#RolandMartinUnfiltered - New GA GOP voter suppression laws; ATL cops who tased 2 students reinstated; COVID & Black community

Episode Date: February 3, 2021

2.2.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: New GA GOP voter suppression laws; ATL cops who tased 2 HBCU students reinstated; Quawan "Bobby" Charles toxicology report that contradicts previous claims; Dr. Marcella Nunez - Smith, the chair of Biden's Health Equity Task Force talks COVID & Black community; Courtside Karen gets checkedSupport #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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It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We asked parents who adopted teens to share their journey. We just kind of knew from the beginning that we were family. They showcased a sense of love that I never had before. I mean, he's not only my parent, like he's like my best friend.

At the end of the day, it's all been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing about our lives. Learn about adopting a teen from foster care. Visit AdoptUSKids.org to learn more. Brought to you by AdoptUSKids, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ad Council. Don't trust those Georgia white Republicans. They want to change the state's voting laws. Get rid of ballot drop boxes. Get rid of no-speech ballot things. Put the ID laws in.

We will talk with an activist in Georgia, the New Georgia Project, how they're going to fight that. Stay in Georgia. Two cops fired by Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottles and guns out and hitting with stun guns, tasers, two black APCU students. They got their jobs back. We'll explain that for you as well. Also on today's show, a black boy who was found dead in Louisiana.

The family released their own autopsy. It differs from what the lead suspects said about what a young boy was actually doing. Also, my interview with Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, who runs President Joe Biden's COVID Task Force, we talk about the vaccine, we talk about testing, we talk about equity in the distribution of the vaccine. You don't want to miss that conversation. And also, the arrogant Texas Senator Ted Cruz challenges Biden's nominee for the United Nations on a speech she gave in the HBCU regarding China. Senator Cory Booker had her back.

We'll show you that exchange. Also, folks, what's going on with singer Chloe Bailey? She put out a video of her dancing to celebrate her getting one million social media followers. But now people are mad at her, causing her to issue to do a video where she's crying in that video. What's up with the policing of black female bodies? And why is it that she gets criticized by the Kardashians? They can actually create billion dollar companies with theirs by appropriating blackness. I'm going to break that thing down.

And also, I'm going to break down on today's show, folks, small black, small black businesses, how we are playing ourselves small and how we must be thinking and acting bigger. And lastly, crazy as white people, courtside Karen comes after LeBron James, social media puts her ass in check. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on the filter. Let's go. Whatever the business, whatever it is, I got the truth, the fact, and we can put it right on time. It's rollin', rollin', best believe me, it's rollin', puttin' it down, puttin' it down, it's what's what's new to politics.

We're entertainin' the dangers, just what's new to politics. It's rollin', rollin', rollin', yo It's a go, go, go, yo, yo Rolling with the wind now He's real, he's real, he's real, he's real No, he's rolling on top now And that Republicans are always going to cheat to win elections. Forget all that BS. Donald Trump said they are all about cheating. They claimed that was cheating in Georgia and Philadelphia and Detroit and Milwaukee,

but no, Republicans, through voter suppression, they need to cheat to win. Now, after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris win Georgia, after Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff win Georgia, Republicans who passed voting laws to actually make it easier for folks to vote, oh, now they pissed off. Now they are introducing bills in the Georgia legislature to undo those exact voting laws. Folks, they want to actually get rid of ballot drop boxes. Yeah, okay, ballot drop boxes. They also want to stop no excuse absentee voting. Some people also suggesting ending early voting in Georgia as well.

What we are seeing is a tack on voting rights and this is making clear folks why we've got to have we have no choice. We've got to have Congress pass the John Lewis Voting Act because this is going to be important for us to actually keep the sanctity of the ballot box. Let me tell you what some of the things that they're actually saying. They actually, the Georgia Speaker Pro Tem literally said, this is about the sanctity of the ballot to ensure there is election integrity. No, this is about Republicans being angry that they got outvoted. They are angry that black people turned out in massive numbers. They're angry that white seniors and white suburban voters have been turning their back on the Republican Party. That is what they are angry about. Folks, let's talk about this right now. Of course, with the CEO of the New Georgia Project, N.C. Uddinfat, this has got to be,

first of all, you had to expect this here because we saw this in North Carolina. When President Obama, when he won North Carolina by 14,100 votes, then all of a sudden Republicans come back and change the voting laws. It's been a 10-year battle. They are trying to penalize you and your supporters for actually being successful and getting people out to the polls. Okay, we don't actually have her. So folks, if y'all can get her on, please.

I certainly appreciate it. Someone should have told me she wasn't on. Let's go to my panel. Joseph Williams, Senior Editor, U.S. News and World Report. Rena Shaw, she is the founder of Republican Women for Biden. Teresa Lundy, Principal Founder, TML Communications. We're going to be, of course, talking shortly with NSEI shortly. But look, this is nuts, Joseph. This is what Republicans do. They need to cheat to

win by changing the laws. They want to make it harder for Americans to vote. Again and again and again. This was what the Roberts Court was doing when they hollowed out the protections of the Voting Rights Act. This is what North Carolina did after the Obama election when a judge said that they attacked voting rights with surgical precision. We've seen it in Pennsylvania. We've seen it in Ohio to a lesser degree. We've seen it in Wisconsin. So it's no surprise to me that in a place that they thought they had on lock, now they've got to come back and try to close the door after the barn door after the horses have already been gone. The question, however, is what the strategy is going to be for Democrats to fight this, not because they don't already have the numbers to vote in large numbers, but because they don't have the state house right now. They

don't have the state legislature. And if this thing goes all the way up to the Supreme Court, the Roberts Court is going to do what it, you know, it's going to do what it do. It's just going to, you know, gut the rights of voters even further. The only problem that we have here is that Republicans can't win in the marketplace of ideas. Therefore, they have to cheat. And I also should say that Georgia isn't the only place that's going to have a whole new raft of voting laws. It's coming in Wisconsin and it's coming in Pennsylvania, all because former President Donald Trump gave them the cover by saying that the election was stolen. He may have cost them Senate seats in Georgia, but he's getting them some ammunition to play the long game because people have not had that myth debunked to the degree it needs to be debunked.

This is the thing here, okay? And I've been real clear. Republicans are trying to cheat to win. They don't like the fact that they got outvoted. They can't go out here and, I don't understand, look, make your case. Turn your people out. So and here's the deal. Republicans have always led when it came to early voting. I'm excuse me. We can actually be voting. Now they're upset that other folks have to take advantage of absentee voting. This is trying to steal future elections by rigging the system to change the laws. The very thing Trump and his supporters have been whining about, this is what Republicans are trying to do right now in Georgia.

Well, and they're trying to have it both ways. I mean, they're trying to say that, well, the election was stolen, but our guys got in office. And yes, the president said the election was stolen, but only in his campaign, everything else was fair and square. And they're saying, well, we don't have any new ideas. The electorate is changing. So we got to figure out a way to keep our advantage.

I mean, it's not about democracy. It's not about politics. It's not about convincing somebody of your argument. It is about cheating to win. It's always been about cheating to win. Now they're just being out in the open instead of trying to keep it behind closed doors. And I think that it's pretty scandalous that we have taken so long to correct the Voting Rights Act to fill in the open instead of trying to keep it behind closed doors. And I think that it's pretty scandalous that we have taken so long to correct the Voting Rights Act, to fill in the hollowed out places, that it took this much to do it. It took this, it took a ride on the Capitol, and it's still not top at one in the U.S. Senate. We've got to get this done. It has to get done immediately, if not for the sake of black voters and minority voters,

but for the sake of democracy, and minority voters, but for the sake of democracy, which means which we have all seen is very, very fragile at this moment. Can you hear me? Okay, thank you. I, you know, Roland, this is about threat. This is the Republicans feeling so threatened by early votes, mail-in votes, that we know favor Democrats. And it wasn't about who's at the top of the ticket this time. We look at the history here.

And this is a concerted effort because they saw that over 1.3 million people passed absentee ballots before the November general election. And that was a quarter of all votes passed. So I want to look at facts here before I give you some interesting insights here. And it's from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that ran a poll. And that poll found that most Georgians oppose restricting absentee voting to older voters or those who have a valid reason for not being able to vote in person. The poll also showed that most people support the use of absentee ballot drop boxes and they don't believe. Guess what? Those really thoroughly debunked claims of widespread voter fraud. You've got Republican lawyers even saying this stuff, but people are buying it down in Georgia and Republican lawmakers don't want to

face reality. So I got on the phone this afternoon, Roland, and I called some long-time GOP operatives that I have had contact with. And I said, you tell me what you think, because I smell something horrid here. And I don't like it. I just don't like it i just don't like it this is ridiculous the pandemic is nowhere near over women like me very young children uh stuck at home you know different things drop boxes are excellent uh being able to mail it in excellent having options i'm a civic renewal evangelista i love having options because i want the most number of people to participate as possible. So when I called these folks down there, they said, well, Reena, you know, on its face, it looks fine. But this doesn't cry corruption to me.

