#RolandMartinUnfiltered - MLB pulls All-Star Game from ATL; Capitol lockdown after attack; Damning testimony in Chauvin trial

Episode Date: April 3, 2021

4.2.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: MLB pulls All-Star Game from ATL over Ga. voter suppression bill; Capitol on lockdown after car-attack; Mlps. Police lieutenant delivers damning testimony in Chauvin trial; Fight for voters' rights continues in Georgia and Texas; Coronavirus cases are on the rise, are we in the midst of a fourth wave? March jobs report is out with some good and bad news; How much of President Biden's stimulus bill will go to education?Support #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.

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Pre-game to greater them. Let's put ourselves in the right position, pregame to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org, brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Today is Friday, April 2nd, 2021. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Voter suppression by Republicans in Georgia has cost Atlanta the 2021 All-Star Game as Major League Baseball pulls out of the Peach State. We'll talk with Howard Bryan of ESPN about the ramifications of this decision. The U.S. Capitol is on lockdown after a Capitol Police officer was killed in a car attack.

A court and a man was killed by police there, affiliated with the Nation of Islam. The murder trial of Derek Chauvin wraps up this week with some of the most damning testimony from a Minneapolis police lieutenant. And the fight for voter rights continues in Georgia and Texas, especially Texas, where corporations are coming out against voter suppression bills there. Coronavirus cases are on the rise. Is this the fourth wave?

We'll talk with Dr. Ebony Hilton about that. The Giles Report dropped today, and there's good news and bad news. We'll talk with economist Dr. William Spriggs on how much of President Joe Biden's stimulus bill will go to education. We'll discuss that in our Education Matters segment. It is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing.

Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's on go, go, go, yo. It's rolling, Martin, yeah. Yeah, yeah. yeah, yeah. It's Roland Martin. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Rolling with Roland now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Roland Martin now. Martin. Martin. Breaking news today, folks. At Major League Baseball, they announced they are pulling its summer all-star game out of suburban Atlanta in response to Republican-backed election laws in Georgia that curtailed voting access in the state. The decision by Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred came after days of pressure from civil rights groups and the major league baseball players association. This is what the statement released today by Manfred reads.

Over the last week, we have engaged in thoughtful conversations with clubs, former and current players, the players association and the players alliance among others to listen to their views. I've decided that the best way, the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year's All-Star Game and MLB draft. Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box.

In 2020, MLB became the first professional sports league to join the nonpartisan Civic Alliance to help build a future in which everyone participates in shaping the United States. We proudly use our platform to encourage baseball fans and communities throughout our country to perform their civic duty and actively participate in the voting process. Fair access to voting continues to have our games unwavering support. We will continue with our plans to celebrate the memory of Henry Hank Aaron during this season's All-Star festivities. In addition, MLB's planned investments to support local communities in Atlanta as part of our All-Star legacy projects will move forward. We are finalizing a new host city and details about

these events will be announced shortly. Now, the Atlanta Braves also released their statement, not quite what you would expect, but maybe you would. Go to my iPad, please. This is how it reads. The Atlanta Braves are deeply disappointed by the decision of Major League Baseball to move its 2021 All-Star game. This was neither our decision nor our recommendation, and we are saddened that fans will not be able to see this event in our city. The Braves organization, guys, go back to the iPad, please. Thank you. The Braves organization will continue to stress the importance of equal voting opportunities, and we had hoped our city could use this event as a platform to enhance the discussion. Our city has always been known as a uniter in divided times,

and we will miss the opportunity to address issues that are important to our community. Unfortunately, businesses, employees, and fans in Georgia are the victims of this decision. We will continue to support the community legacy projects which have been planned and are in progress. Joining us right now is ESPN writer Howard Bryan. He also is the author of a book on Henry Aaron. Howard, first and foremost, Henry Aaron was someone who believed in civil rights, and I wouldn't be surprised if he was still living. He would tell Major League Baseball, thank you, stand for voting rights, because some things are bigger than entertainment. Yeah, no question about that. And I think that baseball found itself in a box. What were you going to do? Are you really going to

celebrate Jackie Robinson Day on April 15th? Are you going to celebrate Hank Aaron Day on April 8th when he broke the record 1974 in Atlanta? Are you going to have an all-star game that celebrates the memory of Henry with this looming over you? And I think what it really does come back down to is baseball recognizing that aligning yourself with this narrative of voter fraud is bad for business, and it's not going to help them, and that it's kryptonite for them, and that they knew that they weren't going to be able to talk their way out of this. And I don't really think, Roland, before we get too deep into this, I'm not sure. I'm sure this is not player-based. This is

business-based. This is the league and the union recognizing ahead of time. This is not really a player movement. There are no players who are really in front of this, maybe a little bit behind the scenes. But I think this is the business of Major League Baseball, the industry of Major League Baseball, really siding with civic institution, the civic institution of democracy and of voting, realizing we can't side with this narrative of voter fraud. And the thing here, and let's just be real, OK, Republicans did this because they lost. This was not, OK, we found massive voter fraud. No, there wasn't voter fraud. This is about penalizing folks in Georgia, especially black people who turn out to vote.

And this is real simple. And I know Fox News is going to absolutely. First of all, Fox News is going to field day to day with this decision. And I remember the Nation of Islam ran against Carr, killing a Capitol Hill police officer. And so they're going to be on cloud nine. But the bottom line is here. These white men, these Republicans, need to understand this ain't the same America. We have power and are going to flex it. And that's what caused the Delta CEO to change his statement, the Coca-Cola CEO to change his statement. And down in Texas, the companies, they saw what happened in Georgia. So American Airlines got out front of the voter

suppression law there. They didn't wait for it to get signed into law. They came out and saying, no, no, we're against it right now. Well, I think they know how it looks. Absolutely. But what I'm saying is I'm not disagreeing with that at all. I think that the organizations, the leagues themselves, know that ahead of time. What I'm saying is that this movement wasn't driven by players necessarily. And I don't think the industry of baseball wanted to chance it, because then once you get the players involved now, you've

got a really embarrassing situation. How do you feel about having an all-star game in Atlanta, supposedly honoring Hank Aaron, and then the players pulling a wildcat strike or something like that? They knew that they had to do something ahead of time. And the difference is that even if all of these elements were the same, even if the vote had been the same, even if the legislation had been the same, I think a lot of these industries believe that they could talk their way around it and that they could survive the fallout of it. And now I think they realize that they can't. Right. And I think that's what has changed. And folks need to understand, I was yesterday, Amanda Carpenter, who is a conservative. She's a commentator on CNN.

She was, you know, highly critical of people talking about boycotting Georgia. And I had to give Amanda a history lesson. I had to walk her through the history of boycotts and sports and things along those lines, trying to explain to her how these things work. First of all, the Super Bowl was canceled in Phoenix after Arizona declined to make MLK Day a state holiday. The NCAA did not do any of their championships in South Carolina for 15 years, joining with the NAACP because of the flag flying above the state capitol. In Mississippi, the NCAA said there will be no championships in your state as long as that Confederate flag is on the flag. So we have a history where, again, this has gone on 15, 20 years, where pressure has been applied to major sporting events saying, hey, you don't do this, you're going to have a serious problem.

And so there's precedent here. Well, Roland, let's not forget. I mean, how far back do you want to go? Let's not forget 1965. You have the AFL All-Star game that was moved from New Orleans to Houston Let's not forget, I mean, how far back do you want to go? Let's not forget 1965. You have the AFL All-Star game that was moved from New Orleans to Houston because the black players couldn't get taxis and hotel accommodations. And in Atlanta in general, the Milwaukee Braves, the only reason they moved to Atlanta in the first place was because they were guaranteed

by the city that Atlanta Fulton County Stadium was going to be integrated, that there was not going to be segregated seating there. Otherwise, the Braves don't even move to Atlanta. And obviously, you can just go back four years ago, go back to 2017, the NBA All-Star Game with the bathroom bill. They moved the All-Star Game from Charlotte. So absolutely, these things are absolutely, there's history here. And we know that it's a long history. And we also know that it's an appropriate history in a lot of ways, because these stadiums are publicly financed. And because they're publicly financed, it's not as though it's simply just a private decision

that these leagues can make. There is pressure to be applied here. And I think there's something else that needs to be considered, too. And that is we are seeing the backlash already that this law, it's not just a backlash against losing. It's also a backlash against the players. We knew last year that the Atlanta Dream players were they changed the election between Warnock and Loeffler. We know this and that this was a response to that as well. And so at some point, it would have been very interesting to see what the players are going to do moving forward, because it's not just the sensation of creating some sort of change in the vote in the moment. It's also being prepared to mobilize when the

backlash comes. And as we're seeing right now, this is part of the backlash. And what's also interesting here, Howard, you've got Republicans in more than 40 states proposing voter suppression bills. Texas may very well pass a similar bill to Georgia. It's already passed the Texas state Senate. Florida is considering this. You have other states. So this also puts other states on notice. You might start losing major sporting events, major conventions due to voter suppression. So it's like, which one you want? Do you like money or do you like Jim Crow voter bills? Well, it also puts the players on notice as well, is that if you're going to announce yourself that

you're going to be involved in this, it's not a one day thing. Are you in or are you not in? Absolutely. Absolutely. So I certainly applaud Major League Baseball's decision. You're absolutely right. They got ahead of this. They didn't wait for the players union to release a statement saying, let's bounce out. Tony Clark, of course, did say he would be talking to players. But this was, again, a move that also came after President Joe Biden gave an interview where he supported pulling the All-Star game out. That also gave them some cover. Of course, the governor and Brian Kemp is not happy at all. Again, all of these white male conservatives won't be happy.

Yeah, but Roland, I'm sorry to interrupt you. There's one other thing that we really should consider with this, too, when we talk about this being player-driven or not being player-driven, is that baseball is the most conservative of the three major sports in America, not including hockey, obviously. But because I don't think that the players, if you put it to a vote to the players themselves in Major League Baseball, I don't think this game gets moved.

That's what I'm saying. This is not player-driven. Oh, no, no, I agree. This is corporate-driven. I think that the players would have absolutely allowed this game to be played because Tony Clark doesn't have the membership to vote this thing out. Yeah, baseball is an overwhelmingly white sport, a white male conservative sport, but you're absolutely right.

But this also shows the power, what I keep saying, the power of external pressure being applied. And basically it's saying to companies, y'all got to pick. You're going to stand with them or you're going to stand with what's right. Y'all have, they can't dance around it. And in fact, you know, Delta and Coca-Cola and others tried to dance around it. The Georgia Chamber of Commerce tried to dance around it when it was being considered. And they really didn't come out until after it passed and they got that heat.

