#RolandMartinUnfiltered - McConnell against John Lewis voting bill; Demings runs for Senate; White fear runs amok on Fox News

Episode Date: June 10, 2021

6.9.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Mitch McConnell opposes John Lewis Voting Right Act; Rep. Val Demings runs for Senate; White fear runs amok on Fox News; Former Atlanta Mayor Kasim has filed the necessary papers to run for Mayor again; What's the difference between HR1 and HR4? Georgia's Black Pastors will head to DC next week to persuade senators to support the John Lewis Voting Rights Act; Stacey Abrams group Fair Fight Action is launching Hot Call Summer + Tech Talk: Meet the creator of the app Healthy Hip HopSupport #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. 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.

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Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication.

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Today is Wednesday, June 9th, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, one of the biggest critics of Senator Joe Manchin has been New York Congressman Mondaire Jones. He joins us to break down why Manchin is absolutely clueless and is lying about the voter bills that Democrats want to pass in the United States Senate. Mitch McConnell, the Grim Reaper, says he opposes the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

Yeah, no shock. Florida Congresswoman Val Demings has officially declared her candidacy for the United States Senate in Florida. In Atlanta, former Mayor Kasim Reed has filed the necessary paperwork to run for mayor again. Also, we'll break down the difference between H.R. 1, the For the People Act, and H.R. 4, the Voting Rights Act. Folks, also, Georgia's black pastors will head to D.C. next week to persuade senators to support the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. And Stacey Abrams' group Fair Fight Action is launching Hot Call Summer to mobilize young voters around the For the People Act. And anti-racism activist Tim Wise

will join us to talk about white fear at Fox News. Oh my goodness, y'all, they are so scared of black folks. Plus, in Tech Talk, you'll meet a former rapper who developed an app called Healthy Hip Hop. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on the filter. Let's go. He's knowing, putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling, it's on for a royal It's rolling, Martin, yeah Rolling with rolling now

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's rolling, Martin If you follow my Twitter feed, you will see that I've been retweeting a lot of tweets from Congressman Mondaire Jones of New York, who has been lighting up West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin over the For the People Act and his opposition to it. He's been laying down the wood. He joins us right now on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Congressman Jones, glad to have you. You have not you have not been silent. And you've been, frankly, exposing the sheer lunacy of what Manchin is saying and one of the things you tweeted is dude, how do you oppose

a bill that's 800 pages when you don't even articulate what in hell in the bill you actually oppose? Roland, it's so great to be on this show and someone's got to do this work, man. I am watching with dismay as our democracy is systematically dismantled and Democrats actually have the opportunity to do something about it.

And here we've got a guy from West Virginia whose vote is required to save our democracy and protect the fundamental right to vote. And we've got to convince a member of our own party to do the right thing. So, yeah. Here's what's also strange. Congressman Julian Castro tweeted this. Kyrsten Sinema, Senator from Arizona, and Joe Manchin were previous co-sponsors

of the very bill he says he's going to vote against. What the hell is that about? You know, and even Kyrsten Sinema has co-sponsored the For the People Act in this Congress. And so, you know, I guess it's not surprising then that in Joe Manchin's op-ed last Sunday, he did not take issue with any specific provision of the For the People Act. Instead, what he said was it's not bipartisan. Well, here's the thing, and this is obvious to most people, even Republicans, I think, that the right to vote, unfortunately, and specifically the voter suppression that we are seeing enacted in places like Georgia and Florida,

is being enacted along partisan lines. So now you want the same people who set the House of Democracy on fire, to use the words of Senator Raphael Warnock, to extinguish that fire? That just does not make sense. And I would love to talk about the difference between the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. So go ahead and do that.

So again, there are two different bills that were passed by the House. The For the People Act, John Lewis Voting Act. Manchin says he'll support the John Lewis Voting Act. Reverend William Barber and others say one without the other is ineffective. So go ahead, explain. That's exactly right. And more specifically, we have not even introduced the John Lewis Voting Rights Act this Congress yet because we've got to have hearings on it.

Because, you know, as I'm sure you know, in 2013, what was at the time a 5-4 conservative majority on the Supreme Court gutted the last preclearance provision, which was a regional preclearance provision, saying, you know what? If you have a municipality or a state that has a history of discriminating against people of color, with respect to the right to vote, then if you do anything else moving forward, if you change your way of voting moving forward, you have to get preclearance. We have to sign off on this as a Department of Justice,

or you can go to a federal judge to get that done. And so now he wants to pivot to a national preclearance provision, which is even more likely to be struck down by a more conservative 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court than the one that struck down that portion of the Voting Rights Act and the Shelby decision. And then, of course, even if we were to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, it would not apply retroactively to the stuff that we're seeing happen in Georgia and Florida, whereas the For the People Act would. It would undo so much of what has already happened in Georgia and Florida

because one of the key provisions is it would establish early voting periods. It would establish vote-by-mail standards. It would supersede all of the state-level stuff that's being done to suppress the right to vote of people of color and young people and working people. And it would go further. It would enfranchise an additional 50 million people through automatic voter registration. And it would end partisan gerrymandering, which is the process whereby, among other things, Republican-controlled legislatures put all the black people, as many black people as possible in one district,

instead of spreading them throughout different districts, so they can just have one Democratic district as opposed to multiple Democratic districts, thereby diluting the black vote. And so this is really important stuff for people to know, and it's why there's no substitute for the For the People Act, and it's why there's no substitute for the for the people act. And it's why we have to get this done.

Here's the thing that jumps out at me. He keeps yelling bipartisanship, bipartisanship, bipartisanship. Fine, Joe, show me the 10 you're going to bring with you. I keep saying every time he runs his mouth, he should be challenged. Show me the 10. Who are they? Where are they? This is someone who couldn't get 10 Republican votes for a bipartisan commission to investigate the events of January 6th. And that wouldn't be for his lack of trying. I mean, it's just the case that the modern-day Republican Party is not interested in good

government. What has happened is we've elect- you know, the American people have elected Republican senators who are against the government and want to dismantle the government. So it's just not good pre- it's not a good set of facts or preconditions for people who actually want to help the American people, right? I mean, not a single Republican, as you'll recall, voted for the American Rescue Plan, despite the fact that 80 percent of the people in this country, a bipartisan number of folks, supported the American Rescue Plan. So we've got to act like we actually have control of government,

which we do, and do the right thing and not wait for people who are not interested in giving President Biden any kind of victory, or doing anything that would be perceived by the former president, President Donald Trump, as some kind of slight. So what do we do? If Manchin doesn't support it, Democrats have 50 votes. I don't know a single Republican. He's not going to break the filibuster. And so if he's not going to break the filibuster, Sinema's not going to break the filibuster. We're stuck. Yeah. You know, I've got to believe that Joe Manchin does not want his legacy to be that of the senator who stood in the way of American democracy, to be that of a senator who blocked voting rights at a key moment in our nation's history.

And the reason this moment is so key, Roland, is because we're going into a redistricting year where congressional maps are going to be drawn that will impact literally the next decade, right? And these folks are setting themselves up not to certify the presidential election that happens in November 2024, just like they tried to not certify the presidential election from last November,

just hours after we nearly died at the Capitol based on that big lie that they were pushing about mass voter fraud. I grew up in the NAACP. I'm a movement guy. I think we've got to keep organizing. I think perhaps as important as anything else, certainly as important as anything else, in fact, if not more so, the president of the United States has to rise to the occasion. I love the idea of passing a major multi-trillion dollar infrastructure bill. We sure have to do that. But more important than anything right now, especially now that we're on the cusp of crushing the COVID-19 virus, is to secure the right to vote in this country.

If for no other reason, this president's agenda depends on it. And so he has to use his bully pulpit. He has to use the stature of his office. He has to use all of the resources available to him to negotiate a deal with a member of his own party to vote for the For the People Act, because nothing else matters in this moment. And again, we've only got a few months left because states are going to start drawing these congressional maps, and it is going to be a bloodbath for people who care about our

democracy and who care about good governance. We will not only lose majorities in the House and the Senate, which means people like Raphael Warnock are unlikely to get reelected, but you're going to have people with control of government who don't care about the truth. Well, the thing I said is this here, you know, Manchin got a little hissy fit when Vice President Kamala Harris was doing interviews in West Virginia. My whole deal is target them, go after them hard. In fact, I say send her down to Harper's Ferry and give a speech touting John Brown and the importance of voting rights. I say, President Biden, go to West Virginia yourself and give a speech. I mean, it has to be in your face because otherwise and then imagine also lied. He lied when he said he's voting on behalf of the will of his people.

That's an absolute lie. Reverend William Barber tweeted this out earlier today where he talked about, and this is what it is. This was a graphic that he posted from the Rachel Maddow Show that showed 79% of likely voters in West Virginia support the For the People Act, 79%. So I'm sorry. Who is he talking about when he says he's doing this for the people of West Virginia? You're absolutely right, Roland. And I've seen that data, and I think it was a poll that was commissioned by a group called InCitizensUnited,

which is a good governance group. This is nonsense, this idea that somehow the people of West Virginia are not in support of this. In fact, the bill is so popular that the Koch brothers and their allies were at a conference, and they were secretly recorded, I suppose, and that was published, talking about how the polls show that the bill is so popular, it's really difficult to tank it. Well, I guess now those folks have gotten a hold of Senator Manchin. But we have to continue to persuade him to listen to, well, facts and his better angels. Because I've got to believe that a guy who admires Robert Byrd, you know, he has said that that man is his hero, will want to get the full lesson of Robert Byrd, right?

