#RolandMartinUnfiltered - L.A. Riots: 30 Years Later; Wells Fargo sued for race discrimination in mortgage lending practices

Episode Date: April 30, 2022

4.29.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: L.A. Riots: 30 Years Later; Wells Fargo sued for race discrimination in mortgage lending practices A look back at what has changed in L.A. over the past 30 years after the 1992 riots.    Wells Fargo sued for race discrimination in mortgage lending practices.  One of the class-action plaintiffs and attorney Ben Crump address Wells Fargo's actions. 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. This man, Black Media, he makes sure that our stories are told. I thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roland. I love y'all. All the momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scape. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home.

You dig? Today is Friday, April 29, 2022. Roland Martin, Donna Fulton, broadcasting live from Los Angeles in Leimert Park on the 30th anniversary of the Rodney King verdict riots. We're streaming, of course, live on the Black Star Network. We'll hear from a number of people who were at today's news conference. We took a tour this morning with Operation Hope,

John Hope Bryant, the founder as well, of the area that was devastated 30 years ago. That has since been rebuilt. But folks say they still want more to happen when it comes to economic development. We'll hear from Mayor Gilgars. We'll hear from Congresswoman Karen Bass, as well as the daughter of Rodney King. Folks, also on today's show, we will talk about a case out of Houston. First of all, a black and missing, a couple black and missing folks.

One still missing out of Houston, and also a young brother who was missing here from Los Angeles. Also, we'll talk with attorney Ben Crump about the lawsuit against Wells Fargo for racial discrimination. That and more. Lots of stuff to cover. You're watching. Roland Martin on the filter. It's time to bring the funk. Let's go. -♪ He's got it, whatever the piss, he's on it

Whatever it is, he's got the spook, the fact, the fine And when it breaks, he's right on time And it's rollin', best believe he's knowin' Puttin' it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Gro-Gro-Yo It's Rolling Martin

Rolling with rolling now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know he's Roland Martin Martin Folks, it was 30 years ago today when South Central Los Angeles went up in smoke. People talk about the Los Angeles riots. It was not all of Los Angeles. The police department pretty much left this area into ruins by retreating, if you will,

after the verdict came down in the case of the officers who were on trial in Simi Valley for the vicious beating of Rodney King. It was one of the first beatings when it comes to video captured. People thought, surely these officers are going to be convicted. Well, they weren't in that initial trial. And of course, I remember I was a reporter for the Office of the American Statesman, and people were all across the country were stunned to see what took place when the riots broke out. No, it wasn't a disturbance. No, it was not an uprising. It was a riot. You call it exactly what it is. And it was people who were angry, who were upset, because you're talking about a city that had to deal with a black community, that had to deal with for decades vicious brutality of the Los Angeles Police Department.

What people also need to understand, and when you begin to talk about what happened here with the Rodney King verdict riots, is that if you go back to the riots in the 1960s that took place in Watts, go back to what took place in Newark, go back to what took place in the other areas, which a current commission report detailed. Nearly every single instance was precipitated by police abuse against black people. That cannot be overlooked. And so today, Operation Hope, led by John Hope Bryant, invited us out to participate in the bus tour that went through the area that was devastated. There were individuals who were on the bus who lived through that, who experienced that.

They talked about what it was like 30 years ago. And what they also wanted to show is what took place economically over the last 30 years to rebuild these areas in Los Angeles that were torn asunder. And so we want to show you some of what took place with the bus tour. We were, of course, on there. We were live streaming. If you, of course, are watching the Black Star Network, you actually saw us live streaming the bus tour.

And so here is some of what took place today in Los Angeles. So we... We... So we started at First AME Church, long time led by Reverend Cecil Murray. And so we began there as we were post-gathered to board the two buses that traveled all throughout. And again, as we were on the bus, they were walking us through, the different moderators walking us through exactly what happened then and then what has happened since. When it came to the rebuilding, African-Americans, whites, Koreans were all there on the bus as well. Faith leaders, civic leaders all talking about what took place. And so we're going to first, Robert Sacedo, of course, the CEO of Community Build, he's going to kick it off. He was one of the main moderators.

We thank him for allowing us to broadcast the show from their location here with Community Build. That was born out of Project Build, led by Congresswoman Maxine Waters. She, of course, was not there today because she tested positive for COVID. Her daughter was out there. I did get a chance to talk to the congresswoman on the phone about what took place today and really what has happened over the last 30 years to rebuild and improve economically what has happened here in Los Angeles. And here we go. Listen to this. People from their homes, folks were lining up to go to first AME. I remember there was a building here that's been rebuilt around the corner on the left that a family got stuck in so we had to kick the door in. So a lot of memories from that day for me. It was a very emotional four days. One of

the people that no one's ever interviewed, and if you ever get a chance, you have to, is the comedian Red Hair. Red Fonz? No. Carrot Top? The brother, right? Yes. Sinbad.

Sinbad, forgive me. I don't know why I have a senior moment. We're just talking about seniors, right? So Sinbad was very active on the street with his family, helping families. As a matter of fact, there's a young man that he kind of adopted because it his their their house structure burned down they lived above a liquor store he helped them get housing in San Pedro the mother had for the grandmother has systemic lupus has since passed but he worked with that young man and continues to be involved

and it was just those are the quiet hero stories that we didn't hear about and there were a lot of those that i got a chance to experience uh during the right oh i call it riots they say civil unrest and and it was uh it was just an emotional time this block we're just passing first ame was loaded with people helping um i've never seen that kind of a cadre of individuals come out to make sure this entire block was full of volunteers. I was criticized strongly for doing bus tours about, I don't know, a decade, a decade and a half ago. I mean strongly, like strongly. And recently, like on this tour I got on social media, why are you taking people on a bus tour? I said because the only news we hear is bad news.

That's why. Somebody needs to sell some good news in our community. Folks didn't understand it didn't mean it wasn't the right thing to do. But these were black people attacking me. So you can't grow without constructive friction. You can't be afraid of a little criticism. If you believe what you're doing is right, then you stand on that. And we found that the strategy has worked, and we're better together.

You also cannot grow anything without relationships. And if you hang around nine broke people, you'll be the tenth. So you need to have folks with wealth on these buses, come in and see in these neighborhoods and talk with somebody next to them they've never met before, who they probably would never meet, sharing some grits and some chicken and some hog maws or whatever, and learning and figuring out if they can become an investor, a partner. I can't tell you how many deals have been cut on these buses over 30 years, but it's been tens of millions of dollars of community capital that's flowed as a result of people

coming on these bus tours, and hopefully a deal today with Robert here. So in a moment, we're going to get off the bus. There's a major press conference that we're going to participate in. Yes. Yes. But her shopping center didn't get that. Gracias. Thank you. How you doing? I'd like to start first in remembering here those who are not with us, though. 63 souls, at least, that we know of, who lost their life in the violence of 1992. And so many before and who have come after who have lost their life, if we can start with a moment of silence,

remembering them because the pain for their families has never, ever gone away. Ask those guys inside for water. Thank you. I will tell you that 30 years ago today, I was a few blocks away at the office of Community Coalition on 85th and Broadway at that time. You know, the community was sitting on needles waiting for that verdict that we were so sure was going to be positive because over all of the years that we were so sure was going to be positive. Because over all of the years that we fought, talking about police abuse, and could never get anyone to believe us, when that video came out, we felt finally,

there is no way in the world people won't see this injustice. That video was viewed by people all over the world. And we were waiting for justice, and we were so sure we were going to have justice. And we were waiting for justice, and we were so sure we were going to have justice. And when that didn't happen, everybody was told, when the verdicts come out, whichever way they come,

go to First AME Church with Pastor Cecil Murray, who is not with us here today. He couldn't be here, but we should all acknowledge his leadership because he was the leader at the time in the faith community. So I went, I was headed to First AME Church and I wound up right here on the intersection of Florence and Normandy and I saw people gathering and I didn't understand what was happening. I looked in the air and there were helicopters there. I thought they were police

helicopters. They were news helicopters. I saw people getting ready to throw bricks and I sped my car right around the intersection. But the person that was behind me took the bricks that I avoided. What started as an outrage because of the verdict over several days spread into outrage around the city. It was citywide. It was a rainbow outrage. What started as outrage over the verdict then spread to be something else over those next two days. It was a manifestation of economic despair at the time.

If you go back and you look at the tapes, you see people stealing diapers and food, and that was terrible. For three days, our city burned. I remember the fires were so strong. LAX was interrupted because of the smoke. It was the rainbow unrest. It happened all over the city. It didn't just happen in South LA. It wasn't just African Americans. It was everybody involved. And we think about where our city is today. In many ways, we have come so far. We have been able to build a lot, a lot of leadership, a lot of organizations. We're in an entirely different place.

But at the same time, we have so much more to do. We had people that were unhoused 30 years ago, and now that situation has definitely expanded. But just like the mayor said, I am hopeful because this is Los Angeles. We have all of the knowledge, the skills, and the resources here to continue to move our city forward in a positive direction. And we have to make sure that we never allow anybody to divide us or to use this day as a day to reflect back on division. We need to use this day to reflect back on what happened after the fires were put out, when the city came together and said, we have significant issues and we need to address them. So I want to thank the leaders who organized this today.

I want to thank Najee. I want to thank John. I want to help thank leaders who organized this today. I want to thank Najee. I want to thank John. I want to help thank all of the people that helped pull this together. We can move forward in this city. I am positive that we will because we have everything that we need here in Los Angeles. We just have to move ourselves forward. Thank you. I do want to give an honor to God.

I know we ain't in church, but I'm honored. I'm honored to look around and see all the nationalities here on Florence and Normandy. If that didn't happen, you guys wouldn't be here. I want to acknowledge all of you guys. Operation Hope, I love you guys. I love what you guys are doing in the community, out of state. Everybody, the mayor, Najee, you the man. You the man.