And these were the conservative arguments that they gave me as pushback. One operative told me, he said, these are all fair proposals and they're aimed at keeping public trust in our systems on both sides. It's aimed at keeping that public trust high. And then he asked me, he said, don't you want to diminish any chance for one side to discredit an election? So setting up clear rules, he told me, protects democracy by ensuring trust. I said, but we do have clear rules. It's very clear to me that your California GOP folks were the people engaging in the nefarious acts that label drop boxes wrong. And these were the people that there was only very few, a smattering of incidents, Roland, of any fraud. And it was from the Republican Party. But this is what operatives

say. They say it's about ensuring our election safety and trust in the people. And they're relying on pro-democracy arguments, saying that democracy doesn't work if there and trust in the people. And we're relying on pro-democracy arguments, saying that democracy doesn't work if there's doubt in the people managing the votes. How should we feel that there's doubt in the work of these public servants that have really never done us wrong? So this is what the conservative pushback will be. I do not personally agree with it, but I heard them out and I wanted to share with you those conversations. Teresa, this is what I have always warned people about Republicans. I say this all the time. Black success is always followed by white backlash. In Florida, Desmond Meade,

Sheena Meade and others with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. They successfully get amendment four passed. Republican legislature? Hell no. We're not about to have a million plus folks who were formerly incarcerated all of a sudden get the right to vote. What do they do? Change the law, go to court and say, oh, no, you got to pay all of your fines and fees before you can get your right to vote. Now, folks are having to raise millions of dollars to help people pay back their fines just to get their right to vote. I've already said what happened in North Carolina. Same thing is happening in Georgia. This is why we've got to have Democrats

have a backbone in the United States Senate, and they've got to pass the strongest voting law named after John Lewis possible, because if they don't, Republicans who control state legislatures and governors' mansions, they are going to put in some of the most onerous voter suppression laws because they know the numbers are not with them. They want to suppress Black votes, Latino votes, young votes, progressive votes, and even older votes. Here's what's crazy in this one of the proposed laws, Teresa.

They literally are saying you cannot vote absentee unless you're 75 years or older. Seventy five. You're absolutely right, Roland. And you know what? For Republicans to even take this type of step, especially during these very difficult times, it just shows the type of meetings that has been happening since Trump has been in office, because this is a coordinated effort that has been happening in states throughout the country and from Pennsylvania, from Georgia, from any other state where we're now starting to see where Trump lost and where his attorneys decided to back down because they knew it was a losing case. It was dead on arrival where the conversations finally, you know,

came into the forefront. And it's now we're now seeing what these laws are about. It's about banning drop boxes. It's about allowing Republican voters to cast an absentee ballot. It's about when we, you know, go to register for our driver's license. Now we don't automatically get an opportunity to vote when we get our driver's license. And it's really unfortunate because that's the only opportunity they know where it is time for people to actually vote. But see, what they're doing is actually counting the numbers and the numbers don't lie. They may lie, but the the numbers don't lie and the numbers are saying that people are starting to wake up to the bs they are starting to understand that their voice does matter and they are seeing it right in front of their faces that so that is why they are scared that is why they are putting these uh initiatives together

these bills also um taking all these backdoor meetings because they know that their traditional ways of running the country are now coming to an end. But you're absolutely right, Roland. Democrats, especially those that claim they're progressive and African American Democrats who are in the Senate and in the House and every minority in between, definitely need to stand up for every single person who is saying our right to vote matters and democracy matters today and not tomorrow. Right now, I'm the CEO of the New Georgia Project. And say, I keep saying whenever you have black success at the ballot box, white folks are going to respond. That's what the Georgia

Republicans are trying to do. How are y'all going to fight this? Hey, Roland, how you doing? Good evening, everyone. We're going to fight it head on. It is absolutely clear that what we're watching, what we're witnessing is a white lash. You're absolutely right, Roland. We cannot allow these attacks on our democracy, on our elections infrastructure to stand. It's the height of hypocrisy. There is this rhetoric around, you know, patriotism and commitment to the rule of law and one person, one vote. And then there's the reality of it. And there is a gap between the rhetoric and the reality. And so the New Georgia Project is working to close that gap. We're putting it on people's radars, letting them think, hey, y'all, they wilding down at the Capitol because

they saw Georgia's multiracial, multiethnic, progressive majority come out and saw that they have the ability to decide elections. And they are going to do everything in their power to stop it because in the marketplace of ideas, fewer and fewer people are buying what the Republicans are selling. And the only way for them to continue to hold on to power is if they cheat. And so they're cheating. They're trying to take a sledgehammer to our elections infrastructure, and we are preparing to turn up. The thing that's really unfortunate

is that they have a governing trifecta. So Brian Kemp is our governor. All of the constitutional officers are Republican. There's a Republican majority in the House, Republican majority in the Senate. And so while the legislative pathway feels like it might be foreclosed to us, there's the court of public opinion, there's actual court. And so we are going to use all the tools in our tool belt in order to push back against this. And the thing here that I really need people to understand

when you say the public court of opinion, that has to matter. And in fact, the same language has to be used. They want to talk about hashtag stop the steal. Yes, stop the steal. Republicans, stop trying to steal future elections because here's what they're looking at. I need everybody paying attention who are watching or listening right now to understand.

Next year, Senator Raphael Warnock is back on the ballot. He won the runoff to fulfill the unexpired term of Senator Johnny Isakson. He has to run for reelection in 2022. They are scared to death of Stacey Abrams running against Brian Kemp. And so you already have a group of Republican consultants who are already trying to put together an organization. They've already announced it to stop Stacey Abrams. This is all about 2022. They cannot stand the likelihood or the idea of there being Pastor Raphael Warnock being the U.S. senator from Georgia for another six years

and there being the first black female governor in American history in Stacey Abrams. That is what this is all about. Absolutely. Absolutely. A, but also B, it is also about, you know, what's happening in the state. Right. We have eight hospitals in rural Georgia that have closed, four more on the way, down in Randolph County, down in southeast, southwest Georgia. A hospital closed a week before the election. And you know what? Black folks, 98% showed up to vote in that election. And so controlling the Georgia state legislature, I mean, we're coming for that minimum wage. I remind people that the minimum wage in Georgia is $5.15 an hour, that we still haven't expanded Medicaid in the state.

Georgia Power is building two new nuclear power plants in Black communities. There haven't been any new nuclear power plants built anywhere in America in 30 years. And so it is absolutely an attempt to hold on to power. We are in the very crucial redistricting year. I personally do not want to fight these same fights for the next decade, for the next 10 years. And so getting a group of people who are accountable, who are pro-democracy folks, to help draw the maps is super important right now. It is firmly in the hands of the Georgia State Legislature, of the General Assembly, and they want to hold on to that. And we are going to pry it from their hands. But you're absolutely right that it is about the future. It is about trying to stop the

power of this multiracial progressive majority in Georgia that is spreading across the South. Help do you need? What do you need for people who are not in Georgia? So this is, we are about to launch a couple of things. So we just came off of a pretty intense runoff cycle where we staffed about 100000 volunteer shifts. That's phone calls. That's text messages to voters, moving them to the polls, encouraging them to go out and vote. We want to turn that apparatus onto some of our local legislators. Listen, when they say the church, your time, your talent, or your treasure. This is a moment where we're doing all kinds of innovative things around voter education.

We cannot, I mean, gerrymandering is a nonsense word. Figuring out how to have real talk, how to have conversations about things that matter, how to break these things down is going to be one of our priorities over the next couple of weeks, over the next couple of months. And so helping us amplify that by sharing our stuff on social. People might not think that that is a super effective tactic, but it is. Our research shows, and there's a lot of other studies that have confirmed it, that 70% of Gen Z got their elections information from social media. And so, you know, amplifying trusted messengers like New Georgia Project, like Black Voters Matter, because there's going to be a lot of misinformation and disinformation. People trying to sow the seeds of confusion is going to be really helpful. And then you can always donate at newgeorgiaproject.org

forward slash donate. And look, we certainly appreciate it. We stand with you all doing the great work down there. It's going to be really important. I need people to understand this is the level of attack that we're going to see all across the country. That's what it's all about. And so we got to stay vigilant. People who are all excited when OSAP and Warnock won, look, that race is over. They've already been sworn in. We got to now be on this thing constantly. That means putting pressure. That means exposing these people. That means calling them out to stop this. But that's why we gotta have that federal bill as well.

And so in say, UFA, the New Georgia project, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right, folks, let's thank you. Let's stay in Atlanta folks, where when you talk about holding cops accountable, part of the problem is when a mayor, black

mayor like Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, fires cops for wrongdoing, guess what? They're able to get their jobs back with back pay. That is the case of two cops who, what they did was, remember there were these two college students, HBCU students, who turned down the wrong street. Cops pulled guns out, shot them with a taser, snatched them out of their car. The mayor said, and the then police chief said, that was excessive force. They were fired. Well, a review board in Atlanta has given them their jobs back. This is the video we're talking about. The car.

Put the car apart! Put the car apart! Put the car apart! Put it in park! Put the car apart! Hit the headlight! Hit the headlight! Hit the headlight! Hit the headlight! We're at... We're at Southwood American in the park. The The Atlanta Civil Service Board said that Mark Gartner and Ibu Streeter should get their jobs back.

Teresa, this is what people talk about. OK, the reality is this here. The mayor was right and the then police chief were right. It was excessive force. You didn't have to sit here and snatch them out of the car, pull guns on them, threaten to shoot them and fire tasers into them. Again, this is, this is just disturbing on too many levels, but I hate when you go to me first at these types of videos, but it, it also also shows that the the communication with the officers it it just seems like it's nothing but fear you know black people just are scary apparently to them it's like you got direction from the the right of uh the passengers saying get out the car put your

hand on the steering wheel then on the left it's you know put the car in park there's so many directives that the cops aren't even on the same page and so you know the college students are like listen i just need you to hear what i'm saying and they're like we're not trying to hear anything at all either get out so it's it's a obviously an excessive force by every means um but it also shows that the police officers are not trained in handling, and maybe it should just be a course in their new program study before they come out into the streets, is how do you handle minorities, Black people? It's just, it's really intolerable at this point. But for them to be reinstated, it also shows, you know, the lack of authority that is happening and how that the public pressure still needs to happen. Because, you know, this is just unfortunate because these guys should not be reinstated.

It kind of just seems like the same old tradition when it happens with the police department where they'll take them off. They'll put them on death's duty and then they'll put them back in the field you know thinking when it all calms down and that's just shouldn't be in allowed anymore a lot we covered this story one of the cops said that one of the occupants in the car pulled a gun out it was a flat-out lie there was no gun shown on the body camera footage and And this is what I keep saying. If cops lie in their interviews and the police reports, that should also lead to firing. Yes, absolutely. You know, Roland, I want to be very frank here. Watching these videos is so absolutely emotional for me.