Someone who is an avid segregationist and a Klans member who went on to learn the error of his ways and to be an ally to President Biden later in his life, right? I mean, we remember famously him crying on the floor of the Senate, you know, over his, you know, terrible past that he tried to spend the rest of his life making up for, I want Senator Manchin to learn that lesson, too, as he reveres Robert Byrd. Well, I also want Manchin, and I'll say this about all these Democrats and Republicans, who, when Congressman John Lewis was alive, they would go down to Selma

and they would tout how amazing John Lewis was. Well, if you are unwilling to stand for the very thing that Congressman John Lewis believed in, then you're a lying hypocrite. You know, I think you're absolutely right. And it's why I've just got to believe that this is not what he wants his legacy to be. I, you know, I'm so tired of black folks and young people and working people being taken for granted by some people in the Democratic Party. You know, they get elected on our backs and then just completely forget about, you know, the policies that would actually improve our lives and allow us to live in dignity. I don't have the luxury of conditioning, uh, filibuster reform or anything else on, on so-called bipartisanship. Okay. Um, you know, I, as a black man in America, for example, my life is directly impacted by police violence, right. Uh, and so on and so forth. We can say that about

the equality act as well. And so it's just crazy to me that people are forgetting the real life implications of not passing the legislation that House Democrats, who have been doing the lion's share of the work in this country to help improve people's lives, have been passing at a breakneck speed. This is a Senate problem, and it is a White House problem, and we need the White House to finally rise to the occasion and do right by the American people. And not just say the speech in Tulsa to senators.

No, name them. That's what must have to happen. All right. Congressman Mondaire Jones, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you. Take care. All right.

I want to bring in a couple of my panelists right now. We're joined by Scott Bolden, former head of the National Bar Association Political Action Committee. We also have lawyer, crisis manager Monique Pressley. We'll be joined later by Robert Petillo. Robert who is hanging out right now on Black News Channel. Robert, come over here where people actually are watching the news. All right, y'all, let's go right to it.

Scott Bolden, I want to start with you. First and foremost, the pressure, putting the pressure on Manchin. Look, he doesn't like national pressure, but this is where, to me, you've got to put pressure on him from people who are from his state. Earlier I mentioned Reverend Dr. William J. Barber. They had a Moral Monday discussion that took place on Monday. And this is Pam Garrison, who's with the Poor People's Campaign for West Virginia. And she just cut right to the chase watch this my senator saying talking about compromise and i wonder what reality is he in does he think is he that delusional or does he think we're that stupid

you got to have somebody to compromise to compromise we've had 13 years of Mitch McConnell saying, no, you can't have a living wage. No, the grim reaper I am. Let your bills come here to die. I don't care. And now the senator that I put in there that comes here and says, oh, I can relate to you poor people and looks down at me with pompousness and don't hear what I'm saying. Yeah, he'll let me sit there and say what I say and pour my heart out. And you know what? He turns right around and does the very opposite of the things that I'm saying is hurting us and hurting our people. He goes and does. We are coming. We are coming. And I'll tell you what, my fellow Americans are coming with me. We don't need guns. We've got morals. We've got justice and a constitution that they have stomped on. And this is my constitution and my country I'm fighting for. And I want everyone, the news media,

every one of my West Virginians, every one of my Americans to know we are in this together. And we're not taking no for an answer. And we're not listening to the lies, the conspiracy theories, and the just downright immoralities anymore. I've got the Lord and I've got reverence. I've got my people behind me. And we are coming.

Poor People's Campaign, we're not political. We're not about different parties. But we are about policies that lift us up and that helps everybody. And how can somebody have that much power in their hands But we are about policies that lift us up and that helps everybody. And how can somebody have that much power in their hands and not use it for good? We can do better. We deserve better.

Scott? Yeah, she dropped the mic on that one. But you know, Roland, everything that your prior guest, my dear, said, the Poor People's Campaign representative, that all makes sense. But when you're that illogical like Senator Manchin is, as a lawyer, I start to think, OK, this is so illogical that this is all lies. This can't be real. I often think, well, what am I missing, right? What's really going on here? Because we can talk to ad nauseum about how bad it is. But is there something that we're missing, right?

So, for example, Manchin says the White House and Biden has never called him, never put any pressure on him. Why is that? We need this now more than ever. So why is Biden in the White House, if that's true, not going all out and putting pressure on Manchin now versus later? Secondly, that statistic you showed where 80 percent of West Virginians support for the People Act, that is just completely inconsistent with one vote, one rep, and putting forth efforts and leadership to support your constituents that put you in this place. And so either we're missing something, or we need to really go after Biden for not putting pressure on Manchin and the other senator, or we need to figure out what we're missing and what they're up to, whether he's being paid or whether he is privately or substantively really a Republican in Democratic clothing.

That's all that's left. Those are the questions, and we need the answers. Well, Monique, the White House doesn't necessarily want to do that because they know they have a tenuous situation, 50-50. They need Manchin for all the criticism. He's still a Democrat. They need his vote to get judges confirmed. Biden focusing on the infrastructure bill as well. But so where does that leave those folks who believe in voting rights? Right. I mean, this situation, where is Olivia Pope is all I can say, because he needs to be handled. I don't know who in the caucuses, in the White House, in big business. I don't know where the pressure points are for this man. But now is the time

that they need to be pushed. I saw so many different people, including, I think, Dr. Jason Johnson, who were saying this doesn't have anything to do with the CARES Act. This doesn't have anything to do with voting rights. This doesn't have anything to do with anything except for a power hungry man with a big head. And I think even, Roland, you posted something along those same lines. I agree. It's just obvious that he is trying to figure out how he can wield all of this power because there's no principle backing it. It is inconsistent, and it lacks any foundation to stand on. So it's unfortunate. But, you know, the Democrats will be blamed for this. And this is governance. Unfortunately, it comes down to at some points being so tenuous that we've got one power hungry, crazy person. I mean, we spent four years of an entire presidency dealing with one power hungry, crazy person. And now we're back at that point again. Voting matters, y'all. And this is where we are until we can get a larger majority. So so we've we've got to do whatever can be done.

And I'm open to getting in and trying to help where I can. But this really is like the backroom dealing kind of help that's required here right now. One of the things that we are seeing here, Robert, is that folks understand in terms of what has to happen. They understand pressure has to be brought to bear. On Monday, the Poor People's Campaign, they're going to be having an actual protest there in West Virginia, in Charleston, West Virginia, focused on the third reconstruction and support voting rights. So they are being very clear in terms of what they're going to do going after Joe Manchin. Well, listen, it's not just Joe Manchin. Joe Manchin is taking the heat

and the flack because it's politically advantageous for him in a state like West Virginia. Let's remember, there are 1.7 million people in West Virginia. There are about 2.5 million people in Chicago. So he's not going to a large base. In addition to that, there's only about 65,000 Black people in West Virginia as a state. So the more you attack Joe Manchin, the more that it's politically advantageous to him. And for many of the other senators, Democratic senators who are against this bill, they understand that if you expand voting rights, they won't be there. That's their concern, that they feel they'll end up getting primaried by progressive candidates and it's politically disadvantageous to them. So it's more than just Joe Manchin. We need to have firm commitments from the entire caucus and then find out what Republicans you can

peel off because it will probably be easier to peel off someone like a Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski than it would be even someone like Joe Manchin who is completely intransigent. But here's the problem. You've got to get 10. And Manchin says he's going to vote against the 40 People Act, which means now you've got to get 11.

Who are the 11? Okay, fine. Susan Collins, one. Okay, let's say Romney, two. Let's say Murkowski, three. All right. Who are the other eight? Well, I think procedurally the question would be who could you get to vote to break the filibuster rule on an insulated because you can't do it through reconciliation as you could the infrastructure

bill. Who are the eight? But what I'm saying is if Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema will not vote and through reconciliation as you could the infrastructure bill. Yes, who are the eight? Who are the eight? But what I'm saying is if Joe Manchin and Kristen Sinema will not vote to break the filibuster, which you only need 50 votes in order to do, then you have to find two Republican senators. That would be a... No, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Robert, you need 60 to break the filibuster.

Sorry, sorry. I'm thinking about reconciliation. Sorry, I showed up late. What I'm saying is you have Romney, you have Collins, you have Murkowski, you have many Republicans who are either not running for re-election or who have challengers. I think you can get there, but I think barking up Joe Manchin's here— Okay, all right, all right. No, hold on. No, no, no.

Let's do the math. Okay, so you mentioned three. Collins, Murkowski, Romney. That's three. Okay. You got Toomey who's not running. He ain't going to support it, but let's just say Toomey. That's three. You got Toomey who's not running. He ain't going to support it, but let's just say Toomey. That's four. Let's say

Burr, North Carolina, not running. That's five. Portman, that's five. Portman, where the camera? That's five. Portman in Ohio, that's six. Who are the four? I'm four short. Who are they well i think you also have to look at and that's a week four that's that's a week four but you have to look at republican senators who have or are going

to have strong primary opponents who no no no no no no no give me names who tim scott not one of them well you have to look you have to take out people who are going to be running for president in 2020. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Robert, name him. Rubio is not one of them. I don't know. One of them. Hell no. Hell no. Rubio, not one of them. Ron Johnson, not one of them. Rubio got Val Demings breathing down his throat. So so the issue you're going to run into is that you're going to have to find the math and you're going to have to have the political will to find the math. The math don't exist.

The math don't exist. Well, if the math doesn't exist, what are we talking about? That's the point. That's the damn point. I don't think the people who turned out in record numbers in November are going to say, look, we couldn't get the ban, so we quit early. So I think you're going to have to fight this thing all the way to the walls because at the end of the day, the right to vote is as positive as every other right on Earth. And if you're going to go down, go down the way Trump did on the wall. Trump, you tell Trump, no, he wouldn't have found some damn money somewhere.

He looked under the couch because he looked in his bag. He found some damn money. Finding money ain't the same as finding votes. found some damn money somewhere. He looked under the couch because he looked in his bag. He found some damn money. So find some money. Finding money ain't the same as finding votes. The difference here is this. The only option, okay, I had Derek Johnson on yesterday. He's talking about, hey,

we might pursue a path. Fine. Joe Manchin ain't shown he's even willing to actually sponsor a bill. Here's the whole deal. The only path, and I know people may say, man, I don't know, Roland. It's real simple. You got to win North Carolina. You got to win Pennsylvania.