You the man. I first want to acknowledge the pain that the riots came from. You know, we look at it as a violent act, and it is a violent act. However, it was pain. You know, Martin Luther King said the riots are the language of the unheard. And after a while, if a toddler is screaming and you're not paying attention, they're going to throw a tantrum tantrum. So it's like I hope we leave here and learn from our pain like

we're all here like puzzle pieces right without you without me the puzzles incomplete so we should take away from this we shouldn't just make this a one-year thing we should have the domino effect on the world and Operation Hope is definitely doing that so I think we all should learn from that again I don't condone violence I don't condone violence. I don't condone rioting, but I understand where it comes from because we're unheard. So it's like, I think that this should be a national, I think that this should be, you know, because when protests happen, everybody comes here. I think that this should be well known. So people out of the country,

out of the state, they shouldn't take somebody from the town to tell them. Melvin, everybody back there that's from this neighborhood, I appreciate you guys because you guys are here every single year, not just when the media is here. You guys, exactly, off top. I think that's so important. And I think if we all close our eyes and operate from a place of hope, of love, of listening to each other's voice and hearts, that's the place of love, not what we look like, right? Because God had this. We didn't have anything to do with this. So I think if we operate out of a place of love and hope, that will take us so much further.

And we're 30 years later, right? We have moved forward, but let's push so that we won't be a next hashtag. Let's push so that we can look how ignorant we are and compared to where we came from and look at this moment like, wow, I can't believe we were that ignorant to judge people based off of the color of their skin. We can teach our children. Look, imagine how kids learn. Imagine how kids love. They don't look at what people look like. They don't look at racism. They don't look at race. They love each other. Toddlerslers they don't really get along because you know they're territorial but for the most part look at how they love look at how they treat each other we can all have that it's very easy it's very easy for us to get along and we're still

asking that question today are you serious are we still asking that question my dad was polite when he asked they gave him something to say. He spoke from his heart. He spoke from his heart. And the question is, can we get along? You know, it's like Latasha Harlins, that family, Denise, rest her soul. This was her front line. She was a front line soldier working out of pain. The same thing I do.

I work from pain. You can change the world if you work from pain. Imagine that. This pandemic has taught us so much. from pain. You can change work from pain. Imagine t pandemic has taught us so here today because we're here without mass vacinae that. Imagine God's work. really believed in his wo

about our life because we all believe in in some so again, I'm honored to be of the Rodney King Foundatio of the late great Rodney nervous in my burning rag a little nervous. Forgot I do have two gifts here

Karen. Um on behalf of th to give them a shirt, you know, from the foundation. Again, I appreciate every single frontline soldiers. Again, police, they're not bad guys. They have families like us. They do. They do. And I know I'm going to get some slack on this.

You know, unfortunately, I haven't had this experience, but my good experience outweighs my bad. They have families, too. So we need to figure this out. If we have to reconstruct the whole system, because obviously what we're doing is not working. We're still here. And I'm saying this out of hurt. I'm hurting. But I'm hopeful, right? So imagine if you work from home.

A painful place is amazing to work from if you don't have anger. If you don't have anger, you can change the world. So I want to present you guys with these shirts. Thank you. All right. Let's hold them up so the media can see them. Sure. You got to go up front.

Oh, sure. I got Karen. Oh. Thank you. Come on. Come on. Hold on. Hold on.

Hold on. Hold on. Hey. This is your team. Oh, my bad. Sorry. I'm just nervous. I'm just your problem. John, come on, sir. We're here because of you. I'm going to get you real quick. Real quick. And that is this. All across the country, what happened here, what people are talking about, economic development,

what are you saying to other mayors in terms of how they must be moving to rebuild largely black communities, especially homeownership? Well, first, it's not enough to just commemorate. You can't just mark history. You have to make history. You have to write it by making sure people are hired here locally. Whether it's us right now building a light rail line or the new Lucas Museum, we're talking about 20 to 70% of local hire. So that a mother or a father can say, I've built this in my own opinion, can buy that home, can get into a trade,

can get a union wage. We've raised the minimum wage, but it's not about $15 an hour, it's about $50 an hour in those jobs. So I would say to every mayor, invest in your infrastructure, don't wait for D.C. We got more infrastructure dollars than we ever had this past year, thanks to the president,

but you have to start here where you are. And lastly, you gotta bring the businesses here. Look at us today. We got two gas stations, an auto zone, and a liquor store. We need to do better to make sure that we bring businesses and demand that they bring the good businesses that hire locally and that invest in black businesses. All right. Always good to see you. Nice to see you, too.

I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Always, always. Thank you. Unbilted. LAPD, people say that's also our police force. Well, I think the key is you want your officers to stay in the community for an extended period of time, like any relationship. I've been married almost 30 years, but it took time for me to build up to the point where I say, hey, I want you to be my wife. And for us, the best example of community relations type relationships is going to be

our CSPB, which is our Community Safety Partnership Bureau, where we have officers assigned to a community for five years straight. And those officers, their job is primarily just to do community engagement. They'll do programs with the kids. It's not about arrest. That part is easy for LAPD. But when it comes to having authentic relationships where we give each other grace

and have those uncomfortable conversations, that's what I tell my officers. Take the time to know the community. Take the time to have those uncomfortable conversations that what I that's what I tell my officers take the time to know the community take the time to have those uncomfortable conversations but more importantly police that community with integrity police that community as if you be policing your own family and with this with this 30 30th anniversary yes sir what does this mean you, but also seeing what has been rebuilt in this community? It means a lot. I mean, for me, as I mentioned earlier, think about 30 years ago in this city, we had 1,092

homicides. That's, number one, it's unacceptable, but that's unheard of. But if you average the last 10 years, we're averaging about 263. One homicide is too much, but we're getting better. And it's not because of LAPD, it's because of the relationships we built with our interventionists, with our community-based organizations, with folks then having to access the jobs. I think that's huge. So I'm hopeful that we can continue to go forward. There's certainly some more work to be done, but I'm hopeful that we can continue to go forward. There's certainly some more work to be done, but I'm hopeful that we're going in the right direction.

Chief, I appreciate this. Thanks a lot. It's very nice meeting you, sir. All right, John, so we're here at the corner of Florence and Normandy. This is where everything started 30 years ago. For folks who, many people who, the whole generation wasn't even alive, who don't understand how this did not look like this after what took place. Well, the real magic of what you saw today, Roland, thank you for being here with us all day. If you don't realize how much you put in, you didn't tell me to get a photo and leave.

You've been here all day. This is normal. But normal is not necessarily normal. You got to work toward normal. Traffic lights at work. People stop at traffic. Everybody's helping each other out, saying hello to people, people conversing, creating business and commerce of all races, of all places, home ownership on the streets behind this. That normalcy did not exist on April 29th. You roll the tape. It was horrible. It was the worst of us.

Guy being, innocent guy, Reginald Denny being pulled out of his truck, dragged on the ground, almost beaten to death, but saved by another black person who said, who put his body in front of those who were trying to attack him and said, this will not happen on my watch.

Our brother's keeper is what we became on that day. Karen Bass, congresswoman now, who was at that point, I believe, a community leader, was driving through this intersection, bricks just missing her car. She was trying to get to Reverend Murray at First Army Church, and he's with us in spirit. He's 92 now. He could have been here. It was a scheduling conflict.

He actually is still very active. But all the religious leaders went from chaos here to the governor and the mayor, different political parties, capitalists and business people, community leaders coming together, white and black coming together, rich and poor, all the religions coming together to Reverend Murray's office where he said no more. Good job, John. Thank you very much. God bless you, man. Thank you. No more. Good job, John. Thank you very much. You look good, brother.

God bless you, man. Thank you. All right, Roland. No more of this on our watch. And it just stopped, Roland. The drama, the pain, the damage, the carnage of us hurting each other, because we weren't hurting anybody else at that point. We're hurting and destroying our own community.

The police basically blocked this area. The community left. On and off. And it was kind of like, do whatever you want to do. It's just real talk. Chief Darrell Gates at that time told his people to pull out. He thought it was unsafe. Now, when the police tell the police to pull out, it's either really bad or they're just not very good police. Today, we had the deputy chief of police who's black, who's in charge of this area. That's progress. You had a mayor who speaks Spanish, a white mayor who speaks Spanish. You had Congresswoman Karen Bass, who's trying to be mayor now.

You had Diane Watson. You had Maxine Waters, who's representing her community organization. The Urban League and all these, and Hapen Inn of the Korean organization and all this, Laura King, the daughter of Rodney King, who is saying this is the payoff of what my daddy asked for. Can we all just get along? This was that payoff. That was the setup. This was the payoff. And to have it, I mean, the work still continues. I mean, you know,

people are like going, people going to destinations. You never quite get there. And as I always say, our whole goal is not for black people to survive. It's for us to thrive. It's not to thrive. And to build, to build home ownership, to build small business ownership, to become entrepreneurs. To mid-size, to big businesses. That's right. To go from, to go to go from that idea, that small business. I had a guy walk up to me from our community like,

man, I want to do a community venture capital academy. What? What did you just say to me? Right here at the flashpoint. I had a brother, former gang member, said, I need you to mentor me. Help me get to these banks. I don't want a handout. I want to create a community venture capital academy to show our people how to become venture capitalists and then the people get funded

by the venture capitalists. Look, that's everything. That's like, because now the community is beginning to understand. You got to own. Always a pleasure, man. I appreciate it. Thank you, bud. Thanks for being here. All right. Let's get on that bus. Roland Martin, unfiltered. John Hope Bryant, we certainly thank you very much for inviting us, folks.

Let me introduce you to my panel. Normally we have our panel via Skype, but I said, look, we in L.A., let's have folks live. Y'all have seen Jasmine Koenig, journalist and, of course, activist, political strategist. She had all kinds of titles. So glad to see Jasmine here. Ayuko Babu, co-founder of the Pan-African Film Festival. Man, I was there years ago. And, of course, it is one of the most important film festivals in the country.

I didn't say one of the most important black film festivals. I said one of the most important film festivals in the country. I didn't say one of the most important black film festivals. I said one of the most important film festivals, period. And also, former police chief and city councilman here in Los Angeles, Bernard Parks, sitting here. You know, you can tell we're in L.A. with how he dressed. You know, I see. We can tell. So let's go ahead and get started.