I don't know how many times we have in the past year had to watch these kind of videos and share them with people who are not black to say, look at what's happening in communities of color, in black communities. Have you ever seen such a dehumanizing thing? I'm at these two it's presumably innocent that's what our justice system says you're presumed innocent and and they are in their car and i if i were the mother of these two people i would just feel like my gosh how have they dehumanized my children we are sending people out into the world law enforcement officers who are there paid by our taxpayer dollars to keep us safe and this is what they're doing to our fellow citizens. So I'm outraged. I am feeling just so disturbed watching that.

But let me take a step back and say this. We need to have a serious conversation across the country about the use of force. And it has to really start with the conversation that says, does the presence of a colored person threaten your existence? Because that's what this is all about. Just the sheer presence of a black person seems to threaten the existence of some of these people who wear the shield.

And look, I get that there are bad actors everywhere. And that's always the pushback. Oh, there are bad actors in every industry, every field. And there are in law enforcement. But this has come to a point to me where we can no longer stay quiet about the inherent bias that people show when they go out there, presumably to keep us safe against a certain demographic of us. So until we start talking about this as a collective and bring in allies who are not Black, who don't know the experience of living in a community where stops like that seem to be rather routine nowadays,

that kind of force seems to be rather routine nowadays, that kind of force seems to be sort of like, okay, yeah, this is what they do. They bust open windows like this. They come at you with guns, even when they haven't seen one. This conversation cannot move forward until we see a collective voice. And I just fear that we are not there yet. We are not there in Georgia. We are not there in New York. We are not there in Montana, for example. It's a national conversation. And I hope it really starts when we have more people acknowledge what people of color have done for this country, acknowledge our history properly and realize that people of color belong everywhere, everywhere from police officers and all the way to Congress. The people of color are everywhere, but they do not threaten the existence of white people.

And this is what the story is just all about to me. This is the thing that we got to realize. And this is what we're talking about all the time. Everything is not black, white, when it comes to blue, it's also black and blue. These two cops are black. These two cops Atlanta were black, but their actions show the type of force that police officers use.

And so we've seen other examples where black cops have engaged in the same conduct as white cops. It is because when they have that badge and that gun, they're under the authority of the law. They know what they can and cannot do. When I'm seeing the video, I have two things that come to mind. The first is the culture, black and blue. It's a terribly hard job, but they can be susceptible to the kind of culture that we see all around us. I mean, you go into a police department. I used to cover cops. I was a little cops reporter back in the day.

And yeah, you could just feel it permeate the building whenever you walked in. It was us versus them. And it didn't matter if you were black or white. As long as you wore that uniform, you were relying on a certain culture and either fit in or you're putting your own life at risk. That's number one. Number two, the fact that they got their jobs back speaks to a third point. I mean, this is the through line between what you were talking about with voting rights and elections. The reason why they got reinstated is because of this community service board ruling. How did the

community service board get created? By people who elected and who voted for it and by local politicians who decided that they needed. It was initially set up, those police community review boards are initially set up to protect officers, more often than not white officers, from bad acts like we just saw. So in order to overturn that, which the Black Lives Matter movement called for in defunding the police and in taking police, taking all that pressure off police to do things that they aren't responsible for. And number two, you need local elect. That don't allow bat cops to go back on service. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, y don't allow back pops to Well folks, uh, it is, uh talk about police account

have enough of that count you an update on a case i where attorneys have rele toxicology report that fi a 15 year old Juan Bobby Charles had traces of alcohol and marijuana in his system when he was found dead in a Louisiana sugar field in November. Now we covered this story where this young man was found. This woman and her son said that, oh, they picked him up. But if you saw the photos, the gruesome photos, folks, that reminded us of Emmett Till,

something really gruesome happened here. Now, Janet Irvin, a white woman whose 17-year-old son was friends with Charles, was one of the last people to see him alive. She told authorities that Charles got high on hallucinogens and wandered off on his own. Now, after seeing the toxicology report, Charles' family attorney suggests Urban's claims are false and that foul play was a factor in his death. Now, Charles' family, they've been asking authorities to Irvin, claiming she knows more about the team's disappearance.

And this is this is a really, really strange, strange story arena because this black kid comes up missing. Mom didn't know he's way for hours. Cops say, oh, he's probably at a football game. Then they find his body face. Just I can't even describe it. I don't want to show the photos. We showed them initially. We showed a picture of him and then him on the autopsy table. And it is beyond gruesome. And the fact that no one has been arrested, this is only a person of interest, makes it even more painful for this family who have been demanding answers from the cops there since November. You know, if this wasn't Louisiana, I'd be saying, here's the thing. Everything should be investigated to the full extent of the law.

The investigation should be thorough. Conclusions shouldn't be jumped to, nor should the accused be dismissed without being investigated. That's my initial thought, because the law protects both the accused and the victimized. But we know we know what happens in certain places in this country where colored people do not. Let me just put it this way. Get a different form of justice. And this just smells terrible. I think this is the prime example, this epitome of what we see to be outrage and disbelief and all hands on deck when a white young girl goes missing, or would be found in this condition, even worse, something just unimaginable, unconscionable. But when it's a young black teen, everybody wants to,

oh, particularly particularly boy they want to jump to the conclusions oh he must be using he must have done something to deserve that he must have been involved in something where that would be the outcome this is about two systems of justice so i do fear that what would be needed is a very thorough investigation and just will not get that because of the demographic because of the geography of the area. This is what we know. This is an unfair system. And that is why we need, frankly, greater conversations about who is getting to serve

us in office. These are decisions made often by district attorneys. These are the conversations, Roland, that we need to start to be comfortable having in order. This is part of civic renewal, too, as a country. If we want to see fairness, if we don't want to see these two systems of justice, we don't want to see these kind of miscarriages of justice. We need to have the civic renewal that comes with being more comfortable talking about such gruesome, heinous acts, which do get treated differently and all we have to do is point to historical examples but the very problem is that so many of us are not willing to have that comfort and and and just be better educated about the history of how people have generally been treated under the united states justice system and again it's a state-to-state problem but more so in the south and this is this is the kind of thing where i do fear uh the the parents of and the mother particularly, I mean, to just discover the condition in which he was found.

I do not know that she'll be met with justice, but it is up to each of us to share these kinds of stories so that we know this is not acceptable in 2021 America. It is not. They deserve the same level of justice that a white family would get. Joseph issue we have here again, we there's another through line here and that is the fact that when you've got rural parts of the country like this rural

Louisiana, uh, more often than not, the sheriffs are elected. They aren't professional law enforcement, they're politicians. And Emmett Till is a pretty apt comparison here because you've got a young man, 15 years old, why is he hanging out with a 17 year old and the 17 year old's mom?

How does the mom know that this young man was using drugs? And how does a young man like that drown in two feet of water? We don't have a lot of answers to those questions and I would submit that the reason why we don't have a lot of answers to those questions is because we're not dealing with a particularly professional police department. Elections matter, rural elections matter, local elections matter. So you presumably have an elected sheriff's department here that is not taking this as

seriously and probably don't have the tools to take it as seriously. So until that, and with the layer of racism over that, the layer of what we know to have happened in past decades in rural Louisiana, with that as the overlay, it's probably going to be a very long time before we figure out what's going on here. Probably the Justice Department needs to get involved. They may do that now that Trump is out of office, but there are a whole lot of questions that need to be answered. They probably won't get answered at the local level,

and they probably won't get answered until a more professional, more thorough law enforcement examination was done, including asking all these unresolved questions about why a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old were friends and why their mom kind of went along with them on this excursion and how she knew that this kid was taking drugs yeah this is um this this story in itself is just too telling of so many situations that's been going on across the country but i think some something that I think we all can do is is figure out our own resources I think you know sorry if I mispronounce

your name rule was on point about those conversations but I think you know the questions that we're all asking here today or comments minutes it's common sense you know if those who are in leadership in that specific county wants to actually take this story apart and actually do a full out investigation, justice hopefully will be served. But I do think we all have our own individual resources that we all can reach out in some way to help this family through this difficult time. All right, folks, go into a break. When we come back, I will talk with the head of the President Joe Biden's COVID Task Force

about the importance of the vaccine. Also having a strong national testing plan. You don't want to miss that conversation. Also, we'll talk about Chloe Bailey. A lot of people have been trying to hurt her because of the video of it she put out that for me i got problems with the criticism because it's the policing of a black woman's body and these same folks have no problem with the kardashians and the jenner's using their bodies appropriating blackness to build billion dollar companies and

why are black businesses playing themselves small? I will deconstruct that. And, of course, we also have courtside Karen. Yeah, she went after LeBron. He clapped back. Social media clapped back on her ass, and now she's apologizing. All of that next on Roland Martin Uncooked.

I grew up wanting a lot of activities in my neighborhood that was in close proximity. You know, my mom wasn't always there, so I didn't always have a ride to places. And, you know, you want to be able to walk down the street and get to something that's some food for your soul in your community. You know, I relished, you know, the days of being in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and when I had to go out there and live with my people, they had actually black-owned corner stores. My uncle owned one. My Uncle Donald owned a cleaner's and a corner store. And he's a city councilman down there now.

It's like that was big for him. He was like, yo, man, you got to own something. You got to own something. His wife was named Louise. It always killed me. I used to call him George Jefferson. His name was Donald because his wife was named Louise. And that was big to see my family own and stuff.

