#RolandMartinUnfiltered - NYC's first Black Mayor, David Dinkins dies; Biden's cabinet; CA cracks down on white supremacists

Episode Date: November 25, 2020

11.24.20 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: NYC's first Black Mayor, David Dinkins dies; Biden reveals his cabinet picks; North Carolina's first Black female Supreme Court Justice may lose her seat; Biden urged to select Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio to be the first Black woman to lead the USDA; California cracks down on white supremacists; Kaepernick tweets workout session saying he's ready; Expert advice on how to grow your business; Trumpers freaking out over losing the election.Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered #RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Never lick your thumb to clean their face. And you'd never let them leave the house looking like less than their best. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. Never let them stay up too late. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when have one aisle six. And aisle three. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car

deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens. Before you leave the car, always stop. Look. Lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you everought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time,

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I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them.

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you. Martin! Thank you. Today is Tuesday, November 24th, 2020, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Former New York Mayor David Deakins, the first African-American mayor

and the only African-American mayor in New York City has died at the age of 93. We'll pay tribute to his life right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. President-elect Joe Biden reveals his cabinet picks. Some of them will break down what it tells us about his administration. North Carolina's first black female Supreme Court justice may lose her seat.

She's down by 400 votes. A recount is underway. Two dozen organizations sent a letter to Biden urging him to select Congresswoman Marcia Fudge of Ohio as the first black woman to lead and the first woman to lead the Agriculture Department. California is cracking down on white supremacist gangs. We'll tell you what they're doing. Colin Kaepernick makes it clear he still wants a job in the NFL. And in our Black Business segment, we'll talk about,

first of all, get advice on how to grow your business. Plus, today's crazy-ass white person shows just how Trumpers are losing when it comes to this election. And also, Dave Chappelle says, do not watch the Chappelle Show on various streaming services. I'll explain. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. 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 rolling, best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks, he's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's Rolling Martin. Yeah. Go, go, go, go, go, folks. The Pennsylvania Secretary of State has certified the results of the 2020 election today despite pushback from Donald Trump and his allies. President-elect Joe Biden also, of course, has been certified there in Pennsylvania. Trump folks can still yell, scream, holler if they want to.

The reality is the election is over. Trump also has made it clear, and we also now know that the Biden transition team, they have been in contact with all federal agencies in the Trump administration to make a peaceful transition. Joe Biden has been moving forward with his cabinet picks today. He nominated a variety of national security folks to lead, including the first woman to lead the intelligence community and the first Latino to run the Department of Homeland Security. John Kerry has accepted the appointment as the U.S.'s first ever climate czar. The president-elect's cabinet appears to reflect the diversity of the country. They'll serve, unlike the previous administration.

Now, one of the folks who also spoke today, she, of course, is the choice for the ambassador to the United Nations. Watch. Mr. President-elect, I've often heard you say how all politics is personal, and that's how you build relationships of trust and bridge disagreements and find common ground and in my 35 years in the Foreign Service across four continents I put a Cajun spin on it I called it gumbo diplomacy wherever I was posted around the world I'd invite people of different backgrounds and beliefs to help me make a roux and chop onions for the Holy Trinity and make homemade gumbo.

It was my way of breaking down barriers, connecting with people, and starting to see each other on a human level. A bit of lagniappe is what we say in Louisiana. That's the charge in front of us today. The challenges we face, a global pandemic, a global economy, the global climate change crisis, mass migration and extreme poverty, social justice are unrelenting and interconnected, but they're not unresolvable if America is leading the way. All right, folks. Again, that is right there with Linda Thomas-Greenfield. Of course, the choice to be ambassador to the United Nations. She will be the second African-American woman to serve in that capacity. Susan Rice served in that capacity under President Barack Obama. As I said, there is cooperation taking place between the administration and the new one coming in.

So thank goodness Trump has finally stopped fighting that. Kelly Bethea Jones is right now, communications strategist. Dr. Julian Malveaux, economist, president emerita, Bennett College. Michael Brown, former vice chair, DNC Finance Committee. Folks, I want to talk about these picks here. But in addition, I want to talk about the push for Congressman Marshall Fudge to be the head of the Agriculture Department. Now, Dr. Julianne Malveaux, there are people out there who might say, OK, a black woman leading the Agriculture Department. Well, folks don't realize the Agriculture Department is not about farms. It is far more

extensive. It speaks to the federal food programs and so many other things. In fact, the USDA has one of the largest banks run by the federal government. So folks have to understand this is a very significant position that could very well impact African-Americans. Absolutely. Fudge, I call her Fudge. She's my sorority president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated back in the day. But she has been on this committee. She has been passionately committed to food security, especially for rural people. And people forget, when people say rural, you get a picture in your mind of some white person. Black people are rural too. In fact, many of us, far more than we realize, are rural. And so this is a part of the portfolio of improving the status of African Americans. And it's also a part of the portfolio of attempting to reverse some of the

major land loss that we experienced in the 60s and 70s. Mike Espy, as you recall, held this position before and talked about the discrimination in terms of farm loans. I think that Congressman Woodman Fudge will be able to address some of that, not all of it, but some of it. It's a portfolio that is really perfect for her. So it's exciting to me. Now, you know, the other appointments that hasn't been made, NCNW, nine Black women's organizations and others have urged President-elect Biden to nominate Marsha Fudge, but we haven't heard from him yet. So we're looking forward to hearing from him. But the other nominations, Rowland, I'm not jumping up and down except for the sister

as the U.N. ambassador, and I'm not crying either. This is a group of seasoned people who have had government experience, some of whom, like Kerry, have served in the Senate, so should not expect such a hard time. Biden is playing it like he always plays, cautious. And that apparently is what's working these days. And so let's see what some of the other appointments look like. Well, here's the deal. The reality is this here, Michael Brown, Joe Biden, when you look at electoral college, sure, 306 votes. The reality is he doesn't control the United States Senate. Democrats actually lost seats in the United States House. And so this this this notion of being able to govern a lot more aggressively that people originally want to do. That's going to be very difficult. What has to happen right now is can you get your folks confirmed? So, so much attention is going to be on the Georgia races because if Democrats

are able to win those two seats, it will be 50-50 in the U.S. Senate and Vice President Kamala Harris can break the tie. But what it also does, though, it empowers folks in the Democratic side, such as the senator from Arizona, who's not a hardcore progressive. It empowers a Joe Manchin as well because they can make all kinds of different demands because you need every available vote. You can't have anybody on the Democratic side flip to the Republican side. And so it's no surprise that Joe Biden is going to have to govern cautiously because, again, he doesn't have 52, 55, 57 Democratic senators. Correct. And just as a quick note, I mean, the seats in the House that were lost

were previously held by Republicans. Those are traditionally Republican districts that Democrats picked up in 2018. Max Rose, in particular, is one of those examples, and then it flipped back to Republicans. So it's not as if they were all Democratic seats from the beginning. But nonetheless, they're still lost seats, understood. You're right. And that's where it'll be interesting to see where Senator McConnell then makes a decision on whether he wants to turn the corner to be a cooperative, if assuming the Georgia seats don't go the Democrats' way, whether he wants to be a cooperative partnership with the Biden administration. He won't. I mean, I don't know why you've been saying that.

You know doggone well that ain't going to happen. Then if he won't, then our politics are going to remain the same. It's going to be divisive. It's going to be separative. He's not even going to confirm the President Biden's cabinet nominees. Then we're going to have the same situation. The reason why 45 appointed some of his secretaries and didn't care whether they got confirmed or not. He just put them in the seats. Clearly, they weren't confirmed and voted on by the Senate, but they still ran those agencies. And if that's the way McConnell wants the government to run,

then I guess that will happen unless it's somebody that he already has a relation with. That's why I think what President-elect Biden has done is very smart. Some of the people have already been confirmed by a Republican Senate, and so they already actually know who these people are and that they can get the votes again, whether that happens or not. And I think that's one of the reasons, frankly, why Ambassador Rice wasn't included in this first wave of folks related to foreign policy and national security, because there are some folks that didn't think she could get confirmed.

Again, Kelly, again, what this boils down to, you look at the pick for the United Nations and a lot of people have been saying, OK, but we're not we're not seeing more. Again, we haven't we haven't seen health and human services, defense. We haven't seen commerce, interior, all of those agencies. And so so far, we've only seen the national security picks. And so, again, we're going to be seeing more. But the other thing that I said on this show just yesterday, we also not just want to look at what the cabinet picks, who's going to be their chief of staff, who's going to be the number two in the agencies, who's going to be in the top tier, because that's really how things actually get done in these agencies.

Absolutely. I agree with you about people being a little bit anxious regarding these nominations and appointments and what have you. But again, we have to keep in mind that these these positions are going to be four years long, hopefully even eight. And a lot of the time, these people do not stay there the entire term of the president. It happens such that you might have rotating. Some people may move on. Some people may resign, what have you. So there is always an opportunity for more inclusion, for more diversity in these picks. So I'm not necessarily worried about Biden's lack of diverse initiative on his cabinet. I'm just looking for the most qualified people to be on his cabinet because we've just spent four years with people at the head of these agencies, pretty much every single agency in federal government who have not been qualified in the least bit to run them. So we need people in there who are not only qualified, but understand what's going on,

who can make a quick diagnosis of what's going on, what's wrong with the organizations as is, and who are able to step in now and get things done the way that the federal government is supposed to function. Again, so we're sitting here watching all of this. But again, these various black groups are pushing Congresswoman Marsha Fudge. This is critically important here. It's NAACP and others. And they'll give a coalition of African-Americans out there, Julian, who are making it clear to the Biden administration that they want to see

diversity. They want to see black people, specifically black women, in leadership positions. And so this is just one of those positions, this push for Congresswoman Marsha Fudge. And again, I really want people to understand when you start talking about these agencies, we're talking about billions of dollars. What happens, Julian, which I think is a huge mistake, a lot of people who don't understand how the sausage is being made. They think in terms of, well, you know, you've got the White House and OK, whatever Joe Biden says. No, but the reality is inside of these agencies, when they are directing resources, then they are directing how dollars are being spent. They're directing various programs.

