#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Jim Crow voting law upheld; Black Duke volleyball player called n-word; Tabitha Brown fires back

Episode Date: August 30, 2022

8.29.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Jim Crow voting law upheld; Black Duke volleyball player called n-word; Tabitha Brown fires back The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is upholding a voting law it knows is steeped in racism.It's an1890 Jim Crow law that white supremacist state leaders designed to disenfranchise Black voters. I'll be talking to one of the lawyers from the Mississippi Center for Justice who is fighting to change it.  The only black Duke University volleyball player was called racial slurs during a match against Bringham Young University. Her father will be joining me tonight to discuss how both schools responded and how his daughter is handling the situation. BYU said Sunday that  Internet sensation Tabitha Brown says take her as she is or don't take her at all. We'll be talking about code-switching and how some entertainment leaders want us to tone down who we are to make others comfortable.  And September is Sickle Cell Awareness Month. We will be talking to the Senior Advisor of Black Women's Health Imperative about  Pfizer's $5.4 billion investment in one of the more promising drugs to treat the disease.   Support RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [e-mail] Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download 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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Hey, folks, today's Monday, August 29th, 2022, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. A Black Duke volleyball player, racial slurs hurled at her while she was playing. Brigham Young University did nothing about it during the game. They put a cop on the bench.

The BYU athletic director, he has now apologized, but that's not good enough. Duke's president also weighs in. Folks are angry with what has happened to this young lady. We'll also share with you the Twitter post she made making it clear she will not stand for racism against her and other athletes. Also on today's show, Florida A&M. What the hell is going on there?

They fired their athletic director over the summer. They almost didn't play a football game against North Carolina the other day because they had 20 ineligible players. The president releases a statement. Now the football team is still angry with him, saying enough is not being done when it comes to their players. What is happening at Florida A&M? We'll break that thing down on the show as well. Off script, Scotty will join us on the show, breaking that thing down in our second hour.

Also on today's show, Mississippi got together in 1890 to change their state constitution to keep N-words, yes, that was stated, from voting. Well, guess what? The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld that law, saying they've done enough to change the law, saying there's not any racial intent. We'll talk with one of the lawyers who was involved

in that particular case. Also on today's show, internet sensation Tabitha Brown says, y'all I ain't changing, I ain't code switching. And don't sit here and think I'm going to change my blackness for y'all. When you see that video that has some folk not too

particularly happy with her and her new show on the Food Network. Also September is Sickle Cell Awareness Month. We're talking to the senior advisor of Black Women's Health Imperative about Pfizer's $5.4 billion investment and one of the most promising drugs to treat the disease. Folks, that and more.

And of course, we're gonna talk about all these MAGA Republicans all pissed off because Joe Biden called them fascists. Guess what? That's what the hell y'all are. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin, unfiltered on Black Star Network. Let's go.

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

He's rolling. Yeah, yeah. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. Yeah, yeah. It's rolling, Martin. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.'s Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now

Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rollin' Martin Now Martin All right, folks. Mississippi used to elect a number of African Americans statewide to Congress,

United States Senate. Yet the white races were like, oh, hell no. So in 1890, they had a state constitutional convention to change their convention Literally, they said This is to keep these niggas from voting Point blank that was the racist intent of the meeting One black person was there

Isaiah T Montgomery That fool voted to keep black folks from voting That's why whenever we have a Republican Or somebody black who screws with black people I call them a modern day Isaiah T. Montgomery Well, Mississippi over the years Since 1890 has never elected an African American statewide All dating back to this convention Well, there was a lawsuit that said this disenfranchised black voters.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, they ruled that, oh no, Mississippi, they've changed the law enough where there's no longer a racist intent. Hmm. Really? We're going to walk through exactly what this law is and how they use the legal system, the penal system, to penalize black folks. Robert McDuff is an attorney for the Mississippi Center for Justice. He joins us from Jackson, Mississippi. Robert, glad to have you on the show.

First and foremost, again, people who don't quite understand how significant this change was, just let folks know again what life was like, what political life was like for black people in the state with the most African-Americans out of all states in America. Oh, yeah. And thanks, Roland, for having me on and for shining a light on this case. It was after the Civil War and during the period of Reconstruction, as you pointed out, black people voted for the first time, and they elected a number of black officials, including, as you said, members of Congress, U.S. senators. And in 1890, Mississippi was the first of many southern states to convene in a convention to change the Constitution, to

take the vote away from those black people who had detained it in the wake of the Civil War. And it wasn't, they didn't hide it. They were very deliberate. It was out front. And they specifically said that's why they were doing it. And they adopted a number of provisions to do this. They had so-called literacy tests, so-called understanding clauses, the poll tax.

And in addition, this particular law, which we challenged, which disenfranchised people permanently if they were convicted of a number of crimes, specific list of crimes that the framers believed were disproportionately committed by black people, so-called black crimes. The crimes, murder and rape, weren't in there. Aggravated assault wasn't in there. But it was a bizarre list of crimes that they believed were committed by black people. It was one of the many tools they were trying to use to take the vote away. And again, black people were elected in Mississippi. Then all of a sudden, 1890, and ever since then, since 1890, not one black person has been elected statewide in Mississippi. That's right. As you said, it has the highest percentage of black people of any of the 50 states, yet no one has been elected to statewide office, not to governor, not to U.S. Senate, not to lieutenant governor, not to attorney general. literacy tests and the poll taxes finally were eliminated with the Voting Rights Act of 1965

and with constitutional decisions from the federal courts. But this particular felon disfranchisement law is still on the books. And we decided it was time for it to go. We filed our challenge. But unfortunately, as you pointed out last week, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit voted 10 to 7 to uphold the law despite its racist origins and despite the disproportionate impact it's having on Black people in Mississippi. But you had one of those Black federal judges who lit into the 10 for the reasoning. That's right. It's Fifth Circuit Judge James Graves, who's a native of Mississippi, a native of Jackson, Mississippi. And he, as he pointed out, they upheld it despite

its racist origins. And they did so by saying, oh, well, it was amended in 1950 to remove one of the list of crimes, burglary. It was amended in 1968 to add rape and murder, and we're not challenging those two. But the original list is still in there. And, you know, it wasn't exactly like 1950 and 1968s were times of heightened racial awareness in Mississippi. You know, the legislator was trying to keep black people down, trying to either keep them from voting or minimize the vote that had been attained in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 when they amended this law in 1968. So the notion that somehow that cleansed the tank from 1890 is just absurd.

And Judge Graves pointed that out in his very vigorous dissenting opinion. Now, this was not a part of the lawsuit. But again, because I've studied this issue, Mississippi also has this other distinction in there in terms of how you have to win each congressional district. So they put so many barriers into their Constitution to ensure somebody black cannot be elected. Right, right, right. Oh, yeah, it's absurd. And we actually were able to get rid of one of the provisions of the 1890 Constitution, which said you have

to win the majority of the state House of Representative elections, representative districts, to be elected to statewide office. That is now gone. But this felon disfranchisement provision is still there. It's a shameful legacy. You know, most of the states have abandoned permanent felon disfranchisement. It's a shameful legacy. You know, most of the states have abandoned permanent felon disfranchisement. There's only a handful that still do it. But Mississippi, unfortunately, is fighting the tide of change, and they're holding on to this racist provision from 1890. Yeah, and this is the whole thing here. I mean, the fact of the matter is, this is a state that still is operating as if

Jefferson Davis is the permanent governor of Mississippi. Oh, yeah, it's terrible. You know, we've got, I mean, there's all kinds of problems. You know, there are problems everywhere, as you know, Roland, but Mississippi certainly has its fair share. And we're, you know, while we're talking about the courts, as you know, the U.S. Supreme Court recently overruled Roe v. Wade, and there's a lot of talk about how we want to preserve life in Mississippi from the people who outlawed abortion. Yet they refuse to expand Medicare. They refuse to expand Medicaid for women in the first year of pregnancy. It's just all kinds of things that are going on there that really do not reflect well on the state and remind us of the sordid history of the past. So Fifth Circuit Rule 10-7, what's next? Are y'all going to appeal it to the Supreme Court?

Yeah, we're going to take it to the U.S. Supreme Court. Of course, that's not necessarily a good place to go, but it's the only option we have left, and we are hoping that at the very least, at least a majority of that court, and it may not be easy to find a majority that's willing to do the right thing, but we are certainly going to put it up there and challenge them to come in and tackle this vestige of racial discrimination from the post-Reconstruction era. It has a racially discriminatory impact, and it's really time for the federal judiciary to dismantle this remaining vestige of racism from 1890. This is—so the point you just made, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. Supreme Court. So for all of these people, all of these white progressives,

all of these black folks, all of these Latinos and Asians, people who act as if, oh, I can sit elections out, the person who wins the presidency gets to appoint federal judges. The Senate, who controls the Senate? They confirm the federal judges. And so if you had more Biden-appointed federal judges that control the Fifth Circuit, it's a good bet

the 10-7 ruling would be reversed in your favor. And if you had a Supreme Court that was far more moderate or more progressive, then you would see a lot of these racist laws being changed. Well, that's right, Roland. And you know, the reason we have the Supreme Court that we have is because of this unusual circumstance

of Donald Trump, in only four years of presidency, one term, got three appointments to the Supreme Court. That's unheard of. But it was the result of the hypocrisy of Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans by refusing to let President Obama appoint a nominee and refusing to give him a hearing and a vote at the end of his term because they said, oh, well, a new election's coming up. Then when the same thing happened at the end of President Trump's term, and the Democrats were saying, do not fill Justice Ginsburg's seat. Let's wait until after the election. The Republicans said no. They just did a complete about-face and confirmed Justice Barrett. And so now we have this stacked Supreme Court that is heavily tilted to the right. And, you know, it's unfortunate. So many,

they're undoing so many precedents. And, but we're still going to take a shot. I mean, it's worth taking it up there and seeing if we can persuade them to do the right thing in this particular case, because it's clear this remaining vestige of the 1890 Constitution needs to be stripped away. Indeed. Robert McDuff, we certainly appreciate it. Keep fighting the good fight. These laws must all be challenged. And for those people who say, well, hey, we're way past Jim Crow, that's all in the past. This is a perfect example how Jim Crow laws are still impacting black people today in 2022. That's right. Thank you for shining the light on this role. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Let's bring in my panel, Dr. Julian Malveaux, Dean of the College of Ethnic Studies, California State University, Los Angeles.

Dr. Amakongo Dabinga, Proposal Lecture, School of International Service, American University. Renita Shannon, a Georgia State representative. Glad to have all three of you here. Representative Shannon, I'm going to start with you again. We can go through many of these states and we can show Jim Crow laws that still impact folks today, especially when it comes to voting. You have these white racists who use the legal system, who use the prisons, who use jails to specifically disenfranchise, arresting black people on trumped up charges on BS, throwing them in jail, and how these laws...

And people have accepted these laws as no big deal today without admitting their racist intent. No, you're absolutely right. Jim Crow is in full effect, not only in Mississippi, but in a lot of Southern states where we have a over-representation of Black people in the states. As the attorney was talking, I was thinking about how Georgia was doing,

and Georgia has not done much better because we've only ever elected two Black people statewide in Georgia's history. So CEO Thurmond, who's current mayor of DeKalb County, we call the CEO, and then Senator Warnock. That's our second statewide. I mean, I personally think that felony disenfranchisement, whether it be temporary, as most states do, or whether it be permanent, all of it needs to be done away with. Because really, I can tell you, this is a lawmaker. The reason that people go to jail is really all down to the opinion of the

laws that are made. And so when you look back at certain things like, you know, decades ago, lawmakers would have agreed in unison that marijuana would be a reason to put somebody in jail for a really, really long time. The laws change and people's opinions change. So I personally think that people should always retain their right to vote unless they've literally been convicted of treason. You know, the thing here, Julianne, is when we look at, again, the history, how we are still being impacted. I think about Virginia when they took the right to vote of those who were in prison.

It was a state official who said way back in the early 1900s, this is to keep the darkies from voting. And every governor kept it. And it was Governor Terry McAuliffe who tried to do an en masse, if you will, given the right to vote. But they said, no, no, no, no, Governor, you have to sign each individual application. He said, fine. They signed each individual application.