But that's why the external pressure matters. Yeah, no question. Howard Bryant, ASPN, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Folks, you want to get his book on Henry Aaron. Absolutely great. And also, Howard, title of your book that deals with sports activism. That is The Heritage, Black Athletes, a Divided America,

and the Politics of Patriotism from 2018. So to Control Room, do me a favor. Y'all be sure to grab both of those book covers, and I'll flash it later in the show. So, Hal, we'll try to get you some royalties. I need my slices of pizza. Huh? I said I need my slices of pizza.

That's my royalty. All right, we'll hook you up. I appreciate it, brother. Thanks a lot. Thanks, man. All right, let's go. Appreciate it. Always a pleasure.

Let's go to our panel who joins us right now to talk about this decision. And we'll get to other events in the news. First off, Mike Imhotep, who joins us right now. He, of course, African History Network. We also have Candace Kelly, legal analyst, and Xavier Pope, host of Suit Up News, owner of the Pope Law Firm. Folks, glad to have all three of you here. Candace, I want to start with you. You heard what Howard said there.

This was a corporate-driven decision. Bottom line is pressure busts pipes. That's right. As you said, you can get with this or you can get with that. You can't have both, though. You can't have these, you know, Jim Crow voter suppression laws, as well as have all the funds and all of the, you know, host conferences and games in a state that's representative of the Jim Crow era in terms of what they're doing. So when you want to make a change, you have to go in for the money. And the money is the jugular. It's a shame the

statement that was made by one of the, by the Braves, because it was very lukewarm and it didn't really hit the nail on the head. But the mobilization is key. And just like what was spoken in the second before, you can't just have a one-off. You have to mobilize and understand that this is not the end of it. As you said, next comes Texas, then comes Florida, then come a lot of other states in terms of people who have the attention of the Republicans in order to get this passed. So mobilization is going to be key around this, and I think that we're going to see other states follow suit in terms of pulling the money and having corporate sponsorship

do what it needs to do in order to make change, or else they will get hit by the people who are voting, because the people who are voting are the people who are giving the money to conference and stadium places that exist, that host these types of things to begin with. Bottom line here, Xavier, this is black folks and others telling white folks, this ain't going to be business as usual. Yeah, we're not taking it anymore. The big thing, Roland, is the 23 states that are controlled by a governor, state senate, state congress.

So those issues are going to be significant, especially in a state like Texas, that there is a very small impediment to these laws being passed. And so you talked about external pressure, pressure plus pipes. Those are the places that external pressure is going to matter the most with the with the least opposition to the state's passing bills like that. So black folks that we're not taking it anymore. We are. This state is flip blue. We're going to stay blue and we're going to make sure that corporations are going to be held responsible if they be if they're going to be able to stay in states and support laws that suppress the vote. I love that these conservatives are being driven crazy, Michael. I love it. Well, Roland, between this story and sugar daddy Matt Gaetz being in trouble, oh, this

is a bad good Friday for conservatives. But I'm here for it. I'm loving it. This is what we've been talking about for almost five weeks now. I'll say it. Look, we have to leverage our economics to enforce our politics. We have to pull out all the stops. They've declared war on us. Not only

are they trying to take us back to the plantation, but Brian Kemp signed SB 202 underneath the painting of a famous slave plantation in Georgia, the Callaway Plantation. So they're not playing with us. And the last stat I heard is 47 states now where the GOP have these voter restriction bills based upon the lie.

So we go back to, as your guest just said, we go back to 2017 when the NBA moved the All-Star game from Charlotte, OK, from Charlotte, North Carolina. There's a history of this. All right. But then we go back to and I have to keep bringing this up. You go back to the state of Indiana, 2015, the transgender bathroom bill. There was so much corporate pressure that the state legislature changed the bill after about a week. There was so much corporate pressure. Okay. So this is just the first warning shot. There's more to come. And then we saw 72 African-American executives came out in opposition to these restrictive, to these voter restriction bills as well. That's huge. We haven't seen something like that before.

But this is also why I think what has to happen is, Candace, folk got to say something before the bill gets signed into law. I mean, let's just be clear. Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot, who owns Atlanta Falcons, he finally spoke up after it was signed into law. Coca-Cola, Delta, after it was signed into law. Those black executives said nothing while it was being debated. They said it after it was signed into law.

If you had said something before it was signed into law, it may not have been signed into law. Exactly. And once it's signed into law, it's hard to, you know, unring that bell. And then you find yourselves in the situation that we are in right now.

In terms of us just being hoodwinked by the Republicans altogether, remember all along the way, they were saying when Trump came forward to say, hey, let's change this vote. I'm looking for these votes. By and large, the state said, no, no, no, no, no. But quietly, this is what they wanted, and this is what they've been doing. So maybe some folks didn't see it coming, but how they couldn't see it coming, who knows? We have hundreds of years of precedent of this

happening to Black folks in America. This has always happened. It's only because of the recent developments and when Stacey Abrams lost the governorship in Georgia that people really started becoming aware on a large scale. And this is where we are now. We have got to get people to get in before these bills are signed into law. Absolutely. And so we will certainly see what happens next. Let's talk about, we talked about voter suppression. These things also are continuing in Georgia. So we're going to have more to have to say about that. We're going to be having another couple of guests later.

We'll talk about the lawsuit. Let's now go to what happened today in Minneapolis, where you had the fifth day of the murder trial of Derek Chauvin. It wrapped up the first week of testimony, this time from Lieutenant Richard Zimmerman, the head of the Minneapolis Police Department's homicide unit. He condemned Chauvin's actions, saying they were uncalled for. Here's some of what he said today in court. I received a phone call from Sergeant Kluger, who was the mid-watch sergeant. Do you recall what Sergeant Pfluger,

let me back up, did Sergeant Pfluger give you information that you relied upon to take further steps in your duties that night? Yes. Okay. What did Sergeant Pfluger tell you? Sergeant Ploeger informed me that he was at the hospital at that time, and he was with a male that he described may or may not live. Later on in the night, I found out that that male was Mr. Floyd. He said he was down there at the hospital. He asked me if I would be willing to respond to the incident location of 38th and Chicago because he was tied up at the hospital at the time. He asked me if I would respond down there just to make sure, just in case we had to secure that area and make contact with any of his officers that were there on scene still

because this had the potential to be a possible critical incident. Can you describe then what you mean by a critical incident? Usually an incident, an officer involved incident where either the officer or somebody else has died or officer or somebody else has suffered great bodily harm that later led to death and based on your knowledge of minneapolis police department policy what is supposed to happen if there is a critical incident with the crime scene and with the participants a crime scene is supposed to be secured which means lockdown and that is for the purpose to preserve any evidence that is there. The involved parties or the involved officers usually are chilling and awaiting escort sergeants so that they can be escorted to an interview room downtown.

Appropriate notifications are made. In all the years you've been wor Police Department, been t neck of someone who is han back in a prone position. that if that were done, w force? Absolutely. What l that be? That would be the top tier, the deadly force. Why?

Because of the fact that if your knee is on a person's neck, that can kill them. Did you watch that video in its entirety? Yes, I did. And since then, have you had an opportunity to watch other video of the incident? Yes. And specifically, have you watched a body-worn camera video of the incident from the involved officers? Yes. And based on that and your years of training and experience with the Minneapolis Police Department, you saw Officer, then Officer Chauvin, with his knee on Mr. Floyd's neck, correct? Yes.

Would you call what you saw there a use of force? Yes. And did that use of force continue until the ambulance arrived? Yes, it did. Was there any change in the level of force being used until the ambulance arrived? No. And what do you think about that use of force during that time period? I'm sorry?

What do you think about that use of force during that time period? I'm going to jump to that, raise it at question. A little vague, could you limit it to the time frame? Right, okay. So based on your review of the body-worn camera videos of the incident. Yes. And directing your attention into that moment

when Mr. Floyd is placed on the ground. Yes. What is your, you know, your view of that use of force during that time period? Totally unnecessary. What do you mean? Well, first of all, pulling him down to the ground face down and putting your knee on the neck for that amount of that amount of time it's just uncalled for I saw no reason why the officers felt they were in danger if that's what they felt. And that's what they would have to feel to be able to use that kind of force. So in your opinion, should that restraint have stopped

once he was handcuffed and prone on the ground? Absolutely. And I should add to that question then, also that it appeared he had stopped resisting. I'm sorry? And it appeared that he had stopped putting up any resistance. Absolutely, I would stop. I have nothing further to go. All right, folks, let's hear from attorneys Natalie Jackson and Monique Presley, who joins us. And of course, we still have our panel.

Let's start with you, Monique. Your assessment of today's testimony in day five of the Derek Chauvin murder trial. It was critical testimony because we are now getting to the point in the trial where they zone in on the law, on use of force and how all use of force guidelines and protocols were violated. So it's going to be important that as we move on, that we hear from people

who are on the force who know that in the same or similar situation, they would not have acted in that manner. Natalie? I 100% agree with Monique. This is the testimony that will prove up the murder two charge. In murder two, they have to prove that not only did Debra Chauvin kill George Floyd, which is a causation issue, they also have to prove that he committed an assault and battery on George Floyd. That's what excessive force is. It means that you are using force that is illegal.