That's crucial. The folks at Vanity Fair did a huge story during the Trump administration, probably in the first couple of years, how so many things, how vital the USDA is. We're talking about the impact on black farmers. We're talking about SNAP program. We're talking about the impact on black farmers. We're talking about SNAP program. We're talking about the food program. So again, people should be really thinking a lot broader and

understanding the role that these federal agencies play and the impact on folks, not just in rural America, but even in inner city America? Absolutely, Roland. The secretaries of the various departments have billions of dollars, really, of discretionary spending. It doesn't have to go through an RFP. It doesn't have to be vetted. They can give someone a sole source contract if they want to for some critical need that they may not have time to put through an RFP. So that's important. It's also important to understand when you look at school lunches and things like that. Remember when what was his name? Ronald Reagan said ketchup was a vegetable.

And we all thought it was a big joke. But really what it meant is that there was no requirement for people to have healthy school lunches. Now, thanks to Michelle Obama, we've backtracked on some of that, but not all of it. So, if folks did—you know, we don't teach civics anymore. And since we don't teach civics anymore, people do think that President-elect Biden will be something like a czar. But that's just not the case. The case is the department picks are critical. I think today the primary focus was on international affairs, affairs of state. I'm very anxiously awaiting who will be chosen for secretary of education. I'm very anxiously awaiting HUD.

And we don't have to have HUD. Nick Carson didn't do anything awaiting HUD. And we don't have to have HUD. I mean, Carson didn't do anything with HUD. But that's traditionally where dollars have come to inner city communities. But, Roland, you make a very good point. The resources of the Department of Agriculture are exponentially larger than the resources of HUD. Let me be real clear, Michael. I don't want HUD. Here's why.

Because HUD traditionally was the black position. Let me tell you what I want. I want the position your dad served in. Commerce. I want, I mean, look, I want to go where the money is. Okay? I want to go where the money is.

There's money in all agencies. What I'm saying is, I'm looking at, guess what? Health and Human Services, because you know what's going to happen? There's going to be billions being spent on COVID-19. OK, we're talking about contracts. We're talking about the protection of folks there as well. I want to see high ranking African-Americans in the Department of Defense, Pentagon, same thing. And so I'm talking about where the money is. I totally understand Julian's point when it comes to housing. But again, historically, housing was the black cabinet position. We saw what happened when African Americans, transportation, that's highway contracts. Again, I need people to understand we're talking billions and billions of dollars

that are being spent and black folks are frozen out of the federal agencies. We need to be following the dollar. And that includes SBA, the Small Business Administration, which also has those kind of large dollars that they can give out to, obviously, small businesses around the country, in particular minority businesses.

MBDA, the Minority Business Development Administration, which is under the Department of Commerce, also has its own little niche in commerce and has its own budget to also help small minority businesses. So you're right, Roland, there are so many opportunities relative to these large contracts. And that's where I think one of the things that was disappointing about the Obama administration is not making sure that before he left, that he said to, I'm just using Lockheed Martin as an example, Lockheed, here's your new partner. It's an

African-American business that they will now be your partner on these contracts to help build that wealth within the African-American community, because only a president can do that. Yes, you may have some conscious CEOs at places like a Lockheed Martin that may say, you know what, we need a black or a Latino-owned company to be our partners. But unless the president says do it, or the head of the Department of Defense or at the Pentagon, it's not going to get done. So you're right about following the dollars, and we'll see where the president-elect points those positions. All right, folks, let's talk about what's happening in California as part of California's

efforts to crack down on white supremacist groups, 102 people now face charges as part of an investigation by state and federal authorities. According to ABC 30, the investigation, dubbed Operation Lucky Charm, initially targeted both the Fresno-based street gang, the Fresnex, and the prison-based Aryan Brotherhood. Authorities on both the federal and local level took part in the 11-month investigation, with the primary focus being on cutting off lines of distribution for drugs and guns, $136,000 in cash, 90 pounds of meth, 47 guns, and 6 pounds of heroin were confiscated by authorities. This is a huge issue, Kelly, because, of course, the FBI has talked about the greatest threat to the country, white domestic terrorists, ignored in many ways by the Donald Trump administration.

Now it's going to get a serious look by the Biden administration. I expect a totally different DOJ and FBI effort when it comes to white supremacists. I do too, because it has been blatantly obvious, certainly in the last four years, that white domestic terrorism is a real threat to national security. And by the list of things that the federal government sees from these respective organizations, just two of them or one of them, I couldn't hear all of it. But just by the few that you mentioned, that's a lot of contraband. That is a lot of potential violence that could have been on the street as a result of that contraband. That is a lot of potential violence that could have been on the street as a result of that contraband. And it feels like, at least now, that white terrorist organizations aren't held

accountable just because they're white. They are the ones who are on this land now. Not ISIS, not Al-Qaeda, not the Taliban. Them, Aryan, neo-Nazi, Ku Klux Klan, all of them, they're here in this country, maybe next door to you, some of their members. And no one really takes that into consideration when you're talking about threats to national security. hope that the Biden administration and administrations after really take a hard look at what's going on in this country regarding those organizations and put an end to the terrorism, because that's exactly what it is. Well, this is why it matters, Michael, who is going to be in, who is president, because that sets the policies when it comes to the Department of Justice. And if the FBI has made clear that white domestic terrorists are going to be a problem in the future,

you damn well better have a Department of Justice and an FBI, a DEA, and others who are targeting them because that has a direct impact on the lives of black people. Absolutely, and Attorney General Barr and Sessions mostly ignored those reports about what white supremacist groups and racist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, as Kelly mentioned, she did the whole list, and they just totally ignored it. The Justice Department didn't do anything, no sanctions, no investigations, nothing,

even though the FBI wanted to do more work related to them, but they, again, they were not allowed. So now, hopefully, this new not allowed. So now hopefully this new Justice Department will say, you know what, we are going to take a stronger look because they're the ones causing the havoc. They're the ones causing the confusion. They're the ones causing the chaos. And so hopefully we'll have a Justice Department that'll come down on these white supremacist groups. Folks, let's talk about coming down. Oxycontin maker Purdue Pharma has pleaded guilty to three criminal charges and admitted it played a role in contributing to the opioid epidemic that killed hundreds of thousands of people in the last 20 years. In a virtual hearing today with a federal judge in Newark, New Jersey, Purdue Pharma

admitted it impeded on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's efforts to combat the addiction crisis. The company will have to pay $8.3 billion in penalties and forfeitures. Many activists are upset and say the family who owned Purdue Pharma needs to pay a price as well. Julianne, here's the issue here. Fine, you plead guilty to criminal charges. Who goes to jail? Exactly. That's often the case when you're dealing with corporate America. They're corporate because they want to separate the entity from themselves. But someone should go to jail. When we look at the epidemic that has swarmed through our country with the oxy addiction,

there should be penalties. There should be consequences. And so activists are right. And pharma is wrong. At 8.3 billion, that's not enough. And pharma is wrong. And eight point whatever is eight point three billion. That's not enough. That's really not enough. What they need to do, which we've done in other cases with other companies, break that sucker up, break the company up and put some of their assets into a recovery program, endowment for recovery. Make sure that they never cross that line again. That is the real issue here,

Michael, that bothers me immensely when you have these cases here where they plead guilty to criminal charges, but it's like, no one goes to jail. I'm sorry. What they did is no different than the people who were busted for crack cocaine and selling street drugs on the streets. In fact, they had an even greater, greater issue than what happened on the streets. And again, when you're a corporation, you just pay some money, eight point three billion dollars. Nobody goes to jail. We're all good. And frankly, this is a this is a nonpartisan issue because it happens in both administrations. Obviously, coming out of the Great Recession in 2008, the housing crisis,

obviously all those banks, nobody went to jail. There were a lot of fines and a lot of guilty pleas, but nobody went on vacation or on retreat, as my mother calls it. So from my standpoint, and that's, again, during a Democratic administration, happened during this administration. So you're right. Corporate America has a great strength, and that's their lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill within the administrations. And they make sure that and jobs. Remember, they have a lot of jobs in these different congressional districts around the country. And so they're under, you know, they have a lot of leverage with folks and say, well, if you do this to us, then some jobs will

get cut, revenues will get cut. And so that fears a lot of elected officials, and that's why they have so much leverage. Folks, so we've been talking about, of course, the federal elections. But let's not forget state elections still matter in North Carolina. A recount is almost complete in the race between Chief Justice Sherri Beasley and her challenger, Paul Martin Newby. Beasley is the first black female to serve as the state's chief justice, and it looks like she could lose her seat to conservative challenger Newby. Now, Beasley asked for a recount after seeing that Newby took the lead with only 400 votes. However, as counties across the state finalized the recount, it appears Newby is maintaining his lead.

If Beasley were to lose the race, it could have a major impact for the future of racial justice in North Carolina. One of the things that happened here, and folks, she was one of the folks who we interviewed. We were in Raleigh, North Carolina, broadcasting our show in October. We actually had a chance to talk with her. And here's what happened here. So Newby, this is a video here of me interviewing Sherry Beasley. Newby was upset when the governor, Roy Cooper, named Sherry Beasley as chief justice. He felt as the person with more seniority, the job should have gone to him.

So what did he do? He chose not to run for his seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court. Instead, challenged hers. Now you see he's leading by 400 votes. Now, Democrats were on their way to having a six to one majority on the Supreme Court. But because of the surge of Trump voters in North Carolina, that really was reduced. Now, if Beasley loses, Kelly, Democrats will only have a four to three majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court. Why does that matter? It was this

Supreme Court that ruled against racial gerrymandering. It was this Supreme Court when Democrats took control that stopped a lot of the craziness that was being done by Republicans in the legislature. This is an example where we talk about the Supreme Court on the federal level. This is an example of what happens when you have a Supreme Court that is not a hard right conservative, largely made up of white men. And so Beasley losing is going to be a huge blow to justice in North Carolina. But this also should be an example for anybody out there who says my vote doesn't count. This is an example where it does. That's exactly what I was going to say regarding local elections and state

election. Your vote matters up and down the ballot, from the top being president to the bottom being whoever your clerk is. You need to vote because it matters. And stories like this is why it matters. We have a problem in North Carolina regarding racial injustice, especially when it comes to case law and court issues. Of course, that's nationwide, but it's glaring in North Carolina. And it was evident even in this election because North Carolina was relatively close to turning blue this year. And it wasn't because of of Trump supporters and the like, but also because people still don't understand the power of their vote. If your vote was not powerful, Republicans would not be so adamant and so so driven and so motivated to take it away. That's how powerful your vote is. People who do not know you want to take away the one thing that is your utmost constitutional right in this country,

the one thing that you can actually exercise regularly as elections go on. So I am looking at this very closely, hoping that she does keep her seat. And if she doesn't, North Carolinians definitely need to be on that court's butt in terms of how they judge, how they interpret law, and making sure that the issues such as gerrymandering, such as any type of de jure segregation, doesn't continue to happen because it sets precedent. And we don't need that kind of precedent anymore. We're trying to eradicate that kind of precedent. Julianne is also important because when you talk about not just racial gerrymandering cases,

when you also talk about death penalty cases, when you talk about so many other cases, look, the guy who was accused of stealing some lawn shears in Louisiana, even though only because the story became a national story that he later got released. But the Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed that decision five to one. Who was the one vote? The black woman who was the chief justice on Louisiana Supreme Court. And so these are elected positions in a lot of these states. This is why you have to vote in all elections, because trust me, Newby as chief justice is going to be ruling a hell of a lot differently as a right wing white man than a black female in Sherry Beasley.