I don't know who's older out of Bernard or Baboom. Let y'all fight that out. Same year. Same year? About one month ahead of me. He's older than you by one month. One month. Okay. See, I was going to say elders start. So he got you by one month.

Chief, just your thoughts on this historical event that was sad, that was difficult, that was painful, that was traumatic, but that was also honest in terms of how people just simply felt about being disrespected to have these white police officers, you know, the verdict not go the way black folks expected in 30 years ago today? You know, I think if we look at lessons learned, there's so many inconsistencies in the sense of people were upset about the incident. It seemed as though it toned down when the filings of criminal charges were done. Then when the issue of the verdict came out, there was an explosion throughout the city. and if you make comparisons to 65 riot 65 riot was pretty well localized in what we called

the black community or South Central LA this was a explosion throughout the city and where from the valley to Hollywood to Rampart to a variety of places South Los Angeles and so it just took on and continued to grow. And so there were many mistakes made in how the police responded. 65, Chief Parker thought, with the riot going on, just let it go and it will burn itself out. Well, it didn't. And then we learned from that, and it was supposed to be a more proactive approach but the major mistakes early on was not having enough resources in the sense of being there it took like 12 hours to become fully deployed all of that crime and burning occurred in the first night and the first day and you go down Central Avenue

you go to Alvarado and Third Street, the garment district downtown, all those were wiped out in a matter of about 12, 13 hours. And so when we look back on it, some of the lessons we learned in 65, we didn't take those lessons today because we still have vacant lots from the burned out buildings. We still have people saying we're going to have this economic development. Much of it didn't occur. People are still living in neighborhoods where they're complaining. The complaints in 92 and 65 are almost identical. No access to food, poor housing,

poor employment, lack of education. The only difference I saw in comparing them that when we talked about stores and access to foods is in 65 the complaint was against Jewish store owners and 92 it was Korean store owners. So but again the same stores that just changed hands and so those are some kind of inconsistencies and things but when you But what people don't realize, it takes decades to build a community. And then all of a sudden you have a riot and somebody says, we're going to build it back in a number of years. You don't build back in a number of years.

It takes decades to bring communities back. The thing that people, you know, Dr. King said it, you know, what riots represent, the voices of the unheard. And what it exposed, everybody in America is real good at, oh, my God, look at this. How dare these things happen? We saw the same thing after George Floyd in Minneapolis. Minneapolis, but what those folks, mostly white, refuse to accept is that when you have ignored people, when they have been degraded, when they've been dehumanized, when they've been disrespected, they are going to respond the same way, let's just be honest, America has always responded.

The reality is violence is as America as apple pie. Sounds like H. Rob Brown. Let me say this. Their response, white America's response, is typical. It's been the same response for the last 200 years. It's not new. It's always a negative and a positive experience in all things. So I want to talk about the positive that came out of the 92,

because there's a negative that's the same time as always the positive. The Pan-African film, we've been thinking about that for a long time, the need something to begin to tell our story even more. We all come out of black studies and creation of black studies. We said, let's get involved in cinema and tell our story. But when the 92 rebellion uprising riot happened, we had been here in 65, so we seized the moment and we got all the resources to support

and create the Pan-African Film Festival. That directly came out of that. More importantly is this. Every time there's a rebellion by black folks, uprising, rioting we feel energized we feel empowered, we feel there's a possibility

of a change and it spurs us on John Hope Franklin came out of that experience all that comes is always a positive and that positive comes out and you seize that positive and you run with it even the whole struggle with the police department, if it had not been in 65, not been in 92, Bernard, Chief Park may not have been here.

This all came out, this positive experiences. So, you know, that's very important for us to always understand. For every negative is always a positive. And you seize on the positive and go forward. And really what that means, Jasmine, is taking advantage of the moment. Because what took forever, so many people who were just ignoring black Los Angeles, now it's kind of like, do you hear me now? Do y'all want to pay attention now?

Do we now have your attention as roland when it's the 29th year in the 28th year we're still out there um remembering what happened but um you know it's it's these 25th these 30th these milestone anniversaries that the media gets involved. You know, look, I was 14 when that happened. I didn't exactly understand everything that was going on at the time, but I knew there was a lot of anger in Los Angeles. I remember I was living in a group home. I was a foster child on Western Washington, and I saw the people with the furniture and the baby m and the diapers too. What I also do remember, Roland, as journalists, do you remember the shortage of black reporters

that were on hand to be able to tell our stories? And so when Babu talks about the positive that came out of it, I also saw a lot of black journalists come out of that, particularly here in Los Angeles. Same as in 65 right we wouldn't talk to anyone but our own people and our own people knew how to get into our community because it was their community too so that's something that i that i think of but well and i also think about this it is 2022 and i think you said this in the beginning of the show, the same conditions that existed in 1965 and 1992 exist today.

How many times do we see officers get acquitted, officers not even get charged? And the difference now is we actually have video. Like, you know, what happened with Rodney King was like, wow. And not grainy video. And not grainy video. Like, we got 4K. Right. And folks are still either not being charged or being acquitted.

And so that anger is still there. That issue is still around. The thing that is interesting to me, again, whenever we examine when these things happen I'm always looking at yeah what is the what is the response and it is always amazing to me chief parks councilman parks when when I see people who are so vocal about protect those buildings but silent about protect those lives. I think you have a lot of people that pick the easy subject. It's easier to protect the building. Or for America what they think is the most valuable subject.

Well that's true but I think one of the things that you find, we keep relearning the same lessons. I doubt you can walk around this area and find people that can talk to you about 92. And that was only 30 years ago. There is no one in the area that could talk to you about 65. And so people keep relearning the same lessons. And then when they find out, it's like it's brand new to them elected officials today are not aware of what their history is they don't take an opportunity to learn what other administrations have done why it failed it just the looking towards the future and continue doing the same thing that's why I think we we lose our history when we don't identify it ourselves and begin to look at what the issues are. For years we've told people you can't solve a problem if you've not identified it.

You spend your life fixing the symptoms of the problem versus the problem itself. But again, you can't get into this fixing if you don't have the history of saying why this doesn't work. And then the other issue is the accountability. There's so little accountability today. You get elected officials that come in office eight years later, four years later, they're gone. They take credit for whatever did or didn't happen and they ignore what didn't happen. And so you have the cycle that goes on. And the police departments across the nation, you'll find the lack of accountability ongoing. You have these situations to where people can talk themselves around the issue. Most of the

defense of the people in Minnesota was we followed the lead of the senior officer. Well, common sense would tell you you can't follow the lead of the senior officer if somebody's doing something criminal. So the lack of common sense, the lack of accountability, what I always think is a throwaway line, when you and others go out in the community or to officials and say, what should we do? The first thing they say is training.

Training is a red herring. It's accountability is what the issue is. Do you hold people accountable for their right and wrong activities? Do you promote the wrong people even though they've done these wrong things? These are the things that keep happening over and over again. Jasmine, John, I hope Ryan has a saying he always uses. He says, you have never seen a riot

in a community with a credit score 700 or higher. When we talk about, again, we talk about what precipitated 1992. We talk about police abuse. We talk about

conditions in communities that result in anger. It always comes back to that one thing in America is money. And that is the communities that got the money that get the money and then those that actually do the work

for them to get paid but never actually see the riches. And so that's what it speaks to when you begin to go down. And even now you're talking about a massive home ownership crisis in America, especially as impacting African-Americans. We lost 53% of all black wealth during the home ownership crisis. Then you begin to talk about in 2013 when they gave out $23.09 billion in small business loans in America and black business got $385 million.

Why? No home, no loan, no business. And so America, which Dr. King talked about in his book, Where Do We Go From Here, Chaos or Community, he said, will America write that big check? He said, it ain't cost America much for us to go to restaurants and go to parks and then swim in pools. He said now there's a big check that they have to write, and that is still the fundamental issue. All right, y'all got some laws. You got some rights.

You good. Now, we ain't trying to give you no money. We're not trying to rebuild. We're not trying to reinvest. We're not trying to do it over a 20, 30, 40-year period. It's sort of like, all right, this thing lasted two, three years. All right, we good. Can we go back to what we were doing beforehand?

That also seems to be this recurring theme, whether it's Los Angeles or Houston or Charlotte or New Orleans. We can go on and on and on where you find black people. And I want to add to that that we have the issue of gentrification, particularly here in Los Angeles. So when you talk about 30 years ago and rebuilding over the past 30 years, now I'm seeing neighborhoods that have been rebuilt but have pushed out the people who live there just simply by the cost of what it cost to rent or buy there. And that's a real big problem,

particularly for black people in Los Angeles. We are being pushed out of this city. And so, yeah, so there are parts of this city that have never been rebuilt since, there are parts of this city that haven't been rebuilt since 1965, let alone 92. But at the end of the day, for me, as someone who lives here and wants to stay here, you know, when you talk about that home ownership, I'm like, will I own a home in L.A. before I die, right? And I think a lot of people, I'm a Gen Xer, woo-woo.

Like, here in L.A., like, that is a concern for us because we're constantly, this is our community. We want to be here. We were here in 92. We're here in 2022. But we see that we are being pushed out. We are really being pushed out of this city. But, again, the pushing out still goes back to money. So if you don't have the right jobs, if we talk about the working poor.

Right. That's what I'm saying. So when I say it comes down to money, I'm not just talking about the investment of capital in rebuilding. What I'm talking about is when you have areas where people are not able to have high five-figure, six-figure jobs that also goes to it. And so you talk about the working poor in this country, the fight for a $15 living wage. When it comes, you know, all of these different things, that's what we're dealing with. And so I talk about it so much on the show. People are always like, bro, why are you always talking about the money? I'm like, because if you can't, if you're talking about America, you've got to talk about the money.

