#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Oscars lying about Will Smith; judge strikes down racist FL voter law; Calif. Reparations task force

Episode Date: April 1, 2022

3.31.2022 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Oscars lying about Will Smith; judge strikes down racist Fla. voter law; Calif. Reparations task force conflicting stories about if Will Smith was asked to leave or was told to stay at the Oscars. The battle for voting rights is continuing. In Florida, a federal judge permanently blocks the state's new voter suppression laws from going into effect. We'll talk to the Co-founder of Black Voters Matter, Cliff Albright, who testified in this case. But the Louisiana legislature overturned Governor John Bel Edwards' veto of the congressional redistricting map. Edwards vetoed the bill because a second majority-minority district wasn't added and ran against federal law. In tonight's Where's Our Money segment, we are talking about how black-owned media is not getting a fair share of federal grant money. Ron Busby, the President, and CEO of the U.S. Black Chambers will break down the numbers. California's reparations committee's decision over who should qualify is causing a huge debate. The committee chair is back tonight to explain why folks have a problem with their decision. We knew it didn't work! Now there's scientific proof that ivermectin does not lower the risk of Covid hospitalization. Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Alexea Gaffney will give us the latest Covid. #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: Nissan | Check out the ALL NEW 2022 Nissan Frontier! As Efficient As It Is Powerful! 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3FqR7bP Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [e-mail] Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

Find out more at fatherhood.gov. Brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Ad Council. Thank you. We'll be right back. of Black America rolling. I love y'all. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media

and be scape. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? today is thursday march 31st 2022 coming up on roland martin unfiltered streaming live on the black star network there are conflicting stories about if will smith was asked to leave or was told to stay at the Oscars. I think the Academy lying. They plan to cover your ass game. The battle for voting rights is continuing in Florida.

A federal judge permanently blocks the state's new voter suppression laws from going into effect. Not only that, he takes aim at the Supreme Court. It is a stunning 288-page ruling, folks. It's incredible what he says. Joining us is the co-founder of Black Voters Matter, Cliff Albright, who testified in this case. Louisiana legislature overturned Governor John Bill Edwards' veto of the congressional reducing map. Then, of course, gerrymandered map. It was vetoed the bill because a second majority minority district wasn't added and ran against federal law.

You see how Republicans are doing. In tonight's Where's Our Money segment, we are talking about how black-owned businesses are not getting their fair share of federal contracts. Ron Busby, the president and CEO of the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc., will break down the numbers. California's reparations committee's decision, the task force, over who should qualify, who gets

reparations if they're actually given is causing a huge debate. The committee chair is back tonight to explain why folks have a problem with the decision they made in a 5-4 vote. And we knew it didn't work. Now there is specific proof that ivermedicine does not lower the risk of COVID hospitalization.

Infectious disease specialist Dr. Gaffney is going to give us the latest when it comes to COVID, folks. And we told y'all, so don't be listening to Joe Rogan. Talk to some real damn scientists. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin onall, so don't be listening to Joe Rogan. Talk to some real damn scientists. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on Filch on the Black Star Network. Let's go. Thank you. Rolling with rolling now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's rolling Martin Martin All right, folks. Today, the Academy says that Will Smith was asked to lead the Oscars.

Well, that was yesterday. Now TMZ is reporting sources saying that it's simply not the case, that he was told by, he was asked by Will Packer, the producer, to actually stay. Now the Academy is trying to play the cover your ass game because people are demanding why they didn't take action against Will Smith after he slapped Chris Rock on Sunday. Now, here's the deal. Now, remember, let's backtrack on how they did this deal.

On Sunday night, they claim a candidate members were sitting so far apart. They had no opportunity to gather to talk about what actually happened. Then on Monday, they said, oh, that they were there were discussions about whether he should leave. Now they're saying, oh, absolutely. He was asked to leave. And then now other people say, no, they did not. See, let me explain to y'all what's going on here. The Academy looked at public comments. They looked at what black folks were saying and white folks were saying, and they all of a sudden, oh, pretty much a significant number of people probably say more than the majority was that Will Smith was in the wrong.

So now all of a sudden they're changing their tune. But you notice how they also want to throw in the other black guy, Will Packer, saying, oh, that Will Packer asked him to stay. Be very mindful of the games being played here, folks. All right? Be very mindful. And this was the Academy's statement. The Board of Governors today initiated disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Smith for violations of the Academy's standards of conduct, including inappropriate physical conduct, abusive or threatening behavior, and compromising the integrity of the Academy.