You know, Roland, part of the challenge, as you say, you have to vote in every election. Part of the challenge is a lot of people don't vote down ballot. We got a lot of attention in this election at the top, but less attention at the bottom. And activists have to, as we're telling people to come out to vote for, frankly, this time it was Biden, but it wasn't always. You ought to also look at some of these local elections. That's why LaTosha Brown is so powerful, because she basically immerses herself in communities to figure out which races people care about. And then as she looks at the ones people care about, she is able to galvanize them. This man, the way that he went about this was nothing but mean-spirited. Of course, he has the right to run for anything he wants to run for, but his white male privilege and arrogance made him decide that he was going to knock

this black woman off the chief justice seat because he thought he should have had it. Well, they always think that they should have it. I mean, they think they should have everything. And the issue is that as our country changes, no seniority is not going to be the only way things are apportioned. People will also apportion things in name of diversity. And that's why Justice Beasley was appointed. She's extraordinarily capable. She was no affirmative action pick, but she brought diversity to the table.

And that's really important. Michael, again, moving forward, when we talk about these various states, when we see a right wing federal Supreme Court, the state Supreme Court positions are going to be even more important. And because the Supreme Court refused to wager, speak on political gerrymandering, kicked it back to the states. Well, guess what? If you already got gerrymandering in the state level, you're always going to have black folks disenfranchised and Democrats disenfranchised when Republicans control both chambers and then control the top positions in the state. Yeah, and it's unfortunate. I'm not sure. I don't know the trivia answer for how many black women are chief justices of their state Supreme Courts, but I imagine it's not that many. And so the fact that Justice Beasley was one of them and wasn't a tight race, I'm not sure what where the money was going. I'm not sure how North Carolina sets up their ballots after a president. What comes after that? Is it is it judges? Is it congressional?

Is it Senate? I'm not sure. But but as the rest of the panel has mentioned, voting up and down the ballot is extremely important, but so is money. And I don't know, hopefully she had what she needed. If she didn't, it's a shame that we didn't do enough to make sure that she had what she needed to fend this guy off. So that's, but also elections have consequences.

Obviously, Governor Cooper is a Democrat, so he, in his purview, said, I'm going to appoint somebody who leans a little more left. He did that. Obviously, this gentleman made his decision to go run against her. We should have made sure she had everything she needed to fend him off. Hopefully, after a recount, things will change, and all we can do is cross our fingers and hope. But whenever there's a black woman that's a chief justice of any state Supreme Court, we should do whatever it takes to make sure they stay elected.

Absolutely. All right, folks, got to go to commercial break. We come back. Colin Kaepernick. Oh, don't think for a second that he does not want to play in the NFL. We'll talk about that next. Roland Martin unfiltered. Plus, we also have a black business segment. Crazy white people. And we pay tribute to the late New York City Mayor David Deakins. All of that next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. To develop a conscience in which you know that voting and participating is a part of the price you pay for the gift of life that you have received from the universe.

That's part of the gift. We told them the smear ads were coming, and that's exactly what happened. You would think that Kelly Loeffler might have something good to say about herself if she really wants to represent Georgia. Instead, she's trying to scare people by taking things I've said out of context

from over 25 years of being a pastor. But I think Georgians will see her ads for what they are. Don't you? I'm Raphael Warnock, and we approve this message. I'm Jon Ossoff, and the path to recovery is clear. First, we listen to medical experts to control this virus. Then we shore up our economy with stronger support for small businesses and tax relief for working families. And it's time for a historic infrastructure plan to get people back to work and invest in our future. We need leaders who bring us together to get this done.

And that's why I approve this message. We have to try and get to young people and make them matter, especially Latinos, because, like you said, we're the fastest-growing demographic in the country. I, myself, talk to people all the time. They're like, kids, the kids in my family that are now eligible to vote, they're like, yeah, but you know, it's just such a big task. It's so overwhelming.

And I'm like, yeah, we're not changing the world in one day. We're just trying to make a small difference and you do matter, your vote does matter. This is Judge Matthews. What's going on everybody? It's your boy, Mack Wiles, and you are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Well, the Cincinnati Bengals lost their top pick Joe Burrow to a just

horrifying knee injury on Sunday. Many folks said hmm, Bengals you might want to call this guy. Colin Kaepernick hasn't played in the NFL since 2016. But he sent a reminder. Folks, roll a video, please.

But he sent a reminder to all 32 teams that he's ready to play. This was the video that he tweeted out, his workout on Monday, saying 1,363 days of being denied employment, still putting in work with Eric Reid. Still, come on, y'all, let's go. Thank you. Still going hard five days a week. Hashtag still ready.

And, of course, Eric Reid, he played with him in San Francisco. Keep playing the video, please. Thank you. He played with him in San Francisco. Reid later went on to play for the Carolina Panthers when he was released. No team has picked him up, even though he had, frankly, a career year. Some say that's because he had joined Colin Kaepernick in being very aggressive and criticizing the NFL.

Joining me now to talk about this is Jamal Murphy, executive producer and co-host of Roten on Sports Podcast. Jamal, glad to have you here. You do the podcast with Bill Roten. Look, I think it's abundantly clear. The NFL, we have seen some sorry quarterbacks sign in the NFL, backup quarterbacks who have no business playing. You look at what you saw out of Dallas when they lost Dak Prescott.

Then, of course, they lost their backup quarterback as well, Andy Dalton, to a concussion. They put a guy in who couldn't even throw a ball downfield. I mean, the NFL is full of crap. What people have to understand is this is the 32 owners. They are the ones who run the NFL. They control the NFL. And the reality is, look, you can hang it up.

Colin Kaepernick, unless a miracle happens, will never see an NFL football again. No, I totally agree with that. That time has come and passed. Anybody who thought that Kaepernick would get another chance, that's not going to happen. If it were going to happen, it would have happened already. I've always said that the smartest thing the NFL could have done

early on in the process would have been to sign Kaepernick and they could have avoided, you know, all this controversy and they would and they could have come out looking like they actually cared, like they pretend to. But yeah, the time, you know, thinking that Colin, that NFL is going to switch up, you know, their thought process and sign Kaepernick at this point, it's not going to happen. In fact, I think you touched on the bigger issue. The real issue is Eric Reid, who, like you said, had a career year last year, is only 28, you know, a great safety in the league.

And because he stood up for Colin Kaepernick and spoke his truth and Kaepernick's truth, he, as Kaepernick, is also being blackballed. So it's like, in effect, they're doing it again right in our face. I use whiteballed instead of blackballed. That's what I use to describe this. And again, that's what you're seeing. And look, as far as the NFL, unless they pay a price, unless people get far more aggressive in saying thanks but no thanks,

they're just going to move along that whole deal with, you know, Jay-Z and also giving money to the Players Coalition. Nah, chump change. What they're saying is we are going to make an example out of Colin Kaepernick, out of Jason Reed. Basically, y'all didn't say Toby. You kept saying Kunta. Fine. You're going to stay that way.

Yeah, I mean, that's exactly it. But I do appreciate what Kaepernick is doing because I think he knows this also. He knows that he has basically no chance of any NFL team really signing him, but he is keeping the issue alive.

And I always say we we should hashtag never forget what the nfl did to kaepernick and what they're doing to read um because it's a it's a it's going to be a forever stain on the nfl uh so i i appreciate kaepernick every chance he gets uh putting a video out saying i'm still in shape i still can play we we know it's not about talent at this point. When you have people like you mentioned, you have Joe Flacco playing for the Jets, you have Ryan Finley in Cincinnati, whoever the Jacksonville quarterback is, I don't even know. You got Drew Locke in Denver, Nick Foles in Trubisky in Chicago, Nick Mullins in San Francisco.

These people are not even close to what Kaepernick was. And I didn't even mention Alex Smith, who he beat out already, who now is starting for the Washington football team. So, no, I agree wholeheartedly with everything you're saying. And I think it is important, I think, for him to keep doing this and, you know, to keep putting this out there. Because, I mean, look, Tom Brady is in his 40s and he's still playing. And so, guess what?

I say this as far as Colin Kaepernick, keep putting them out there and make them have to deal with this every single year until you physically can't play again. Yeah, maybe even beyond that. Maybe even make a mockery of them even when you're in your late 40s. Keep doing it. Because, you know, I just commend him for consistently embarrassing the league because it's worth embarrassment. And again, they're doing it again to Eric Reid, and no one's really even talking about it. Okay?

Like I said, a 28-year-old in the prime of his career had a great year last year because he knelt with Kaepernick and continue to speak out against the league they obviously the bat whatever backlash they got uh for doing this to Kaepernick for white balling Kaepernick doesn't matter um it's all lip service because they did it again to Eric Reed all right then Jamal Murphy executive producer and co-host of Roten on sports podcast man I certainly appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Thank you. All right, then, folks.

We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to start our tribute to David Dinkins, of course, the first black mayor of New York City, the only black mayor of New York City. First up is going to be former Ambassador Andrew Young. He is next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. I think you gotta understand who's on the school board. Who voted for the judge that's gonna lock your ass up?