Yes. I mean, you cannot separate. And I keep saying it. They really don't have any problem with us talking about mass incarceration and police brutality and education. I say, but when you talk about the money, like, Dan, why you get to bring all of that? Because that's where it gets real uncomfortable when you get to the money. I think you hit the right point. But again, whenever there's a serious issue, it forces people to back up. I mean, when you sit down and turn the news on or read the newspaper and you see what goes on in Congress on the daily basis, there's not a lot of people talking about the good of the community.

You're talking about looking at how people are investing their money, how they're playing the stock market, how they're getting inside information. So again, it's all self-interest as opposed to really public interest. And that's where we keep falling down on this whole issue. So your concerns are not their concerns. You're talking about, hey, how do we get the fair share of money? How do we get the fair share of resources? That's not everyone's agenda. There are some agendas that are saying, how do I keep it away from you so I don't have to take it from my community? And so that's the difference that we run across, that there's few that are in a consistent view.

And even those that have a good idea of what to do, it's short term. It is very short term. And that's why you get cycled back over and over, and that's why you keep relearning the problem. Babu, I'll finally have you follow the break. I think that, I agree with everybody, what everybody said here, but I think where we are at this historical moment, we

are dealing with capital, which we are in capitalism. That's the reality. So you have to decide how do you move in capitalism. We're also oppressed by race and lack of money. So the strategy to resolve that first is a policy question. So we as a people have to finally sit down and say, okay, how do we deal with class and race that's effective

and look at where we've been since 1865, Reconstruction, down to now, then make some decisions. Because we have been afraid to finally make a decision. We've got to face that. They haven't given us capital, even 1865. At the same time, the Freedom Bank was destroyed and robbed by folks that had been appointed by the administration. They were never convicted. We never got that money. Precisely. Never got it paid back. Never got that money, et cetera, et cetera. So now we're at a point where we now have to begin to stop and say,

let's really look at our situation, where we've been, and where we really got to go. Because nobody wants to deal with what Chief has said, what you've said. If you don't deal with that historical moment about these issues, we can't go forward. Indeed. Hold tight one second. I'm going to go to a break. We'll come back. Speaking of money, we're going to talk with Attorney Ben Crumple, one of his clients. They're suing Wells Fargo, saying that they have denied black folks economic opportunities, especially when it came to the refinancing of homes during COVID and also the number of black people who lost their homes during the home foreclosure crisis in 2007, 2008, 2009.

Folks, you're watching Roller Martin Unfiltered broadcasted live from Leimert Park here in Los Angeles on the 30th anniversary of the Rodney King verdict riots. Don't forget to support us in what we do. Download the Black Star Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Xbox, Samsung. Also, please support and join our Marina Funk fan club. Every dollar you give goes to support what we do.

PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037. Cash app with dollar sign RM unfiltered. PayPal is RMartin unfiltered. Venmo is RM unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. And Facebook and YouTube posts, be sure to hit that share and like button as well. I'll be right back. When I first moved to LA, me and Joe lived together, right?

And that was a big blessing because I didn't have to worry about paying rent. I was just struggling, doing my thing. And that was a big, big help. And then I think when I moved out, I think that's when I saw the division. Because I think Joe felt like I didn't need him anymore. Right.

And it wasn't that. It was like, I'm a grown ass man. Two grown ass men. But actually, that is true. You don't need him anymore. When you grow up, first of all, when you grow up, it's like, hey, you helped. And this time, you get your ass out the house

and go do your own thing. He didn't want me to move out. But I'm like, you know what? At the time when I moved out own thing. Right. He didn't want me to move out. But I'm like, you know what? At the time when I moved out. I mean, what? Were you paying the light bill? I wasn't paying anything.

And I said, you know what? I need this responsibility. It's going to make me work harder in my career if I know I got rent to pay, I got bills to pay. I was paying the cell phone bill. That was it. But Joe was treating me like a little butler. Because I'm telling you, I was like Benson.

I'm telling you, man. Please fetch me some water. He was using Jedi mind tricks. Yo, man, you still make them good grilled cheese sandwiches you made when you were little? No, you don't. Next thing you know, I'm at the stove. Flipping, and then it dawned on me.

Check it. Check me again. Got me again. Got me again. On the next Get Wealthy, with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, Financial Literacy. Without it, wealth is just a pipe dream. And yet, half of our schools in this country don't even teach it to our kids. You're going to hear from a woman who's determined to change all that, not only here, but around the world. World of Money is the leading provider of immersive financial education for children ages 7 to 18, we provide 120 online and classroom hours

of financial education. That's right here on Get Wealthy on Blackstar Network. This week on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. Reparations. Is it finally time? Two of the country's foremost authorities on the subject will join me to try to answer that very question. A powerful installment of The Black Table

with me, Greg Carr, right here, only on the Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Teresa Griffin. Hi, my name is LaToya Luckett, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, welcome back to Leimert Park here in Los Angeles on the 30th anniversary of the Rodney King verdict riots. A class action lawsuit has been filed against California-based bank Wells Fargo, saying they've had a history of discriminatory practices against African-Americans,

especially when it comes to home ownership, but also lending practices against their black customers. Shia Beckwith-Simmons, as part of the lawsuit, she joins us now with her attorney, Ben Crump from Tallahassee, Florida. Glad to have both of you with us. Ms. Beckwith-Simmons, so tell us your story in terms of what has been the issue that you have faced with Wells Fargo and why you chose to pursue this lawsuit. Well, what happened is during the pandemic, I chose to take a forbearance, which was in our family's best interest as we financed our son's law school education and dealt with cuts that we'd had to our income in the pandemic. We did everything we were supposed to do. We talked with them quarterly, and then we return to our normally scheduled payments once we ended

the forbearance when our income returned to its normal levels. And in January, I received notice that Wells Fargo intended to foreclose on my home because, in their words, as of yesterday, I didn't return a call and they sent numerous letters. So I am here to fight against Wells Fargo that their first solution is to take the homes of black homeowners because they are acting like a petulant middle school child. Ben Crump, this is, again, one of the numerous examples we've heard from so many other people as well when it comes to what they say is disparate treatment from Wells Fargo. Yeah, you know, Roland, it really comes down to banking while Black in a profound way here. Because of the pandemic, the federal government had given Americans an opportunity to take advantage of a historic low interest rate, the lowest interest rates that they had had in 70 years. And millions of Americans took advantage of this opportunity to try to build equity and to build wealth. And I don't have to tell you, Roland Martin, you know, homeownership is one of

the most accessible ways for middle class people to build wealth. And so Black people who apply for these home loans to be refinanced were denied 50 percent of the time, Roland. And that is comparable to other banks that were given over 73 percent of the loans to Black people. Because remember, the government was trying to make sure the economy didn't fall, so they were doing everything in their power to let people refinance, get equity, like Ms. Simmons, to be able to get forbearance so they wouldn't

go into foreclosure. But with all of this, Wells Fargo looked like they reverted back to their old ways in 2013, Roland. They had to pay $175 million because they were discriminating against African-Americans and Latinas. And so what we say here is everybody please follow the example of Mayor Eric Adams, who said the city of New York would do no new business with Wells Fargo Bank

until they address these, I mean, just these inequities that discriminate against us, our communities, our children's future, and getting generational wealth. Absolutely. So, Shai, how long have y'all owned your home? I've owned the home for over 12 years and we're very proud of it. We've taken care of it. We've not missed payments. We've done our due diligence, Roland. We work very hard to secure a hopeful and healthy financial future for our children. And so for our home to be threatened when we've done what we're supposed to do, Wells Fargo will enter into an agreement,

understand it, and then backpedal. And their response is to foreclose on the homes of Black Americans. I don't know how it's possible, and it's certainly not okay. So while they may be able to go back and fix an individual situation, my concern is that other Black mothers and other parents and homeowners do not have to encounter the treatment that we've encountered from Wells Fargo. If I did not fight back, if I did not speak out, I would not be able— I'm not sleeping well anyway, but I would not sleep well at all. My question still remains, what would have happened had I died in this pandemic? Would Wells Fargo have taken my

home because they said they lacked a signature after they'd only talked to me by phone? And we're not talking about something that needs to be endorsed or certified or any of that. I banked with Wells Fargo. I went into the bank. I went to their ATM. I literally have our checking account with them. And they had no way to contact me. So instead, they say, well, our only resolve is to foreclose on your home. And that is not OK, because there's a group of individuals in our community that might not speak up and they might not fight back. And I have every intention to fight like the ancestors, to let Wells Fargo know that this treatment is not okay for me, nor is it okay for anybody else in our community.

Ben, we live streamed the news conference that you held in Atlanta a couple days ago. Have you heard from a lot more folks who have banked with or have their mortgage with Wells Fargo, who have been complaining about treatment from the bank? We certainly have, Roland, and I want to thank you and the Black Star Network because the information that you disseminated from covering that press conference struck a chord with the Black community.

We've had dozens and dozens of calls from all over America, people having similar experiences to Ms. Shia Simmons, as well as Sharitha Fannin. You remember that was the sister, Roland, 59 years old, educator, stayed in the house with her granddaughter and the dog, and they had mold issues. Now,

her house appraised at $245,000. All she needed was $15,000 to $20,000 to fix the roof so they can make sure the mold was taken care of and it would be a health and safety issue for her and her family. But Wells Fargo strung her along and strung her along. I mean, and it's just horrific when you think about this sister had a serious health issue. And all they had to do was honor their longtime customer who had banked with Wells Fargo for over 25 years, had paid her mortgage on time, did everything right, had an abundance of equity in her home. But the cost of Wells Fargo reverting back to what we commonly know as banking while Black, because that's the only way, Roland, you can get those statistics that we see. Everybody else in the mid-70s in Wells Fargo

at 47 percent. And so a lot of mirrors, Roland, and I hope and pray that they will show great leadership and say, we're going to stand up for black people. We're not going to let Wells Fargo dupe us again. We're going to say, until you do right by black homeowners, we're not going to do any new business with you because this truly is about trying to close that wealth gap. All right. Attorney Ben Crump, Shia Simmons, I appreciate both of you joining us here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you so very much. Thank you. Thank God for you, Roland.

