order to join the movement, right? And when I left the university, I'm confronted with Dr. Bethune's question. She said, knowledge is a prime need of the hour, but people want to know what will you do with your knowledge? And she said, it's up to us who know to discover the dawn and then share it with the masses of our people and our youth who need it most. And so I was trying to create an institution that would laugh, that would aid the struggle. So Kwanzaa became first an act of freedom. Then it became an instrument of freedom and finally a celebration of freedom. It's an act of freedom in that we, as a matter of self-determination, developed it. And we didn't ask permission.

We didn't seek approval from city government or state government or federal government. We declared it and then practiced it and took it around the world so that now it is celebrated by millions throughout the world African community. So it's an act of freedom. And it's an act of freedom breaking away from the culture dominance of Europeans, right? And speaking our own special culture truth, making our own unique contribution to how we understand the world and to how we imagine a new future for ourselves in humanity. And it's an instrument of freedom because it raises consciousness. It was constructed so we would engage. One of the main reasons I created Kwanzaa is so we would have a time

when more than any other time, we would talk about being African in the world. And what does it mean? What is our responsibility being Africans, fathers and mothers of human civilization and humanity, sons and daughters of the Holocaust of enslavement, authors and heirs of the reaffirmation of our Africanness and our social justice tradition and tradition of struggle in the 60s. What does that mean? What responsibility does it impose on us?

And again, this Kwanzaa create this context for talking about Africa, the moral idea of Africa, the social responsibility of being African in the world. And finally, of course, there's a celebration of freedom, the celebration of us being free from, you know, restrictive ideas that come from you, the catechism of impossibility. We broke through all that and began to speak our own special culture truth.

How did you settle on the seven principles? How did we do it? How did you settle on the seven principles? Oh, we do it? How did you settle on the seven principles? Oh, well, I studied African cultures and I asked myself, what is the social glue and cement that holds these cultures together, which gives them the humanity, humanitarian character. Right. And it gives them a vitality. And I settled on the idea that it was their communitarian values, right? And then I chose seven because seven has a spiritual and ethical dimension in African culture, right?

And it's also manageable in terms of learning, right? And so those were the things I saw, you know, Umoja, unity, Kujichagulia, self-determination, Ujima, collective work and responsibility, Ujamaa, cooperative economics, Nia, purpose, Kuumba, creativity, and Imani, faith. All of those seem to me to represent values we need to ground ourselves, orient ourselves, and use as they are being used to direct our lives toward good and expansive ends. And I'm just very pleased with how Black people have embraced this and how it is, as I said, become a world holiday celebrated on every continent in the world throughout the world African community. Are you surprised when you see members of Congress posting Kwanzaa messages. Now you're seeing major corporations doing commercials as well, touting Kwanzaa? Not really, because I believe that

if Black people embrace and speak their own special culture Jew and reaffirm their equality, reaffirm the fact that there's no people superior to us, no people more chosen, no people more holy, no people more sacred and worthy of life and a good life. If they stand up and do that, people respect that. And they respect the appreciation that people have, that Black people have for Kwanwanzaa and therefore i would expect it the other thing i think roland is that there are two aspects to every great message right and you can see that in religious faith there is a particular message that speaks to the people who create it and who first know it right but then it has a message also that is universal. So that Kwanzaa and the

message, Kawaida message, speaks both to African people and the best of what it means to be both African and human in the fullest sense. And people can identify with that human aspect of it. So who can be against Umoja or unity? that we should have unity in our family, in our community, in our nation, in our world African community? Who can deny that except haters and handmaidens and hirelings of the dominant society? And who can deny the right and responsibility of self-determination to define ourselves, to name ourselves, to create for ourselves, and to speak for ourselves, and to raise images above the earth that reflect our capacity for human greatness, and to know it is good, and to announce that it is good. Self-determination,

this is a fundamental human right. It's the right of freedom. And then who can deny, Ujima, that we need to work to build a good community, society, and world we want and deserve to live in, right? This is so important. The same with Ujima Cooper be more equitably distributed, not only in our community, but in the society and in the world. That's a major issue with the world today, the increasing gap between the poor and the rich. It's obscene the kind of wealth that people have gotten at the suffering and oppression and occupation of other people's land and the seizure of their resources and the misuse and exploitation of labor. And if you're a moral person, how could you? And one of the things I wanted to say, and I hope you'll let me do this, I want to just pay homage to Archbishop Desmond Tutu y'all were talking about. And this is one of the main issues he was talking about in South Africa, in the world, the gap between the rich and the poor.