And that was a Jim Crow law that was still keeping folks from voting into the 21st century. Jim Crow laws are extraordinarily effective. And we have to remember these laws were passed not only to keep us from the ballot box, but also to constrain our economic rights. These laws, when people go to prison, vagrancy laws. You could be forced to, we're imprisoned, which means you were working for free, as a white person, because you didn't have any place to live. So poverty became a crime. Ownership became a crime. There are several cases we looked through where economic envy caused somebody to be lynched. There's a case, There are several cases. We looked through where economic envy caused somebody to be lynched. There's a case, the Ida B. Wells case, where a black man opened

a grocery store to compete with a white man, got lynched. There's another case where a brother had, what they said, 400 acres of good cotton land in Georgia, good cotton land. A white woman described him to the newspaper as an arrogant Negro, but rich. He went to sell his cotton seed, and a white man got more money than the store owner was going to offer him. He said he would rather put his cotton seed in the dam river, the term he used, dam river, than to sell it at a discount. He was lynched because he was arrested because he used the word damn. Cursing at a white person was against the law. And when they said, okay, your bail is $15, this brother

had so much money, he just reached in his pocket and said, here. But he never made it home because they lynched him and let his body hang, you know, for a long time. So these Jim Crow laws were meant to continue enslavement by any means necessary. And so for these people in Mississippi to have the nerve to say this law passed, you know, in the 19th century, there's nothing wrong with the law

because they fixed it a little bit. That just tells you, again, I hate to say this every time I come on the program rolling when we talk about Mississippi, but in the words of Nina Simone, Mississippi, goddamn. We can still talk about getting Jim Crow affecting us. When you look at redlining, that was literally created by the real estate industry of the Congo. It's still with us today.

And so whenever these white folks, oh, y'all playing the race card, that's tough. Slavery is long gone. Jim Crow is long gone. No, it's still with us today. And so whenever these white folks, oh, y'all playing the race card, that's tough. Slavery is long gone. Jim Crow is long gone. No, it's not. The residue still exists. It is still present in so many systems in America. You're telling the truth, man. When you talk about these white folks, I'm looking at the article you sent to us, and whoever the guy's name was back in 1890 was talking about, yeah, we're going to have these

laws, even if it's going to affect some white people as well. That was a Southern strategy still playing in effect way back then, right before it was actually recorded in the eight in 1980 or so. But here's the thing, white folks in Mississippi, how long are you going to keep playing this game to hurt more black people and not really care if a couple of white people get get hurt? This is U.S. News and World Report, Mississippi, number 50 in health care, education, 43, economy, 49, infrastructure, 48, opportunity, 44, fiscal stability, 41. How's it working for you white folks in Mississippi? You're spending so much energy trying to keep black people from being able to be their best that the entire country, the entire state

is suffering right now. So when you look at these laws, what Joe Madison calls James Crow Esquire, we see that they are in full effect and right now in 2022 these guys are going to still do whatever possible to keep black people down no matter how much they suffer.

We're talking about one of the poorest states in the nation consistently, Roland. Hasn't nothing changed. It hasn't. It wasn't like up in the 70s and like down in the 90s. It's always been this way. And until these white folks start speaking up and saying we want these rights and equality for everybody and stop feeling good just because they're keeping black people down, this state is going to continue to be as poor as it is. And I'm really glad you're shining a light on this right now, particularly as we're coming into these elections, because now is the time to really start looking at getting some black

leadership statewide there. Again, folks, this is what we're dealing with. Again, we talk about how Jim Crow still impacts us today in 2022. And, yeah, ain't no hope in going to Supreme Court, especially with Clarence Thomas sitting up there with his BS. All right, folks, got to go to break.

We come back. More news of the day. Drama at Florida A&M University. What the hell is going on with the football team there? We'll talk about that story. Duke, BYU story. Black volleyball player, inward hurled at her. She was intimidated. All of a sudden, BYU, they're apologizing.

Wait till we show you the ridiculous statement from the athletic director that he gave to the crowd. How in the hell you discuss a racist incident but you don't even call it a racist incident? Totally bullshit. But we'll also deal with Maga World. Oh, yeah, they are clearly not going to let you go. How in the hell you discuss a racist incident, but you don't even call the racist incident? Totally bullshit. But we'll also deal with Maga World. Oh, yeah, they are clutching their pearls because upset because Joe Biden called them semi-fascist.

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I give a shout out to every person who gives during the show. We'll be right back. When we invest in ourselves, our glow, our vision, our vibe, we all shine. Together, we are black beyond measure. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. On that soil, you will not be white. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol.

We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys, guys.

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All of these stressors and anxieties will be impacting our children. They'll be facing new challenges, anxieties, and emotions. And the adults in their lives need to figure out how to pull themselves together so that our kids will be able to do the same. Adults need to be paying closer attention now more so than ever. This generation who feels like they're unguided, we need to provide that guidance. That's next on A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Black Star Network. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture,

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HI, I'M SALLY RICHARDSON-WITFIELD. AND I'M DODGER WITFIELD. EVERYBODY, THIS IS YOUR MAN, FRED HAMMOND, AND Hammond, and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, Unfiltered. All right, folks. Donovan Rochelle was last seen in L.A. on August 22nd. The 30-year-old is 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighs about 170 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Donovan was last seen wearing gray sweatpants, a blue Balencia hoodie, designer tennis shoes, and a head wrap covering his long dreadlocks.

He has tattoos all over both of his arms and chest. Anyone with information about Donovan Rochelle should call the LAPD at 213-485-2582, 213-485-2582. Folks, the Arizona cop who shot and killed a Walmart customer in a wheelchair has been indicted. Former police officer Ryan Remington is facing manslaughter charges in the shooting death of Richard Lee Richards, who was accused of shoplifting from the store on November 29th. Now, Remington was fired from the Tucson Police Department earlier this year. His arraignment is scheduled for sometime this week.

You know, I remember that video. I remember that video on Macongo, and we showed it. And it was the most illogical thing in the world where they claimed the guy was brandishing a knife. It was a dude in a wheelchair, and this officer just came out guns blazing. This is why these cops have got to be prosecuted. For folks who don't remember, and it could be triggering to some people, so just please, we're going to warn you right now.

Folks, when y'all see the video, to me this was a no-brainer. I'm trying to understand what the hell took so damn long. And so, if you want to turn away, turn away right now, but this is what happened, y'all, in November. This was just crazy. You're not going to the store, sir.

Stop now. You need to stop. Rob, I want eight shots fired. I'm a Congo. You watched that video. I mean, dude just runs up. Stop, sir. A dude in a wheelchair. Doesn't see his face. Doesn't negate nine times, nine times in the back and his side. Didn't have an AR-15 and none of that. You roll up behind a man in the wheelchair

with a knife and you can't subdue him. This is why you talked about this, Roland, you talked about this taking so long, but this is also why we need to make sure we get these midterms elections in so we can get this George Floyd Police Reform Act. Guys like this should never be on the force. People need to be looking into their backgrounds. We got guys who are racist coming up in these areas in the police force, these neo-Nazis,

and these guys who just don't give a damn about human life overall. This man was slaughtered. How do you not have enough training to be able to take care of a man with a knife in a wheelchair whose back is turned to you, and there are two of you in no way, shape, or form and nowhere in America should this be tolerated.

And for people who are not as upset about this as we are, and you say this is back in November, then you don't have the humanity enough to be able to understand what we're going through as a society. This man was slaughtered going into a store. This was cowardly. These guys, many of these guys, they are not officers. They are bullies.

Maybe they were bullied in high school and they wanted to get out there and bully other people. And a lot of them are just flat-out racist and don't care about us. And... But I'm concerned, Roland, because even with this, we still may not get... And I'm not gonna say justice,

because there's no justice for this, but the accountability that we need to see from this. Because all types of shenanigans can go down in Arizona. That's why we got to keep the ball in this. No one else is talking about this tonight. Everybody's talking about all of this other stuff and politics and space shuttles and all of this other type of stuff. This is our

community. This is our family right now. And we got to make sure these stories stay on top and make sure these officers are continually called out. Because this is... This is... It's not... It's unacceptable. This right here, right here, Julianne, is a perfect example of how heinous too many of these police officers are. And as Omokongo said, media moves on, okay, it's no big deal.

This is also where the law has to be changed, where, you know what, these folks cannot get rehired by any law enforcement agency? You know, Roland, first of all, everything Omicongo said right on time, the word slaughtered is the most important word to hear here. We're not talking about the... The man had a bloody knife. He didn't have a gun. He's in a wheelchair. He was not harming anybody.

So this guy, it takes him, what, eight months to indict. That's absurd, number one. But number two, the fact that these police officers who do these kind of things can be hired somewhere else. Let's assume, or not let's assume, let's suggest that if he is acquitted, that he will be at another police station, police force within months, if not weeks. There are no consequences to slaughtering Black people. We just talked about the Mississippi law going back to 1890. We've gone back to 1890, I don't know how many other ways. But this thing, I mean, it was very hard to watch, Roland, as you know. I mean, it was just very hard to watch just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. And there's no excuse for it.

There are three things that really come to mind here. Number one, as you said, there has to be a national police registry. Anyone who has ever been involved in law enforcement needs to be registered. And if they do something wrong, strike a child, kill an old man, they should never work in law enforcement again. Number one. Number two, how are these people being trained? Is there training for them? Or did you just go find the wretched of the earth and give them a badge and a uniform and a gun? How are they being trained? We've talked about this in many contexts. Police training is extraordinarily critical. The third thing that we have to do is to look at the racial composition

of these police forces and talk about who is on these forces, how did they get there. And then lastly, this is lastly because I said three, cops who watch cops kill folks are just as bad as the one who killed them. Look, this thin blue line means you don't tell it. Anybody who was with that man, when he shot that man nine times, they need to go to jail with him, period. Absolutely.

And Representative Shannon, look, we just saw what happened in Georgia with Rayshard Brooks, the cops in that case. We saw what happened. The cops who snatched those two Morehouse and Spelman students out of their cars when they got fired or they gave their jobs back. Too often what happens is these cops all across America, they know white or black, don't matter. They know they can act a fool, shoot and kill folks. And nine out of 10 times, 9.8, 9.9 out of 10 times, they can get away with it. Absolutely, you're right. It's all about people working in a system of white supremacy.

White supremacy says I can shoot black people if I feel threatened at all for the police. White supremacy says even if I'm a black cop, I can still shoot if I feel threatened because my life is more valuable than theirs. And so, I mean, that video is just completely disgusting. Those police officers were inhumane. And in addition to that, they were very lazy because you can hear before they shot this gentleman, they said, oh, don't go into the store. And as he started to move his wheelchair forward,

that's when they shot him. They were so lazy that they weren't even willing to detain him. They just decided, oh, shooting him would be the best course of action. It's just ridiculous. And this is one of the issues. This is my top number one issue that really just burns me up. And, you know, I really think that this is an issue that is going to have to be solved by the voters, because unfortunately, you have elected officials of all colors and in every party continuing to run on throwing more and more money at policing to fix public safety issues when we have evidence and we know that more policing does not actually make our community safer. But because that is easier to explain to constituents instead of finding real solutions, it's the reason why we continue to see that policy does not change. And it is not about the training.

I tell folks that all the time. You know how I know it is not about the training. I tell folks that all the time. You know how I know it's not about the training? Because whatever low level of training police officers have, they certainly, they seem to find better training when they are operating with white people. When they go into white neighborhoods, they certainly seem to have better training. So it's not about the training. It is about accountability. That is what we need in this country. And until we start to see police officers held accountable, you're going to continue to see these horrendous videos. These police officers being charged,

I'd love to see it and hope they are convicted. Let's talk about Stay in Georgia, where a Georgia man is going to get y'all $100 million from the Atlanta Police Department after he was paralyzed from the neck down from being tased. The federal juries said the officer involved used excessive force against the then 65-year-old Jerry Blassingame, who was running away from

officers in July 2018. The city of Atlanta and the acting officer, John Groves, were named in the lawsuit to pay for Blassingame's past and future medical bills. Blassingame lives in a residential facility requiring round-the-clock care and has accrued more than 14 million in medical bills. The estimated cost for this care is around $1 million each. This right here, Renita, is... That's taxpayers paying that. See, that's the thing.

And here's what I love. Where are all of the white conservative fiscal conservatives? Where's Herschel CTE Walker condemning the officers for costing the city $100 million? Where is Governor Kemp? Where is conservative radio talk show host Eric Erickson? It's amazing how the pro-lifers and how the conservatives, they get real quiet when we see these multimillion dollar

and billion dollar judgments against the police that taxpayers got to pay for. Absolutely. And, but like I said before, and this is an unpopular opinion, it is bipartisan, the looking away from policing issues. It's bipartisan. People never get tired of these big judgments going out. People understand that taxpayers are paying a lot of money. A hundred million dollars is a lot of money. How long are we going to continue to waste taxpayers money with lazy solutions, solutions that never end up doing anything about holding police accountable.

