#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Nov. Job #'s, MI Shooter Parents Charged, Potter Jury Selected, Covid Education Gap, Linnentown, GA

Episode Date: December 4, 2021

12.03.2021 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: November jobs report didn't meet expectations, but the unemployment rate for Black people has returned to "normal" levels. We'll have Economist Dr. William Sprigg walk us through those numbers.A jury is selected in the trial of the former Minnesota police officer who killed Daunte Wright during a traffic stop back in April. We will look at who will be deciding Kimberly Potter's fate.A federal judge denies the request to sever the trials of the four Minnesota officers facing civil rights charges in the murder of George Floyd.The U.S. Supreme Court could soon roll back constitutional protections for abortion access. We'll talk to the Director of Advocacy at General Progress from the Center for American Progress, and the Co-Executive Director of Men4Choice about what repealing those protections could mean.The parents of this week's deadly Michigan High School shooter are facing involuntary manslaughter charges.  Monday is Black Freedom and Economic Day. We'll tell you what you can do to help black businesses.Georgia destroyed a Black town, and now former residents want justice 50 years later. The president of the Linnentown Project will explain what that justice should look like.Sunday is the 30th Annual David A. Walker Memorial Double Dutch Holiday Classic. We'll have a preview with the National Double Dutch League president.And in our Education Matters segment, one school figured out how to deal with the Covid gap.  #RolandMartinUnfiltered partners:Verizon | Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, now available in 50+ cities, is the fastest 5G in the world.* That means that downloads that used to take minutes now take seconds. 👉🏾https://bit.ly/30j6z9INissan | Check out the ALL NEW 2022 Nissan Frontier! As Efficient As It Is Powerful! 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3FqR7bPAmazon | Get 2-hour grocery delivery, set up you Amazon Day deliveries, watch Amazon Originals with Prime Video and save up to 80% on meds with Amazon Prime 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3ArwxEh+ Don’t miss Epic Daily Deals that rival Black Friday blockbuster sales 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3iP9zkv👀 Manage your calendar, follow along with recipes, catch up on news and more with Alexa smart displays + Stream music, order a pizza, control your smart home and more with Alexa smart speakers 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3ked4liBuick | It's ALL about you! The 2022 Envision has more than enough style, power and technology to make every day an occasion. 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3iJ6ouPSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfilteredDownload the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com#RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Thank you. Thank you. ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത� Thank you. ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത� Thank you. ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത� Thank you. ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത� Thank you. ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത്ത� Thank you. You know how some carriers give you so little for your old or busted phone you just end up living with it? I don't think so. Verizon lets you trade in your broken phone for a shiny new one. You break it, we upgrade it. You dunk it, doggy bone it. Slam it, wham it, strawberry jam it. We upgrade it. Get a 5G phone on us with select plans.

Every customer, current, new, or business. Because everyone deserves better. And with plans starting at just $35, better costs less than you think. Welcome, everybody, to Roland Martin Unfiltered. I'm Amisha Cross filling in for Roland Martin. We have a great show stacked for you today. It's Friday, December 3rd, 2021, and I'm so happy to be here with you streaming live on the Black Star Network. November jobs reports, well, it didn't meet expectations, but the unemployment rate for black people has returned

to normal levels. We'll have economist Dr. William Sprigg walk us through those numbers. A jury is selected in the trial of the former Minnesota police officer who killed Dante Wright during a traffic stop back in April. We will look at who will be deciding Kimberly Potter's fate. A federal judge denies the request to sever the trials of the four Minnesota officers facing civil rights charges in the murder of George Floyd. And the U.S. Supreme Court could soon roll back constitutional protections for abortion access. We'll talk to the director of advocacy at General Progress from the Center for American Progress and the co-executive director of Men for Choice about what repealing those protections could mean for women across America. The parents of this week's deadly Michigan high school shooter are facing involuntary manslaughter charges. And Monday is Black Freedom and Economic Day. We'll tell you what you can do to help black

businesses. Georgia destroyed a black town and now former residents want justice 50 years later. The president of the Linden Town Project will explain what justice should look like. And Sunday is the 30th annual David A. Walker Memorial Double Dutch Holiday Classic. We'll have a preview with the National Double Dutch League president. And in our Education Matters segment,

one school figured out how to deal with the COVID gap. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's Roland.

Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks He's rollin' With Uncle Roro, yo Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now

Yeah He's bunk, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's fresh, he's real, the best, you know he's rolling, Martin. Martin. Even though November's overall job growth fell short of expectations, President Joe Biden says November's jobs report showed stalled growth. The U.S. is looking at the sharpest one-year decline in unemployment ever. That's a big deal, folks. Let's take a look at those numbers for Biden and contextualize them for Black workers. November's unemployment rate dropped from 7.9 percent to 6.7%. And for men over 20 years old,

unemployment fell an entire point from 8.3% to 7.3%. And for black women, it fell two points. Big differences. Black men saw a job growth up to 6.6% and black women up 5.7%. And in November, the black unemployment rate at 6.7% is still higher than the unemployment rate for high school dropouts that fell from 7.4 to 5%. To break all of this down, joining me now is economist Dr. William Spriggs from Howard University.

Good to see you. So, Dr. Spriggs, we want to have a conversation about just what these jobs numbers mean, specifically for black workers. We know that there's always been a schism between those who don't have beyond high school education and those that do. But digging into those numbers deeper, what types of jobs are black workers actually going to, both men and women? Because we still hear time after time that there are so many jobs that are going unfilled. But we're seeing that the jobs numbers for Black specifically are numbers that are considered average or normal back to what they were pre-COVID. Well, we're not clear on exactly which jobs they took last month. We don't get that in the report broken down by race, but we did finally see success for black workers. Most of the summer, the black labor force participation rate continued to climb.

That is, people went from being on the sidelines to actively looking for jobs. But most of the summer, that was met with frustration. A higher share of those who were trying to find jobs were ending up unemployed rather than employed. November was the break with that, where finally black workers who were out looking got hired. And in numbers big enough, as you showed, to bring down the unemployment rate in a big way. And the positive thing here is that the share employed went up, the unemployment rate went down. We've had a couple of months during the summer where the share employed was going up, but the unemployment rate was also going up. And that was the frustration that black workers were facing in

terms of trying to get hired. But these numbers still show that employers are being picky. As you pointed out, the unemployment rate for high school dropouts also improved, meaning that employers were quite willing to hire people with virtually no education, but they were still more reluctant to hire Black people. Of course, we have much more education than a high school dropout. So the employers are still being very picky. The long-term unemployed and a high share of black workers face long-term unemployment. They've been unemployed more than six months. That unemployment rate is still not coming down the way we would like. That's part of the reason it's hard to get the black unemployment rate to

fall even more. But if these numbers continue, then we should begin to see that even the long term unemployed are going to finally get their turn to get a job. And that's a very important thing that you note, because we know that within these numbers, they're not necessarily including those who have been unemployed for a year or so, unemployed during much of the pandemic last year as well. There are some differences, some variances between black men and black women in these unemployment numbers. Could you explain as to why we see some of those? So the unemployment rate for black men and black women aren't equal. It's much higher for black men right now.

When you look at whites, the unemployment rate for white men and for white women are far more similar. This, again, you know, is employers being picky. But it's a good thing that the share of black men holding jobs is finally showing some recovery. At 61 percent, it's not where we would like it to be, but it's definitely moving in the right direction. And the other good thing in this report was that while the black labor force participation rate, the share of black men actively trying to get jobs stayed flat, that this movement was out of unemployment into employment. So we still have some black men who aren't in the labor force. We know that COVID had a disproportionate impact on black men because of the type of jobs that we have. We tend to be in frontline service providing jobs, transportation, and jobs that put us in contact

with people. And so there's still a drag on participation because of the disease. And that's why we need to make sure that all black people get vaccinated. It's the one way to fight against the virus, but it's the one way to keep yourself in the labor force. Absolutely. And to that point, we know that there is a new variant out right now that has caused some fear amongst employers themselves, just looking at some of the numbers and not really expecting to have as many people come in, especially from some of those frontline jobs that you spoke of a minute ago. As you probably know, there was a phrase coined a few months ago

called the she session relating to the lack of women who are reentering the job force as the as covid started to, I guess, somewhat be in the rearview of what Americans considered at least last year. And a lot of that was due in large part due to lack of access to child care. That's not those that's not necessarily bear out in the numbers that we reported earlier on black women here, even though we know that a lot of black women are raising kids in single-parent households. So it seems that there's still some workforce availability, and black women are still somehow making this work. They're somehow making it work, but it is still a barrier for black women. The labor force participation rate for black women and the share employed

have been growing really well, but we know there was weakness in the child care sector. It was one of the sectors where we didn't see the kind of job growth we saw in other sectors. That is a sector that employs a lot of black women, and child care workers also need child care for their children. Until we can get the president's Build Back Better legislation through the Senate, the nation itself is going to suffer because we as a nation are not making the public investment that other nations make in the care economy. This isn't just child care, but this is also elder care, and it's also paid leave. In the midst of this crisis, we still had a large number of workers in November report they couldn't participate in the labor market because of COVID.

Either they had it, or they were quarantined because a relative had caught the disease or they were caring for a relative with the disease. And so it's still a drag on our economy that we can't get paid leave so that women can continue to be attached to their job, to the labor force, even when they have to take these pauses for care in their family. And the United States stands out among all the nations when we look at the wage gap between men and women. The wage gap between men and women in the United States is larger than virtually every other country. Among the G20, the 20 largest economies, we're 20th. And that's because we don't have paid leave.

All other countries have paid leave. And that lets women continue to be connected to their employer, not interrupt their careers every time something happens and they have to do some care work. We can't deal with that as a nation. That's not going to get us the growth that we need going forward. So without the Build Back Better, we're going to continue to see these incidences where we get bottlenecks in the labor market, something disrupts the labor market, women have to do some sort of care work, we lose their participation, we lose their productivity, we lower their wages. This is a formula for failure of our economy. So it's very important that we change the language. People should not say build back better as social programs. This is the same investment in infrastructure as building a bridge or a road. If you don't have roads, I can't get to work.