And it just cultivated what my dad told me. My dad, he didn't say a lot of good stuff, but the three things that he did give me, play chess, you be a thinker, you don't have to work for nobody. He told me that. He said, you don't have to work for nobody. The same energy that you put into for somebody else you can put that same energy into it for yourself and then he'd go into his field see they talk about black people don't want to work black people just don't want no jobs you know we don't work for nobody else you want our own stuff that's it give me my own so I can work every day he goes he goes to his own field and like i don't want smith let's just get right into it uh you have a very very

uh difficult uh job ahead uh not only uh trying to um get people to keep washing their hands wearing masks trying to get folks to social distance. But then of course we have the vaccine. Then we have trying to get over the conspiracy theories when it comes to the vaccine. So let's sort of deal with the first part. And that is stepping into this role thus far, what has been your, from your perspective, the biggest challenge when it comes to COVID-19.

Yeah. So, Bray, thank you so much for having me. And there is a lot to do. You are 100% correct. President Biden is fully committed to ensuring equity in our COVID-19 response. And so we'll talk some about vaccines and vaccination today, but we can't lose sight, as you said, about things like masking, but also PPE, access to testing, you know, access to therapeutics, and really so much more. So there is a lot for us to do. It's been a great challenge. We know that we're coming in as a new administration, the former administration, you know, unfortunately did not have a coordinated national strategy, and certainly one that was not centered on equity. And so, you know, that is a big challenge. And then for us, in a very practical way, you know, we have to do much better in terms of the data that are available to help guide, you know, guide our response and make sure it's equitable. Could not agree more, though, that as we look forward, we have to be thinking about issues of access in vaccination, but also acceptance. And that gets right to your point about disinformation and the campaign we need to mount against that. When you talk about that particular plan, there were some people who said that the Biden administration was wrong to say

that you are having to start from scratch. I mean, obviously, that was a task force. Obviously, there were things that were already done. But when I heard from start from scratch, what I really heard was a comprehensive, fluid, competent plan that brought along all stakeholders as opposed to sort of these bits and pieces and this disjointed plan and this whole idea that frankly we saw from the Trump folks, just leave it up to the states when the reality is when you have something like this, it really requires the marshalling of the federal government resources to then say with the federal government, here's what's sending down to the states, what's going to the counties, what'swork across the country. And I give a lot of credit to states and local health officials. I mean, working with very limited resources, quite frankly, and trying to step up to the plate for everyone who lives in their communities. Biden and this administration's plan is about bringing the federal resources to bear. We do need national coordination. There is absolutely a role for the federal government to play here. You know, of course, we're very grateful for the vaccines and sort of all of the many scientists

and career officials and others who worked so diligently to get us to this point where we have, you know, these vaccinations available for people, most certainly. But what we were missing was a vaccination campaign in a way that actually ensures we get from vaccine to actually vaccinations. And that's the critical piece. Vaccines sitting on a shelf don't save a single life. So I'm definitely going to get the vaccine, but one of the things that I'm still sort of not quite understanding, I remember the big old news conference with Walmart and CBS and Walgreens, and we were going to have these massive drive-through testing locations, things along those lines. We really didn't see that. And in talking to other experts that we've had, I mean, we probably have done more than 100 segments on my show, Roland Martin Unfiltered, really trying to keep African-Americans

informed of what's going on. And is that also still part of the issue? You know, have we reached critical mass with testing? Are we at the point where you can say, you know what, we're good on testing? Yeah. No, I'm so glad that you take us back to testing because we're not good on testing yet. But that is part of our, you know, that is part of our national comprehensive strategy. We're really grateful to have a lead testing coordinator in Carol Johnson, who is, of course, as we all are centering on equity. We are very excited about there being new testing technologies coming down the pipe, but we have to make sure there's access for everyone. What we can tell by the rates, the positivity rates in the country, is we're really not testing enough. The higher those go, it's a signal not just of things like And so as some of these, you know, first testing sites open, they were drive-through. And if you didn't have access to a car, a private vehicle,

you couldn't get there. You know, many of the testing sites stood up in white affluent neighborhoods. So we have to be intentional that we don't repeat those mistakes for vaccination or really undo, because we're starting to see some of that happen already as, again, a lack of a federally coordinated plan. So we can learn from testing. We need to do more testing. We're committed to increasing on that front as well. So one of the things that I have seen lately, there's a lot of conversation around double masking. First of all, I was there before they started talking about it. I spent five weeks in Georgia on the campaign trail. And there were a lot of people who walking up to me and they wanted selfies and they wanted to talk. And I was kind of like, yo,

I need y'all to back up. But so, you know, but, but also when I was out there and also, you know, I had, I got some goggles, you know, I I don't wear glasses but I had some goggles because we had health experts on the show who were also saying look protect your eyes I've had I've had other health experts would say hey protect your ears you know it can cope it can come in through the ears so when I was flying I kept headphones on and so can you give us the perspective in terms of on that because and also people were wearing cloth masks, but also is it important to insert a filter, a little pocket in those cloth masks? And then, you know, what should we be wearing? So for the person who's watching,

you know, you're getting some clear advice from you in terms of this procedure that we should be going through when we're going out in public. What exactly should we be doing? Yeah. So great. Let's talk about masks for a little bit. This is one of those very simple, but highly effective tools that we have in terms of stemming transition. So we have to, transmissions are, we have to commit all of us to wearing our mask and to wearing them properly. So I'll talk in a second about kind of the different types of mask as you raised. But, you know, the key is if you're wearing a mask, it's got to be over your nose and mouth. And so I've seen people who are kind of have the quote unquote kind of right mask on, but they're wearing it incorrectly.

And therefore it's. Yeah. Wearing it on their chin or- On their chin or on their- And I'm like, yo, can you pull that up, please? Yes. Yes. And so that is the thing. And I'm like, we don't need to protect our chins, right? And so we got to do better with that. I'm glad that you reach out to folks. I mean, I reach out to folks too when I see them in the grocery store and other places. Just a general reminder, you know, your mask has slipped.

And, you know, I have to say by and large, like people are good about that, but we got to wear those masks correctly. So I think that's number one is we got to wear them and we got to wear them the right way. Your question is great about kind of, you know, the kinds of masks. You know, we always say if you're going out in public, you know, you got about kind of, you know, the kinds of masks. You know, we always say if you're going out in public, you know, you got to kind of wear the best mask you can. So let me just kind of walk us through the different kinds of masks that exist. So you have the cloth mask,

right? And then I'll talk some more about the layers there and filters. But that is, you know, that's the sort of the minimum, I would say, in terms of the strength of the mask. And then from there, you have the surgical mask. Right. So those are often blue or pink, a little bit higher grade. And then you can sort of move on to these N95s. We talk a lot about those, especially for our health care workers. So let's go back to cloth. You know, if you're going to be using a cloth mask, it's really important that it be multi-layered, you know, three layers tightly

woven is what is ideal with a filter pocket. If you can, you know, these, I have these masks myself. I have a filter pocket in them. It doesn't have to be complicated complicated you know what I use for my filter I use so I use coffee filters right so just regular Wow filters or you can use unscented dryer sheets you just slip it in the what so what is three okay you said three layer okay so okay I need to explain three layer because does that mean that there I mean so is okay does that mean that there are three filters is it three masks? Is it so? Because, again, I hear that and I see all of these these promotions and we've got three layers and five layers. I'm sitting there going, that's a mask. Right. Exactly.

So this is about how thick the typically this will be a cotton, how thick the fabric is. And so, you know, if you think about like, you know, a single, a single ply t-shirt or something, right? So you want the three ply, you want this sort of the thicker fabric. One of the things to do is hold your mask up to the light. Like if you can see through that mask, it is not thick enough, right? It's basically not going to provide you the level of protection you need. So if you're using a cloth mask, definitely for that three-ply, please avoid fleece. You know, people, I see them kind of the gaiters. We don't have good science to support those at all. In fact, some science suggesting those are

worse. So start with that cloth mask. If you're using the cloth mask, that three-ply with a filter is what's ideal. You know, again, a little stronger than that is the surgical mask. And then the strongest, of course, is the N95. We haven't seen anything that says there's harm, right, in wearing two masks. So certainly if people feel more comfortable with that, there isn't science suggesting against that. But the CDC is the best place to go for the most current guidance on masks and what kinds of masks to wear. So you said N95, but I've been seeing a lot of K95. What is K95? Yes, exactly. So this has to do with kind of the countries where it's made. Most often there are the KN95 masks. There's good data to support that. You know, one of the things

to keep in mind is the fit of the mask. Back to what we were just talking about, you know, some of why we see people with the mask low is because it's really not a good fit for them and it is in fact slipping. So the mask, again, the wearing it appropriately is key. So whenever you put the mask on, be it the cloth one or a KN95 or an N95, right, the idea is to make sure that it is really close, flush to your face, right, and that there are ways for your air to sort of be seeping out the sides. But KN95s, there's good evidence there as well for them in terms of protection. We have to have to wear these masks. We have the new variants now as well. So more reason to be very vigilant about

our mask wearing. Perfect example. I'm sitting here, I'm flying. I was flying to Atlanta to cover the Senate race. And this woman had, Doc, I am not lying. She had this plastic guard. And it was it was covering her mouth. OK, that was one. She did not have a mask on. But here's the crazy thing. The guard was actually extending out like an inch or so. And I'm sitting and I going, and it came up to

right above her lip. And I'm looking at her going, that ain't actually solving a damn thing. You are literally, she's talking and I'm like, boo! That does not protect you or anybody.