You got to win Ohio. And you got to win Wisconsin. Okay, Florida's going to be tough. We're going to talk about Representative Val Demings in a second with Glenda Carr and Melanie Campbell. But you got to win those four. You win those four, you protect Mark Kelly, you protect Raphael Warnock. Guess what? but you got to win those four. You win those four and you protect Mark Kelly. You protect Raphael Warnock. Guess what? Now you got 54. Now you can tell Manchin, go sit your punk ass down. Now you can break the filibuster and now you can move forward.

But the end of the day is the numbers. And this is the problem of people. This is why they don't want D.C. statehood because they do not want two senators from D.C. This is why they actually do not want statehood for Puerto Rico because then that'll be two as well. And so that's what you have going on here. And so they do not want to fight for it. And so, again, all I say is everybody, every time someone talks to Manchin, you've got to say, OK, Mr. Manchin, you keep talking about bipartisanship. Show me the 10. Show me the 10. So if you want to talk about bipartisanship, fine, Joe. Write your own damn bill, and let's see you put it on the floor and see if you

can get 10 votes. He ain't gonna do it, because you know what? In eight years, his ass ain't done a damn thing for voting rights, and so right now, Senator Joe Manchin is full of shit. Yeah, Roland, it's worse than that. When you ask Joe Manchin, I've watched several interviews. When you ask Joe Manchin, I've watched his several interviews.

When you ask Joe Manchin about that very issue, where are those 10? He concedes he doesn't have that 10. But what he won't concede is that the fight for bipartisanship, and he's the only one fighting for it because Republicans aren't fighting for bipartisanship whatsoever. Yes, it's BS. Joe Manchin. No, no, no, Scott. Joe Manchin is talking to his co-funded donors.

He knows he lying. He know ain't no damn bipartisanship. You just hear Republicans wouldn't even support equal pay for women. I mean, come on now. It's just exactly. No, I was reporting what he said. Well, he lying. He lying.

He can't show you 10. And here's the whole deal. Put up a shut up, Joe. Put a bill. Where is the White House, Roland? I understand they need him for these other votes. But you can do both. Why can't you do both?

Because the White House is not going to press him because there's a fear. What if he decides to flip from Democrat to Republican? Then guess what? No, no, no, Scott. I'm trying to tell you. Scott, here's the deal. If Senator Joe Manchin flips from a Democrat to Republican, Mitch McConnell now is sitting as Majority Leader.

That's how tenuous. They do not want to, the White House does not want to push Joe Manchin to a corner. That's why, which is why that white woman with no teeth from West Virginia, who was, no, no, and I'm being serious. Folks like her, that's why we're rebuttal what they're doing. They got to

mobilize those broke, poor white folks in West Virginia and put it on his ass at every turn. Speaking of putting it on his ass, that's what we're in bother with what they're doing. They got to mobilize those broke, poor white folks in West Virginia and put it on his ass at every turn. Speaking of put it on his ass, that's what we want to see Congresswoman Val Demings do to Senator Marco Rubio in Florida today. She had not officially announced that she is running for the United States Senate. She dropped this video. people ask me, Val, where do you get your tireless faith that things can always get better? I got it here in Jacksonville, Florida. When you grow up in the South, poor, black and female, you have to have faith in progress and opportunity. My father was a janitor and my mother was a maid. She said, Val, never grow tired of doing good.

Never tired. Work hard, not just for yourself, but for others. So I went to Orlando to serve as a police officer. Met my husband and number one partner in crime fighting, Sheriff Jerry Demings. I ended up serving 27 years. I just never got tired of it. Eventually, this working mom worked her way up to chief of police.

Orlando's violent crime this year is down. Murders, robberies, aggravated assaults, total violent crime, all lower than a year ago. Under her leadership, there has been the most dramatic decrease in violent crime in the city's history. They said we never lower crime, but I said never tire. And after all that, I still wasn't tired. So I ran for Congress and got back to work. Congresswoman Val Demings. Member of the House Homeland Security Judiciary

and Intelligence Committees. I've never tired of representing Florida, not for one single moment. Val Demings is someone who has taken the oath of office, not just in Congress, but to protect and serve. And along the way, we brought law and order to a lawless president. He is an habitual offender committing crimes in progress. Unlike some in Washington, I never tire of standing up for what I believe is right because no one is above the law. But it turns out there are some in Washington who prefer the same old tired ways of doing business. Too tired to fight the efforts to suppress the people's vote. They fall back to tired talking points and backward solutions.

There it is, the memorized 25 second speech. That's what Washington, D.C. does. My mother told me when someone gives you the opportunity to do something big, do not disappoint them. I'm running for the United States Senate because of two simple words. Never tire. Over the next few weeks, I hope to share more of my story with more of you. It's a simple question. Can my unlikely story of opportunity expand to more Americans and more Floridians?

Joining us now is the president and CEO of Higher Heights for America, Glenda Carr, and Melanie Campbell, the executive director and chief executive officer of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. Glad to have both of you. Melanie, folks, look, it's going to be a tough fight. The reality is Senator Marco Rubio, very popular in Florida, that state has gotten redder. Donald Trump won that state in 2020 and 2016. But of course, in the previous election, Andrew Gillum came within 30,000 votes, defeating Ron DeSantis for governor. One of them, when you look at the numbers there, Broward County, as well as Miami-Dade County, numbers have been awful when it comes to

Democratic turnout, especially Black turnout. And so what do you think it's going to take for Congresswoman Val Demings to topple Senator Marco Rubio in Florida? Roland, you're asking me? I'm so sorry. Yes. Oh, thank you. I'm sorry. First of all, thanks for the invitation, as always. What it's going to take is going to be turnout, turnout, turnout, right? Florida is very—this is where I grew up. But the diversity of Florida is real. So you have a 13 percent Black voting age population in Florida, but you have a

diverse state with many folks from many other parts of the world that are here in Florida. So it is going to be about turnout. And I think that, and this is just my analysis, and I'm not endorsing anybody because I'm a 501c3, so I'll say that up front. But the reality is that I think she has a fighting chance of winning, but it will be truly about turnout. You talked about those numbers. And we're seeing in the 2020, this particular year, turnout being lower in some of the municipal races. So it's going to be a tough fight, but I think she has a good chance.

And you think about the, even though we haven't, think about what has happened with the Amendment 4, you have a lot more people on the books, maybe not all because of the Republicans pushing back on it, but you do have a lot of room for new voters in the state, as well as—and of course, I would be remiss not saying what the role black women can play in helping her have a fighting chance. But I think she really does. What I'm hearing— I'm actually in Florida, been in Florida back and forth for the last month or so. So there is a buzz on the ground

in the places that I've been in about her candidacy. Glenda, in that Andrew Gillum race, exit polls showed 18 percent of black women voting for DeSantis. Some say that was all tied to the opportunity scholarships there. We look at that state as well. Democrats have done horrible with Latino turnout. In the last election, the Venezuelan vote, the Cuban vote, went strong for Donald Trump. And so it's going to take also putting together a real coalition there

of Democrats in Florida. That state has been in disarray, the Democratic Party. And so with Congresswoman Val Demings, not only is she going to have to put together a strong campaign, she really has to lead the effort to repair the party in that state because of the problems that they've had over the past several election cycles. I agree. But one thing that is in her advantage is her, as you know, people have, you know, most people think that she had already announced, right? So she is officially announced today. And this is a long, she has a long runway, not the longest runway, to be able to build the momentum in a sustainable campaign. And what that building blocks to a winning campaign starts in Florida. And so she certainly had, you know, we are proud to have endorsed her on day one, Higher Heights, our political action

committee, Higher Heights for America political action committee. And so in the state, she will need to get around and build a coalition of voters. And at the base of that coalition are Black women. And so we've seen over the last election cycle that Black women on the ballot, and particularly Black women at federal elections and national elections, will build not only the enthusiasm of Black women to prepare to vote, but to actually build the enthusiasm of Black women to organize their networks to the polls. And then she builds from that building blocks to build a diverse coalition of voters across the state. And then finally, it is also her ability to build the national momentum. We have seen that when you have a candidate that excites America, they will,

this is going to be one of the most expensive elections that we will see. We say that every year until we spend more money. And so she's going to need to raise $100 million. And that money, I think, can be excited by donors across this country. But frankly, going back to the work that we do at Higher Heights, is that we want to galvanize Black women to rally around her. And so she has affiliations, you know, using the building blocks and the lessons learned from Akamala Harris. She's a member of a Black sorority, Melanie sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, and is a member of, you know, member, she's an active member of her church, an active member

of a variety of local and national organizations that don't endorse, but these are powerful individual members that they will see themselves in her candidacy and want to support her and volunteer for her and send those two, three, four dollars. And we're, you know, a year out. So when you start talking about sending, you know, grassroots dollars on a monthly basis, it's going to build the excitement and momentum, not only in the state, but also nationally. Something tells me, Melanie, you and your Deltas, yes, the Deltas cannot as an organization endorse, but individuals can work on campaigns. You said it, it's going to be ground game grounding.

Look, you can raise all the money you want to, but you got to be able to turn folks out. And so having that long runway, Glenda spoke about, is going to allow her to build the ground apparatus needed to jack those numbers up. When I looked at the analysis of the Gillum campaign, if you look at the top 15 voting

counties in Florida, it took you till the 11th or 12th one before it was blue. And so you had Republican counties turning out 75, 60, 65 to 75 or percent higher in terms of total turnout. And so she's going to have to cut into that, but also really get those blue counties to jam those, jack those numbers up. Well, the other thing that people don't know about Florida is it's getting younger. People, you know, you hear Florida is the retirement state. First of all, it's getting too expensive for that to be the case if they don't change things around. But, you know, when you look at the reality, those 18 to 53, young and not so young,

they make up the majority of the vote. So that's the other thing about Florida's demographics. 30-plus percent, I think it's around 31, 32 percent are people of color, you know, Black, Latina, and a smaller number, APIA community, you know, Asia Pacific Islander community, but you're also getting a younger and younger demographic in the state. A lot of people are moving into Florida, and that demographic, those demographic numbers are changing as well.