Thank you, Roland. God bless you. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Let's turn to my panel here. I mean, this is this issue. First of all, we're talking about long history of Wells Fargo. I did the outline the other day. Timeline, I'm sorry. 2011, NAACP had sued them.

Then they settled a variety of promises made by Wells Fargo. Then nine years later, 2020, folks were talking about how they were not to the point being Crump was making. Bloomberg did the examination. Seventy two percent of whites had their homes refinanced during COVID. Only 47 percent of African-Americans. And so now you have the lawsuits being filed. Well, Wells Fargo says, oh, we put practices in place. We've changed things. Yet it continued.

We continue to hear bad practices. And Shia said something that was interesting, Jasmine. She said, not only do I have the mortgage with Wells Fargo, I'm a customer. So her money is being placed in the bank. It sort of reminded me when my parents, who had been banking with the bank, the location they had for years. They never changed. And then the company's changed. It was Bank of America. Applied for a loan, couldn't get a loan. And they're sitting here going, wait a minute, we've been customers here 20 plus years. I told the story when we launched the company and I wanted to do,

actually before we launched the show, when I was in Chicago, I wanted a business card from Chase Bank. I get denied. I'm going, I'm sorry, it's a quarter of a million dollars sitting in the bank and you're going to deny me? I said, cool, take all my money out. I removed all my money. I'm like, you can't give me a damn business card with a quarter of a million dollars bank oh y'all can go to hell and and and this is what we see where how the financial services industry uh frankly screws over black people and their response is well let me just give a couple dollars of civil rights groups everything be good right so a couple of things uh that come to mind one on on you trying to get that that business loan it reminded me of the fake German heiress

who they was all throwing money at and with no proof of anything, they didn't have a quarter of a million dollars in the bank. Okay? So that's one thing. But as Paul Mooney said, she had the complexion for the protection. Yes, she did.

And what else struck me about this story? I am a Wells Fargo customer. I do have my savings in my check as meager as they are. I do have some with Wells Fargo. But one of the things that I heard that really piqued my interest was that the mayor and Eric Adams said, at first when I heard Eric, I thought, I was like, no, they're not going to say Garcetti. Because this city is trying to get rid of blacks. They wouldn't do anything to work with the banks to make sure we keep our arms.

But I would like to see more cities do that, more cities speak up. And then on the organizations that take this money, so we have a thing in Domino's where we say all money. Hold on one second. Okay, so y'all not monitoring her microphone. Her microphone is hot. So please turn her microphone down. That microphone is way too hot. Okay, I don't know how y'all in the control room didn't say nothing,

but I'm listening to the chat room. So turn that microphone down. Okay. Give me a ten count, please. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, ten, eight, nine, ten. Okay, now you turn it off, dude. Now they don't hear. Okay, take my microphone.

Okay, we're going to switch. We have a thing in Domino's where we say all money is not good money. These civil rights organizations, sometimes we have to say no to money that we know is just a payoff and not accept that money. But our organizations are usually so dire and so in need. We'll take, we take, they don't care, they take it anyway. If you don't take some money, ask for a hundred million. Bob, move over here, I'm sorry. I want to say, let's go a little deeper.

All of these things should not be a surprise out to the poor. When black folks still sit around in a shop and they bring the good with the good, there's a problem with us. And what that problem is, and I'm really trying to be delicate with this, is that if we understand who we're dealing with, then we know that Chase, Manhattan Bank, all these different institutions,

first of all, they're abstractions. So they're going to do what they're going to do. How do we stop it? We always have to be on guard to struggle against it and stand up and speak for yourself. My father told me when I was a kid, stand up and speak for yourself, otherwise you don't get spoken for. And if you sit around and think that these institutions, or at that time he was a chef at the Hilton Hotel, he said, if I thought the Hilton Hotel was looking out for my interest, I'd be a fool. So he always operated as a chef for the Hilton Hotels, but he also stood up for himself and did what he had to do.

An example of that is that he always brought home the big bones for the dog and so forth and so on. Then he put about 500 steaks, New York cut steaks, all these other steaks underneath the bones. He said, they ain't paying 500 stakes, New York cut stakes, all these other stakes underneath the bones. He said, they ain't paying me nothing no way, so this is how I get my money back. So we were raised by people who said, stand up and speak. Don't let things pass you by without speaking about it, and go and

get some other black folks to stand up. If you don't stand up, Bernard knows, if you don't stand up on the football field or the basketball field, you get left out. We keep believing in abstract, well, these people are nice. They don't see you as a customer, see you as a victim, see you as somebody who can hustle. We have to really understand from day one and teach our children that. And then we'll be able to put it.

If we push back, they get back. If you don't push, it doesn't happen. If that makes sense. Yeah, I mean, look, the thing, Chief Parks, that I just keep again, and I've said this, is that when you have civil rights groups who do their memorandums of understanding, stop playing yourself small. The reality is if a bank screwed black people to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, a million dollar donation ain't nothing.

If you're gonna settle with the bank, you say y'all took several hundred million from black people, y'all gonna return 700 million. I'm trying to understand the logic behind it. When the federal government settles with these banks for $100, $200, $300 million settlements, people also need to understand our tax write-offs. So they ain't losing nothing. It just becomes a tax write-off.

There has to be, again, ROI, return on investment, and that's the biggest thing for me. They get off easy by saying, let's just buy a few tables at an event, hand out a few awards, as opposed to actually say, no, we are going to have full redress as a result of the people who we impacted, who now no longer have homes, and now they're renting, now they're paying more, now they can't use that home as leverage to get a loan. Look, my parents, my sister, and my child live in my house. There's three generations living in a house that's paid for.

That's the impact when you actually own versus you're renting. I think you bring up a very valid point, but I think we also lose sight of if you don't have the expertise to do those negotiations, you're going to settle for less. And I think that when we look at how much money has been lost, it shouldn't be any mystery that they are not working in your interest. But I want to go back to a more basic point. We talked about the riots.

One of the things that all of these things financially are often over the head of the folks that are after going through the Christopher report, dealing with the issue of 92 riot and all that other, to find out 20 years later that the city of L.A. and its police department is heavily involved in Frist and stopped today. 20 years after this, this police commission finally put out an order that said you can't do pretext stops. Pretext stops is basically telling you you have no probable cause. You just had a hunch, right? Well, we've been talking about hunches for years. And so these are things I think.

And that's how a lot of us end up getting shot and killed. Like the brother in Grand Rapids, Michigan, you hit the wrong license plate. Yeah. Well, I think you have those issues and you have officers who have a concern about their safety, whether it's valid or not. But they oftentimes will overreact. And I think unless you hold them accountable, not just when they shoot, but when they twist your arm or put handcuffs or they treat you badly or they speak to you badly, that's when you stop that bad behavior. When I was the chief of police, we fired 140 officers in less than five years. And that accountability went through the line.

Not only could you not mistreat people in the department, you couldn't mistreat the public. By the way, you can't get promoted either, and you can't get the better assignment. People have to realize that when they do things, you're going to evaluate it, and you're going to make a decision. But when you think about the city of L.A., did not know that since 2002, that stop and frisk was flourishing in the city, several hundred thousand more stops than they had in previous. And at the same time, they were falsifying crime stats. The L.A. Times verified that you had eight years of falsified crime set. So people are taking credit for crime reduction that didn't exist.

Well, when they went back to people who were supposed to be overseeing this, the comment in the paper was we basically were led down the path, that we were co-opted. You say, well, how could you be co-opted and your job is to oversee the actions of a department that you have spent millions of dollars in the public for poor behavior? And so although the financial stuff is absolutely essential, I don't think you can get to that before you deal with the fundamental issues of how people are treated. When you ride down the street, are you sitting people on the curb?

Are you seeing people mishandled? If that treatment is going on, it's a major step to get to the point of financial equality. Well, you say accountability, but there also has to be financial accountability. I agree. And so the issue for me, the city of New York said we're not opening any accounts with Wells Fargo. What Attorney Ben Crump was saying there, which I absolutely support, it should be cities across this country who are saying, you know what, we're going to pull our money out of your banks. And states should be doing the exact same thing because, again, that's how we get their attention.

But the other thing that I keep telling these groups, and let me be real clear, if you're a bank and you're doing right, okay, then you're doing things as a community, okay, fine. You're supporting financially. But what I see in these civil rights organizations is, it's like when I tell these advertisers, I'm not going to praise you because you're a press release. I'm going to praise you based upon deposits you actually make. And so, to me, if you are a civil rights group, you say, no, Wells Fargo, we're not going to take your money for two or three years until we actually see the results that you have gotten better.

But what they do is like, for instance, in 2020. So, again, as I said earlier, the timeline in 2020, they were screwing over black people who were trying to refinance when it comes to COVID. But at the same time, they announced they were putting $50 million in black banks. And the NAACP sent a press release out praising them. And I'm like, the same year that was happening, then you're praising them. See, I'm sorry. Again, one of the things that I talked about with black leadership,

we do play ourselves small. We have folk who go to the table, you're absolutely right, who are not used to being at the table of power, who go in small as opposed to walking in, so what do y'all want? $500 million? A billion? No. We literally go in and we think a lot of money is a hundred thousand and that is also I think part of the problem and what I've seen you said got folks who don't negotiate you

absolutely right if there are folk who don't negotiate don't bring them to the damn meeting Jasmine understanding that they're not bringing a seat to the table. They are the table. The community is the table. Our people are the table. They're coming to us. I want to repeat that. No, no, no, no.

Because you said the community is the table. Yeah. Which means you ain't there to negotiate a deal for your organization. Right. Don't say you represent the people if you ain't negotiating for the people. Right. Right. The people are the table.

Second thing I want to point out, you made some, I agree with you, everything you're saying, and it made me think of other communities and how other communities deal with things, right? When they are disrespected or they find out someone is doing something to their community, you cannot buy them off. They will boycott you. They will ruin you financially. And so I think as black folks, we have to really, I'm always saying this, we have to re-examine who our leadership is. Everyone's not a leader. They're just not. And

we have to, like you said, we have to ask for more and we have to not be afraid. They've taken as much as they, look at what they've taken from us. I mean, the least we can do is ask for half a million dollars or a million dollars or more when it comes to something like this. See, that's even low. I know, right? That's even low. I don't even. But see, Babu, the point that Jasmine just made there when she mentioned boycott, I talk about this a lot on the show.