How about all these people that's running around in your community that be up at 8.30 in the morning and you never see them because you roaming around at 3 in the afternoon. They got voted in. They go to the government office buildings that you don't know until you get in trouble. I'm Chrisette Michelle, and you're watching

Roland Martin Unfiltered. Stay woke. Thank you. © transcript Emily Beynon David Dickens, the first and only black mayor of New York City, died last night at the age of 93. He passed away Monday evening at his residence on Manhattan's Upper East Side. During his tenure, he spoke frequently of what he called New York's gorgeous mosaic of racial, ethnic, and religious diversity. He championed economic equality and education for people of color and offered the city a calming alternative

to the leadership of Ed Koch, who his tenure in office was often marked by strained race relations. He's being remembered by a number of elected officials, celebrities, and friends. Here's Reverend Al Sharpton. The loss of David Dinkins is the loss of a great giant. As mayor of this city, it was David Dinkins that advocated community policing and safe city, safe streets. But let us not

forget he also called for what now has become a movement that is worldwide around Black Lives Matter. David Dinkins took a knee against police brutality before Colin Kaepernick did. David Dinkins never stopped standing for what was right. He was a kind and gentle man, but a warrior. He knew how to fight without being abrasive. He knew how to take a stand without being offensive. People of the white community, David Dinkins became the first black they ever voted for. Dave Dinkins was the road that ultimately led to the election of Barack Obama. There was David Dinkins talking about the gorgeous mosaic that made many of us understand when Obama said, yes, we can, because we had done it in New York under David Dinkins.

I think that this city will always be indebted to him and this nation and certainly this community. He represented the best of us. In a moment, we'll speak with Ambassador Andrew Young. Michael Brown, I want to go to you first. You, of course, your father knew David dinkins for a very long time so that your family just your thoughts on uh who he was and his legacy that he leaves us well first of all i don't know if it'll work but one of my favorite pictures is in my my sister's book i know you can't really see

it um it's a picture of my sister's book being Life and Times of Ron Brown. Hold up again. We'll do this right. Let me coach this Omega through it. Now, go to the page where there's a photo because, you know, David Dinkins was an alpha. I just want to let you know that. I know you were struck.

I'm aware of the mistake he's made. Yeah, yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. Anyway, this is during the picture section. There it is. It's, uh, there it is. It's my father, Mayor Dinkins, and Governor Cuomo. That's when my father announced that the Democratic National Convention

would be in New York City. And it was obviously a big win for David Dinkins and Governor Cuomo at the time. And not only was my father close with Mayor Dinkins, but so was my grandfather. As you know, my grandfather ran the Hotel Teresa in New York. And David Dinkins was a frequent visitor as a young man, as Charlie Rangel was. There's Charlie Rangel, Percy Sutton, David Dinkins, who all were kind of running Manhattan,

in particular Upper Manhattan and Harlem at the time in the businesses and political power. And he is just a pillar, an incredible man, a great tennis player. At least he thought he was a great tennis player. Obviously dressed impeccably, but really cared about, as Marion Barry called, the least, the last and the lost. He beat Giuliani that first time. Obviously, Giuliani came back and beat him. But he was a pillar in New York and national life, and he will be sorely missed. And Godspeed to his wonderful family. Julianne Malveaux, when you start thinking about that period of black mayors

in the 70s, early 80s, and then we go to the next generation, the Harold Washington and David Dinkins, Chicago and New York City. That really meant a whole lot to Black politicians going to the next level, if you will. Absolutely. David Dinkins, as Michael said, he was a gentleman. He was a gentle man. He was amazing. I happened to have the privilege of watching a couple of tennis matches with him because I don't know whether he thought he was a great player, but he was tennis's greatest fans. He was definitely on the board of USTA.

Hey, that man can play some tennis. I said, I don't know. What I said is I don't know. But I know that he was a great fan and um just a really great guy his legacy also I think is as brother Sharpton said it did the glorious mosaic because people used to always talk about a melting pot well who wants to melt you know the melting pot is assumed uh the obliteration of your culture you're in a pot and everything gets all whatever, smushed up.

But the mosaic really talks about the strength of every piece in the continuum. Or some people use a metaphor of a salad with all the different ingredients in a salad. But the glorious mosaic is just a beautiful way to talk about our differences. And I think he really captured that. To be the mayor of New York City, our nation's biggest city, that's quite an accomplishment.

And the fact that he beat Giuliani was quite an accomplishment also. As you said, he came back. Giuliani came back. But he's getting his just desserts these days. You expect Giuliani to come back, but, you know, like roaches, come back. But Dickens, you know, he left a legacy. He left his footprint in New York, and he provided an example for contemporary mayors like a Lori Lightfoot in Chicago, like my girl London Breed in San Francisco and others, because he managed it. He really managed it. And he managed it without rancor.

We're going to hear from a little bit later from Congressman Hakeem Jeffries on this, Kelly. But the reality is he had to deal, like many African-Americans who become the first of these cities, significant racism and vitriol. Folks talk all the time about racism in the South. Dr. King said the level of hate that he faced from white folks in Chicago, he said he never saw that level of hate in other cities. Kelly, actually hold tight one second. I want to pull up Ambassador Andrew Young. Ambassador Andrew Young, if you can answer that, Ambassador Young, what I just said,

that the level of vitriol and hate that David Dinkins had to deal with running for mayor and then being mayor, I said Dr. King said he faced a level of hate in Chicago. He didn't face anywhere else in the South. So this whole idea of how great and wonderful the North is, Dinkins felt that every single day he was mayor. You know, the day I came, the very first weekend that I came to New York to be ambassador to the United Nations, I had promised David that I'd go out campaigning for

him when he was running for borough president. And he said, you can't go with me. You're the ambassador. I said, the only way I got to be an ambassador was folks voted for me in Congress. And I said, we're going. Where do we start? And so we campaigned all over Manhattan. He was running for Manhattan Borough President. But I go back to David Dinkins when I was a 16-year-old. He came to Howard out of the Marine Corps, and I came up from New Orleans as a teenager. And he was the dean of pledges that took me across Alpha Phi Alpha in 1949. And I tell you, he took me as a boy from down south. And because he always dressed nice and he was always so cool, he made me want to be like him. at the UN. He tried to get me to stay, but I said, no, I don't know whether it's, I said,

I got to go back to Atlanta because Maynard cannot run again. And we have to keep that seat. And it looks like I'm going to talk to him about Joyce's passing. And I tell you, it's probably my longest standing friendship in the world from 1948 2020 and you talked about pledging there at Howard University him being the Dean of pledges folks go to my iPad this is a photo our friend brother Philip Lewis put out this is a photo of and you and David Deakins are in this photo here, a group of alpha men there at Howard University. Yeah, I went there as a little boy and I came out pretty much a man. I had to get to finishing touches down in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. But what you say about Chicago is mostly true, but the difference was not the degree of hatred. The difference was the numbers of people.

It was usually 100 or 200 at most in the South, but it seemed like there were 10,000, 15,000 people that were harassing us in Chicago. And so it is, well, race relations and racism is all about understanding each other. And it's harder to do in a big city than it is in a small town. And I think I love New York because Dave Dinkins loved New York. And because I walked the streets of Harlem. Actually, I've lived there. Lived there in 57 to 61. Then I came back at the UN in 77. So I liked my time in New York, and I loved the people of New York. Class.

David helped me to meet the best people in New York. He was always impeccably dressed, and in times that we met, always was a calming, soothing personality. Was that how he was from the moment you met him? I never saw him angered. He was always sort of just that very, when you keep hearing gentlemen. Back in the old days, alphas were taught,

don't get mad, get smart. You use your brains and not your brawn. And I grew up in New Orleans, right down the street from the Nazi party, so I got it from four years old on from my father. That was my talk. White supremacy is a sickness. You don't get angry with sick people, and you don't let them get you upset, and you stay cool no matter what the circumstances.

David lived that, and I've learned to come pretty close myself. Last question for you, sir. He lost his wife last month. He passes away at 93, and one of the things that was really important here is that he was still endorsing candidates, folks who are running in the primaries this year in the general election. He never stopped supporting the next generation of young politicians, especially African-American. Well, you know, he started in the Marine Corps before he came to Howard.

And he had that Marine Corps discipline. And when Joyce hit the campus, I think my second year, and David took one look at her, and he grabbed her, and he never let her go for the next 75 years almost. David Dinkins. Loving relationship, a great family, but the whole world was his family. Ambassador Andrew Young, it's always a pleasure, sir,

to have you here on Roller Mountain Unfiltered. God bless you. Thank you very much, my brother. Thank you very much. Folks, David Dinkins sat down for an interview for a project that Camille Cosby led called the Visionary Project. And this is what he said in that interview about his biggest regret. Listen to this. I wish that in Crown Heights, for instance, there came a time when I assembled the police commissioner and the high command and said,

look, whatever you guys are doing, it ain't working. And you must, you must, and like that. Now, I am different than Rudolph Giuliani. I never figured I was the police commissioner. It's not my job to tell them whether to use 9-millimeter weapons or not, which is the whole controversy around that i might add but it is my job when things aren't working to tell them that they're not and so i wish i had told them that sooner i wish i told them that sooner then there's the

another thing for which i'm blamed by many is the the korean boy of the Red Apple store. And here was a controversy between a Korean grocer and an African-American customer. And the boycott went on for a period of time. It went on too long, certainly. And there were lines, picket lines outside moved closer than then they should have been the court ruled that they they should be back at a greater distance but we appeal that and pending the appeal this was not in place some people said I permitted in violation violation of the law, which isn't true. In and around the same time, there were two other similar instances elsewhere in the city,

one in Queens and one in Brooklyn, Korean merchant, African-American customer, and they got resolved in like a day and a half by the same people working for me who were working on the Brooklyn thing. But Brooklyn thing never got solved because Sonny Carson and two or three other people did not want it to end. And every time we were pretty close to resolution, it would blow up all over again. So I wish we had ended that sooner, but we did bring about a conclusion ultimately. Folks, that was David Deakins talking about one of his biggest regrets when he served as mayor of the city of New York. Kelly, your thoughts about David Deakins and his legacy? Just echoing the sentiments of everyone on the panel and those who spoke previously,

like Ambassador Young, he was a little bit before my time, not by much, but the fact that he really did pave the way for not only mayors of other major metropolitan cities, but politicians in general who are Black and wanting to make a change for this modern-day America. You were talking about the racial tensions that he had to endure. It's because the mayor right before he was elected, Ed Koch, I believe, he was incredibly racist, not only in his personal viewpoint, but in his policy. So he was already facing a steep uphill battle upon being

elected as the first Black mayor of New York. And all things considered, from what I've read and from what family that I have have experienced under his tenure as mayor, he did the absolute best he could with the tools that he was given at the time. So taking all of that into consideration, his legacy will definitely be one to revere and to look back on and to study and to reflect. And him being missed is without question. But the fact that his legacy remains and it is still so strong and still so inspiring, that can't be that's nothing small to look at. That is something that we will be looking at and studying for years to come. So I my condolences for his family. Gotcha. This is the this is the film archive new york city this is

the video where he was sworn in uh as mayor of new york city uh again uh so many different tributes are pouring in uh all across the country we're going to be talking with a couple of officials there in new york in just a second um uh tish James, she is the attorney general for the state of New York, and she quite busy these days. We won't get into that right now, but she is taking the time to share her thoughts about the late David Dinkins, the first and only black mayor in New York City. Attorney General James, glad to have you on the show. Thank you so much, Roland. Listen, my heart is broken, but what provides me with consolation and dries my tears

is that he's home at rest, and he's home at rest with his lovely bride. And so individuals who are married for that length of time, usually they die of a lonely and a broken heart. So may they rest in peace and power. He was a mentor to me. He swore me in as the first black woman elected in the city of New York as a public advocate and then swore me in again as the first black woman elected in the state of New York as attorney general. And he was my professor also at Columbia University, the School of International and Public Affairs.