Officers are allowed to use force to stop arrest. However, they can't use excessive force. So this Lieutenant's testimony was critical in showing that Derek Chabon used excessive force and thus committed a crime of assault and battery on George Floyd. Monique, how critical is it to have a homicide detective, not somebody who's a former cop testifying for the prosecution, but an active-duty police officer saying those words in front of a jury? It's the closest we've

gotten yet, as I said, to bearing down on the question that's before the jury. I agree with what Natalie said. And as I said yesterday, sure, there are lots of things that are happening that are emotional testimony that pull

on the emotions, the feelings, the anger, the rage, the hurt of jurors. But at the end of the day, they're going to be instructed not to follow their emotions, but to lean on and hear the instructions of law, to apply the law, to evaluate the witnesses, and to make a determination of whether this officer utilized appropriate, necessary force. And we know for sure that he did not. There was one other thing that was important, though, when Sergeant Edwards was talking at the beginning of the day, giving testimony, and said that when he got on the scene, he followed protocol in asking the two involved officers to turn on their body cams. Now, what prosecution wasn't saying at

that point, but I know they will say, is that those body cams never should have been off. If they were interacting with witnesses after Mr. Floyd's body, because Mr. Floyd was gone, after his body was loaded into the ambulance and taken to another location, if they spoke with witnesses, if they talked to each other while they were waiting in the cruiser, they should have had those cameras on because they had been involved in what could have been and actually was a crime scene. So the fact that he showed up, followed protocol, told them to put them back on and then have a seat meant that he fully had sized up what was going on on that scene. And then obviously others came and took over for him. But that's

missing evidence. You know, that's a destruction of potential evidence in time where we have no idea what those officers were doing or what they were saying until ultimately they were examined much later on and they were taken to another location. But that also is powerful, Natalie, because again, by having these cops testify to that, it shows the kind of reckless behavior of the officers on the scene. And that caused the death of George Floyd, whether or not that knee on his neck causes death and whether or not that death was a battery, which is murder two, or whether or not he did it with a depraved heart, which is murder

three, or whether or not it was reckless indifference, which is manslaughter. Candace Kelly, I want to bring you in your assessment of today's testimony. Well, listen, this is really unprecedented. You don't often have cops taking the stand and talking poorly against other cops. We even heard from a supervisor talking about him being a subordinate and leaving out parts of the story, that part being that he left his knee on his neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds. So I think that this is huge. I think that this is something that jurors will look at and say, this isn't something that we see before.

These people are turning on him, so to speak, and taking the stand. And then we also heard testimony that Derek Chauvin takes a continuing education class every year. And in this class, as we heard this homicide detective talk about today, they learn about this specific technique and not to do it, and the unreasonable force and what happens when it's used, that it causes death, which is what he said on the stand right there. So, you know, we see him vociferously taking notes, Derek Chauvin. I'm not sure why he was taking notes during that time, because he's been to that class

every year and knew better, but he didn't do better. As the opening statement, the prosecution, they said, he didn't let up, he didn't get up. he didn't let up, he didn't get up. He didn't let up, he didn't get up. And the prosecution has had an amazing week in proving that up till today when they let out midday. Xavier? Really great testimony that was there by Zimmerman stating that once the threat level went down,

then there should be some action being taken to make sure that the person is secure. Well, that didn't happen here. And it's pretty compelling to have police officers basically saying, hey, this is completely different than what's normally required on the scene to be able to secure an arrestee. So it's huge to show that they're excluding the activities of Derek Chauvin directly from what is acceptable. And you saw John Edwards, he was on the stand and he seemed

visibly shaken by what was going on, even though he did a good job of walking through his testimony. So a lot of the witnesses we've seen on the stand have been emotionally shaken. And I think that has a big impact on the jury. Monique, final comments for you and Natalie, which was what you say that for the prosecution, this was a very strong opening week. Absolutely. They did their job this week, but this is, in my estimation, the easier part of the job in that they control their witnesses. They have well-prepped their witnesses. They have a strategy in place. They're executing that strategy.

There weren't really any surprises. When we start the remainder of the case, and I don't know how much longer they'll be putting on their case. They say we're going to be going until the end of April. But at whatever point it turns over to the defense, that's going to get much more difficult because the defense is going to try to switch defendants on us and make George Floyd the defendant. So the prosecution will have to be ready for that game plan. And the only other thing that I would say is, you know, it's important for for people to understand that we don't have to prove intent here. It doesn't matter whether Chauvin intended to kill George Floyd or not, whether it's second degree, third degree or second degree manslaughter. It is only important to show that it was a contributing cause, that it was a superseding cause is not even necessary. But one of the causes.

So when the defense is saying it was drugs, it could have been. When the defense is saying it was his heart, it could have been. But would it have happened but for the knee on the neck and all of the injury and restriction of blood flow and air that that caused? So that's a much easier case to prove. And if everything is right in the world, the jury will reach the right decision. Natalie? I think that the prosecution had a great week. I think that they weaved in their theme throughout all the witnesses. In the opening statement, Jerry Blackwell promised that there will be a bouquet of humanity. And he put that on with the witnesses who were there trying to help George Floyd. He also said that in your care is in your in your custody

is in your care. That was a part of his theme. Didn't get up, didn't let up, as one of the other panelists said, was a part of his theme. They are they are proving everything that they promised the jury in opening statement. And I think that they had a banner week this week. Natalie Jackson, Monique Preston, we really appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Going to a break. We come back. COVID cases are on the rise. Up next, we'll chat with Dr. Ebony Hilton about that. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Back in a moment. America is starting to breathe again. A decent man as president, a plan to protect us. It feels almost normal, but it's not.

Republicans still will not admit that President Biden was legally elected, which means they don't believe in democracy. They believe an election is only legitimate if they win. That's not democracy. Their plan? Pass voter suppression bills to block minorities from voting. Take back Congress. Impeach President Biden. We refuse.

We refuse to accept the end of the American experiment. We refuse to allow anti-democratic autocrats to steal our country. We choose to fight. And we will not lose. Join us. Hello, everyone. It's Kiara Sheard. Hey, I'm Taj. I'm Coco.

And I'm Lili. And we're SWB. What's up, y'all? It's Ryan Destiny, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. More than 100 million vaccines have been distributed across the country, yet we're still seeing an increase of coronavirus cases. President Joe Biden and his administration, they have been telling these states not to open up 100% and to encourage people to continue to have a mask mandate. Now, the World Health Organization, they're urging countries to stay the course with mask mandates

and social distancing rules as the world approaches a significant phase of this pandemic. Again, cases have increased 14% globally, marking the sixth week in a row infections have risen. American cases have climbed 20% over the past couple of weeks, with an average of 65,000-plus cases per day. And the recent spikes bring the worldwide total to 128 million COVID-19 cases and 2.8 million deaths since the onset of the virus. Joining me right now is Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton, Associate Professor, Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at University of Virginia. Ebony, always glad to have you on the show.

Look, how are you? I mean, it's been a long time. It has been, but you've been a little busy as well. I'm good. I'm waiting for April 9th when I get my second Moderna vaccine shot. I picked my parents up from the airport today. Both of them have both of their shots, and so they're happy about that. We now have the CDC also saying that if you people have had their shots, it's safe for them to travel. But let's talk about these rising cases. Folks cannot get lax and get comfortable. Right. You know, it's one of those things I've said from the very beginning. Our behavior is more risky for us than COVID would ever be because people just don't want to be patient with the fact that

we're in the middle of a pandemic and we're almost to the finish line. At this point, over 100 million people have had at least one dose of COVID vaccine. We're 30% there. We need to get to 80%. If we can be patient for a few more days until we can get more people vaccinated, we can get back to normal life and keep people alive. Again, you have these states lifting these mask mandates in Texas, in Mississippi, other places. Alabama did not. Of course, you've got Governor Ron DeSantis in Florida being a complete asshole every time we turn around. And these people are acting like, oh, this is no big deal.

See, everything is just fine. But infections are still there. Deaths are still there. And even though we hit 100 million vaccinations, that still ain't the whole country. And the biggest group, these white Republican men, they're the ones who don't want to get vaccinated. So we still got to deal with them walking around not vaccinated.

Right. And what we're seeing, if you look at the numbers, for white America in particular, we are seeing a dramatic increase. We've gone from back in September, about 9000 white people died. October, about 10 to 12000 white people died. Then when we hit Thanksgiving, Christmas, you know, New Year's, there's a tremendous jump to 27000 to 42000 to 47000. And between February to March, we have 58,000 white Americans die from COVID. In relation, 10,000 black Americans died from COVID between February and March. So that tells

you just how big of a difference. And at one point, black people, we were five to six times more likely to die from COVID. Now it's been cut down to 1.9 times more likely to die. And it's not because less black people are dying. It's just that more white people are dying. So yes, we have to be more transparent. And you've been making the point that black people are not afraid to take the vaccine. The problem is the access to information, where to get it, being able to go to those locations. That's the issue. All of these states, you know, Maryland is talking about the problems they have. Maryland's gotten $54 million. I'm like, you got no, where's your media campaign?

Why are you not aligning with people who can drive people to vaccinations? It's like they've gotten 500, total $500 million distributed by the White House. There was some $2 billion, of course, assigned by Congress. And I'm like, these states, what are you doing? Right, right. I mean, it's one of those things, too.

Again, when we're talking about this pandemic, after this whole thing is done, what I don't want people to get comfortable with is us going back to what led to these disparities in the first place. They need to take those trillion dollars that they're now pumping into the system and plant hospitals within our community.

We should have the things that contribute to overall positive health from the ground up. So investing in our educational system, investing in our housing and transportation, cleaning up our air and water supply, combating these environmental racism and these industrialization of our community that led to us being sick in the first place. So yes, they can do these mobile clinics and I'm very happy for them right now. Because like we said, many black people are not saying they don't want the vaccine. Many are saying, I have questions and that's appropriate. You should always question things, but they just want to be educated about, tell me what you're putting into my body. And once I can make that decision, if this is a risk, you know, benefit calculation, if I see

that it's riskier to get COVID than to get the vaccine, then many Black people are saying, when is it my time to get my shot? So make it available to Black people and then set up permanent structures within our community so we don't have to go through this ever again. Absolutely. And please repeat again for the idiots out there who say, man, these dumb ass don't work. It's one of those things. And when we're looking at the vaccines this week alone have just really

showed that they are effective. Pfizer put out there their six-month data and looking at clinical trials, and 91% effective for those at six months out. That's tremendous. So you know I was happy. I'm walking around smiling and bouncing. I mean, I have mask lines on my face

because I'm still at work right now, but I'm happy. But no, and then we showed it's effective also in kids 12 to 15 years old. I have a 16-year-old niece and nephew that I'm thinking about. And how can I make sure they're protected? So, yes, we have a medicine that can work. People trust the process. There's millions of us now that have been vaccinated and we don't have horns.

We're not changing colors. Nothing has happened. Yeah. Protect yourself. Protect your family. Stay alive to see 2022. That's it. All right. Dr. Ebony Hilton. Michelle, appreciate it. Thanks so much. Always good to see you. And y'all, Ebony was tweeting last couple of days. She is sick and tired of this cold weather in Virginia. And trust me, this morning, the feel like was 27 27 and you were the first person I thought of when I said, seriously, I got to put some fleece on?

I'm mad. I'm all the way mad. I don't even have a big coat with me. This is it. Today, I'm going to freeze when I get out of here. Alright, Doc. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Alright, y'all take care. Let's go back to my panel. Michael, I don't know why these people are so hard headed. OK, look, bottom line is put a damn mask on. Look, stay safe. Be protected. I don't get the drama.