But if you don't have daycare, a lot of people can't get to work either. It's a necessary public investment in infrastructure. Absolutely. Thank you, Dr. Swig, for joining us. It was a pleasure to have you. And thanks for sharing all of those wonderful tidbits as well. Thanks. I'd like to introduce everyone to our panel tonight. We have with us Matt Manning. He's a civil rights attorney. Michael Imhotep, a fan favorite.

He's the host of the African History Network show. Kelly Bethia, communication strategist and attorney as well. Welcome to all of you. Hello, Amisha. You're doing a great job. So I know all of you just heard of the conversation that was held with Dr. Spriggs, so I want to bring in some of our men first just because obviously there are some major differences as it relates to black male employment at this stage.

So I'm going to start with you, Michael. What do you see as, I guess, some moments or, you know, places where we can shed light here? Is everything dark or at the end of a tunnel? What are some of the things that you would hope to see in the next few months as it relates to black male employment? Well, thanks, Amisha. And once again, you're doing a great job here and on the other network. No, it's not all doom and gloom. You saw the unemployment rate drop down to 4.2 percent. We saw labor force participation increase as well.

But also something that we're seeing is that September and October, we saw the jobs numbers adjusted upwards. About 82,000 more jobs added with the adjustment September and October. So some of the things I like to see addressed when it comes to African-American men, and I'm somebody who used to work for an employment company and help people get jobs, help African-Americans get jobs. And I organized two career fairs for a local community college here about 10 years ago. I would like to see some barriers introduced. I'd like to see some barriers introduced. I'd like to see some barriers addressed, whether you have African-American men who may not have state ID,

may not have driver's licenses. They may have issues with transportation. They may have issues with, they may have skills, but they don't know how to market themselves as problem solvers when it comes to their resumes. There are different barriers. And another thing that's important is oftentimes people get nervous when it comes to interviews. I'm somebody who's conducted interviews and hired people. A lot of times people get nervous when it comes to interviews. They may have the skill, okay, but they don't know how to present themselves, market themselves, and sell themselves in interviews as well. So a lot of those soft skills need to really be addressed. And we deal with cultural differences when we deal with a

situation where you have a white recruiter, and they may be somebody from a totally different region than the region that African Americans live in. You have a white recruiter who may not be sensitive to different barriers that we deal with as well. So I think those things need to really be addressed also. Thank you. And Matt Manning, I want to bring you in here as well on this. Being a civil rights attorney, we know that employment happens to be in the wheelhouse of civil rights, especially as it relates to the black population and a lot of the barriers that we've seen for decades, specifically towards what Michael was talking about a moment ago. What are what what does this jobs report mean to you? And how are you going about or how are civil rights leaders and attorneys going about ensuring that black males aren't left behind

as we try to reconstruct America and rebuild our economy during this COVID-19 era? That's a great question. Let me first say thank you to Dr. Spriggs for teaching the best and brightest minds at my alma mater, Howard University. I had to get that out of the way. What I would say is I think there's a lot of really good work going on around the nation. You guys may be aware of it, but the Ban the Box initiatives, that's what immediately comes to mind, and that's allowing people who have been incarcerated to get back to full employment by not allowing employers to discriminate against their felony history, particularly when it's a long time ago, it's not violent, and it has no nexus whatsoever to their ability to do the job. empower not only the formerly incarcerated, but anyone else that has a proverbial black mark, if you will, against their employment and allow them back into the employment sector so they can continue to contribute for their families. The other question I kind of have that's a little

bit of an offshoot is the correlation between the hourly wage and inflation. I know the hourly wage went up about 5%, but what I hope to see aspirationally is that that continued improvement allows families to buy more food and put food on their table a little better as we all kind of navigate this crisis. So I would say ban-the-box initiatives are really important. We need to support those around the country so we can ensure that our brothers and sisters are able to work as fully as possible. Absolutely. And Kelly, I'm going to bring you in here. As it relates to Black women, in many cases, the standard bearers of the community, what we're seeing are numbers that don't always tend to match up to the reality in the Black community. The Chicago Foundation for Women put out a report just this week around how the the unemployment numbers or how unemployment is affecting black women, specifically mothers.

So I kind of question how the national numbers jive with what's happening in cities across America, particularly large urban centers. And the process of moms getting back to work. And we know that we're looking at the the Build Back Better plan. It's kind of hanging in the balance, but we don't have child care right now. There's no real place for a lot of these women to have their kids be while they're working. So what do you see happening for black women specifically? And do you see a big divergence between those who have high school diplomas versus those who have more advanced degrees? Because there are several in this economy who are now competing with people who have more degrees or lesser jobs, actually. Yeah, when it comes to the diversion, that definitely exists. But it's also a matter of people kind of sort of knowing their worth as well. So while the

job numbers have improved some, you still have to juxtapose that with the great resignation that's happening right now and exactly why people are leaving their jobs to find other ones. So a lot of that is because people are knowing what their worth is. It's because people are, you know, finally realizing in the midst of a pandemic that they can actually negotiate for more money. They can actually ask for more money and they deserve more money. And if it means quitting that job in order to get something better, then that's what's happening as well. But when it comes to Black women, it's really hard to gauge that properly, because data does not necessarily keep track of Black women as well as other demographics.

And that's historical as well. So I can't really speak on that per se. But what I will say is that as far as Black women are concerned regarding, especially, like you said, motherhood and the like, that this goes back to people knowing what their worth is. And child care is expensive, yes, but the people who are housing the children in their daycare centers, they're not getting paid as well. So it's a lot of factors in that. Even though child care is expensive, the owners have their own expenses as well.

So it's a lot of things going on with that. But data definitely needs, we definitely need more data to figure that out and explore that further. Thanks, Kelly and all. And we'll definitely continue this conversation. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, we will have information about the jury that's being selected in the trial of the former Minnesota police officer

who killed a black man. We'll tell you who is on that. And later, the black descendants of a Georgia town are looking for reparations. We'll explain. But first, we have to take a quick break and listen to our partners, Nissan and Amazon. This is Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. ДИНАМИЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА Betty is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon.

So now, she's free to become Bear Hug Betty. Settle in, kids. You to become Bear Hug Betty. Settle in, kids. You'll be there a while. Ooh, where you going? Thank you. 17-year-old Myessence Judd has been missing from Minot, North Dakota since July 31st. The teen is about 5'2", weighs 130 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Myessence also has a nose ring. If you have any information on My Essence Judd, call Minot North Dakota Police Department at 601-852-0111. A federal judge says the four former Minneapolis police officers

facing civil rights charges in the murder of George Floyd will stand trial together. The judge denied a motion by J. Alexander Quang, Thomas Lane, and Tu Tao to separate the federal trial. Derek Chauvin, Quang, Lane, and Tao are accused of depriving Floyd of his rights while acting under government authority during his killing in May of 2020. Chauvin is serving 22 1⁄2 years in prison. We're going to bring back our panel. Chauvin is serving 22 and a half years in prison.

We're going to bring back our panel. Welcome back, Matt Manning, civil rights attorney, Michael Imhotep, host of the African History Network show, and Kelly Bethia, resident attorney and communication strategist. So, Kelly, I will start here with you. What we all follow the trial of Derek Chauvin and many of us were anxiously awaiting what would happen to the other officers. What are some of your thoughts on some some of the latest some of the latest outbreaks here of all of them basically being tried together? What does that mean? It means that a full story can actually be told in front of the jury or judge, depending on how this trial is going to go. I don't know whether it's going to be a bench trial or a jury trial, but it will definitely be a full story being told. When you separate defendants like that, when you sever the defendants like that, what happens is you kind of have to tell the same story over and over again for how many people?

It's four trials at that point. But in a case like this, since all of them played an integral role in George Floyd's death, all of them had a hand in how he died, it makes sense for all of them to be tried together, especially on a civil side of things, because you don't have to parse crimes out, right? You have to tell the full story so that the jury or the judge or both can have a better understanding of what exactly happened. But as far as how I feel about the trial in general, I think that they need to be held accountable across the board, whether it's criminal law, civil law, what have you, because what happened in that instance was nothing short of a tragedy.

And George Floyd should definitely be here right now. But because of the implicit bias of these people, plus the overt use of force, a Black man is gone for virtually no reason. And Matt, what say you? Is there American trial fatigue at this point? We're just coming off of the trial down in Brunswick, Georgia, which also took place around the same time as we saw the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, around the same as the trial of in Charlottesville. What say you about about this at this point? And where does America stand as it relates to so many trials, so many so much conversation around a lot of the degradation of our society and the police brutality,

as well as civic civic brutality in many cases as it relates to race? You know, I don't think there's a trial fatigue. In fact, the opposite. I think the fact that people are seeing it on their televisions every day in the 24-hour news cycle is imperative and important to me as a lawyer, because now when I put a case forward, I prosecute civil rights cases. People are seeing them. They're not anymore as much an aberration or something that seems like a nuisance brought against the government, but instead they're the topic du jour. So I think that's helpful. I don't think people are fatigued at this point. I think they're fatigued by the social commentary and the discomfort that may elicit related to that. But in terms of the actual

coverage of the trials, I don't think that there's a trial fatigue. And I think that her analysis was spot on earlier about a you know, a composite story being told. But what I do think is interesting is if they had been able to sever the trials, then presumably you would have had the other three defendants saying, hey, it's that guy's fault, right? But when all four of them are sitting there, it's very difficult to sense they're being tried at the same time. So I think that adds a wrinkle that would make me as a criminal defense attorney as well, uncomfortable because I would have to tell my client, you know, it's going to be much harder for us to put all of the onus on somebody else when all four of

you are sitting at the same table. Even if we do that substantively, it'll be much more difficult. And Michael Imhotep, I know that it is hard to read the tea leaves in some of these, some of these cases and some of these trials, but what do you think is going to come down the pipe here? This entire process has been played out now for close to a year. We saw the protest in the name of George Floyd that not only started in America, but then became global. We've seen Derek Chauvin get time that some people didn't even expect for him to get just because of how these trials typically go and officers get off. But now what do you think is going to happen on the heels of all of that action, collective action? Well, I think you're going to have more guilty verdicts here. that it would be hard if you have them try it all together, it would be hard for the jury to

discern the involvement of each one of the co-defendants. Because, you know, they, some of them probably want to plead the shaggy defense. It wasn't me. But if you try them all together, they won't be able to do that. Okay. And U.S. Magistrate Judge Tony Leung, he ruled that the joint trial, he ruled that there was no evidence that the joint trial would harm the defendant's right to have a fair legal process also. So it's good that they're going to try them all together, and hopefully justice will prevail here as well. Absolutely, absolutely. We're going to move on to the next one here. I'm sure you guys have all been following it, whether we wanted to or not. Jurors and the