He was a spokesperson for the vulnerable. And we know that. And Kawida teaches us, and this is a fundamental conversation in Karanza, that we measure the moral quality of any society by how it treats its most vulnerable people. And therefore, in our sacred text, it says, you know, give food to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, and a boat to those without one. Be a father for the orphan, a mother for the timid, a caretaker for the sick, a shelter for the battered, a raft for the drowning, and a ladder for those trapped in the pit of despair. So we say that. And I like Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I met him twice, one at a reception for that mayor Tom Bradley, was mayor of Los Angeles, and then we brought him to Cal State Long Beach, my university where I teach at. I'm professor and chair of the Department of

Africana Studies there. And I enjoyed talking with him. And y'all are right. He was a man of joy and justice, right? And he reminds me of the Odu Ifa, sacred text of Yoruba land, ancient text that says, let's do things with joy, for surely humans have been chosen, divinely chosen, to bring good into the world. And this is a fundamental mission and meaning of human life. And I think he embodied that. He did good with joy. And Odu said, if you're really a good person, you love doing good. You just don't do it because you can do good and you taint it by the attitude you have by. But he enjoyed doing it. And he was a spokesperson for the oppressed in every land. The gentleman that spoke about how he stood up and was even whitelisted for it, for speaking on behalf

of the Palestinians, how he supported LGBTQ rights, and how he took the case of the poor and the vulnerable and the suffering people around the world and spoke a truth for them. And so we have to honor him for that. May the joy he brought and the good he left last forever. And may all his family, friends, and loved ones be blessed with consolation, courage, and peace. For surely he has risen in radiance in the heavens and now sits in the sacred circle of the ancestors among the doers of good, the righteous, and the rightfully rewarded. Hoche, as we say in Ka'wida philosophy.

Let's go to my panelists. First up, Dr. Julianne Malveaux. Habari Gane, Maulana. I didn't got you. Dr. Julianne Malveaux's so good to see you. You know, I was on my way to LA and I got to see you on Roland. You know we're supposed to get together. We'll do it in the new year, okay? We'll absolutely do it. But I want to just, first of all, I want to thank you.

I want to thank you for Kwanzaa. I want to thank you. I try to disabuse my melanin deficient friends. This is not Black Christmas. This is something totally different. You know, when a white girl sent me a note this morning and said, happy Kwanzaa, I just sent her the website and said, read this. Don't send me this nonsense. She meant well, but that's not the point. But what I want to engage with you about, I just ask you about in the context of Kwanzaa and the many places that are celebrated is the timing of it. What made you choose to put it at the end of the year is not Black Christmas, but some people see it that way. And what I see it as in some ways is an alternative to the predatory capitalist consumerism that Christmas has become. Was that part of your motivation or was there something else going on?

There was a third reason. There were three main reasons. Number one, for authenticity. It's based on the Zulu first fruit or harvest celebration called Unkosi. And it straddles the year in December and January. So it's a motto. I'm always looking, it's seven days, and I'm always looking for authenticity. When I say as African, you can believe, I can demonstrate the cultural grounding of it, I mean, through research and understanding and through my own interpretive practices.

The second reason I did it is because of the end of the year and the beginning of the year is a great time for reflection yes and part of Kwanzaa is reflection remembrance reflection and recommitment the three fundamental practices right we remember the ancestors right we remember our past we learn the lessons of it we absorb the spirit of possibility inherent in it. We extract and emulate the models and mirrors of human excellence and achievement in it. And we also practice the morality of remembrance as Fannie Lou Hamer, our foremother, taught, the two things we should all care about, never to forget where we came from, and always praise the bridges that carried us over.