Well, you're dealing with the same people who are purporting purporting the big lie. You're dealing with the same people who voted for a man that told, I think, over 25,000 false and misleading statements, including lies. So, you know, I mean, it is what it is. Now, some of them will say masks don't work. Well, if you have the mask down underneath your chin, yeah, it's not going to work. You have to have it over your nose and your mouth. OK, so, you, you know, uh, Roland, I look at, cause I live in Michigan, I live in Detroit and I'm looking at this article right now from click on Detroit, where it says Michigan's coronavirus surge is the worst in the nation. And we've been seeing this explode. Um, restaurants will open back up to like about 50% capacity about three or four

weeks ago. It was like late February. And we've seen a huge increase in cases since then. But see, the other thing is, it's not just restaurants, is that a lot of people are suffering from coronavirus fatigue and they're letting their guard down and not wearing masks, okay, and not practicing social distancing. But then you have the MAGA crowd that are just ignorant, like 365. So they're going to learn. That's all I have to say with Roland.

They're going to learn, okay? But we have to protect ourselves, man, seriously. Look, it is crazy, Ken, is how these Republicans are so stuck on stupid who listen to Trump. I mean, they truly believe some of the dumbest stuff in the world. You know, former House Speaker John Boehner has a new book out. They have the excerpts out. Well, he talks about how he said, what the hell happened to the Republican Party?

He said where the Mark Levins of the world and the Sean Hannity's and Roger Ailes, they took over and became these absolutely conspiracy theory, crazy nut cases. I mean, he lets them have it and we're seeing the result in terms of their feelings about COVID. Yeah. And you know what's going to happen, Roland? It's going to be something completely drastic that's going to happen, that's going to have to take place in order for the people in South Dakota or Mississippi, you know, who are, who don't have these stringent mask requirements for something to happen. And this is why places like France are once again going into another lockdown, possibly. We see countries that have over and over again had to go into lockdowns. I don't know why people won't get the point, except that there's a built-in privilege, there's a mechanism that people have

that think that they are above and beyond a virus that has affected millions of people. That's the only reason I can think of. Ego. Ego and privilege. There's no other way around it. But until something drastic, until it hits home, literally for these people, I don't see it's going to make a difference. Because every time we get close to that finish line, passing that baton to the next person, they drop the baton. And when one person or one state drops the baton, then they run back over to the other state, they give other people COVID. Look what's happening and happened down in Florida during spring break. All those kids went down there, then came back to their respective states.

That's got to be a part of the problem, too. There were masses of people piled up on top of each other. But that's youth for you. That's Republicans for you. That's privilege for you. Xavier, I'm like, y'all go on down there. Go on. Go on and kill yourselves.

Stay the hell over there. But y'all kill yourself. If you want to be that damn dumb, go on then. Gone. Go and kill yourselves. Stay the hell over there. If you want to be that damn dumb, go and kill yourself. Go right ahead. Because, look, ain't no flip side to death. I mean, look, for all them white conservative evangelicals out there who talk about how they love Jesus, I'm trying to let y'all know, y'all ain't Lazarus. He is not about to come down and y'all ain't lazarus he is not about to walk come down and y'all ain't coming back but go ahead but the issue is with that uh with uh is that in the last couple of

days right after the spring break incident ronda santas pushes the florida legislature to pass covet 19 liability protection and we're seeing this all across the country especially in conservative states and so you yeah, you'll die, and the conditions are made more dangerous in the various establishments, but then you get hurt. Now in Florida, you have to prove whether a business has acted without good faith and against the law, and so making it extremely difficult

if people do get sick of COVID. They do have issues to be able to sue businesses that aren't operating properly in the states. Let's just be real clear. Y'all want to go ahead and die from COVID. Y'all want a chance. Let me tell you something. My neighbor said, oh man, COVID ain't no big deal. He said, our whole house had it. I said, you white. I said, I'm black. I ain't trying to chance COVID. I ain't trying to get a damn thing. So I said, y'all keep COVID the hell over there.

You know, I'm like, don't come here. No, we don't have six feet. I need you 18, 20 feet. Y'all stay on over there because I ain't trying to play around with COVID. I'm good. Yeah. I'm good. But the other thing is, Roland, they're long-lasting side effects. That's what I'm good. Yeah. But the other thing is,

Roland, there are long-lasting side effects. That's what I'm saying. Dude, my lawyer has said she's got to transfer some of my cases because she's dealing with the after effects. She had COVID a year ago. She literally has to stop working because

COVID is still impacting her one year later. Right. There are long lasting side effects. People can go months without their taste coming back, taste buds, sense of smell. Also, there's a term called long haulers, long haulers. And this applies to a small percentage of COVID-19 survivors that have these long lasting side effects. There's impairment to cognitive impairment that some of them are experiencing different things like this. NBC News has a bigger article on this. So surviving the virus is just one thing. you also could be possibly dealing with long-term side effects, even

though you survived the virus. So, once again, we can't play with this, man. This is serious. I think President Biden has to step up. I mean, something on a federal level to make all of these people do what they're supposed to do because they're just not doing it on a state level.

But they can't. But seriously, he can't. He literally cannot order a federal mandate. Right. He can't. That's the problem. Well, listen. We're stuck dealing with the issues that the last president made and the misinformation

that was put out to the public. And so, you've probably done a spectacular job of the vaccine rollout and leading the country through a really dark time. But we still have people who are focusing on all the big lies

that happened in 2000. Yep. Yep. And lastly, last point, last point. While the, a lot of these Republicans

focus on the big lie and don't want to wear masks, Trump actually got vaccinated. Okay, so just let that sink in. Trump kept pushing these lies about coronavirus, but he and Melania Trump actually got vaccinated in private. I done told y'all these Republicans are stuck on stupid. They got vaccinated in private.

Didn't want nobody to know. So if you are a white Republican, especially y'all white men, y'all walking around, I ain't getting vaccinated. I love me some Trump. Your savior got the shot. After he got coronavirus and had antibodies

in his body already. So again, if y'all want to be stupid, go right ahead. Go get with Billy Bob. Listen to some country again, if y'all want to be stupid, go right ahead. Go get with Billy Bob. Listen to some country music. Get y'all Pabst beer and go ahead and dive COVID. Go right ahead. But we ain't trying to sit here and

look, y'all, your death rate's already high anyway, okay? Y'all not going to be the majority in 24 years. But if y'all want to accelerate that, okay, go right ahead. We'll be the majority in 15 years. But if y'all want to accelerate that, okay, go right ahead. We'll be the majority in 15 years then. Y'all keep playing. See what happens. Y'all, we were talking about voting rights at the top of the show and the fight continues, not just in Georgia, but in Texas and other places as well. Joining me now is Helen Butler, Executive Director of

the Coalition for the People's Agenda, and Damon Hewitt, Acting President and Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Damon Hewitt, acting president and executive director of the Lawrence Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Damon, I want to start with you. Y'all have been, y'all filed, the Lawrence Committee, y'all filed the first race lawsuit dealing with voter suppression there in Georgia.

Talk about the legal battle. For folks who don't understand, look, we're talking about corporations, but this legal battle that's going on right now in the court system, Mark Elias, ACLU, Lawyers Committee, all of y'all are filing these lawsuits. Sure, Roland. Thanks for having me. And, you know, we're representing Helen's organization and other great organizations in Georgia, a coalition of color representing communities that are directly impacted. In our lawsuit, we have alleged exactly what this is, intentional racial discrimination. We know that this whole bill in Georgia is straight out of the Jim Crow playbook.

First thing they do is make it as difficult as possible for black people and other people of color to vote. The second thing is they criminalize ordinary behavior where communities help each other when they're standing along lines. And the third thing is they tell you, oh, this is for your own good, because we have to preserve the so-called sanctity of the election process. This is completely backwards. And look, make no mistake, this is going to be a long fight, not just in courts, but also in legislature. We need to go to Congress and get relief there as well.

But it's a fight worth fighting, because we cannot just lay down and allow this to happen. Helen. Yes. Well, I tell you, Roland, thank you again for having me here. And truly, we are here fighting voter suppression in Georgia. It's trying to take complete control of the election process, stopping people from voting. And it has no bearings other than to prevent voters from voting and exercising their right to choose whom they want to represent them. It's just atrocious.

And they're doing it in the they did it in the cloak of darkness. We never had the information. It was not transparent. We were steadily trying to get the right information to know how to fight back. But guess what? We're telling them, we don't care what you put in our place, in our way. We're going to overcome those barriers. We're going to make sure people get to exercise that right to vote. You know, Damon, the thing here, when we talk about these legal battles, it makes your job harder when the Supreme Court invalidated Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, a duty Shelby v. Holder. And again, Republicans are trying their best not to mention race, to allude to race.

So what do y'all have to show? What's the level of harm you have to show when filing these lawsuits to get judicial relief? Well, first of all, we know that there's demographic shift in the state. There's a growing electorate of color. And this isn't just about what happened in 2020 or 2022 going forward. It's about the long game for these folks. It's about trying to stem the tide of demographic shift. The second piece is that we know that when you take away the early voting sites, when you take away the options for where you could drop off your absentee ballot after hours

or outside of these buildings, we know that it's going to hit your densely populated urban areas where Black folks live in this state. But also, we know that these kinds of provisions that make it easier for people to vote safely disproportionately impact communities of color who are hardest hit by COVID, which you just talked about in your last segment. And so having a foreknowledge of all of this to us builds a strong case for intentional discrimination. Helen, you talk about the ballot there. We'd love to get your thoughts on Major League Baseball pulling out of the All-Star game and these corporations finally stepping up and speaking out against this bill. Well, we are glad that our corporations decided to take a decisive stand. A little too late, but they took a stand. But we're

glad the Major League Baseball decided to be very proactive. And of course, our legislators have to understand that the things they do have consequences as well. So while we don't want our people to be impacted, but sometimes we have to sacrifice to get what we need. And so we were happy that the Major League Baseball decided to withdraw the activities here in Georgia. All right, then. We'll certainly appreciate it. Keep up the work. Damon, the work the Lawyers Committee does is critically important. Of course, we were highly supportive of Kristen Clark when she led the Lawyers Committee. She, of course, is waiting for her hearing to become the head of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and will be supportive of her in that effort as well.

So y'all are doing a great job. And anytime y'all are filing those suits, be sure to let us know. We'll be sure to have you on the show to let our audience know the great work that y'all are doing. Helen, thank you for the great work you're doing as well. Thank you. All right. Folks, got to go to a break. When we come back, we're going to talk about the economy.