How long are we going to do that? I firmly believe until voters decide that they are not going to vote for people who want to come with lazy solutions, which means they're not even talking about policing issues. They don't have any real policy to support police accountability, even in the George Floyd Act. It doesn't remove qualified immunity. I mean, there's so much that needs to be done, and this is an issue that voters are going to have to demand elected officials start to work on, or you cannot get my vote.

Yep, absolutely. And I just get a kick, Julianne, how they get real quiet. They love, I mean, they got that bitching and moaning about student loan debt being given up. They don't say nothing about the millions being paid out. And it's absurd.

When you think about $100 billion, how many schools could be funded with $100 billion? Roger Taylor Greene needs to just go somewhere. Is it fair that somebody should pay for somebody else's loan? Heffa, you did not pay your PPP loan back, so you don't need to say anything to anybody about paying loans back. But back to the

more important issue that we're dealing with right now, on the table, the $100 million settlement, the brother's going to cost him $100, I mean $1 million a year for basic care. It's a well-deserved settlement, but what's more deserved, he should never have been placed in this position in the first place.

And while we, when cities start talking about they're going broke, we're going to start, stop hiring police officers who are going to make you broke. Because people will not come, stop going after settlements that they deserve. They should go after these settlements. But what really ought to happen is that something like this ought never happen. Ought never happen. The family of that brother who they killed in a wheelchair, I hope they go after those Arizona folks for all the money they have and then some. And maybe when cities and states start going broke, they'll look again.

Because otherwise these so-called legislators, it's not coming out of their pocket. And so they don't care. Mm-hmm. On the Congo, again, this is where they got to get called out. They love talking about back to blue, how you don't support cops. Oh, but they get

real quiet when you talk about that money being paid because of their abusive behavior. Absolutely. And this is what they do on a regular basis, right? All of a sudden, they just get... They just want to forget and move on to the next thing. And one of the things we also have to be mindful of

is that we see that last story was with the brother in the wheelchair. This man was 60... is 65 years old. So when we talk about training and the lack thereof, again, another incident of disregard for our community. And for you Lindsey Graham's of the world and all of you guys who you're talking about, Roland, how hard is it to say that these officers who we claim to respect need to treat people in our community with dignity, to treat them with the same type of respect? How hard is it to say that?

And of course, it's going to be even harder to say because they're costing us millions and millions of dollars. But we're talking about just a call to human decency. Can we come together and say that you shouldn't slaughter a brother in a wheelchair? You shouldn't tase a man who's just asking for money on the streets who's 65 years old and posing no threat to you? Can we come together in that sense of common decency, even if you got all your political values, these guys can't do it because I'm not even going to say they're cowards. They just don't care about us. They never have and they never

will, which is why we need to get them out of office in every way, shape, or form because all they care about is supporting the rich and all they care about is maintaining power and stealing as much power from people, whether it's women or non-white folks as possible. As long as we let them continue to do it,

they're going to go scot-free. All right, let's talk about cowards, the Republican Party. All right, so y'all. So, President Joe Biden was leaving the, um, he was headed out to Marine One, and he had a few comments to make about Republicans

being semi-fascist. Check this out. You know what I mean. What do you mean by semi-fascism, sir? You know what I mean. What do you mean by semi-fascism, sir? You know what I mean. What do you mean by semi-fascist?

Here's the deal. President Joe Biden was campaigning for Wes Moore last week, and he made this comment about semi-fascism. So all of a sudden, oh, Lord, y'all, they sitting here whining and complaining, and now all of the news media full of shit, okay? Oh my God, what do he mean by this here? Okay, y'all wanna see the silliness?

Here's Don Lemon with Kareem Jean St. Pierre on his show. Let's start with what the president said at a fundraiser tonight just before his rally. The president likened what he called extreme MAGA philosophy to semi-fascism. What exactly is semi-fascism, Karine? So let me just first say this tonight, what you heard from this president, Don, and again thank you for having me because this is really important. The American people have a choice in front of them and the president laid that out very clearly, very powerfully tonight.

When you look at what Democrats are doing and what they are delivering and what they have done, Don, in less than two years, which is lowering costs on prescription drugs, lowering the energy costs, making sure that we have this historic legislation to really deal with climate crisis. All of these things are important. Standing up for women. And they are, Corrine. I want to get to all of those things. With all due respect. But we have a short time. I'm going to get to all those things. But if you'll answer my question, we can get to those things. I am. I am. What exactly is semi-fascism? Don, I was just about to get to your question. I really was. But I want to, you brought me on the show for a reason. And I have to talk about it. I understand that. I just

have limited time with you. I just want to make sure we get all the answers. By having this back and forth, we're actually taking away from the time. So here we go. So what we're seeing from Republicans and what we have seen from Republicans these past several years is that they are attacking our democracy, they are taking away our freedom, and they are trying to put on the chopping blocks Medicare and Social Security. That's what we are seeing, and it's being done. If you look at the Republican Party,

it's being done by this element, this MAGA element of the Republican Party. All right, so, okay, so all the little right-wing, all they in a tizzy. Let me show you in a tizzy. And again, I just want to show y'all just stupid mainstream media and their bullshit. Okay? So this is Meet the Press. Pete Alexander.

I respect his work, but this is the stupid stuff. They say watch At this one he as you described used the word Semi-fascism to describe the MAGA philosophy this week Let's go back to March when he was in Poland He said of Vladimir Putin that he couldn't stay in power and that became controversial the White House You know backpedaled on that and walk that back. There's no backpedaling on this. It's clear that there's a more aggressive strategy. We talked about the way that they were handling the debate over student loans. Do you think someone said you should say fascism? And he said, I'm going to say when I spoke to age, this wasn't this wasn't a teleprompter speech.

This is what he's been thinking. They say he said it out loud. This was done not on camera. But it did. It fires up Democrats. It juices up the base because they want to see him be more aggressive on that. But it also does, you know, it does become problematic because, you know, this is a guy who said he wanted to be a unifier. Here's my, you know, Chuck, what's interesting about this one is you described. So the media goes for, oh, the guy said he's going to be a unifier. So in their mind, you can't speak truth when you say it was right because, oh, but you said you were going to be a unifier.

Um, yeah. And then, of course, then he got old Pamela Brown, you know, on CNN. Watch this. President calling millions of Americans semi-fascist. Listen, he's got to express and be honest about what he feels in his heart and his soul.

And I think that's probably exactly what he did. What do you think about the president? I hope y'all see how they're playing this. Oh, here's the president calling millions of Americans. This is the same bullshit they pulled with Hillary Clinton when she said deplorables.

They were. They were. They are. Okay? But again, this is how they get, oh, so mad, so upset. Okay? Here's Republican strategist Alice Stewart whining on CNN. Again, to say how insulting it is that the president of the United States called half of this country fascist. That is unacceptable. to say how insulting it is that the President of the United States called half of this country fascist.

That is unacceptable. And the fact that more Democrats are not denouncing it is really disturbing to me. I'm old enough to remember when he was sworn in and took the oath of office. Oh my God. More Democrats. Why aren't y'all denouncing this? You mean a lot of Republicans didn't say shit about the FBI, the attack on the FBI

office in Cincinnati after the raid in Mar- after the, after the, after the, uh, sir, the war in Mar-a-Lago? That Alice, oh, I'm sorry. Are we not clutching pearls? Are we now so upset? See, this is, so this is the rally that took place in Maryland that just set off these nutcases on the right. Watch. Conservative Republicans. I don't respect these MAGA Republicans. The president comparing Republicans who embrace Donald Trump's make America great again philosophy to quote, semi-fascism. When it comes to the extreme ultra wing of Republicans, they are attacking democracy.

He called it what it is. That's what he did. I respect conservative Republicans. I don't respect these MAGA Republicans. The president comparing Republicans who embrace... See, now, they all upset. They all mad. Oh, my God.

This ain't right. How dare you? And see, you can always tell when they really start clutching their pearls is when they get forced into really having to answer this. Let me find this clip, y'all, because this really was the funniest thing I saw. If y'all want to see how stupid these people are, and I want to show y'all how Fox plays the game. So the chyron's going to say, DNC refuses to condemn Biden's fascism remarks.

Listen to this idiot who's on Fox. Listen to what this fool actually said, y'all. Talking to the chief liar for Donald Trump, Kayleigh McEnany. Listen. Has been consistent. He's always had this underlying part of his personality that is basically just a jerk. He fights with people. He yells at them. We remember how he said that Republicans wanted to keep black people in chains when Mitt Romney was running for office.

And the more that he experiences some of his own decline with his mental faculties, the more that just jerkiness comes out. This is more hateful he is about the fact that he's experiencing some of his own decline with his mental faculties, the more that just jerkiness comes out. This is more hateful than the worst thing that Donald Trump ever said.

And it's being said about tens of millions of Republicans. He's trying to walk it back and say that it's only about Trump supporters. That's just another word for saying Republicans. Republicans support their

previous presidents, including the most recent president, and this is just incredibly dangerous, dangerous rhetoric that nobody who purports to lead a country should be saying against half the country. I think you're totally right about that consistent message of hatred. We saw it with, you know, if you're not vaccinated, you will pay the unvaccinated to have a right to be angry at the vaccinated or vice versa. I agree with him in part that Joe Biden has been. Oh, my God. This is worse than anything Donald Trump ever said. You mean grab women by the vagina? And you're a woman? Oh, OK. What else here? See, here's what I want you to understand about how mainstream media does this. And I'm talking about CNN, NBC, MSNBC.

Let me know what Fox News is going to do. Whoa, whoa, whoa. First of all, Don Lemon, Kareem, what did the president mean by semi-fascism? So instead of the news media, you know, doing their job and actually reporting on it. No, they play a little game. Oh, what did you mean by that? Okay, y'all, fascism. This is the Merriam-Webster definition of fascism. A political philosophy,

movement, or regime such as that of the fascist that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized auto credit government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation and forcible suppression of opposition. That definition is Donald Trump. The same Donald Trump who complains that his generals did not behave towards him like Hitler's generals. This is who they are.

I just need y'all to understand who you're dealing with. And see, again, how they operate. They love to now. So let me explain how the game works. So the right wing, and listen, Steve Bannon said this is how they do it. The right wing, what they do is they complain and conjure things up in their right wing media. Daily Wire, Daily Caller, Breitbart, Conservative Radio, Fox News, OAN, Newsmax, Substack, all their platforms, and they then, why is the media talking about it?

Why is the DNC condemning it? And then news media goes, Jamie Harrison, you run the party, are you going to condemn Biden? Show me last time, Rona, condemned Trump. Please show me that. But see, I want you to understand how

they work. So, someone tweeted this. Y'all gonna love this here. Watch this here. Go to my computer. Go to my iPad. Matt Schlapp and Mercedes Schlapp. Actually, put it in my monitor right here. Matt Schlapp and Mercedes Schlapp, they are furious at Joe Biden for calling MAGA semi-fascist. Matt Schlapp and Mercedes Schlapp, they are furious at Joe Biden for calling MAGA semi-fascist. The Schlapps

invited Viktor Orban, the Hungarian fascist, to speak at CPAC. When Orban said the U.S. should embrace Christian nationalism, the entire crowd cheered. They are fascists. Rowling responds, these two,

Mercedes Schlapp, are pathetic. They invite a fascist to speak and get mad when people speak the truth about CPAC. Watch this here. Matt Schlapp goes, I'm joyful and at peace. Dear Rowland, you do realize that the person you mentioned was just reelected and remains very popular. Dictators don't tend to stand for a certified election. Oh, but I was ready for that punk ass when I responded, Hey, Matt Schlapp, a country re-electing a racist doesn't mean a damn thing to me.

You ever heard of South Africa? They did the same. Would you have been happy to invite their leaders to CPAC? I bet you would. The thing here, Julian, is that they are mad because Biden called them for what they are. And what you are seeing in Arizona, in Texas, in Georgia, in Mississippi, in Alabama, in all of these states are these semi-fascists running behind Donald Trump, MAGA, still wanting to overturn the election.

They are threatening cops. You got Lindsey Graham saying there's gonna be riots if you indict Donald Trump. Oh, I'm sorry, the same man who was a jag in the military. I thought y'all about the rule of law. That's who they are, and it's about time the Democrats stop playing footsie with these people. This is precisely why my book is White Fear. Fascist.