Antoine, see if that book is in my bag. I think I took it out. Because I tell people all the time, stop hollering boycott. The reason I say that is because anybody who understands Dr. King and Operation Breadbasket, boycott was actually the last thing. It was last. Folk are so good at

hollering boycott, and I'm like, you ain't educated nobody. You haven't enlightened anybody. No one knows what the goal is. But the reason the Colin Kaepernick so-called boycott failed, people say, we're going to boycott watching the NFL.

Did nobody know who was organizing it, who was leading it, what the directions were, what the plan was, what the plan of action was? And so it was just sort of this haphazard thing. And when it's haphazard, it's going to always fail. And now you shot your shot. Now the folks you're targeting are like, well, hell, y'all couldn't even organize that. So now when you come at us, we know this is going to fail again because it failed last time.

That's why I tell people, stop being so quick to holler boycott until you teach people first what the issue is we're supposed to even be concerned about. I agree, but I think there's two issues here, additional issues. I agree with what you're saying. Number one is, first and foremost, we have got to understand that all people, I don't think it's that they go in asking too low. I don't think that's the issue at all. I think everybody has got enough sense to, when you go and talk to somebody

that's got a whole bunch of money, you know how to talk and get more money. They all know that. The reason why they do that is that they're trying to get a position or get a deal for themselves. It's a corruption in the leadership. It's not that they don't know. That's why I said the Jasmine, who you're representing,

yourself or actually the community? And the next question is this. If you disagree with how the Urban League is being run, then you got to get to the meeting, and as Bishop Brooker used to say, you better be at the meeting on Monday to deal with that so that you can remove that leadership and get a new leadership or organize yourself and remove them.

But we have not done that because a lot of people don't want to put that time and energy in to do that. As Jim Foreman said in SNCC, when we were in SNCC, Jim said, if you outwork an MF, they'll shut up. You got to outwork them. You got to outwork them. So we're not doing that. We're not saying, no, no, no, you know better than that. You know, remove them, change, but that means work. The proof of that success is Montgomery. As E.D. Nixon said, the brother here at the NWCP said that for years, black folks had been refusing to get off the back, go to the back of the bus

since 45, when the brothers came back from service, World War II. They said, we're not taking it. But the problem was, they were half drunk, people upset, hit the white man in the head, so they had to find somebody who could do better. Now, they said, okay, let's use the sister who's the secretary of the NWCP so she can do it right and got a problem, so forth and so on. Now, I'm going to skip real quickly. Then E.D. said he looked around to find who could lead the boycott, who could lead this decision to stop and withdraw economic power. He looked around and felt that every minister in Montgomery was in the hands of the ruling class of Montgomery.

They all had been bought. The only person in Montgomery that had not been bought was Dr. King because he had only been in town for six weeks. And he had just got there? He just got there. He said, well, I go to talk to this young brother. I know they ain't got to him yet. Maybe he'll stand up. That's what's important.

Then he understood, Dr. King understood, as Bishop Brookings told me, he had fled the South, went up North. This boy goes back from Boston, back down to Montgomery, and he leads the boycott. Now, and they consistently analyze and organize where they were and remove that old leadership. That's the next thing you got to do. And be committed to that. If you're not committed, then don't go to war.

You can't struggle. That's what I'm saying. It can't be haphazard, Chief. That'll be the last point before we go to a break here so somebody said this um to me or roland uh you're setting the bar too high i guess it was saying when i asked for 500 million okay so so so so to the i want you to speak to this but to the brother who tweeted that posted let me explain something to you we were in a meeting with a major telecommunications company. And our leadership, I wasn't happy because, one, they were not listening before we went to the meeting. I was fully aware of the players in the room.

And so we go into the room, and they threw out $50,000. I literally just rolled my eyes like, what in the hell is wrong with y'all? When we came out of the meeting, they were like, well, what would you have asked? Well, I said, 100 million. They were like, what? I said, you were sitting across from a company with a market cap of $265 billion. What in the hell do you think $50,000, literally in the meeting, they literally responded like it was a fleck of dandruff.

Like, I got somebody on my staff who handles requests like that. And I'm sitting here like, do y'all even understand sitting at the table of power? And so to the brother who's saying, you're sitting in the bar too high, that's the person I don't want in the meeting with me. Because if you don't understand what their market cap is, if they're worth $265 billion, you asking for a million is nothing. Trust me, when you are sitting across the table from somebody with a market cap of $265 billion and you put $500 million on the table, they're going to say, okay, I ain't dealing with a fool here, so I'm going to have to get serious about this meeting. That's also part of, for me, what the ask is, because also if you now are a group and you put 500 million on the table,

and let's say you negotiate down 300 million, you can then say we can actually provide loans ourselves to our own people. You can't help nobody with a $50,000 grant. Sorry. No, I think you're accurate in the fact that if you don't plan, have a plan, then you end up failing because in a lot of this stuff, the group that goes in, if they're not on the same page, if they've not worked it out before they open the door, then they're going to be at a disadvantage. And I think that when you look at what's needed, and when you talked about Kaepernick, when you throw out an issue of saying boycott, and you don't control the group, then everyone that has an agenda shows up at your meeting to bring their agenda, which may not be your agenda. There you go. So therefore, it's a confusing effort that generally goes nowhere.

And so I think that's where the whole issue of planning and discussion, and people shouldn't be in the room negotiating if you've not been in the meeting beforehand to say this is where we're going, this is what we're doing, and nobody's stepping out of line. And I think that's where we lose sight of it. And, again, I see it for years, watching demonstrations. Somebody may have a legitimate cause to demonstrate on the city, but when 10 other groups show up and take you off subject,

next thing you know you're creating slogans that don't mean anything to you. You're giving a message to people that is inconsistent with what you want. So that's why the planning part of this is far greater of importance than people give credit for. All right, I've got to go into a break. We come back. Y'all got to explain to me what in the hell is going on with y'all sheriff. Oh, yes. Lord have mercy, y'all.

Trust me. Y'all think if you think the sheriff or the police chief in your city crazy, they ain't got nothing on this dude here in Los Angeles County. You're watching Roller Mark Unfiltered, broadcasting live from Leimert Park here in Los Angeles on the 30th anniversary of the Rodney King verdict riots. You're watching the Black Star Network back in a moment. I'm Dr. Jackie and on a next A Balanced Life, it takes a village to raise a child and truer words have never been spoken. If you're raising a child, you know that it's a blessed challenge like no other, even more so if your child has a disability. We'll talk to parents and our expert panelists about the best way forward for your child to help you maintain your own sanity on a next A Balanced Life with Dr. Jackie on Black Star Network. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives.

And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. Hey, I'm Antonique Smith. What up? Lana Wells. And you are watching Rolling Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks. A lot of drama in L.A. this week with Alex Villanueva, who is the sheriff here in Los Angeles County. He literally

held a news conference saying that he was going to be going after and investigating a Los Angeles Times reporter. Response from the paper? Bring your ass. Let's go. That's pretty much what the general counsel said. That was like the rolling version of how they responded.

So let's get right to it. Jasmine, he can't stand you. No. So first of all, to let everybody know, I get your tweets, and what the hell is going on? What is going on? I should be scared because this is a sheriff who also uses his office

to exact revenge on people, have people followed, have people going through, Black folks are killing Black folks, which I thought was hilarious. And clearly he does not know who I am because people who do know me know that I talk about both of those issues because I think they're both very important. What our sheriff has been doing, though, is low key he's been trying to start a race riot in our city between Latinos and black folks he is a Dino a Democratic name only and again look I'm not putting the Democrats on some pedestal okay because especially when it comes to black people but in terms of politics here he is a Dino I mean he endorses Republicans he speaks at the Republican Convention.

So didn't he also deny that there are deputy gangs? He did. He said, oh, those don't exist. Yeah. But then you had a report that said, yeah, they do. Yeah. Our sheriff is he is something else. I cannot wait for June 7th to get here. I am lucky enough to be working on Eric Strong's campaign for sheriff.

We are trying to get him out. We made a mistake. We were all tricked. In Duke, we have buyer's remorse. And it's all good because as voters, as engaged citizens, a person's first term in office is a get-to-know-you period. We've gotten to know him. We don't want him for another term. And so we will get rid of him. Let me, uh, let me do this here. Uh, uh, this is actually, uh, do y'all see the video

here? Uh, let me know if y'all are seeing this video, listen to this investigation by the department. The matter is under investigation. All right. Is she part, is she under the, the matters under investigation? This right. Is she under the investigation? The matter is under investigation. This is stolen property that was removed illegally from people who had some intent, criminal intent, and it'll be subject to investigation. We will not be the only party investigating this. There will be other agencies will also be thoroughly investigating this and monitoring what we're doing, and it will be handed over to the appropriate prosecutorial agency so they make a determination. Sheriff, are you going to answer the question? You placed your picture up there

alongside two other people and you talked about it in terms of a criminal investigation. Is this Los Angeles Times reporter under investigation by the department? Well, the act is under investigation. All parties to the act are subjects of the investigation. Now, that's why we do investigations. We don't just walk away and say, oh, well, you know, oh, well, so sad. No. She wanted the parties? Well, she received the information and then she put it to her own use. What she received legally and puts her own use and what she receives illegally and the LA Times use it, I'm pretty sure that that's a huge a complex area of law and freedom of the press and all that however when it's stolen material at some point you actually become part of the story so that's up

to the la times to decide that sir you should definitely answer the L.A. Times questions. I think we'd all agree with that. So, Chief Park, he's mad the L.A. Times reported on one of his deputy sheriffs, what, kneeling on someone's head. And so he goes, oh, they reported stolen material. Chief, we report stuff every single day that it ain't like it came through. It didn't come in the mail. But so he's upset. But he ain't mad it came through. It didn't come in the mail. But so he's upset. But he ain't mad at the act. He's mad that it got reported. Well, you know, I have a major bias here.