Giles' report. Ooh, it was a big one. Bill Spriggs, black economist, will join us next. And y'all might say, why did I say that? Because, see, this is why Roland Martin Unfiltered matters. See, when you look at these other news shows, and you can look at all of them, go to MSNBC, go to CNN, go to Fox, go to ABC, NBC, CBS, how many times are you gonna see them talking

to black economists about the economy? Mmm, very rarely. Same thing when you talk about having Damon on and the lawyers talking about Howard Brown in sports. That's why it matters for you to support Roland Martin Unfiltered. You can join our Bring the Funk fan club, folks. And that allows you, of course, allows us to be able to depend

on you to support what we do. You can do so via Cash App, dollar sign RM Unfiltered, PayPal.me forward slash RM Martin Unfiltered. Venmo.com is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com or Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. You can, of course, send a money order to New Vision Media, Inc., 1625 K Street, NW, Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 2006. Going to a break. We'll be back on Roland Martin Unfiltered. I believe that it's movement time again.

In America today, the economy is not working for working people. The poor and the needy are being abused. You are the victims of power, and this is the abuse of economic power. I'm 23 years old. I work three jobs. Seven days a week. No days off. They're paying people pennies on the dollar compared to what they profit, and it is time for this to end. Essential workers have been showing up to work, feeding us, caring for us, delivering goods to us throughout this entire pandemic, and they've been doing it

on a measly $7.25 minimum wage. The highest check I ever got was nearly $291. I can't take it no more. You know, the fight for 15 is a lot more than about $15 an hour. This is about a fight for your dignity. We have got to recognize that working people deserve livable wages. And it's long past time for this nation to go to 15 so that moms and dads don't have to choose between asthma inhalers and rent. I'm halfway homeless. The main reason that people end up in their cars

is because income does not match housing cost. If I could just only work one job, I can have more time with them. It is time for the owners of Walmart, McDonald's, Dollar General, and other large corporations to get off welfare and pay their workers a living wage. And if you really want to tackle racial equity, you have to raise the minimum wage. We're not just fighting for our families, we're fighting for yours too.

We need this. I'm going to fight for it until we get it. I'm not going to give up. We just need all workers to stand up as one nation and just fight together. Families are relying on these salaries and they must be paid at a minimum $15 an hour. $15 a minimum anyone should be making just to be able to stay out of poverty. I can't take it no more. I'm doing this for not only me but but for everybody. We need 15 right now. I'm Bill Duke. This is De'Alla Riddle.

What's up, y'all? I'm Will Packer. I'm Chrisette Michelle. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, the U.S. economy added 916,000 jobs last month, according to the Labor Department's latest report. Unemployment has declined from 6.2% to 6%. As the increase in payrolls climbed for the third straight month, the leisure and hospitality industry saw the most growth in jobs, with an 18.5% increase, followed by government at 5.4%.

Here's what President Joe Biden had to say about today's report. Today's report also reminds us how deep a hole we started in. After a year of devastation, there are still 8.4 million fewer jobs today than there were last March. 8.4 million. We created 900,000 again, but 8.4 million jobs fewer today than last March. So too many Americans have been unemployed for longer than six months. Too many women have been forced out of the workforce. Unemployment among people of color remains far too high. Yes, we've made progress by starting to build an economy from the bottom up and the middle out. And yes, the American Rescue Plan is laying the foundation for that economy. But we still need the American Jobs

Plan to build on that foundation to build this country back better. So the bottom line is this. Today's report is good news. Today's report shows that the country can what it can do when we act together to fight a virus, to give working people the help they need. But we still have a long way to go. But I know that we're going to get there and we're going to get there together. May God bless you all and may you have a happy Easter and a holy Easter. Thank you. All right. Joining us now is Dr. William Spriggs,

economist, Howard University. Doc, how you doing? I'm doing well. Thanks for having me back on. Good to see you. Happy Easter. Yes, sir. So break down the Giles report for us. We have no idea what the hell the report ever says. Well, the good side was, as the president said, we gained close to a million jobs.

If we keep that pace, it will take us about another nine months, as he mentioned, in order to get back to where we were in February. But then that ignores all the jobs we should have been creating over that period. So we have a long way to go. The bad news was the share of unemployed workers who've been unemployed more than six months has grown well over 40 percent. It's getting closer to the record it hit during the Great Recession. That's the scary number, because it's hard to clear the long-term unemployed. They're a very diverse set of workers. They aren't all the same. In fact, the workers with the longest duration of unemployment right now are state and local government workers. The American Rescue Plan that President Biden pushed forward,

got passed by Congress, gives a lot of money to state and local governments. They did add people back to the payroll this month, but we need them to add a lot more back to the payroll. We're still down over a million shy, 1.2 million shy of where state and local government was back in February. And despite really strong growth in restaurant hiring, we are still down in that industry as well. No set of industries are really back to where we were in February. There are some that are very close. Those that make paper products,

think all those paper towels that people hoarded. Chemicals, all of the hoarding that went on with disinfectants. So there's some areas, residential construction, specialty trades in residential construction. There are some areas where the economy has gotten back, but there are very few. So we still have a way to climb out of this. What does it look like for black folks? Well, here's the real tragedy, right? The job loss in the black community was not as severe

back in the shock that we all had in last spring, but the job recovery for African Americans has been slower than for any other group. So in this report, Black unemployment fell for adult men and adult women for all the right reasons. Higher labor force participation, more people employed, fewer people unemployed, the share of people with a job going up. But at 9.6%, the unemployment rate for black people is higher than the unemployment rate for high school dropouts.

Any race. The unemployment rate for high school dropouts is 8.4 percent. The unemployment rate for black people is 9.6 percent. So this has nothing to do with skills at all. This is really the way in which you see discrimination work. This is why when you have a huge shock to the labor market, the Black community suffers so badly because the discrimination in hiring kicks up several notches. And that's what is making it hard to clear the long-term unemployment column for Black workers. We talked about leisure and government jobs

leading that way. Do we expect to see more of that? Airlines, I saw United Airlines hired back 300 pilots because of the vaccine. More folks will be back in the air today. The CDC also announced that people who have gotten their vaccine, they are also cleared to travel. That should also lead to a renewed focus on people traveling around the country, going to vacation spots, things along those lines. Yes, and people are doing that. And that's a good thing. That's what we need to recover. All the people are complaining that this package, the rescue plan following what happened in December was too much. We shouldn't do it. Forget how much you have to put in people's pockets in this time of high uncertainty to get them to feel comfortable with that level of discretionary spending, right?

I mean, it's not like buying an automobile. Going to Vegas or taking your kids to Disney is not buying something permanent. understand the psychology of how much money people need to feel secure that I can spend large amounts of money on discretionary things like that. But if we don't have that take place, then we're not going to see a full recovery. And this is a good sign that we're seeing people willing to go to Vegas, to go to Disneyland, to go to Universal City. All of this is a good sign. All right. That's the most brilliant. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Happy Easter again. Yes, sir. Let's go to my panel. Let's start with you, Michael M. Hotep.

And that is this year. If you're President Joe Biden, you feel real good. I mean, you talk about that $1.9 trillion dollar covid bill announcing the infrastructure bill, 100 million covid vaccines. And then, of course, this jobs report. Hmm. Donald Trump kept talking about winning. Sounds like Biden is doing a hell of a lot of winning. Well, you know, and President Joe Biden said today, I'm looking at the article from The Washington Post right now on the jobs report. President Joe Biden said today that the full impact of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan has not kicked in yet. And it's important to note for all the Republicans that want to run their miles, not a single traitorous Republican in the House of Representatives or the Senate voted for the American Rescue Plan. OK, so we just have to keep that in mind.

You still we're still down 8.4 million jobs from March 2020. So we see things starting to turn around. But you still need the infrastructure bill. OK, Republicans want to say, well, we don't want to add to the debt. They didn't say that when they gave a $1.9 trillion tax break to the billionaire donors. They didn't say that then. But you still need the $2 trillion or maybe $2 trillion plus infrastructure bill. But, you know, this is a good sign. But I think what really we have to zoom in on is tackling this discrimination when it comes to hiring that disproportionately impacts African-Americans. Then also the fact that the jobs lost due to coronavirus had a disproportionate impact on women, especially African-American women, who already earn, African-American women already

earn, I think it's about 60, between 63 to 67 cents on the dollar, depending upon which year you're looking at. This is what Black Women's Equal Pay Day is about. So this is some positive news, but we still have to keep pushing forward. Absolutely. Candace, what I talked about again, the good news for Biden here, this is where we've been doing our Where's Our Money segment. This is where I'm trying to get people to understand how you have to connect the dots. And so I had some people sitting here like,

well, I don't understand, you know, you guys sitting here making a whole bit to do about this because it's real simple. And that is this here. You take, look right now, I've got 15 employees. If we get our fair share of media dollars with the likes of General Motors and other major companies, all of a sudden, you're talking about, I can literally go hire 25 to 50 more people. Now, imagine these other black companies in other industries who now are getting fair share of dollars not being frozen out of the pie as well.