That's useless. And then when you see, so what about also also everybody's selling these things, the, uh, these clear coverings and people think, Oh, I can put it over my face, but so I don't have to wear a mask. I'm still going. No, that's still a problem because if you're talking, it's coming out the bottom or it's coming out the sides. Correct. That's correct. You know, we really need to wear masks. That's what we have to do. And I know some people add on face shields for extra protection. I mean, to your point earlier, you know, protecting your eyes and others. And so,

you know, there really aren't substitutes for the mask. I mean, there are a few people because of medical conditions, for example, you know, cannot wear a mask. And we understand that. And that really, I think, makes us all the more responsible to take care of our neighbors in that way. When people have a medical reason, they can't wear a mask. But otherwise, it's wearing that mask. And then, of course, you know, no harm in added protection if you add on a face shield over, right, to help protect your eyes. You know, one of the things, if I might say to you, because I think we don't often think about this, we know that kind of being indoors and depending on the kind of ventilation, that's the highest risk setting for transmission. You know, so we have to be very, very consistent in wearing our mask when inside.

Sometimes that means when inside our homes. So, you know, if somebody in your house is going out and have to, many of us do to go to work or run errands or other things. But, you know, if you're going to be going out and in high risk situations and you live with someone who is at high risk for severe COVID-19, you know, we can wear the mask at home too. And that's helpful. We do that here in my house. We have a multi-generational home. And so let's remember that our homes are also indoor and we got to keep the safe in our homes as well. You talked about where we are in terms of when it comes to communicating the folks with the vaccine and having a campaign. We talked about equity. I'll tell you, as I'm

watching this thing unfold, I watch where the Trump folks wanted to spend some $250 million on this ad campaign that was really about trying to bolster their poll numbers. You don't have to say it. I will. That's what it was all about. Then it was eventually scrapped. The concern I have goes back again to equity. Typically when these things happen, the dollars are not being spent on black platforms like the one that I have. They're not reaching the critical customers. There's sort of this broad deal. It's part of this task force strategy as well to say, look, we've got to ensure that if we are now communicating with key constituencies, African-Americans have died at a much higher rate proportionally to population than anybody else.

Black medical workers have died disproportionately higher than anybody else. And so how are you crafting a communication education plan to ensure that it is being communicated to those audiences, but from sources that they trust. That they trust. You hit the nail on the head, right? This is what I would say. You have to, this is everybody, this is a shared understanding in the Biden-Harris administration, right? That what our role is in terms of the federal government and the administration is to support those preexisting relationships and platforms, right? Where we know, we know that the content has to be tailored. Most definitely, you know, people have a right absolutely to be asking these questions.

We need to answer them clearly and consistently. That's our job. But for all the trusted messengers, to your point, now we have to make sure that people get information in the places, right, that they're used to getting information that they trust. That's high, that's high, high priority. So the communication education strategy has that very much in mind. And that's how it's being built, quite frankly, and stood up. There is nothing, I think, sort of more important in terms of how we move forward at information sharing than being sure that we are working with trusted, trusted messengers in the communities on the ground to get the message out there. And really, this is about people getting

the best information possible so they can make the decision around vaccination for themselves. And that is something that, again, I mean, we have, look, my show is a five-day-a-week show, and we've had HBCU experts, epidemiologists, we've had infectious disease experts, ER physicians. I mean, we've sort of been blanketing this because for me, look, I've been in Black media for two decades, and our audience, their deal is, okay, Roland, what do you say? What do these folks say? And we also know, based upon numerous surveys and polls, that African-Americans get better care from black physicians and health care workers. And so so to me, this is also, I think, something that is critically important that the folks who are out there creating proposals, who are spending these dollars have got to understand that you've got that you've got to target these media i don't care

if it's this small black newspaper if it's this website this digital platform this podcast because to me it has to be constant messaging because i can tell you i can tell you doc whenever we have these conversations i'm monitoring my facebook page my youtube page periscope page and i'm seeing conspiracy theories yeah i'm seeing talk about tuskegee and they're bringing all these things up and African Americans are look, there's a lot of it out there and we have to counter that.

So speak to that. How do we counter this whole deal? No, man, they're trying to kill us with this vaccine. And then you have other celebrities out there who are throwing things out. I get people who said Mr.. Louis Farrakhan said this, and this pastor said this. And so we're, we're, we're battling internal issues when it comes to sowing seeds of discontent when it comes to a vaccine. I know this is, so people, this is understandable, right? Kind of where and why there might be some pause and some skepticism.

You know, I really hope folks have heard President Biden saying, he said it more than once, that, you know, black and brown communities have not been treated with the respect, the dignity, the honor that we deserve from the federal government and from the scientific and medical communities, quite frankly. So we start from that truth and go from there. He is committed to rebuilding trust. We got to rebuild trust in science. This has been one of the greatest tragedies is that we have politics and all these other things that are creeping into what is a public health emergency in our country. But, you know, we have to commit. So we need to be honest. We need to be transparent. We need to be open. And we need to make sure, to exactly

your points, that we are countering the misinformation and the disinformation. Look, this is what we know. The vaccines that have been approved for emergency use authorization, they are safe, right? They are effective. What I think some people don't understand, too, what's different now maybe than Tuskegee is we can think about the representation in terms of the scientists who developed these technologies, who were part of the process to create these vaccines, to review these vaccines with equity at the center. When we think about who was in the clinical trials, right, about 30% of participants identified as of color. So there's good representation, I think, in the clinical trials. So these are all, I think, just important pieces of information people need to have. And of course, the sort of top point is what we do know with certainty is that COVID-19 is an existential threat in our communities. We are getting hit disproportionately in communities of color in particular.

And so we have a tool now in the vaccine that will get us right to the other side of this pandemic, to our new normal. And we have to keep that front of mind is given the data that we have today, you know, vaccination is really what, what makes sense, but it's hard, right? People have to be able to have these conversations like you and I are having to reach out, to ask people they trust, right. and then to get these answers so that they, you know, can feel more confident in making the decision to get vaccinated. Well, Dallas County to Texas did something I thought was really significant.

They want to distribute their vaccines to high-risk population. It wasn't based upon age. It was really factoring in race. Texas said, oh, no, you can't do that and say we will pull your vaccines if you do. Dallas County is now battling them over that. To me, that was a smart strategy. They look at the numbers and saying who are dying from covid at a higher rate than anyone else, who is also being infected at a higher rate than anyone else. We're going to actually do it that way. Yes. So, you know, I'm not 100%

familiar with all the details on the ground in Dallas, but I will say this, which is the federal administration, we are fully committed to ensuring equitable access to this vaccine and to vaccination. You know, when people are ready and it's their turn, right, and they are at yes, we have to make sure they can get access to their vaccination. And so the multi-pronged strategy, we released a 200-page strategy. And in there, in those details, every single one of our approaches really does center on equity, right? So whether we're talking about the federal government coming in to support new vaccination sites, this is key, right? So these community vaccination centers and making sure that they are in communities that have been hardest hit, at least a good number of them, for us to be partnering

with pharmacies, right? Not just big chain pharmacies, but also local independent pharmacies. Understanding there are pharmacy deserts, right? And so that we will need to bring mobile units to bear, that we have our federally qualified health centers as great partners that we can work with really and allocate vaccine directly to as we can with the VA to get to some of these hardest reached populations. So we're in the process now,

in terms of moving forward on what this administration is committed to, of meeting with states and with local health officials to review their pandemic response plans and really to talk about equity and how that works. And when there isn't a plan that gets us to equity, we're here to provide that technical assistance and help. But many, many places are already doing a great job thinking about equity, and we want to share those best practices across the country. Our time is short, but I got to ask you this because I keep hearing this. Okay. Moderna, Pfizer, and now Johnson & Johnson. I'm hearing from Black people who are saying, I ain't taking that Pfizer one. I need this one over here. And so how are you also dealing with that? Because you have these these competing vaccines. Johnson Johnson just announced, hey, ours is one dose.

The other ones are two doses. And so there are people who literally are saying, you know, I really prefer that one over this one. But my state is not isn't getting that one. So how do you deal with that? Yeah. So great. So overall, this is really great news, right? To have multiple vaccines that have been found to be safe and effective by the FDA. I mean, this is fantastic news. And then when we get into this idea of kind of the distribution of the vaccinations and other things like that, you know, my message to people is take the vaccine that is offered to you. We are in a crisis. This is a national emergency. I mean, the likes of which most, I mean, we have never seen this and getting everyone vaccinated is going to be

gargantuan. So, you know, I, when I went to get my vaccine, I'm a healthcare worker, I'm a physician. I went to the hospital and they said, today we have Moderna. And I said, thank you, then I'll be taking Moderna, right? So this is what the situation will look like for most people out there, is you'll show up, just get your appointment, get your vaccination, have trust. I have trust in the processes that have gotten us to the safety and efficacy review. So have trust in that process, get the vaccination, know that we're

following up. You know, people need to understand some of the things that are normal. Like after I got my vaccination, my arm was sore for two days, right? I know that oftentimes with that second vaccination, people can have a day or two of chills and fever, right? Might even need to take off for work. We need to get out there and let people know what is normal and what to expect when you go get vaccinated. But, you know, fundamentally, this is a good, good problem to have, that there are different vaccines out there. That means we can get more people vaccinated quickly, which is the goal. Well, I saw a story the other day that I just loved. I think it was in Oregon where there was some health workers

and there was a car accident and they had these vaccines and they were going to expire in six hours. They literally got out of the car and said, well, we got them. And they started giving shots to people who were waiting in the, who were stuck behind the accident. And so health workers out there are doing amazing job, an amazing job trying to keep people safe. And so I think we salute them. Dr. Smith, I appreciate it. I'm told we are out of time. You are more than welcome to come back again. You know, we do about 25 to 30 million views a month we target african

americans and it's all about getting quality information out from trusted sources so please don't hesitate to reach out to us at any time thank you thank you for all you're doing be well everybody all right take care joseph boys i want to start with you. This is a major issue. We're seeing stories right now out of New York, how wealthy white folks are actually going into poor neighborhoods, jumping in front of folks, getting the COVID vaccine. Then we have, of course, folks who are African-Americans, others who are scared to take the vaccine i mean we're dealing with a mass uh misinformation issue conspiracy theories uh this is going to take uh i think a much more aggressive stance by the federal government i appreciate dr new net smith coming on this show i've made it clear to uh the uh the body Biden administration and members of Congress that you're going to have