Consistent with the Academy's standards of conduct, as well as California law, Richard Smith is being provided at least 15 days' notice of a vote regarding his violations and sanctions and the opportunity to be heard beforehand by means of a written response. At the next board meeting on April 18th, the Academy may take any disciplinary actions, which may include suspension, expulsion, or other sanctions presented by the bylaws and standards of conduct. Mr. Smith's actions at the 94th Oscars were a deeply shocking traumatic event to witness in person and on television. Mr. Rock, we apologize to you for what you experienced on our stage, and thank you for your resilience in that moment. We also apologize to our nominees, guests, and viewers for what transpired during what should have been a celebratory event. Things unfolded in a way we could not have anticipated.

While we would like to clarify that Mr. Smith was asked to leave the ceremony and refused, we also recognize we could have handled the situation differently. Now, last night in Boston, Chris Rock was doing a show where he mentioned the incident. Listen. How was your weekend? I don't have like a bunch of s*** about what happened. So if you came to hear that, I'm not... I had like a whole show I wrote before this weekend and I'm still kind of processing

what happened like like I so at some point I'm talking about me and you know it'll be serious.

It'll be funny. So, Chris, so. Wanda Sykes was one of the three co-hosts. She said that Chris Rock apologized to her, saying that it was unfortunate that what took place overshadowed the great job that she, Regina Hall, and Amy Schumer were doing. Wanda said she is still traumatized by what happened. Amy Schumer said the exact same thing. We have not actually heard anything from Regina Hall about what unfolded. Folks are picking sides in this.

Other comedians who know both of them are picking sides. It's very interesting how this whole thing is playing out. And you have some folks, the rap had a story that out saying that Will Smith mortally wounded his career as a result of what took place on Sunday. I want to talk to my panel about this. Several different things here to break it down. Dr. Larry J. Walker, assistant professor at the University of Central Florida. Recy Colbert, founder of Black Women's Views. Dr. Greg Carr, Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Central Florida. Recy Colbert, founder of Black Women's Views. Dr. Greg Carr,

Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. Recy, I want to start with you on this. As I'm looking at this here, again, look, I'm in media. Been in media for a real long time.

And when you break this thing down, and I need everybody to understand who's watching, y'all been there, done that, got the receipts to prove it. You don't say on Monday, we contemplated asking him to leave, but we couldn't all gather to make a decision. And then nothing happens on Tuesdayuesday then on wednesday you have a definitive statement saying he was asked to leave if he was asked to leave and you released it on wednesday well then you knew that was on sunday i believe this is a complete lie i believe

what they're trying to do is uh build up this case uh making Will Smith out to be this wild, crazy, losing his mind? Do I believe that he crossed the line, that he should have initiated this physical altercation with Chris Rock? Absolutely not. But the games that we're now seeing being played, and now the people, oh my goodness, you know, Jim Car carrey how dare he uh he should be sued for 200 million dollars and folks saying take his oscar y'all want to go down that road i don't think so reese well oscar darn really mean shit to me personally i wasn't even interested in um academy

awards until um i saw I saw Beyonce's performance. And then I saw a little bit of a hubbub about the slap or whatever. All I have to really say about it is I hope everybody votes because y'all ain't for that violent route. You know, Dr. Carr has been saying what it might come to in this country with the breakdown. Y'all ain't got hands. And I'm not saying he should have did it. I ain't saying that. But what I'm saying is y'all don't believe in violence y'all don't believe in throwing hands so go on ahead and get to the ballot box in november it's a lot at stake so all you non-violent

people keep that non-violent energy and take it right to the polls see larry people got to be very mindful again when the stories come out. So the candidate drops their statement. Then TMZ comes out with a saying, no, that's not true, that Will Packer asked him to stay. Oh, now you want to shift this to Will Packer. Just saw a story that Will Packer is going to give an exclusive interview on Good Morning America. I've been texting Will since Sunday as well. So, Will, when you're finished with them, come talk to Black Media. I'm going to send them that text right now, my alpha brother.

But be very, Larry, I'm always trying to explain to people, be very mindful again how the subtle shift happens and how folks now want to maneuver this when you had the all-Black production team. We've had Black Oscar producers before, but to have an all-Black production team, that was a difference. Yeah, so, Roland, shout-out to Alpha Brother. Will Packer, he did a phenomenal job. But this is, you know, this is the PR game. So what's happening right now is, like you said, Roland, you know, color matters. So that's shifting the blame to Brother Packer.

And it wasn't like that just a few days ago. So they changed the narrative because of all the negative feedback they've gotten. Listen, I was just in a gym the other day, and I heard people talking about it. People are talking about it everywhere. It's tree corners, gyms, everywhere you go, you're hearing about it. But listen, this is all about a PR. This is a PR nightmare, obviously, for the Oscars and everyone involved. And so I'm referring to this as Slapgate. So it's essentially what we're dealing with.