This guy showed who he was before he ran for office. How so? From his career and the fact that the reason he retired as a lieutenant was because the entire department thought he was promoted higher than he should have been. So he was with LAPD? No, no, he was with the sheriff's. Got it, okay. The other issue is he got people behind him under a theme of talking about reform.

They had no idea who he was. Even before he got in office, he lied several times about an officer the sheriff's badge. He was a very honest officer. He had no idea what the sheriff's badge was. He had no idea what the sheriff's badge was. He had no idea who he was. Even before he got in office he lied several times about an officer who had committed

domestic violence against his girlfriend that he tried to rehire. The county rejected that. He tried to hire him in another These are things that he showed a clear indication of dishonesty before he ever got the sheriff's badge. And so it's not a mystery why we're where we are. And the folks that supported him should all be apologizing to the city of Los Angeles and the county because he told you before these issues started. And I'm going to step on her feet again. You're going to find the same thing

about the district attorney. Hold up. You're assuming that I was a George Gascon supporter. I was anti-Jackie Lacey. Let's be clear. Those are two different things. Well, you can't be... Y'all go ahead.

We've done battle before. No, no. You can't be anti-George Gascon, and the only person he's running against is Jackie Lacey, and you're anti-Jackie Lacey. So who are you going to vote for? I have my reasons because of Ed Buck and my dealings with Jackie Lacey on the Ed Buck case. But let's be clear. I support victims, right?

I want to see criminal justice victims, right? I want to see criminal justice reform, but I also want to see victims. And I am okay with jails and prisons. I'm not an abolitionist, I'm a reductionist. But George Gascon told you his agenda. And you said get rid of the DA that we have. The only black woman in the United States... Well, Jackie had to go. She had to go. The only black woman in the United States running the largest DA's office in the world. Hold up, hold up, hold up. But Chief Parks, I will say this here. The other black DA's around the country

said her ass got to go. Well, no, no, no. They don't live here. No, no, no, no. I understand that. No. But what I'm letting you know, I had conversations with other black DAs around the country who said, she ain't one of us. I know. But the other thing, did they say that the guy that's running against her is going to do a better job? Now, who did you get? No, they said that before he even left San Francisco. I know. They were just like, yo, she awful. I'm telling you what brothers and sisters told me.

And why do you think the guy left San Francisco? Hell, I don't know. I'll let him. What happened? What happened? Because he was awful. But hold on. I'm going back to the sheriff, though.

And that is, Babu, go ahead. How are people responding? So first of all, when is he up for an election? Do you have credible candidates challenging him? Where are black folks on this candidate? Because every time I turn around, he acted a fool with somebody black and giving more excuses with the Sheriff's Department. I want to take a different tactic. Hell no. Answer my question.

I can answer that one. Answer my question first, and then you can go. Okay. What is your question? I had on what I wanted to say. Yes, that is, is Gass up for re-election? Are black folks opposing this man? And is there a credible candidate that could take him out and beat him?

We should oppose him. I don't know if black folks are organized enough to oppose him. I don't know yet. Okay, because he should be removed. But it's a deeper question. Okay, now you can go to your deeper question. Act like you wasn't going to answer my question.

Here's what I want to say. And it comes from black folks. We got to know our story. If we don't know our story, we'll start following somebody else's story. And you got to know their story. And I think this is what Bernard is talking about. Anybody who's been born, who's raised in the West, like Bernard was raised in California,

I was raised in Wyoming. If you're born in the West, we know, I'm going to use this word so people understand, we know Mexicans. And we know Mexicans. When we're nice, we say Mexican. When we say Mexicans, we say we got a problem with them. Now, we know them very, very well because we've been around them all our life. Now, the Mexicans are divided. First, they're half Indian and they're half Anglo. So they got a problem. They haven't worked out that whole history for 400 years. One day they're Indian.

One day they are what? Anglo. Okay, there's a clear difference between Garcetti and the ex-mayor Antonio. Antonio is more a brother than Garcetti because Garcetti had more Anglo in him. Well, this guy, but I'm coming to it the way. I just want to just say this. You have white Hispanics. Wait, wait, wait. White Hispanics have what?

A serious, serious problem, because white Hispanics tend to be white and conservative. That's why all the people down in Florida are white Cubans that came from Cuba. Well, this man here, who is he? He's from the best territory, Spain.

He's a white Spaniard that came in with his people, and then he started hollering that he's a Mexican. He's a Latin American, you think. But he's really from Spain with the white mentality. So he makes decisions going with the white ruling class. So we've got to understand all of that because decisions going with the white ruling class. So we've got to understand all of that because that's how the confusion comes about. Gotcha. Go ahead.

So I'm going to ask you a question. Okay, the question was, are black folks organizing? We most absolutely are. Are there candidates that have a chance against him? There actually are. Like I said earlier, I'm working with advising Eric Strong, who's a lieutenant who's running against him. There are about seven people who are running against Alex Villanueva. We expect there will probably be a runoff going into November.

But we have two black men who are running. Eric is one of them. And so, yeah, we people are definitely aware of this, especially after his most recent comments about black people saying that we were the we were the ones beating up Asians that, you know, I mean, just some of the most racist things from, you know, him being tired of Black Lives Matter to us, you know, and the black on crime, and that no other race kills their people like we do. I mean, this is coming from a sheriff, someone who's sitting in office right now. And so when I say to your audience that he's trying to start a race riot, he really truly is trying to get black and brown people against each other in this city right now, saying that we're the ones that beat up older Latino women or vendors and stuff. He is literally trying to start stuff in our communities. And we're not going to go for it. Again, he's going to be out of here. We said Jackie Lacey had to go. We organized around that and were successful. None of these positions are lifelong positions anymore. The sheriff has no term limit. The DA had no term limit. We showed people in L.A. and in this country that you can be a one-term DA and you can

be a one-term sheriff because the sheriff before Alex Villanueva was a one-term sheriff. Bernard? I just have to say that he didn't become who he is because he's a sheriff. Power makes bad people worse. The guy was who he was as a lieutenant, as a sheriff. He was involved with whatever they call them, the gangs and all that. He's justified almost any ill treatment by the Sheriff's Department and he's been doing that for his career and so there's no mistake guy should have never been elected he misled people

to believe he was going to be this upfront change agent turned out he's exactly what he was as a sheriff a sergeant and a lieutenant and so there's no mystery. It's just a matter, and it's a clear indication that you really have to evaluate candidates before you vote for them because they will tell you almost anything, and they will tell you they've done almost anything, and you have to have the ability to say, wait a minute, what you just said is not true.

Your history is not related to that, and that's how we got a sheriff that everybody now is saying, how did we do that? We did that because he misled people and they believed it. All right, then. Folks, I got to go to a break. We'll come back. Final comments about the 30th anniversary of the Rodney King verdict riots that took place again in 1992. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network, broadcasting live from Leimert Park here in Los Angeles, back in a moment.

This week on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. Reparations. Is it finally time? Two of the country's foremost authorities on the subject will join me to try to answer that very question. A powerful installment of The Black Table with me, Greg Carr, right here, only on the Black Star Network. When I first moved to L.A., me and Joe lived together, right? And that was a big blessing because I didn't have to worry about paying rent. I was struggling, doing my thing, and that was a big, big help. And then I think when I moved out,

I think that's when I saw the division because I think Joe felt like I didn't need him anymore. And it wasn't that. It was like, I'm a grown-ass man. Two grown-ass men. But actually, that is true. You don't need me anymore. When you grow up, first of all, when you grow up, it's like, hey, you help.

And this time you get your ass out of the house and go do your own thing. Right. He didn't want me to move out. But I'm like, you know what? At the time when I moved out. I mean, what? Were you paying a light bill? I wasn't paying anything.

And I said, you know what? I need this responsibility. It's going to make me work harder in my career if I know I got rent to pay. I got bills to pay. I was paying a cell phone bill. That was it. Right. But Joe was make me work harder in my career if I know I got rent to pay, I got bills to pay. I was paying the cell phone bill, that was it. But Joe was treating me like a little butler. Like, because, I'm telling you, I was like Benson. Now I'm telling you, man.

Please fetch me some water. He was using the Jedi mind tricks. Yo man, you still make them good grilled cheese sandwiches you made when you were little? No you don't. Next thing you know, I'm at the stove. Flip it, and then it's done to me. It tripped me. It tripped me again.

Got me again. -♪ -♪ Hi, I'm Israel Houghton with Israel and New Breed. Hi, I'm Karl Painting. Hey, everybody, this is Sherri Shepherd. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. And while he's doing Unfiltered, I'm Israel Houghton with Israel and New Breed. Hi, I'm Carl Painting. Hey, everybody. This is Sherri Shepherd. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. And while he's doing Unfiltered, I'm practicing your wobble. Yes, I am.

Because Roland Martin's the one, he will do it backwards. He will do it on the side. He messes everybody up when he gets into the wobble. Because he doesn't know how to do it, so he does it backwards. And it just messes me up every single time. So I'm working on it. I got it. You got really Martin.

All right, folks, welcome back again. We're here at Leimert Park. Let me certainly thank the folks who made it possible for us to actually be here. We came here at the invitation of John Hope Bryant. I was coming this weekend anyway because, of course, every first Monday in May, I play the George Lopez Celebrity Golf Classic. I'm hosting the VIP party on Sunday and then also hosting the awards ceremony after the golf tournament. And John hit me and he said, hey, we're doing this bus tour around Los Angeles dealing with the 30th anniversary of the Rodney King verdict riots. And he said, we'd love to have you and Black Star Network

live stream the actual bus tour. So I said, well, consider I ain't got to ask nobody because I own my shit. I said, sure. And so that's why we are here. It just became a couple days early to do so and so certainly glad to be here let's let me go to each one of you I'll start with I started with chief parks first we open up jazz but I'm gonna start with you start with you this is the 30th what should this place look like for the 40th what do you want it to look like what it should look like i want to see black people and i want

to see more black people than there are now uh the rate we're going now there won't be any black people left in the city of los angeles because this is a very anti-black city. But, you know, the 40th anniversary, I would like to see that we're still not having the issues that we have with law enforcement. That would be great. You know, when you think about it, like I said earlier, you know, from 65 to 92 to 2022, it's this constant struggle between the black community and law enforcement. And, you know, I wonder if any of our children or even our grandchildren are going to know a life where that's not an issue anymore, right? So that's what I'd like to see, more black people in L.A.,

that we were able to stay here and afford to live here and that our city stopped trying to push us out. Babu? That's a hard question. That's why I asked it. And a good question. That's why I asked it. I don't ask the easy ones.