Jesse Smollett trial had the day off. Prosecutors rested late Thursday, but not before a weird twist. Defense attorney Tamara Walker asked for a mistrial after accusing Cook County Judge James Lynn of threatening her during a sidebar. Judge Lynn denied the mistrial motion. The defense will continue putting on its case Monday. The jury could have the case by Tuesday. Opening statements will begin Wednesday for the trial of Kim Potter, the former police officer who killed Dante Wright during a traffic stop back in April. Jury selection wrapped up this morning, seating 14 people who will be deciding if Potter is guilty.

Here's a breakdown of that jury. 11 whites, two Asians, and one black woman will hear the evidence in connection with the shooting of the 20-year-old black man. The jury is equally divided between men and women. And the ages range from 20 to 70. Kim Potter faces first and second degree manslaughter charges for this shooting. We're bringing back our panel. Matt, I'll start with you.

So the makeup of this jury, what do you make of it? We always talk about making juries more diverse, ensuring that they are representative of the community, the people that we need to serve, and that they speak in accordance with the law. What do you make of this jury makeup? We know that juries can make or break decisions, but we also know that in cases where there is a Black victim, it does not necessarily always behoove us to have a jury that is majority white. So what do you say here? You know, it's not a jury of the peers of the victim. And that's unfortunate because the more black people you have on there, presumably you'll have more people who will understand not only what happened to Mr. Wright, the tragedy, but also all of the societal forces that coalesce that, you know, you look at in a trial. So it is concerning

of obviously you want more people, a greater representation of the community on the jury. But what I do think is interesting is that there are two alternates. And what I wanted to explain to people is that, believe it or not, it's important to have those two alternates. I have actually tried murder cases before where both alternates were put on. And that's important because procedurally what happens is they listen to all the evidence and they listen to everything until the very end when the jury door is closed. So I think it's important that we have greater diversity in juries, particularly in a state like Minnesota, that has greater racial diversity. So this is not representative of that which is concerning for justice for Mr. Wright. Kelly, to that point, we just came off of a trial in Brunswick, Georgia, where we had a majority white jury,

and they leaned in a way that, you know, initially, based on the composition of the jury, many blacks had very little faith that they would. So does that speak to a sea shift or a change in a way that these juries might be viewed in terms of composition? Or do you feel that there still needs to be more done or what can be done to make sure that these juries are more diverse and representative? So, okay, let me break it up a little bit. In the Brunswick trial, I did not have faith in that jury whatsoever until the verdict came out, right? And I feel like a lot of people were in my shoes in that regard. But I don't think that was a shift, so to speak, as you just said. I think that was more of just

how well the prosecution delivered its case and presented it to the jury, and just how egregious the defendants were in their actions towards Ahmaud Arbery, right? So it's not that it was an easy case whatsoever, but what I'm saying is the prosecution did a fantastic job in laying all the evidence out, painting the story, describing what happened, matching it to the law, et cetera, et cetera. So translating that over into this case with Mr. Wright, we still need juries to be more diverse because that was an anomaly. It shouldn't be, but it absolutely is in the trust in the system to really lean on and say that, hey, it doesn't matter what your race is or what your gender is, you're just going to do what's right. History says otherwise. So until we come up with a way to garner a more diverse jury pool in all cases, then I'm going to be hesitant in cases like this. And Michael, I want to get

you in here before we have to hop to break. Are there any concerns that you have or ideas you have about the age makeup here? Because it's pretty vast as well. There may not necessarily be as much diversity in the actual ethnic backgrounds of many of these jurors, but there is a 20 to 60-year-old age variance amongst those who sit on this jury. Do you think that that's going to make a difference? I wouldn't necessarily say that's going to make a difference. My concern is the same thing I said maybe three or four weeks ago here on the show, is white women's tears when they get on the witness stand and break down and say, I didn't mean to kill that boy. Jesus helped me, things like that. So that's my concern, okay? Having reported on a number of trials, that's my concern right there with this case. So we'll see how this

goes. Hopefully she'll be convicted as well. But, you know, when white women start crying on the witness stand holding the Bible and things like that, you know, so that's my concern. Thanks, panel. And we will be catching up with you again very shortly. Coming up after the break, though, we'll be talking about abortion rights. And later, find out how you can participate in Black Freedom and Economic Day. Roland Martin Unfiltered will be right back. You're watching the Black Star Network. Are the stars out tonight? Alexa, play our favorite song again.

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and you are watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. The United States Supreme Court is considering the future of a woman's right to choose abortion rights. At risk once again is the 1973 landmark Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide before viability, which can occur at around 24 weeks of pregnancy. These new laws seek to ban the procedure six weeks into pregnancy in Texas and 15 weeks in Mississippi. Joining me now is the Director of Advocacy at General Progress from the Center for American Progress, Edwith Theogene, and the Co-Executive Director of Man for Choice, personal friend of mine, Orrin Jacobson. Welcome to you both. ORRIN JACOBSON, Director of Advocacy, General Progress, General Progress Center for American Progress, Edwith Theogene, and the Co-Executive Director of Man for Choice, personal friend

of mine, Orrin Jacobson. Welcome to you both. EDWID THEOGENE, Director of Advocacy, General Progress Center for American Progress, General Progress Center for American Progress, Edwith Theogene, and the Co-Executive Director of Man for Choice, personal friend of mine, Orrin Jacobson. Welcome to you both. EDWID THEOGENE, Director of Advocacy, General Progress Center for American Progress, Edwith Theogene, and the Co-Executive Director of Man for Choice, personal friend of mine, Orrin Jacobson. Welcome to you both. EDWID THEOGENE, Director of building blocks towards this assault now for quite some time, basically since Roe v. Wade became the law of

the land. What would you say is the prediction of what this Supreme Court will actually do and its impact or potential impact on women across America? Wow, I think that's a really big question. It's hard to say right now. I mean, what the court is really deciding at this point is whether the 15-week ban in Mississippi can stand. And if they decide that this 15-week ban in Mississippi can stand, then that means that it undermines all of the core tenets and values of Roe v. Wade. So they would basically be gutting everything from Roe v. Wade. And then it went blank. Can you hear me? No, absolutely.

And I'm going to bring you in here, Oren, as well. Sorry, my earpiece went out for a moment there. I'm going to bring you in here as well, Oren. I know that you are doing some great work, basically bringing men to the forefront of this conversation. And men are often left out. What would you say men should be doing, or what impact has your organization had in terms of building resistance to what we've seen in terms of not only the Mississippi law, but bills and legislation across the country that have whittled down and threatened Roe v. Wade?

Yeah, so our focus as an organization is really on partnership and allyship, right? Our job is not to set the direction of the movement, but to bring more men in to support those who are most directly impacted, who are leading bravely and proudly on the front lines. And so, you know, our organization started in Illinois and has been part of a coalition here over the last several years that has made a meaningful progress on issues of abortion rights and access, including ensuring that low-income people in the state of Illinois can have access to abortion via their Medicaid insurance, and finally this year removing barriers to access for young people who are in harm's way, who do not live in safe homes. But Illinois is in a very different place than the vast majority of the country is. And so what we're trying to do on our end is to really educate and activate more male allies in other states. We've got a college fellowship program now that's been launched in Florida and Georgia, all with the intent of activating more young men in those states,

young male-identifying allies, so that we can build more capacity to support the organizations on the ground in these states that are leading this fight, in particular for the fights to come, because this battle is going to be in the states in particular, especially if the Supreme Court goes any further in gutting Roe, although obviously it should be said that in many states across the country, Roe is already effectively nonexistent. Absolutely. And piggybacking off of that, I'm going to ask you this. Because we know that in states across the country, as Orrin just pointed out very well, Roe had basically been diminished in terms of creating liability for providers up to criminalizing them themselves, making women have to get ultrasounds

or have to get some levels of counseling. We know that there have been so many impediments that have been put in place across multiple states that made it really difficult for women to access abortions. Mississippi, for instance, has only had one abortion clinic now for decades. With that being said, and we've seen these full-scale assaults continue on and on and on, we hear the Supreme Court now leaning towards pushing back the option of abortion rights to the states, basically. So what does that mean when we see what the states are already doing? How will that impact women, specifically women of color and those in impoverished backgrounds?

Yeah, I mean, like this decision would have an immediate ripple effect. Like there's at least 12 states who would ban abortion outright. So there's a bunch of different trigger laws that are in place. And I think even from what we heard in the oral arguments, which there were a lot of concerning comments, I feel like states are going to be emboldened that starting this next legislative session, we might see more onslaughts of deterioration of access to abortion, like more similar bills like you were talking about, the ultrasounds, the mandatory waiting periods, and all of those different things.