So, you know, as I stated, and Glenda, good to hear your voice. I can't see you right now, but I hear your voice. But I just happened to wear red today, just happened to wear red. Yeah, I'm quite sure. Glenda, when we talk about, again, her candidacy, this is one of those things where on the Democratic side, they probably will say, if you're trying to run against her, we need all y'all to get the hell out of the way so she can focus money and resources on the general election. Because Florida also is a weird state in terms of how they have their primaries. Their primaries are like in August.

And then you have the general election in November. Andrew Gillum talked about that, where he expend all of his time, energy and money to win the nomination and then turn around, you know, two and a half months later and run in the general. And so clearing the field is going to be important to allow her to conserve dollars and focus like a laser on Marco Rubio. Hold on, Melanie. Glenda, you know, Congresswoman Val Demings is a well-known, well-liked congressional member who has made an impact since being elected in 2016. And so on the day that she announced today, you had endorsements announced from Higher Heights for America PAC, from Congressional Black Caucus PAC, Collective PAC. And so you're seeing that people are, she is starting to coalesce national organizations, and certainly I'm sure there will be regional and state and local organizations and influencers that are going to coalesce around her. And the more she coalesces, this is a long runway rolling, right, you know, for a Black woman.

Oftentimes, endorsers jump on a Black woman campaign on the last minute. So the more she can build the momentum, you know, there is an opportunity for her to, like you said, either clear the field or at least lighten the field so that she can really concentrate on the November election. She also has a name, you know, a brand name that continues to be, to increase. She was a House impeachment manager. And so you may, some people may have not known who Val Demings was before the first impeachment hearing. They know about Val Demings.

She also was on the short list for consideration for a potential vice president running mate for Joe Biden. And so she has not only a national name recognition, but certainly she has a name recognition in the state that puts her ahead of many other candidates. But more importantly, I think, you know, when we get to the general election on one-on-one, she has that name recognition

that then she builds that campaign infrastructure and the ability at ground game to be able to get not only her message out, but her ability to talk to voters, both door to door, phone to phone, text to text, group to group. Melanie, go ahead. The only other thing I'll say is there's a governor's race next year. So it's going to be high turnout. And there are also a lot of voting rights challenges in this state as well with the current governor and legislature trying to do what a lot of other Republicans are doing.

And it's just fact. And that is to suppress the black vote and young people's vote. So there are some some headwinds that she'll have to face as well. But also, I think it's going to be a very high turnout election because it's also a governor's race. All right. Win the car, Melanie Kim. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you, Robert. All right. Let's go back to our panel, Scott Bolden, Monique Presley, and Robert Petillo. I'll start with you, Monique. This is going to be, again, a very, very tough race. Senator Marco Rubio is extremely popular in the state of Florida. And of course, already raising money. It's going to be a ton of money raised i dare say i wouldn't be shocked to see congresswoman demings raking in the kind of money that went towards um beto o'rourke

or even jamie harrison in his race um but it's but it's going to be as melanie point's going to be, as Melanie pointed, it's going to be turnout. And this is where, look, you can raise all the money you want to, all the endorsements, but you don't win unless you have more votes than the other person, which means how do you get in those blue counties the turnout going from 57 and 59 to 68 to 72 to 75 or even 80. What is what is she going to have to say to black voters in Florida, to black men in particular, to say in those those Haitian voters in Florida as well? I mean, you know, in order for her to win, she's got to have a massive black turnout in order and also being able to reach other groups. Yes. And I want to be very, very concise because I believe obviously that she is a qualified candidate. I am thrilled when with black women that she is running. We've watched the trajectory

of her career. We've watched her take on each and every challenge and just crush it. And I agree with what Glenda and Melanie said about her profile, not just local or state, but nationally. But when it comes to what she's going to say, I know she's going to say the right things because she's done the right things. She stands for the right things and she's doing the right things. What I need to happen is for folks in our position nationally to not make her work harder. Okay? So all that common of the cops stuff that we had to deal with, that smeared a presidential candidate

and then made it hard for a vice presidential candidate, but she overcome it. We shouldn't see any of that here from the black folks talking heads who say that they are for progress and want for legislation to get passed and want for us to have

a continued majority control in the Senate. Watch your mouths. Don't make it harder for Val Demings to talk to her own Floridians, whether they're Haitian, whether they're Black men, or whether they're women, whether they're whomever. Don't make that job harder. She's not running from the fact that she was a top cop. black men or whether they're women, whether they're whoever, don't make that job harder.

She's not running from the fact that she was a top cop. So you can't use it to smear her. If you have issues with her record and you don't live in Florida, I mean, shut up for real. You also have this, Robert. Republicans have been, you know, of course, they spent $100 million in the last campaign, 2020, focused on defund the police. They probably, if they try that with her, don't be surprised if you see this. Chairman, I want to make it quite clear that this amendment is completely irrelevant. I served as a law enforcement officer for 27 years. It is a tough job, and good police officers deserve your support. You know, it's interesting to see my colleagues on the other side of the aisle support the police when it is politically convenient to do so. Law enforcement officers risk their lives every day. They deserve better.

And the American people deserve. I have the floor, Mr. Jordan. Did I strike a nerve? Law enforcement officers deserve better than to be utilized as pawns. But can you and your colleagues be ashamed of yourselves? The gentlelady will suspend and the clock will be stopped. I want to admonish members. They must not interrupt someone who has the time.

Mr. Chairman, can I have this question? You simply can't shout out. If you think that someone is saying something. I agree. Mr. Jordan, you don't know what the heck you're talking about. You know nothing about what law enforcement officers do. I know about my motive. And you're using them as pawns because it serves your ridiculous political purpose. Val, Val, everyone must suspend.

I am making the point. No one may shout out when someone else has the time not mr gomert question mr chairman not mr jordan nobody not mr sicilini not miss not miss demmings didn't do that but nobody not mr jordan not miss nobody okay no but i agree with that but then how do we everybody I have a question. And how do we, everybody, I have a question. I will simply, there is no question. I got the same question. Nobody may shout out.

When you give a speech, Mr. Chairman, about motives and questioning motives, and then our motives are questioned. This is emotionally charging for me. The rules allow a request. I have charged them to live and die, and you know nothing about that. And to utilize them as political pawns. Mr. Chairman, I have a point of inquiry. Robert, dang, don't try that soft on law enforcement crap with her.

Well, a couple things. One, I think Jim Jordan needs to be worried about what those wrestlers in Ohio are doing and what they're doing with law enforcement there while he's been running for that for years. Secondarily, even with that, let's remember in Georgia where I'm at, they ran against Raphael Warnock, a Baptist minister, as not being Christian enough. So Republicans have no gall. They don't have any, there's no off switch for them. They have their talking points and they have nothing else. They don't have any. There's no off switch for them. They have their talking points. They have nothing else. They don't care what the objective facts or reality are on the ground. But I do think for Congresswoman Demings, her political fate is going to be naturally tied to the progress the Biden administration is going to do.

This is why it's so important for Democrats to govern with gumption. You've got to put points on the board. You can't run against the boogeyman Trump anymore. You're going to have to have a legislative agenda that you have passed and that you've got it done, whether it's through executive action, whether it's through reconciliation, however it needs to get done. Because if you're able to do that, that's how you get those Duval bangers out there, out in Jacksonville to turn out. That's how you get those folks down in Little Haiti to turn out, but when you can show them tangibles that you've done. And then I will call him Little Marco, Little Rubio, just like Trump did and make fun of him. Scott?

You know, I think you're right. It's going to be a tough race. They may or may not hang the whole police thing. We can't really control that. We can control our mouths, but we can't control what black men and women say in Florida. I got to tell you, you say it's tough. I just don't think

Florida's winnable. And see, Mark Rubio's base of support is in Miami-Dade County. That's a big Democratic stronghold, but he pulls from that. And so you need those votes in Miami-Dade, as you know, to offset the lack of voter turnout in those other 10 to 15 counties so that you have a running lead when you go to those outlying counties, the 11 or 12 you talked about. They wouldn't turn out for Andrew Gillum. I don't know what the Democrats are going to do to get them to turn out this time. But I will tell you this. You've got to worry about being able to raise money.

Because I've got to tell you, with Wisconsin, North Carolina, Pennsylvania in play, the Democrats have a better chance of winning in those other jurisdictions, in open Senate seats, than they do in Florida. I can tell you, Scott. You got to convince the DMC and the DMC donors that it's worth that fight. And that's going to be a challenge. Here's the deal. She's going to raise more money from small donors than big donors, and that's going to be a challenge. Here's the deal. She's going to raise more money from small donors

than big donors, and that's going to be the key there. Folks, hold tight. Got to go to a quick... Got to go to a... Too late. Nope, too late. Got to go to a quick break, folks. We come back.

Ooh, crazy as white folks... Crazy as white folks at Fox News. Why are they so scared of black people? Ooh, I can't wait to show you all these idiots next. We'll be joined by Tim Wise to break it down. You're watching Rolling Martin Unfiltered. Racial injustice is a scourge on this nation, and the black community has felt it for generations.

We have an obligation to do something about it. Whether it's canceling student debt, increasing the minimum wage, or investing in Black-owned businesses, the Black community deserves so much better. I'm Nina Turner and I'm running for Congress to do something about it. White supremacy ain't just about hurting Black folk. Right. We gotta deal with it. It's injustice. It's wrong. I do feel like in this generation we've got to do more around being intentional and resolving conflict.

You and I have always agreed. Yeah. But we agree on the big piece. Yeah. Our conflict is not about destruction. Conflict's gonna happen. Hi, my name is LaToya Lucky. I'm a member of the Black Lives Matter movement.

I'm a member of the Black Lives Matter movement. I'm a member of the Black Lives Matter movement. I'm a member of the Black Lives Matter movement. I'm a member of the Black Lives Matter movement. I'm a member of the Black Lives Matter movement. I'm a member of the Black Lives Matter movement. It's not about destruction. I'm white. I got you, bro. I'm illegally selling water without a permit. On my property. Whoa! Hey! Give me your ass! You don't live here.