That's what they are. How the browning of America is making white folks lose their minds, that's what we're dealing with, and somebody has to be willing to say it and not back down. Julianne? You're absolutely right, Roland.

I mean, John Sununu went on TV yesterday talking about the president owes all Republicans an apology. Joe Biden did not say all Republicans were fascists. He said the MAGA Republicans were fascists. They apparently cannot read nor hear, because clearly he did not condemn the entire Republican Party. But the fact is that those MAGA Republicans are fascists. You showed us the definition. That's what it is, autocratic. Dictatorial.

That's what we saw with this president and with his minions, including the Mitch McConnells of the world and many others, and the Lindsey Grahams of the world. How dare they ask Democrats to apologize for telling the truth? You see, these are the people who don't like critical race theory, don't like ethnic studies, don't the truth. These are the people who don't like critical race theory, don't like ethnic studies,

don't like truth. At the bottom, they don't like truth. They can't stand the truth. Because the truth will say this man, that the orange orangutan and his minions are fascists. Even more than that, to be demanding apologies wouldn't have, as any

Republican, apologized for anything. When have, apologized for anything. When have they apologized for their racism? They have to apologize for anything. They don't apologize. They just oppress. I'm just not about to play these little silly games of a Congo because I'm from Texas,

and when I see a situation, matter of fact, we're going to discuss it tomorrow with a gynecologist, where because of the abortion laws, you now have pharmacists at CVS questioning what drugs doctors are prescribing to women to keep them alive. Oh, yeah. Call it what it is.

Oh, period, bottom line. And look, what Joe Biden did, which is so brilliant, it's the equivalent of a bully's coming up on you and then you finally just hit that bully in the nose. And that bully just doesn't know how to react. And that's what these MAGA guys are, because they are so used to talking in their own little bubbles to each other,

riling themselves up, that when a man who comes with the biggest pulpit in the world in terms of media hits them, they don't know how to react. And so that's what Biden did. And, you know, these guys, they don't know how to react. And so that's what Biden did. And, you know, these guys, they don't want to mention the fact that he called for conservative Republicans

and independents to come their way. People talk about Biden's supposed to be the uniter. Biden is trying to unite with people who want to unite America, not people who want to keep it for themselves and who want to expel other people from having an opportunity to do that. You want to talk about uniting America?

He's working to unite America over student loan issues. He's working to unite America as it relates to lowering health costs and other issues that he's had in his Economic Build Back Better agenda that is working to help poorer Americans, average Americans, and people who are in the middle-class field. He's working to level out that playing field. A lot of these, you know, Republicans who are out there complaining about the student loans, they're gonna be out there in those communities

in Kentucky and other places fighting to get that loan forgiveness as well. So Biden has made it clear this is a brilliant election strategy. He's working to pull those independents and those conservative Republicans away from who he said specifically are MAGA Republicans.

Most of them are racist, are ignorant, don't care for women's rights, and they want to take the country back. That's what make America great again means for them. And it has never meant that for us. So kudos to Biden, and go harder. And Representative Shannon, we're gonna deal with this next when we talk about this Duke-BYU story. Because I'm just tired of people playing footsie with racism.

Oh, no, no, no. Just because I voted for Donald Trump doesn't mean I'm a racist. Did you not hear what the man said? Oh, I'm not a sexist. Did you hear what the man said? See, that's the game they wanna play. No, no, no, no, no. See, I'm sorry. I was raised, you call a thing a thing. Yes, this is the President Biden

that progressives like me wish would show up every single day to work. I am good for critiquing our side because I love our side. I want to see us do better. And I'm on the inside, so I reserve the right to critique and say, well, we can do better. But I also have to give credit where credit is due. I'm glad he called them semi-fascists. The only thing that could have been better if he called them full fascists. And also to recognize that anybody, you know, there's really no separation between these

MAGA Republicans and I would say what people consider moderate Republicans, because they're going along with the same agenda. And so the, I like that he said this. I'm glad that he got those reporters last week who were challenging him, asking about people who were crying about student loan debt being forgiven. And he told them, look, I didn't hear all this crying. People are getting, rich people are getting tax credits, and some people didn't benefit from that. So this is a Joe Biden that we want to see. And the only reason these Republicans are mad is because white supremacists want one thing, and that is to be able to advance white supremacy and still be accepted in polite company. And this week, President Biden is not allowing

them to do that, and he is treating them like the pariahs that they are. So you don't want to be a part of a party that is mistaken for fascist? Then don't be a fascist and don't support it. Simple as that. Folks, gotta go to a break. Here's the deal. When we come back, we're gonna talk about racism that took place

at Brigham Young University when Duke and BYU played the volleyball game over the weekend. And the AD of BYU came out and made a statement that to me, I ain't satisfied. I'm not satisfied. Up next, we'll talk with the father of that Duke, black Duke volleyball player. I talked to him over the weekend,

and he said when his daughter called him on Saturday, she was in fear. No black volleyball player should be in fear playing a damn game. They should only fear losing a game, not fear of what, about their life, about being attacked. We're gonna unpack this thing when we come back. First of all, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter,

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All right, folks, on Saturday, I was on vacation. I'm in the Bahamas, and then wife gets an email from a fraternity brother of mine, Daryl Thornton, telling me about something that happened to the daughter of another alpha man, Marvin Richardson. His daughter, Rachel Richardson, she plays volleyball at Duke University.

She's the only black starter. Well, they had a game on Friday in Brigham Young University, and she was repeatedly, she repeatedly was called the N-word during this game. She's trying to focus on playing, trying to play, she's trying to play the game,

but yelling the N-word. And then there's an individual there who also then essentially threatened her by saying, you know, in terms of what may happen if you go to the team bus. I then talked to her father, Marvin Richardson, he's a top official with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms on a Saturday. And so I went live from the Bahamas. This story, her mother, Gloria, posted something on Facebook. Her godmother posted something on Twitter. This thing went all across the internet. People began to weigh in. LeBron James weighed in saying, Rachel, we stand with you.

And so the next day, first of all, Duke University announced they were not going to play the next game, the two-day tournament, on the campus. It was moved off campus. The athletic director actually came out and spoke to the audience at the game. Here's what he had to say, y'all. For those, for those who don't know me, my name is Tom Homo.

I'm the athletic director at BYU. At last night's game, there were some egregious and hurtful slurs that were directed at members of the Duke University women's volleyball team. I'm the athletic director, and I'm accountable for what happens in all our athletic events. And with that in mind, the process to get better and to heal has already begun, as you can see, and you'll see a little bit more often. I want you to know that this morning I visited with the young athlete on Duke's team and her coach. If you would have met her, you would have loved her. But you don't know her and so you don't feel that way. As children of God,

we are responsible. It's our mission to love one another and treat everybody with respect. And that didn't happen. We fell very short. We didn't live up to our best. I ask that everyone at all of our games that represent BYU, that you will have the courage

to take a stand and be able to take care of each other and more importantly, the guests, our guests who we invite to come and play here. So that we can be disciples of Christ and show it in every way. I love how Cougar Nation, how The Rock, and all our fans are incredibly in support of our teams. Cheer them on as loud as you can, but do not cross the line where you would hurt or harm anyone in any way. Love you, Cougs. Thanks. Pack that statement out. Very problematic.

This was the press release that BYU posted before that. All of God's children deserve love and respect, and BYU Athletics is completely committed to leading out in abandoning attitudes and actions of prejudice of any kind and rooting out racism. When a student athlete or a fan comes to a BYU sporting event, we expect that they will be treated with love and respect and feel safe on our campus. For this reason, BYU has banned a fan who was identified by Duke during last night's volleyball match from all BYU athletic venues. Although this fan was sitting in BYU's student section, this person is not a BYU student. To say we were extremely

disheartened in the actions of a small number of fans in last night's volleyball match in the Smithfield house between BYU and Duke is not strong enough language. We will not tolerate behavior of this kind. Specifically, the use of a racial slur at any of our athletic events is absolutely unacceptable and BYU athletics holds holds a zero-tolerance approach to this behavior. We wholeheartedly apologize to Duke University, and especially its student athletes competing last night for what they experienced.

We want BYU Athletic events to provide a safe environment for all, and there is no place for behaviors like this in our venues. This is the statement that came from the Duke University president as a result of this particular event. The Duke president said, I am outraged by the racist slurs and taunts directed at members of our volleyball team at BYU this weekend. Duke is fully committed to providing a safe, inclusive environment for competition,

and we will not tolerate any racism or harassment of our student athletes, coaches, staff, or fans. As Vice President and Director of Athletics Nina King noted yesterday, our primary concern is for the safety and well-being of our student athletes and coaches, staff, or fans. As Vice President and Director of Athletics Nina King noted yesterday, our primary concern is for the safety and well-being of our student athletes and coaches. I have expressed to Coach Nagel and her team that they have Duke's and my full support and we will be working with them in the days and weeks ahead to provide any assistance and resources

they may need. I'm grateful for the leadership demonstrated by Duke Volleyball's players, coaches, and staff and am proud to call them members of our university community. And I call upon all of us here at Duke and in the wider sports community to continue our work toward inclusion and stand together against racism and all forms of hate. Vincent E. Price, president of Duke University.

Now, Rachel Richardson is the player in question. She actually issued her own statement on Twitter, a very strong statement. I now want to show you that as well before I talk to her father, Marvin Richardson. This is what Rachel said in her own words that she posted yesterday on social media. She said, Hello, my name is Rachel Richardson.

I'm a sophomore in the Duke University women's volleyball team. Friday night in our match against Brigham Young University, my fellow African-American teammates and I were targeted and racially heckled throughout the entirety of the match. The slurs and comments grew into threats, which caused us to feel unsafe. Both the officials and BYU coaching staff were made aware of the incident during the game, but failed to take the necessary steps to stop the unacceptable behavior and create a safe environment. As a result, my teammates and I had to struggle just to get through the rest of the game instead of just being able to focus on

our playing so that we could compete at the highest level possible. They also failed to adequately address the situation immediately following the game when it was brought to their attention again. No athlete, regardless of their race, should ever be subject to such hostile conditions. God has called each of us to be members of one body, or we may have our differences, they should never divide us, Romans 12, 4 and 5. That said, I do not believe this is in any way a reflection of what the BYU athletes stand for. The girls on the team played a great game and showed nothing but respect and good sportsmanship on and off the court. Once notified, the BYU athleticic Director, Tom Homo,

was quick to act in a very respectful and genuine manner. He is at the forefront of ensuring that the BYU athletic staff and players undergo education and training to better handle and prevent the racist, ignorant, and asinine behaviors they were exhibited by their fans during the match. It is neither my nor Duke Volleyball's goal to call BYU's athletics out, but rather to call them up. This is not the first time this has happened in college athletics, and sadly, it likely will not be the last time.

However, each time it happens, we as student athletes, coaches, fans, and administrators have a chance to educate those who act in hateful ways. This is an opportunity to dig deep into the closed cultures which tolerate amoral racist acts, such as those exhibited Friday night, and change them for the better. It is not enough to indicate that you are not racist. Instead, you must demonstrate that you are anti-racist.

My team and I were fortunate enough to go through a long talk, which is an educational series on the roots of racism and how to be an activist in not just dealing with racism, but preventing and ending it. This helped to equip us to deal with the situation in a mature manner, rather than to react in a retaliatory manner.

I want to express my gratitude to the Duke Athletics Administration for being quick to act on my team's behalf. Additionally, I'd like to thank my coaching staff and teammates for immediately dealing with the situation and to the best of their ability the minute they were made aware of it. Further, I would like to thank anyone who has reached out to make me aware that you stand with us. Finally, I understand some people would have liked more to happen in the moment, such as an immediate protest

and refusal to play on. Although the heckling eventually took a mental toll on me, I refused to allow it to stop me from doing what I love to do and what I came to BYU to do, which was to play volleyball. I refused to allow those racist bigots to feel any degree of satisfaction from thinking that their comments had, quote, gotten to me. So I pushed through and finished the game. Therefore, on behalf of my African-American teammates and I, we do not want to receive pity or to be looked at as helpless. We do not feel as though we are victims of some tragic, unavoidable event.

We are proud to be young African-American women. We are proud to be Duke student-athletes. And we are proud to stand up against racism that is signed by Rachel Richardson. Joining me now is Marvin Richardson. He is the, let me know, because I know that was a confirmation hearing. Are you still the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, Marvin?