to have some real dollars allocated for significant amounts of education, having experts out there for folks to actually trust this vaccine. And it's real, the doubts that people have. And some of the stuff I hear is absolutely crazy, but we have to confront what is a problem because here's the deal. The flip side of a lot of us getting COVID is death. And people are saying, well, I want the side effects. Well, there are side effects to a significant amount of drugs, but there is only one side effect to death. You're dead. Part of the problem that we have here is the legacy of some horrific stuff that the government

did, but that was 30 and 40 years ago. But the muscle memory of those sorts of things linger long among African-Americans. It's not hard to find somebody who will cite Tuskegee, who will cite Henry Lacks in their justification for not getting vaccine. That being said, it is here and now, it is science, it is trustworthy. I have a friend, you know, you talk about people who you're surprised who don't really believe in this sort of thing. I have a friend, really smart guy, very educated, says he's not taking the vaccine. I'm like, why not? He said, well, we don't know what's in it. Well, you do know that it's been tested. You do know that the federal government,

now don't talk to me about the federal government. So that is a microcosm of what we're dealing with here. Now, as far as the white people jumping in line, that's not surprising either. Number one, because you do have this vaccine hesitancy. And number two, white people are positioned to take advantage of that. people in African-American neighborhoods who don't have access to a car for a drive-in vaccine, who don't have phone service or cellular service in order to make a telephone contact, or don't have internet service, or get jumped over when the internet service comes up to make an appointment online. So there are many, many things that they have to address here beyond just trying to convince opinion leaders that this thing is safe and to get people to take the vaccine. You need campaigns like they have some in barbershops. I've been talking and doing some work reporting about how barbershop may come into play. They do testing

in barbershop for hypertension, for prostate cancer. Now it may be an information campaign for COVID-19 or perhaps even a clinic to get a shot. The minister is going to have to take a role here. Preach about the vaccine from the pulpit. That's actually happening in Chicago and in places in New York and other areas around the country. So it's going to take a vast, concerted campaign. And again, the word that I kept hearing from her was intentional. We have to be very intentional if we want equity to be the watchword, if we want equity to be the guidepost in getting this vaccine to people who need it, getting the virus under

control, and getting life back to some semblance of normal and preserve Black life in the process, because it does matter. We do need to be proactive about this because we know that the white folks ain't going to give us that, th They're going to take it So make sure that people and it's incumbent upon t to do just that. So means people who know these com

what's best. We had Dallas Wiley price on this show, and one of the things that they wanted to do was to distribute the COVID vaccine to the communities where the need is greater. Republicans in Texas said to the county, no, you do that, we're going to withhold the COVID vaccine from you. That's a perfect example of a county studying the data, studying the issues that they have and say, this is how we think is best to administer the COVID vaccine in our county. But then you have big government, Republicans love talking about small government and we don't like big brother telling us what to do. But in fact, that's exactly what Governor Greg Abbott and his folks were doing to Dallas County. Yeah, that's an astonishing example, Roland.

And that's a really good one to just show how hypocritical the response is from the right to this pandemic that frankly was handled in such an unbelievable manner by the Trump administration. And I'm normally not one to put all blame on one portion of the government. I like to sort of distribute that blame equally. But from my standpoint and having studied public health at the graduate level, I know I've mentioned that on this show many times, but I'd like to remind our audience, I mean, my study, really, what I saw was that there are multiple actors who can do their part in a scenario like this, in a pandemic scenario.

But remember, this federal government for the past year, and now it's been on our shores for a little over a year, we know that the federal government did not have a playbook. And what they did was punted the ball back to the states. And now that was sort of the sensical thing for conservatives at first. Okay, give governors the ability to do what they want to do. They know their communities well. No, that did not help at all. And I must say, as a person who has studied the government and has a free market lens and generally conservative fiscally, this was the one area that I believe we are suffering to this day because of the lack of

a federal unified response. There are very few moments in which conservatives can really get behind the federal government and say, you know what, you right the ship, you lead the ship this time. The smaller governments, your state and local territories are not well equipped to do this. And this is exactly why we're sitting where we are today with this entire befunglement of the vaccine distribution, whether you're talking to somebody in Texas, talking to somebody in Florida or here in Northern Virginia, where I live, you are finding out that their depletion of doses, first doses, mind you. But the fact is that states are ill-equipped because the federal government didn't step in and lead the charge to get with Congress and say, this is how

we give states what they need to do to distribute the vaccine properly. So if you ask me, Operation Warp Speed that was part of the Trump administration and that they love to still talk about as the success of the Trump administration, it was a complete and utter failure. The way they went out was just so catastrophically awful. I don't want to spend much time on that, but what I want to say, we sit here in this moment because when the Biden administration got in, they knew it was going to be bad.

But on day one, on January 20th, leading into 21st, the first day of work, they were frankly shocked by how badly Operation Warp Speed had failed and the lies and the deception of the Trump administration. So now we have another layer of problems. We already have these community issues where communities of color and even in Asian American communities I'm seeing great deception happening in WhatsApp channels, for example, text threads. The disinformation was always a problem. But the added layer now

is this potential for a message to say that the Biden administration isn't handling this correctly, whereas it was really this trickle down effect a few weeks later that we're finding was because of the Trump administration's actions. A couple of things I think we can do to alleviate some of this is to remind people of the facts of how vaccine distribution was be fungled by this federal government. And secondly, and that states never got the money they needed to do testing and tracing. So testing, yes, it's so important. We hear about it so, so much. But the tracing portion is so huge. And that's what I know that federal governments needed to do their part to get

states the money they needed. Congress failed us. The last Congress failed us on that as well. So these are the two stats that I like to remind people in this moment, because I'm getting a lot of text messages from folks in my native West Virginia, which is just five hours away from where I live now in Northern Virginia. And I'm getting texts from people in rural and urban communities saying, Rena, I'm getting my first dose appointment is getting pushed and pushed and pushed. And I'm reminding people that give a couple more weeks to this administration, as evidenced by this fantastic interview you just did, give them a couple more weeks to get this right. They are in a moment that is just so fundamentally awful, that we have to give a little bit more time and understanding

that they walked into a situation that was far worse and were never actually given the lens to even see or predict that it was as bad as they saw on day one we have to talk in fact Teresa again this is where trusted voices are going to matter the most especially when it comes to African Americans yes that looks like educating African Americans with shows that actually talk about these type of issues with African American communities so as much as I care for what the Biden administration is going to do as it relates to educating the public. But we have to be honest about this. You have to start spending ad dollars. You have to start spending financial resources in order to educate the public, African-Americans and minority

communities through the mediums of how they receive communications. So that is your social media. That is your podcast. That is television show and programming. So I is your social media, that is your podcast, that is, you know, television show and programming. So I think there has to be a very, very intuitive effort on the Biden administration. They want to have a serious conversation about educating the public, about putting voices on, you know, it's not enough just to take a shot on camera on CNN because let's just be honest some african-american and minority communities don't have cable you know still in these times so what are they doing locally what are we doing to fund some of those educational initiatives and program in order for them to get their point across that yes you need to wear a two-ply mask yes vaccinations

are the way to go but regardless of all of that we need to make sure that we are not only um having minorities at the table but we are also funding podcasts communication efforts and social media efforts that is actually reaching them so they can actually get to their households and they can spread the word folks i want to talk about this next story typically i ignore stories like this okay um i don't do a lot of entertainment and sports on here i do no gossip uh because frankly we are inundated with that in black america when it comes to pop culture and entertainment and sports but i saw the video that chloe bailey put out celebrating her 1 million uh social media followers and then i I was, I saw it. Then I saw all these, I saw the tweet.

All of a sudden, then this reaction, all the people who were trashing her because of her video. And it frankly pissed me off. So here's the original video. Close to you. I just can't So the video was because she surpassed a million followers on Instagram. Nothing wrong with the video. No problem, no issues. Yet she then began to be attacked by various people, which led to her going back on Instagram to explain and getting tearful in doing so.

And I think for every woman out there, don't change who you are to make society feel comfortable. And I'm telling myself that's not what I'm going to do. And even when I posted the video yesterday, I was posing it because I was saging and doing Palo Santo. And I was like, let's spread positive vibes. I didn't even really notice you all would talk about my ass because I'm like, okay, I'm just walking in for one second, two seconds, you know? And I feel like I've shown my ass more than I have with that. Like if you look at our performance videos, the last performance we had in December, like I was just so excited and on stage and just being myself. So I don't know. I just felt it was

important to address it so you guys get to kind of get to know who I am more inside. And it's really hard for me to think of myself as a sexual being or an attractive being, quite frankly. So when I see all the uproar about my posts and stuff, I'm a bit confused. Like I really don't understand because I've never seen myself in that way or in that light. So I take it as a huge compliment that you all even think of me as a sexual, sexy being. And, you know, it's never, I don't post what I post for people to, I don't post what I post for, to get attention. I don't need that. I am a very spiritual person and I feel like during quarantine, I got really close to God. So even in the lowest moments, I felt like people

weren't seeing me when people weren't paying attention to me. God was. And I've learned I don't need outside attention. So you all seeing what I'm posting is just me being me. And yeah, I just hope you can just see who I am. And that's it. So here's why I'm pissed off. I'm pissed off because black women in this country have had to endure a white supremacist society saying that the features of black women are shameful, are despicable, ugly, and not appealing. Her breasts, her thighs, her calves, her hair, her facial features is all seen as ugly. That is the historical lens by which black women have been defined in America. You've had white folks, including some black folks, demean and criticize

the physical features of Serena Williams and Venus Williams. We've seen them say things about other black women. Oh, they are too muscular and they oh, that's not appealing. Yet every single feature of black women. Has been sought after by white women. Full lips. Full hips. women full lips full hips breasts thighs but all of that all of a sudden having an ass is all the rage the Kardashians and the Jenners have literally built

multi-million dollar, billion dollar companies appropriating black female beauty and America's, oh my God, that's wonderful, including a lot of black men. Yet this sister decides to do this video and she do other videos and

now all of a sudden that's bad? Now all of a sudden folk are saying put your clothes on? They're criticizing her hair? Criticizing it all? Really?