I'm uncomfortable. The leaders of white fear in America is Fox News and conservative talk radio. Folks, their newest boogeyman is critical race theory. You want to hear some idiotic stuff? Listen to these fools on Fox & Friends, Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earnhardt, and the village idiot Brian Kilby. The big difference between now and the 1960s, they're not acknowledging any improvement in our culture, the gains made, and how we're more equal any improvement in our culture, the gains made, and how we're more equal, even despite our faults, than any other country.

The other thing is, they're not only trying to raise up minorities and make sure the playing field is even. They're trying to take down the white culture. And they're wondering why, and this generation of Americans wonders, why are we all Americans? Why are we being marginalized on a daily basis on our gender, our sexuality, and the color of our skin? And it's not even subtle. It is actually out there. It is written in black and white. This is the big difference between

other civil rights movements in our past. One, the first big one was a war. The second big one, we saw in the streets, especially in the South. And this one we're seeing in the classrooms and we've seen the enemy and it's white people. And they wonder why people have a problem with it. It's pretty simple what most families in America, I think, are teaching their kids. And that's the golden rule to love others as yourself. Don't see people for skin color. We look to the Bible in my house. We love everybody. Everyone was created by God. And we live in this great country where you can be anything that you want to be and you can be an individual. This lady saying they're not teaching them to be individuals. They're trying to instead lump them in as a group based on race.

I want my daughter to know she can be autonomous. She can stand on her own two feet. She can be an individual and be exactly who she wants to be and using the desires that God has given her for a bright future. Well, you know, it is curious because it was just a couple of years ago where the United States of America elected an African-American as president of the United States. You know, the biggest entertainers, the biggest sports stars are African-Americans. Well, he mocked critical race theory. Well, he did over on CNN, absolutely. And we played that a little while ago. Oh, you gotta love the whiny white folks over at Fox News. Tim Wise, he joins us right now.

Tim does all kind of anti-racism work. Tim, you've written a book. One of your books was Dear White People, and an open letter to white America. And clearly Fox and Friends host didn't read it. Well, no, no, they didn't. I mean, look, first, let's be very clear. If you were to take Brian Kilmeade, hold him by his ankles over a bridge and give him two or three minutes to actually tell you what critical race theory was or else you were going to drop him, let's just say there'd be one less friend

on Fox, right? Because he couldn't define it. And I'm not advocating the killing of Brian Kilmeade, let's be very clear. I'm just saying none of these people who are critiquing what they call critical race theory could define it. They haven't read Derrick Bell. They haven't read Kimberly Crenshaw. They haven't read Richard Delgado. They don't know anything about it. What they are using is that as a boogeyman term to refer to any discussion in school about the history of systemic racism in America and the contemporary reality of ongoing systemic racism. They simply do not want that analysis provided. They don't have a rebuttal to it other than to just say, well, there's no racism because Obama won. Listen, Benazir Bhutto was elected not once but twice in Pakistan, a woman, but I bet they

wouldn't say sexism has been eradicated in Pakistan, right? The fact, and if it were up to white folks, including the ones who watch Fox and Friends, Obama wouldn't have won. White Americans, my people, I've been white a long time. I know my people well. Most white folks were happier with the thought of Sarah Palin maybe becoming president than Barack Obama. So how are you going to hold up progress when you weren't part of it? How are you going to brag about the progress we've made and then put a hat on that says make America great again, which means you don't think we needed to make all that progress because stuff was cool 50 years ago and 70 years ago. I mean, the contradictions are massive. But what they all tell us is that there is a group of white folks, probably the majority of white folks, clearly,

who are afraid of a counter-narrative. We prefer the George Washington and the cherry tree history, even though that story was a lie. George Washington didn't cut down a cherry tree and run and tell his daddy. George Washington barely knew his daddy. His daddy died when George was young. That's all a made-up story. But we prefer that to the truth, which was what? George Washington was a particularly vicious enslaver of other human beings who, when they made the mistake of running away from Mount Vernon, had them tracked down on pain of death and took bounties out on them. That's who he was. Now, if you don't want me to say that because that's unpatriotic, your problem is not with political correctness. That's who he was. Now, if you don't want me to say that because that's unpatriotic, your problem is not with political correctness. It's with historical accuracy. And white folks

for years, we've been able to ignore the truth. Now, the culture, the demographics are such that we're having to confront the things we've tried to deny. And for some folks, it's too painful to look at. Well, if it's painful to look at, imagine how much more painful it's been to live. And that's what black and brown folks have had. And what you're dealing with here, Tim, you're dealing with, and let's just be clear, the basis of Fox News that Roger Ailes put in place was to push the racial fears of white viewers, older white viewers. Fox News has always, I love it when they love talking about the new Black Panthers. And the media, they talked about the new Black Panthers more than anybody else

and then criticized the media for covering the new Black Panthers. It was Bill O'Reilly who attacked Ludacris when he had his Pepsi deal. They've always, it's always been that. And so what you're dealing with now, what critical race theory is, and here's a photo here. Amna Nawaz of PBS covered this. This is a Loughton County school board meeting.

And all these white folks turned out, 121 people signed up. And what was hilarious is that the superintendent said, we don't teach critical race theory in any of our schools. But these dumbasses who watch Laura Ingram, who watch Sean Hannity, who watch Tucker Carlson, and now it's like critical race theory. It's now the banner.

Put everything that's racial under that. Oh, critical race theory, and they have no idea what they cannot stand. And Brian Kilmeade said it. They do not like the fact that black people, Latino people, and Asian people, we now get to have an opinion about what it means to be an American. Right, right, and have the ability to be heard and to have that opinion represented.

You know, for years, that's the thing. If you've had hegemonic dominance of the culture, pluralism feels like oppression, right? And all it is is sharing space. All it is is saying, listen, we're going to have a bunch of perspectives offered that have been silenced before. That doesn't oppress you. That doesn't marginalize you. If you'd open your mind and your heart a little, it might enrich you. But instead, these folks, I mean, just to give you an idea of how absurd, and I know you know this, in Idaho, there's a lawmaker who got up and gave a talk a couple of weeks ago attacking critical race theory, complaining about the teaching of,

get this, not Derrick Bell, not Kimberly Crenshaw, not Richard Delgado, to kill a mockingbird, Harper Lee. That is like a staple of the American literary canon. And by the way, it's a white savior narrative and they still didn't like it. Like Atticus Finch is the white dude who comes in to save the black guy and I won't give away the ending as to whether it works or not

in case folk haven't read the book. But I mean, if you can't even accept To Kill a Mockingbird, which is about racism in 1934 Alabama, I think is the year, then if, and they couldn't, this person got up and said, they're teaching our children that black people have been oppressed. Well, if you can't even accept the idea that black people were oppressed 90 years ago in Alabama. How the hell did you get to eighth grade to the point where they asked you to even read that book? But that's where we're at because we're so used to being able to silence black people, to silence brown folks, to not have to consider their view or maybe just sprinkle their view a little bit, season up the dominant

narrative with some views from the outside. But the fact that other folks are saying, no, no, we're going to actually teach our view right there in the middle. We're going to have the 1619 Project read, you know, reimagine the actual founding and the origins of the country. That's not displacing the dominant narrative. It's saying you got to consider this perspective also. But if you've never had to do that, that feels like the end of the world. It is the definition of fragility. It is the definition of snowflake behavior, which I should point out are also white. And I don't think that's a coincidence. And the reason we're talking about this here because, look, our folks need to understand anything, anything deemed racial, they're going to attack. I'm writing a book on this very thing that's going

to come out next year called White Fear. The Browning of America is making white folks lose their minds. I mean, that's literally what and that's what's going on here. Donald Trump, his entire presidency was based upon that. He was pushing the racial buttons and all of this. And there's no coincidence, Tim, they need this to stoke white fear for next year's election. This is not by accident. They need white people to be upset and bothered. Here they come. They're marching. The migrants are coming here to kill us and take our jobs.

The black people, now they're teaching our kids, no, you can't teach our kids about systemic racism and Ainsley Earnhardt, because in our house, we love the Lord and it's all about God, but Ainsley, I bet your church is damn near all white. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, all the all the enslavers said they were Christians. I mean, what does that have to do with anything? You know, the golden rule has been around a really long time. I'm pretty sure that the folks that ran the plantations had heard of that one, you know, and yet oppression still was the norm.

So, folks, you know, we've always said, oh, treat every, you know, the Declaration of Independence. I mean, Thomas Jefferson said all men are created equal, but he owned a couple hundred folks when he wrote that. So he clearly didn't mean it. So the question is, are we going to are we going to just remember the the fictional hagiographic rah-rah cheerleader version of American history? Or are we going to be honest that the country has been one foundationally built on a contradiction, the promise of democracy, but the reality of oppression, the reality of democracy only for a few and marginalization for the rest? And if you can't deal with that, right, then what you're showing is that this

country and especially its white population is less emotionally mature than folks all around the world who have done a far better job at confronting their history. The Germans have done a better job. The South Africans post apartheid have done a better job. The Rwandans after the genocide have confronted that history. That history, and here we are a couple hundred years later, and we're still so consumed with the need to be the greatest country ever struck off from the forehead of God Almighty that we're not willing to look at the real damage that we've done, which means that we can't move forward. If you can't confront that pain and that past, you cannot move into the future a proud and confident nation and a pluralistic democracy. That's what's at stake. This isn't just an academic discussion. And Tim, I wonder how many of those white folks showing up at the Loudoun County School Board meeting, I wonder how many of them said, take those Confederate statues down. I wonder how many of them said, I'm not going to vote for a party that supports Confederate monuments,

that supports these things. You see the idiots who got busted in Texas, who were trying to actually, who didn't even know what the hell was in the deal, got thoroughly embarrassed on the floor. And then they, of course, lost. You know, what we're dealing with here is, and I keep telling people, this is not, I keep telling everybody this was not about Trump. This was about 2043. This is this is what's going to be happening. Not over the next 22 years. By the time we get 2043, we've made majority people of color. This is going to be a 5100 year battle because white America, America has been defined through the prism of whiteness. They have determined the beauty standards, the historical standards.