And he will be greatly missed. He led this city in its reduction of crime. He was an avid tennis player. He was from Harlem. He was one of the, quote unquote, gang of four. The only one left these days right now is Congress member Charlie Rangel. I'm going to miss him. I'm going to miss him. He had this effervescent light that continues to shine. And so I'm going to pray for his soul. But more importantly, I'm going to pray for more individuals in public life.

This was this was what you posted. I was so honored to have David Dinkins hold the Bible at my inaugurations. Without him, I wouldn't be here. New York has lost the titan of our time, but he has gone home to reunite with his beloved Joyce. May he rest in power. He was always dapper. I see him rocking that bow tie.

He was always clean. I never saw him ever dressing down, always clean. He used to say that when he was the mayor of the city of New York, he would change on several occasions because he wanted to always have a crispy suit on and a crispy T-shirt. He always wanted to represent the best of people of color and as well as the mayoralty, not only in New York, but across the nation. We talk about this next generation of black politicians. When you look at the history of New York City, you talk about Adam Clayton Powell, then, of course, Charlie Rangel coming behind him. Then you see this wave of black elected leaders in the 70s and 80s. And then, of course, then he becomes he becomes mayor. So so in so in many ways, he was that bridge for that new generation of, again, those old polls who had to deal with the rough and tumble

politics, still rough and tumble. But it was really I mean, again, the level of racial animosity that he had to battle every day was just vicious. That's right. I mean, listen, there was racial animus then. There continues to be racial animus, but they had to overcome so much. You know, I worked for 10 years under the stewardship and the leadership of then Assembly member Al Vann, who worked on community empowerment. And there was this heated exchange, or I should say there was always this divide between Brooklyn and Harlem, the politics of Al Vann and the politics of the Gang of Four. And that is infamous in the annals of history in the city of New York. And they would always the question was always where was the black power base?

Was it central Brooklyn or Harlem? And I can recall when there was attempts to elect black mayors prior to Mayor David Dinkins. And there was always this divide, this rift between Brooklyn and Harlem. But they all came together behind the clerk, David Dinkins, who served in the legislature, was one of the founding members of the Black Caucus, and then went on to become the first Black mayor of the city of New York. And he did so much for the city of New York. And he elevated the hopes and dreams of countless number of children of color. And you're absolutely right. We stand on his shoulders. I and so many other black elected officials in the city, in the state stand on this giant of a man, this gentle giant, um, whose flame

continues to burn in the hearts and souls of all of us, including myself. I will always remember for what he did for me and for the city of New York. And so may he rest in peace and power. And again, my condolences go out to his son. Tish James, Attorney General of the State of New York. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks so much. Got a feeling I'm going to have you on this show a lot more after January 20th. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Michael Brown, I keep going back to that whole point of the kind of hell that he had to deal with. And I don't think people really I mean, I'm talking about, you know, folks, folks who've been born the last 20 years.

I mean, you know, look, you look at, you know, Black Lives Matter protest. But but when you had the entire police department, fire department, when you had just I mean, the racism that racism that was coming out was just unbelievable. And folks would swear, swear Michael Brown. They would swear we were operating in the 1950s and 1960s when Dinkins was mayor of New York City. And not to give any kind of history lesson to New Yorkers, but obviously New York is in the North, considered Yankees. But New York was a very, or some would still say is, a polarized, racist city.

You have different parts of Manhattan. Not every part of New York City is progressive and has a certain kind of person. You have other boroughs in New York and other sections of those boroughs that are very difficult related to people of color, both Latino and black. And David Dinkins was able to kind of build a coalition, at least to win election. Then to govern was the other challenge that he had. And governing, clearly, what you just mentioned, which with the police that were against him because they thought he was too soft on criminals or on crime

when he was trying to obviously lift people up and not put him in jail. And then on the other hand, and I don't want to call out any of those boroughs, but some of these boroughs are extremely very racist, segregated places. There are some parts of some of these boroughs that you can go to and you won't see a person of color. And some parts of that, and that's part of New York. That's what makes New York such an incredible melting pot. But it also is a melting pot for racism.

And so keep that in mind. I know, again, New York is in the North and cosmopolitan. But there are parts of New York City that are a bit challenging if you're a person of color. And the fact that he was able to win election, couldn't win re-election, and it was tough to govern, he still got it accomplished. Assemblyman Mike Blake joins us right now. And Assemblyman Blake, glad to have you.

We are both Alpha brothers, and we lost a big giant, a big legend among Alpha in David Dinkins. We just had Ambassador Andrew Young, who talked about what it was like to pledge with David Dinkins as your dean of pledges. You know, Brother Martin, you know, we lost a Titan today, and in his honor,

I'm wearing my black and old gold and have on my life member pin, which obviously you can appreciate, you know. To be a black man in New York, a black man in politics, to be a brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, be a brother of the 100 Black Men Incorporated. David Dinkins was the epitome for all of us. And, you know, when you think about what he had to overcome to get to a place of becoming mayor, where he won a very close election in a divided city. He lost a very close election where race was used to divide. And in the midst of all of that, he still was focusing on healing everybody and creating unity.

He was a tie-in. And I think about the moments that I was able to spend with him over the years, including at the African-American Day Parade on last year in Harlem, including just being around him at different events. And when you hear Mayor Dinkins say, Brother Blake, it shows you that there are Titans that are still among us, and we lost a legend last night. This is a photo you posted on your Twitter account.

I think it was at that parade. Of course, he was a grand marshal. You see sitting next to former Congressman Charlie Rangel. That's two of the Gang of Four right there. And of those four, Charlie Rangel is the last remaining one. And Rangel, also a fellow Alpha brother. I mean, people don't understand what it was like. If you needed something to move involving black folks,

those were two of the folks you had to go through. I mean, you think about when they talk about Rangel and Dinkins, you know, Basil Patterson, Percy Sutton, you know, that was the core of everything. And it demonstrated to everyone what was possible when you believed. And I enjoyed, and you would appreciate this, Brother Mar, when you're talking to one brother and there's that other brother that just can't wait to jump in on the story. And the other brother is David Dinkins, right? And, you know, that photo was the epitome of it.

I was introducing him to Adam Farney, who was one of my mentees. And I had that joy of saying, I want to, who was one of my mentees. And I had that joy of saying, I want to introduce you to one of my alpha brothers who's involved in politics, and Brother Dinkins just had that subtle laugh, like, no, let me tell you how the story really went. And he just commanded the moment and commanded the presence all of the time. And, you know, but I tie it together in that when you are the first and only black mayor of the most critical city in the country and still people can approach you

and you would call them your brother, that's what made David Dinkins who he was. And I just think, I don't think the current generation can appreciate the magnitude of the man we just lost and how everything is transformative because of him. And quite frankly, it will prepare us for 2021 as we need healing because his whole framing of talking about the gorgeous mosaic and his whole vision of we need to heal and unite that was the epitome of david dinkins assemblyman michael blake we surely appreciate it sir thank you so very much for joining us for our tribute to david dinkins

a5 my brother thank you all right brother a5 folks uh richard chambers posted this on twitter he said a former mayor of new york city david dins, has died at age 93 on St. Patrick's Day in 1991. He joined a gay Irish group for the parade. He and the group were booed and taunted for 40 blocks while crowds threw beer at them. LGBT groups were then banned from the New York City parade until 2016. Julian, we know that story. We know that vicious riot led by Rudy Giuliani and then the constant attacks on his character. And again, the parallels to Obama, Giuliani are amazing.

The folks saying, oh, he was lazy and oh, how New York City declined under Dinkins. America declined under Obama. I mean, the people really took the time to study the hell that Harold Washington went through when he was mayor of Chicago, the hell that Dinkins went through when he was mayor of New York City, and then what happened when Obama becomes president. That white fear of black leadership is abundantly clear. Absolutely.

It's historic. I mean, if you look at the end of enslavement, they tried to curtail us, curtail our ability to accumulate wealth, to vote. There were black men in the Congress. And then after Reconstruction, well, Blanche Bruce, he couldn't run again. So we have had a history of oppression. And then you add, Michael Brown said he wasn't going to mention the borough. Well, I will. It's Staten Island. And Staten Island has mostly, not mostly, but a heavy concentration of police and firefighters

live in Staten Island. And they were among David Dinkins' most vociferous critics, simply because it wasn't necessarily that he was being soft. He was being contextual. When you look at some of the crime that young Black people were accused of committing, and as we know with the Central Park Fire, everything that people were accused of committing. And as we know with the Central Park Fire, everything that people were accused of did not happen. Dinkins had to hold it up, hold his head up with dignity, and he never wavered from that. But I imagine it must have

been very hard for him to hear some of the insults. I mean, I remember reading a piece of The New Yorker, and it was so gross that I won't even repeat it. But it was very demeaning. This is a man, again, of dignity. He's your mayor, and you have some idiot writing, you know, just insults because he disagreed with him. So we have to give David Dinkins a lot of credit. You know, I often think that the way that Harold Washington was treated was partially the outcome of his early death. And when we look at all of these other brothers who have basically have to stand up, you look at Andy, Ambassador Young. One of the things people said is, you know, black folks can have the politics as long as white people keep the economics. Not. And Mayor Maynard, who preceded

him, was like, he didn't hit it to him like Maynard did, probably because he pledged under David Dinkins and had the same kind of quiet dignity. Well, showing us right now, someone who knew David Dinkins extremely well, a pioneer, a legend in his own right. We're joined by Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr. Reverend Jackson, always glad to have you on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Good to be with you, but not on this occasion. Just share for our audience your thoughts, your memories of working with your brother. You can't call him an alpha brother because you're an omega.