What I'd like to see is that black folks here will have moved past local parochialism and see themselves as a pan-African people and create deals and businesses, whether it's the film business, whether it's trade, et cetera, with the Caribbean nations, with the African nations, because the future is with the folks who've got wealth, et cetera, with the Caribbean nations, with the African nations, because the future is with the folks who got wealth, got bases, and you build those relationships just like they've done in Little Tokyo, just like they've done in Koreatown.

We knew the same thing. There's capital in Angola. There's capital all around the world. We take that capital. We come together, and we do the same thing. If we don't hook up with other black folks around the world, we take that capital, we come together, and we do the same thing. If we don't hook up with other black folks around the world, we're doomed. If you think that you only think about your local self and your only self, then you don't have the relationship. But if you hook up with South Africa, if you hook up with all these different black folks around the world,

then you've got a capital base, you've got a market, et cetera. That's what I want to see. All right, then. Chief Parks. You know, I'd like to see in 10 years that we buy into what I consider community-based government, where the government and the community actually work towards solving historical problems, that we don't come back in 10 years and say these issues are still here, that we look at ways in which we treat each other better,

that we look for opportunities for education and employment to where people can be self-sustaining. But I don't think we can do it without a collective effort that government and the community work at solving problems that are small and large, as opposed to working at different levels or looking at each other saying why don't you do this versus another but it has to be a collective effort for the community to move forward we have too many stops and starts we need to have a effort to move forward and always looking at progress we want to see you in 10 years from now. We want to make sure you're still on air and doing your thing. I'm going to be here. I'm beyond.

I'm not sitting here. Go ahead. I just want to say this. Everything everybody said is not in opposition. It's called operational unity and it's integrated in a whole. So it's like John Coltrane's music. It's all one energy. So what Bernard said

is absolutely correct. What Sister said is absolutely correct. What I said, you integrate all that. If we don't integrate that perspective of the world, then we lost. Well, first of all, I thought you were taking the microphone back so you can do a plug for the Pan-African Film Festival. I don't know why

I should be reminding you to do that. I mean, I'm just saying. We got a few more days. Go on the website, PAFF.org. We brought over 300 brand-new black films from all over the world. You can understand what black folks are doing around the world. We got about 50, 60 major painters, artists from all over the world. We got another five days.

Jasmine is our publicist. I'm not your publicist. I'm just an all over the world. We've got another five days. Jasmine is our publicist. I'm not your publicist. I'm just an advisor to the festival. Advisor to the festival. So please come out, stop, take the time to get some art which tells you a story, get things that will lead you,

stimulate you, and get you some energy, because that's what we're here for. Please come out and enjoy for the next few days and take a story with you. All right. Sounds great. What do I want to see for the next 10 years? Real simple. And that is for black folks to understand what the collective means.

I said to you many times, if you go back and listen or read Dr. King's speech on April 3rd, 1968 in Mason Temple in Memphis, what he said in that speech was he said black people individually are poor. He said, yet collectively, we represent the 10th largest economy in the world. But part of the problem is that too many of us are operating in silos in that, well, I have my business, I have my organization, I'm sort of doing my thing. But the reality is when you look at the inability to build capacity, when you look at the fact that we own the same percentage of wealth today as we did coming out of slavery, that's crazy. When you look at in terms of black owned businesses, I tell you all the time, pre-COVID, we had 2.6 million black-owned businesses in America, 2.5 million only had one employee. They were doing average revenue of $54,000. So truth be told, you only had pre-COVID 100,000 black-owned businesses in the country.

That's it. And so you can't build capacity. You can't just say, hey, I have a business, when all you really have is a business card. That ain't a business. And so what has to happen is we must begin to understand the collective. When we focus every Tuesday with our marketplace segment, when we feature black-owned businesses, it is a way for you to be able to see these companies that they exist and be able to see their products. You can actually support them and buy their products. Every Wednesday, we have our tech talk segment, folks who are operating in the tech space, whether they have apps, whether they have technology companies. That's why we focus on

that. Every Friday, not only do we have our education matters segment, we focus on African Americans who are doing things in education. That is what we're talking about. So we could easily say, sure, let's just simply take phone calls and chat all day but it's no it's the providing of information that is necessary and so we must understand that and so if we're talking about ten years from now how does this community how did this city change how does this state change how did we see changes among communities of black folks all across the country it cannot happen unless you have a, it cannot happen unless you have a collective. It cannot happen unless you have people who are in fraternities and sororities

and the links and who are Freemasons, who are Eastern Star, who are not affiliated with any organization, understand that group dynamics is how it gets done. Last point I'll make is this here. There's a lot of people who think they're loners and, hey, I can do it by myself. But something that Carmichael said best, you cannot find any African-American who's ever achieved anything unless they were affiliated and worked through an organization. It's as simple as that. An organization means collective.

And so that is what I certainly hope actually exists. And so if you want to talk about buy black, why don't you actually do it? If you want to say, oh, we got to buy black, well, how are you doing it? How are you doing with restaurants? How are you doing with cleaners? How are you doing with athletic apparel companies? How are you doing it? We are providing you that the companies and showing you they exist,

but it's up to you to actually do it. To the point that Jasmine made about, hey, being here 10 years from now and still being in a show and a company. That's why we put pressure on these companies when it comes to black-owned media and advertising. And so when y'all hear me call out a company, y'all got to put them on blast with emails and social media and calling them as well because they need to understand that there's a call and response because as long as we keep buying their products media and calling them as well because they need to understand that there's a call and response

because as long as we keep buying their products and then they don't actually advertise with us we're basically giving them permission to screw us and so then you can't complain we'll say oh man it should have been nice if we had some black media to cover this event but how do you think we do that these lights and these cameras in the streaming unit, all that costs money. I told you all, that streaming unit plus the RAC unit at the office is $60,000. How do you think it gets done? With resources. So that's why it's important for us to understand how it must operate in the collective.

Let me thank all of you for being with us. I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Let me thank Robert, Cec for being with us. I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Let me thank Robert Salsino and Community Bill. And let me thank Congresswoman Maxine Walters. Let me thank everybody involved for being here. It is always great to be here. Again, a lot going on. I'm not going to be here on Monday. Got a guest host. Because the Country Club would have had a tournament tripping about doing a show from there. Okay, fine. Whatever.

But still, we'll have some great video and show you what goes on there on Monday. So we'll be live streaming at the outset of the beginning of the tournament, and then we'll be showing you the latest stuff later on the show. So that's what's happening. Jasmine, you going to text me about Pan-African Film Festival tomorrow? Yes, yes. You're mine tomorrow. Don't be ghosting the brother, Jasmine.

Don't ghost the brother. Folks, don't forget, please support us in what we do. Download the Black Star Network app, available on all platforms. We're trying to hit 50,000 downloads by May 1st. Y'all got to hurry up. Let's get there. Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku,

Amazon Fire TV, Xbox, Samsung TV as well. And, of course, please join our Bring the Funk fan club. Our goal is to get 50,000 of our fans who donate a minimum of 50 bucks a year, $4.19 a month, $0.13 a day for us to be able to do what we do. And so that's PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037. And, of course, Cash App, Dallas Sound, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, R Martin Unfiltered. Zelle is, Zelle, what is Zelle?

Zelle is rolling at rollingsmartin.com. Actually, I was caught thinking because this happened, and I'm going to play this here. I try to tell y'all all the time that black people really do just walk up to me and hand me money. I need my backpack. I'm trying to find this video. This sister, so we're in the parking lot at Fane,

ready to go on the bus tour, and I'm trying to get out the car. And this sister, hold up, I'm good, I'm good. I found the connection, I'm good. I'm good. All right good. I found the connection. I'm good. I'm good. All right. This sister wanted me to know that she supports the show. She was not interested.

She was not interested, y'all, in going to give it online. She literally said, I'm going to sit here and give you my money right here. So I'm trying to set it up. So give me second y'all i cracked up laughing i had to grab the camera and literally shoot this video uh because uh she was serious about supporting the show uh and and see they think i'll be lying jasmine when i say that people just walk up to me and to money in my hand and say, this is for the show. And I keep telling them they think I'm lying, but I'm not lying. Let me see if I can go ahead and get this video playing. For some reason, I cannot.

Are y'all seeing over there? Okay, let's see if that works. Okay, here we go. All right, y'all. Roll this video. Check in with Roland Martin Unfiltered every day. He's there Monday through Friday, but every day he got something good

to say. So I want you all to start giving this brother some money, because we got to get these folks out here voting. Serious business. We got to turn this mess around. I ain't going to say shit, but anyway. I appreciate it. Bless you. I was going to bring this to you because my son is Kareem Grimes. He came onto your show. So it's like I told him I wanted to give you some money because thank you. Sister, I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to keep swinging. We're going to keep swinging. Yeah, because like I'm telling everybody, if it wasn't for you, I'd be done killing some white folks.

Have a pleasure. All right, sister, I appreciate it. Okay. Hey, y'all, I'm telling you, that actually does happen a lot. I appreciate it. We're always in the show, of course, showing you all the people who contributed thus far. And I appreciate every single one of you, those who give online, or even those who y'all walk up to me and give me cash in the parking lot.

Because trust me, it all goes to the same thing, and that is our show, so we thank our staff as well. I appreciate it. I'll see y'all on Tuesday. Să ne urmăm în următoarea mea rețetă. Thank you. this is an iHeart podcast