They have determined everything. And what is killing them is, damn, now more of them are on television hosting shows. More of them are in corporate America. More of them are teachers. We now have to put up with them having an opinion. Right, right. Well, you saw this story the other day out of Ohio, Memorial Day thing, right? Oh, yeah.

A 77 year old retired Lieutenant Colonel who's white, who just simply said, here's the history Memorial Day. Turn his mic. Turn his mic. We are not going to hear that. He is not talking about Hudson, Ohio veterans, turn his mic off. And he was like, it's just the actual history.

Right. Right. I mean, if you can't even let the old white dude tell you the truth, then you know, you're in trouble, right? They, they, they literally were so desirous of, of not allowing the centering of black people in any way that's positive. They don't mind centering black folks to be critical of black folks. They don't have any problem centering blackness to point out what they consider pathologies in black communities, families, and culture. But if you talk about the contributions of black people to this thing that you consider basic to your reality, Memorial Day, you know, basic to your reality Memorial Day. Oh, no, we can't hear that. So what that says is you hit it on the head that America is a de facto

white nationalist colony and always has been. And the fact that folks now are saying we have to confront and look at that is uncomfortable for them. They deny the foundations of the country and they say that to point them out is anti-white. But what we're pointing to are the things that the founders themselves said. You know, I often point out the very first thing that Congress did after the Constitution was ratified, before they raised taxes. The first thing, the number one, go ahead. The first thing they did after the Constitution was ratified, first order of business, the Naturalization Act of 1790.

What was that? It said all free white persons and only free white persons could be citizens of this country. So they were basically saying the most important thing we can do, we're not even going to congratulate ourselves on the Constitution. We're not going to get the army situation figured out, raise money for, no, no, we have to let you know this is a white country. They said it. That's not Derrick Bell saying it. That's not Kim Crenshaw saying it. That's not Richard Delgado, and it's not you and I. That's the founders of the

country, the first lawmakers that said, yes, this is white. And so if that's what your country's been for hundreds of years and folks actually say, no, really, it was never a white nation. Y'all just thought it was and you ran it like it was, then that becomes the source of division. And so these folks can say, you're the ones creating the division by bringing this up. But the division is in the Naturalization Act of 1790. The division was in the colonial creation of the concept of whiteness, which didn't exist in Europe before, quote unquote, white people came here. That's something that was created here. You cannot blame the pushback for the division, because the pushback was in response to the

original division. That's what white supremacy is. Tim, go to my computer, the American Legion Department of Ohio, just to show what happens when you act stupid. They've invited that retired Lieutenant Colonel to give his the same speech next week at their Buckeye Boys State, an annual gathering that teaches young men about government. See what happens? A very few people were actually at that Hudson, Ohio Memorial Day event. These idiots are so stupid. They actually made it bigger by turning off this microphone. I got to ask you this, which is a last question for you. We've had Jane Elliott on the show, and she's always great. What needs to be happening in white America? What, I mean, you know, are we seeing more Jane Elliotts, more Tim Wises?

What should be the, and I got white folks who watch this show. They email me. And I appreciate I had a white woman who emailed me the other day. She said she's learned more about black folks and about the actual history of America watching our show than she's ever had in her life, and she thanked me for doing this show. What should be happening in white America, in white churches? What should be happening in white households, white fraternities, the discussions that should be happening? What do you want to say to them?

Well, I mean, look, I guess the thing I would say is to white folks, do you feel a helplessness around this conversation, an inability to engage? You get anxiety when issues of race come up. The reason for that is lack of practice learning about, talking about, and thinking about these issues. If you don't like the discomfort created by the conversation, which I get, like if we had a conversation about calculus, I would be very uncomfortable because I never studied it and I don't understand it. Same is true here. For a lot of white folks, never having to think about the issue of white supremacy as a system

and its role in our own lives leaves us like the person that didn't take calculus. The problem is the only way you get better at it is to watch shows like yours, read the books that need to be read, and engage in the conversations. Challenge your family. Challenge your colleagues. Talk to your children. And if you're a child, talk to your parents, because sometimes the children are ahead of the parents in that regard, and ask some real fundamental questions about how did this church get to be so white? How did this school get to be so white? Why is this neighborhood so white? These are conversations that I had with my children. We would talk about this stuff from a very early age. Why are the Disney representations the way that they are? Media messages. What are the messages that kids pick up from all the media

that they ingest? There's lots of places to start, but you have to do that if you're going to get the practice necessary to have dexterity in racial conversations and to really be able to do what we call race talk, which is a kind of language. Because if you understand race talk, you wouldn't get upset when folks say white supremacy as a system. You wouldn't do the Brian Kilmeade. They're trying to destroy white culture. Well, wait, why do you identify with white supremacy? We were just talking about white supremacy. We didn't say Brian Kilmeade. We didn't say anything about you, Brian. Why are you getting defensive? Well, because you don't understand race talk. If you actually had been around black and brown folks talking about race, you would

realize it's not personal. This is business, right? This is not personal. It's not an attack on you. It's an attack on a system of thinking, a system of institutional reality. That's what we're trying to change. This is not about good people over here and bad people over here. Most folks are pretty good folks. But if you're a good person caught up in a bad system, you'll recreate the damage of that bad system. And what you're saying is not just to conservatives, because there are progressives, there are liberals, there are Democrats who do the exact same thing, and they go, but no, I support the NAACP and the UNCF.

No, no, no. But your whiteness also is peeking out from under the sheet, too. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. 100%. Tim Wise, we appreciate it, man. Always a pleasure having you on the show. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Go to my panel here. In fact, all three of my panel, Fox News loves to call y'all. They don't call Roland. Scott, Monique, and Rob Portillo, I see y'all showing up. And the relatives is here. Fox News is the leading voice of white nationalism and white supremacy in America. This is their calling card. You watch the crap that's spewing out of Tucker Carlson's mouth every night. It's white nationalism.

Laura Ingraham, same thing as well. And so, but they have their entire, and their whole deal, they're talking to older white people. Their entire ecosystem is built around, oh my God, they're coming after the white people. Monique, I'll start with you. Absolutely. And the host in the clip that we watched, he was just saying what people are thinking.

There wasn't anything, at least from my hearing, particularly provocative or surprising about that assessment. And I talk to people all the time who watch those shows and who at least now know enough to send me a clip and say, Monique, is this true? What do you think about? Because someone told me to, and they'll say something like somebody told them, listen to Candace Owens. She's a really great person and she's black and you need to hear her thoughts on all of this BLM foolishness or listen to so-and-so. And they have been watching Fox for so long, really when it wasn't the entire cesspool that it is now, that they rely on it. And it's the only place that they get their information. And so it is everything that Tim said is spot on. I can't add anything to it. We are in a position right now where they believe that they are being attacked when all other people are trying to do is live and share space and breathe.

And that is set up as an attack. Historically, it's being passed down through generations in families who are used to being in a position of power, even poor and broke in a position of power, being better than. And to share space, to share air, to share breath, to share money, to share opportunities is seen as something that has to be avoided at all costs. And we see that from the Senate to the barrio. Robert, what is happening here and the reason we're talking about this, and it's important that we do talk about it because our folks need to understand this constant attack on woke, woke, woke, woke corporations. I was watching, I was looking, I was earlier, I saw Ron DeSantis who was whining and complaining about corporations

who have been involved against a lot of these issues out here. And he's like, you know, these woke companies, and what's wrong with them, and how dare they stand up to us and see again what they're mad about. They're mad that we're not flexing our muscle. Listen to this. Some Republican governors are hesitant to sign legislation like you did. I think it's just corporate pressure. I think the corporations have gotten very woke.

They tend to genuflect for whatever the most recent left-wing causes because they just don't like getting the blowback. They don't want to be the subject of a social media mob or things like that. And so I think that they've taken that posture, but you can't let them, like some woke corporation, you're going to turn... See, here's why I think that they've taken that posture, but you can't let them like some woke corporation. You're going to see. Here's why I think that's utterly hilarious, because I recall when conservatives boycotted Disney over gays. I remember folks on the right boycotting the Phil Donahue show, boycotting Shirley Jesse Raphael and all these other different shows. So it's amazing. I really crack up at the folks who complain about cancel culture who were experts at cancel culture. Well, to that point, Roland, remember when they were bulldozing two live crew albums

and everything else, and now they're complaining about cancel culture. But look, this is a long, ongoing discussion that we've been having. 711 AD, Tariq the Moor was completing his conquest of the Visigothic empires of northern Africa, and then crossed over the Straits of Gibraltar into southern what's now Hispania, and conquered Cordoba and many of the other cities, and then moved on up through the Iberian Peninsula until they came into conflict with Charles de Hammer, grandfather of Charlemagne. Since then, they have hated black folks. They have been afraid of black empires, the Umayyad Caliphate, conquering their cities, destroying their civilization, teaching them to read, teaching them to write, teaching them to bathe. And they've created this

narrative of blackness overtaking whiteness with their advanced technology and their advanced math. And that's why they've continued to subjugate over the centuries. You can look at even the Ottomans and their conquest of Vienna going into 1592 and other times when nearly all of Europe was destroyed. And, you know, there were times where the Arab empires and northern African empires were sitting boats over enslaved people in Iceland, enslaved people in northern Europe going all the way up until the 17th and 1800s. Because of that, they've created this narrative in their mind that they have to continuously oppress and keep down black people because the minute that they have any strength, any power, any ability, the minute they learn who they really are,

then they're going to stand up and turn right back into Tariq the Moor and we'll be right back banging on those gates of Vienna and there will be no Charles V or no Holy League to come save them. I sent you guys a text message in the group chat because I talked about this on Fox a couple days ago. And they get very upset at Black people when they talk about who you really are, and they have no way of separating in their minds you having a conversation about what Black people are

and who we are and what we need, and you attacking whiteness and calling them racist. There is no middle ground for them. Either they are dominant or you are calling them a racist and you are something to be destroyed. So we have to start re-educating them, re-educating them from the bottom up. And the way that that has to happen is we have to stand up for ourselves, speak up for ourselves, tell our true history, and not bow down and start scraping and bowing like Candace Owens and some of these others every time someone criticizes us. They adore, they adore a minstrel show that echoes what they say and attacks

Black people. They adore Candace Owens. They have loved a Larry Elder, a Jesse Lee Peterson. They just love a Brandon Tatum. Then, of course, now you have Leo Terrell just embarrassing himself on a nightly basis on Fox News. They love that because it's like, see, they said it, and now we can quote them. Now we can quote them.