No, I'm not. I have reverted to my position as deputy director and chief operating officer. All right, so you're the number two at the ATF. I had the pleasure, of course, speaking to the ATF a couple of times, and I always appreciated being there. And, of course, you and the ATF a couple of times, and I always appreciated being there. And, of course, you and I belong to the illustrious fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated.

So I'm glad to have you here. But before we get into it, I got to ask you, I mean, you got to be proud. We talked on Saturday. You said my daughter's no shrinking violet. You got to be proud of that statement she put out right there in her own words. I really can't say enough about the young woman that Rachel is. She's a leader in her own right. She

stands up for what she believes in and that's who she is. It was interesting. I got this text. Daryl Thornton sent it to my wife on Facebook. He said, hey, we're trying to reach Brother Martin. And, you know, I'm there on vacation. I went to go play golf.

I came back. You and I talked. And this theme began to grow and grow. And you said something to me that still stands out. You said, and I mentioned this when I went live, you said that, first of all, that this, he didn't just yell the N-word. He said, all blacks can go to hell. And if you heard the AD and even that statement, they said, oh, we banned this man. But your daughter said there were others who were using the N-word. This wasn't one guy, correct? Correct. Yeah. You know, so I appreciate again, you know, they made a statement and they indicated that an individual was banned. But when Rachel was serving, she's like about two feet away from the students in, you know, when you're on that end of the court.

You can see that. I mean, so so what she's hearing, she's hearing every time she goes back there to serve. And it's not just from one individual it's multiple individuals and unfortunately they use that crowd out of their own cowardice to hide because that's what racists do nowadays right I mean they try to be covert right there was a time in this country when and they still are times when they're very overt. But here, we see an opportunity for the cowards to hide and to be covert in their response. See, that's why I was really so upset when I saw that video from the administrator. He doesn't mention racism. He doesn't mention any of this.

Oh, if y'all knew her, you would love her. No, you don't have to know her. You don't have to know her to treat her with respect. And then to say, oh, we took the guy out. No, he should have said, he should have said, if you are sitting next to a fan and they are hurling the N-word at an opposing player and abusing them, you should stand up. And essentially what your daughter said is, learn to be an anti-racist. Right.

100% correct. You know, I mean, silence is tacit approval, right? I mean, you might as well be agreeing. I know it's hard, right? It's hard, and especially young people stand up. But everyone has an opportunity. Whether or not you choose to take advantage of that opportunity to stand up and let your voice be heard, you know, then that's a whole nother story. But the hard things in life are the things that we have to do. And that's what we taught Rachel is that, you know, it's hard to do the right thing sometime, but you got to stand up and do that right thing if you ever want things to get better. And so, again, I'm really proud

of the fact that she said, no, dad, I'm not going to stand by and let this be swept on the road. So that's why I'm standing here with and for her this evening. She has obviously spoken on her own and we will continue to speak and to call out racism anywhere we see it. And we all have that responsibility. We can't allow that to exist, right? It always wants to hide in the dark, but we got to shine the light on it so that it cannot hide. And you got to call it out for what it is. You know, one of the things that the athletic director, go to my iPad, please. He, if you see it, actually, hold up one second. I don't think we have it up. Let me try to connect it. I found something interesting because when you and I talked,

you said that Rachel made it clear that she wanted to speak the next day with the athletic director as well as the head coach. Yet, when they met, it was just the AD. The head coach wasn't there.

The AD posted this on social media. He said that he stands with the coach in difficult times. He said that he made the decision to represent BYU at the meeting with Rachel on Saturday morning, and then the coach, she sent out a particular statement right here as well. Yet when you and I talked,

you said that the Duke captain went up to her after the game and said, you should have done something, and her response was, you know, what could I have done? And I tell you what she could have done. She could have went over to the scores table and said, pass me the microphone. She could have, right there, she could have said, this young lady is being called the N-word. She could have said something in the moment. And I know people sitting here saying,

oh, you know, you shouldn't call her out. I called for her immediate suspension because of her actions. And people are like, oh, that's unfair. No, you don't sit here and push it off. Because you also told me that after they said it, they sent a cop to stand by the Duke bench, which meant they were aware of the threats.

Yeah, so they did. Yeah, right. So the police officer was sent down to the student inn where the students were seated, right? But again, what did that do? In that moment, you just said it, right? I've been in many sporting events, and sometimes you love a raucous crowd, right? That's what you want at a sporting event. But there is a it, right? I've been in many sporting events, and sometimes you love a raucous crowd, right? That's what you want at a sporting event. But there is a line, right? And I've seen coaches do exactly what you just said. When that crowd gets out of control and crosses or starts to cross that line, I've seen coaches go take that mic and in the moment say,

you either knock it off or I'm going to have you removed from here. And that in and of itself is indicating that you do not condone that kind of behavior. And you will not condone that kind of behavior. And that's what you have to do while it's happening, right? That's the best time to send the message. And then you follow up with it, right? But here, that didn't happen. That could just be my opinion about how it should have been handled.

But the bottom line is I don't think enough was done in the moment to give these young student athletes an opportunity to compete in an environment where they didn't have to focus or be worried about what was going on behind or around them, and especially not in that kind of an environment where you're having racial slurs. You said, quote, my daughter, you said that it's for you to be in law enforcement. It was tough. Here you are thousands of miles

away. You said when your daughter called me, my daughter was afraid last night. She was in tears. That is the one thing a mother and a father does not want to hear when their child is complaining a sporting event and they're thousands of miles away. Yeah, no, no question. You know, and I mean, the first thing you feel is guilt, right? But I mean, you get through that, right? Because you can't be everywhere. And we, you know, Rachel's been playing volleyball since she was 10 years old. We have three other daughters who have all played volleyball. So for three decades, we've been a volleyball family. If I'm honest with you, Roland, you know, the

headline, we shouldn't even be having this conversation, right? The headline should be BYU Volleyball hosts largest crowd in volleyball program history. Man, that's such a statement for Title IX and where women's athletics has come over. We were actually sitting here watching it on television, and you couldn't see everything that was happening right in the periphery there. But, you know, we were watching it and we're sitting here going, man, we remember when we were, you know, young parents, you know, taking our children to volleyball and you'd have a handful of parents and three or four people you'd drag off the street to bring into a gym

to say, hey, you know, come in here and watch this game. Here we are, you know, 50 years after Title IX, and women's sports are starting to rival the crowds that men's, that's what this should be about, right? But it only takes a few ignorant people, you know, to take something that should be good and take the whole thing, right? Because I don't want to blanket that whole crowd as if everyone was doing it. say this, but those who were in proximity, who heard it, you had a duty to stand up and say, hey, you got to stop that, right? And that's hard, again, you know, and I understand these are young people, right?

But you know what? We all have to do hard things in life, and we have to make those decisions to stand up and do those hard things at the right time, right thing, right reason. So y'all were watching the game. Yeah. So you're watching the game having no idea what your daughter was enduring. No, because, you know, and remember,

when you're watching a sporting event, the camera is on the game. Right. And you can't hear, you know, the crowd is loud, and that's great. Like I said, man, you love, man, that home crowd was supporting their home team, and they should, 100%. But when that support crosses a line and devolves to the point that this one did,

that's when adults in the room had a duty to stand up and take control of that situation and stop it. A lot of folks have been asking this question, and I would love to know what did Duke folks say. Folks, your daughter addressed it as well, but they said, what did Duke do? Why didn't Duke pull the players off the court? You've already talked to BYU folks.

You talked to the Duke folks as well. What did they say to you, and how are they going to try to folks. You talked to the Duke folks as well. You know, what did they say to you and how they're going to try to hound this stuff in the future? So, excellent. One of the things that I'm doing this Friday, I'm actually going down to Duke University. Rachel has a, they have a home, their first home tournament. And so I'm going there and I'm having a meeting

with the administrative staff there at the athletics department. And we're going to talk about that because could more have been done? Yes. Now, here's what I don't expect to have been done, right? What I didn't expect was for the Duke coach to go and take the mic and say something to the BYU fans. That would have done absolutely nothing, right? She has no influence there. However, the BYU coach, absolutely nothing, right? She has no influence there. However, the BYU coach, different story, right?

So, but for Duke and for me and for my peace of mind and my family's peace of mind, Duke is, they have care of my daughter when she's away on those trips. And what I wanna make sure of is that they are going to take the steps that are necessary. And I don't know, that may be, when I say necessary, that may be situational depending on what's going on, but I want to make sure that they are taking the necessary steps to ensure that first she is safe and that second, you know, she is afforded an opportunity to play in a venue that is free of that kind of hostility.

So those are the conversations that I plan on having with them when I'm there coming up this Friday. A lot of folks have been reaching out. As I said, LeBron James, he posted a tweet. If y'all have that, go ahead and show that. And others as

well. We've had sports columnists writing columns. This has been talked about by a lot of folks. I take it your phone has been blowing up from folks who you know offering their support in this time. Definitely. And, again, you know, that's the difference, right, bro? I go back to, you know, when I grew up, you know, man, I grew up in desegregation in the south there and, you know, that's the difference, right, bro? I go back to, you know, when I grew up, you know, man, I grew up in desegregation in the south there and, you know, in north Texas and the Fort Dallas, Fort Worth area, you know, man. And back then, you know, obviously things were so overt, right?

I mean, and it wasn't a lot you could do about it other than, you know, you just had to suck it up, keep it moving, right? Because what we didn't have is what we're doing right now. We didn't have the platforms or the opportunities to call this thing out, to shine the light on it, and to take a stand and say not only no, are we not going to accept this, but we're going to call it out for what it is. We're not going to let it be swept under the rug. And so I think that when you talk about this generation, the hope that I have moving forward is that this generation will continue to use the tools and the technology and the platforms that they have to be able to call this thing out.

I think we're going to eradicate it with this instance, with this incident. No, racism is alive and well in this country, unfortunately, and this isn't going to be the incident that's going to eradicate it. But we must take every opportunity to address it whenever it rears its ugly head, and we cannot let ignorance have a pass. We've got to call it out for what it is every time we see it and ensure that it's not allowed to fester and grow. And I think that until we start doing that all together, it doesn't have to be one individual.

We can all do it together. This was a tweet LeBron James sent to Lisa Pamplin. Tell your goddaughter to stand tall, be proud, and continue to be black. We are a brotherhood and sisterhood. We have her back. This is not sports. Hashtag strive for greatness.

Hashtag more than a volleyball player. I don't know. You can let us know. Has LeBron reached your daughter? So I don't believe that they have spoken directly. Well, just know I did send an email to the NBA commissioner as well as the deputy commissioner, Mark Tatum. He's a Kappa, but

forgive him. Saying I would definitely connect him in as well as some other players who knows LeBron, but go ahead. Yeah, no, she did have an opportunity though, you know, and some of her friends, right? Young men who played on the Duke volleyball team or on the Duke basketball team last year, you know, guys that went in the first round in the draft, you know, called her, reached out for her, touched her.

You know, I think she'd heard from guys like Kyrie Irving and some other guys. You know, that kind of support has helped her, you know, to get back and kind of, you know, she was overwhelmed over the weekend, no question. And today was the first day of class. So, you know, she was really having to deal with a whole lot. But that helped her to know that she has that kind of support. And interestingly as well, I want to give props to the Ryder volleyball team who agreed to play the third game of a tournament, which they traveled over 2,000 miles to go and play, right?

This is one of the biggest, a big preseason tournament. You're playing the number 10 team in the country, you know, and that's what you want to do. You want to play the best competition. Well, they agreed to play at that off-site location at a high school. They went 2,000 miles, not to just play at a high school in Provo, Utah, with no fans, but they did. So I want to give them some props. And the other thing they did, which really, for me as a dad,

it really warmed my heart. They wrote the number three on their shoulder and played the game in support of Rachel with the number three on their shoulder. Now, we won that game, and I appreciate that. But I appreciate the fact that, you know what, those young ladies took a stand and said, hey, you know what, we don't want to go back there either. Well, when you and I talked on Saturday, when you talked about having the platforms, this type of story is precisely why this was created. I could have easily said, look, I'm coming home Sunday. I'll deal with this on Monday.

But I wanted to go live right then. People responded. We probably had almost 200,000 views of just that particular video. But this is why black-owned media matters. This is why I keep telling our people we have to support our own institutions because I didn't want to wait until CNN or MSNBC got around to doing the story. I wanted to be able to share it with folks. This is why when we tell our own story and control the narrative,

and that's why it was so funny because the next day, people start posting all this stuff. Well, the BYU AD said, I said, I talked to her daddy yesterday. I said, y'all can try to come back 48 hours later trying to somehow flip and spin this thing.