Roe has always been the floor and not the ceiling of what access should look like. So, I mean, it's going to be very concerning to see like what happens next. Half the states that in the U.S. are posed to ban abortion entirely if the court overturns Roe. Absolutely. And I'm going to take a moment to contextualize this a little bit for folks, because I do see arguments on the left as well sometimes, particularly from people of color, men of color and people who just happen to be anti-abortion. And I would suggest that you put yourself in the shoes of a woman who has been a victim of a sexual assault or a victim of incest. But beyond those two cases, which there is no exception in the Mississippi law for those either, but beyond those two cases, we have women who are going through severe depressive states, women who have been abused, women who don't have the economic wherewithal, the economic stability,

women who just are not ready. All of those are viable reasons to decide that you don't want to continue a pregnancy. These are things that I think should always be in the hands of the woman, of the person who was actually carrying the child. And what we know is that these term limits, these week limits that they're trying to reduce time and time again, Mississippi, for instance, but we also saw Georgia try it. We've seen it in Texas. These place an undue burden on women. The majority of women don't know they're pregnant instantly. It is between 12 to 16 weeks that most women even find out that they're pregnant. This is not something that is automatic. So we have to think about those instances and the crisis points that women have

when they're forced to carry pregnancies that they don't want. So I'll take a short moment to talk about a semi-personal story. My own mother was a victim of sexual assault. And I remember as a small child, I was about five at the time, my mom slid her wrists. She threw herself down the stairs. She tried to use a hanger. She did not want to be pregnant. But coming from the background that my family does with grandparents that are extremely religious who did not approve of abortion at all, my mom saw the only way out was to injure herself. And she was not alone. There are women across the country that will do the same types of things, try to find a backdoor type of doctor somewhere. They have risked their lives. And many women have died.

Eradicating abortion isn't something that is going to happen even, you know, if the Supreme Court leans in a different direction on Roe v. Wade. Women will always find a way. But there's an emotional toll, a physical toll, and a financial toll that comes along with this. one, because I know that you have spent quite a bit of time talking to men about this specifically and what some of those conversations have been and how you've helped them to become advocates in this space. Yeah, I mean, even just listening to you, like the way it feels just hearing you, I don't think that most guys understand how dehumanizing that basic idea is, right? The fact that the government can control whether or not and when and how you get to, you decide on your family, it removes your complete agency and control from your life. And that's, it's dehumanizing. It's degrading. And it's hard for many men to put themselves into your shoes, to be totally honest with you. Part of the challenge with engaging men on this issue, number one, is that most men don't actually understand the harm these laws create.

And number two, the issue is already so stigmatized and it's heavily centered in a gendered way that many guys just sort of walk away from the issue and sort of leave it on your shoulders to tackle the problem to the extent that they even understand fully what the problem is. And so we're trying to help shift that. And part of the thing that we talk often with men about is really exploring a very basic question, which is whether or not a person can be free if they don't have the power to control their own body. And what is happening here and what happened in the Supreme Court this week was a group of six men and three women, six men, most of whom were asking questions fundamentally designed to legitimize the idea that a government can take control of your body sooner and sooner. And the moment

the floor of Roe v. Wade is erased, then the floodgates are open for the rest of this. Meaning, why can't the government take control of your body the moment you are pregnant? And to be very clear to everybody across the country watching this, but in particular to any of the men watching this, the goal of the anti-abortion movement is to totally ban and fully criminalize abortion in America, period, full stop. This is not about getting to 15 weeks instead of 22 weeks. This is about effectively banning and controlling abortion. And in order to do that, they need to get the court to overturn or fully gut rope. Absolutely. I'm glad that you pointed that out. We also have to remember that many of these same state representatives and state legislatures across the country who have

pushed so fervently against Roe v. Wade are some of the same representatives who have pushed against access to various forms of birth control and providing health care and health care assistance for those who cannot afford, who cannot afford their jobs, do not provide health insurance for them. So this has been a multi-tiered, multi-layered approach to control women's bodies for a very long time. And I'm going to come back to you for a moment on this one. When we look at this over time, and we know that there's basically a hyperspeed approach to the eradication of women's reproductive rights, for the past 16 to 20 years,

we've seen more and more bills come across state legislatures that are really fast and paced. What do you have to say about that in conjunction with the right-to-life movement or the pro-life movement that also seemingly does not want to fund early childhood education? Things like WIC, child care assistance,

and other provisions that would help low-income moms specifically. Yeah. I'm just going to take the liberty that while I have the mic to also tell you thank you for sharing your story about your mom, your experience. I think abortion stigma is a huge thing in this country and part of why we are here having this discussion. So the more that people can share their stories with their friends and family, I think the more important and better it is for all of us. And also going back to the question, I really do appreciate you drawing the connections

between the pro-life movement who say that they're here in pro-life, but like you said, they don't want to expand access to early childhood care. They don't want to expand access to food. They don't want to take care of people. And it was also fascinating that during the oral arguments, Justice Amy Coney Barrett basically was like, hey, like if you don't, you know, want to have the kid, you can still have

the pregnancy and like put it up for adoption, completely disregarding any health care risk, any like medical care access that you might have completely disregarding like the toll that pregnancy could even have on your body. I don't know, like the pro-life movement, I think we need to take that back. Like they are not pro-life at all because if they're not standing here to support families, to support people, like abortion access, the majority of people who have abortions are parents and they basically are making the decision for their families and for themselves about taking care of how they want to take care of themselves and support their family. So the pro-life movement is not here to invest in families and invest in people. They are here, just like Oren said, to end and eradicate abortion full stop. In Texas,

where we have SB8, which was the six-week abortion ban, they also have moved forward to ban out medical abortion through pills. So that's the easiest, fastest way for folks to get an abortion. And that ban itself is still standing. So for the people of Texas, they do not have access to Roe v. Wade. They do not have access to abortion, and it's challenging and difficult. And this sounds like gloom and to abortion, and it's challenging and difficult. And this sounds like gloom and doom because it technically is gloom and doom. But, Oren, what do you think is going to be the real-life consequence? And I say that just because in places like where we're from, the great state of Illinois, abortion rights are going to stand. But for people who live in the South, people who live in the deep

South, people who live in some areas in the Midwest as well, even some of the neighbors of Illinois, what would you say to those individuals? Because it's not like you can predict when you're going to be a victim of rape or incest. It's not like you can predict when you're going to have the emotional trauma and turmoil of an abusive relationship. You cannot predict when a guy is going to up and leave and you're stuck and you don't have family or anybody to fall back on in terms of having that level of support and taking care of your children. What can those people look forward to? Because we know that everyone cannot afford to travel from Florida, Texas, Louisiana, to Illinois or to New York to be able to access an abortion. Yeah, and by the way,

you can't predict being 14 weeks pregnant in February of 2020 and finding yourself in a pandemic, losing your job, and under this new potential ruling from the Supreme Court, the state of Mississippi would have control over what you did next

and could force you to carry a pregnancy to term that you could choose to terminate safely at this point in time without creating the massive hardship, without multiplying the massive hardship you're already dealing with in this scenario. Look, I think what you just laid out is going to be the challenge for advocates across the country because if these rights are even further eroded, which again, as we've said multiple times in this conversation, in many of these states Roe v. Wade doesn't exist and there's already massive barriers to access. So I think one of the big, big challenges for advocates and for allies and for everybody across the country who supports

people's right to choose access to abortion. How are we going to help these people actually access that right? And in many cases, what that might mean is that we have to figure out how to help people travel. You know, I think that if the Mississippi ban or the Mississippi law were to go forward, you'd be in a situation where the average person in America might have to travel hundreds of miles to access what is safe, essential health care. And so there's going to need to be a network that gets not just created because it exists in some ways right now, but supported and funded. And we're going to all need to pitch in. The people of our state of Illinois are not going to have to worry about access for people in our state. But I hope that pro-choice advocates in Illinois do everything they can to make sure that somebody in Georgia, somebody in Mississippi or in Louisiana or in Texas has access to an abortion if they need an abortion.

And so it's going to take everybody from outside of these states working with the leaders on the ground inside of these states to provide the support and access and resources that people need in order to have access to basic rights and to ensure their basic human dignity. And in the long term, we're going to have to go state by state, district by district, and win on the ground electorally so that we can pass different laws in those states. And that means a very, very long fight. Oren, Edwiff, I could talk to you guys all day. I actually do have to go to a break. We have partners that we have to, partners and sponsors that need to get their time in.

But it has been a pleasure. Still to come on Roland Martin Unfiltered, the state of Georgia destroyed Lenington to make way for the University of Georgia. Now the descendants of that town are wanting reparations. The president of the Lenington Project will explain, and later in our Education Matters segment, how one D.C. school helped lessen the COVID gap in education. Roland Martin unfiltered. We'll be right back, right here on Black Star Network. Are the stars of tonight Alexa, play our favorite song again. Okay.

I only have to find you. ТРЕВОЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА I'm sorry. Maureen is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now she's free to become Maureen the Marrier. Food is her love language. And she really loves her grandson. Like, really loves her grandson. Like, really loves. Yo, it's your man Deon Cole from Black-ish and you're watching... Roland Martin, unfiltered. Stay woke.

Black Freedom and Economic Day celebrate Black businesses and entrepreneurs by encouraging consumers to spend their money within their own communities. Experts say blacks have a 300 billion with the B dollar spending power. And now is the time to invest within. Joining us now is historian Carl Mack. Good to see you, Carl. Thank you so much, sister. And happy holidays to you. Thank you. Thank you. I ate enough turkey for multiple people. So a question for you. So what what what is happening with this money? This is a lot of money we're talking about with a beat going through the black community.

So if the money isn't being spent on the black community, where is this money going and how can we reinvest it towards actually making money for people who look like us and the small businesses that are basically the building blocks of our communities? Well, let me just tell you why I wanted December 6th, historically why I thought December 6th is a day, one day that we as black folks need to celebrate not only our freedom, but also from an economic standpoint. And I'm talking historically. What a lot of folks have failed to understand is that they have equated the last Blacks to end, to be in slavery with Juneteenth. And what we have to remember is that after the Civil War, when Juneteenth was over, so let's say June 20th,very was still legal in the United States. And in order for slavery to not be a part of the United States, we needed a proposal. And that proposal was the 13th Amendment. So on January 31st, 1865, Congress passed it.