I always got to mess with you. But your brother, David Dinkins. David Dinkins was a part of a, hello? Yes, you're on the air. Go ahead. A gang of four. First and second, Basil Patterson, then Charlie Rangel.

The four of them in their early 30s decided to move into public politics. They broke what they called Tammany Hall, the blue machine in New York at that time. And blacks were very isolated based on the ethnic schemes that were on people

coming up from the South. At the end of the day, Chyler Ringel became chair of the Finance Committee, House of Ways Committee. President Sutton became former president. Dave Dinkins became mayor. And Dave Dinkins' father-in-law became the governor. The Gang of Four, they operate as brothers.

Not long ago, Joyce died, David's wife. I don't think it could take much after Joyce. They've been together almost 70 years. Genuine brother. When we first started talking about the black president back in 72, way back then, David, David and Basil and Tristan, they had to call so many way back then. David, thank you for meeting David and Basil and Tristan. They had to call somebody way back then.

Back when Shirley ran. And they were not really aware of it. They were meeting in Chicago. David said,

well, we didn't know about it but we got to catch up and make up a lost time. And he had the gentle will by himself. And he did a heck of a job as mayor. And he brought crime down.

Julianna lied and lied on him. Lied to the people. He was a Staten Island sovereignty. He didn't do a thing for Staten Island. But Julianna was then whoaten Island sovereignty. He didn't do that. He didn't do a thing for Staten Island. But you know then who he is now. So you know he defeated David Dickens, but he did it by lying and scheming. There was no whole bar.

But David Dickens is a legend in our time. He was mayor at a period where Harold Washington was also, he followed, actually followed Harold Washington in terms of becoming mayor. What did it mean for black people during that period of the 1980s to have a black mayor of Chicago and a black mayor of New York City. It's enough. In 82, we were doing a boycott in Chicago. Some of the agents, three I guess it was. And we asked Harold, please run. He said, I don't want to run. I'm going to come. I like my job in Congress and all that. How do you have to run?

So we called the Chicago Affairs Boycott. And they called the boycott. of Conductors. And we called the Board of Conductors. We broke down several groupings. My job was to get the entertainers out to cross our picket line. She was one of the sound guys to cross the picket line. They sued Stephen. Stephen took the suit. He didn't cross the picket line. Other audience began to not cross the picket line. Harold came by the demonstrate one day and said,'ll see you guys in Washington. What's your deal, Harold? Well, $5,000 new votes and $4 million on the table.

He put $5,000 on the table and raised $4,000 in votes. He might have covered for his boycott. Well, in the strength of Harold, given the machine in Chicago, Ted Kender and Mondale was coming to Chicago to put Jane Byrne and Bailey on the primary. They said, look, guys, we support you guys,

Kennedy and you, you know that? So they said, we have to calm these Africans. I said, this is the backgrubs of liberalism. So I remember Mary Jackson, I remember that. Somebody Jackson. I remember them.

Somebody black should run against them, challenge them, at least in the primary. So they can't take us for granted. They said, act it. So they think it was a part of the group. It was me to run. It put me all the way. We won New York. We won New York in 84.

In 84, we won Virginia in 85. Don Wilder became the governor. We won Virginia in 88. We became the governor in 89. Dave Dickens, the chair of the campaign in New York, came in in 89. So they were all involved in the service. They were not at all distant from what we were doing. They're architects of it. Of course, David, the person, Charlie, 10, 15 years older than I was, but nonetheless, they let me in. And they let Shopkin in as well. A lot of the best men shopped in our development.

River, Justin Jackson Sr., it's always a pleasure, sir. We certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much for joining us to pay tribute to David Dinkins. The way we pay David Dinkins tribute by putting in one of our software in Georgia. Let that be the tribute to David when it's in Georgia.

Absolutely. We certainly agree, sir. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Another member of Congress is Congressman Gregory Meeks, who is there from New York. He joins us right now. Congressman Meeks, your thoughts about the life and legacy of the great late mayor of New York, David Dinkins. One second. We don't we can't hear you. There we go. Now we're good. We're good. We're good. Go ahead. We didn't have you up on the R.E.N. Go ahead.

Very good. I was just saying he's our fraternity brother and a great graduate of Howard University. But he was a man that came into the city, you know, as oftentimes happens or seems to happen when you have an African-American coming in as the chief executive. He comes in at a time when the city's in trouble. People forget about where we were in New York in 1989. As took place with Barack Obama, as took place with Mayor Washington. We had the Ed Koch had ran the city into the ground. And the budget, the city of New York was in trouble in regards to its economy and the budget. And so he was faced with a lot of issues coming in as may that he had to deal with. He had what he wanted to look at in the programs

to put things forward to help economically uplift the black Puerto Rican and underserved individuals. And he was faced with tensions of race that was taking place. In fact, generally what stands out in my mind, when he ran in 1989, he beat Ed Cox overwhelmingly. And generally in New York City up to that point, that meant that you would win the mayoralty by huge numbers. In fact, you talk about Pose, the polls had him up by 20 percent. And he ended up winning by just one to two percent because of his race.

But Mayor Dinkins, ever the graceful one, came in and was looking as his deal to bring the city together. This gorgeous mosaic that he talked about in New York City, try and put people in place that had never been in place before in the city as deputy mayors and commissioners, people who had never been represented in the city, trying to bring it together. And all along, you had individuals who were staunch, like Rudy Giuliani, trying to prevent him from being successful from day one. But ever the graceful one, he dealt with those problems, some that continued to persist, and tried to make sure that what he had inherited,

he could change and turn around. And when I think of some of the issues that he had to overcome, he did. You know, he found a way, even after trying to figure out how to do the budgets for school and after-school programs and even at that time community policing, David Dinkins was finding a way to get that done. And he also did it, he always did it with such grace and humility, like had never been seen before. Very much different than his predecessor or his successor. And I can always remember David loved young people.

No matter where he went, he would make sure that he would take care or do things for young people. No matter where he went, he would make sure that he would take care or do things for young people. I got elected to the state assembly in 1992. David was still the mayor. And we ended up having a program to deal with young people. We named it the David N. Dinkins Community Center because of David. And he came out as mayor gracefully to make sure that whatever he could do to be helpful to the people in Far Rockaway, Queens at that time, that he would give them a hand up. And he did. And him along with as Reverend Jackson was just talking about Percy Sutton, Charlie Rangel, and Basil Patterson, the big four, were very instrumental in moving African-Americans around in leadership and inspiring us to be in leadership positions.

A lot of that really started with Reverend Jackson in 1984, his presidential run. But it inspired me. David Dinkins inspired me to make sure that we got political clubs and Black folks got their voices out there. He is an individual after he left the mayoralty. He continued to be one I know of which I personally would lean on and call when I had issues or questions. He always was an individual who was graceful and would make a comment that would be very, very helpful. So I think history will show that in the time that he was mayor,

he was an individual that that that that did what was necessary to try to hold this city together, given the individuals and the odds of people who are trying to make sure they were pushed back against his leadership. Congressman Gregory Mix, we certainly appreciate it, sir. Thanks for sharing your thoughts about David Dinkins on Rolobarton and Filchery. Thank you, my brother. Thank you very much. New York State Senator Brian Benjamin joins us right now. Senator Benjamin, how are you doing? I'm doing well, Roland. How are you? Doing great. You're another one of the young guns who

follow in the footsteps of David Dinkins. Just share with folks your thoughts about him and life and legacy after he passed away last night at the age of 93. I know it's very sad. You know, one of the things that I was listening to Congressman Meeks just speak, you know, one of the things that I really benefited from was, you know, being here in Harlem and he was always present. We were part of a social club and we would always meet and he would have me come sit down next to him and he'd always say to me, you know, listen, you represent Black people. You represent Harlem. You need to be respectful. You need to be honest. You need to be thoughtful because what you do matters and people are watching you. And I just think, you know, he was so interested in us being civil and

us and us being able to share ideas in a way that that was respectful. You know, he always you know, he always would say just because people are mean to you doesn't mean you need to be mean to them. And, you know, I just really am just honored to have known him the way he always just sort of brought me in. And I agree. I mean, he loved the next generation. He would think I was his son the way he used to speak to me sometimes. And, you know, I remember one, you know, last year in the African-American Day Parade, him and Congressman Rangel were sitting in the car and he pointed to me and said, you know, you come sit down with us and put me in the car. It was like the honor of my life

to be driving down 125th Street and Adam Plain Powell with the legendary leaders of Parliament just being embraced and knowing that, you know, they believe in me and he believed in me. It just, it meant the world and it means the world for so many other people.

And I try to be someone who's, who doesn't get caught up in the nasty politics and the Trump era that, thank God, we're going to get over. David Dinkins really embodied civility and true gentlemanship, and he really felt strongly that Black men should have a certain decorum and a certain way of communicating and push back against these stereotypes that people try to place on us. And as someone who is looking to run citywide and those kind of things, you

know, David Dinkins created that conversation of blacks being able to win citywide. And so we're all indebted to him. And he's changed politics forever because of because of his presence. All right. Senator Brian Benjamin, we certainly appreciate it, man. Thank you so very much for joining us, sharing your thoughts about David Dinkins. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch, man. Thank you so very much for joining us, sharing your thoughts about David Dinkins. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Folks, this is the statement that Bill Clinton put out today. He said Hillary and I mourn the passing of our friend David Dinkins, an extraordinary public servant whose lifetime of work made New York fair, better, and stronger.

He was calm on the outside and burned with a passion on the inside. In the face of rising crime and a national recession, he raised taxes to hire police officers, began the community policing initiative that would lead to much safer streets, started primary care clinics, kept schools open late to provide more opportunities for children, and supported the most vulnerable by improving low-income housing. From the first time we met until our last conversation just a few weeks ago, he never stopped loving New York and celebrating its gorgeous mosaic. Hillary and I will always be grateful for his unfailing

kindness and support, beginning with his welcome to New York for the 1992 Democratic National Convention and including the gift of introducing us to his friend, Nelson Mandela. Our prayers are with David's children, his entire family, and the many people he inspired with his service in the life of grace and gratitude. That is a statement from former President Bill Clinton with regards to the passing of David Dinkins. Folks, we also had an opportunity to speak with Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who also, of course, leads the House Democratic Caucus. And here is that conversation right here. We have lost a titan in David Dinkins, the first black and the only black mayor of New York City.

