#RolandMartinUnfiltered - MAGA: DEFUND BLACK AMERICA | Trump revokes executive order BANNING DISCRIMINATION in Fed Contracting

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

With the stroke of a pen, the twice-impeached, criminally convicted felon-in-chief dismantled affirmative action in federal contracting.  On Tuesday, the Office of Personnel Management issued a memo instructing agencies to place Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office staff on paid leave and all public DEI-focused web pages must be taken down by 5p EST today.  Eventually, these employees are expected to be laid off.  This executive order on affirmative action revokes a directive issued by President Lyndon Johnson and limits DEI programs for federal contractors and grant recipients.  Roland Martin spoke with Damon Hewitt, President and Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Ron Busby Sr., President and CEO of the U.S. Black Chambers, Incorporated about how this decision will impact Black contractors. Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork 👉🏾 Use Cash App by visiting Stripe https://buy.stripe.com/7sI3ccgYyfSQ8y45kl 👉🏾  PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [e-mail] omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man.

We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position.

Pre-game to greater them. Let's put ourselves in the right position, pregame to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org, brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. With the stroke of a pen, the twice-impeached, criminally convicted felon and chief Donald Trump has dismantled affirmative action and federal contracting. On Tuesday, the Office of Personnel Management issued a memo instructing agencies to place diversity, equity, and inclusion office staff on paid leave

and all public DEI-focused web pages must be taken down by 5 p.m. Eastern today. These employees are expected to be laid off. Some have already been laid off. This executive order on affirmative action revokes a directive issued by President Lyndon Johnson that dealt with the issue of discrimination in federal contracting. Joining us right now is Damon Hewitt, president and executive director for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Don't ask me why he's wearing a purple tie, but an alpha. Plus, Ron Busby, senior, of course, president and CEO of the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. No surprise, he got a little red in his tie because he's a little kappa. All right, let's get right to it. Damon, I'm going to start with you. First off, out of, look, we know these guys have been targeting DEI, but going after the Lyndon Baines Johnson executive order is a whole different thing because that dealt specifically saying you can't discriminate in the hiring of folks

when you're getting federal contracts. That's a whole different conversation. Well, look, we always knew, Roland, that they were going not just after issues. They're going after people and also going after the money. That's exactly what this is really about. The same reason why they went after federal contracting programs after the students of fair admissions case, the higher ed affirmative action case. And so this is really troubling. You know, the message being sent here and the implications of this rescission is that federal contractors no longer have to take, it seems, undertake affirmative duties to root out discrimination in their own workplaces and their processes. This is essentially an invitation to discrimination and a message that is open season on black workers.

And, you know, look, federal contractors represent one-fifth of the entire U.S. workforce. So this has massive implications for everyday working black people. And let's be real clear, which people don't seem to understand. Republicans used to support the civil rights laws. But when Barry Goldwater's book, The Conscience of a Conservative, came out, that flipped it. And then they opposed the Civil Rights Act. You've had conservatives and Republicans who have been saying that a person should be allowed to discriminate.

And so that's really what this is about. They do not want to be held to the laws, the civil rights statute saying you cannot discriminate in the hiring. What they're saying is we want to be able to hire anybody we want to, and this is a burden telling us that we can't discriminate against somebody black or Latino or Asian or somebody who's a woman. That's what this is really all about. Yeah, you know, we're going to enter a period as follows.

Number one, we're going to remind folks of the facts on the ground, but also the law, because no matter what Trump says in an executive order, that doesn't change Title VII. That's the law of employment discrimination. That law was not changed by a Supreme Court decision. That law has remained the same for a very long time. And so these employers have affirmative obligations. What this EO from 1965, the year after the Civil Rights Act, did was it added a layer of protection. It added a layer of affirmative duty for federal contractors to make sure that they were compliant with Title VII.

So we're probably going to enter a period where this law will be in contest, a period of people talking about rapid evolution. This could be rapid devolution of workplace culture, of open season on black workers and brown workers. And so we're going to have to meet these people in the courts of public opinion, but also in the courts of law. Ron, I want to go to you. When that idiot Trump was there last time, you and I talked,

and they stopped collecting racial data, correct? Correct. So the problem is, we didn't know what was happening. We didn't know what contracting was happening. We didn't know who was it getting. We didn't know if it was an increase or a decrease. So they stopped collecting racial data across the board, correct? Correct.