So this time, it's a phrase in the Akan where they say, it's a time where the edges of the year meet. And there's a time for deep reflection on what we've done and what we ought to be about. And the third reason, as you read in my earlier writings, was a severe criticism of the commercialism of Christmas, the commercialism of Hanukkah, and our need to get behind that, to get past that, and begin to ask ourselves, how do we celebrate goodness and sacredness without attaching money to it? Because there's a commodification of even worship now, right? And so our thing was to move away from the capitalist conception of the consumer as a fundamental unit in society. And we say the moral person, the thinking person,

the deep thinking person is a fundamental unit of society. And so we want the human being to be the fundamental unit, not the consumer. And so that means that this is built around thinking about ourselves. I say, this is our duty to know our past and honor it, to engage our present and improve it, and to imagine a whole new future and to forge it in the most ethical, effective, and expansive ways. Reverend Jeff Carr. First of all, thank you, Dr. Karenga. It's an honor to be on with you and to have this conversation and just to be able to bounce some things off you. I think we often don't meditate on just how fortunate we are when we have elders like you around who are still able to share. We often think about what would Dr. King do? What would Malcolm say? What would Ida B.

Wells think about the media and how it's evolved? But we're blessed to have the actual founder of the holiday here. So with the digital space, we can be very, very clear. So I wanted to ask you in your wisdom and experience around building Kwanzaa and knowing where it started a year before I was born to right now where it is, you've been able to observe this progress from an idea, a vision that you birthed into the world. That can be really difficult because you're still suffering through the critiques that everybody who has not birthed things into the world are hurling. But what I want to ask is this, here in Nashville, Tennessee, I drive by the bridge and some people who celebrate Kwanzaa have convinced the mayor to light up the bridge in red, black and green. They've been doing that the last three years. They've convinced people to put displays of Kwanzaa on the public square.

And yet black people still get less than 2% of the city contracts. We still don't feel the power positions in the city, but there's an outward celebration that is becoming more mainstream. How do we as people who support birthing new things in the world, how do we maintain the legacy to make sure that people absorb the principles, practice them all year, and use that as an inspirational space to prevent the commodification of a holiday? Thank you so much, Reverend. I appreciate that question. If I understand it correctly, it seems to me that in the final analysis, all of it starts with each of us. And what we need to do is, first of all, learn the beauty, integrity, expansive meaning of Kwanzaa and maintain that in the way we approach it. We have to learn what it is. Sometimes Black people think because they be Black, they know Black. They confuse

ontology and epistemology, you know? Yes, sir. sometimes. They confuse ontology and epistemology. You know? And I understand it. We do know something about ourselves. But feeling pain don't make us a doctor. And coming to our own conclusion don't make us a philosopher. Right? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I'm not discrediting our basic knowledge. We have a knowledge

and we have to appreciate the masses as an infinite source of knowledge and ability. But at the same time, we have to appreciate the masses as an infinite source of knowledge and ability but at the same time we have to specialize and when we choose to honor something we have to embrace it and we have to defend it we have to build a wall around it a cultural wall you know one of the things i i've said then we we are vulnerable to the dominant society's culture it's a consumerist culture it's a capitalist culture it's a racist culture and what we've become and dubois wrote an article right after the march on washington but when i share and i always talk about it he said

i'm afraid that in our efforts to integrate and just be a part of American society, then in our haste, we'll forget that we have our own special gifts. And we'll begin to feel closer to Germans than to Africans. And what we have to do is make sure that we reaffirm the beauty, the sacredness, the ultimate meaning of ourselves. We to celebrate ourselves and guanzas about celebrating ourselves but it means the more you know about yourself the more you can celebrate yourself and the more you understand yourself the better you can assert yourself self-understanding and self-assertion are dialectically and inseparably linked. The greater the understanding you have of yourself, the greater the ability to assert yourself in dignity-affirming, life-enhancing, and

world-preserving ways. But the less understanding you have of yourself, the less you can assert yourself in those ways. So I want people that know to share their knowledge and to begin to teach and one of the things i had to dismiss a lot of white interviews because they want to talk to me about basic data that's what my sisters do they talk down i want to talk to velocity but they don't want to talk for life they want to talk about what somebody said about the holiday about me about my mama i mean you know what i mean i'm not gonna deal with that so i told no i'm not if you want to talk to philosophy you talk with so that's what we need reverend more than anything else we need to stop talking the pathology of the haters to highlands of the dominant society and began to say what we believe.