Really? So that Legenda girl go buy some breasts and some hips and some butt and some lips, creates a whole makeup line, company's value at a billion dollars ooh look at her being a business woman

you got all these athletes let me tell you something right now Kim Kardashian gets divorced with Kanye West it's gonna be a whole line of folks lining up trying to get with Let me tell you something right now. Kim Kardashian gets divorced with Kanye West. It's going to be a whole lot of folks lining up trying to get with. Oh, exotic features. Oh, look at her. Go to the conservative website, Daily Caller. Oh, they post videos, photos of women. New York Daily News. There's a white woman who's a golfer, Paige. I forgot her last name. I swear

she on the New York Post every single day wearing some tights showing her breasts and showing her body. But when a black woman decides to have a positive body image now, she's being attacked? Oh, hell no. No, no, no, hell no. I was a part of the YouTube Black Content Creators Summit that took place in Atlanta in 2019. Chloe and Hallie were there. Briefly, I mean, just briefly, you know, we were all in the group.

Didn't have a conversation with them. Don't know them. I've never said chat with them don't know him have never said chat with him and i could have easily skipped this topic teresa but the reason it matters i got nine nieces four nephews. And I've got a mom of three sisters, numerous aunts, numerous female cousins. And what I need our people to understand is that when this generation of black girls sees the hate being thrown at a Chloe Bailey, that can have a negative impact on how these same black girls, black teenagers, young black women now see themselves.

And so then they then, oh, well, if Chloe isn't good enough, then I'm ugly. Then I'm not worthy. Then I don't look as good. And then when there are those people who then begin to body shame them and criticize them and condemn them on social media, they then begin to internalize that. And that then plays a role in some folk deciding whether they want to take their lives or not. And so I need folk to understand, especially folks who are watching on African-American, that one of the things that we must do is actually affirm blackness, affirm black beauty. See, I did a eighth grade graduation for Father Michael Flaser. And whenever I do graduations, I stand there and I shake the hand of each graduate, whether that's an eighth grade, whether it's a high school, whether it's a college.

But also I watch people. I watch people. And I notice how nearly every girl, how they hug. There was this hesitation. That was this distance. And I said, Father Flager, y'all got a problem in this class. I'm seeing the relationship. I have always made a point of hugging nieces and nephews. I don't believe in that distant thing. I don't believe in, oh, no, no, I need you to stay away from me. Because, see, what I understand psychologically is that if you grow up and you do not have a loving environment, if you grow up and folk don't hug, they don't

really speak, there's sort of this distance, that then carries because I believe as a black man, as a black man, that I need to show the black girls and the black women in my family how to have healthy relationships where we are not afraid to hold each public and virtual embrace of our people where we are affirming her black beauty so she understands there is nothing wrong with who she is, Teresa. Yeah, on so many levels, Chloe Bailey's story is similar to millions of young women and women who are older right now, who has still been going through so much of this body shaming and much of the humiliation that has been going on, not only in our culture, but through through social media through the impact of words and it's it's very you know disconcerting because as we look at our young women we can mentor um you know to to a certain extent through organizations through programming but you're

right it takes the love it takes the hugs it takes that intimacy of knowing what a relationship feels like what love actually feels like because otherwise they're going to social media outlets that is telling them that they need to enhance or they'll get targeted ads you know filter to them based upon looking at you know one of the Kardashians line of work that they've done to their bodies or to their face or showing that they can have a black man and still be able to talk about black issues. It's very interesting.

But I think what I got from you, Roland, is the opportunity you know that women like myself and other women who are in leadership who are doing well is to give that compliment to give that you are you know bold you are beautiful you are everything that you need to be. And so I think there is, you know, something that we all need to do is to when a young black woman is being attacked, the community and the culture and every other organization. But as an individual just needs to say something. I think the silence in our communities has hurt us so much that we're seeing more young women in abortion clinics than we are seeing them in business schools. So I think there is a lot to say there.

But moreover, when we police Black women, especially their bodies, we are essentially telling them that they are not worth it but we all know that we are worth it because it looks like capital america um america is capitalizing off of us so um there is more that we need to do but i believe it starts with us individually taking a conscientious approach on how we deal with each other first. Reena, I've raised the point. First of all, I have a typical ban on this show when it comes to anything Kardashians or Jenna, like flat out ban. But the reason I'm raising this is because I understand double standards. And I understand how America, white America, will fully embrace a Kim Kardashian, Jenners, and then Black folks do the same. But then I also understand how Black self-hate can also lead to a condemning

or a condemnation of a Chloe Bailey. When I look at some of the comments, oh, she's sitting here and she's doing videos and she is wearing her underwear. Please tell me the difference between that and somebody in a bikini. Please tell me the difference between folks who are hugely popular and making hundreds of thousands of dollars and millions of dollars as swimsuit models. Please tell me the difference when CBS aired the annual Victoria's Secret fashion show from Miami, which last I checked were women who were walking down runways with huge feathers on wearing underwear. I really think what we're dealing with here, Rena, is we're dealing with people who are not happy when a Black woman decides to say, I'm beautiful, I'm sexy,

and I really don't care if y'all got a problem with it. And in one of her videos, she talked about how she had to deal with feeling negative about her own body. What people have to understand is that this affects black women when you have this level of hatred, when black people have said, you've got nappy hair. We all remember the video of a young Black girl who was having her hair combed, and the sister, I believe she was a babysitter,

I can't remember, who was like, no, baby, you are beautiful. Baby, you are gorgeous. The reality is, because of the history of white supremacy in America and Black people being victims of white supremacy, then taking on the Steven mindset of white supremacy, we then can have self-hate not realizing where our self-hate originated from. And it wasn't from us. It all stems from white supremacy in America. Let's talk, Roland. Black women are particularly vulnerable to the effects of European standards of beauty. That's what this is about, European standards of beauty. And that's what we live with in this country because those standards emphasize skin color and hair types that exclude many Black women, especially those with darker skin.

So I've read a lot of research on this. I want to talk about Chloe Bailey in just a second. But there's a lot of research out there that indicates that European standards of beauty can have really damaging effects on the life trajectories of black women, especially those with dark skin, and primarily in the form of that internalized self-hatred that you just mentioned. So it's really important that we start addressing these effects right away. And when I watched that video of Chloe Bailey, all I saw was happiness radiating from this very beautiful woman. And I'm not just saying that because we're talking about standards of beauty right now. Her happiness was radiating. She was positive. She wasn't doing anything salacious.

I mean, that's one way that society has generally judged women. But it's like when a woman that is real thin, white, wearing skimpy underwear is walking down a runway in Miami with popular singers singing all around her and big feathers, that's suddenly cool. But this chick is just being her authentic, real self and celebrating. She's black joy. That's all it was on display. And she was being herself. And I felt my heart just goes out to her, honestly, because when she talked about not seeing herself as an attractive woman and the sexualization around it, I just felt like, wow, what are we doing to women? And I've grown up in this era.

And without really dating myself, I came up. I'm closer to 40 than I am to 30. Let me put it this way. I came up in an era where all the magazines that I ever saw were always white women, were always real thin. And I hated my curves. I was ashamed of the melanin in my skin. I remember going to my senior prom. My mother's friend came and did my makeup.

18-year-old me didn't really need makeup. I had all right skin, but I looked like I had white face because the foundation was so light. And it's because of where I grew up in rural West Virginia, there just weren't that many people of color, Black, Indigenous people of color. There just were not that many of us. And so what was available in the drug store even wasn't really reflective of our skin tones. And I look back in those pictures and I cringe because I didn't need makeup. I didn't need that foundation, three shades lighter that my mom was sort of saying, make her lighter, make her lighter, because these are the standards of beauty that our bodies, women in America that came up in my age demographic, primarily, these were the messages being sent to us

by corporate America, by advertising execs, that we were not right if we weren't white, that any amount of melanin in our skin suddenly put us in a different category. And I just want to thank you, Roland, really genuinely from the bottom of my heart, being honest and open as a male about how you embrace your family, your relatives,

and just showing them it's okay who you are. Your body is just fine the way it is. I have, I even dealt with feelings as recently as last month of feeling ashamed, going somewhere and putting on a blazer. Cause I was ashamed of looking too busty as if that was going to welcome something at my age. And I'm a married woman,

a mother, and these are the still the ingrained standards, unfortunately that have pervaded the minds of people of color, primarily Black women. And it infuriates me when I see, look, the Kardashians and Jenners, I rock with you because you do not touch that stuff. But it infuriates me to see them totally appropriate what is blackness and be celebrated for it. Yet the very people that these traits belong to are being shunned and being given this kind of treatment that Chloe was. It is not all right. And I just want to start, I want us to have an even more open dialogue. I'm

confident that by the time my girls get older, they will be celebrating the skin they're in, they will not get the messages that I got that were truly to, that I was some sort of exotic creature, that I was not like everyone else when genuinely I was just like everybody else inside, but I was being judged on things I couldn't change, like my skin color. And I just want to give one last thing here, one really small thing. I was visiting New York City when I was in my early teens and I was from West Virginia and I had great parents that always actually, besides my mom, a little bit of friction there with the skin color stuff.