I said, no, no, no. I talked to her daddy yesterday. But that's why having our platforms to come. And again, I'm sure other national media has reached out, and they probably will spend five or seven minutes discussing this. We've been talking for 30 minutes. That's why it matters. When we have our own, we can have our own story and share it with the public.

And I appreciate you, brother, no question, you know, for the opportunity, right? You know, because when it happened, you know, the first thing I did was I said, you know what, we can't let this just get swept under the rug. And the first name that came into my mind was, you know what, I need to get in touch with Roland just because, you know, number one, because I know you. I know that you will speak the truth about the issue, you know, and I think that was important, right? Because I think I told you, you know, the first thing, I felt guilty for not being there for her to make sure that she knew that she was safe. What I wasn't going to do was stand by and let her, let this just kind of go by without making sure that the light got shined on.

And I knew that you would help shine that light, and I appreciate that, you know, because let's face it again, if we don't take the time to call these things out, who will? So if not us, then who? That's right. Well, that's why that mural in that office from the Freedom's Journal, the first black newspaper, where they wrote, March 16, 1827, we wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us. And so I'm glad to see you speaking for Rachel, Rachel speaking for herself,

and I'm glad to see the people holding BYU and Duke and the NCAA accountable for saying this should not be happening in 2022. There were racial incidents. You told me about one when our friend Darrell Thornton, when he went to BYU in 1980 where they threw eggs and tomatoes at them and they heard racial slurs. And so we call it out then, we call it out now to demand better.

Appreciate it, definitely. Thank you so much. Give our best to your wife, Gloria, your other daughters, as well as Rachel. And we'll keep covering this story to its conclusion. Marvin, thanks a lot. Thank you, Roland. Take care. Appreciate it, Brad. Thank you very much. Pull up our panelists, Omokongo, Renita, as well as Julian.

And this is the thing that, you know, Julian, you've been the college president. This is where leadership leads. And this is where, and I don't care what the BYU athletic director said. First of all, that statement he gave was weak as hell to that crowd. Okay, he should have said a black player was called the N-word by fans at this game, and that is unacceptable. He couldn't even say that. He couldn't even mention racism.

It was as saccharine as possible. Oh, I don't want to sit here and offend people. No. You got to get in folks' face and say, we ain't tolerating that. That's real allyship. Absolutely. I mean, I think this man by not calling out racism,

by not calling out this was a racial slur. He basically not only showed no leadership, but he acquiesced to the BS that those rowdy folk students, and it wasn't just one. He said we expelled one fan. Need to be expelled a whole section of. I think that BYU is beyond wrong,

but I also think that Duke could have done something different. No, they couldn't take the mic. As your friend Bertha said, they couldn't take the mic and interrupt play. But they could have done something quite emphatic. In fact, the president of Duke should have reached out to the president of BYU and said, our students were disrespected at your school. What are you going to do about it? And that's the school. What are you going to do about it?

And that's the issue. What are you going to do about it? I, you know, that dad has to be so proud of his daughter. I mean, such dignity and such a well-written statement. But at the same time, as he said, this stuff happens all the time. And too many Black people, too many Black people are uncomfortable

confronting systematic racism. We want to play nice with the devil and it doesn't work. You know, the thing here on Macongo that, again, is silly to me, Rachel requested to speak to the AD

and the head coach. Head coach didn't show up. The BYU volleyball head coach didn't show up. And so the AD and the head coach. Head coach didn't show up. The BYU volleyball head coach didn't show up. And so the AD said, well, I chose to represent. Well, then you should have told Rachel that the head coach is not going to be here. No, if the black player who got called, and what Marvin told me was, he said,

Rachel wanted to express to them directly how she felt during that game. The coach should have had her ass sitting there in that office at that meeting. Period. Bottom line. This was a failure of leadership on every single level. My organization, I

called it Upstander International because I talk about the importance of being an upstander and not a bystander. And that coach who didn't want to show up was a bystander, period, bottom line. And I commend her so much for what she did. My daughter's a freshman in high school and just made the volleyball team. So this is like a personal, you know, seeing this story. And when I think about what happened, really at the end of the day,

I'm thinking about the parents who are in that audience who heard this stuff happening. I am thinking about those coaches. I'm thinking about those players and everything. Really, at the end of the day, this represents the culture of a community. And this actually connects to our last segment, Roland, because we were talking about semi-fascists and all of that. This is how it starts. When people say stuff, throw out slurs and throw out these things and they don't get challenged. And these guys become the politicians, the teachers, the leaders, and so on and so forth. They need to be challenged and metaphorically hit in the mouth when those things happen. Let's be mindful of the fact.

The police, from what I understand from the story that you said, S. Roland, the police officer was not put by the bench because of the racial slurs, but because that same guy said to watch your back. So we're talking about an actual possible threat of actual violence to be done. And that continued to happen because nothing was done in the beginning. And so those BYU players should have challenged it. And look, I commend, look, no, I commend everything the Duke players did.

But this is not the 60s, right? We celebrated Bill Russell and so many of these other brothers and women who had to play through these different times, and we get it. But nowadays, if those Duke players decided to walk off the court, this country would have had their back.

The world would have had their back. And so everybody has the ability to stand up and challenge this ignorance and hate. All of this lies on BYU. But those players who are on the Duke team as well walk off. We throw out guys from NBA games, right, if they say something snide to a player or disrespect somebody's wife. When Russell Westbrook got into that argument with a player, I mean with a fan, they got rid of him in band. They throw these guys out for less. And they need to do more to

protect our sisters in these venues and all athletes because it's only going to get worse if it doesn't go unchecked. So I commend the dad. I commend Rachel. I commend what's happened. But you said more could have been done in that BYU community. You had the light shone on you and you showed who you

truly are. You need to do better, and the world is watching. And by the way, Renita, as I said, BYU wants to make this about one guy. No, no, no, no. Multiple fans use racist language. And you mean to tell me ain't no video? And no audio? You hit the nail on the head.

It's not just one person. BYU is a Mormon university. And if you know anything about the Mormon religion, it's public knowledge that they run a whisper campaign that anybody with darker skin is inherently evil and pretty much has no shot of going to heaven. So if you look at demographics of BYU, less than 1% of the people who attend that university are Mormon. So what I'm saying is BYU

has got to do more than just say, we're committed to ending racism at BYU. We're committed. Racism has no place here. Yes, it does. And you're going to have to do the hard work to really try to, if you want to separate yourself from what the Mormon religion has been. I mean, that's just, that's just what it is. So my guess is they've got more work to do than even other universities. Indeed. All right, folks, got to go to break. We come back. What the hell is going on at Florida A&M University? 20 players were ineligible to play their game against North Carolina.

The president is apologizing for failures. The football team is like, say dog, you got to do more. We'll break that thing down next right here in Roller Martin Unfiltered. Hey, y'all. Y'all heard Marvin had to say, this is why we have to have our own platforms. This is why we created Roller Martin Unfiltered. This is why we created the Black Star Network a year ago. Download our app.

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Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Let me give Chris Steak a shout-out. Terry Green, Patricia Blackwell. Let me also give James Simmons, he said, the best black news show. Appreciate it, my brother. Brittany Hanshaw, Leticia.

Let me see here, I got some, Baldor Ross, Albert Williams Jr. On Zelle, thanks a bunch. Carolyn Jackson, Cassandra Hammond, Keith Bullard, Richard Pettigrew, Harry Alexander, Mike. Let's see here. I got some other folk I'm going through here. Let me see.

Cedric Nisan, thanks a lot. And I'll do one more before I go. Let's see here. I'm looking, I'm looking, I'm looking, I'm looking, I'm looking for some folks because we got cash up all different platforms. Oh, Angely, let's see here. Let me see, I'm looking, I'm looking, I'm looking for some folks because we got cash up all different platforms. Oh, Ainsley. Let's see here.

Let me see. I got one more. I know I saw it. All right. I'm going to find it and give the shout out after the break. We come back. We're going to talk a man off script. But Scotty, about Florida A&M.

What the hell are y'all Rattlers doing in Tallahassee? You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network back in a moment. When we invest in ourselves, we all shine. Together, we are black beyond measure. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. On that soil, you will not replace us. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol.

We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the wrath of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys.

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What up? Lana Wells, and you are watching Rolling Martin Unfiltered. All right, y'all. So over the weekend, just some all kind of drama took place with the Florida A&M football team. 26 players were ruled ineligible to play against the North Carolina Tar Heels. They had so few offensive linemen that the coach literally considered canceling the game. That would have been detrimental because this was a $450,000 payday to Florida A&M.

Now, y'all know HBCUs, they ain't getting no $450,000 games every single week. And so this absolutely didn't matter. They chose to actually play the game. They were competitive for about a half of Florida A&M, excuse me, with North Carolina, ended up losing to them, giving up 56 points. Now, the president of Florida A&M University, Larry Robertson,

released a letter, and this is what he released, okay, in response to all this drama regarding these ineligible players. Pull it up, please. This is a letter that he released. He released, pull up my monitor here. And so what he said in his letter, this was released publicly, okay, about Florida A&M. He said, first of all, y'all, why are we using this? This should be in our graphics form. This is simply too small. You can't read this, okay? We shouldn't be showing this here, okay?

Greetings from North Carolina, where our Rattler football team and coaches are getting ready to face off against the North Carolina Tar Heels at 8 p.m. tonight. I'm incredibly proud of our coaches, staff, volunteers, alumni, and friends who are here to support the courageous young men on our team who will compete to the best of their abilities in this contest. The Marching 100 band is also here and will mesmerize the crowd in their typical fashion. I must commend our Rattler football team members for expressing their concerns about matters that my administrative team and support staff will handle more effectively. We have a responsibility to work together with our student athletes, coaches, and staff

to provide academic, health, safety, and other services needed for student success at Florida A&M University. We have a shared commitment to a culture of accountability and compliance, and as senior administrators and staff, we must lead the way. I often brag about our students and their willingness

over the years to engage in important matters of the public's good and of significance to their well-being. I'm incredibly proud that these young men step up in the matters of the public's good and of significance to their well-being, I'm incredibly proud that these young men stepped up in the face of current challenges and expressed their concerns in that revered Rattler tradition. The issues raised by these young men will get our full-time attention

and will be prioritized by our recently established Athletic Support Committee, which includes administrators and staff from throughout the university community. These matters will be a standing agenda item at my weekly senior leadership team meetings. We will see progress. And as for today, our team is here,

our coaches and staff are here. We will compete and do our best to win. Once again, I am thankful for all of the coaches, staff, and student athletes who played a role in making this happen. Okay, let me go ahead and just say this right now. And again, y'all, I spoke on the Florida A&M campus. Y'all know how I feel about the importance of HBCUs. I know many Florida A&M graduates.

My frat brother, Will Packer, Rob Hardy. I know Cheryl Smith. I know Kim Godwin. I know, I mean, all kind of people. Myra Lowe is down there. She's the head of the School of Communications. I was just with her when Ben Crump gave them a $50,000 check for the School of Journalism. But I ain't got no choice but to say this. President Robertson, that is a bullshit-ass statement.

That was a, put the statement back in my mind. That was a trash-ass statement from in my mind. That was a trash ass statement from the president of Florida A&M University. First of all, in the letter, he says, our recently established athletic support committee, which includes administrators and staff, you fired the damn associate, you fired the athletic director.

If you have a real AD, you don't need no damn athletic support committee. That's the point of a damn athletic director. The point of an athletic director and athletic department is to actually do what the hell you're supposed to do and have your university in compliance. How the hell you go to the first game and you don't know who's eligible? This is real basic. This is some basic-ass administrative duties. And then to say these matters will be a standing

agenda item at my weekly senior leadership team. You just found out? Two days before a game, you find out that 26 players not eligible. Guys who transfer in from other places. You don't know they're eligible?

What the hell were y'all doing at Florida A&M? We ain't talking a small private places you don't know they eligible what the hell were y'all doing in florida a and m we ain't talking a small private n-a-i-a hbcu we're talking about a member of a southwestern athletic conference a school that's one of the top football programs and y'all just figured this out? Y'all might say, oh, Roland, don't be dogging Florida A&M. Okay, show the letter. The players dropped today. This came from the Florida A&M football team.

Come on, pull it up. Let's go. Well, y'all moving too damn slow. You should have had it ready. Let's go. Come on y'all moving too damn slow. You should have had it ready. Let's go. Come on. Pull the letter up. Y'all, the Florida A&M football team, y'all going to make me pull it up.