For folks who are not from New York City, what did he mean to African-Americans, to the city, for him ascending to be mayor of New York? David Dinkins was elected during a time of great turmoil and racial strife here in New York City. We were dealing with the crack cocaine epidemic. There had been several high-profile racial incidents, including in the midst of that 1989 campaign, the murder of a young African-American man named Yusef Hawkins in a predominantly white neighborhood in Bensonhurst that sparked an outcry here in New York City and across the country. And so David Dinkins was elected in that context as a healer, as someone who could bring the gorgeous mosaic of New York City together and move us through the trials and tribulations that we were confronting. Of course, his election as an African-American man, the first

person and only person in the history of the city as an African-American to be elected as mayor was groundbreaking and trailblazing and inspired an entire generation of folks to pursue public service here in the city of New York. The thing that jumps out that people don't quite understand is that before he becomes mayor, it really was this group of individuals, four individuals, African-Americans, who really were the power brokers, who really usher in a whole new wave of leadership, not just politically, but also economically for African-Americans in New York. That's absolutely correct. They were referred to here in New York City as the Gang of Four. Percy Suttons, Basil Patterson, Charlie Rangel, and David Dinkins, who rose

to prominence initially in the 1960s when they were elected around the same time to the state legislature, either as a state senator. Initially, that was Percy Sutton and then Basil Patterson, and to the New York State Assembly, Charlie Rangel and David Dinkins. They then went on to serve in a variety of different capacities. And of course, the legendary Charlie Rangel eventually became the first African-American chair of the Powerful Ways and Means Committee. and David Dinkins went on to be the first black mayor, they signified a new moment of progress for not just Harlem, and that's the community that they came out of, but African Americans throughout the city of New York, and in many ways inspired people

toward political and economic empowerment throughout the nation. One of the things that I saw online, when you compare sort of David Deacon and Rudy Giuliani to Barack Obama and Donald Trump, and that is, I always say, black success always follow about white backlash. David Deacon had to deal with rampant racism, especially from the New York Police Department. Jimmy Breslin described this vicious, this vicious 10,000 people march, largely led by cops, where there was just massive racism being spewed out. And that is what propelled Rudy Giuliani into the mayor's office after he lost to David Dinkins the first time. You look at, again, Trump following Barack Obama. There are parallels between those two. That's absolutely right, and it's an astute observation, Roland,

because that is what occurred. It was a backlash toward the elevation and progress of the first African-American man who was a genteel and gentle giant who governed in such an eloquent and eloquent fashion. The notion that there would be a backlash to David Dinkins, of all people, tells you what you need to know. That particular anti-Dinkins rally that was out of hand and that many observers actually called a police riot at the time, including Jimmy Breslin, I believe, made clear that while we had come a long way

in the city of New York, we still had a long way to go. And it was frightening when you looked at the behavior of these individuals who were at that anti-Dinkins rally and thought to yourself, aren't these the folks who are supposed to be protecting and serving in our community? That so-called rally took place to protest the Dinkins administration effort to establish a civilian complaint review board to begin to address the type of police brutality and abuse of force that we obviously continue to experience today. Last question here. Obviously, he was a genteel figure for me. He was a fellow alpha. Anytime you met him, he always had that smile, had that nod and wink,

and somebody who was just a classic gentleman for this new breed of black politicians. I mean, look, up until this, he was endorsing folks. So he was still involved. He lost his wife last month, but he was still involved in politics for the next generation of African-Americans until his death. That's absolutely correct. He was an inspirational figure. He would always share a kind word, a thought, an insightful observation.

And the last point I'd make, Roland, which is important, is that Rudolph Giuliani is often credited with turning New York City around. That is false. Empirically, crime began to drop during the last two years of the Dinkins administration. And he's credited with helping to set in motion the dramatic turnaround in quality of life that we're experiencing right now by those who actually study the numbers. It was David Dinkins who went to the legislature and got enacted his Safe Streets, Safe City program, which is the foundation, as even former Police Commissioner Bill Bratton indicated, the foundation for the dramatic turnaround in crime that began to occur in the 1990s. David Dinkins got it started.

Rudolph Giuliani rode his success in much the same way that Barack Obama got the economic turnaround in America started. But Donald Trump, of course, claimed all the credit till he could no longer do it once it fell apart in the midst of his mismanagement of the pandemic. Well, no shock. You might have grossly unqualified white politicians taking credit for the work of black people. We're sort of used to that. Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Roland. All right, sir, we're clear.

Folks, this is the front page of the New York Times the day after he won. And, in fact, it was a huge day because not only historically Julian was in the Mount David Dinkins winning that day, Doug Wilder on the same, was elected governor of Virginia. Is Julianne there? I'm here. Go ahead, right ahead. I'm here. I'm here. Can you hear me? Yes, yeah, go ahead.

Okay, amazing victories on both counts. And, Roland, great to see that headline. I remember that day and just remember how happy we all were for both men, who basically were the best of black politics. And Doug Wilder the same. You never see these guys with jeans on. You know, they were always well-dressed, well-spoken, lots of time for young people. So we have seen so many milestones. I'm so glad you had Reverend Jackson on. And glad that Brother Meeks raised the issue of 1984, where Reverend ran for president, gave that wonderful speech. God ain't finished with me yet, in San Francisco. I was there. I was a Jackson delegate. But in any case, you know, Reverend Jackson really started this tide of black people getting into politics.

And he laid the groundwork for President Obama and for so many more. And he also emboldened us. And while I don't think of the word emboldened in the same sentence as David Dinkins, I think that just the fact of him emboldened us. Young brothers could look at him and say, if he could do it, so can I. And so there's Hakeem Jeffries. There's so many others. This is exciting to reflect on that moment in time and to just think about where we've been and prayerfully where we're going.

Kelly, you're sitting here. You earlier said it was before your time. So I take it this is a history class that you're enduring. Living history, for sure. Obviously, I am aware of some things regarding political history and Black people's role in American politics, but hearing firsthand accounts this evening through your show is definitely eye-opening and something that I treasure because if it weren't for your show, frankly, this kind of news, this story, that is newsworthy would not be broadcast right now.

So I definitely appreciate this broadcast. I appreciate this program. But more importantly, I appreciate those who are still here to tell the story. Obviously, Mayor Dinkins got his flowers while he was alive, but it is sweet to see people giving him his flowers, even post-life, for sure. Folks, again, in this interview with The Visionary Project, this is what David Deakins had to say about losing the mayoral race to Rudy Giuliani. I sometimes say to people that if one were to lose an election by one vote in a small

town, or better yet, win an election by one vote in a small town, and you walk the main street the next day, each person you meet will claim to be that vote that elected you. Say, I voted for you, I elected you, you won by one vote. The votes are sort of fungible, and it's hard to tell what did what. Now, there was an item on the ballot to permit Staten Island to succeed from the rest of the city. That achieved ballot status because Mel Miller, who was then the Speaker of the Assembly, and the Assembly was controlled by Democrats, permitted it to pass. The Senate, of course, passed it because they were favorable to Staten Island's wishes.

Mario Cuomo, the governor, signed it, which permitted it to then be on the ballot. And I came out of Staten Island 40,000 votes behind Rudolph Giuliani. The margin of defeat was in the neighborhood of 50,000 to 60,000, which means half of that number would have changed the outcome so that I could assign the total reason for loss to Staten Island and to the fact this was on the ballot.

So clearly, Crown Heights didn't help my cause, but it is not the sole reason by any means. And if we look at the earlier election of 1989, when it was thought that I would not survive the primary, and instead of getting under 40 percent, I got over 50 percent against three strong candidates. And yet in the general election against Rudolph Giuliani, at a time when I have not yet been mayor, I haven't had a chance to screw up anything. So how come I didn't do better in a city with a four or five to one Democratic enrollment over Republicans?

And so they used to ask me and I say, why do you ask now when they asked me, I say racism, pure and simple. So and incidentally, the margin each time my win and my loss, the margin was about the same. 1.9 million votes cast and a difference of 50 to 60,000. Pure, but not always so simple, is it? True. David Dinkins, folks. David Dinkins passed away last night at the age of 93, the first and only black mayor of the city of New York.

He was a significant figure in the history of American politics, watching us on Facebook, those of you who are watching us on YouTube and Periscope, to really go back and look at the history that the folks played, the role that a Percy Sutton played, the role that a Charlie Rangel played, the role that a David Dinkins played, the role that so many individuals have played in these cities, whether it's New York or Chicago or Atlanta or Washington, D.C., because to understand how we got to today in our political history, you cannot ignore what happened before. Julianne made this particular point. And one of the reasons why we reach out to Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr., an individual who is battling Parkinson's and has good days, has bad days,

is because there is no Barack Obama. There is no Obama. Obama is not on a book tour without a Jesse Jackson Sr. There's no Jesse Jackson Sr. unless there's a Harold Washington. There's no David Dinkins without a Charlie Rangel, without Adam Clayton Powell Jr. No one just all of a sudden wakes up and then they walk into a position. There are those before them who made it possible. You heard Ambassador Andrew Young say on our show that he became mayor of Atlanta after

Maynard Jackson served two terms. But we have to understand this generation is that just because you were born yesterday does not mean that you have no understanding of what took place before you got here. It's really incumbent upon us to know our history because when we know our history, when you know what took place with Rudy Giuliani and David Dinkins, then you can put into context what Rudy Giuliani is doing today to team with Donald Trump to snatch black votes away in Wisconsin. They've now filed a new legal challenge in Wisconsin.

They failed all over the country. They failed in Atlanta. They failed in Philadelphia. They failed in Detroit. But you need to understand who they were then to understand who they are now. And so that's why we took the last hour to pay tribute to David Dinkins. We could have easily done it for 15 or 20 minutes. But the reality is it's important for us to to share these stories with a whole new generation of folks who didn't know.

And you go to my iPad here. And certainly for me, he was an Alpha brother. He was a life member. So am I. It was always great to see him. It was always great to talk to him. And he now transitions to the Omega chapter. And we thank him for his life, for his service. As I said, his wife Joyce, of 53 years, she passed away.

She passed away last month, just a month ago, and now he is no longer with us as well. We'll be back on Roland Martin Unfiltered. © BF-WATCH TV 2021 We told them the smear ads were coming, and that's exactly what happened. You would think that Kelly Loeffler might have something good to say about herself if she really wants to represent Georgia. Instead, she's trying to scare people by taking things I've said out of context

from over 25 years of being a pastor. But I think Georgians will see her ads for what they are. Don't you? I'm Raphael Warnock, and we approve this message. When you hear about sisters like that, who are modern-day Fannie Lou Hamers, modern-day Septime Clarks, modern-day Diane Ashes, how does it make you feel?

