#RolandMartinUnfiltered - LA State Police misconduct exposed; Damning testimony against R Kelly; DOJ sues TX over abortion law

Episode Date: September 10, 2021

9.9.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: LA State Police misconduct exposed; Damning testimony against R. Kelly could spell doom for the singer; DOJ sues Texas over abortion law; Fed workers and contractors mandated to get COVID vax; Evangelicals divided over COVID; Brian Benjamin officially sworn in as the new Lt. Gov. of New York; Crazy a$$ woman who coughed on people at a Nebraska Super Saver gets fired; Crazy a$$ man who refused to comply with airline mask mandates had a hard time finding his way home.#RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: CEEKCEEK is a streaming platform for virtual events and Virtual Reality experiences featuring the biggest names in music, sports, and entertainment from around the globe. Check out the VR headsets and 4d headphones. Visit http://www.ceek.com and use the discount code RMVIP21Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Martin! The Today is Thursday, September 9th, 2021. Coming up, a roller martin unfiltered. A new Associated Press investigation reveals more than a dozen cases in Louisiana where state troopers conceal evidence of misconduct. In every instance, supervisors ignored and even hid evidence of beatings and impeded efforts to root out wrongdoing.

Also in Louisiana, one of the highest ranking state troopers on the scene last night, the Ronald Green, who died two years ago, was accused of lying about the existence of his body cam video to keep it from investigators. He will not face any charges or disciplinary actions. The Department of Justice is suing the state of Texas about its new abortion law,

calling it blatantly unconstitutional. The R. Kelly trial resumes after a three-day recess. Today's witness claims Kelly held her captive for days. Let's talk about COVID and religion. Does getting the vaccine mean you don't have faith? We'll talk about that with Reverend Jeff Carr and Mississippi doctor Justin Turner, whose governor said there's no need to fear the virus

if you believe in Christ. Another crazy ass white woman loses her job. It is time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Mark Dunn-Filter, let's go. He's got it, whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling.

Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's rolling, Martin. Yeah. Rolling with Roland now.

Yeah. He's broke, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Roland Martin now. Martin. There is indeed trouble in Louisiana. A new Associated Press investigation identifies at least a dozen cases in which Louisiana state troopers concealed or ignored evidence of misconduct. Folks, 67% of the altercations involving use of force in recent years have targeted African-Americans. That's double the percentage of the state's black population.

Now, get this. The findings reveal a former officer, Jacob Brown, was involved in 23 use of force cases dating to 2015. 19 of them were black. Jacob resigned in March and is charged with aggravated second-degree battery and malfeasance in office. Now, that's that case there. You also have this case where a high-ranking Louisiana police officer

would not face any charges or disciplinary action related to the death of Ronald Green. Lieutenant John Clary was cleared of all misconduct charges related to the violent death of the black motorist in 2019. Clary was accused of lying about the existence of his body cam video to keep it from state police investigators. However, officials say a lack of evidence has yielded no form of discipline for the officer. In 2019, Ronald Green was killed after being viciously beaten by Louisiana police officers during a traffic stop.

Folks, serious issues with police there in Louisiana. And so normally what you would have is you would have the state police who would be investigating these cases. But clearly, by the AP investigation, you have problems with the state police. Joining me right now is Louisiana State Representative Ted James. Representative James, glad to, you have problems with the state police. Joining me right now is Louisiana State Representative Ted James. Representative James, glad to have you on Roland Martin Unfiltered and the Black Star Network. First and foremost, you know, the Louisiana State Troopers are supposed to be the best of the best. They are supposed to be the agency that investigates crimes happening around the state,

especially those involving police officers. Here you have supervisors, bosses hiding evidence, lying. Why are heads not rolling among Louisiana State Police? What is Governor John Bel Edwards doing? We have, as a caucus, we've called on the federal government because our governor has been very slow to respond. When these allegations first came to light last year due to the work of the NAACP here and the AP, we requested a new colonel. We got a new colonel, an African-American colonel. And it seems like every week we're learning of a new lie, a new cover up. We are. I listen to you articulate, you know, what's going on with Lieutenant Colonel Cleary. Not a single officer, not a single trooper has been disciplined

for the death of Ronald Green. On the other hand, a black trooper who has come out and has provided information about all of the cover-ups, about all of the use of force issues in state police, he's been removed. So you have a black man who has come to light with information that has received more strict discipline than any of the troopers that were involved in the Ronald Green

death. We have a huge problem here at Louisiana State Police, and that's why the Black Caucus has asked the feds to come in and do a full-scale investigation. Again, so Lieutenant John Clary was actually a Louisiana State Trooper. Yes. Okay. So he was not a police officer. He was a state trooper. And so this AP story, we talked about all these different things here. This is wrapped up in it. And even in that Green story, they lied about what actually happened to Green.

Oh, they told his family that he died in a car accident. And when we saw the pictures of the car, we knew that he didn't die in a car accident. And it took us almost threatening the administration to make sure that they allowed Ronald Green's family to see the video. The video that we saw that was leaked a few months ago, the family and some of us. And I saw that video last year.

And we knew within the first few minutes that the troop was on the scene not only the troop was on the scene not not only did they lie but their superiors and Cleary being one of them one of the highest ranking ones that was on the scene he lied and we saw that he was rewarded with not only was he not disciplined he has a high profile job he was all on national television escorting around one of our football coaches. He's since been removed from that. But the problem is, I don't want him removed from a detail. I want him removed

from the agency at large. And so the fact that you have Clary, no disciplinary action against him, even though he basically lied, he said one thing, but the body cam footage said another thing. And the fact that they said that he died in a car accident,

when we now know that's an absolute lie, seriously, no action? Look, Cleary, not only did he lie about what the footage showed, he lied about the existence of the footage. And it wasn't until almost a year later that the footage was discovered. Now, the main trooper who beat Ronald Green

committed suicide the day he learned that he was going to be terminated. There were still troopers on the scene that deserved to be brought to justice, right? If myself and you and one of our, another friend of ours, if we go and beat the hell out of somebody and I kill myself, you will certainly be charged, right? As an accessory, I could list at least five or six different things that these troopers should be charged with. And right now, we're waiting on the federal government. Of course, there's a DA in North Louisiana who, if he wanted to, he could pursue

charges now. You know, I understand. And way too often, these cases, district attorneys tell us we're going to wait and see what happens with the federal government. But you can move independent. Yeah, they don't have to. They don't have to. In fact, in fact, the feds wait on the state folks. You know, and what we're seeing, I certainly, there is one glimmer of hope and it's very small. I would not have trusted Donald Trump justice department to do the right thing. So there is a small glimmer of hope in that there's a new administration, right? I'm hoping that this administration does not let us down. I've had countless conversations with the DOJ because our caucus sent a letter to the Civil Rights Division, and we've asked not

just with the Ronald Green, because we already know Ray Charles can see that they lied about Ronald Green. We've asked for a full-scale, top-to-bottom investigation into the entire department because what we've learned is that not only have these things been accepted, they've been cheered on. We have countless reports of text messages where troopers have bragging about beating the hell out of people and bragging about the fact that they're going to think about that beating for a long time. They're one of the attorneys for state police whose husband is a trooper. There have been reports about how she's coached troopers to get out of use of force complaints by charging motorists in the state, most of them black, with resisting arrest. She's since been removed,

but not fired. So there are issues that are deeply ingrained. And, you know, for me, I'm one that asked the governor to make sure that we put somebody at the top of state police, somebody, a man of color. And, you know, as much as I respect Colonel Davis, I'm starting to lose confidence in his leadership because every week we're learning of something else that has been a lie, something else that has been a cover up at state police. What is also confusing here is that when you talk about clearly lying, he said that he did not have any body cam footage. That's a lie. But the investigators called them mischaracterizations. I'm sorry, that's a lie.

Yeah, it's a bold-faced lie. And you mentioned it very plainly. The unfortunate thing is we have to look at not just the issues within state police, but every single use of force incident that they have investigated for other law enforcement agencies. Now, all of those things have come into question, because if you know that there's a pattern of acceptance, if there's a pattern of cheering on troopers that are beating the hell out of black people. Of course, they're

going to overlook when black people get their heads bashed in by other agencies. So in this request that we made to the feds, I think we need to go back at every single use of force complaint, every single officer involved incident that the state police has been called upon to investigate prior to 2016, when we knew all of these issues, 2019 2016 when we knew all of these issues, 2019 when we knew all of these issues were taking place. And, yeah, more pressure needs to be placed on the governor. He's a Democrat. Without black folks, he would not have been reelected.

We absolutely know that. And he needs to step up, not be scared of Republicans, and have the courage to do, frankly, what Mitch Landrieu did when he was the mayor of New Orleans, when he called in the federal government to study and assess the corrupt New Orleans Police Department. Look, and we've been putting pressure on it. The governor is a friend of mine. I stood on the stage with him both times when he won, and this is not something that we have allowed him to just escape. Right now, of course, you know, we're in the middle of still recovering from a natural disaster, but this is still an issue for the caucus. We had one of our members send a letter out today. We requested every single

use of force incident from January 1st, 2019 to present. What has been the disposition? What is the race of the person that alleged some type of use of force against state police? What were they initially charged with? We still don't know today why the state police, why they were even trying to apprehend Ronald Green. Here we are almost three years later. We still don't know what the underlying issue was, but what we do know is that they lied, and we do know that they killed their brother. Mm. Mm. Mm.

Louisiana State Representative Ted James, we certainly appreciate it. Certainly keep us abreast of what happens with this case. Thank you, sir. I want to bring in my panel right now. Dr. Greg Carr, he is, of course, professor with Afro-American Studies, Howard University, also received Colbert, Black Women Views, Thank you, sir. good cops, good cops, bad cops. Yeah, but the bottom line is this here. This is not one. This is not two. This is not three. This is more than a dozen. And I dare say there's probably more if you really, really keep looking. Absolutely. I mean, this is basically state-sanctioned

terrorism against black members of the community who are just going about their business. I mean, in some cases, there were people who were suspected of doing some serious crimes, but I don't understand how a traffic stop escalates to the point of death. And then the amount of lying and concealing about these things is very troubling and distressing. But the worst part is that even when it does come to light, there are no consequences. Investigations are worthless. But the worst part is that even when it does come to light, there are no consequences. Investigations are worthless. When all of these investigations do is say there's not enough evidence, well, change

the standard of proof. Change the burden of proof. Bring some charges in these cases. Find something to charge people with, just like when y'all find something to charge Black people with. When you go fucking with Black people and arrest them, you call it resisting arrest? Find some trumped-up charge to try to get some of these cops and these state troopers who are out here terrorizing Black

and Latino people. And it's not just that they're the only victims. There was a white victim that was beaten to a pulp beyond recognition as well. The other thing I will say is, this is where the Merrick Garland Justice Department needs to step in and resume the practice of pattern and practices investigations. I know I say investigations aren't very useful, but the consent decrees does actually inject a level of federal oversight that absolutely needs to be there.

And it requires some reforms to be made where maybe there's no political will. You mentioned Governor John Bel Edwards to go up against the police. That's where the federal government comes in. That's where the Department of Justice comes in and hopefully gives some degree of change. But there's no justice for the Ronald Greene family. And it's really, really just so just troubling, beyond troubling, to understand the insidiousness of what these troopers were up to and what they're probably still up to to this day because nobody is having any reason to do anything differently. Check this out, Faraji.

Cleary, who arrived at the scene, go to my computer, please. Cleary, who arrived at the scene just seconds after troopers stunned, choked, and punched Green to get him into handcuffs, told investigators that Green, quote, was still yelling and screaming and he was still resisting, even though he was handcuffed. He was still trying to get away and was not cooperating. Investigators wrote in a six-page report filed less than three weeks ago that Cleary's description of Green's demeanor after he was cuffed on a dark roadside near Monroe was clearly a mischaracterization, also known as a lie. Though they did not state it explicitly, the false statements were apparently intended

to justify further uses of force by troopers against the prone Green that included dragging him face down by his ankle shackles and spraying him in the face with pepper spray. Quote, The video evidence in this case does not show Green screaming, resisting, or trying to get away, Detective Albert Paxton wrote in the new report. The only screams revealed by the video were when Green responded to force applied to him.