See, y'all should have had the damn letter ready. The Florida A&M football team dropped their own letter in response to what the hell the president had to say. And in their particular letter, they're like, yeah, we got some concerns here, Mr. President. We got some concerns with what y'all doing and how y'all operating. Let me see if I can pull that right here. It's dumb, and I don't care. The president can be pissed off at me all he wants to.

Fine. Call me. I'll be happy to take your phone call. And I don't care the president can be pissed off at me all he wants to fine Call me I'll be happy to take your phone call But this don't make any sense was going down at Florida at Florida A&M. So y'all got a letter Okay, well come on this don't make no sense y'all gonna have to let her and put it up on the screen All right, okay, so let me go ahead and read this letter, okay, come on. This don't make no sense. Y'all could have had the letter and put it up on the screen. All right. Okay, so let me go ahead and read this letter. Okay, let me do this here.

Let me do screen sharing so y'all can see it. Okay, so let me sit here and do this here. All right, here we go. So this is the letter from the team. All right. They say our campus partners, put on my mom, also share responsibility in this fiasco. During the admissions process,

several of us had to submit academic transcripts, letters of recommendations, and immunization records multiple times because proud submissions were either misplaced or never forwarded to the proper department. Stop. How in the hell football players gotta submit multiple documents because you got folks who don't know how to sit here and actually get it right again this is what happens when you fire the AD.

This is what happens when you have a department that is simply, y'all should have the graphic up on y'all end. Come on. All right? This is what happens when you fire the AD and you ain't got no control in your doggone department. This makes no sense to me, y'all. I don't understand what the problem is. I don't understand what's going on with Florida A&M where you literally have no institutional control and you have no idea what is happening

with your own department. Okay, let me zoom in further, pull it back up. Here we go. Currently, we go. Currently, we have multiple players, put it in my monitor, we have multiple players that have been deemed unable to participate in competition because simple tasks

such as changing of majors, conferring of degrees, and the submission of grades have not been completed promptly. That's your administrator's fault, President Robinson. One such player submitted a change of major form on August 10th and it is yet to be completed

by his advisor or department. Is this the fulfillment of our university motto, excellence with caring? Now y'all spent a lot of time going after that girl who took some butt naked photos on one of y'all, on one of your campus monuments, but you're damn sure they had this together. Yeah, right, I'm doing damn roll call

because this is embarrassing as hell to Florida A&M family. Summer school, Dr. Robinson, because of our athletic obligations in the fall and spring semesters, summer school is vital to the academic success of our team. It is imperative that our scholarships cover at least part-time enrollment for the summer term. Additionally, football games are not won during football season.

They are won in the grueling workouts and team activities during winter, spring, and summer months. In the summer of 2021, we were provided tuition of up to six credit hours plus room and board. We were able to transform our bodies and develop into a championship caliber team. This summer, your administration, y'all, they're talking to the president of Florida A&M. This summer, y'all, this summer,

your administration decided not to provide housing or meals for us during summer school. Now, how in the hell? How in the hell you got a football team and they ain't got no damn meals and nowhere to live? This decision has had detrimental effects on our preparation for the 2022 season. Many of us were not able to maintain or increase body weights because of a lack of nutrition.

Y'all, we talking football. Your ass got to maintain strength. Most of us found minimum wage employment, but because of educational and athletic obligations, we were unable to work enough hours to fully provide for our needs.

Do you think the same conditions are placed on the players at the University of North Carolina or Jackson State? You claim to support us, but, I'm going to pull it up, go to the next page, y'all. You claim to support us, if I can pull it, there we go, here we go. You claim to support us. Support is much more than cheering for us during games or offering a few kind words after a big victory. That press release you sent out President Robinson, that's what they talking about. We were in the midst of the search for the next

athletic director at FAMU. It was very disheartening that there is no student athlete representation on the 18-member search committee, nor were there any discussions held with us regarding the characteristics or qualifications of our next leader. Oh, by the way, when they fired to AD,

he got a job that quick as the number two at Tulane University. In contrast, every elected student government association president is seated on the university's board of trustees. It is important that students' voices are considered in shaping the future of this institution. Concerning this next athletic director, it is our belief that the individual selected

should have extensive administrative experience from successful NCAA member institutions and efficient organizational structure model to address current existing personnel deficits and a proven track record of successful fundraising. The same athletic department that had, if I'm correct, and Scotty, you correct me if I'm wrong, he's going to be next, that had what, six in ten years? Six 80s in ten years? Yeah, we're going to discuss that next. The idea of placing a person in the position because ties to FAMU is not appealing to us at all.

We need fresh ideas and innovation to achieve the level of excellence that FAMU athletics is capable of. Under appreciation, Dr. Robinson, the NCAA allows players to receive four tickets for all games in which we participate. That has been the standard since we arrived at FAMU. Last week, we were informed that the current athletic administration had reduced the number of tickets that we would receive from four to two. So your ass can't feed them, you can't house them,

now you're reducing tickets. This decision left our family and friends who had already made arrangements to travel to Chapel Hill scrambling to purchase expensive tickets to see us play. That's how you treat your football players, President Robinson. Our family and support systems that's how you treat your football players president robinson our family and support systems should not be burdened in this manner the vast majority of

them incur hotel and travel expenses and the facilitation of game tickets should require minimal effort from our athletic administration is that the last part of that statement did y'all, bring up our script. Scotty, y'all, he's a contributor to the Black Star Network. The Swat been tripping with his YouTube channel, and so they've been blocking him for stupid, petty-ass reasons. And so luckily, he's about to get his YouTube channel back. And Swat, y'all keep playing games with Scottie. Don't worry about it. I hit some higher ups at YouTube because y'all tripping.

Oh, yeah, don't think I ain't going to call somebody at the top of the food chain. Y'all keep playing with the brothers because y'all don't like his criticism. Scott, this is stupid right here. And that was a bullshit statement by the president. Yeah, and the president of FAMU may not invite me to the campus, may not come on the show, but somebody got to say it,

and the players were nice. They basically said the president is full of crap. Absolutely. And see, you missed the last section. I think the last section is the best section. I got it on my computer. I'm going to find it. Go ahead.

It says, on Friday, after much dialogue with our team, we decided to play at UNC. We determined that we would not play for this institution, but for our families, teammates, and classmates, our rabid fan base, and our coaches who have prepared us and love us. We played our guts out, and in the process, two of our teammates suffered season-ending injuries.

After the game, we decided to protest the Marching 100s, playing the Florida song in the family alma mater by kneeling during both songs. We will continue to do so until significant changes that facilitate a positive student athlete experience are made. We will not sing a song that begins, College of a Love and Charity, when we feel neither from this university.

Dr. Robinson, this letter is not a personal attack, but a demand for positive change and a culture shift in the current direction of FAMU athletics. We came to FAMU to better our lives and we are expressing concerns about impediments to the goal. We are not interested in the further empty dialogue

with you and your staff. We want changes made now. We have given our bodies and shed blood, sweat, and tears on behalf of the institution. It's time for FAMU to reciprocate the love. No, this is what happens when you run off an athletic director who balanced your books,

was making improvements, and you fire him for some silly-ass reason that we all know is BS that they've yet to explain to the public, and now you're running around, that's like sitting, that's like trying to sit here and, well, we're going to do Roland's show and run Roland Network without Roland, but he control the money, he control everything, but we're going to do this without him.

No, you can't do that. And for the president to act like, oh, my God, I just found out what's going on. This is an abdication of leadership. And it gets worse than that, Ro, because I don't even know if you've seen the updates that's been coming along. So some of the FAMU players have actually gone and got a lawyer.

And the lawyer went out and put it on Twitter. The lawyer's name is Tom Mars at Tom Mars Law. He says two FAMU players retained me yesterday to help FAMU seek a reconsideration for the NCAA regarding their eligibility. FAMU has ignored multiple

requests from us to see the paperwork that FAMU sent to the NCAA on their behalf. In contrast, Coach Simmons has been very supportive. So now you're also fighting the kids doing their due diligence to make sure that you did the paperwork right so they can come back and play,

because they've already missed games. And now you have some players who missed four games. You have some players who are out for the season. And everybody's trying to rush to get their paperwork together for the Orange Blossom Classic this Sunday. And to your point, this Tom Mars, what he laid out was he said

that he was indeed hired. He said, look at this, y'all. Look at this here. He said, incredible mismanagement by FAMU. Most, if not all, of these players followed the direction of their advisor to the letter. If the NCAA needs a pound of flesh,

they should take it from FAMU and let these guys play. And you have leadership who's acting like, huh, huh, huh, huh, and it praises them all. The band's here. We ready to play. Oh, my goodness. We all ready. Hey, dawg, this was no time for some cute-ass little statement.

Absolutely. And what makes it even worse and what people have to really realize is the kids actually did it for the school. Because even though they say the fans, if you break a buyout, if you break a contract where a school is supposed to pay you $450,000 on the day of the game, I believe the return penalty was five, that FAMU would have to pay North Carolina $500,000 just for them missing that game.

So in return, they saved FAMU a big check that they could not cash if they didn't play the game. And here's the deal. Those players, those players did not have to play that game. They could have said, we ain't playing. And now FAMU had to cough that money up. So you're right. The players saved FAMU's ass.

And you're not seeing the rapacity coming back to FAMU players. I've had conversations with some FAMU players to where they're saying they're bunking up. They're bunking up with other teammates. They're bunking up with females at the dorms. They're not allowed in the cab sometimes because they don't have money for food and things like that unless the coaches are with them.

And, you know, a lot of people talk about, oh, you need to come back to HBCUs and do it for the culture. But you have kids that are currently on campus sacrificing their dignity, sacrificing their ability to play at other schools just to stay at FAMU and to deal with all these things going on, and you can't have

a president that's not standing up for his players and his football players, letting them just lay with the wolves or just feeding for themselves. It's just ridiculous. Y'all, look, I know Julian had to go call her back because I really need, she was the president of Bennett. I just need

her just to weigh in as a former HBCU president. Uh, Makongo is there, Renita is there. Makongo, this is an abomination. This, this, this, what, what this, that is, that statement from President Robinson, that is not leadership.

Look, everybody knows you, Roland. You always say, if you do good, I'm going to talk about you. If you do bad, I'm going to talk about you. Either way, I'm talking about you. And this is... I mean, goodness gracious. This is a lack of leadership, once again, on every level. And schools are supposed to be places

where they are creating leaders of the future. They are not only jeopardizing these men's athletic careers, they're jeopardizing their academic careers and their future professional careers. These brothers are going to have to spend time probably going back to summer school, taking extra classes, probably going to have to take more jobs.

We don't know what's going on with any of their type of financial aid or loan or grant status as players. He is potentially destroying the lives of these men for years to come. And we already have issues enough with HBCUs as it relates to getting them the funding that they need and the respect that they need and that they fight for every single day with real leaders and real athletic directors and real presidents who are busting their behinds every day for our young people. And this is a failure at every juncture. And I'm so glad you played the letter of the students

because without that, so many people are just gonna go by what President Robinson is saying and say, oh, well, these kids should be thankful just to get an education, and they're working with them. No, he's destroying their future, and this is disgraceful. We talked about what BYU did on the other side with the racism and everything, but this is homegrown ineptitude that's coming from our own people

that is destroying the lives of these brothers, and I commend them for standing up. And as you said, as off script, they could have cost FAMU $500,000 by not showing up, but they're still there, still showing the character, still showing the spirit, still showing up for the school, showing up for their family, showing up for their community, and they can't even get the proper housing and the meals.

This is disgraceful. The athletic director should still be there, and this president may have to go. Hey, Scott, here's the whole deal. People forget that the Grambling football team protested years ago to conditions on that particular campus. The Florida A&M band should say, ain't going to be no halftime

unless you fix what's happening with the football team. This is where you got to have allies saying, no, no, no, business ain't going to be business as usual. And this is where... And Florida A&M is also a state school. Where in the hell is the Florida Black Caucus? Where are legislator is saying, hey, what's happening here is wrong. This is utterly ridiculous. And for the players to be complaining about not having housing and no food, man, give me a damn break.

No, it's ridiculous. And you're seeing it at just every level from, because this happened last year where a few players, not to this magnitude of 26 players, but you had very significant prominent players that you were expecting to come into this OBC game that were supposed to be playing, they weren't playing. Why? Because of paperwork issues. And now you're having one person in compliance

who has to do all the compliance and all the push of the paperwork for all these athletes. But to me, you know, they'll say, well, we're underfunded, under-resourced, but you're still cashing checks. You're still getting paid on the 1st and 15th, so you're okay to spend the money, but you're not doing the work that's required to get the check.