What do we think? We know what they think. The question is what do we think? And this last point, here's what I say to our people. We have to face it. When we say African-American, remember this. We are American by habit and African by choice. And we have to choose to be African every day.

We get up in the morning, we don't even have to think to be American. We don't have to think to have a consumerist mind, to have a vulgarly individualistic mind. It's cultivated every day in the media, in our educational process. But we have to choose to do good in the world. We have to choose to see ourselves not only as human beings but as world beings in the african set in swahili you have two words for the human being watch you which is people and then wali wenga which is world being watch you as human being and wali wengu is world view so if you teach that those philosophies which i say african philosophies you teach quandary what it means how

to practice how to light the candle why do we choose black red and green black for the people why do we like the candle first there's a whole philosophy in there we like the black candle first because it shows and stresses the priority of the people why do we have it red the red is for struggle the greens for future so we light the candle first to say, without the people, nothing. Second, without struggle, there's no future. So we like the great green candle to show the promise and future that emerges from this memory club is who are ceaseless striving and struggling i'm a congo it is truly an honor to be able to speak with you tonight and get all of this knowledge. I've been celebrating Kwanzaa for my entire life, and it's all I know in terms of this time of year.

And I know my dad is looking down right now, just proud of what you have done for all of us. The question I have is this. I was speaking to a white woman about what Kwanzaa is and breaking it down, and she started studying it. And she said, how could anybody be against the principles and the idea of what Kwanzaa is, and really started considering also celebrating it? I was wondering if this is something that you have seen from people of other cultures. We talked about, you know, corporate and politicians, you know, putting out Kwanzaa greetings and the like, but have you seen people of other cultures actually looking to embrace this in some way, shape or form because even though the roots of it

are African, the ideals are so universal? I appreciate what you said, thank you so much for that. The reality is this, Kwanzaa is essentially a celebration of Black people. A lot of times people ask, can other people celebrate it? But they're not asking other people. They don't mean do the Native Americans,

can they celebrate? Nor the Latinos, nor the Asians. You know they ask about white people, right? That do the native americans can they celebrate now the latinos nor the asians you know they ask about white people right that's the standard right but the question has to be rephrased the question is not can white people celebrate kwanzaa the question is can they celebrate black people because kwanzaa is a celebration of Black people. Can they celebrate the beauty and sacredness, the excellence and achievement, right? The awesome march we made through human history. Can they celebrate that, right?

If they can celebrate that without trying to insinuate themselves and make them the subject of every sentence, right? It's just like, I saw somebody send me a thing today and tried to link Kwanzaa, Canada with a Jewish menorah. And I told people, stop using that. You, whenever you use that, that violates the integrity of both Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. When you mix the symbol, we got enough African symbols. We don't need to imitate the children of Menorah.

But they're doing it. And Microsoft always puts it out because it makes them feel they've made a contribution to something Black. One of the reasons they hate, oh, not so much, is that we don't owe them anything, right? Our culture is the oldest culture in the world. It is rich.

I don't know how other people see it, but I see Africa as a moral idea. That's what my intellectual work, that's what my PhD in both, the first PhD and the second one, is dealing with understanding Africa

as a moral idea. And when I talk about, I don't want to talk about modern Africa. I'm talking about the best values. I mean, the moral standard by which we understand what it is to be human and how do we rightfully relate to the rest of the world and see ourselves embedded in the world rather than in a hostile relationship with it. So those things, to me, I look to Africa from. Now, white people can always come to a public ceremony. Nobody's going to say get out of here. At least I wouldn't. But sometimes when they come, black people get up and want to give them say anything why i mean when i go to a jewish celebration of hanukkah tell the rabbi