The report adds, added that Cleary's own video, published last week by the Associated Press and later released by the state, shows Green lying on the ground, face down, handcuffed behind his back, leg shackles on his ankles, uttering the phrases, I'm sorry or I'm scared or yes sir

or okay. Green was forced to be face down for nine minutes. And this is what Clary yelled. Don't you turn over. Lay on your belly. Lay on your belly, Trooper Corey York yells before

briefly dragging Green by the chain that connects his ankle shackles. Lieutenant Clary's video clearly shows Green to be suffering, Paxton wrote in the new report, adding that the handcuffed man can be heard, quote, gasping for air. Though what happens to Green next cannot be seen on the video, investigators wrote that, quote, Green's eyes are squeezed shut as he shakes his head back and forth, moaning in pain, movements consistent with having been sprayed in the face with pepper spray.

So you mean to tell me all of that, and they can't figure out what in the hell to charge this guy with or write him up? Yes, and Brother Roland, I think that we need to say it. Clary needs to go to prison. The whole police, damn police department needs to be broken down. When I heard the representative talking about the fact of the Justice Department coming in, we know that the pattern of practice, investigation and all of that. The big thing is that the United States federal government, the Department of Justice, has the power to come in

and to really dismantle police departments and start them back up again. Why they have not done that, I don't know. But I'm happy that they're starting an investigation. But they need to go in the same way they went in what we saw with Ferguson after Mike Brown. They need to go in and just completely fire everybody and or lock people up. And that's all that has to be done because

the trust of the American people is totally gone. I mean, of the people of Louisiana, there can't be no trust, especially among black folks. And I saw that based upon this report, Brother Roland, 67 percent of those who have been involved in being brutalized by the police are Black people. So when you have that number, when you have these things, and then when you have that type of evidence, you have the body cam footage, you have the other officers, you got an officer who killed himself. I mean, this is all leading to the fact that these jokers were guilty. And one big thing, very quickly, that we have to keep in mind,

there was another story about some years ago about what has happened in Minneapolis, what has been happening in Portland. The problem comes down to, you can give people good guidelines, but they have to have the heart, the mind, and the spirit to follow the rules. And when you're seeing that police officers don't

have that, then only a few things got to happen. One is either the federal government got to intervene and be broken down by the Department of Justice. Two, the state that is responsible for the funding of the government, they have to be brought to task. Or three, you got to go to the police union in that state and bust the hell up in that police union because police unions serve as like gangs in protecting their own. And so if we don't go after the, go to the root of the problem, which is corruption within the police departments and these unions, then we're not going to see the justice that we deserve. Check this out, Greg. Go back to my computer, please. Another false statement noted in the report was when Cleary told investigators that his troopers sat green up and

immediately held his head up so he could get a clear airway. Cleary's video, however, showed troopers saying they didn't want to sit Green up because they were afraid he would spit blood on them. Then don't do that, Cleary tells them. Even after Green became unresponsive and troopers set him up, his head was slumped down on his chest, and they did not make a move to lift his head to make a clear airway for nearly six minutes. How

does all of that happen? And you don't charge anyone. I have repeatedly said on this show that laws must be changed, that if you or Recy or Faraji or myself, if any of us lied to police, they could charge us.

Cops lie, nothing happens. To me, the least you can do is simply discipline him by saying you knowingly lied to investigators and he should be fired and should be facing some type of charges. Absolutely. I mean, absolutely. I mean, the one thing we might have to say at the onset is that we must use all tools at our disposal, elected officials, the courts, the Justice Department. So that's number one.

But I'll say, having said that, there's no we. There's no historical evidence for any concept called the American people. The legal framework is one thing. The historical, cultural, social entity is quite another. You see, and shout out, by the way, to both Louisiana Tech and Mississippi State for continuing to employ cats like John Clary, because the thing that black people are useful for is running them down a football field. And ask yourselves a question.

Do a little research. Let's ask ourselves, when did state troopers need to be there to protect football coaches? I suspect if you tug on the history of the slave economic concern, some people call it the Southeastern Conference, you will probably find some race involved there as well because they take their football quite seriously in this country. Actually, you're right because I've mean, I've seen many games, and I'm sitting there going, why are there troopers? I mean, first of all, you've got university police. Football teams have security.

And it's a thing now when you watch all these games where you have these state troopers next. It's weird to me as well. Well, Roland, I think that's actually a very good question. I know you just came back from Fisk. You might put some of your young journalist lieutenants on that, do that research, because I think what we'll find is that football, like everything else in this country, is very militaristic. And so John Clary's at home there.

And by the way, the mistake made by the state police training investigator, the instructor, rather, that led to discovering this tape, I'm sure that was a mistake because I'm sure they were probably using it to reinforce what you should be able to do to escape punishment. But the key in this is NHI, as the philosopher Sylvia Winters says, there were no humans involved. Let's think about this. The police are an entity, law enforcement, but the concept of policing has been turned into a verb. What does policing mean when there are no humans involved? It's a verb, managing, hunting,

controlling, harming, and killing, because there are no humans involved. Rob Green's not a human being. We have to understand this technique. When you turn off your body camera, you've introduced another layer of obfuscation and murkiness. And so what you're really trying to avoid is the intent standard. And all you have to do to match the intent standard is say, I had another reason. So I'm saying all I have to say is, at the end of the day, we have to understand that these people are our enemies.

And by that, I mean anybody who's a human being, these are our common enemies. And there's no murkiness to the side you have to be on. I should mention this as well. It's important to understand that there's also an issue of federalism involved. As we listen to Representative James at the state level, when we talk about the local level, and I agree, everything should be pursued. I agree with everything you said, Faraji, everything you said, Recy. At the same time, we understand that Merrick Garland, whose kind of weakness was one of the reasons he was confirmed as attorney general and even nominated to be on the Supreme Court, is not going to push the limits of the test of federalism. Because what we are seeing now is the state, controlled by white nationalists, are literally testing the limits of federalism. They are daring the federal entity to create this illusion of American community by intervening on open Klansmen.

Y'all seen the movie The Mac? Remember when the guy says shade tree? You ain't no pimp. Well, let's remix that. Shade tree government. You ain't no community. You just arrest Haven for the claim. State by state, they are daring. They are daring something to come into existence which never existed before, namely, quote, the American people. And so I'm encouraged by things like this, because one way or the other, this cat going to be punished. Prison's only one form of punishment. Wait for it. Wait for it. Well, we certainly will see what happens there. And yeah, DOJ, absolutely. And here's the deal.

The Civil Rights Division can launch that investigation. That needs to happen. And that DA in northern Louisiana, yeah, folks, that's called being real, real close with a police staff. Huh? I said Hurricane Ida didn't hit Louisiana out of coincidence. Well, first of all, it didn't hit Louisiana out of coincidence

because Louisiana, frankly, is in Hurricane Alley. I've been from Houston, but the bottom line is this here. We have seen this before where these white DAs in Louisiana do not want to pursue anything with police officers, which is why you've got to have state authorities like state troopers investigate, but they have thugs in that force. This is where DOJ needs to step in. And I would hope and I appreciate Representative James saying they've been calling on Louisiana Governor John Bill Edwards, but how about putting even more pressure

on him and publicly protesting him and calling people to the state capital, calling people to the governor's mansion. And also, how about calling on black football players at Louisiana State University not to play? Come on.

I gotta remind folks, the only reason, the only reason the Confederate flag is off of the Mississippi State flag, because when that black running back said, I ain't playing, and then all of a sudden, those white coaches all around Mississippi said, hey, we getting phone calls, Black players not coming to Mississippi State and Ole Miss and Southern Miss and all those schools. That's when Mississippi said, yeah, we're going to get this thing off our flag. And that's why it is gone.

So, again, to all of you parents, all of you parents who have kids who are playing ball at Louisiana State, football and basketball, have some conversations with your kids. And have those black balls. And see, this is real simple. See, everybody forgets, everybody forgets, Recy, Greg, and Faraji. The University of Missouri football players threatened a boycott. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I remember.

Threatened. And let me tell you what happened. Money dried up. Enrollment dropped. It has taken the University of Missouri three years to still recover from that. All I'm saying is this is where black athletes, get y'all a little courage like Kaepernick, and say no federal investigation, we might not play on Saturday. Trust me, you'll see how fast the governor calls for the feds to come in.

That's right. That's all I'm saying. Let's see what they do. And it's not just LSU. Nope. Southern and Grambling. Come on. Y'all are state institutions.

That's right. Those players, you can do the exact same thing. So let's see what happens here. That's right. A woman identified as Sonia testified that R. Kelly raped her after promising her an interview with the artist. The victim claimed Kelly held her captive for more than three days in his studio when she was 21 years old. Sonia was the eighth accuser to take the stand against R. Kelly during the trial. Other accounts have also included physical and sexual abuse details, and five of the people testified that they were underage during their first sexual encounters with Kelly. I had somebody who tweeted me today, Faraji,

who was not particularly happy with our panel calling out R. Kelly last week. And they felt that they literally put up free R. Kelly and that we should not, and the brother literally said we should not be attacking another black man. And I'm sitting there going, are you not paying attention to what the hell is actually being said?

Come on. Come on. Yeah, let it happen. I mean, first and foremost, any joker who says that R. Kelly should be free, I mean, we should cancel them. I mean, when you go to that situation and when you look at what that young lady, Sonia, said, who's a 39-year-old woman and what she said R. Kelly did to her at 21 years old, and if we understand the impact that sexual abuse has on anybody, but particularly

on women, you would not be so quick to call that man a genius of any sort, of any sort. You would not be so quick to say, oh, we're beating up on a black man. What I'm concerned with is that this case, as gruesome, as graphic, as disturbing as this case has been, that it won't push the needle far enough to remove our love for the pimp culture and the exploitation of women in music and media. That's what I'm concerned with. That it's easy to cancel one man, but can we cancel a behavior? Can we cancel a whole mindset

that hate women and that use of women, that abuse women? And so when you look at this case, this case should not just be fodder. And look, I'm gonna to say it like this. Have you heard about R. Kelly case since it started? Other than this platform, I'm going to keep it real.

I mean, unless you go online, you search it, you read it, you follow it. Other than this platform, we have not really had a very deep conversation outside of this show to talk about what's been going on in this trial, what's been said, and the implications of our love for this type of man, and then more importantly, our embracing of a culture that has destroyed women. And so this case is so big,

and it's so important for us to have these conversations. And I truly appreciate you brother roland for constantly keeping us abreast about it because we're not talking about it we're talking about surviving r kelly and then that conversation died down but if when you listen to the to the stories from the people that work with him to about the rules to the to the victims themselves nah you want that joker under a damn jail cell. You would not want to listen to his music.

You damn sure wouldn't want to fly with him. And you would not want to do anything to do with R. Kelly. Robert Sylvester Kelly. Trust and believe. Greg, of course, it is innocent until proven guilty. But frankly, people can still weigh in on what they're hearing.

And what we are hearing is shocking, devastating, sick and demented. It is wrong. I mean, of course. I mean, who could say it isn't? But what we have with the R. Kelly case, and it's now 13 years since he was first brought to trial on the same allegations, similar allegations, a lot less detail, of course, than now, what we really have is a car crash at the intersection of culture and law. We, as people of African descent in the modern world system, certainly those of us in the Western Hemisphere,

more specifically the United States, have unfortunately continued to fall victim to and now just really occupy a culture that allows for our own dehumanization. And the culture is in the language, the culture is in the music. And so, you know, now legally, this guy should be under the jail. Of course, that's a no-brainer. However, just like somebody reached out to you and said that, the hope of his defense team is there's at least one person like that on the jury. And the bigger issue, let's say he goes to jail from now on, either here or in the subsequent trials that will come up after this. Let's say that happens. That's one guy. The deeper question is, what about every hip hop artist, every R&B artist,

every soul artist, every cultural artist, every movie producer, every video maker who has reinforced the culture of dehumanization, not only against black women and men, but against even the very notion of blackness, and then wraps it up into, I'm just expressing myself. See, this is the problem. And until we address that underlying problem, then the difference for me between R. Kelly and Jay-Z is just a question of, well, who did the most egregious acts and the shock of the individual incident that can send one to jail? But when I turn on the radio,

quite frankly, I can't tell the difference. Raisi? Well, if you were upset, then let me give you something to be mad about. If you can identify with R. Kelly personally, then you're a motherfucking degenerate.