So when it came to, then what they did was they started bundling contracts instead of typically what happens on the Democrats, they unbundled. The only Republican who actually understood the unbundling of contracts was actually George W. Bush. And so typically Republicans, they bundle them back. And so really what we're seeing here with the attacks on what we see in these executive orders, couple that with last year, those federal judges ruling MBDA and also the SAA program. What this means, and this is what I kept warning people during the campaign even now, what they're doing is this is going to have a direct impact on black businesses getting contracts. correct? People don't understand that. And as we have been talking, and I know you have been saying it, Roland, voting and elections have consequences. And we have been saying for years, and we saw it during his first term, he tried to come out with the ban on Muslims.

He got caught up in the process, George Floyd, and it took his attention away upon his inauguration. And we have seen that happen already. And again, I want to reiterate this. And this is for all of the simple Simon Negroes who are on social media, who were doing radio, television interviews, talking about Trump is going to be putting money in our pockets and how all these things are gonna be going down,

what they need to understand is that what they are doing is they are going after the money. And then when they target Walmart, when they target McDonald's, when they target corporate America, they're not just saying, oh, let's get rid of these DEI offices. They're going after supply diversity

or what John Rogers would ever say. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man.

We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to it. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. for. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend. At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Our capital calls business diversity. And so what we are going to see and black people need to wake up over the next one, two, three, four years, we're going to see a material decrease in billions of dollars flowing to black owned businesses who largely employ black people, who fund HBCUs and black interests. And so that is going to be the direct impact of what Trump and the Republicans are currently doing. Let me make it more clear. During Obama's first term in office, the goal for minority spend was roughly 5 percent.

He surpassed that and hit 7%. His second term in office, the goal was then 7%. He surpassed that goal and hit 9%. If you heard when President Biden got in office, the goal was to go from 11% to 15%. That scared the nation. What we found out was, as you've been discussing, the disaggregation of the numbers, because they will tell you it's 11%, 9%, 5%. But as you have just mentioned, we never knew what that meant to the Black community. And so during this last administration under President Biden, we said we were interested in three things.

Intentionality. Let us know what you were doing for the black community. We wanted transparency. We wanted to know what percentage meant for black businesses. And then we wanted accountability. We wanted to know, OK, if they're not hitting the numbers, how can we motivate them? And what can we do to improve the conditions for Black-owned businesses? And so the reason why MBDA, Minority Business Development Agency, was the first place to go under attack is because while we were there, the goal was to get the increase for Black businesses from 1.5% of the entire country's spend to 3%. I had black people fighting back on us saying,

well, why 3%? Why not 13% or 10%? Understand this. Of the $960 billion that the country spends every year, $640 billion is set aside for products and services that all country, all of us can apply, compete for. So hold on, hold on, hold on.

The $960 billion, that's what the federal government spends. That's what the federal government spends. Go ahead. $640 billion is really available because the other portion is for the military. So of that $640 billion, 11% of that goes towards minority firms. But I want your audience to understand who was included in that minority. The second thing I want them to understand is it did not come out easily in reference to the disaggregation of the numbers. It was leaked out. And so once it was leaked out, then the federal government

had to address it. And what we found is that of the 11 percent, the Asian community received 1.8 percent of the minority spend. They had the fewest number of businesses registered to do business with the federal government, but that's fine. They had large contracts. The Hispanic community received 1.71% of the minority spend. Black business community had the largest number of businesses that were registered and certified to do business with the federal government. We received 1.5%, the least of all of the ethnic communities. And so you ask yourself, well, where is the spin going? White women, not women, white women received 78 percent of all of the minority spin. So people are saying, well, Ron, what are you guys? Because they have the biggest that's available to them, whereas we have the biggest opportunity to gain in this conversation. And so the U.S. Black Chamber, along with other business organizations, are going to continue to fight to make sure that we have our share of the wealth of this country.