Look, this is how we grow. This is how we're able to employ our own. And we're not depending on government jobs because as you saw with COVID, guess who got laid off first? They cut government jobs. We've been frozen out of the marketplace for so long. And so not only are we not getting the corporate jobs, we're also not getting our businesses funded. So then we're losing out. So to hear what Bill said, African-American unemployment rate is higher than that of high school dropouts. That says a hell of a whole lot. It certainly does. And it's one of those things that I'm sure we all have heard firsthand accounts of, of people, especially women, like Mike said, who are out of a job, but they're trying to get back into their marketplace. And then all of a sudden they

face this discrimination because they're starting from scratch. They've had jobs where they've already proven themselves, but now in order to get back, they're facing the types of people that we hear and see on TV when we talk about these quiet white supremacists who don't know, who don't share who they are, of course, and are in the background making decisions about everything from housing to education to whether or not you get that job. So, you know, what Bill said was very important, but that stuck out to me, like you said, that these discriminatory practices are in place. So people have to connect themselves with people and organizations that are looking out for people who are brown-skinned like me,

who are open to investing in people of color. And there are organizations that are out there, but people have to make the full-throttle effort in order to connect with them, because not everybody does it. This is why we have the EEOC, because people don't do it. And we need a whole branch of the government in order to take care of those people who have civil rights violations against them. People have to play fair. But in order for you to get what you want, you have to go after those people who at least are interested in dealing with people like you. You always have to be in motion when you're

a person of color in this country. And that's what people have to do to go on to the next step when it comes to jobs. Xavier? Last one hired, first one fired. The economists did a really great job breaking it down. We know also that with public jobs returning, they're still 50% less likely for African-American women to get a public job than it is for white men in a place that many African-Americans have had jobs before. You also have the situation

where there's less access to capital for black small businesses. And so getting those businesses funded so that you can pay your workers so that those businesses can recover, many of them have faced significant shortfall. And so whereas, you know, there are different access to different public programs for private businesses to succeed and

move past this. So we have to pay attention to the money. Show us the money. All right, then. So look, money, money, money. We see how the economy is going. Again, I think what has to happen here is we have to keep being aggressive. Michael, it's amazing how many people, I'm telling you, it's truly amazing to me how many black folks, and we've dealt with this, how many black folks in the last week who they've seen what we've been doing with Byron Allens and my boy Todd Brown and others going to the GM. Folks like, you know what, man, y'all getting real aggressive. And I

keep saying, I literally keep saying, please show me an example of black people getting something just because. Please show me an example where we got something because it was right,

as opposed to we had to sit here and call folk out, yell, cuss, scream, holler, threaten to get it. Show me. You know, Roland, closed mouths don't get fed. And this is what we have to understand. There's a long history of African-Americans putting pressure on corporate America, You know, Roland, closed mouths don't get fed. And this is what we have to understand. There's a long history of African-Americans putting pressure on corporate America. Whether we go back to 1981 and Rainbow pushing Reverend Jesse Jackson with the nationwide economic boycott against Coca-Cola. Whether we talk about the 1960 economic boycott of the downtown business district in Nashville, Tennessee during Easter to break the back of segregation in Nashville, Tennessee. And those economic boycotts spread to 59 cities across the country. African-Americans up north who could go to Woolworths and Kresge were in solidarity with

their brothers and sisters down in Nashville. They were boycotting the same stores as well. So there's a history of putting pressure on corporate America. The problem is we don't understand our history. So what you all are doing, you and Byron Allen and others, I read the article. Fox 2 News here in Detroit is covering that story. This deals with renegotiating our relationship with corporate America. This is something I've been talking about for years.

This is something I learned directly from one of my teachers, Dr. Claude Anderson. He said we have to go to these corporations and renegotiate our relationship with them so that the money is not flowing just from our pockets to their bottom line or buying products from them. But we get a larger share when it comes to advertising with African-American agencies, ad agencies, when it comes to advertising on African-American news media, things like this, because all this creates jobs. There are billions of dollars of contracts. And I used to manage a janitorial service company here in Detroit. We didn't just have

government contracts. We had a contract with a charter school, and we bid on a contract with a corporation. So I have a better understanding of this. And we don't understand all the money that we leave on the table, okay? We're spending billions of dollars a year, hundreds of billions of dollars a year with these corporations, and they're largely giving contracts to write-on businesses so that they can go hire more people. So we really don't understand how all these pieces are connected, but more power to you, brother. This is exactly what we need to do. We need to leverage our economics to enforce our political and economic agendas. Absolutely, folks. I got to get your thoughts on this. In Alabama,

parole board is reneging on a man's early release. The Alabama Parole Board decided that Sergeant Jerry Lett should be returned to prison. He's 52 years old. He was let out due to an error. The state says they made the mistake since the parole laws were changed in 2019. Lett's early parole consideration date was set for 2020, when he was first sentenced for cocaine trafficking in 2019. Lett's early parole consideration date was set for 2020 when he was first sentenced for cocaine trafficking in 2018. But since stricter parole requirements had been enacted

under the new law, Lett should have been required to serve a minimum of 10 years on his cocaine trafficking charge. He had served three when he was granted early parole last fall. He's a decorated veteran serving the military for nearly a decade through multiple deployments to Germany, Korea, and Operation Desert Storm. He was taken into custody today on his birthday. The thing that's crazy about this story, Candace, is no issues, no problem. And it's a perfect example of how heinous Alabama, Mississippi, these southern states are when it comes to these crimes, they're going to spend more money incarcerating him than it would be to have him on supervised release. You know, this just doesn't make any sense.

I mean, I think that he would even have a case to fight this. They let him out, right? It might have been on a technicality. It might have been incorrect. But you're going to put him back in jail. Now, obviously, from what you're saying, they let him out early, parole, but they weren't supposed to let him out. I mean, how long had he been out? He's, you know, he's proven himself in so many other ways. But like you said, that these particular situations are so heinous and the way that they have just historically treated African-American

men specifically in the criminal justice system, I think he has a good fight ahead of him in order to get himself released. Now, Xavier, luckily a judge today issued a temporary restraining order preventing him from having to return to prison. He was supposed to go back into custody today, but Montgomery Circuit Court Judge Johnny Hardwick issued a temporary restraining order from having to return to prison. He was supposed to go back into custody today, but Montgomery Circuit Court Judge Johnny Hardwick issued a temporary restraining order citing, quote, less imminent threat of incarceration and the reasonable likelihood

that he would prevail on the merits of the case and the lack of harm done to the parole board if there were to be an injunction, among other reasons. That's according to Alabama.com. Candace, and so that's what is. And so according to this story, the reprieve stands until Lett's case in Montgomery Circuit Court is resolved. Thank God you have a judge with some common sense in Montgomery County, Alabama.

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Like justice is expensive. You talked about putting them in jail and spending more money. Well, we also learned this week that $3 billion has been spent on police misconduct settlements. And so where is the conservative Republicans on being fiscally responsible when it comes to spending extra dollars on prisoners that shouldn't be in prison. Where is the Republican response being fiscally responsible in terms of curtailing police misconduct that costs the state more and more money? Where is that? Where is that at? I don't know where it is.

Do you know, Roland? No. In fact, at his parole, at the hearing, they said that he had been in compliance with parole laws, was meeting weekly with his parole officer. His health issues include advancing heart failure, hypertension, and diabetes. Again, 53 years old, and you're sitting there going, really?

This how y'all want to roll? And this was already, this was a transaction that was completed. He was out, he was doing right. And these are the things that count during sentencing, right? You take into consideration somebody's health. You take into consideration somebody's age, their behavior. So all of these things he was already complying with, it's got to count for something. This was a transaction that was already completed. There was a beginning, middle, and the end. It's a difficult argument for it to make sense that he go back. It really is. That's why I'm not surprised that he's out, because it just on his face does not make sense to put somebody back in jail like that. Well, again, that's but again, but that's the craziness you see when it comes to places like Alabama.

Speaking of another southern state, another southern state. Let's go to South Carolina, where a sheriff's office in Greenville County, South Carolina. Two of his shepherds, sheriff deputies are facing a lawsuit after a black man claimed the deputies used excessive force against him. Folks, where did we show you this video? Where they were trying to pull this man out of the car. He falls to the ground. They literally slam the door, okay, against his head and neck

as if this was somehow a joke. The incident took place in April 2019. It shows Stephon Hopkins. He was handcuffed, again, being pulled from the back of a patrol car, violently thrown to the ground, and the deputies slammed the door on his head. We're going to show you this video in just a second. It's got to queue up right now. Folks, it's absolutely crazy. And it's not like these cops did not understand what was going on. But slamming it on his head was intentional. It was intentional. And so we're getting the video ready right now.

And again, what I keep being reminded, Candace, by these people is like, oh, no, just a few bad apples. And then you literally hear them laughing about it. Watch this. You had already fucking caved in the fucking time. Then you put your handcuffs around. Broad 16. You put your handcuffs around your fucking wrist like brass knuckles that punched me in my fucking head. Can you give me some assistance at the jail here?

Man, I'm going to be out here with your people. Come on. Get the fuck off me, man. Get the fuck off me, man. You hitting me in my fucking eye with your fucking head comes like fucking brass knuckles, man. Never. Then you trying to fucking tie that shit up on me like that, man?

All right, I'm about to call. Oh, Lord, yeah, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, I'm on camera. I'm on camera. I'm on camera. Hell no, man. Hell no, hell no. Hell no, hell no, hell no.

Hell no. Come on, let's go. Hell no. You just closed my fucking head up on there. You put my head down there and hit me in my fucking head. Come on, let's go. Deliver it. Hell no.

Come on. Hell no. Come on. Hell no. That was your last fucking strike right there, buddy. Man, get off me. Get off me, man. Get off me, man. Get off me, man. Get off me, man.

That shit was there called for again. Man, you was going to get fired, dog. You're doing it to yourself. Hey, man, you put my fucking head in that door and slammed it. You're doing it to yourself. You know me the camera's on out here. Mine is on. I turned it on just for you. Man, you, hell no man, hell no.

That was good right there. That was good right there. That was good, I know this shit on camera. That's a lawsuit. Yeah, I turned my camera on just for you. Yeah, that was a fucking lawsuit. Man, you, come on, man. You just put my head in the door and slammed it. That's a lawsuit, bro.

Okay. Xavier, you heard him say, oh, hell yeah, your camera on. And you heard him just say that. That's a lawsuit right there. He knew the moment they slammed that door against his head, he's like, oh, yeah, make sure, your camera on. And you heard him just say that. That's a lawsuit right there. He knew the moment they slammed that door against his head, he's like, oh, yeah, make sure your camera's on. I turned the camera on just for you. How heinous is that?

I decided to commit an act of criminal intent. And I wanted to put the camera on just to show America I can get away with it if I want to. And I'm not even afraid. I'm not afraid, but I'm going to pull you out of the squad car where you've already been secured and detained, and then I'm going to then assault you with a door. Took an extra second, stepped back, and slammed it on the man's head.

I mean, it's clear as day what this officer was doing and thought it was funny. He took pleasure in his heinous crime he committed against this gentleman. Disgusting. Candace. Hmm. You know, the only thing that was right about this video was when this guy who was detained said,

you're gonna get fired. He's exactly right. Because there is no way that this officer can defend himself for using that type of force on someone who was just quietly sitting in a car. So what? He was running at his mouth. We know that that's going to happen. And we know that the defense that police officers have is, you know, they use reasonable force in order to detain a suspect that was out of hand. He wasn't out of hand. So I will say this, that that young man sitting in that car was correct when he said, you are going to get fired. It is going to be a lawsuit.

And because this video is being shown right here and has been shown in other places, watch it come true. The brazenness, though, of police officers, the privilege of these police officers, the wherewithal to think, why not just commit assault, battery, underlying felony, and get away with it? I've got the camera. It's no problem.

That's the typical disposition that we see. We just don't see so many people like this calling them own selves out. This is ridiculous. And there's going to be more to come on this. Mike? Well, you know, Roland, it's a few things here. One, if he if the sheriff just turned the video on for this gentleman here, Mr. Hawkins, I think his last name is Hawkins. If he just turned it on Hopkins.