Point blank, period. And maybe your ass need to be up under the jail right along with R. Kelly. Okay? So let's, instead of talking about protecting the legacy and the black man who was sitting up there allegedly until proven guilty, I guess,

raping and terrorizing and kidnapping and abusing women, men, children, families. If you can justify that because he's a black man, there's something seriously wrong and demented with your mentality. There's nothing wrong with us talking about it. There's something wrong with your ass and how you think, okay?

So why don't we put a little bit more emphasis on protecting victims, on protecting girls, boys, people, black people, the community. How about that? From a sexual predator, why don't we put more emphasis on that than the fact that you like R. Kelly's bump and grind or 12-play? Check yourself. Don't come over here

with that mess. Check yourself and your fucked up mentality. That's right. Period. I'm trying to see. That was at least one MF, at least four Fs. Sorry, not sorry. We're not going

to normalize that kind of comment. You were literally trying to check us for talking about testimony in the court of law under the threat of perjury or criminal penalties, and you're trying to check us because we're talking about what this man,

this degenerate, this pedophile, this sexual serial predator allegedly is doing? Check yourself. Don't come over here with that. Check yourself. Look in the mirror, and we need to find out who the hell your ass is around. If you think that what he's done

is something that's redeemable, that should be protected, that should be shielded, what the hell is wrong with you? There's something wrong with you, not us. And not the Roland Martin Unfiltered show. That's right. That's right. Hey, Roland, it's okay. Recy, you gotta say that in the words of Miss

Lauryn Hill. I had a motherfucker see you ignorant Negroes hear me. That's the only way we can communicate. I'm sorry. You know, she... Intellectually, it didn't work. It didn't register with intellectuals. So let me throw... Let me throw one of those up, and maybe you'll hear it,

and you can tweet me, and you can pry me up into YouTube comments, and you can say whatever the hell you want to say. But I said what I said. Fuck R. Kelly and you too. How about that? That's not unbiased. That's my opinion.

Gotcha. All right, folks. Texas, they're facing a federal lawsuit over the state's new law banning most abortions. The Department of Justice says the law was enacted in open defiance of the U.S. Constitution. Attorney General Merrick Garland is asking a federal judge to declare the law is invalid, to enjoin its enforcement, and to protect the rights

that Texas has violated. The decision is set out in detail in our complaint. Its basis is as follows. SB 8 bans nearly all abortions in the state after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they are pregnant, and months before a pregnancy is viable. It does so even in cases of rape, sexual abuse, or incest. And it further prohibits any effort to aid the doctors who provide pre-viability abortions or the women who seek them. The act is clearly unconstitutional under longstanding Supreme Court precedent. Those precedents hold, in the words of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, that, quote,

regardless of whether exceptions are made for particular circumstances, a state may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability. Texas does not dispute that its statute violates Supreme Court precedent. Instead, the statute includes an unprecedented scheme to, in the Chief Justice's words, quote, insulate the state from responsibility, close quote. It does not rely on the state's executive branch to enforce the law, as is the norm in Texas and everywhere else. Rather, the statute deputizes all private citizens without any showing of personal connection or injury to serve as bounty hunters, authorized to recover at least $10,000 per claim from individuals who facilitate a woman's exercise of her constitutional rights. The obvious and expressly acknowledged intention of this statutory scheme

is to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights by thwarting judicial review for as long as possible. Thus far, the law has had its intended effect. Because the statute makes it too risky for an abortion clinic to stay open, abortion providers have ceased providing... The Texas law, known as SB-8, prohibits abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity usually around six weeks. That's before some women

even know they are pregnant. This law also leaves enforcement to private citizens through civil lawsuits instead of criminal prosecutions. Go to the panel. Greg, this is the key here. The Department of Justice says you cannot pass a law

to just let citizens do whatever the hell they want to do and violate the rights of other citizens by basically putting bounties on them. Well, I think actually you can. I think you can. This goes back to a case in the 1920s, Giles v. Alabama. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, when confronted with clear voter suppression and the apartheid laws of the time in Alabama, said we could rule on behalf of the black people who were having their right to vote infringed upon, in fact eliminated.

However, who's going to enforce it? So what you see in the white national states of the former, I say former Confederacy, but they're still the Confederacy, because it's clearly if there were law in place, this would be an open and shut case. What we're seeing is, again, a test of federalism. All these things are of a piece. You see, all over the country, but in the South, where they control these state

legislatures, and we know that 30 of the state legislatures of the country are controlled by the White Nationalist Party, they want to put in place the country they want to live in. You know, the words of Dixie are still in their ears. Oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton. In the land of cotton, you can brutally kill black women and men.

In the land of cotton, women have no rights. And so when you hear Merrick Garland there with Vanita Gupta, who is where we should place our faith in, Gupta and Kristen Clark, I mean, Merrick Garland, whatever, but we force him into it, right? But what we hear, when Merrick Garland said, he was very careful when he used the phrase

bounty hunter, he's drawing from Sonia Sotomayor's dissent when she said the state of Texas has deputized private citizens and made them bounty hunters who can now get, and Texas is offering cash prizes to these bounty hunters for civilly prosecuting their neighbors' private, she didn't use the word private, but she's implied private, medical procedures. Now, what is that? So what do we see today? The United States now, substituting itself as plaintiff for the Texas plaintiffs that tried a couple of weeks ago, is now going to sue Texas and force these white nationalists, five white nationalists, including, well, yeah, five white nationalists, including Clarence Thomas. See, white nationalists, you don't have to, it's not a

phenotype, it's not a race, it's a concept. And he's a rabbit white nationalist as well, Clarence Thomas. They are going to attack and force them to once again affirm their declaration by not intervening, because they're also going to go for an injunction. They're going to say that this deputizing of state action is Constitution. That contradicts the Constitution on a couple of reasons, and I won't go too deep into the details, but I'll mention this. One is state action. See, Texas threw the rock and hit its head by saying we can't enforce this law. No, but I'll mention this. One is state action. See, Texas threw the rock and hit its hand by saying, we can't enforce this law. No, but by deputizing private citizens, you have done the equivalent of allowing the Klan to outright operate like the police. Once state

action is involved, you have now triggered the constitutional crime. You've triggered the constitutional violation. So this is an open and shut case. But I suspect what the Supreme Court will do is not allow for an injunction. Let this work its way through the courts. And as in that biology lesson that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

gave the country in that shovel mouth piece of human refuse, the governor of Texas, as she reminded him, most people don't even know. Most women don't even know they're pregnant because if you miss your period, you're late by two weeks. It could be stress. It could be anything else. And I'm not about to get into that. I'm just listening to her basically tell him, you're not a man. You're not a human being. And you want your state to be like every other white national state, you want to turn this into the handmaid's tale. And since you got a handmaid on the court with

that last appointment, you think you have the numbers to do it. So I guess we're going to find out. Recy. Yeah. I mean, one thing I will say to the extent that, you know, the federal government has the ability to be effective here, and as Dr. Carr pointed out, it really blows down to the Supreme Court if they're going to go all in with their white supremacy and go all in with their anti-woman, you know, philosophy. But to the extent that the federal government can be effective, this is why elections matter, because you do have a Vanita Gupta, as you pointed out, Dr. Carr, and a Kristen Clark, who could push Mayor Garland to take up this case. If we still had William Barr, forget about it. You know, this wouldn't even be possible. And this type of legal activity would be left to

organizations like the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Planned Parenthood, et cetera, et cetera. So it's really important that the federal government is involved with this, that they're putting all of their resources behind it. Will it be successful? There's no guarantee about that. But the one other thing I do want to say is for those who think that this is just simply a woman issue, the bounty part is the part that people should really, really, really, really, really be very troubled with. Because right now it's a bounty on abortion providers or what the broad topic of Uber driver could be considered an abortion provider.

But what's the next bounty on? The next bounty could be on your head. And do we want to deputize white folks predominantly? Because we know that's going to be the main people all up in everybody's business. But do we want to deputize white people? They see a black man driving somebody in the car all of a sudden.

I think he's an abortion provider. That's right. No, we don't want to do that. Some of y'all don't want to deputize white people. They see a black man driving somebody in the car all of a sudden. I think he's an abortion provider. That's right. No, we don't want to do that. Some of y'all don't want to turn over your vaccine cards. You talk about HIPAA, even though that ain't a HIPAA violation and all kind of other stuff. But then when it comes to a woman's privacy, because that's what Roe v. Wade was really about, was privacy. Now y'all up in everybody's business. So, like I said, the bounty today is on abortion providers.

But what's the next bounty? If you don't have any other concern about it, you think everybody's business. So, like I said, the bounty today is on abortion providers, but what's the next bounty? That, if you don't have any other concern about it, you think it's a woman issue, you think, well, I already have my kids, I'm not concerned about it, or I don't plan on having kids. The bounty issue, because the bounty could be on your head, the bounty could be on your brothers, your husbands, your sons.

These are not just women that are affected by it. It could be on anybody's head. And I don't trust that. Faraj, it is. Yeah, I mean, I think just to keep it clear, the bounty that we're talking about is $10,000. That's what Merrick Garland said, that the law deputizes private citizens

to serve as bounty hunters authorized to recover at least $10,000 per claim from individuals who facilitate a woman's exercise of her constitutional rights. Again, we have a human rights issue that becomes a money grab. So if you have an individual who is looking for a come up, and this is, I mean, look, we got to talk about the fact that this is the sad state of affairs that we find our citizens, the citizens of America and that you've got to put a price attached to human beings at all costs. So we're capitalizing on the pain of women. And then let's look at what has happened with the Texas state's state's attorney had to say about this whole situation. He tweeted out that the administration, speaking of the Biden administration, quote, should focus on fixing the border crisis, Afghanistan, the economy and countless other disasters instead of meddling in state sovereign rights. Well, first of all, we know Ken Paxton is stupid. And he needs to be in prison with his corrupt ass.

That's right. So that's just the reality right there. Folks, hold tight one second. Got to go to break. When we come back, we're going to talk about COVID. And a lot of people are asking for a religious exemption. Hmm. Really?

Even one black singer, she was supposed to sing the national anthem at an NFL game. She said, I'm not getting vaccinated. They were like, your ass ain't singing. And, Megyn Kelly, you know, Megyn White Santa Kelly,

you know, Megyn Blackface You know, Megan, blackface at Halloween. Kelly, that Megan Kelly. She's offended, angry, upset, highly bothered. The black national anthem

is going to be sung at every NFL game. She says this is an affront to, quote, average Americans. Ooh, y'all know I can't wait for crazy-ass white people. Megan, you're today's star. That is next on Roller Martin Unfiltered, right here on the Black Star Network. I believe that people our age have lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing.

The challenges, there's so many of them and they're complex. And we need to be moving to address them. But I'm able to say, watch out, Tiffany. I know this road. That is so freaking dope. Floyd's death hopefully put another nail in the coffin of racism. You talk about awakening America. It led to a historic summer of protest. I hope our younger generation don't ever forget that nonviolence is soul force, right?