And at the time, we had 36 states in the United States, which means that we needed 27 of those states to ratify the proposal, which became the 13th Amendment. And that happened with Georgia on December 6th, 1865. And so what I'm saying to folks is that in honor of remembering our freedom in this country when chattel slavery was no longer a part of this nation, that we now take that day and spend only with our community. Now, what happens to the money and how we spend money throughout the year? You know, I've heard the number in 2019 to be upwards of $1.4 trillion. But how much of that money are we now spending in our community? And so what I'm asking people today to do is that on this one day, in honor of the freedom of all of us as a people, when chattel slavery ended,

that we take that day to now support Black-owned businesses. I don't care if you go and buy a Black book, if you donate to the Roland Martin Show, whatever you do, but do not spend any money outside of our community on December 6th in honor of the end of chattel slavery and the freedom of us as a people. And that that began to help us, especially in this time of the holiday season when folks are so apt to spend money

anyway. But on this particular day, in honor of the 13th Amendment, which ended chattel slavery, let us take that day and support Black-owned businesses. So I think you just dropped a lot of knowledge on people here, not only with that history lesson, but also the connection with the Black economic empowerment and the drive to invest within our own communities. What do you have to say for those people who are wondering where they can find said Black businesses?

There are a lot of people who may know one or two, but not necessarily a majority or where they can find said black businesses. There are a lot of people who may know one or two, but not necessarily a majority or where they can find a lot of black businesses within their area. Well, certainly, you know, there's the Black Chamber of Commerce that one can look at. But again, one does not have to reach very high

to understand how we can support black folk. I don't care if it's black books. Like I said, you know, I know that Roland's show has patrons, folks who support his show. If you're having problems finding a black-owned business, just go on YouTube and, you know, cash out Roland $10 a dollar. I don't care what you do. I'm simply trying to get folks to understand that on this day when we celebrate black freedom, to understand it, let's support black- Black authors, black restaurants, black hair care shops, barbershops, again, you name it, just support a black-owned business on December 6th. History

loudly calls upon us to do this. And Carl, we know that there has been such a pushback and craziness and misunderstanding or misunderstanding on purpose around critical race theory about things like what you just told us, why this date is so important, what we should be doing on this date and its relevance to black people. How do we spread more information about this so that more people within our community, as well as those who want to support our community, know about this day, know what they should be doing on this day and its significance? Well, you know, the last time I was on Roland's show, I literally, you know, I talked about the fact that I had a problem historically with Juneteenth. And my problem wasn't with Juneteenth

in and of itself, but it was with all the lies that went around Juneteenth, that our ancestors in Galveston, Texas, were the last blacks to be enslaved. It took them two and a half years before they got word about it. Just all of the myths behind it, which when one believes that, they forget that when Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, there were 11 slave states that left the Union and they formed the Confederacy. But it's those four states that were also slave states that didn't leave the Confederacy, I mean, that didn't leave the Union, Maryland, Missouri, Delaware, and Kentucky. And after Juneteenth, you had over 265 Black folks who were still enslaved after Juneteenth. So when they made Juneteenth a federal holiday, behind the lie that these were the last Blacks enslaved, again, this is why it is so incumbent

upon us to understand our history. And this is what this whole critical race theory, this is what white folks are most afraid of. They're afraid to take a look at the original sin that they created, what they did, and now when you talk about this issue of reparations, that's why they can't stand the idea of listening to reparations. And I will tell you, there's an argument for reparations as well. And one needs not look any further than Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution, where the United States government, according to the Constitution, collected a tax for every black person that

was imported in this country between 1788 and 1808. You take a look at the Mississippi letter of secession. If you look at the Mississippi letter of secession, and anybody who's listening to this, please pull that letter up. I need you to go to the second to the last paragraph that begins with the two words, utter subjugation. The state of Mississippi said that slavery to the state of Mississippi was worth four billions of dollars. Now, keep in mind, we're talking 1861.

Who knew what a billion dollars was in 1861? Yet the state of Mississippi said that slavery, our ancestors' free labor was worth $4 billion. And all I'm saying is we want to talk reparations. You take that $4 billion and now multiply that times 15, 16 slave states. And now let's add inflation to it. Oh, I can give you a number for reparations. And the same as we can do with Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution, because when you look at that in Article 1, Section 9, it says that the United States government collected a tax of up

to $10 for every one of us that was imported into this country. America's sin for reparations should be done. But this level of critical thinking that we're talking, you and I right now, this is what white folks don't want us to do. This is what America do not want us to do. The same when we talk about Black Freedom and Economic Day, to have the critical thinking to say, on this day, in honor of the end of chattel slavery, I'm not going to give my money to Nike. I'm not going to give it to Reebok or Coca-Cola or Pepsi. I'm going to find a black-owned business, and I'm going to uplift. I don't need for America to even make this a national holiday. I want us to be martyrs, not mercenaries. Mercenaries get paid for what they do. A martyr does what he or she does because they believe wholeheartedly in it. And this is why the critical race theory is so

important. Number one, America does not want to look in that mirror. But more importantly, America don't want sisters and brothers like you and I to be able to think critically about what has happened in this country to us and how we move forward. You know, I'm listening to your conversation around abortion, the state of Mississippi with that backward ass, and I'm from Mississippi. So keep in mind, in Mississippi, keep in mind, we talk about the 13th Amendment. Mississippi didn't ratify the 13th Amendment to 2013. So now here, Mississippi wants to talk about what you know, what a woman can do with her body. But at the same time, I want to stand up and talk about you can't tell me to put a vaccine in my body. And that's why we're still fighting COVID right now. Come on Mississippi, come with that. You're last

in everything. I was about to listen. Education, health care, economy, you name it, they have felt fallen to the bottom. I graduated high school in Mississippi so we're pretty aware. It's just, it's frustrating because we see this time and time again and we want to continue to shed light on the history of African-Americans and the descendants of slaves. But we also want to honor a lot of what our history books here in America that were written mainly by white people have selectively left out. So I thank you for not only that deep dive into history in a very short amount of time, by the way. So kudos to you for making that happen. But how can people learn more? Because I feel like there's a disconnect sometimes between generations as well. We want to give our next generation as much access to the knowledge that you just laid upon us as we possibly can. How can they learn more about not only this day as it

relates to our history and why it's so important, but also some of the other things that you mentioned. Yeah. So I put together a Black History Calendar, and every day of the year, an event like what we described, what we talked about, be it Juneteenth, be it the 13th Amendment, be it Watch Night. And for those about Watch Night, if I could just drop this one little piece of history, Watch Night, December 31st. The first Watch Night occurred on December 31st, 1862, and it was because our ancestors were staying up at night watching to see if Lincoln would indeed sign the

Emancipation Proclamation. So today, if you ever went to church on New Year's Eve, and they call that the Watch Night service, that service first started on December 31st, 1862. And I created a calendar called Black Heritage Day 4. And for anybody who chooses to want to learn more every day, I give you something from our history as detailed as what we've been talking about now. And you can find that at blackheritagedays.com. And so it's one way for us to just get a little dose of our history every single day. Thank you for all the big doses you've given us during this segment.

Carl, we'll definitely have to have you back. Thanks so much. Thank you so much, sister. When Roland Martin unfiltered, when Roland Martin unfiltered returns, they say their families were forced out of Lenington, Georgia, to make way for the University of Georgia. Now they want justice. The president of the Lenington project Georgia, to make way for the University of Georgia. Now they want justice. The president of the Lenington Project will explain what their justice will look like.

Plus, the shooter's parents from this week's high school rampage are facing charges. But first, we have to take a quick break. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered live on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. Once upon a time,

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-♪ You're up to no harm, stars out tonight, please... Alexa, play our favorite song again. Okay. I'm Chrisette Michele. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. It was a thriving black community in Georgia back in the 1960s, but was destroyed by the expansion of the University of Georgia. The city of Athens displaced 50 black families, citing eminent domain. Now, the Lenington Project hopes to get Athens and UGA to right this horrible wrong.

Here to explain is the president of the Lenington Project, Hattie Thomas Whitehead. Welcome. Hello. So can you explain to our audience what the Linnentown Project is doing right now and where you see this going? People of Georgia obviously know how important the eminent domain process was as it relates to UGA's takeover and what ended up happening with these displaced Black families. What path are you on currently? And can you just talk with us a little bit about some of the impediments or some of the moves that you've made to get here? Okay. Well, what we did was we organized in 2018 once we found the data. Dr. Joseph Carter came to town and found the data that had been archived under the urban renewal number.

We did not know where the data was. which is about six of us, organized, wrote a resolution, and went to work with lobbying and raising awareness, because this was in the 60s, so it had been years ago, so no one knew about what happened to the community. Only a few of us, family, friends, and people that we worked for knew what happened in our community. So once it was, we organized and we went to work and we were determined to get the resolution passed. We held rallies. We, I took people on tours of the old community. We did everything. We had community meetings. We did everything that we could and we lobbied the mayor commissioners to get the resolution passed. So, um, it took a lot. It took a lot because it's only, like I said, about six of us. And we went to work and we got the community support. So in wanted to receive, the first thing we wanted to receive an apology because our community had been terrorized. This community was 66, had reached

66% home ownership. The children were happy. We were in the deep South in the 60s doing segregation. So the University of Georgia wanted this land, and they wanted it cheap. And the city of Athens enacted eminent domain to get the land. But it was University of Georgia's responsibility to get us out of the community once the property acquisition had been made. So they terrorized us. They dug big ditches. They opened ditches, left them open.

And when we got home from school as children, we had to jump over the dishes to get inside our homes. The community was closed off. The streets were closed off. So access to the community was hard. We saw our neighbor's houses burned by the fire department. And some of the houses was pushed down. So during that period of time, it was just hard. And also, there were no meetings.