I'm sorry, Mr. Hopkins. If he just turned it off for Mr. Hopkins at the think his last name is Hopkins, if he just turned it on Hopkins, I'm sorry, Mr. Hopkins, if he just turned it on for Mr. Hopkins at the right before the assault then my question would be why wasn't your body camera already on at the beginning of interactions with him? One. Two,

remember when Donald Trump was speaking in front of police officers and he said, when you put them in the car, you don't have to put your hand over their head and say, watch your head. You don't have to do that. Yep. You remember that? Yep. See, people, people got to go back to 2016 during the presidential election when Trump and the Trump acolytes were talking about Blue Lives Matter and they and Trump was talking about really unleashing police officers, unshackling police officers. There was a he was leading this cultural war against holding police accountable because that's what the Obama administration was trying to do. OK, when you when you go look at what Trump did and there were numerous police officers and there's there's one in particular one in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the leader of the police union.

OK, he spoke at a Trump rally wearing a cops for Trump shirt. And he talked about how Donald Trump has unshackled police. a Trump rally wearing a Cops for Trump shirt. And he talked about how Donald Trump has unshackled police. So Trump gave a wink and a nod to a lot of these people to do things like this. But yeah, this is why you have to have real police reform. This is why there has to be a culture of change when it comes to policing. This is why people like him, like this officer here, needs to be fired, prosecuted. That's assault.

But before that, he tightened the cuffs on Mr. Hopkins as well. It appeared he did that to inflict more pain on him also. I'm not sure, but that's what it looked like to me. And that's what happens when you tighten up those cuffs. Well, speaking of getting tightened up, has not been a good week for Florida Congressman

Matt Gaetz. Lord, Lord, Lord. The Department of Justice is investigating Gaetz for him allegedly having sex with underage women. Also now they're talking about text messages where they were actually, this is from the Daily Beast. They're exclusive today. Go to my iPad, please. There's these text messages pointed the feds to Matt Gaetz.

And when you read this story, it talks about there was another official, the Seminole County tax collector, Joel Greenberg, who had been indicted by the feds. And then when they were investigating him, they begin to realize that, oh, Gaetz was involved in some stuff as well. Then he goes on Fox News and tells Tucker, don't you remember your wife and I had dinner with this young woman? You remember? And Tucker's like, no, pimp, no, pimp. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what you're talking about. And here's the other deal that's quite interesting. Fox News loves to talk about scandals. Matt Gaetz was on Fox News 18 times in March. There's been no mention of Matt Gaetz on Fox News in the last three days.

I wonder why. The folks at VoteVets, they put out this 30-second spot. Check this out. Conduct. Sex trafficking a 17-year-old girl. The allegations around Congressman Matt Gaetz are shocking and getting worse every day. He's even lost Fox News. But by day, Gaetz still sits on the House Armed Services Committee, overseeing a military dealing with its own problems with sexual assault.

Matt Gaetz needs to be removed from the Armed Services Committee now. Then you have the New York Times reporting that Matt Gaetz was actually showing photos, videos of women he slept with to colleagues on the House floor. You know, Candace, I... I really, I really intrude. What'd he say? I don't give a damn about punk-ass Matt Gaetz. I really, I really intrude. What'd he say? Um, I don't give a damn about punk-ass Matt Gaetz. I

hope they lock his trifling ass up. Oh, I hope they throw, and then he comes out and says he's been talking to Fox News, Newsmax, and others about a job. Fox News like, oh, the hell you had? No, we ain't, oh, no, we ain't got no interest in you, though.

Uh-uh. No, no, no. And very few are defending this pompous, arrogant, ignorant Florida Republican. That's what he is. He's getting every damn thing he deserves. A paper trail or computer trail, digital trail, and then tried to get co-conspirators by showing others texts and pictures of people who he slept with.

Someone who knows the law. He represents the people in passing laws. Someone who knows about sexual assault and sex crimes. He sits on, you know, manages an overseas sexual assault and has something to do with that in terms of the army. But someone whose ego got the best of him and thought that he could do anything that he wanted. Deja vu. I mean, are we surprised? It's another one. Here we go again. This weekend is the weekend where Democrats are getting together to make sure by the next week, he's gone. Trust me. It's going to happen. They're just taking the weekend, gathering all the evidence, and

he's going to be suspended or removed very swiftly because he doesn't have any allies. When Fox leaves you, after you've been on their show for 18 times in one month and they sever that relationship, you're done. You don't even

have a mouthpiece anymore. Mm-hmm. He's been running his mouth a whole lot, Xavier. Trashing folk, you know, sitting here, you know, coming from a really red, red, red district.

Man, ain't it something when the party of family values all of a sudden starts faltering when it comes to these freaky-ass Republicans. Once he decided to

become a... That was it for him. That was the beginning of the end for him when he went on Tucker Carlson's show and said, and basically, I'm in trouble, we're all in trouble together. And that's when he showed other Republicans that he was willing to do whatever to save himself. And also, he was under investigation with Bill Barr, leading the Department of Justice. So this wasn't a Democratic attack where he was trying to claim there was a conspiracy against him.

And also he's shown his history of reports come out where he and a few of his buddies were putting bounties on interns and women staffers down in the state of Florida and targeting Florida State University students. And so this past has caught up with him big time. And paying for sex with Cash App? I mean, leaving the absolute easiest paper trail, easy guy to find. He's been sloppy. And that's why they've called him Creepy Gets. Mm. And you know what? He's probably going to start giving up whoever

co-conspirators he was with. It couldn't have been just him. He wasn't functioning by himself. He's got something on some... Listen, he felt comfortable enough to show other people what he was doing. So those other people that he was showing, who were they?

He's got something on them. We're going to hear more. We're going to hear more from his group of people, his collective, I'm sure. Here's that point, Michael. This is from the New York Times. Go to my iPad. Multiple people told CNN that Gates had a history of showing off nude photos

and videos of women that he said he slept with to colleagues on the house floor. Ooh, he talked a lot of smack on TV and Twitter. Michael, Matt going to need a good lawyer. Matt's gonna need a team of lawyers. Okay, number one. So, there's a number of different things here, Roland. First of all, this is karma. This is universal law.

This is the chickens coming home to roost, so I'm loving this. But there was one report that the allegations of Matt Gaetz using drugs like ecstasy. That will make a whole lot of sense because half the time when I hear Matt Gaetz, he sounds like he's on drugs. Okay?

I'm serious. Half the time when I listen to him, I'm like, what the hell is this dude doing? I think he's using Donald Trump Jr. stash. Yeah. Exactly. And then we see the day that Matt Gaetz, communications director, quit. Ball resigned as well. OK. Tired of getting them. Do you have any comment? Do you have any comment?

Do you have any comment? Do you have any comment? But so then you have the investigation from starting with the Bar Department of Justice. This could very well involve having sex with underage girls. OK. And then if he showed pictures of underage girls, they're not underage women. OK. Just so people understand that if they're under 18, they're girls, okay? But if he showed pictures of women under 18 or girls, whatever, then that's child pornography. That's right. The FCC is jumping in.

So he'd be in possession of child pornography and then showing child pornography to other people. The other people he showed it to, they're not witnesses. He tried to draw in Tucker Carlson on Tucker Carlson's show and try to make—and Tucker Carlson could possibly be a witness now. But the other thing is—and I can't take credit for this punchline. David Jolly on MSNBC said this, former Republican. But he said the reason why Tucker Carlson said that he didn't remember that dinner is because maybe Tucker Carlson wasn't at that dinner with his wife. Maybe Tucker Carlson was at dinner with another woman, right? He's like, oh, no, I don't remember that.

OK, but so this is this is a whole big mess. I'm loving this. I'm loving this. This is karma. This is universal law. Roland, it is what it this. I'm loving this. This is karma. This is universal law. Roland, it is what it is. I ain't got no problem with it. All right, folks, let's do give an update.

Shortly before we came on the air, there was an attack in the U.S. Capitol where a man drove a car into a couple of Capitol Police officers. Two of them were injured. One has died from that. This is the video right here from Associated Press, this photo. You see the video of the car right there. They came onto the scene. He's been identified as 25-year-old Noah Green.

He apparently charged after the officers with a knife. He was shot and killed. According to his Facebook, he is a follower of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan. Nothing has been confirmed from the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan. Nothing has been confirmed from the Nation of Islam with regards to that. If y'all have the photo of Noah Green, please go ahead and show it. Again, one officer is dead as a result. This is a photo right here of Noah Green, the man who police shot and killed today at the U.S. Capitol. It is on lockdown. And again, no motive to understand what took place.

President Joe Biden has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff as a result of the death of that Capitol Hill police officer. That's that officer right there who was pronounced dead. Again, two officers were injured. One, seriously, who passed away at the hospital. And so it has been a difficult year for the Capitol Hill police officers. They suffered several suicides. One person died in the January 6th insurrection,

and of course that officer is dying today. And so again, folks, apparently Noah Green, Facebook has already taken down his Facebook page. And he wrote this on March 17th. Apparently he had lost his job. He said, I was on the right track and everything I had planned was coming into existence. It required long hours, lots of studying and exercise to keep me balanced while experiencing an array of concerning symptoms along the path. I believe to be side effects of drugs I was intaking unknowingly. That's what he wrote on March 17th, signing his brother Noah X.

So certainly a horrible story there. Horrible story there. And as we get more details, we certainly will pass those on. Got to go to a break. We'll be back on Roller Mark Unfiltered with our Education Matters segment. Talking about all the money, billions of dollars in the American Rescue Plan going to schools. How are they going to spend it? We'll discuss that on Roller Martin Unfiltered. Who needs a little love today?