Hello, everyone. It's Kiara Sheard. Hey, I'm Taj. I'm Coco. And I'm Lili. And we're SWB. What's up, y'all? It's Ryan Destiny, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. As COVID rips through America

with the highly transmittable Delta and new variants in 49 states, President Joe Biden announces his six-point plan to fight COVID. And the plan is requiring all federal workers and federal contractors to get the vaccine, companies 100 or more. That's part of his vaccinating and the unvaccinated prong of the initiative. Also furthering protection for the vaccinated, keeping schools safely open, increasing testing and requiring masks, protecting our economic recovery and improving care for those with COVID-19. Biden says there are too many ways to keep this pandemic under control if folks use them. The pandemic of the unvaccinated, and it's caused by the fact that despite America having unprecedented and successful vaccination program, despite the fact that for almost five months,

free vaccines have been available in 80,000 different locations, we still have nearly 80 million Americans who have failed to get the shot. The Department of Labor is developing an emergency rule to require all employers with 100 or more employees that together employ over 80 million workers to ensure their workforces are fully vaccinated or show a negative test at least once a week. Now, Bob, the approval rating has decreased as a result of COVID, but also if you look at Afghanistan, a recent vote, 52 percent Americans approve of his handling of COVID pandemic. That's down from June, 62 percent of folks were surveyed. Now, pediatric COVID cases are at an all-time high with more than a quarter of a million last week.

In Miami, 13 school employees have died due to COVID in the past month. Nationally, there are 41.4 million reported cases. 671,468 folks have died. Now, 54% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated. Health leaders are urging those eligible to get vaccinated to slow the spread of the virus. Now, the evangelical response to COVID is varied. Some religious leaders are begging people to take the vaccine. Others have said faith should be enough.

The governor of Mississippi, Tate Reeves, believes Christians are a little less afraid of COVID due to their faith. Given the high transmission rate of COVID in Mississippi, Governor, I wanted to ask you about comments you made Thursday evening at a political fundraiser up in the Memphis area where you said that people in Mississippi and the Mid-South were a little less scared about COVID when you believe in an eternal life, when you believe that living on this earth is but a blip on the screen and you don't have to be so scared of things. I was wondering if you could expound a little bit upon those comments, what you meant by that, and whether you have any concern that that might take away people's willingness to take preventative measures. Yeah, well, thank you for that question, Emily.

What I meant when I said that is exactly what I said, and I feel certain that you have read the article in which the very next sentence after I said what you just asked, I also said that the Bible also teaches us to take necessary precautions. And in our state and in our nation right now, there are certainly necessary precautions that we can take with respect to COVID. But I believe very strongly in my faith. I believe very strongly in what the Bible says. And the Bible is very clear that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. And that is my worldview. It's how I believe. It's what drives me every single day. And I think it's what drives a large number of Mississippians.

We should take necessary precautions with respect to COVID, but we also understand that we do have everlasting life if we believe in Jesus, if we believe in God the Father, and I certainly do. Joining me now, Reverend Jeff Carr, founder of the Infinity Fellowship in Nashville, Tennessee, and Dr. Justin Turner, CEO of Turner Care. Glad to have both of you here. I've got to ask you this here, Pastor Carr. There's a whole bunch of preachers who died of COVID. Early on last year, there were about 30 to 40 black preachers who passed away. Then, of course, you have Bishop Harry Jackson, who preached Easter in the White House in the Oval Office with Donald Trump last

year, who was dead a few months later due to COVID because he was around an Amy Coney Barrett super spreader event. He got it. He died. So when you listen to these people, and I see these people on social media, they're like, I'm good. I got God. A lot of us got God, too, but we also ain't stupid. We also understand that God has provided knowledge and wisdom to scientists and doctors. Indeed, Roland. I think it's important, though, that we pay attention to the words of Dr. Maya Angelou, who reminded us that when someone shows you who they are, do yourself a favor and believe them the first time. We're dealing with a crisis between belief and provable fact.

Let me spend a second here kind of laying the backdrop for this. Tate Reeves is a true believer. Governor Bill Lee in Tennessee is a true believer. Donald Trump, he professes to be a true believer. Governor Bill Lee in Tennessee is a true believer. Donald Trump, he professes to be a true believer. I really do appreciate when any true believer demonstrates to me who they are. With that said, let's explore what belief is and how it fits into the context of this discussion around coronavirus, COVID-19, the Delta variant, and everything that is affecting us right now. What is belief? This is what we have to define. Belief simply defined is what exists in the absence of provable fact.

See, belief is the space in the gap. I'm not a person who teaches in my congregation that is interspiritual, that is interfaith. I don't teach people to believe. I teach people to know. When you deal with belief, belief takes you down a path that will leave you at each other's throat. Your belief is crafted by how you were raised, your faith in the God of your understanding. And oftentimes, that religion, that background, especially if you're an evangelical, if you're dealing with a single deity religion, you were taught to believe that at all costs. It does not matter what the facts are. This is why people who believe in Donald Trump will not listen to facts. This is why people who believe in R. Kelly will not listen to facts.

This is why people who believe in what Tate Reeves and what Bill Lee believe, they don't listen to facts. They will look at the 40 million plus people infected. They will look at the 176 million cases that are going throughout and spreading in the Delta variant, and it does not matter to them. There are three words that define a true believer. Those three words are, I don't care. You've seen it when you have someone who believes that the murderer in their family, the serial killer in their family is a good guy. You'll see one that in people who believe that their path is stronger than another path. It is a space where there is an absence of fact. So yes, it does not surprise me that people believe in God and they believe that God is going to save

them, even in the face of the facts. The facts tell us this dis-ease is killing us. The facts tell us that we have to wear our masks. The facts tell us that there is this overlapping space of the Delta variant that is very real and there. The issue is that when we reach this crossroads between belief and fact, much of what we consider religion now, the dogmatic spaces push us to a space where we proclaim ourselves believers. Everyone else is vilified as a non-believer. And once we do that, we're in a space of I don't care. When you reach a space of I don't care, you not only care about yourself, you don't care about me. And that is why we're seeing the spread of this particular variant. And that's why we're in the midst of this crisis right now.

Dr. Turner, we have seen some of these crazy, deranged white white, evangelical, conservative preachers say, rip that mask off your face. And if you even, I forgot that fool, I forgot the name of that nut. Greg, is it Greg Locke, something like that, who said that, oh, if you come in my church with a mask on, I'm going to send you right back out. I'm like, dude, are you really that stupid? I mean, it is as if they are not paying any attention whatsoever as to how when COVID first started, the two biggest super spreaders for COVID were weddings and funerals.

Yeah, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here. You know, unfortunately, a lot of people are more married to politics than they are to purpose. And, you know, Raven Carr did just a great job explaining a lot of information that I hope it didn't go over people's head because it was really, really critical. There's a difference between belief and facts. And this whole, you know, thing about Christianity, Christianity is active. It's not passive. So this whole God got me attitude, while it already ignores the fact that there have been several Christians, to include black pastors.

We had a black pastor here in Mississippi that died not too long ago, who didn't take it serious, who didn't take the precautions, who was not vaccinated. Joining already the more than 90% of people in the hospital who have COVID who are not vaccinated. So while this whole idea of God got me ignores the fact that we've already had spiritual leaders who died from it, who didn't take precautions. It also diverges away from the fact that in scripture, for the most part, anytime there was an act of healing, there was an act of participant. So Christianity is active, it's not passive. So if you look at the lady who hemmed, she bled for years and years and years, she reached out and touched the hem of his garment. When you look at the man that was blind,

before he can see, Jesus took a poultice and put on his eye and told him to watch them. When the man who, you know, was lame, you know, before he could walk, Jesus told him to watch them. When the man who was lame, before he could walk, Jesus told him to rise up and walk. So Christianity requires activity. So I've had patients who come to my office, and I mean, not too long ago, just a couple weeks ago, a lady who had diabetes, she was like, you know, I need a refill on my insulin.

I need you to give me this particular medicine for it. There's patients who wanna lose weight. Doc, I just want some Adapix. I just need to give me this particular medicine for it. There's patients who want to lose weight. Doc, I just want some Adapix. I just need to lose weight. Then I want to eat right. Then I want to exercise. But then when I ask them about the vaccine, oh, doc, I'm going to give that to God.

God got me on that one. And I say, so are you saying that God doesn't have you on the weight loss? Are you saying that God doesn't have you on the diabetes? Because he's the same God. And I let them know. And to your listening audience, I'm actually a doctor that believes in God. I don't have a problem proclaiming my faith. Matter of fact,

the thing in maternity care is treating the whole person. Studies show that patients who have spiritual health do have higher clinical outcomes compared to other people. So I'm not sitting here being anti-Christian, but also I'm not going to let you

pour the wolves over my eyes and make it seem as if this whole God got me attitude is basically an excuse for you to not be vaccinated when we see the proof in the pudding every day with spiritual, God-led people who are saying God got me,

but in reality, they're mixing up Christianity with religion. Recy, the singer Victory Boyd, she was supposed to do the national anthem. The NFL season opens tonight, but she got canceled by the NFL because she refused vaccine for religious reasons. Now, she's been catching a lot of flack because she posted this story from the Epoch Times, one of the crazy, deranged right-wing sites that has been publishing all sorts of

nonsensical misinformation, and it was a Trump organ. But this is what she wrote. She said, America from its inception was a dream, a dream of a place that champions equality, liberty, and justice for all people. A dream of a place that honors each individual and our God-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. There's always been a fight to make this dream into a reality. From the Revolutionary War, to the Civil War, to the Prison Reform Movement and beyond, freedom has never been won without conflict. We're in a pretty scary time right now where discrimination and segregation is becoming socially acceptable. And few are doing anything to resist.

People are losing jobs, being denied service at restaurants, concert venues and airports here in America, all because of their deeply held convictions or medical conditions. From New York to California, and even in states such as Florida, where I lost this opportunity of a lifetime, I've made peace with not being able to sing the national anthem tomorrow for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but have not and will not make peace with the re-emergence of segregation and discrimination. This is not okay okay and it's about time that we say so. Click and share the link in my bio to read the full

story. Seriously. I'm not going to curse in front of God's children. First of all, hold up. In the last segment, he was on hold. I was watching him on the monitor. So hell, you were cussing in front of him in the last segment. Hold up, hold up. In the last segment, he was on hold. I was watching him on the monitor. So, hell, you were cussing in front of him in the last segment.

Forgive me, man. I feel awful for myself, man. There it is. This is real talk tonight, Reese. Be yourself. Be who you are. I'm not one of these traditional believers space. I'm a spiritual practice space. And since we are in a society where our language is limited because

of the thousands of languages that we no longer have, sometimes using a word that is considered profane is all according to who's defining that. And I think that Webster is not one of us. So be yourself. So, Reesa, he just gave you push to cuss. Gone. Gone here.

Gone. Gone. Oh, gosh. Okay. First of all, I'm just trying to figure out what planet she's living in. America and its inception was all about freedom and equality.

I'm not going to say the big word. Girl, please. How about this? Pass. I'm going to cover up your side for my screen. Anthony, go to a full screen of Reese. Get rid of the split screen., go to full screen of Reese. Get rid of the split screen. Go to full screen of

Reese. Okay, Reese, go ahead. I got you. I got you. Go ahead. Go ahead. Motherfucker, please. I mean, come on. Let's be real. Okay? And let me say this. When you talk about segregation and this, that, and the other, it's called quarantining.

Okay? It's called forced quarantining. Now, if it was Ebola that was sitting up here spreading the way that COVID is and people was coming into a restaurant with blood coming out their eyes and legions all over their bodies, you would be like, get this person the hell away from me. They don't have a right to walk into this restaurant looking crazy like that. But because COVID is not as visual as some of these other really infectious diseases, it's not as deadly either as Ebola. I'm not saying that. But my whole point is, this isn't segregation. It's called quarantining. When you are more at risk, if you've been exposed to people, if you are a person who's more likely to have

COVID and spread it, then your ass has to quarantine. So this isn't segregation. It's called public health. Since you don't want to be a part of that contract that we're making, then you have to, you know, you have to deal with the consequences of that. So now you don't get to perform at the NFL, but do not, do not, do not, do not compare quarantining basically with Jim Crow. There is no comparison.