Now, again, before I go back to Damon, you gave the 1.5%, but also I want to speak in terms of actually real numbers. That number represents about $10 billion. And that $10 billion is the most we've ever gotten. The most we've ever received. And to be honest, it was 1.5. Then in 2021, it went to 1.55. Then 2022, it has now gone to 1.61. So we, under Biden administration, have improved our conditions. We've improved the spin. We've

improved our share. Now we cannot turn back and go back to where we were before. Yeah. And so, and so, Damon, this is the thing that I think the people have to understand when we talk about the battle over civil rights, that as a direct relationship to the... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future

where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back.

In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is.

Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them.

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling, the limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves.

Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org, brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Battle over silver rights. And that's what Dr. King understood. It was called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. That was economics. He said in that speech, of course, which the the the goofy pastor on Monday did not mention when he talked about America giving black folks a check stamp insufficient funds. And he always talked about we came here to get that check. But people need to recognize is that the fight over these civil rights laws is direct because the conservatives, by targeting affirmative action in colleges, impacts black wealth because we know a black college graduate makes more than a black person with a high school diploma, but a white man with a high school diploma makes more than a black college graduate. When they're targeting these, when they're targeting the law schools, now they're targeting, you know, in terms of affirmative action for a medical school. Then they are attacking a program in Minnesota to increase the number of black teachers, to increase the number of black doctors.

When they attack these programs, they are attacking the ability of black people to make high five figure, six figure jobs and earn seven figure jobs. This is a money battle, Damon. But it is. You know, Dr. King recognized that we could have laws that allow you to eat at a lunch counter in a non-separated environment. But if you can't afford to buy lunch and buy the meal, then what are we doing here, right? So just to paraphrase Dr. King. So these folks understand this. They are trying to take any means of opportunity and cut it off at the knees. This is, and those things have their place, but this is all about entirely race-neutral methods of training, of education within workplaces among contractors, and also, let's call it insurance, to ensure that folks aren't being discriminated against. They're calling the efforts to stop discrimination discrimination in and of itself.

So it's all about limiting economic opportunity from every avenue of American life. Absolutely. Damon Hewitt, Ron Busby, I appreciate both of y'all joining us on the show. We're going to have this conversation, trust me, have a lot more over the next four years.

Thank you for having us. We'll be here. Bringing my panel right now, Rebecca Carruthers, Vice president, Fair Elections Center out of D.C., Jade Mathis Esquire, the Jade Mathis law firm out of D.C. And political says social media, political activists out of Nightdale, North Carolina. Glad to have all three of you here. Rebecca, I'll start with you. I keep saying that if you go down two blocks from here, there's only one federal agency that shares along with the White House, and that is the Treasury Department. White House is power. Treasury Department is money. Power and money.

You ain't having a money conversation. You're not having an American conversation. And what people need to understand, which is why I wrote this book, White Fear, How the Browning of America is making white folks lose their minds. This is a money conversation. And what these right wing MAGA people are pissed off about, they do not want to see black people continuing to advance. And so they want to shut down all of these programs that have been that have aided African-Americans in being able to generate wealth. You know what, Roland, I spent a lot of time talking about how I grew up in the Midwest, Nebraska specifically. And one of the things I really learned about racism in this country,

especially when my family would go to the South to visit relatives, is in the South, white people really don't care about what you have as long as you don't live next door to them. If you live down the street, that's fine. You can have whatever you want. But up north and also in the Midwest, they don't care if you live next door to them. They don't care if you live across the street, but you better not be doing better than

what they are. And so what's interesting with watching this new administration, the second term of President Trump, like... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country,

cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad.

It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now

isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava

for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them.

Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org, brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. You said this is purely a money grab because, quite frankly, $10 billion in a near $1 trillion budget really isn't that much money. When we talked about the 1.5 percent that black folks as a racial minority gets in these different set of sides to make sure there's a diverse supply chain within the federal government. And like you talked about that 78 percent number,

78 percent of that like six hundred and sixty billion dollars is going to white women. So in the grand scheme of things, 10 billion billion isn't that much for our community. It's not that much across the United States, quite frankly. But the fact that we are even getting that for some of these people, that's the problem because they feel like we should not be getting anything. Yeah, man, this was crazy, Jade. The white woman in Tennessee that sued the 8A program,

here's what was crazy. She was a part of a program for women. That's how she was able to get contracts. She then sues the 8A program saying, oh, I can't participate in that, and she never even applied. So the white woman was mad at the program for minorities, and she was mad.