Who needs some love sent their way? Who needs love? Who needs love? Who needs a little love today? Who needs some love sent their way? Who needs love? Who needs love? I'm Deion Cole and you're watching

Roland Martin Unfiltered. Stay woke. The recently passed stimulus package, of course, the American Rescue Plan includes $40 billion for higher education and nearly $130 billion for K-12 schools. Portions of those funds will be allocated to colleges with endowments worth less than $1 million in emergency need-based financial aid grants to students. Now, funds will also be used to help fund initiatives such as installing ventilation systems, reducing class sizes, implementing social distancing processes,

hiring additional staff, and purchasing personal protective equipment. President Joe Biden said this is aimed at really trying to get education rolling in this country and trying to make sure that people don't fall through the gaps as we continue to weather this pandemic. Joining me now to discuss this is Darrell Bradford, Executive Vice President for 50K and. Folks, 50K and a group, I'm on the board of directors, and we actually share offices with them here at Rollerbutton Unfiltered. Darrell, this is one of the largest infusions of money

by the federal government in education in a very long time, some say ever. Yeah, I mean, it's ludicrous. First of all, thanks for having me. It is a ludicrously large amount of money. Obama did the stimulus in 2008, 2009, there were $4.6 billion that were used as sort of like discretionary funds to spur innovation and all this other kind of stuff. Between the CARES Act of last spring, the COVID package that was passed at the end of the last administration. And this one, the federal government has sent $190 billion to K-12 schools across the country in one year. It is an incredible amount of money,

and what they're going to do with it is a really good set of questions. So what should they do with it? All right, so to me, there's four things that they could take on, some of which they are prohibited from doing, but these are the four things that I think they could do. The one big, big, big thing they could do is decide that they want to modernize all school finance formulas across the country to respect where kids want to school, want to go to

school, regardless of where they live, right? And to unwind the sort of racist legacy of residential assignment and red line housing policy and how that affects schools. And that's like a big ticket item. Nobody's talking about doing that, but I think people should be doing that. The second thing is that we know. So before the pandemic, one in three kids, one in three fourth graders in the country were reading on grade level or above, right, on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which some people call the NAEP. And only one in five black kids were, right? So like a third of all kids, 20% of black kids. The data that we've been looking at now says that the last year, though some kids have thrived, has been horrific for kids for whom the situation was already horrific. And so, you know, job one is intervene in the summer, right? Like, it's tutoring, it's enrichment, it's social-emotional supports, which are actually noted in the American Rescue Plan.

Kids have been locked up. Black kids have been literally locked up, right? They've been at home in front of computers for like a year alone with all this claustrophobia. They need they need interventions now, right, in the most significant way possible. So that's the second thing. The third thing is kind of like living in plain sight. And there's money in the infrastructure bill about this. But we got to get this broadband thing sorted out, Because until we know that schools are gonna be open in perpetuity, which is to say, until we get the politics of that sorted out,

which I would love to talk about too, you gotta have a permanent virtual option in place, right? You have to, if you're gonna tell kids they can't go to school, they gotta be able to go to school online, they have to have broadband. And in communities of color and in lots of rural areas, this is an issue that is top of mind, that has surfaced, and it still hasn't been dealt with.

So we got to do that one too. And then obviously, like, there are the obvious ones, which are like health and safety of buildings, these kinds of things, right? It's like you want to train teachers. If you need to hire some more teachers, because in some instances you may need to, particularly if you want to do the tutoring stuff in the summer, like personnel is obviously going to be a part of this too. Mark McGee is the founder of 50Can. He joins us right now. Mark, we were talking about the massive amounts of money going to schools, $120 billion, 50 cans, education reform group. What say you on how the money should be spent, especially when you have a lot of kids, a lot of poor students, a lot of black and brown students who have been falling behind as a result of COVID-19?

Yeah. So, I mean, I think the first thing is to understand how much money we're talking about. So in a city like Newark, New Jersey, we're talking about over $7,000 per kid. So when we think about that much money, the question is, how can we spend it in a way that families are going to really feel the impact? So, you know, for example, could we say we're going to provide a tutor for every kid who needs one year round? We're going to provide incredible summer camps for kids. We're going to provide all sorts of enrichment activities. We're going to provide them a choice of different schools they want. You know, the opportunities here are pretty big in terms of what we could do that previously maybe money restricted us from doing.

So I think our fear is this money gets lost in a bureaucracy and families say, you know, where did it go? And that point, especially when you talk about those tutors, because the reality is it's a lot of catch up that has to be taking place. A lot. Absolutely. Absolutely. We've never seen a shock like this in our education system. And so far, the data we're seeing and our affiliate in New Jersey, Jersey Can, just came out with a report. And they said about half the kids who were on grade level last year are no longer at grade

level. So we know there's a lot of kids that have fallen behind. That's not surprising. It's a lot harder to do schooling remotely. So those kids don't just deserve a return to normal. They deserve a return to better. And that's what this money can provide. Darrell, go ahead. You want to say something? Yeah. I mean, I think the frustrating thing, just to get to the politics on this, is like, there are all these things that we want to do with the money. And basically the way the money is going to be distributed is meant to stop us from doing all of them. So basically, I'm being flipped, but checks are going to state departments of education and to local school boards, local superintendents, and they have

wild, wide latitude to do whatever they want to do with the money. Like the the there is there's one line item in the bill that basically says anything that has to do with learning, including hiring people, which just means you can do whatever you want to do for as long as you want to do it. And the fact that the money is going through the sort of the education side of government without going through the legislative side of government means that there's no local leverage. There's very little opportunity to do modernize the school finance formula or have massive community input

about policy decisions like Mark mentioned, where like, yeah, we could hire some tutors or we could give every kid a tutor. At this, we could hire, you know, some tutors or we could give every kid a tutor, right? At this, you know, the $7,000 in Newark is on top of 30 that is already being spent. Like, you're getting into an area there where you could have incredible discussions about like front loaning, paying for college and all these other things. And it's very difficult for that conversation to be had with the way the money is being distributed currently. So Mark, lots of money coming.

We got parents who are watching, people saying, hey, what can I do? What should they be demanding of their school districts, their school leaders, principals and administrators when it comes to this cash infusion? Yeah, so I think the first step is transparency. What we should be demanding is a plan. So all that money coming into Newark, all that $7,000 per kid, that should be accounted for.

And what we deserve from school boards is exactly how they're going to spend the money and not before they've spent it. They should come out with a plan. They should encourage public input. And parents should know how they're going to get a full seven thousand dollars worth of benefit for their kids uh questions from my panel let's start with you xavier yeah i think it's just show me the money and that's the important part the accountability of where dollars go modernizing and putting. I have some audio issues with Xavier, so guys, let me know when that's all sorted out. Let me go to Candace. Candace, your question for Mark and Darrell.

My question is in terms of any type of social services supports, because often young people need this type of support. I mean, from whether it's a haircut, cut or clean laundry, that's also a part of it. And when they are at home and have been home for the year, we've seen that their home problems have been magnified. Yeah, I mean, SEL, social emotional learning, like these things are, they're ticked off rightfully in what these funds should be spent for, should be spent on. To me, what is missing there, though, is that if you're going to have a strong SEL intervention for kids in a town, in a neighborhood, you have to actually involve the organizations of the town and the neighborhood. And school districts or schools have varying levels of doing that when they, you know, when we're not in a pandemic, which is why, you know, part of this challenge is a political one. We have to get,

like Mark said, there has to be transparency around the money. Like, people have to know what you want to do with it. There needs to be a window of opportunity for community groups and vendors and local folks. Like, I heard what you were talking about earlier, like there are lots of local organizations that can support the work of catching kids up and making them whole, and they need a seat at the table. And right now the process is not structured to give folks, local folks who know their communities and who know their kids best,

the same opportunity to be, you know, part of the solution that school districts have. Mark? Absolutely. I'm sorry. Coming into the district, it doesn't have to stay there. I'm sorry. Mark, go ahead.

Sorry. I was just going to say, as Jarrell was saying, we have so many assets in our communities that can help kids with mental health, that can help them recover from this difficult year. And the way the law is structured, 90 percent of the money goes into the school district. But we know it doesn't have to stay with that school district. They can distribute it out. They can bring community partners in and we can make this a collective effort to catch kids up. Michael, go ahead. OK, I'm sorry. I think I missed part of Jarrell's answer there, but what I wanted to find out more about was opportunities when it comes to getting contracts

to fulfill some of these services, especially for African-American-owned businesses. Could you talk more about that, whether it's educational services, janitorial services, any types of contracts that are going to be involved in this? Yeah, I mean, so one of the things at 50KM we talk about, and I heard it earlier, you know, we don't want to go back to the way things were before, right? We'd like to have education be something that the community is a part of, where kids are finding their own path in a way that they never could have before. So there's an opportunity to do something better, not simply to do what we did before. And certainly schools have tremendous economic impact on their communities.

And right now that economic impact is not equally spread, just like in the advertising world. I used to work in the publishing industry. I understand what you guys are talking about. So the important thing, and this actually isn't an education policy, this is an advocacy policy, is that you have to arrest the process of the money being spent before it is spent. And that is a political thing, right? So to me, if I'm a state legislator, I have not been asked anything about how literally hundreds of millions or billions of dollars are going to be spent in my backyard. Like this money is going to literally fall out of the sky without even a discussion about that. And so I would encourage like the title I, which I think most viewers know,

is the primary revenue stream from the federal government to American school districts, and it's weighted toward low-income kids and communities of color. Like, if I'm a business owner, if I'm a retired teacher, if I'm a community center, if I believe I can have any role in helping catch up or accelerate, which is even more important, kids who have not had their learning optimized for the last year and who probably weren't having it optimized before that, then I need to be on the phone with my state rep right now, my local city council person, my school board person saying, don't spend this money until you talk to me. And everybody liked me about it.

Mark, final comment. Go ahead. Yeah, I would just say that Darrell's right. The time is now. So this money is just getting sent out to the states and into the districts. So we've got a unique window of opportunity. So in New Jersey, we're talking about two and a half billion dollars that's going to be sent down into school districts. So if you have ideas about how that money should be spent, if you think you can help in using that money to help kids, this is the time to speak up and get in touch with your school board and insist that it be spent the right way on behalf of all kids. And if you're a parent and you have an idea

about how that money can be spent and meaning on you by you, but to help you to help, you know, your kids education, you should make that same call. All right, then gentlemen, I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you for having us. All right. Thanks a lot. All right.

Then Candace, Michael and Xavier, thank you so very much for joining us as well today on today's show folks. Again, if y'all want to support what we do here at Roland Martin Unfiltered, our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing an average of 50 bucks each for the course of the year, $4.19 a month, $0.13 a day. What it comes out to, can't afford that. You can give less. You can give more.

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Gosh, y'all started too early, but that's supposed to start it so that people can see their names. They're paying for it. All right, so that's it for us. I'm going to see y'all Monday. Don't forget, if you go out, please wear your mask. Please be protected. Have your hand sanitizer.

Social distance. Let's keep each other safe. If other folk want to kill themselves, that's on them. You don't have to do it. All right, y'all do it all right y'all uh i shall uh see y'all later i'll see you on monday i have an absolutely fabulous weekend i know a lot of cops they get asked all time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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