No one came to the community to explain what was going on. So the adults in the community did not know anything about eminent domain or urban renewal. So the only time that we knew anything that was occurring was we saw this big sign that was put up and said, you know, urban renewal number and University of Georgia and the city of Athens. So by that time, we knew what our parents knew that the University of Georgia wanted our property. So they went to work. We were redlined. The 35 families that lived there had to move. And at that time, you could not move to any community because it was doing desegregation. You had to move only where black families lived.

This story just keeps getting more in-depth and worse and worse. I was like, oh my goodness. I think that before we continue, I definitely want to give you more time, but I'm going to open it up to the panel because I know that they have several questions to ask you as well. This story has been astounding as you are unraveling it right now. This goes beyond just eminent domain to abuse in general, property abuse, but also the time frame. I think it's important that you contextualize the time in which this happened

because you couldn't just move anywhere you wanted. You weren't given a sum, which a lot of people are today because colleges expanding and families moving out of their homes is not necessarily something that is new. It's been going on for a long time, but the approach that they use in this situation been going on for a long time. But the approach that

they use in this situation, inland town, is very frustrating. It's very illegal. And I just want to bring in our panel to discuss this a little bit more. So for the first question, I'm going to go with you, Kelly. Sure. Well, first and foremost, thank you for just expanding on this issue and telling me, teaching me something that I didn't know too much about. Do you plan on taking the model that was used to get what you need to other places around the country that have a similar story to yours? Because there are plenty of black towns that were taken over by eminent domain. And, you know, those people want those back as well. Well, our story, basically, it can be used throughout the state of Georgia and throughout the country, because we were able to get the resolution passed. But in the state of Georgia, even though we got the resolution passed and our resolves

was outlined in the resolution, we could not get a direct payout because the state of Georgia has a gratuity clause that prevents direct payout. So we had to work at this differently and what resolves that we wanted since we were already at the table. The mayor put a, assembled a team called the Justice and Memory Team to put atonements in place for what occurred because they, the city of Athens played a role in what happened that led up to the erasure of the community.

So we're doing that. We're working, this Justice and Memory team is working toward that now. We have been working diligently trying to get UGA to admit what they had done and acknowledge this team and come to the table, which they have not done yet. So we are still working with this team is still working. We have had some accomplishment. The mayor did give an apology and a proclamation for what had occurred to the city, and he is putting purses in place to identify families from the other urban renewal areas. But we are working diligently trying to put this in place. We're trying to put a Black History Center here, and we're trying to put a walk of recognition in the community and with the mosaic so we can explain, they can explain what happened.

And we have ran up against UGA saying, no, you cannot put Walker recognition on UGA's property, but we're having to put it in the right-of-way, city of Athens right-of-way. And Matt Manning, as a civil rights attorney, I know that you have some questions related to this as well, because again, it has so many layers. So this is your opportunity to basically ask what you need to ask. Well, let me first say, Mrs. Whitehead, thank you for your work because today in 2021, I actually represent homeowners in Corpus Christi, Texas that are being pushed out in the historically black neighborhood of Hillcrest, Washington Coles, because the state of Texas needed to build a new bridge today in 2021. So the question I have is what is the current value of those 65 families

property as y'all have determined it? What would it be today? Because I think obviously reparations are a moral and ethical question, period. Y'all deserve reparations. So how much do they owe you? The property now with the dormitories, the parking lot and everything now is $74 million. That's what it's worth today. And the state of Georgia is doing everything they can not to pay you a single

red cent, aren't they? Well, we got this gratuity clause that now that we are trying to put a strategy in place to bring, maybe hopefully to raise awareness in the state of Georgia about this gratuity clause. There are a lot of different groups talking about reparations, and we want reparations, and we want to do this, and we want to do do that but they are not connected to the gratuity clause so hopefully what we can do is connect all these groups okay we have this gratuity clause that has to be addressed for any direct payout can occur for

reparations in the state of Georgia period period. So we're trying to raise awareness of that. We're putting a team together so we can go statewide and what we need to do and what they need to do to get the data. So that's what we're working on. And I have outlined all of this in a book that was released in October. So hopefully, if that's a strategy there, how we got to

get everything approved for the proclamation and what we can do to go forward. But we are willing to help other cities in the state of Georgia to come together and how they can strategize.

Ms. Whitehead, we are going to have to go to break, but before we do, is there some place where people can learn more about your project? Where would you send them to? We can send them to redressforlennartown.com. And you can also go to givingvoicetollolenantown.com and get the book. But you can go to either place. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Thank you for all the work that you do.

I know that you talked about your crew being six to seven people originally and building the community around it. And elderly. You all are amazing. Thank you so much. Strong black people, black women making things happen as you always do. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. Still to come on Roland Martin Unfiltered, the parents of the Michigan high school shooter are facing involuntary manslaughter charges. And five Arizona officers are denied qualified immunity in 2017 shooting death of a black man.

Stay with us. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Are the stars out tonight? Alexa, play our favorite song again. OK. I only have eyes for you. Субтитры создавал DimaTorzok ДИНАМИЧНАЯ МУЗЫКА Maureen is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now she's free to become Maureen the Marrier.

Food is her love language. And she really loves her grandson. Like, really loves. Hello, everyone. everyone i'm godfrey and you're watching roland martin unfiltered and while he's doing unfiltered i'm practicing the wobble four police officers in phoenix arizona will not receive qualified immunity in a lawsuit for the death of muhammad ab-Muhamin in 2017. During the arrest, one officer pressed his knee into the back and shoulders of Muhamin. During the encounter, Muhamin cried out, I can't breathe.

A Muslim advocacy group in the First Amendment Clinic at Arizona State University requested the sealed files be made public. No disciplinary actions were taken against the officers, and the city never admitted any wrongdoing. The victim's sister settled with the city for $5 million. The Michigan prosecutor is charging the parents of high school shooter who killed four students and injured several others. James and Jennifer Crumbly are each facing four counts of involuntary manslaughter. The gun purchased by Ethan, used in the rampage, was kept in an unlocked bedroom drawer.

On November 21st, a teacher noticed Ethan searching for ammunition on his phone. School officials contacted Jennifer Crumbly and didn't get a response. She instead texted her son, L-O-L, I'm not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught. On the day of the shooting, a teacher noticed a disturbing drawing done by Ethan with blood, a semi-automatic handgun, a bullet, and a person being shot twice with the phrases, the thoughts won't help me, blood everywhere, my life is useless, and the world is dead. The Crumblies were called in for a meeting just hours before the shooting. They did not check to see if Ethan had a weapon and refused to take Ethan home for the day. Jennifer sent a text to her son saying, Ethan, don't do it.

James reported the gun missing to the officials and alleged his son may be the shooter. Now we're going to bring back our panel. Matt Manning, this seems highly incriminating. This seems highly incriminating and highly problematic at the same time. These text messages reveal that the parents knew a lot about their son and his potential to be extremely dangerous, and yet they did not do anything. Didn't even respond when the school called them in for a meeting regarding some disturbing things that they found about him. So how do you think this is, where do you think this is going to go now that the parents have been charged with involuntary

manslaughter and what on earth were they thinking? Well, I don't know what they were thinking. Clearly they weren't, but unfortunately I have the unpopular opinion here that I think this is going to be a difficult case unless the evidence is very compelling, showing that the parents had a reason to believe that and somehow facilitated it, in advance of coming on today, I looked at the law there, and I think it's going to be difficult for them to prove it. I know there is a text message that says, you know, don't do it. But the school, you know, a child's constitutional rights are relaxed at a school. So the school has the ability to search his backpack. And my understanding is there was a locked weapon that was found at the home. So obviously, I hope this

goes the right way and that there's justice because this is an incredible tragedy. But I do think they're going to have a tough time making this case unless there's more compelling evidence than just that. I think I'll be liking to agree with you here. And Imhotep, I want to pull you in. What are your thoughts? Now we know that the parents have been charged. We've seen these text messages revealed. We've heard from the families of the young people who lost their lives. Where do you think this is going to go?

And because the law in Michigan is a bit more tricky, we have to be clear about that. When we talk about gun laws across the country, most people point to Illinois as being the strictest. What they don't recognize is that all the Midwestern states around Illinois have pretty lax gun laws. Michigan is one of them. What do you make of all of this? Well, I live here in Detroit. Oxford, Michigan is about 30 miles north of Detroit. There's a candlelight vigil taking place right now in Oxford, Michigan, because of the four teenagers who were killed and those who are in the hospital still recovering. I've been covering this story each night on my show, the African History Network show. The parents did go to a meeting on Tuesday, November 30th, 1030 a.m. at the school about their child.

OK, when you dig into this, this this is a deep, deep case here. OK, when you really did, I encourage people to go to WXYZ.com, Channel 7 here in Detroit. They've been having fantastic coverage of this. This is a deep case. And not only did the father purchase the nine millimeter handgun on Black Friday, November 26, 15 year old Elijah,old Elijah, 15-year-old Ethan Crumbly was with him when he purchased it as well. But this also looks like a lot of negligence on the part of the parents. And we found out today that when the shooting happened, the father called the authorities and said he thinks his son is the shooter.

The father looked for the gun, the handgun that he purchased. The handgun wasn't there. He couldn't find it. He called authorities and said he thought his son was the shooter. This is just a few hours after the parents had a meeting with the school because the school called them in about disturbing behavior about their son. This is a deep case right here. And then the parents are still missing now. Their attorney said that they are on their way back to be arraigned, to surrender, be arraigned. They left on the night of the shooting because they said they feared for their safety. My thing is, why wouldn't you have your attorney contact

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard and say, hey, they fear for their safety. My thing is, why wouldn't you have your attorney contact Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard and say, hey, they fear for their safety. Can you get some deputies to guard them outside their home, something like that? You just run? Nah, this is deep right here. I'm just glad this ain't in Detroit. Let me just say that. I'm just glad this ain't in Detroit. And Kelly, for you, so we do know that there's a lot of liability here, or it appears to have certain liabilities on the parents, or just things that they should have done that they didn't do. But what about the school? What we do know is that there were several different red flags, essentially, that went up at the school as well.