There is absolutely no comparison. People have a right to get the vaccine or not. That is their right. But people have a right to set up the most safe measures possible for success, for success, success for their business, success for their events, success for their home, their schools, et cetera. their business, success for their events, success for their home, their schools, etc. And if that includes excluding you, then that's unfortunately the contract that you

made by deciding not to get vaccinated. Faraji, the Catholic Church came out and made it clear that they were not going to be handing out get-out-of-jail-free cards. And they said, no, there would not be religious exemptions given by us.

And so, but it is very interesting, it's very interesting the folks who are invoking religion for this reason when you also have church leaders who are saying the opposite. And so you sort of have this tug that's going on, whether you're talking about Christianity, whether you're talking about Muslims, whether you're talking about Buddhists, whether you're talking about, again, folks of different faiths, where this struggle is actually happening on the religious field. Yeah, I mean, I think this is in, we're getting into some very murky

waters, and I think that this is why I said, you know, a few weeks ago when I was on the show that you're going to go, it's a slippery slope. Here's the thing. If this country is supposed to be based on Judeo- Christian principles,

right, it's supposed to be based on religious freedoms. If this country doesn't honor and respect the stance of any faith institution that is saying that, hey, we're not going to encourage our members to get vaccinated, then if the country doesn't honor that, then the country is going to put itself in a hypocritical position when it says one nation under God. The fact remains that America is not a country that follows God. It's a country that follows whatever is important for political agenda and economic agenda that is laid in front of us. I don't see any problem with a church, mosque, temple, or any other religious institution issuing exemption.

However, if the local, state, or federal government should not respect that, then what are you saying? then what are you saying? Then what are you saying? That's the slippery slope. What is going to be said? First is this, and now it's something else. And I think that is the big concern. And I think that people, just because we go back and forth on this, but just because a person says, look, I'm deciding not to take this vaccine because it's my religious right, I just don't think it's, you know, the right thing. You should respect that. That should be respected.

But if you start to intervene in people's beliefs, then you're going against the very fundamental principle of what this country says it stands for. But, Greg, the government is not going against people's religious beliefs. See, this is what to me the separation is really here. An individual can make their own decision. Absolutely.

But there are consequences to that decision. And so if an entity or a company says, this is our policy, okay, your religious decision, that's fine.

But, if it runs counter to a company, in the case of the NFL, the NFL made it clear, anyone who is going to be coming into our stadiums, singing national anthem around our personnel has to be vaccinated. She says, I'm not getting vaccinated for religious reasons.

Okay, you're not singing. They're respecting her space. But the bottom line is this is what we call a consequence of a person's decision. Yeah, it's just that open and shut. I mean, that's it. You decide what you want to do, and actions have consequences. And to quote Christopher Wallace, Biggie Smalls, you know, it was all a dream. I used to read Word Up magazine.

Meaning, what is the text that you are using to frame your dream? She's using the text of the United States Constitution. And at the time it was written, she'd have been naked with the fear of sexual assault or serving the people who were writing the Constitution. So she's going to that dream. She's reading the wrong Word Up magazine. But to your point, when you make a decision, decisions have consequences. And in terms of faith and parenthetically, let me say that. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and black owned media and something like CNN.

When you had two brothers on, you had to worry about no Cuomo showing up on CNN. You got one of the most brilliant people I know. So he already broke this down. Yes, sir. I appreciate you for that. My mom was very happy about it. But the point that I was about to raise is when you see, I remember being in downtown Charleston, South Carolina a few years ago, and looking at the beautiful churches with the wrought iron fences around them. And I was standing there talking to a brother talking about the fact that African blacksmiths

brought by the men from West Africa for the reason that they had those skills. I said, you know, it's interesting to consider what they were thinking when they made these fences. And the brother was like, yeah, do you think those white Christians understood that those blacksmiths, and if you know West African blacksmiths,

they're very deeply spiritual people. In fact, they're spiritual practitioners, most of them. Do you understand that while they were building that fence y'all wanted them to build, they were praying that whatever you're praying to in there won't get out. So as spiritual practitioners, whatever we pray to, we are now protecting ourselves from you with this fence. I don't believe a damn thing. I don't believe in the God of Tate Reeves. In fact, my God will kill his God. My God ain't got no gender.

My God ain't got no- That's right. And will overwhelm that white man that he thinks is in the sky. And if you think I'm gonna die and go to another white man, Tate Reeves, member of Kappa Alpha. Tate Reeves who spoke to the son

of the Confederate veterans. Let me be very clear about this. Your faith of America is white supremacy. Anybody who doesn't believe in something else, we do not have a common God. Their God depends on the death of us. So whatever I'm praying to, you don't want my thoughts and prayers because you'll have to be dead with that rug on your head, Tate. Pastor Carr?

Indeed. And see what my brother is. And again, I got to defer to the brilliance of Dr. Carr and to the brilliance of the Black Star Network for having the first major appearance of both of us at the same time. So you're not seeing double vision. Mom is 93 years old celebrating, looking at

the screen. But I'm glad to be here and having this conversation. Listen, when we talk about belief, this is why it's so divisive, because it's who do you believe in? What do you believe in? Do you believe in a core principle? Do you practice a core principle? If America practiced a core principle, we wouldn't even be here. The issue is that we're believing things that are different. Biggest fight I ever saw in college, I was first year at Tennessee State, Brother Greg. And my brother was S.J. president at the time, and I was in the cafeteria.

Three fellas who were with me, we went and got us some Coca-Cola and put it in the cup because it was the best thing we ever... We just all loved it. And I sat it down, and somebody said, hey, man, that's my soda. And I said, uh, oh, you talking about my cold drink? And the other guy said, what y'all niggas talking about? It's my soda. And I said, oh, you talking about my cold drink?

And the other guy said, what y'all niggas talking about? It's a pop. And there was this massive argument over the name of the liquid that was in the cup. Did it change the essence of what was in the cup? Did it chemically change it that we were fighting and at each other's throat? No, it didn't. You see, we have this common source. I always say the God of your acceptance and understanding because it gives us an opportunity

to look at the common principles and practices. Does your religion require you to do something? As Dr. Taylor said, yes, Christianity requires you to do something. If you're a Muslim, Allah requires you to do certain things. If you're a Buddhist, it requires you to meditate. It requires you, if you are an Ifa, to go to divination.

If you are studying Kemet, it requires you to reflect the God and goddess. It is about the actions. What we're seeing is a crisis of action. So when people come to me and they say, as they have, hey, Rev, man, I don't really go to church. I watch your stream. I like it because it's not really religious. But can you hook a brother up with the religious exception letter? I say, you obviously have not watched my stream and you obviously have not read our creed. In our creed, written into this interfaith space is, it is the application of ancient wisdom, scientific discovery, and spiritual practices, both physical and metaphysical,

that lead us closer together as a human family. Second point, scientific discovery. We have to base things on science. The issue is, if you are truly a practitioner in your faith, not a believer in your faith. I'm not interested in believers because believers are dangerous. They don't listen to logic. But if you are a practitioner of your faith, you will do what is necessary to value the gift that we all have been given on this side. We can debate. We can argue on what's going to happen to us when we check out. But the reality is one thing that all faiths have, as unprovable as we are made in the image and likeness of God. And so wearing a mask hides that image and likeness of God. And therefore

it's against our faith because no one will be able to see that we are made in the image and likeness of God. Lunacy, complete and utter insanity. These are the spaces that we're dealing with. When we're talking about a very, very, very dangerous space here, you've got this crowd of people. If I had my right hand here, you've got this crowd of people who are anti-vaxxers. They are not interested. They are not believers in the vaccine. I'm not going to say anything that may be pejorative to some people. You may just think that it's holistic health. On this other side, you have people who refuse to wear a mask, who refuse to take care of

themselves. Now, you might be a really good driver, as Brother Roland said, but having a driver's license doesn't determine whether you're a great driver or not. But go out there and drive without a driver's license to see what happens to you. So you're not wearing this mask. You have these two populations of people now who are now converging in the middle, the people who don't believe in the vaccine and won't take it, the people who will not wear masks and also want to go out and party, send their kids to school with my kids. And this is converging in this space. And this overlap space here, right in the middle, that's what's producing that Delta variant. That's where it's coming from.

And it's going to continue to ravage us until we get beyond those spaces of blaming this on a God and instead say, getting a vaccine, wearing a mask, making sure that we take care of ourselves and others is as common sense as wearing a seatbelt or getting a driver's license to drive a car. Dr. Turner? I'm sorry, who's that? Faraji? Who's that? Yes, sir. Go ahead. You know, I'm listening to you, Pastor Carr, and I appreciate your insight on this, but I just do disagree with you on that point of this is not a pandemic, as the president just said today. This is not a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Let's tell the American people the truth. You can still get COVID-19 even if you're vaccinated.

So let's, let's, let's tell people. Yes, yes, yeah, that, that is true. But right now, 98% of those in ICUs are unvaccinated. I hear you. But I think that a lot of times that we're not even, we can't even get to that point, which is why when you have people who are vaccinated, and I see this in Baltimore, here in Maryland, and I'm seeing this all across the country, that people, and I'm not one of these folks, people still

are, you're talking about that convergent of anti-vaxxers and those who don't wear masks, people are vaccinated and then think they're invincible. But hold on, hold on, I'm vaccinated and then think they're invincible. Indeed. But, okay, hold on, hold on, hold on. I'm going to put a pin in there.

But a person who thinks they are invincible ain't no different than the woman who goes, hey, I'm on birth control. I'm invincible. Boo, you can still get pregnant. It's no different than the guy.

And a lot of other things. It's no different than the guy who, oh, I'm using a condom. I'm invincible. Nope. You can still get somebody pregnant. The reality is this was never positioned as, hey, foolproof, get the vaccine, and you can run around dancing and run around in the lilies and play, and you can do whatever.

People assume that because this is the problem in America, Faraji. Americans are so arrogant, we think there's a shot or a peel to fix everything. Facts. Facts. Let me chime in if I can. So hold up. Faraji or Dr. Turner? Faraji, go to Dr. Turner next. Yeah, I'm in

total agreement with that. And I think that's part of the problem as to why we're still not seeing people taking this very seriously or even more so taking responsibility of their own action by masking up. But the thing is, is just because you don't want to take the vaccine doesn't necessarily put you in a group of being an anti-vaxxer. That I don't I don't agree with that just because you don't take the vaccine because it's an experimental vaccine. It's a it's it's it's pushed by multinational companies from Pfizer to Moderna who are getting richer as we're getting sicker. And you can look at how much money, you know, there was a story about how Moderna, for example, has made six from, was a six billion dollar company and has grown over a 19 month period

to a 200 billion dollar company. They call it the testification of Moderna because of the astounding growth. Hold on, hold on, hold on. I gotta, I'm gonna go back to Turner, but I gotta stop you there.

When people talk about change your diet and go from eating meat to fresh fruits and vegetables, does the stock price of the company that produces the fruits and vegetables go up? Oh, absolutely. So here's the deal, okay? Somebody got to make the vaccine. So here's the question. Does the deal, okay? Somebody got to make the vaccine. So here's the question. Does the government make it? Does private companies make it?

Who makes it? I don't give a damn who's making money from it. I really don't. At the end of the day, because here's the deal, though. That has nothing to do with saving a life. Because you know what? It's a whole bunch of black people right now with diabetes. And you know what they're taking?

Diabetic medication. Somebody getting paid off of that. Now, guess what? If you fall into a diabetic coma, ain't nobody, ain't no black family sitting there going, we don't know what's in that diabetic medication. You sitting there saying,

no, save big mama, save papa, save mama, save daddy. So I'm not tripping on a company and what they're making on it because you know what? It's America.