And see, those are the good blacks. They're the good blacks. See, they're the except. We can invite them to dinner. Honey, you can marry one of them. No. Well, but look, Roland, they fit that narrative, right?

They fit that narrative. But let's take it a step even deeper. That fear that you're writing about in your book, the reason, in my opinion, white people fear 2043 so much and don't want to give up anything and want to suppress the black vote is because their whole narrative and existence tells them that if we become a country of color, that black people watch this white supremacist thought process, that if they're not in the majority, that black people are going to treat them the way they treat black people or have treated black people because that's all they know. All they know is that oppression.

And last time I checked, I don't really think there are black people out here in mass who hate white people because of their color. They may not like white people because of how black people have been treated and oppressed for 400 years. But it's not rooted in the desire to fight them or to oppress them because we've been oppressed for 400 years, but it's not rooted in the desire to fight them or to oppress them because we've been oppressed for 400 years. The reason they won't support legislation for H.R. 1 is because they know if they support that and that gets passed, most of them believe that they will never win another federal election ever again. And the irony is that this is all about democracy, one man, one vote. That legislation shouldn't be offensive to anybody. But they're consumed with power and holding on to it because they know

2043 is coming. It's a concession on their part as you walk through the analysis. And so the hypocrisy of it all is just offensive. But they're not getting out of their comfort zone. Their white narrative is what that narrative is. And Tim Wise was just outstanding on the show. You ought to have him back more. Because if you don't know race talk, then you're ignorant, right? You're ignorant. Monique, why are you laughing?

Yeah. Scott never fails to tell you what the hell to do on your show. He is hilarious. Oh. But anyway, let me go on. Let me just spin a little bit. I don't know how you do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You ought to have him back on more. White people really believe that expanding the power base, expanding America, is a bad thing because they're losing something that they never earned. They never earned it. But they think their white privilege,

which drives their narrative, they think they earned that because they've been told that for 400- plus years. You have on your show who you want to have on. I was just suggesting it because he's just such a powerful speaker. Look, Roland,

I think it's important. Of course I'm going to have on who the hell I want to have on. Robert, go ahead. I'll give that. Robert, go ahead. What we view and what is expressed as hatred is actually fear. It's not that they hate black people. They fear black people.

Prior to the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain, they were dominated by the Romans for hundreds of years. And most of that math and technology and architecture is stuff that they got from the black and the Arab world. You have Roman or black Roman emperors, so on and so forth. When the white people rediscovered what the black Romans had built hundreds of years later, they thought it was built by giants because they could not understand the technology. They could not understand the mathematics that were used. When you're built, we give credit to Pythagorean theorem. When we were using the Pythagorean theorem in Africa thousands of years ago.

So they fear what a fully actualized black man can be in this country. And every bit of them is about suppressing knowledge, suppressing education, keeping those books closed. There's a reason they want slaves reading because they were afraid of what would happen when we have knowledge of ourselves. And that's why, folks, we use this opportunity with our Crazy Ads by People segment to show you this. This is the idiotic congresswoman from Arizona, Lauren Boebert, trying to question a sister, the acting White House budget director, Shalonda Young, and asking her about Joe Biden's request when it comes to the wall. If y'all want to see what Black intellect and patience looks like with a clueless white woman, press play.

I think the one question I have for you, Director, and most Americans have for this president and this administration is just how long will you be ceding the southern border to the cartels? I'd like to remind everyone who cares about where the border funding came from last administration, we are returning the billions of dollars that were taken from our men and women and troops in uniform for the southern border work. So this administration is returning Department of Defense money that bipartisan members decried as taking critical projects. Excuse me, reclaiming my time. We're not talking about the funding that was taken away right now. We are currently paying contractors to not build.

I asked you, how long will you be ceding the southern border to the cartels? That is my question to you, Director. Well, given the bipartisan concern from the stealing from DOD, I thought it was important to highlight that and also highlight that we are moving away from an unsustainable border wall that has not worked to technology, as you pointed out. Reclaiming my time.

Reclaiming my time. I need you to answer the question that I'm asking you. This is my time. How long will you be ceding our southern border to the cartels? That's not a question with an assumption in which I'm going to assume. So we can certainly talk about the reassessment. Our time is up. Thank you very much, Director.

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Monique Monique Monique Monique Monique Monique Monique Monique Monique Monique Monique Monique Monique Monique there are all kinds of assumptions in it that i'm not going to go along with in order to answer it but i mean these are just not the they they could at least send out the best or the brightest but i do i do get it that with the marjorie's and with the lauren's of the world um the stupidity is part of the draw because the people who follow them do not like smart people. They don't like intellectuals. They don't like well-educated. They relate to people who they think they can identify with. And that has always been lost on me because I am interested in voting for

and having people lead me in any area who no more have gone farther, who've studied harder, who can do things that I can't do. I mean, that's the whole point in leadership, but that is not what the masses who follow these people are interested in. They are interested in something that is very much like them. Yeah. And so, folks, we just need to understand what's at play, what's going on. But y'all need to understand the strategy. What we are seeing, what we're seeing is deliberate by Fox News, OANN, Newsmax, and all the conservative talk radio. And this has been the case since Rush Limbaugh and all of them.

By design, they have to stoke white fear in order to keep the racket going. That's what Ann Coulter has always done. That's what Laura Ingram does. Megyn Kelly loves trying to run her mouth, commenting on stuff. Megyn, you played the exact same game, too, because you were a part of that Fox News ecosystem. That is what drives the Fox News engine. Folks, you just got to understand the game that's at play.

And so we're going to go to break. We come back. We're going to talk about Kasim Reed, who is, of course, announced, who's planning to run for mayor again. Shirley Franklin, previous mayor? She ain't too keen on that idea. Also, we'll talk with our Tech Talk segment

where we talk with African Americans who live in technology space. That's next. Roland Martin, Unfiltered. Hello, I'm Nina Turner. My grandmother used to say, all you need in life are three bones. The wishbone to keep you dreaming,

the jawbone to help you speak truth to power, and the backbone to keep you standing through it all. I'm running for Congress because you deserve a leader who will stand up fearlessly on your behalf. Together, we will deliver Medicare for all. Good jobs that pay a living wage and bold justice reform. I'm Nina Turner, and I approve this message.

Before Till's murder, we saw struggle for civil rights as something grown-ups did. I feel that the generations before us have offered a lot of instruction. Organizing is really one of the only things that gives me the sanity and makes me feel purposeful. When Emmett Till was murdered,

that's what attracted our attention. Hi, my name is Latoya Luckett. Yo, it's your man Deon Cole from Black-ish, and you're watching... Roland Martin, unfiltered. Stay woke. All right, folks. Healthy Hip Hop is an app with a platform for kid-friendly hip hop music production and songwriting. The music highlights concepts that will inspire children to learn healthy habits,

such as learning to use the toilet, healthy dieting, and positive affirmations. The creator of the Healthy Hip-Hop app is Roy Scott. He joins us right now. Roy, how you doing? I'm outstanding. Thank you so much for having me. All right. So where did the idea for the app come from?

Well, it really started because I was deep in hip-hop as far as being an artist, a gangster rap artist, but then had my light bulb moment when I noticed my son, Justice, he was about four years old. He was repeating my music word for word. That music promoted drugs, violence, misogyny, and that was just my light bulb moment. I couldn't be this kind of influence on my son or anybody else,

and that inspired healthy hip-hop, and we evolved and grown into a tech company. Wow, so you had that particular light bulb moment, and so when you begin to put all of these things together, I mean, obviously the lyrics was one thing, but you've looked at just multiple ways of defining health. Right, so it's really the overall health of the child. We're about the whole child development.

So we know that music is very influential on kids, on people, period. It impacts mood, behavior, attitude. And so especially hip hop, it is the most consumed and most influential genre in the world right now. And we just found a space where it's not specifically being used geared towards kids. And so this is a niche that we really thought we could fill the void of creating culturally relevant hip hop that's not watered down. A real authentic experience, but that is really safe for children and families. And so, obviously, you also talk about dieting as well. That's interesting. Absolutely, because, again, it's about taking care of your mental and physical health. So we want to reach kids at a very early age with these positive messages to teach them about,

you know, making healthier food choices, being more physically active, and being able to positively contribute to society. How many downloads have you had thus far? So right now, we're right over 6,000 active users on the app. We're still in what you would consider a public beta. The app is live on both iOS and Android, but still really testing it out and getting a real feel for what's getting the most engagement, doing some deep customer discovery on what parents are willing to pay for and teachers. And so we're getting prepared for a full launch this coming fall. But right now, you can still download the app on both iOS and Android.

Questions for my panel. I'll start with you, Robert Petillo. When it comes to this generation, you know, this is the tech generation. They grow up with an iPhone in their hand from two or three years old and a tablet shortly thereafter. Because of that, they do have access to pretty much every piece of information and music and TikTok video on earth. How do you feel, how do you convince those young people to come over to a healthy and educational platform versus doing TikTok challenges to, you know, throw babies or something? Absolutely. So this is the first, as you mentioned, this is the first generation of fully native Internet and social media using children. And so within our platform, we created this safe circle technology where children can create, publish, and share in a secure environment. And so our goal is to really create this family experience. So we want to get the parents excited

about, you know, creating these moments. And so now this engagement happens where the parents are more driving these kids. Say, okay, well, I know you have access to everything else, but here's a safe alternative where you can actually, you know, listen to the music, create your videos. But the parents don't have to worry about their kids being exposed to other content within our platform. And so really pushing this narrative to the parents to encourage them to use the technology to create these moments and then do that within our platform. Scott Bolden, your question. Hey, good evening. What's your metric for success beyond how many people use it,

how many people sign up? Ultimately, as an entrepreneur, you want to grow to your level of business competence vis-a-vis the product. But how do you measure whether you're getting, you're reaching your goals and objectives vis-a-vis the basis for why you started this initiative. Right. Well, there's a couple of ways. On the business side of it, obviously, it's about getting more people on the application, securing more contracts, really scaling up our operations, because our ultimate goal is to be an iconic children's brand at Urban Disney. But in regards to the social impact, we work a lot with schools, school districts, hospitals, and really it's about providing the tools to the educators to get them to use healthy hip-hop to start their day

with these morning energizers, doing brain breaks throughout the day. So we work a lot. We have a lot of direct connectivity with educators who are in the trenches with these kids every day, as well as working in hospitals. And that's the way, really, as far as like the social impact, we're gauging that because we can also track a lot of but it's mostly about the direct interaction with educators and parents. Much luck to you.