sit down give me the yarmulke and let me conduct this service or let me say what would i know and i say let me listen and learn what y'all doing come on alana can people absorb the jewish thing if i go to cinco de Mayo to celebrate with the Mexicans, I don't try to take over their thing. I just want us to see this. We don't need to feel guilty for having something that celebrates us. The white man has. It's like I told the president at our school and the dean y'all got a whole curriculum of course it's a self it's it's not really a curriculum it's a self-congratulatory narrative posing as a curriculum but all your classes are all white

people except ethnic studies why would y'all begrudge us this is 16. we got past a be 1460 which makes it mandatory legally mandatory to everybody 500,000 people every year from the CSU system have to take an ethnic studies class and dr. Sheila Webber should be really pray this for that and of course we were instrumented in the struggle first beginning the struggle at cal state long v so i think it's very important for us to always respect other people but insist that they respect us and that they don't need to be included in supervisor supervisor or even leadership roles in our own practice. Just learn from us. Can you just listen to us?

That's what I wanted to make. I tell my colleagues, you know, whenever y'all talk Greek philosophy or anything, you know I'm going to bring up ancient Egyptian, African-American, African-American. I'm not going to come to, I don't come to the table culturally naked and in need.

I come fully clothed in my own culture, right? And I'm gonna speak our own special culture and make our own unique contribution to whatever subject is being discussed and engaged. So that's how I see it. There's a particular message, that's us. There's a universal message, they can embrace that. But they should not mix that with the particular meaning it has for us. That's a universal message. They can embrace that. They should not mix that with the

particular meaning it has for us. Asante sana, Juana. All right. Dr. Karenga, always glad to see you looking good, looking clean. Thank you. Thank you.

Asante to you. Can I just end with this? Yeah, go ahead. To all of us listening, happy Kwanzaa. And remember this, as I said earlier, this is our duty to know our past and honor it, to engage our present and improve it,

and to imagine a whole new future, to forge it in the most ethically effective and expansive way. And this too, continue the struggle, keep the faith, new future to forge it in the most ethical effective and expansive way and this to continue the struggle keep the faith hold the line love and respect our people and each other practice the guzo sabba the seventh principle seek and speak truth do and demand justice be constantly concerned with the well-being of the world and all in it. And help rebuild the overarching movement that prefigures and makes possible the good world we all want and deserve to live in and leave as a legacy worthy of the name and history of Africa.

Happy Kwanzaa. Happy Kwanzaa. And we're going to do all of that. Doctor, appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Take care. Take care. Folks, got to go Thanks a lot. Take care. Take care. Folks, got to go to a break.

We come back. Got some news also. We'll talk about Fit Live Win. We'll leave you, though, with the 2009 ceremony of Bishop Desmond Tutu being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. Hello. Hey, hey. I'm here.

Okay, let me open it up. With unflagging devotion to justice, indomitable optimism, and an unmistakable sense of humor, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpulotutu has stirred the world's conscience for decades. As a man of the cloth, he has drawn the respect and admiration of a diverse congregation. He helped lead South Africa through a turning point in modern history, and with an unshakable humility and firm commitment to our common humanity, he helped heal wounds and lay the foundation for a new nation. Desmond Tutu continues to give voice to the voiceless and bring hope to those who thirst for freedom. Thank you. Kanskje vi kan se på det. Carl Payne pretended to be Roland Martin. Holla!

You are watching Roland Martin, and I'm on his show today, and it's... What? Huh? You should have some cue cards! Hey, what's up, y'all? This your boy, Jacob Lattimore, and you're now watching Roland Martin right now. Eee! all right folks have a fit live win and what is Bikram yoga we know we hear a lot about we hear a lot about those things we hear a lot about yoga all that good stuff so what exactly is Bikram yoga well we got an expert who joined us right now and last they might sound familiar she's my for my panelists