Somebody gonna make something and get paid. Here's my only pushback on that, Brother Rowling, because you know what? It's America. Somebody gonna make something and get paid. Here's my only pushback on that, Brother Rowling, because you know I love and respect your thoughts on it, but here's my pushback. Because America is a capitalistic country, that type of growth, that type of revenue

will put people, when you have multinational companies, you know it like I know it, they influence economic policy and they influence healthcare policy based upon financial gain, not based upon the general welfare of the people, but based upon money. And all I'm saying is when we're talking about this, we can't disregard the fact. Now, if this vaccine came from the government and they didn't put no price tag on it and they said, look, this is just for the general

public, it might be different. No, it's not, because the same folks say I don't trust the government. I would be more concerned. Dr. Turner, come on. Come on. I will agree

that everyone who has not been vaccinated is not anti-vax. Matter of fact, I convinced probably over 95 percent of my patients who have not been vaccinated to be vaccinated. And a lot of it is due to disinformation. And there's been studies out there that suggest that there are some people who are associated with white supremacist groups who have intentionally put out misinformation that has led to a lot of the issues that we have, especially in our community. When I have people that are coming in that are asking me, well, Doc, what about the fact that it changed your DNA? The fact that they can ask that, tell me that they're already convinced that it's true because of the statement that they have made, okay? And we hadn't even talked about the distrust

and the generational trauma from people in the past who are still stuck on Tuskegee. But newsflash, this is not Tuskegee. We had plenty rich white folks and celebrities that was trying to pay to get the vaccine before we even put it out to elderly people. But that's a whole nother subject. Now, President Biden said that this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. So yes, there are people out there who have been vaccinated who are still getting COVID and a very, very small percentage who have died. But most of those people are people who are older, who are elderly, who have underlying health conditions. We told y'all in the beginning that the Pfizer and Moderna had about a 95% efficacious rate, which typically means if you got 100 people, it's possible that five of those persons can still get COVID. We have always known that you can still get COVID. The goal is for

COVID not to get you. I don't know anybody, and I'm sure some, I don't know anybody under the age of 50 who has been vaccinated who has died. But plenty of us know people under the age of 50 who have not been vaccinated who have died. And if they have not died, a lot of them are stuck on a ventilator for a couple months. A lot of them are stuck waiting on a heart transplant just to be able to have a chance to be able to have livelihood. And there's a difference between having life and actually living. So when we talk about the pandemic of the unvaccinated, the initial goal was for us to try to get at least 70% of Americans to be vaccinated

to try to develop some sense of herd immunity. Where are we right now? As Roland said, we're only at 54%. And we've been in this for quite some time. And we made this political in the beginning when we shouldn't have. But when the last time y'all known anybody who's been diagnosed with Ebola?

That's an excellent point. Now, before, I gotta put this in because, see, again, on this show, we deal with facts. This is the economic statement that

Moderna released from Q2. Q2 total revenue was $4.4 billion. Net income was $2.8 billion. Okay? Now, let me go to this Forbes story. This is what the story says. The Moderna stock price went up 325%. Now, this writer, this is what he said.

In November 2020, I estimated that its COVID-19 vaccine, now branded Spike Vax, could add as much as $35 billion to Moderna's revenues. Stock went up from $98 to $416. So, when you're talking about the value of a company, the value of a company there, Faraji, we have to properly explain to people what that means. Because first of all, half of Americans aren't even in the stock market.

Okay? So when you mention that $2 billion or $21 billion, that has to be put in perspective because that's the valuation of the company. The stock price,

the reason the stock price has gone from $98 to $416 because people who are buying stock are saying, okay, we think this COVID thing is going to be around for some time, so therefore this company is going to continue to see profits increase, so I'm going to buy stock in this company, and that's where the stock has gone from $98 to $416. So that's what you're seeing there. Now, now,

if what Dr. Turner said actually happens, if more people actually get vaccinated and you create that herd immunity, then you are not going to see these projections that we're going to be in this wilderness

for several years. And so you know what's going to happen? That stock price is going to go down because the projection of $35, $50, or $100 billion over the next several years is not going to happen because you're not going to need that many vaccines. So what the people who are buying the stock are banking on, they're actually banking on the unvaccinated people

not getting vaccinated, which means we're going to have to see more vaccines, one. Two, more variants created. So guess what happens when you create more variants? Booster shots. So you have the Delta variant, you got the

Lambda variant, you got the Mute variant. So the health people like Dr. Turner, are trying to stop that from happening so we're not going to see multiple variants which require multiple vaccines, multiple boosters. And so the people sitting at home have to understand how companies,

how they are projecting. So yes, the valuation, Moderna today, their company valuation is more today than it was in the last quarter in 2020, primarily because of what is happening with the vaccine and the need for more vaccines and the fact that 54% of the country is fully vaccinated, but that still doesn't matter because if you have people who continue not to be vaccinated and more variants are created,

it's going to require more shots and continue, and they're going to keep pumping those things out. So those who don't want to get vaccinated, who are complaining about Moderna and the money they're making, the money they're making, they're contributing to that. That's right. Self-fulfilled prophecy right there. My only thinking about this very quickly, brother Roland, is that we know that like any other company around the, when you have multinational companies, they have lobbyists. When those lobbyists go to the lawmakers, those lobbyists are being backed by companies

that are bringing in billions of dollars in revenue. Right, and what does the lobbying have to do when, okay, no, no, no, hold up. See, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just breaking this up. No, no, no, no, no, no, but I'm asking you, what does the lobbying have to do with 54% of the country only being fully

vaccinated and variant spreading? What does it have to do with it? Here's what it is. The lobbyists are going to lawmakers that are going to push for certain things to be done on behalf of the companies. No!

They're pushing for this because there are people like Dr. Turner who are literally quitting hospitals and nurses. They're pushing for it, pull the graphic up, because 677,000 people have died. 41.4 million in America have been infected. That's what's going on. At some point, we have got to stop associating the lobbying as if we are not engaged in an international health crisis.

Well, Roland, I'll just interject for a second. Yeah, just right quick on the international piece. I think you put it where it needs to be put. All these things can be are operating at the same time. If we saw the report or we saw yesterday Tedros Adhanom, who is the head of the World Health Organization, called for a moratorium on booster shots because most of the world, certainly the kind he's from, Africa, haven't gotten their first shots. And so, you know, to one of the things you're talking about, Faraji, I think, you know, when you have an international lobby, the EU, for example, has purchased X number of shots. We saw the story last week from South Africa where Johnson & Johnson sent shots from Johannesburg to the EU

when the South Africans haven't been vaccinated yet. And their excuse was the EU already paid for them. There's a lot going on. And so while even just at half the people in this country have two shots, the fact of the matter is no one in the world is safe until everybody gets it. So while you have anti-vaxxers, you have folks who have alternate reasons they're not taking the vaccine here in the United States, you have a world that is largely unvaccinated and you have multinational corporations who are engaged in what Naomi Klein and others call disaster capitalism. So to your point, Roland, they're going to make a profit, but they are not coming in clean with clean hands for this reason. And I'm not saying you shouldn't take the vaccine. I got my vaccine because all these things could be happening at the same time. The proprietary nature of the intellectual property that went into those vaccines,

Moderna is not cooperating with Johnson & Johnson, neither one of them cooperating with Pfizer. And when humanity is now facing this wave that could kill off the damn species, these companies not only are not collaborating with each other, their lobbyists are pushing so that the Biden administration, for example, did not turn the technology behind the vaccine loose, and they had the leverage to do this on a global level so that scientists all over the world could develop the vaccine. It's why the Cubans have...

But-but-but, remember, but remember, that was actually a decision made by the Trump administration. I agree, but Biden administration has reinforced it. Right. And so it was already set in stone. And what they did was continue it as opposed to what they should have said, that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt did when he made Carnegie

and DuPont and Kaiser and Ford and Boeing all worked together to say, we got to win World War II. Damn your little monopolies. Y'all work together. In fact, that's exactly right. In fact, I'll just end with this, Roland. You just made the point, brother.

Humanity is facing this crisis. COVID has no respect of race, ethnicity, class. And you're exactly right. At the pressure points, one of the reasons humanity is threatened at this point is precisely because of what you said. People have to step up now. People have to step up. And so, yeah, I mean, but the reason I'm saying this, and this is why, again, Black Star Network, Roland Martin, Unfiltered, everybody understand, this is not going to be a conversation anywhere else. This is the most sophisticated level of conversation to get to the point where we realize if you're going to make a decision about whether or not to take this vaccine, it's got to be an informed decision because COVID grows with ignorance like any other disease. You're not going to get a sophisticated conversation like this. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to do a final round

for each one of you. Pastor Carr, you're going to be first. Recy, next. Then Turner, then Faraji, then Dr. Carr, close us out. So Reverend Carr, go. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

First and foremost, to accentuate what my brother said, nowhere else are you going to find this. I think our mantra for this conversation and conversations before and after this, rather, should be around what we talked about last night on this very show. Bring your eyeballs home. Every person who is interested in an informed opinion can get it right here. We're talking about science right now. It's important to note that no official church body in itself has issued a dictate to say, don't get a vaccine, don't get a mask. They have all told you to go to the CDC. Certain leaders have politicized this issue. I'm a person who has seen this up close. I've been a vegetarian for 31 years. I don't get the

flu vaccine. And yet my wife, my son, and I got the J&J shot because my son has a pre-existing condition of asthma. So very glad because he recently tested positive and had to get through COVID. I think it's important for us to note that the CDC and non-internet specialists and scientists like Dr. Turner are reminding us that the vaccine does not protect you from getting COVID. No one's ever said that. What it prevents you from is being sick to a place where you'd be on a ventilator or dying. And being one of the people who I've had the task of putting under the ground over the last year, in the last year, I've done more funerals and participated in more funerals than I have in the last 10 years. I don't know anyone who I've put in the ground and spoken last rites over who has passed away from the vaccine.

I do know plenty who have passed from the disease and the complications that have come. Dr. Turner can tell you about asymptomatic carriage and asymptomatic transmission. If you're not protecting yourself, we will find ourselves in a space where we are depending on the majority in this country to do the vaccine, to take the vaccine, and to provide herd immunity for us. There is no religious reason to claim that you're not going to be a part of being safe for our community,

not in any religion that I teach about, not in any spiritual path. If you have this personal space, make sure that you're consistent. As a vegetarian, I helped triple the stock price of Beyond and Impossible meat when it came out in Burger King. I got an Impossible Whopper because I come from the old days when you actually had to boil the soy and get the curd off for the tofu and get the skim off the top for the milk. I was excited that I could have a burger from Burger King and not have to just eat potato chips and fries. Guess what? I can't

tell you what's necessarily in that, and neither can all the new excited vegans who go and run and eat the products that are there. But they eat it because that is what people do when they are seeing a need that they have. We are in a space right now where we have to begin to ask the question, and this is how I'll end it. If we're talking about lobbyists, if we're talking about big pharma, if we're talking about who stands to benefit, if we're talking about politics, who wins in a capitalistic society? Is it a win when you kill the disease, or is it a win when you keep the disease going?

Let's be smart. Keep our eyeballs here at home. Recy. Okay. Very quickly. Number one, the country that has the most vaccines administered is China, not a capitalist country. It's a communist country. And Moderna is not one of those. And so there are a variety of vaccines, I think over a dozen vaccines worldwide. Not all of them are approved, obviously, in the United States. But there are more vaccines than the three that are approved for use in the United States. Number two, the most race and socioeconomic neutral

prescription for COVID-19 in the United States, obviously, as we just discussed, not in the world, is the COVID-19 vaccine. It's free for everybody. Unlike EpiPens, which Joe Manchin's daughter raised the price on, unlike insulin, where people can't even afford their diabetic medicine, the vaccine is free and readily available throughout the entire country. That's number two. And then number three, I know there are sensitivities about anti-vax, whether you're anti-vax or whether you're vaccine hesitant or whether you just refuse to get the vaccine personally. The impact is exactly the same, regardless of what label you want to put on it. The impact is ICUs are overflowing full, almost at capacity. The impact is that pediatric hospitalizations are

way up. Infections are way up. The impact is, for instance, in Miami, 13 of the people who died from the school system are all Black, all unvaccinated. That's the impact. It does not matter what label you put on not getting the vaccine. The impact is what we're concerned about. I don't care what you want to call yourself. You can call yourself pro-vaccine, but I'm just not taking it. But the impact is what we're seeing, an overflow of our medical system where people who have cancer cannot get a bed. People who have heart attacks are waiting in the ER for eight hours. I was on the Clay Cain show earlier today. A woman whose child has COVID had to get an actual surgery rescheduled because the pediatric beds in Florida are full.