And we haven't heard much about the potential legal issues related to how the school itself handled this. It got to the point where there were students who literally did not show up on the day of this shooting because they knew in advance the potential of this young man to come in and shoot in his classroom. So this was not necessarily the most surprising or unplanned event. And the school had several alerts of this young man's instability. Yeah. And that's like what Michael Imhotep just said. This is a tricky case because if you're going to charge the parents for negligence or, you know, accessory, what have you, whatever the charges may be, you need to also charge the school. Now, I don't know if it'll be a criminal case so much as a civil one, because I don't know

whether it rises to a criminal case. But certainly a civil case is possible here, because if you're saying that the school had notice, ample notice, and more or less evidence that they had a troubled child in their midst, then you need to consider the fact that they didn't do their due diligence either. And as a result, four young lives are gone because of the negligence of whoever was in charge of making those decisions that day. So I am curious to see how this is going to play out. I am also curious to see how, if at all, the charges against the parents will stick, because at what point is a child responsible for their own actions? Because it's not like the parents pulled the trigger. You know what I'm saying?

And granted, there was a lot of lax parenting, to say the least, in this regard. But at the end of the day, the 15-year-old young man, because he is being charged as an adult, he had the wherewithal to bring the gun to school. He had the wherewithal to kill four people with that gun. He also had the wherewithal, frankly, to warn the school that he was going to do it. So, you know, again, tricky case. And Matt, I've seen your little finger go up a couple of times through the corner of my eye. So what is your question? What is your comment? I'm struggling. I don't have a comment. I was just going to say, I think one of the things that you might see is you may see a conviction on a lesser included, which is basically where

the prosecutor charges them with a higher crime and you have a conviction of a lower crime. And that might happen if a jury believes that the parents had some kind of cognizable negligence or rather a duty that they didn't counteract. But I think involuntary manslaughter is going to be very tough for those exact reasons that Kelly expertly laid out. I know it's a serious case, Michael, but I mean, in a court of law, it's going to be tough to prove this one, I think. Absolutely. And guys, there's more to be tough to prove this one, I think. Absolutely. And, guys, there's more to come on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Sunday is the 30th annual Double Dutch Holiday Classic. We'll have a preview.

And later in our Education Matters segment, we'll talk to an educator who figured out how to lessen the COVID gap. Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. Stay with us.. Oh, that spin class was brutal. Well, you can try using the Buick's massaging seat. Ooh, yeah, that's nice. Can I use Apple CarPlay to put some music on?

Sure. It's wireless. Pick something we all like. Okay, hold on. What's your Buick's Wi-Fi password? Buick Envision 2021. Oh, you should pick something stronger. That's really predictable. That's a really tight spot.

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Bear Hug Betty. Settle in, kids. You'll be there a while. Ooh, where you going? Hi, I'm Vivian Green. Hey, everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond, and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, unfiltered. On Sunday, the National Double Dutch League will host the Holiday Double Dutch Classic at the world-famous Apollo Theater.

Lord knows I can't do double dutch, so maybe I'll learn something in this segment. Joining us now to share more about the importance of the sport and details about the tournament this weekend is board member of the Double Dutch League, Dolores Finn Lason. Glad to have you. Yes, hi, thank you. Absolutely. So can you tell us a little bit more about this weekend, its significance, and what do you have to say about this new wave of generation?

Double Dutch has lasted for so long, and so many people are excited about it. So what does this weekend hold, and how did you get involved? Wow. Actually, I'm on a championship team. This is going back some years, of course. We were the first professional team. We're known as the Fantastic Four Double Dutch team. However, this Sunday's event, which is going to be spectacular, it always is,

it is the 30th annual Double Dutch Holiday Classic, as you mentioned. David Walker is the founder of this wonderful event. He is actually the individual who first governed the body of the sport of Double Dutch. He recognized early on that there was nothing for young girls to do and to call their own and to get out there and showcase their talent and their skills, especially in the street sport. So I do applaud his efforts for that, for sure. So I've always been a turner. My legs never quite did what they need to do for double dutch. And I think at this point, I'm too old and too risky to try it. No, no, no. Trust me,

I do understand. I can't do what I used to do. But the thought is still there and the desire is still there. But these young kids are fascinating. I love the fact they come out to compete. You know, I'm a native New Yorker. And, you know, when we were competing, you know, you go big or go home. And of course, we went out there, we went big, which made us unique and phenomenal. And I would say we were just simply fantastic, which got us recognized. And we did a lot of extraordinary things worldwide. Are there specific divisions and how does this work? Because double dutch is a very strenuous sport. Anything having to do with jump rope happens to be,

but this one is very strategic. People do it for a long time. Like I've never seen a short, shortened version of double dutch ever. I, you know, like I said, I turn or I watch. Um, but at the end of the day, this is, this is something that these young people take young and older take very, very seriously. So can you explain what the competition actually looks like in terms of, um, how you advance what is going on here? Okay. There are three categories. There's the speed competition and compulsory and freestyle fusion, which is what everyone loves. That's when a team can come out and showcase their talents. And let's not get it twisted. You need balance, resilience, coordination, timing and yes, gymnastics. All is a part of Double Dutch today. Competitive Double Dutch.

And what happens when you win? Well, of course, bragging rights. But you do get trophies. There is some monetary, you know, gifts. And there's jackets. And all kinds of fun. I'm sorry. And your recruitment process.

So how do people get to the tournament? Is this something that you recruit from across the country? What are some of the steps to make it to the tournament level? Yes, well, anyone could come and enter the competition. I would strongly suggest people just, you know, get familiar with the competitive sport of double dutch because it is totally different from street sport, you know, street, the street sport of double dutch. Once again, you're competing and you want to be the best that you could possibly be when you get up there on stage, especially at the Apollo. You want to give it

your best shot and you're really going to need some discipline to do what's needed to be done in order to win. And like I said, they come big at the Apollo. So I'm always floored when I see these young folks come out to compete. And it's usually started, I think, fourth graders on up. Yeah, they come out. Well, you definitely can't not come big. It is the Apollo. It comes with all the history associated with it. Yes, indeed. You mentioned at the top of this segment about what this meant to young girls, specifically giving them something to do in terms of being active, something that they could do outside. When we think of some of those sports, a lot of the a lot of them have historically been geared towards boys, not necessarily girls. So what have you seen in terms of the growth and development of some of these young women from taking part in a sport like Double Dutch? Well, it was like when I was jumping, it was like about time because the boys had basketball, they had soccer, they had football. What did girls have? We didn't have anything.

And that was kind of depressing. So the fact that, you know, you were able to jump double-dutch and jump well and to get out there and say, wait a minute, this is now a competition. Not only am I representing my hood, we, you know, we got to represent the state and then we got to represent the country. So it was fascinating. All from a street sport. Is this double- Double Dutch tournament going to be streamed anywhere? Where can we learn more? Where can we help to support you and what's going on with this? Because it seems so exciting. Oh, it's phenomenal. You can start by going to the National Double Dutch League. Go to their website. You're going to see some fascinating things, a lot of great footage,

the ropes that are used in competitive double dutch. There is a difference. Back in the day, we used whatever we had, like, you know, the cable guy thought he was just dropping off the cable, right? No, we took some of that cable and we used it to go outside and jump double dutch. So yeah, we were very innovative back then. Whatever it took, you know, just to get out there and just jump. I'm going to bring in the panel to ask you a few questions because I know that their ears are burning. And if any of you guys have any double-dutch experience, don't make fun of me because I still don't. But we will start with you first, Kelly. I, too, am kind of not a double-dutch person.

Not even kind of. Not even going to lie to you, two left feet, and my turning skills were trash. But my question to you is, what is the process for young girls to get to the level of professionalism in this sport? And are there, like, I'm in D.C., are there other, what's the word?

Are there other events like this elsewhere in the country, or is this kind of like the big shebang each year? This is the big shebang each year. It really is. There are a lot of professional teams now that go out and they do a lot of exhibitions, but the National Double Dutch League has done a great job in honing the talent at the league and showcasing everything at the Apollo. I would definitely encourage young girls to really just look for a good team that they

could mirror and go out there with some discipline, wanting to jump, wanting to compete, wanting to be the best that they can possibly be. And I must say, back when I was jumping with Rob and Nikki and Deshawn, I have to name my teammates, we stayed out in the street. Once we left the gym, got kicked out of the gym, actually, and because we couldn't stay there any longer we hit the street and we would stay and jump on the pavement practicing until the street lights came on little that's what we did that was our discipline but we wanted to be the best that we could possibly be i think our young people have a lot of distractions and that's a little disappointing. But it's a great athletic sport. Matt Manning, your question. I might have missed this earlier, but did you say how many competitors

do y'all expect in the Classic? Oh, wow. Historically, we've had, oh gosh, I want to say maybe 150, 200 people. We have a lot of international teams, believe it or not, come and compete at the Apollo from fourth grade on up. We have an open division. They're usually college students or those adults who just want to continue to jump and compete, show their skills. And I would love for younger people to just come out and just get involved. There's a lot of things they can do. And I know the PSAL have also an organization. They also have a public school league and you can go and get involved with Double Dutch. But yeah, start with your local school, public schools. Once again, hit up the league.

Find out what's happening. There are a lot of teams out there that would love to coach and mentor. And Michael. All right, Sister Walker, thanks for coming on today. This is like a great opportunity. I'm Dolores Finlayson. I apologize. Sister Walker is running around for Sunday's event.

Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I was looking at the rundown. OK. All right. In middle school, you know, I participated in the jumpathon and I learned to jump rope. We really didn't do double dutch a lot, but, you know, I have a deep respect for the cardiovascular conditioning it takes to be able to do double dutch. Yes. Okay. Very quickly, I don't know if you mentioned this or not, but can you talk about the origins of the term double dutch? And then also after people win the contest, things like this, are there opportunities for endorsement deals, for athletic gear, Gatorade, things like this, guest appearances on TV shows, movies, et cetera?

What happens, what's life after winning the championship? Ah, life after Double Dutch or after competition, I should say. Well, I could definitely use myself as an example. The Fantastic Four Double Dutch team, after we competed, matter of fact, we were the first professional team. We went on to do two McDonald's commercials, featured in a documentary. We traveled abroad, went to Germany, France. Let's see, went to various cities doing exhibitions. And let's see, wow, countless other things. We performed at the 76ers halftime show. I could go on and on and on. That's what. Wow. Countless other things. We performed at the 76ers halftime show. I could go on and on and on. That's what we did.

OK, excellent. Excellent. And origin of the term double Dutch, if you could quickly. You don't mind. Oh, you know, there's a little misconception about it, but I've heard Dutch. The Dutch actually brought it to New York City and the sport of double Dutch. And that is where I've known it to start from. But that's still a little suspect, I think. But of course, you know, inner city kids taking the sport and just taking it to a whole nother level. Right. Right. OK, thank you. You're welcome. Absolutely. And like I said, I knew somebody on this panel was going to say it and, you know, talk about how well they were at this activity. I still feel horribly embarrassed that I am not only really not good at it, but actually horrible at it.

But I am so thankful that you joined us and got to speak a little bit about what's going on. This tournament is fantastic. I'm thankful for the amount of young black athleticism, as well as people of all ages who are taking part in this, because as you said, and I've seen it, it is a very strenuous activity. Cardio to the 10th. So congratulations on your work. We'd love to have you.

Thank you. Be sure to let us know how the tournament goes. Oh, I will. Getting ready to go to break. But thanks so much. You're welcome. Thank you. Take care.

Stay with us. You're watching Roland Martin you. Take care. Stay with us. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. ТРЕВОЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА It's time to be smart. When we control our institutions, we win. This is the most important news show on television of any racial background. Y'all put $2, $3, $4, $5, $10, $15, $20, $30 on this and keep this going.

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You are watching Rolling Martin. Unfiltered. I mean, could it be any other way? Really. It's Rolling Martin. The first semester of full-on in-person learning is almost over. Educators knew there would be some kind of impact on the students returning from the virtual learning environment. One issue is called the COVID gap.

A lot of students who were already behind fell even further behind during the pandemic. One Washington, D.C. school found a way to lessen that gap. Joining me now is Dr. Marco Clark, the founder and CEO of Richard Wright Public Charter Schools. Welcome, Marco. Thank you for having me. So this is something that I am extremely interested in as an education advocate, as somebody who has worked in one of the largest school districts in the country, Chicago Public Schools.

When I look at the learning gap as a result of students doing virtual learning, many of which across multiple school districts, over 70% didn't really even sign up for slash, you know, sign into their virtual learning courses. We learned that over the course of the past year. For students, particularly those who are already behind in some of our core subjects, reading, writing, math, the pandemic hit them really hard. How has your institution been able to lessen that gap? And thank you for pointing to the fact that the gap isn't solely just because of COVID-19. In many cases, it existed for several students regardless to that.

But how have you been able to lessen that gap and kind of pull students up to speed despite the fact that we're technically still in the COVID era? Well, first of all, thank you for that great question. And I want to salute first all of the educators who have, you know, decided to do this, this momentous one of the things that we learned and how we could close this gap a little bit when students came back that was already there, the three to five year, typically the gap that existed between students in urban America, we wind up now having a gap that's over a decade. And so one of the things we did as a school is that we had to take away the fear. It was a reinculturation of changing the mindset of staff members and as well as students. You know, you go from being able to be educated in your pajamas and choosing to sign on or not sign on. And so one of the things we did is that we did house calls. We made sure that we were still knocking on doors as a school, that we were going to folks' houses, that we were giving kids

rides to public libraries, even in the midst of the pandemic. The other thing that we did is that we led the charge in understanding that everyone had to be vaccinated. And so part of what we did as an administration and as a team, 100 percent of my administration and my staff decided to become vaccinated because we knew that that was the way to change the minds of people who had fear in them, including the administrators and the teachers themselves. Absolutely. And as someone who has led government affairs for a charter school network in Chicago, one of the hits that always comes down for those who are in leadership or teach at charter schools is that a lot of what is done there would be very hard to replicate in your traditional public school. Though some of the things that you just named, I would argue, are things that you could probably do in any school.

So what what are some of the lessons that you've learned along the way that you would like to pass to other educators or other school institutions, regardless of whether they're charter or community schools? Well, you know, we learned that, you know, you signed up. First of all, you signed the application and it takes more than just saying, I want to be an educator to get this work done. challenges that we are faced with as educators with this learning gap that we have that's only grown larger since this pandemic that we're going to have to really, really dig in. And it's not just about bringing kids in and putting more time on task. There were some things emotionally that we had to focus on. We had to ensure that we had more mental health counselors, that we were dealing with people directly from the heart and not just solely talking about what would happen in their mind. We had to emotionally affect people with

positive change. And our young people had to trust the example that we were showing them. One of the things that we did at Richard Wright Public Charter Schools, and salute to my team and staff for making it happen, is that we were on the ground. We made sure that we utilize Zoom as a great platform to talk to our constituents, to make sure that we kept our school culture going, that our young people felt like that we were in their living rooms every single day, that they were committed to the work that we were doing because we were committed to them. We made sure that every extracurricular activity stayed intact. And if you can imagine having a football team do virtual

or doing a reading club do virtual, we made sure that we did that because the connection is what's going to close this gap. And any educational system could do it. It doesn't take money. It just takes folks who were committed to doing that. And I salute those who are a part of my team because we got the work done. And that's the reason why our culture came back as strong as it has when we got back to in-person learning. Absolutely. I'm going to bring in my panel to ask you some questions as well. I'm going to

start with you, Michael. All right. Hello, Dr. Clark. I think this is something really great that you're doing. And when I was in eighth grade, I took a journalism class at Drew Middle School here in Detroit. So I think that had a big impact on me. Could you talk about some of the success stories that you've had with students and journalism with your program and maybe careers they went on to have, et cetera? You know, I'm excited to talk that because of the fact that we've had 100 percent of our seniors are accepted to five or more colleges and universities. And during the pandemic, we were able to get these young people into colleges, five or more colleges and universities per student. And those individuals have gone on to become mass comm majors, journalism majors at colleges all across the country. We were awarded over $4 million in scholarships with young people who were working during this pandemic. The success story is that we have students who have graduated with journalistic backgrounds who have come back to now work as

at Richard Wright Public Charter Schools and they are teachers, administrators, IT directors in our organization and they are doing the work that we trained them to do during the time that they were in school and so for that we are so grateful and thankful that our mission is actually working the way it's supposed to. All right. That's great. Thank you. And Matt. Congratulations on all your success, Dr. Clark, and what you're doing for the kids. My question to you is, what have you found to be the role of parents in terms of being effective in helping y'all facilitate the lessening of that gap?

You know, we have not let parents off the hook at all. We made sure that we kept them in the gap at all times, that we were speaking to them on a weekly basis directly. I even wrote a book called Parents, Where Are You? The Kids Are Out of Control. And that book itself was a blueprint to ensure that parents understood exactly what their roles were. We transformed parents from being just parents to teachers because they actually needed that. So we had what we call parent university, that we were actually training parents weekly on how to teach lessons at home so that the learning gap would not be as large once our students got back in. And I must say, we were giving parents homework. We were

making sure that they were staying on top of algebra, English, Latin, and all of those subject areas so that they could actually help the young people and help our students stay on track during this time of this pandemic. And Kelly? Sure. As a D.C. native, I just think this is absolutely fantastic for students in the district. My question to you is, when things happen on the national scale that ends up in D.C., how do you integrate, like, the real-world events that happen? For example, even the George Floyd situation and other Black Lives Matter cases that come up. How do you integrate that into the curriculum and have the students leaned into that? If you could just expand on that a little bit. You know, that is a great thing that we're fortunate that we are a journalism and media arts school. So we practice the right

for students to express their opinions and to be a part of it. We are located three blocks from the Capitol. So we were totally affected with the situation that happened, the insurrection at the Capitol. We were totally involved right in the middle of that. So our kids got a chance to see things right up close in front in their face, and they were able to see and write stories about it. So our kids' voice is important. We are letting them exercise that. We even, a few years back, allowed them to do a school walkout where they actually led a forum down to the Capitol to voice their opinion about what was happening with the shooting at the school in Florida. So that is very important to us as a school and as a journalism school, the only one in the entire country that we are voicing this.

And so we have students from Ward 7 and 8 who come from the lowest socioeconomic wards in the District of Columbia, and they are coming from the lowest socioeconomic awards in the district of Columbia. And they are coming across the bridge and getting this information and being able to go back in their communities and have a voice of what that actually means to do real journalism. Dr. Clark, you are really raising the bar here. I want to thank you for all of your efforts,

as well as the teachers and staff and administrators at your school. I think that the roadmap that you've laid out here can definitely be replicated for other schools. If they don't know how, they need to give you a call. But thank you so much for spending this time with us today. Thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure. Absolutely. Well, that's it for us tonight. I want to thank my panel, Matt Manning, Michael Emotep, and Kelly Bethia. Thanks for joining us here on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. If you haven't done it yet,

download the Black Star Network on all of your devices. It's really important, folks. If you would like to support us so we can continue bringing you the stories that matter the most, now's the time. I'm Amisha Cross. Have a great night and a wonderful weekend. Să facem o p urmăm. Thank you. Să ne urmăm în următoarea mea rețetă. I'm Martin. Martin! Să fac urmăm în următoarea mea rețetă. Thank you. this is an iHeart podcast