Go ahead, bro. Go ahead. I'm just like... You know who I like? Angela Rye. Mm-hmm. And I think because she speaks to the voice of this generation.

So she's young enough to still remember what that is, but yet old enough to be able to speak it in a way in which we respect as well. I think it's time for women to stand up. I think behind a powerful man is also a powerful woman. I think and believe in being evenly yoked, and I believe in teamwork makes the dream work. So you can't do it by yourself, and it's been proven. So now we have to stand up. We have to, being a new millennial woman, you gotta be able to be independent.

So if you're independent and you're standing by yourself, you have to mobilize each other and say, okay, I need you, I need you. And us together is more powerful together. You are watching Roland Martin and I'm on this show today and it's, what, huh? We should have some true cards. Hey, what's up, y'all?

This your boy, Jacob Lattimore and you're now watching Roland Martin right now. Eee! Prior to COVID, there are 2.6 million black-owned businesses in America. 2.5 million only have one employee doing average revenue of $54,000.

We often tell you these things because it's important for us to understand black economics. Well, my next guest is on a mission to help black businesses grow. His current focus is on economic development in the state of Illinois. His projects include the Fair Access to Credit Initiative, a minority business readiness program with rapid ratings, and a youth entrepreneurship challenge. Economist Dr. Malcolm Adams joins us right now. Doc, how you doing? Great. How are you? Great. First of all, when you talk about where you see Black businesses in Illinois, always had a great history, of course, coming out of Chicago. Where does it look today in 2020? Chicago, I mean, like as of today right now, when you look at, you know, the post-COVID era that we're in, it's pretty grim. However,

at the same time, COVID, when people got laid off or they, you know, they lost their jobs or people who work for other people in their business didn't make it. They started other businesses. I mean, I saw the other day where there was a seven-year-old girl who started a business just reading to people on YouTube. So there's the wealth gap has, like how they say when there's chaos, there's opportunity. There's been a lot of opportunity spurned. And one of the opportunities as far as economic development has been actually people purchasing properties. So when we talk about, obviously you're speaking of real estate there. And so are we seeing actual growth? know, we know historically we can talk about hair care products.

We can talk about Reggio's Pizza. We can talk about Johnson Publishing Company. We can we can go on and on and on. Of course, now you talk about Loop Capital with Jim Reynolds. We can talk about Arrow Capital Management, John Rogers as well, but are we seeing really the next wave of black businesses in Chicago and Illinois with capacity? Or are we basically recreating the wheel again, which is part of the problem for African-Americans that we don't see the multiple generation of big business growth. It sort of starts and stops. Really, we wouldn't really have to recreate the wheel. What has actually been happening

with, you know, that you have the Black Chamber of Commerce, what's actually been taking place is there rose the opportunity to actually strengthen Black businesses by giving rise to what was necessary, you know, during the Jim Crow era, right after slavery ended, like entrepreneurship has happened out of necessity is what's happening. And when you look at even businesses being started and being strengthened in order to strengthen, like no business can scale without people. So you have to have job creation. Right, right, right. But again, but you have a business.

You're creating the job creation. But what I'm saying is what are we seeing there and the program that you're doing? Are we seeing the development? Are we seeing the growth? Are we seeing them build? And who's actually doing it? What are we seeing? We're seeing in different areas, it's particularly real estate where it's taking place because without having the real estate,

there's nowhere to place the business unless it's, you know, unless it's web-based, you have to have a place for people to show up and work. Yeah, those are brick and mortars there. So, what is your research showing? And beyond real estate, where's the growth that's happening there in Illinois for black businesses?

In Chicago, there is a bit of growth as far as when you get to more towards central Illinois, like Peoria, which we know is the third fastest shrinking city in the country, there isn't any. It's actually dying, so to speak. And they brought me and a few other people in to basically use the resources that are there. Because the reason why I keep going back to real property is because economic development is land plus labor plus capital. If there isn't, it's just like with the community development financial institutions, if there isn't a place for it to happen,

or if there's no sustainability, which means it can scale, the capital isn't going to come in there. And we found the funds. It's just a matter of getting the right powers that be to support the actual initiative in many cases. OK, so so the initiative. OK, so the initiative you're talking about, how much capital are we talking about, and what is being done to access it? So what's exactly, what's the actual initiative, what's the program, how is it happening? There you go. So what we're doing is, you know, whenever there's research, which you asked about, naturally there's an anchor institution. So we're partnering with several anchor institutions, be they Bradley University, Illinois Central College. I had a meeting with the president there. She's, I'm not gonna say publicly

that there's absolute buy-in, but it's in review. And a few other things, because they do have the agro lab. And if you go outside of any city in Illinois, you're looking at farmland, period. So the best thing to do there was to come up with an agro-tech program because everything's going towards tech. And you have the farmland there and their resource, and it's mineral-rich because in many areas it's right on water, especially when you get closer to the Great Lakes or the Illinois River. So with that, we were able to get certain businesses to come in, like Precision Planting, which is basically Central Illinois' Silicon Valley, to pay more attention to involving programs that are already there, kind of doubling down on what

was working before COVID actually hit, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. Where can folks get more information on the initiative? The Illinois State Black Chamber of Commerce website, ibcc.org. They can contact me directly. And there are a few articles out on it. Let's see. There's also going

to be an event here very soon in central Illinois. We're actually planning it right now. Most likely it's going to have to happen online. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, so we'll simply see if we can get to the website where they can get more information about that. Again, so the Illinois Black Team of Commerce website.

Yes. Okay. Dr. Malcolm Adams, we appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks. You know what time it is? You know what time it is? Y'all know what time it is. Crazy-ass white people.

I don't understand why we don't have it. It was on today's script. Crazy-ass white people. I don't understand why we don't have it. It was on today's script. Anyway, we normally have it, our crazy-ass white people stinger. All right, y'all, let me go ahead and do this here. So, you know, these Trump people are really losing their mind, like losing their mind. Here's this crazy fool out of New York who just can't handle he lost. Good morning, we the people. Who's ready to go to Washington DC tomorrow? Huh? Who's going? Show of hands, put it underneath my post. Who's going to Washington DC? Because

the media don't get to call a fucking election. We the people voted. We the people get to pick our president. Okay? So this is coming to an end with the fraud and the corruption and everything on the left. Because I told you, I warned you that a vote for Biden is a vote for Obama's third term. Did you hear Chuck the fucking Schmuck Schumer? Let's change America. That's what you get America That's what you get That's what all you motherfuckers on the left get For voting For voting for fucking Biden Okay We know he didn't win legally

We know he didn't We know about the stealing and the corruption And slur of the house You can keep watching Fox fucking news Because we don't watch it no more Okay Trump 2020 motherfucker Fuck out of here

Because I'm going tomorrow And my voice will be heard and I will be passing out letters. Julianne, these people are a little unhinged. Here's the deal. Julianne, I don't want to be driving behind this woman. I mean, it's a wonder that she was able

to keep her car straight. I mean, it's cracking up. First of all she had a filthier mouth than anybody i know i mean filthy and secondly you know chuck strumer she has to go there but the driving part is really rolling that does take the cake who drives with one hand and i where who's who's holding the phone or recording this or something she's really crazy but you know you said crazy ass people, and you found one. I'm telling you right now, Kelly, I keep trying to tell these people.

Anthony Scaramucci tweeted, Trumpism is over. No, it's not. Trumpism is now the Republican Party. They have melded together. These folk ain't going away. They are nuts. I would venture to say that Trumpism is actually just

beginning because what happens when you have a demagogue or some type of cult leader, their influence isn't necessarily in the moment that they impart their doctrine and their antics. It's really after the fact,

and when they are basically entered into some form of martyrdom, so to speak. They don't necessarily have to die in order for that to happen. They just have to be out of the immediate spotlight, right? So what's happening right now is the beginning of Trumpism and Trump doctrine, if you will. Has the Republican Party fallen into that? I would venture to say so. If anything, they will be the vehicle to keep perpetuating said Trump doctrine and Trumpisms and the like. So if anything, this lady is actually

kind of falling in lockstep with the plan, whether it's proverbial or otherwise, to keep that message going and to keep Trump alive and relevant and viable in the minds of so many other obviously ignorant people. But what I'm saying, Julianne, we have to understand, we guys, that this is not about Trumpism. Trumpism is the Republican Party. We need to understand these people are not going to go away. They're going to be driving Republican Party politics. So all of these Democrats,

Joe Biden always talked about back to normal or, hey, once Trump goes away, Republicans are going to return where they used to. No, they're not. This is going, if you thought Sarah Palin began the craziness and then Trump then comes in, crazy is about to follow. Folks simply better brace for it. You know, Kelly is right about Trump not going away. What we have to look at, he keeps saying he's going to run in 2024. First of all, he better pray that he's still alive in 2024. But in any case, he says he's going to run. So he's got all this, he's raising money, however, to theoretically challenge Wisconsin. I mean, he's been doing all these challenges. Now, if you look at the fine print of the stuff that he's sending out, these emails, the money is going to him. I mean, it's going to his next campaign. It's not going to count, you know, to go to challenge ballots.

So he is basically ginning up his base. And so you saw that crazy lady. There are millions of her. I mean, the challenge is, how did we get 70-some million people who voted for that crazy man? Now, I would say maybe 20 million of them, maybe a couple fewer. Maybe they truly believe in Republicanism as opposed to Trumpism,

and they're ride-or-die Republicans. But most of them are unhinged, and we just saw that. Trust me, you're going to see a lot more of that. Kelly, Julianne, and Michael had to go. I certainly appreciate y'all joining us today on Roland Martin on the field. Jadard folks. If y'all want to support what we do, please do so by joining our bring the funk fan club.

Every dollar you give goes to support this show. The work that we do, the gear that we buy, the staff that we hire in really trying to do this here. Look, you know, these other networks, a few of these networks, they've done David Dinkins' tributes, five, ten minutes. But look, we want to be able to honor our own. That's why we have this show doing that one-hour tribute. That's why this matters. You can support us by going to Cash App, dollar sign RM Unfiltered,

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Never let kids toys take over the house. And never fill your feed with kid photos. You'd never plan your life around their schedule. Never lick your thumb to clean their face. And you'd never let them leave the house

looking like, uh, less than their best. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. Never let them leave the house looking like less than their best. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. Never let them stay up too late. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, know it can happen.

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I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes.

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