So something has to give. You either have to come out and ask for help publicly and say, hey, FAMU is leaving me without the resources to do right by these kids, because you being in silence, to me, just says that you're adding to the problem. You're just hiding it and hoping you wouldn't get caught, but you got caught.

And, Rodin, here's the deal. These ABC students ain't playing. We saw protests at Howard University over dorms. We saw it happening down there in Atlanta. We see it happening at Lincoln University. Sorry, I'm sorry, Tennessee State, not Lincoln University, Tennessee State over housing. These folks will go to social media and call your ass out.

They ain't playing that whole game. Yo, don't criticize us because you make us look bad. No, you're making yourself look bad. No, this is terrible. It's egregious, and it's also unbelievable. And the reason I say it's unbelievable is because we all know that HBCUs are struggling, usually struggling financially. But some of these problems are not even about money. That's what's so unbelievable.

It's like they could just do better. And it's just such bad timing, too, when you've got now unprecedented attention towards HBCU athletics with everything that Deion Sanders has done. Like, this is the wrong time for all this. And so, like, Amakamo was talking, he was saying that, you know, they're really ruining their lives. I was thinking the same thing, because they could have gone to a white university and been treated this way.

Like, this is just unbelievable, and it's embarrassing. And as somebody who grew up in Florida, I just absolutely hate to see that this has happened to FAMU because FAMU is a well loved HBCU. It's important to the state. It's important to our culture. I mean, this is just, it's just unbelievable and it's unacceptable. Hey, Scott, I'm going to give you the final

word, but I'm going to say this here. President Robinson, you need to come on this show. You need to sit down. Don't just try to... He needs to do a live stream where he is addressing these issues, where he's addressing these football players, and what he should be saying,

what that little weak-ass press release should have said is, I've told my administrators, you got 72 hours to fix the problem. Not, oh, this is going to be on my agenda at my weekly meeting. First of all, that's you saying, we're going to let this thing continue for weeks on end. No. I'm the football players.

Ain't no game. Ain't no game. Ban. We ain't playing. Shut it down. Send that kind of message to the administration. That's a tough one because, you know, you had top players who wanted to, who Isaiah Lanz, the B bowlers that have NFL draft stock

that were not allowed to play in the UNC game. And we know what happens when, you know, you do well against a FBS program, the Kobe Durants, the Darius Linners, you get looked at differently and you get picked up prospectively. But this is the thing. I have a good friend who's a FAMU. He's a legacy. His mom and dad both taught at FAMU. His name is Kofi

Hemingway. And he said numerous times that they need a town hall meeting. They need to have President Larry Robinson in the middle. And he addressed all the questions and concerns from fans, from alums, from sports, to athletes, all of it. Because you can't sit up in your room,

you can't come down for the press releases and the pictures and not deal with the real issues that are going on at FAMU. And I hope somebody holds them accountable, and we'll see where it goes from there. All right, so this is real simple. So y'all can spread the word. Florida A&M football team and students, I will bring Roland Martin Unfiltered down

to Tallahassee and host that town hall. We will live stream that town hall. Not only to our platform, we'll send to the Florida A&M YouTube channel, their Facebook page, to the alumni page as well. So if y'all are the football team, if y'all want to do that town hall, y'all give me a call. Email is Roland at RolandSMartin.com I will bring this show down and we will actually

do that and take every question the president should stand there unless you show up. All y'all do is call. That's what's up. I'm going to definitely clip that and I'm going to put it all over my YouTube. They definitely going to make that happen. And that's what happens when. I'm going to definitely clip that, and I'm going to put it all over my YouTube. They're definitely going to make that happen. And that's what happens when you own your shit.

Simple as that. Scotty, y'all, subscribe to Autoscript's YouTube channel, please. Let's get those numbers up. Scotty, I appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. All right, folks. Got to go to a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk sick of sale.

FISA's $5 billion commitment. We'll tell you about it next in our Fit and Live Win segment on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. When we invest in ourselves, we're investing in what's next for all of us. Growing. Creating. Making moves.

To move us all forward. Together, we are Black Beyond Measure. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. You will not replace us. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance.

We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the rise of the proud boys and the boogaloo boys. America, there's going to be more of this. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people.

The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. When we invest in ourselves, our glow, our vision, our vibe, we all shine. Together, we are Black Beyond Measure. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach. Did you know that 43% of Americans say that they're going to go deeper into debt because the cost of everything is rising because of inflation? On our next Get Wealthy, you're going to hear from money coach Lynette Kelfany-Kotz as she shares exactly what we need to do to stay out of debt and get wealthy. When I paid off my $100,000 in credit card debt, I was just doing strategies kind of

piecemeal. I was doing like what I thought would work. And then it was like, oh, great. It did. It was effective. And then I was like, I should document this. I should explain like how I got out of debt. That's right here on Black Star Network with me, Deborah Ola, America's Voter. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture, you're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people-powered movement. There's a lot of stuff that we're not getting. You get it when you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us. We cannot tell our own

story if we can't pay for it. This is about covering us. Invest in Black-owned media. Your dollars matter. We don't have to keep asking them to cover covering us. Invest in Black-owned media. Your dollars matter. We don't have to keep asking them to cover our stuff. So please support us in what we do, folks. We want to hit 2,000 people. $50 this month. Waits $100,000. We're behind $100,000. So we want to hit that. Y'all money makes this possible. Checks and money orders go to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C. 20037-0196. The Cash app is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal is RMartin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered.

Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. That's Kim Whitley. Yo, what's up? This your boy Ice Cube. Hey, yo, peace, world. What's going on? It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered.

We're trying to get the audio of our next guest straight, talking about sickle cell awareness month. Pfizer has purchased for $5.4 billion one of the more promising drugs to treat sickle cell disease. We're going to talk about this with Darren Watts. Where are we

with Darren? Okay. Let's do this here. If we don't get Darren's audio straight in the next 30 seconds, we're just going to rebook Darren for tomorrow. But let's see if we can get Darren. Can you hear me? I can hear you, Rowan.

There we go. Darren Watts, y'all, is a senior advisor for the Black Women's Health Imperative here in D.C. Darren, how major is this Pfizer purchase of this drug? How will it impact black folks in sickle cell? I got to tell you, I'm happy to see anybody, whether it's Pfizer or others, investing in sickle cell. I'm happy because it's a sign of progress. I've been hoping to see new investment from the private sector and to see more R&D investment, the seed investment from the government to treat and cure sickle cell disease, because this is a disease that's been underfunded and really underappreciated, underloved by our government and by just historically for all kinds of reasons.

But if they're spending $5.4 billion that's concerned, is it going to be a major charge to folks with sickle cell to get the drug? What have you learned about that? I haven't talked to Pfizer at all about what their pricing policies could look like or anything like that. What I've been focused on is the fact that Pfizer, you know, is looking to have a pipeline that's going to, you know, help sickle cell disease patients. And again, I'm looking at the history here where this has been something that's been ignored and underfunded, which is why I was so happy, you know, because I've been working with

Black Women's Health Imperative and the Rare Disease Diversity Coalition, and they funneled into a partnership that's called the Sickle Cell Disease Partnership that really is, I would call it a wonderful broad ecosystem of players from across the healthcare system trying to improve the lives of patients with sickle cell disease. And obviously this is significant because sickle cell largely impacts African Americans. Yes. I mean, it impacts 100,000 Americans, but the vast majority of the folks that are impacted are Black people. And then there's Latinos, but to a lesser extent than blacks. So it's something that's been long overdue in terms of getting some attention on that. And on the Congo, Renita, you're there. Any questions that you have

for Darren with regards to this Pfizer announcement? Renita, I'll start with you. Renita, can you hear me? Can you hear me? Yeah, now we got you. Go ahead. Okay, great. Yeah, just one quick question. First, thank you to the guests for being here

and spotlighting this topic. I'm glad to see the investment by Pfizer. Just wanted to know, as a part of this partnership, has there been any commitment from Pfizer to ramp up research for curing sickle cell? I understand that's exactly what Pfizer is wanting to do. And so was GBT, the company that it just bought. I don't know if Pfizer's in on the favorite part that I have of this, which is in the future, I think there may be some gene therapies that can also cure this.

But again, coming into the Sickle Cell Disease Partnership, through Black Women's Health Imperative and some of the work that we've been doing with the Rare Disease Diversity Coalition, I've just been happy to see a group of organizations that are so committed to finally giving this disease its due. I mean, if you look at what some of the underfunding has been over the years, especially if you compare it to something like cystic fibrosis, which impacts a much smaller population, 40,000 people, as opposed to 100,000 Americans for sickle cell disease. And you would see cystic fibrosis have a lot more money, a lot greater funding, and a lot greater voice. I'm hoping that because September here is Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month, we can raise our voices a little bit more.

Omicongo. Disease Awareness Month, we can raise our voices a little bit more. I'm a Congo. Yes, Mr. Watts, I really appreciate the work that you're doing. And I don't know if I'm being cynical. I'm very happy that the extra money is now and the research is going to be there for sickle cell. Do you feel like this is happening because maybe sickle cell is starting to affect more people in larger numbers who are not part of the Black and Hispanic community, and now people want to pay attention to that? Or I don't know. What do you see as the reason why this is happening at this time,

as happy as we are that it is? I'll tell you, I don't see it impacting people other than Blacks in greater numbers at all right now. And I haven't really focused on the why. I've just been happy that something that was historically ignored is now getting so much more attention. the National Academies of Medicine convening top experts from sickle cell disease and putting together some policy recommendations that they hope will achieve better, more equitable outcomes for people living with this disease. And the Sickle Cell Disease Partnership has been focused on turning those recommendations into policy action, which is, again, why I'm so happy that, you know, led by Black Women's Health Imperative, you know,

I got involved with the Sickle Cell Disease Partnership. All right, then. Well, look, it is good news. If people out there want to get more information about the Black Women's Health Imperative, who would they reach out to? Okay. If you want to get involved in Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month,

go to the website, www.sicklecellpartnership.org. Please, on there, there's a way that you can be directed to take action, write your lawmakers, and get involved with some other things as well. We, as a community, have to demand congressional action on these things. And there's bills out there that can really help people with sickle cell. All right, then. We certainly appreciate it, sir. Thanks a bunch. Keep up the good work. Thank you, Roland.

Appreciate you letting me on. Yes, sir. Thanks a lot. All right, folks, that is it for us. We appreciate everybody for joining us, Julianne, Renita, and Makongo. Thank you so very much. Thank you for all of you who contributed during our show. Please continue helping us make this show bigger and better.

We've got some great things that are coming down the pipeline I cannot wait to share with you. Alright folks, if you want to download the Blackstar Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV, and of course, if you want to contribute to Bring the Funk Fan Club, our goal to get 20,000 fans contributing 50 bucks a year, that's $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day.

That allows us to reach a million dollars, y'all. We are actually way behind last year. So we're trying to hit 100,000 a month between now and the end of December so we can continue to fund our efforts. Check and money orders go to PO Box 57196, Washington, DC, 20037-0196. Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered. Paypal is RM Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered.

Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Shout out to Priscilla. Thank you for contributing. Richard, Samoto Dabney, Dante Pugh, Stephanie Booth, Angie, and Kristique. Thank you to all of you. Torrey Green as well.

Patricia Blackwell. Brittany, thank you for contributing. And I'm going to hand it over to you, Dr. D.C. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. D.C. Thank you to all of you. Tori Green as well. Patricia Blackwell. Brittany Hanshaw. Leticia. Carolyn Jackson. Cassandra Hammond. Keith Bullard. Thank you so very much.

Folks, that's it. I'll see you guys tomorrow right here on Rolling Mountain Unfiltered. Yes, I'm back from vacation. And y'all saw, I wasn't playing. We came out swinging. Wayne Dunn. I told y'all, a motto is real simple.

If you do good, we'll talk about you. And I'm back from vacation. And y'all saw, I wasn't playing. We came out swinging. Wayne Dunn. I told y'all saw I wasn't playing. We came out swinging. We ain't done. I told y'all, the motto is real simple. If you do good, we'll talk about you. If you do bad, we'll talk about you.

At the end of the day, we'll talk about you. Fam you, I ain't done talking about y'all. Howl! This is an iHeart Podcast.