But my dad definitely didn't subscribe to any of that colorism stuff. But I was visiting New York City and I was on a train with a cousin and there was a black woman who came up to me and she said, how much for your hair? Can I buy your hair? You're Indian, right? And right and I was like no I'm American my parents are from India and uh and I just couldn't believe she wanted to buy my hair I thought I was so confused I didn't understand why she wanted to buy my hair and because I looked at her hair and I liked it I was like I like your hair and this is I was an innocent young girl back then, but this is a vignette of exactly how wrong society has treated Black women. And to make us, to make women of color, but make my Black girlfriends think that they were not enough, that they needed to be, have something else, be something else to be beautiful.

So wrong. And I just, I look forward to the beauty industry changing. I've seen evidence of it changing and I'm confident that it'll continue to because that's what needs to change first. Genuinely. This was a comment posted by somebody named CD on the YouTube channel. Stupid. Black American women are more sexually liberated than any other group of women. Other groups of women are inspired by them. So I don't buy this. Well, CD, you don't buy it because you don't actually understand the history of black women. Black women have actually been the targets, been been subjugated to violence and abuse in this country, not seen as models of beauty. And then when a Black woman is seen as a model of beauty, it is by white standards. Typically, she had to be light-skinned and have good hair. We know Joseph, when there was a magazine that changed the altered

the features of Beyonce of Kerry Washington on their magazine covers, skin was lightened was thinned as well, because there were photo editors who said, ah, that that's, that's a little too much hip. That's a little too much,. We can't quite have that. And so, what the person said is incorrect. And I think what ends up happening is, is that we go through this in this society where, again, if you are a Black woman and you are you are proud and public of your features it's a problem i mean i think back to the idiotic black men um one of them i'm not gonna name who i think is just stuck on stupid i don't know why anybody follows or listens to him who condemned Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B when they came out with the WAP song. Snoop Dogg even had the audacity to provide a comment on that when I'm like, Snoop, you talked in a lot of your music about sex. But when these two black women, when they decide, when these two women of color decide to

put a song out, making it clear how they feel about sex, oh no, no, no, you're not, you're a lady. You shouldn't be doing those things. This is what we're dealing with. And I need people to understand it does have a negative impact on young black girls who will be black women one day. Absolutely. And I think part of the issue that we have here is we're dealing with history, history where black women were either hypersexualized and, you know, just available for whoever wanted to have them. And black women were feared. And it's kind of been that tension in society all along.

While you have the white beauty industry trying to take advantage of that. I mean, I'm old enough to remember Bo Derek having braids. You know, when people thought that was scandalous. Because she was co-opting a black style, a cultural style. And we've gone from there to having Adele with Bantu braids, Bantu knots rather. And it just infuriates me, the fact that we really can't get this right even after 400 and some odd years. So kudos to Chloe for trying to stand up to this kind of negativity, but it can have an impact. It will have an impact. And you don't know that

impact until these young women become of age. And so we have to do the best as Black men and as men in general to make sure that that doesn't happen and to understand that Black women are beautiful and that they will be beautiful. They always have been. And there is no question about that at all in my mind. Again, that was critically important. And I just want us to understand that if you want to disagree with Chloe Bailey doing a video in her underwear on Instagram, fine. Okay. Whatever. That's fine. But what you're not going to do is condemn how she looks. You're not going to condemn beauty. You're not going to create the doubt because I think we need to understand there are a lot of black women who have grown up in this country who have been told not just by peers, but by family members that they are ugly, that they are not beautiful,

that their hair is not quality, that their features are not good. And so I mean, look, here's the piece. Social media changes and look, we all we all say things and we might crack jokes and we might do things along those lines. We do have to understand that there is a significant difference in America in the policing of black women's bodies. We need to understand that that is real and not something that we can simply ignore. I was going to do a deconstruction for small businesses, but I'm going to push that to tomorrow. But I do have one final story. What time is it? No charcoal grills are allowed. I'm not making news.

I'm white. I got you, girl. Yeah, it's illegally selling water without a permit. On my property. Whoa! Hey! Hey! Give me your ID.

You don't live here. I'm uncomfortable. All right, LeBron James and the Lakers were playing the Atlanta Hawks when he got into a spat with a white woman on the sidelines who was not particularly happy with something that LeBron said. Here is the video of the altercation. So I'm minding my own business and Chris has been a Hawks fan forever. He's been watching the games for 10 years, whatever.

He has this issue with LeBron. I don't have an issue with LeBron. I don't give a fuck about LeBron. Anyway, I'm minding my own business, drinking my own wine, having fun. All of a sudden, LeBron says something to my husband. And I see this and I go, I stand up and go, don't fucking talk to my husband. And he looks at me and he goes, sit the fuck down, bitch. And I go, don't fucking call me a bitch. You sit the fuck, get the fuck out of here. And I go, don't fucking talk to my husband like that. Don't talk to my

husband. And he literally was like, fuck you, bitch, sit down, bitch. And all of a sudden now I'm getting kicked out. Excuse me. I have courtside seats that i pay for fuck you lebron you're a fucking pussy get the fuck out of here you're gonna let a 25 year old girl intimidate you during a game bye bitch yo i truly cannot fathom how whack some of you guys are like and i don't know about you guys but if my girl was at a game and someone was talking to me and my girl didn't stand up for me, I would reevaluate that relationship. So for all of you clowns saying your wife's a gold digger, guess what? If I was a gold digger, I would sit back and mind my own fucking beeswax and I wouldn't open my mouth. But guess what?

I'm not a gold digger. That's my husband. I love him. If someone disrespects him, I will check him, whether it's LeBron James or a fucking bum on the street. Now, that was the video, not of the altercation, but of course, her comments on Instagram after the game where she was a little salty. Well, let's just say she got her ass lit up on social media today. And so courtside, Karen released the following statement. The same thing escalated quickly at yesterday's game is an understatement. And I want to apologize

for losing my cool and removing my mask in the heat of the moment. Her name is Juliana. My husband is a huge sports fan and we're passionate people. Juliana Carlos. My husband is a huge sports fan and we're passionate people. And let's be real, sports wouldn't be sports without a little trash talking. What should have been quick back and forth between two adults got out of hand and my natural instinct to stand up for the man I love kicked in. Did I get defensive when that happened? Yes. Did I use offensive language when I could have taken the high road? Yes. And for these things, I take full responsibility. No.

Teresa. I can't hear Teresa yeah rolling I couldn't hear you either you gotta stop hitting that mute button my Lord see right there oh my goodness see hitting me button what i said is this is what happens when you want your 15 minutes uh of fame what you really got is notoriety or infinite absolutely you know what karen's like this you know 25 year old karen uh you know she's standing up for her man that's all great and everything but i mean it's a it's a bit of uh interesting you know um i think there's there's two ways she could have handled this and you she could have you know stayed on the sidelines in her court light uh court side seats um but she decided to take it to instagram she decided to to continue

to antagonize the situation um so i i don't think that was like the best method for her to do and then come out with this issued apology statement I mean part of it is once you already put the video up of how you really feel the apology statement it's kind of just null and void it's that somebody just coming in and saying hey we need to try to fix this and here's what it is but at the end of the day we already know what Karen is really thinking. But, you know, she's just on the watch list at this point. All right, folks, the folks now folks here, they couldn't actually hear me as well. Did y'all actually hear me read her apology statement? OK, if y'all are on YouTube, let me know if y'all heard me actually read her apology statement.

You should have heard me. I don't know what the problem is. But, Rena, the crazy thing here is that these people sit on court side. They actually think they have the right to talk to NBA players. They're working. That's their job. And guess what? When she showed her ass, security walked her out. I love it. I mean, Roland, on its face, it looks like, OK, this might not have been a Karen situation just to stand by my man type of situation. But right away, what I sniffed was entitlement. I mean, the entitlement this woman has, the feelings that she must bring to her courtside seats are that I own these people.

They're here to entertain me because I can afford courtside seats. Now, that's a different layer of problem. But the reality is, is, I mean, it's LeBron James. He's obviously somebody my hat's off to. I'm a big fan of LeBron, I must say. I'm from next door, West Virginia. So I got to embrace something over next door, Ohio. But, but look, I mean, this is if LeBron were white, do we really think it would go down like that? This was, I don't want to say it. You know what I'm saying. This was a situation that was like...

It would. First of all, fans act a fool, but again, the issue here is this here. Just because you sit courtside, just because your husband is a huge sports fan, and just because he looked like your grandfather and you're 25 years old, don't mean

that you actually get to sit and act a fool you are to conduct yourself accordingly and i'm glad they walked that glad they walked her behind out and she probably issued an apology because her husband said that damn you embarrassing the hell out of me that's right that's right i mean i can't imagine how he must have felt that night like that was not a good move you would have been better off just sitting there silent and just watching it. I mean, yeah, I mean, obviously sporting is sporting, but this was a situation in which it was, it was literally, she's looking for her five minutes.

She's got this entitlement mentality where she feels like she deserves something. She, she deserves to act that way, the way in which she can even stand up to LeBron when she's in his house, basically. I mean, well, I don't know if it was a home game or what, but but the reality is, is this is the problem. But it don't matter. It's his house. I'll tell you all. So all these Karens, look, y'all showing your ass. I'm just letting y'all know. OK, after food. And then LeBron, of course, had tweeted. Oh, she big mad man. Bob line is, boo, we all know you.

And she probably going to go real private real soon on her Instagram and Twitter because she was running her mouth. That is it for us, folks. I appreciate it. Rena, Teresa, Joseph had to go as well. Y'all, thanks for watching today's show. I will tomorrow do my deconstruction on small businesses thinking to black businesses thinking too small. We simply ran out of time because we went a little long at the top of the show, and so I'll

deal with that on tomorrow. If y'all want to support Roller Martin Unfiltered, please do so by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. Our goal is to have 20,000 of our fans or more support our work by contributing at least 50 bucks to our Bring the Funk fan club. That's $4.19 a month, $0 13 cents a day uh you can support us directly if you subscribe on youtube then we

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