Monique, your question. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. more, you know, downloading the app, interacting, playing the music for the kids in their home, obviously on car drives, things like that, really interacting with healthy hip hop and our characters right now. So we actually just closed a round of funding, but we opened up a Republic campaign. So this is regulated crowdfunding where it allows everyday people to actually act as angel investors. And so we opened this up because, as we know,

black and brown entrepreneurs have only been accessed to like 1% of the multi-billion dollars of capital that's being dispersed in the tech arena. And so through Republic, it's allowing everyday individuals to become investors. So not only become consumers of healthy hip hop, but now you can invest and be a part of this early stage tech company.

So as we grow, you now have shares in our company. All right, then, as you said, it's available on iOS and Apple App Store plus Google Play as well. Roy Scott, we appreciate it, man. Good luck with the app. All right. Thank you. Appreciate you for having me. All right, folks. And that's why we have this segment opportunity to provide black folks in tech to be able to share their stories. Let's go to Atlanta. Former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has filed paperwork to run again for his old job. Documents filed with the Georgia Ethics Commission

will allow Reed to start accepting political contributions for the 2021 race. He jumped in one month after current mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced she wouldn't be seeking a second term. Reed was Atlanta's mayor from 2010 to 2018, and his administration was under federal investigation into city contracts and finances. Reid will face off against the president of the Atlanta City Council, Felicia Moore, and two other council members, Antonio Brown and Andre Dickens. They are already taking shots at him for that corruption investigation. And in addition to that, Mayor Shirley Franklin put out a statement saying that he failed as a leader as a result of that as well. Ouch. So expect that to be quite an interesting race taking place in Atlanta. And so we'll see who else jumps in. Like I say, a lot of folks are gonna be jumping

into that particular race. All right, folks, let's go to another story here, and that is in Atlanta, the family of an eight-year-old black girl who was killed last year doing protests for which Rayshard Brooks filed a lawsuit against the city. What has happened, attorneys for the family of Sequoia Turner held a news conference demanding justice for the young girl who was shot

one year ago near Wendy's, where Brooks was shot in the back by an Atlanta police officer. We are here today to announce the filing of a lawsuit on behalf of the family of Sequoia Turner.

Her life is priceless. We're forced to live through this day by day. We deserve justice. Someone needs to be held accountable. So the first tragic is that we lost an eight year old girl. The second tragedy is it was preventable. And what we've learned in our discovery from the beginning of this case is that there was opportunity after opportunity and notice after notice,

not only from the Wendy's owners and operators, but from the city, the mayor, city council, and the police department to do something about this, And they failed to do that. The lawsuit filed with the Fulton County State Court, named Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Police Chief Rodney Bryant, City Council Member Joyce Shepard, and Wendy's International as plaintiffs. Also, folks, it's going to Tulsa where 15 new burials are discovered there. Since the exhumation began in October, a total of 27 graves with what's believed

to be the remains of victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre have been found. More remains are expected to be uncovered as the digging moves west. Once the bodies are exhumed, the city and its public oversight committee will determine the next steps for storing remains, DNA testing, genealogical research,

commemorating the grave sites, and honoring the remains. So certainly a sad case there. And speaking of sad, as the pioneer who sparked the 1953 bus boycott in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has died. At 23 years old, Martha White had just gotten off work and caught the bus home. When she sat in one of the only bus seats available, she realized it was designated for white passengers. The driver demanded her to get up, but she refused, and another black woman sat beside her in solidarity. Once the driver pulled over and attempted to have White arrested, she told him about a recently passed ordinance to

desegregate buses in the city. In response to the ordinance, bus drivers across the city were on strike. As a result, the ordinance was overturned, which prompted a bus boycott by the black community. White provided the framework for the Montgomery bus boycott influenced by Rosa Parks in 1955. Martha White died at the age of 99. That right there is one of those examples, Robert, where people who don't understand history. This took place in Louisiana in 1953. Just like the lunch counter, there was a lunch before what took place at the four North Carolina A&T students when the late Dr. Ron Walters led the Wichita, Kansas chapter of the NAACP, the youth division. He led a lunch counter boycott there

in Wichita. So even though we think about the sit-ins in 1960 or the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, there were precursors. And in Montgomery, they studied that Baton Rouge boycott, and it did provide them with an understanding of what to do in Montgomery. Well, you know, you're completely right. And this is why it's so important, going back to the conversation we were having earlier about the fears of critical race theory, that we do give people a proper and actual education. The way that we teach black history in this country, I call it the black history fairy tale. One day, Abraham Lincoln got up, decided he wanted to end slavery. So him and Martin Luther King met with Rosa Parks.

So they got on the bus and rode from Selma to Montgomery. Then they went to Washington for the I Have a Dream speech. Then by noon, Barack Obama was president and racism was over. That's the way to teach civil rights in this country. But there are legends, there are lions, there are titans who gave everything, gave their entire lives and livelihoods to this struggle to bring us to where we are today, who are not in history books, who are not remembered. And if you think it's bad for Black folks, white people have absolutely no idea or concept what happened or how brutal things were. So it's important that we venerate these people, we tell their stories, we tell the legends, we pass down this information.

Because when I see Black Lives Matter in the streets and this generation of activists, I understand that when you see these shirts saying, I am not my ancestors, the only reason you would say that is if you don't know what your ancestors did. And because we have not educated them, they do not know how to go forward and they end up retreading much of the same territory that had been walked before instead of building upon what has been done previously. So it's important that even if you have white folks storming the school board meeting saying they don't want any education on race, we have to teach those legends and pass down that information. We are the griot. We are the ones who have to push that knowledge forward

because if we don't do it, it will die out and these people will be forgotten and their sacrifices left behind. And I think it's vital, Monique, that we understand the Martha Whites of the world. She died at 99. And unfortunately, we lionize a few people without understanding. And I say this all the time. We have the annual event around MLK's birthday, that the birth, the national birthday of Reverend Arthur Martin Luther King Jr. It's not about him.

It's about the movement. And when he won the Nobel Peace Prize, he accepted the award on behalf of the movement, which is why he also shared the proceeds of the movement and it did not sit well with Coretta Scott King, but that's why he did it. And so the monument, the monument to Dr. King in Washington, D.C., it's not just to him.

It's really to the movement. And we should always remember the Martha Whites of the world in addition to the Rosa Parks of the world. And of course, Claudia Colvin as well, the young woman in Montgomery who actually took the seat before Rosa Parks did, but they determined for other reasons why they wanted to go with Rosa Parks. Absolutely. I couldn't say it any better than Robert already has, especially the part about our ancestors and anyone who wants to say that they're better, stronger, badder, more willing to fight than our ancestors has no clue why even the ones who did not fight, who stayed in homes and in jobs so that we can do what we're doing right now. All we owe is debt. There's no room to besmirch

any of those names. And so I appreciate, frankly, shows like this where people can get that education. And we find, especially among our white brothers and sisters, that sometimes it isn't nationalism or supremacy. It's that they don't want to face what was. And it's so much easier to wash it than to face it. And we simply cannot allow for that. The only way forward is if we are in full view of what we were so that we do not repeat it. Scott. Yeah, just real quick. I agree with my colleagues. These were the foot soldiers of the civil rights movement. And the real power, in my opinion, as I learn more and read more, was not just Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and Rosa Parks, as you said, but every state or almost every state created a movement within that state or within their cities because they believed in the

nonviolent movement. They believed in the civil rights movement. But without those foot soldiers, who all of their stories still haven't been told, without those foot soldiers, the movement just wouldn't have been a movement. It would have been spotty here and there. And we need to be not only telling their stories, but we need to be writing about their stories, because you'll see so many of them are of that age in the 80s and 90s or older who you've never heard about or I've never heard about or our kids haven't, and yet they were intricate and vital to the transformation of this country as a result of the civil rights movement. And we need to write more about them, the unknown foot soldiers of the movement.

Absolutely, absolutely. But that's why we do what we do here on this show, folks. We want you all to support what we do by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar you give goes to support this show, goes to support the work that we do. You can, of course, give to us via Cash App, dollar sign RM Unfiltered, PayPal.me forward slash RM Unfiltered. I wish I could get a hat. Scott, stop talking, stop talking.

I'm going to get you a muzzle. PayPal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered. Venmo.com forward slash rmunfiltered. Zelle is roland at rolandsmartin.com or roland at rolandmartinunfiltered.com. Folks, we've got some great things coming up. I can't wait to show you. I was just over there the other day. We're very busy on our new office space. We'll be broadcasting from our new office space on July 5th, Monday, July 5th. And so it's going to be great to actually to be there. And so we

look forward to that. And so your dollars goes to make that possible. In addition, for us to be able to travel around this country, to cover the stories that we know are important to our community folks thanks a bunch we're going to be seeing you tomorrow robert uh thanks a lot uh monique thanks a lot uh and i guess scott thank you very much as well you gonna thank me too all right now my man my brother thank you roland love me you just have a hard time showing it i'm going to... You know what? I'm just going to rescind that. So, Monique and Robert, thank you so much for joining us today on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Folks, I'll see y'all tomorrow.

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