So we have to stop talking about the labels and the sensitivities and the feelings behind it and start talking about the impact. If you don't like the label, that's fine. But we need to talk about the impact that people not getting vaccinated, not getting us to herd immunity is having on our country. And we're not even there yet, because this is the summer. This is supposed to be the downtime. When we get into that fall and the same anti-people, whatever you want to call it, who don't want to get the flu shot, don't want to get the vaccination, we're in for a road of hurt if we don't get this under control yesterday. Dr. Turner. We have three vaccines right now that offer protection against COVID. And it's possible that this variant called Mu, the current vaccines that we have, may not be effective. So, yeah, it's not even cold yet when people are going to be more indoor and they're going to be more gathering.

So we need people to realize that this thing can really, really get worse real, real, real, real quick. I also want to make mention that it's hard sometimes to correct until we cutting it. Okay. Here in Mississippi, we just had two nurses who have committed suicide within the last couple of months. We've had a physician to commit suicide within the last year. Okay. We got healthcare workers that are quitting. We just opened up a garage over at the University of Mississippi Medical Hospital because we had issues with capacity. I have an 11-year-old at home

who, for her birthday, turning 12, she don't want to have a big party. She don't want to go out of town. She want to get the vaccine. I have a wife that has asthma. I don't want to bring it home and they get exposed because we're living in this state where, I don't know if the governor

of Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas just get together and try to figure out what they can do just to piss more people off because they're more married to politics than they are to purpose. So I understand Governor Reeves made the statement and saying that, well, Mississippians, you know, we're not scared because we know where we're not scared because

we know where we're going. We never want anybody to be scared. We don't want you to be fearful, but we do want you to be careful. So we're talking about spirituality and spiritual health, but I don't really think that this is an issue of spiritual health as opposed to an issue of mental health. We're dealing with denial. We're dealing with people who are using Christianity in the name of really supremacy and really wanting to be in control. So they're talking about choice, talking about anti-abortion and pro-life. But I don't think those go together if we're talking, if we just got done talking about abortion and being pro-life, and now we're talking about wearing a mask and doing different things like that to promote life, but all of a

sudden it's about choice. So, are we really, really serious about doing everything we can in this country where we talk about, you know, the land of the free and the home of the brave, or are we just moving the goalposts? As far as all this disinformation out there, I know you talked about folks are making money off it. People are making money off Viagra that's produced by Pfizer, and we're still taking it, right? So what's in

Viagra? People don't question that. What's in the weed that people smoke? People don't question that. What's in the bed room with the person that you're having sex with? Because you're definitely not asking them to show you the card for the HIV, the syphilis, the G.C. chlamydia. That's normal. So we still make purchases. show you the card for the HIV, the syphilis, the GC chlamydia. That's normal. But at the end of the day,

3.30 in the morning just last week, I had to pronounce a 41-year-old dead because he didn't make it. And I'm tired of having to call parents at 3.30 in the morning to let them know that their child didn't make it. Parents should not be burying their children right now.

Children are supposed to be burying their parents. And here we are, the most critical time in this pandemic, and we're still making excuses, putting off getting the vaccine, putting off doing everything in our toolbox that God has given us to be able to get past this. In Leviticus 13, there was people who had diseases and he talked about facial coverings. So yeah, there's nothing new under the sun. We had scientists back then. We have

scientists now. We had public health guidance back then. We have it now. That's why we don't have Ebola. That's why we don't have polio. That's why we don't see the mass amount of mumps and meetings and rubella. And all these folks that are talking about anti-vax and Christianity and all of that, I bet you all of them had the monks, muslims, and rebellious vaccine when they was younger. I bet you they had a tax vaccine. So stop talking about religion because it's not about

spirituality. It's not about religion. It's about making excuses because you have an issue with control and you have yet to look in the mirror and realize that you are more married to politics than you are to purpose. In America, we're supposed to be about selfless. We're supposed to be about altruism. We're supposed to be about all of these things. In reality, it's just about self. And until we

realize that true Christianity is what you do for the good of others, we're going to continue be dealing with variant after variant after variant, and the detonation of a generation is going to be on the blood of all of our hands. Go ahead. Roger? You're muted. Sorry about that.

To everybody's point, Dr. Carr and Pastor Carr and Reesey and to my brother there who just spoke, I'm sorry, brother, I didn't get your name. Dr. Turner. Dr. Turner. Let me just tell you, this whole conversation started off talking about religion. And at this point, based upon the historical evidence, based upon new information coming out about this vaccine and how this

whole thing is being handled, basically, I'm not going to talk about religion. I'm going to talk about the fact that we're going to have to do something about it. based upon the historical evidence, based upon new information coming out about this vaccine and how this whole thing is being handled, based upon the stories of women who say that this vaccine has dysregulated their menstrual cycles to other issues that people have gotten. We can't put our faith, full-blown faith, and I'm going to just say this, and I know people won't be upset with me, but it is what it is. It's hard for me to put my faith in this country's, in the United States of America, this government, in a time like this.

Now, does that mean that I don't want to see us get cured from COVID? No, that does not mean that. I want us to live. I want us to get through COVID. I really do. But I also don't want us to get so wrapped up in whatever the narrative that is currently out there to the point that we don't, we don't, we're not even open to having much larger, much broader conversations about how we can make ourselves better. You know, the president said today that everybody needs to get vaccinated, including women, pregnant women and all of those these different groups. death because you're having more and more stories of people from those who are immunocompromised to those who have pre-existing conditions to those who, like I said, women who are suffering

because of their menstrual cycles being thrown off. I mean, this can't be the only solution. And Brother Roland, you mentioned this earlier. You said that this thing was never designed or put out as being the solution. You're absolutely right. But at some point, at some point, the pandemic that was affecting all of us became now the pandemic of the unvaccinated. At some point, the pandemic that was affecting all of us became this pandemic that was just so wrapped up in based upon, based upon, uh, uh, uh, the ignorance of other people. And that's not fair. That's not fair, especially since we all have been suffering under this pandemic. So now you got Black families going to war with other Black family members over a vaccine from an institution of the United States government that has been known to kill and destroy black people in this damn country

and has been known to make us stool pigeons and has been known to make us to be guinea pigs. And we go so hard in the paint right now, but not understanding the moment that we're in to show that our people, that there's other ways. I'm not discrediting anybody's intelligence or brilliance. And I know that deep down inside, it's based upon the hope that we can get through this. But this devil is real in America. And we can't act as if it was the United States government has not tried to kill off black people wholesale.

So, you know, I can't have faith in that. I can't have faith in it. So let me... Go ahead, Doc. Go ahead. Yeah, I apologize. Brother, I appreciate your passion, and I appreciate where you're coming from, because I've had plenty of patients to come in

and share all of that, man. Let me tell you this, man. We're not asking you to trust the government, but we're asking you to trust healthcare professionals. I'm not sitting here telling you that. I whole heartily trust the government, okay? I was a black man before I was a black physician. And let me make sure you understand this. Here, with this whole COVID thing, blacks are three times as likely to get COVID compared to any other ethnicity. We are twice as likely to die from COVID compared to any ethnicity. That ain't

even discussing the fact that we had all these pre-existing health disparities before COVID even showed up. I may not even supposed to even say this on air, man, but I just talked to a nurse who basically is in another state that I'm not going to mention, who had a black patient that came in

who had COVID, who was sitting there with oxygen levels that was dropped down below 40s, and the nurse laughed about it and basically prejudiced this particular person as she went on with her peers. Y'all, you acting like it's

equal health care right now in the hospital. No, it's not. The best thing you need to do is not go to the hospital. You're talking about there's other ways to be able to help. Listen, the vaccine is the biggest tool that you have in a toolbox. Yes, mass help. Yes, eating healthy health. But let me

explain that because you probably heard because you said that the vaccine was experimental although it's been FDA approved by Pfizer. You probably heard this study in Israel that talked about natural immunity being better than the vaccine. Let me clarify that right now, okay? In this particular study in Israel, what it particularly showed was anyone who has had COVID and got a vaccine, just one dose of the vaccine, it was more superior to someone who has not had COVID and had two vaccines. The conclusion from the study is natural immunity that has been produced after you have had COVID is better than not having COVID and having two

vaccines. So someone who's had COVID, do they still need to have two doses or can they have one doses? That study didn't say that natural immunity in general is better. So people misheard that study, just like you, and concluded that, OK, I just need to eat healthy and I need to exercise. Those things are the minimum you should be doing. We've been promoting that. But folks want to listen. They just want to get Apex and think that they're just going to get a weight loss surgery

and get better. All right? So understand that there's people like yourself, there's white people and other people that realize that, yeah, we're not where we need to be. But brother, we've come a long way since Tuskegee and we're not where we need to be, but this is not it. And we really need to stop acting like it because this thing is ravaging our communities. At one point in Mississippi, over 70% of the people that were being diagnosed with COVID looked like me and you, man. Over 60% of the deaths that was rampaging in our community, those were us.

So I led a coalition here in Mississippi. We got connected with every HBCU, Jackson State, Alcorn, Valley, Russ. I got with Dr. Bob's, our state health director. We had blacks that were showing up at the ER, and they wouldn't even give them a COVID test. We got all that fixed. We took the COVID testing to the community. We went to the hood. We went to doors and did all of that. And now the percentage of people in Mississippi who are getting COVID and suffering is more consistent with the population. So yes, we understand where you're coming from. The fight is still on, but please don't think that this particular situation is intentionally done

to destroy the Black community because this ain't it, man. Can I say something about pregnancy? Can I say something about pregnancy? Risa, go ahead. I just want to say, I am a woman who went through a pregnancy during a pandemic and it was traumatic.

The one thing that OBGYN said every time is don't get COVID. I was holed up in the house. I didn't go nowhere. I didn't do nothing. Nobody came over here. All kinds of people was pissed off at me, but I said, all the things y'all got for me, if something happens to my baby or me is thoughts and prayers. And that ain't good enough for me. And thank God I had my baby healthy with a mask on in the hospital, getting my stomach tore open, okay? And she's here and she's alive and healthy and thriving.

The facts of the matter is, in the state of Mississippi alone, eight pregnant women have died in the past several weeks. The state director there said that the fetal death after 20 weeks is doubling in pregnant women who have COVID. COVID is safe for pregnant women. COVID is, I mean, I'm sorry, the COVID vaccine, let me be clear. The vaccine is safe for pregnant women. My sister is pregnant and she has the vaccine. There's a baby shower that has been this weekend in my family and gender reveals. Now, I ain't going to no big ass event, but those girls are vaccinated, okay? And they are going to have their babies. They're having healthy pregnancies.

A nursing mother is recommended to be vaccinated. I got the vaccine as soon as I had my baby. And I've nursed my baby, and she's still healthy. She's hitting every target. She's 97 percent down in terms of her height. She's good on her way. She's healthy. She's a nice little chunky baby.

And that's fine. Okay? So what I really don't want this conversation to turn into, because I know there's disinformation about, oh, the vaccines are making women spontaneously start their period. Every woman spontaneously starts her period. We don't have a time when they say, oh, oh, I know my period started at 11 o'clock. It's spontaneous, duh. But what I'm saying is, let's not do this thing about pregnant women and the vaccines when the fact of the matter is

if you're a pregnant woman and you get COVID, you are very likely to have very detrimental consequences. That's been known from the get-go. So I'm not saying take my medical advice. I'm not the doctor. Dr. Turner, you can take that away. But from all the studies, it is safe

for pregnant women and nursing mothers to get the vaccine, and it's recommended that you do so. So let me button this up, if you will. Faraj, you make the point that we should be having a larger, broader conversation.

This conversation has literally gone on for almost 40 minutes. That's exactly what this is. That is the conversation. Here we have PhD. Here we have sister, Black Women's Views. Here we have a medical doctor. Here we have you as a radio talk show host. Here we have a pastor. We got a broad section of black folks here. Different perspectives, different backgrounds. You're Muslim. We've got Christians.