Kendra Domingo she's the chief visionary officer of Bikram Yoga Wellness from Maryland. Glad to have you on the show. How are you doing? I'm doing well. How are you? OK, doing great. So there's yoga, there's Bikram yoga, there's hot yoga. What's all these different yogas? Bikram yoga is the original hot yoga done in a heated room of 105 degrees and 40 humidity it's a prescribed sequence of 26 postures and two breathing exercises done the same way every time you come into the room so okay that's that's hot as hell i mean okay okay so what is the point of the room being that hot so you can sweat eliminate toxins toxin through your skin, which is the largest organ of your body. You also are able to loosen up more effectively

with the heat as opposed to working out through a cold body. Okay. And how long we got to be in this hot room? The class is 90 minutes long. It's as long but we have we also have 60 minute options for those of you who were too timid about doing a 90 minute class to begin with in the room 105 degrees we need a 15 minute option we could accommodate that for you roland all right so uh of my pound dr. Carl Julian of my pound I'm sure you've already done it any of y'all done Bikram yoga that's a lot of yes sir

Jeff what's the big deal I think Dr. Malvo is talking she on mute don't worry about it she's talking there she is go ahead Jeff I'll defer to the sister because i love yoga i can talk about it all day well yeah i think she's number one yoga is too still for me

i like pilates number two the crown yoga is too hot for me i left it 11 minutes exactly and i went down he's the water see i told you. Look, her being on mute, I knew she was going to say. Jeff, go ahead. It does take some time to acclimate to the hot room, but I guarantee you, if you keep trying, keep coming back, you're going to find a lot of benefits with it.

A lot of people who are doing the yoga now find incredible stress relief. If you have arthritis in your joints, if you haven't really been active a lot um especially through this pandemic hot yoga might be your your your a solution for you to get back into the into being more active I could think of other ways to relieve my stress let me say something into to you, Sister Kendra. Just first and foremost, thank you for birthing the studio into the world. And to you and Dr. Omikonga, I know it's just the great work that you all are doing. It's just overwhelming and humbling. And I just want to say, keep it up.

In my journey with yoga, I've been practicing yoga about 14 years now. I've been a certified teacher in the vinyasa and the flow traditions of Hatha for about three years now. So we love yoga so much at Infinity Fellowship that our entire fourth Sunday service, instead of regular service, it's all yoga because of the benefit. Yeah, we got Yoga Sunday. It's the only yoga Sunday at any church in a known universe at least somebody tells me otherwise But one of the things that we think about we think about heat we think about it in a negative way when? In actuality, it's a positive way to burn off toxins I damn yoga look i ain't got a problem with heat let's be clear here we go though i'm still waiting for you to accept my invitation

from like five years ago okay we got it we gotta get you like i said rolling we gotta get y'all on the mat man because of that what what she needs to do is see if you create a yoga for golfers class see yoga is yoga and you have positions that will help your golf game explode yeah and sister kendra is going to tell us about this i pour a sweat lodge in the lakota tradition and so it's really really hot in the sweat line so when i get a chance to do hot yoga, it's not as bad for me. But the principle is getting past the heat. But Dr. Kinchler, would you tell us about the benefits once you are able to tune your mind out to your body in terms of strength, flexibility, weight loss, all of that wonderful stuff? What do you see from people? True. I mean, the first thing with the heat is actually it's really meant to be a distraction. And the moment that you're able to ignore the distraction, the noise, the monkey mind, you're actually able to focus on the action that you're doing.

The more you can focus on what you're doing in the room, it has benefits outside of the room. So when you go outside, those distractions, your co-workers, you know, that person who's speeding past you on the road, you know, these people, they won't get under your skin as much because you are able to center yourself. So what we realize when people come into the room, they're like, oh, I got to drink water. I got to do this. I got to, you know, but these things are all distractions. And when you think about our daily life, everyone, everyone is distracted. Right. And when you think about our daily life, everyone is distracted, right? And so we would all benefit actually from stilling the mind and being able to focus. I think this is what we're finding even with the children, right? They're not focused.

They're all over the place. And so how do you actually succeed in life if you can't focus on a task? How do you actually accomplish your goals if you can't focus? So I think beyond just the physical benefits, of course, people will lose weight. People come in and do a 30-day challenge. We have our 30-day challenge starting on January 1st. They'll come in and do a 30-day challenge, lose massive amounts of weight. But beyond that, what they're doing is creating a routine around health, around a healthy behavior, around activity, which is something that we're seeing, especially through

this pandemic, more and more people are sitting. More and more people have tight hamstrings because their glutes are underactive. And that comes from just sitting for long periods of time. And so the goal for us is to create a culture around movement, around health-seeking behavior. And we see that the more people start to tune into themselves, that they actually are more conscious decision-makers around other areas of their life. Excellent. Now, Omegongo, we know you ain't got no choice but to go.