It didn't include her, but she had no problem with the program that was for women, for white women like her. And this is what we are dealing with. These white folks talk about, oh, no, it needs to be a meritocracy. It needs to be, oh, no, we shouldn't have double standards. But they got no problem. We know white folks are getting a hookup for their whiteness. Yes. And speaking of hookup, that is one word Trump never uses or we don't hear often uses nepotism. Right. They talk about everything else. And we want it to be equal here and gender rights and all of this. You know, but nepotism was the one key word that he always leaves out, which he was a beneficiary of, right? And I essentially feel like what Trump is saying about DEI is that he's implying that it's discriminatory, but it's only discriminatory when whites, Asian Americans, and white women

when they don't get their way or when they don't get the positions that they want. That's when it's discriminatory. I think that's the part that he's implying and willingly not saying. No, he's not implying they're actually saying it. That's what they're doing. Political sis, go ahead.

You on mute. You on mute. You on mute? I don't think. There you go. Go ahead. Okay. One thing I don't think they understand, especially white women, veteran white men, is how they, DEI, impacts them in a good way. When it comes to Obama, along with the LBJ executive order that Trump took away, Obama added the sex, gender, along with gender identity, I think. But that's going to affect white women,

as well as black women. So I think that's something we need to keep in mind. And I hope, I don't know why the Democrats, especially here in the South, can't drill that into white working people, white work, white working women, people. But I think if we can do that, then we can get somewhere with some votes. Well, but then that's going to require people to have a conversation they frankly are unwilling to have. Of course, support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. You heard we just talked about their folks. I can't reiterate this talked about there. Folks, I can't reiterate this enough. Listen to me clearly. I cannot reiterate this enough.

When you've got technology companies running scared, when you've got legacy media not doing their job, when you've got black-owned media that has disintegrated, now is more than ever for us to have independent media that cares about the truth, that is willing to say what needs to be said. So when you support Roland Martin Unfiltered, this show, when you support the Black Star Network, you're not just supporting me. You're supporting the other shows. Our goal is to add two more shows this year. We want additional shows. We want more weekly and daily

shows because we want to be able to speak truth to power. We want to be able to say what is necessary where other people are scared. And when you are scared, when you're looking over your shoulder, oh my God, that advertising contract is not going to come in. Well, guess what? A lot of these major ad agencies, they're not even supporting us anyway. You know, in six years of doing this show, Group M hasn't done a damn thing with us. Publicist hasn't done anything with us. You've got Horizon. You've got all of these folks. They haven't done jack. And so we are calling it like we see it. And we're speaking truth. And unlike some of these other so-called progressives and people who believe in truth, I'm not running around trying to kiss MAGA ass and kiss Trump's ass.

I won't be going to Mar-a-Lago, not for a damn thing. And so this is about us being able to speak truth. So when you support this show and this network with your resources, it is exactly what is happening because we are trying to build something that is bigger and broader and actually has the courage to say what needs to be said even when it makes other folk uncomfortable.

If you want to contribute giving cash app, use the Stripe QR code. This is it right here. And if you are listening, simply go to Blackstar QR code. This is it right here. And if you are listening, simply go to BlackstarNetwork.com to check it out. Also, if you want to see your check and money order, some of y'all old school, we understand

that. See your check and money order at PO Box 57196, Washington D.C. 2003 7-0196. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com.

And again, folks, we've got some 4 million social media followers. If only 20,000 of our fans contribute at least 50 bucks each, which comes out to $4.19 a month, 13 cents a day, that's a million dollars. It allows us to be able to continue to build, to0.13 a day. That's a million dollars. It allows us to be able to continue to build, to add these shows and do the work that's required. So your support is needed. So please join our Bring the Funk fan club today

if you've not already joined. If you have given to us in the past, please renew your commitment because it's important that we support Black-owned media because Black-owned media matters. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war.

This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's the deal. We gotta set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We gotta make moves and make them early. Set up goals.

Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position, pregame to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org, brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.