I don't know. Somebody here could be an atheist. Bottom line is this here. You have all of these things going on. This has nothing to do with putting all of trust into the federal government. No one's putting their trust into the federal government. But the reality is this here.

We, from the beginning on this show, have said we are going to put our trust in black doctors and scientists. Now, if I have to make a decision, and we know for a fact, right now we know for a fact, that with the opioid crisis, white doctors and their racism, well, they were not prescribing opioids to black people. We know for a fact that black women are dying and their children are dying because white doctors are misdiagnosing them and not listening to them. We know for a fact, we know for a fact

that black people get better health care from black medical practitioners. That's why the black woman who's head of the American Medical Association, the largest medical group, we've had her on the show. That's why the black doctors group is called the National Medical Association. We've had them on the show. That's why we've featured numerous black doctors, black scientists from HBCUs. Here is the question that we as black people have got to answer.

If we don't trust the government and we don't trust white folk and we got all these black folks who are experts and we don't want to listen to them, well then who the hell are we going to listen to? I simply I cannot

I cannot, I cannot, I will not listen to people who are not trained in this area. It's not going to happen. I will not ask somebody to pray for me who don't know how to pray. I am not asking somebody who cannot cook to please fix me a meal. I am not going to ask somebody who

don't know shit about lighting to install lighting in my studio. I am never, anybody watching me, we will never ask somebody who don't know a damn thing about cars on how to repair our car.

We are not going to go to a lawyer for a root canal. We're not going to go to a dentist to file a lawsuit. So we're now left at this point where we have to file a lawsuit. So we're now left at this point where we have to make a determination who are we going to listen to,

where are we going to get our information from, and how are we going to distill the facts? Dr. Carter laid out the facts when it comes to that Israeli study. I've seen videos floating around of folks standing up talking about, I'm Dr. So-and-so, I got a PhD, but they have not treated anybody when it comes to COVID. What we're dealing with right now is literally our medical system

is in dire straits. A veteran, white man in Texas, who had a particular pancreatic illness. Doctors said he's never lost a patient because of that illness.

There were no ICU beds available in his city in a 60-mile radius, and that man died because the ICUs were filled up with people with COVID who were unvaccinated. That's a fact. So we're left with a decision. And here's the decision. The Bible is clear.

You have free will. You have free will to make any decision that you want to make. That's right. But with that free will comes a consequence. And the reality is we've seen numerous stories. And I've talked when I interviewed Jeffrey Osborne, Jeffrey Osborne's manager, dead, COVID. The drummer, dead, COVID.

Family member, dead, COVID. My head of security, black man, his best friend, would not get vaccinated. He tried everything. My head of security had to plan his best friend's funeral. All I'm saying is, at

some point, we're going to, the rubber's going to meet the road, and we're going to have to make some decisions, because here's the deal, and pastors will tell you, everybody rubber's going to meet the road, and we're going to have to make some decisions, because here's the deal, and pastors will tell you, everybody want to go to heaven, but you got to die to go to heaven. Okay? I'm saved.

I'm not trying to meet Jesus early. I'm not. I ain't got no problem saying I've had a fear of death since I was 15 years old. My grandfather died. Sometimes I might have a panic attack because, again, it happens. That's the reality of life.

But one thing I'm not going to do, I'm no way in hell am I going to sit here and say, hey, let's do it early. Oh, I'm sitting here. I've lost 20 pounds since COVID. Trying to lose more. Ain't trying to check out early. So if we on one hand are encouraging healthy lifestyles, if we're encouraging exercise, if we're encouraging health, we got folks out here right now prescribing vitamins and don't know what's in it.

Let me say that again. For everybody watching me right now. Yes, sir. You got folks telling you, take that vitamin D. You have no idea what's in that pill. Because you know what? Vitamins are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. It says it on the label.

It says the Food and Drug Administration cannot certify what is on this label. So how is it that we have folk who will invest their time, energy, and money in vitamin regimens, but then say, I don't know what's in that vaccine. I don't know the side effects was in that vaccine. Man, I've taken a pill and my urine looks gold. Yes, sir. Come on through, Roland. So, I just want us to understand that our role here is we're going to provide a significant

amount of information, but what we are not going to do is entertain conspiracy theories, nor are we going to give people bad information, because the problem is this. Ebony Hilton, Dr. Ebony

Hilton said it. One out of every 421 black folk are passing away. The black life expectancy has decreased. We are already lower than white people. expectancy has decreased.

We were already lower than white people. It has decreased due to COVID. We are not going to contribute to that actually decreasing further. And so what I want us to do is not to get caught up in, I'm just being straight up. I'm being straight up. We can, if every person who's sitting here concerned about the stock price

and the valuation of Pfizer and Moderna do understand Pfizer and Moderna, their valuation ain't as high as Exxon's. It's not as high as Apple's. It's not as high as Google's. So all of a sudden, now we're talking about, well, who's making money? You can't show me anything in America

where somebody's not making money. But what I can show you is, what I can show you who's also making a You can't show me anything in America where somebody's not making money. But what I can show you is what I can show you who's also making a whole bunch of money. Funeral homes. Funeral homes. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Funeral homes are operating at profit margins at an all-time high.

They're running COVID specials now, brother. That! If we want to talk about who's getting paid with COVID, those who are digging graves are working around the clock. I'm saying let's stop the madness and let's ensure that our people are making sure that we're taking care of ourselves and getting healthy. And the last point,

white folks taking the same vaccine. So guess what? This ain't about let's take out black people. Because you know what? My CFO from Chicago, when she went to get her shot, when she went to get her shot, you know what she told me? She went to a Walmart

on a south-south Chicago on the south side of Chicago on I think it was on 82nd Street. There was 200 people in line. Yes, sir. 190 of them were white. She said I ain't never seen this many white people at a Walmart on 82nd

Street on the south side of Chicago ever. They were in line for that vaccine. So I just want us to understand what's going on here. And again, if you choose not to take the vaccine, that is your

prerogative. But when I see these people who say they won't get vaccinated, and they won't wear a mask, and they fight mask mandates, and they sit here and won't social distance, and they won't wear a mask and they fight mask mandates and they sit here and won't social distance and they won't take any other precautions. They sitting here now angry with kids

what Governor Ron DeSantis is doing in Florida, what Governor Greg Abbott is doing in Texas, what the Governor of Tennessee is doing, what the Governor of South Carolina is doing, what the Governor of Mississippi is doing, what the Governor of Arkansas says now he regrets signing the mask

mandate, what all these governors are doing, guess what? That's where a lot of black folks live and those Republican governors are doing all they can to keep it from happening and so I want us to live. I want Farage to be 70,

80, and 90, and 100. I want our kids. But I cannot sit here and allow stuff to go on when I'm seeing black kids, 18 and 20. When I'm seeing a 41 year old black teacher in Texas

who was afraid of the vaccine dead because she waited. I can't. And for somebody who's saying, man, you're getting paid, show me where the Pfizer and the Moderna check is. Because guess what? It damn sure

ain't hit the five bank accounts we got. No. I want us to live and thrive. That's why this matters. Dr. Turner, Reverend Carr, I certainly appreciate both of you being with us. We had some other stories. I'm going to get to Megyn Kelly on tomorrow.

I'm going to close this out. Faraji, Dr. Carr, as well as Recy, thank you for being on the panel as well. Folks, we are at right now. Y'all can go to. no, don't go to my computer because it's going to show emails. But we are right now at 7,000. In one week, a week ago, we launched, we announced Black Star Network. We're at 7,048 total downloads. We need to be at 10,000 by tomorrow. We want to be at 50,000 downloads by December 1st. And, folks, we want to build this.

And I want everybody to understand right now, let me just look at the numbers. I need y'all to understand. So let me fully unpack this, black folks. Everybody who's watching, go back to my five shot. Right now, we have 797,844 subscribers on YouTube. Right now, we have, allow me to pull it up, please. Right now, we have on Facebook, on Facebook, 1,320,022 followers. On Twitter, we have, give me one second here,

613,900 followers. On Instagram, we have, on Instagram, on Rolling Miss Martin, we have, where you at? 619,000 followers. So that's 1.2 million Instagram and Twitter combined. 1.3 million on Facebook. That's 2.5 million, 800,000 that's on YouTube. Folks, you're talking about right there.

That's 3.3 million. Not one of those platforms are black owned. Not one. YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, not black owned. Facebook, not black owned. Black Star Network, black owned. So every single one of you who's watching us right now, you need to be downloading the app.

Come on now. Because I need y'all to understand. And let me unpack this. I'm not charging you for this. Because here I need y'all to understand. Yes, are we making revenue right now from YouTube? Yes. But the revenue is actually down.

Let me say this again. The revenue is down 50% from a high in 2020. Now, imagine if we are at 500,000. Imagine if we hit the YouTube number for Black Star Network

having 800,000 downloads. Or hit the Facebook number, 1.3 million. Now, we can now go to advertisers with a different conversation and actually make more than what YouTube is giving us because YouTube gets 45% of the revenue, we get 55%.

Black Star Network, we get 100% of the revenue. And so, this is, I'm trying to explain to y'all the business of the business and why we need for you to download the app. I have, and I need y'all to understand, I have six shows teed up. But you also got to have the revenue to have the support staff and hire those people.

We're trying to hire them right now. And so we're hiring them hoping that revenue comes in because we have to actually build towards it. And so we want you to download the app right now. And so we're hiring them, hoping that revenue comes in because we have to actually build towards it. And so we want you to download the app right now. Y'all, it's on every platform. Apple, it's on Android, it's on Apple TV, it's on Amazon Fire Stick, it's on Amazon TV, it's on Android TV, it's on Samsung. It's on Roku. It's on Xbox. It's on all those platforms. You can download it right now.

We want you to do that. Secondly, we need you to support us when I bring the Funk Fan Club. Every dollar you give goes to support our show. We were just in, I was just in Nashville broadcasting there. I'll be back once a month. We're going to be in Atlanta on Tuesday. Right now, I'm trying to plan a broadcast

for the Howard University, Hampton University Classic taking place on September 18th. We're going to be at the Magic City Classic in Birmingham next month. We're going to be at the Bayou Classic in November. I would love for us to actually be at a black HBCU Homecoming every single week. Your dollars makes that possible.

And so you can support us via Cash App, dollar sign RMUnfiltered. You can also support us, PayPal.me forward slash RMartinUnfiltered, Venmo.com forward slash RMUnfiltered. Zell is Roland at RolandSMartin.com, Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. And so you can support us in all of those ways. And do understand, folks, when I say your dollars go to support this show, that's what we're talking about. We literally right now are, and I am hopeful,

of unveiling our new studio early next week. Our set designer, a brother who is an alpha brother, who's also assistant professor at Howard University who called. He emailed saying he wanted to volunteer to build our set piece. We're going to be installing that tomorrow as well as this weekend. And so, our additional lighting is being installed.

All these things are happening. And every single vendor that we are used are African American owned companies. They're not hard to find. We just simply chose to look. And so, here's the deal. Look, reality is giving is down, and dollars matter. We ask 50 bucks each, $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day.

And I want you to answer this question with the information that we give you every single day on this show. It's literally costing you 13 cents a day. That's what it's literally costing you 13 cents a day. That's what it's costing you, 13 cents. If you gave 50 bucks, and if you said, I'm gonna give 10 now, 10 three months from now, 10, 10, 10, that's fine.

If you ain't got 10 right now, we bet people are giving us a dollar, $5. We appreciate every single one of our donors because we're building something here that's not just about me, it's not just about our panelists, but think about it. When we build this show and build a network and we have six, eight, 10, 12 shows

and we have 20, 30, 40, 50 staffers and then we're supporting numerous other companies. That's called black collective economics. So we are actually practicing what we've always preached. Everybody can say that. So folks, we appreciate it. Download Black Star Network. Please join our Bring the Funk fan club.

I'll see you tomorrow right here. Ha! Ha! This is an iHeart Podcast.