Actually, before he even responds, he had a choice. A yoga teacher told me if he doesn't do the yoga that i'll go this way and he'll go that way and then guess what he was in that yoga class the next week and he does it even more than me now he actually is in class more than i am every week that's crazy how about it it's addictive it's addictive once you get into it it's not it's not only that but i love the fact that it dispels you know as a guy a lot of guys feel like it's not for for men or even so on and so forth and you know i dispelled that by just taking one or two classes and also we see that joe johnson just returned to the nba at age 40 and he credits hot yoga for

his success to be able to still play at this 40 and he credits hot yoga for his success to be able to still play at this high level. So the question I have for you, Kendra, is can you talk about community? Because one of the things that you've really orchestrated during the pandemic under your leadership is that you really extended the online platform. So people all around the world now are taking class of us. Can you speak to what that has meant for them, especially in a pandemic where so many people have been isolated? Yeah. As a matter of fact, when we, right at the beginning of the pandemic, if you also remember, was also the George Floyd protest. And so we actually launched this campaign, I Come to Breathe, and had all these

ambassadors from all over the world join us and invite their people onto their platform as well to take class with us. We are seeing that people are joining because they find a community there. And not only a community of just fitness-minded people, but a community of people who look like them. And so when we think of the online platform for fitness, you don't often see black and brown faces. And so what we have been trying to do also is amplify black and brown faces in this wellness space. And so we are seeing more and more younger people, older people of all ages and ranges are coming into the classroom and joining us. And it's a beautiful

thing. I think the people, when we ask people what they like the most about Bikram Yoga Works and Drip Studios is that they find community there. They are coming in. We do like a waffle pop-up bar on Sundays and people come and they sit. And that's a beautiful thing, especially given this pandemic where we have had to be a little bit more separated we've had to kind of rush people out the door to see that now people are actually able to sit and even before classes people are talking to each other online and in the studio and this is so the beautiful synergy that we are seeing happening more and more people are actually focusing on their health more and more people actually have the time now to focus on their health. They're not rushing through rush hour

traffic to get here, there, and everywhere. As you noted, Roland, the class itself is 90 minutes. If you can take away an hour of commute time to do that, then it's more feasible. So people can now join us from home to do the class whereas it would have to take 30 minutes to come 30 minutes to get back home so it's really created a whole new a world this opened up a whole new world for us in terms of reaching people across the world across the country with fitness and wellness offerings and so we're excited about the future because this hybrid model allows us to reach more and more people, especially those who don't find that they have community where they go. And I remember when I first started my yoga journey, I was often the only black face in the room. When we took over the studio in Boston, we had a studio in Boston, Massachusetts.

Every time, even as the owner, I was the only black person in the room. And I was often, you know, being looked at, you know, like I was the oddball, even as the owner i was the only black person in the room and i was often you know being looked at you know like i was the oddball even even as the owner and so it was it to me i think this is such an important thing for us to be able to contribute in this space because we are taking care of our health but it's not often highlighted it's not often um seen so we're our goal is to make sure that we are seen. And we have Pilates too, Dr. Malvo. Hey.

All right. Come on. Maybe I'll come by to do the Pilates, but it seems to me like y'all are practicing going to hell. I mean, what is this? Well, I'm going to go in and stretch right now. I think we'll be okay with the heat. We'll go warm and, you know. Hell will be a little bit easier after some hot yoga. I tell you that. But seriously, Kendra, let me ask real quick before I know we got to go to break, but

this is a question that I would ask for anybody who might be in the stream who might want to try it at home. And look, you guys are going to see me. I'm going to be in one of these classes soon remotely. How do I do hot yoga remotely? Like how do i make sure that i can be in a space where i'm getting the benefit and i'm not just in an open room do you what are your steps for suggestions if people are going to do a class with you turn your heat up to 100 no no no no it's got to be 100 now it's got to be 105 no no no no, no, no, no. In fact, for us, we saw that during the pandemic, everything turned on its head. So if you were thinking you had to do hot yoga in 105 degrees, you know, we saw people not doing it in 105. They were doing it in their regular old rooms.

Some people did heat up their bathrooms and use the steam from their showers. But people also learned how to go do less um so in the with the heat you're actually able to go much further in the stretching um and in a safe way but when your body is not heated up you cannot do that and so people had started to learn their limits um but it was what i saw the most that impressed me the most was that people were actually improving their practice because they were more conscious of what they were doing in their movements. They were more, they were more reserved. They weren't like push, push, push, push, push. They were like, okay, I'm going to

slowly guide myself into these movements because I'm not in the same environment. So the goal is for people to move. And if you are able to do yoga and move that, that's it. And you can do the Bikram Yoga series even without the heat and that's and that's the beautiful thing about you could take this practice everywhere and anywhere you go all right we appreciate it what's the website Bikram yoga works calm all right well we certainly appreciate it thanks a bunch bunch. Glad to have you here. Kendra, have a good one. And again, get that yoga for golf and I might drop by. We'll do a Broga class for you and your guys. All right.

Copyright dad. I love it. It's all about golf. That's the most important thing for me. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Take care. Hey, folks, real quick. A Georgia man is free of the spending 23 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

Devanya Inman walked out of the Augusta State Medical Prison to the open arms of family and friends. In 1998, he received a lifetime sentence without the possibility of parole for the murder of Donna Brown, who was a manager at a Taco Bell. Well, years after his conviction, the Georgia Innocence Project found evidence linked to another man later pleaded guilty to two other murders. And so I'm sure his family is pleased that he is home. And also in California, a San Diego man called the police after he was attacked by a stranger last year. But instead of seeking the attacker, the cops arrested him. Now he is fighting back. Stephen Keith, a 32-year-old black U.S. Navy veteran who was on crutches at the time,

described the police use of force in a claim he filed in San Diego on October 11. He says responding officers tackle him, knocking out some of his teeth. He's seeking more than $25,000 in damages for his injuries, pain and suffering, legal costs and lost wages, and unspecified punitive damages. I say go after more than that $25,000. All right, folks.

That is it for us. We are out of time. I appreciate all of you being here. Jeff, Julian, I'm going to thank you so very much. And also all the folks who have been watching. We're going to close the show out. This was the White House interview that Bishop Desmond Tutu did after he received the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom.

And I think this is a good way for us to close out the show. Folks, thanks so much. And again, prayers to his family. A week of mourning in South Africa for Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who passed away yesterday at the age of 90. Folks, thanks a bunch. Being a catalyst, being there with other people, changing a situation of injustice to its opposite, changing oppression and hoping you can usher in freedom and democracy. uh and but the most important part of it is remembering that you are just one part you may be a part that inspires others but you you you you know that it is because you're part of a team. Any instance of people not being given the opportunity of realizing their full potential is one that riles me. I don't know whether you know,

you know, the prophet Jeremiah at one point has said to God, I don't want to be a prophet. And God persuades him and he becomes a prophet. And get quite annoyed with God because he has constantly got to be condemning people he loves. And he says, but if I keep quiet, your word is like a fire in my breast. And one does have that same kind of thing where you really do wish you could keep quiet. And there is something that says, if you keep quiet, you know you're being untrue to yourself, untrue to your calling,

and that you will end up with a deep sense of maybe even disgust at yourself, but certainly dissatisfaction. The thing that I know about myself is that I do like the limelight. I do love to be loved. Nothing riles me more than to be unpopular. Now, in a way, that can get into the way of your doing things when it's not clear whether you are saying or doing something so that the spotlight turns on you,

or you are saying it really because you want to change the circumstance in in the Bible there's a piece where the Apostle Paul says he's got a thorn in the flesh and has asked God, please remove it. And several times God has said no. And God says, my strength, that is God's strength, is made perfect in your weakness. And I think the weakness is that thorn in the flesh

that keeps reminding you, don't be too hoity-toity. Thank you. © transcript Emily Beynon this is an iHeart podcast