And this is in seeing it happen live on television reminds me of Episode of Dynasty. But I'm glad that Brother Packer is going to give his side of the story because we already know how this game goes. Right. So he was you know, he was overse he was overseeing, producing the Oscars, and so they're going to shift the blame to who's easily to shift the blame to, and that's Brother Packer. So I want to say, Rowan, also in terms of Will Smith's behavior, I'm originally from Philadelphia. Questlove, shout out to him for winning the Oscar. But as a Philadelphia native, I heard people make jokes about Philadelphia and et cetera,

but this is not how people from Philadelphia act, behave. Slapping someone on live television is not how we do things. Also, I want to add that I don't, as Chris Rock made the joke, I wouldn't have made the joke because I have a great deal of respect and love for black women. But he did. But, you know, Will didn't handle it properly. It's an embarrassment. And it's also a bad look for black folks and it's also you see the shift of brother packer who you basically we talk about cindy portier and all the other um african-americans that came before him to sacrifice for them to get to this had this kind of platform and to bring in

black folks made species etc and now we're dealing with we're talking about this and not the successful job that brother packer and all those one of the psychs and those other people associated with oscars did so it's a bad look for will packer, I mean, for Will Smith. And also we have to add, once again, the blame game has started. And because of public opinion, it's shifted in one direction, and the Oscars know that. And I'm quite sure Will is going to really, I mean, I'm interested in seeing what the repercussions are, because I think they're going to end up being severe. I'm going to say this again and there's no disrespect. What took place on Sunday

is not a bad reflection on Philadelphia. What took place on Sunday is not a bad reflection on black people. It's not a bad reflection on black entertainers. What took place on Sunday involved two people.

I think what's important and I said this on social media, and this is why I disagreed with Craig Melvin. This is why I disagreed with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. This is why I disagreed with others. I saw Robin Gavon's piece in the Washington Post. What I need black people in the 21st century to do was the 22nd century. What I need black people to do in 2022. I need us to stop wearing the crown of white supremacy where we parrot what they say oh we do one thing this is how they think of us when if alec baldwin is acting a fool or sean penn we don't go oh look at all the white people one of those virulent racist people in hollywood is mel gibson and his ass was sitting in the audience. And even after

his violent racism was exposed, he was still presenting at the Oscars. So, I ain't even sitting here even playing that game with any of these people. What I want us to do,

Dr. Carr, as black people, is I need us to step back a taste and being recognized that there are times when we, as black people, in an effort to impress white people, go harder against one of our own so we can show that we are just as hard as them. I'm not going to name. No, I am. Oh, when the when when when the lawsuit was filed against Black News Channel, the class action lawsuit detailing pay inequity, sexual harassment, things along those lines. Someone at NABJ wanted us to write a hardcore statement against them. And it was stated that I want to go even harder because they are black and i said as somebody of course who is on the advocacy committee and who actually wrote the

statement i said absolutely not what we are not going to do is write a statement that's harder against them because they're black. We're going to treat black news channel like we would ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, MSNBC. And we're going to write the statement the way we normally do. I said, but we are not going to be harder on them because they are black. That is something that as I'm seeing people talking to react, Greg, that is problematic for me what I am seeing unfold. I agree with you 100 percent. The academy, the Motion Picture Academy, is the white world. I haven't laughed this hard at nonfiction writing and commentary in my life than I have watching the pets of white institutions trying to race translate over the last three days.

It's been hilarious. I've really enjoyed it. There are a couple of pieces in the New York Times where I found, why am I laughing? I realized, oh, my God, you really are a figment of these white people's imaginations. We have our opinions on Chris Rock, on Jada Pinkett Smith, on Will Smith. And within the black community, there will be the full range of opinion. I have no interest in anything any white person has to say, because I understand what situation these black employees were in. Okay, I mean, how many millions of dollars? And they went a white space. Shout out to Denzel Washington, the OG, the elder who, when the cameras went down, calm the situation down.

Talk to Chris Rock. Talk to Will Smith. Got over in the corner with Tyler Perry, then bent down and sat for a minute with Jada Pinkett Smith. You see, Denzel understands we are behind enemy lines here. And in all of their minds, to a brother who did not receive an Oscar on camera, but apparently they gave him an honorary Oscar at some point over the last couple of days, Samuel L. Jackson, as he told Larry Fishburne in school days, to all of those people, y'all in words, and you're going to

be in words forever, just like us. I don't care if you're the Fresh Prince. I don't care if you're in training day. I don't care whether you are an Independence Day. I don't care whether you are I Am Legend or I Robot. At the end of the day, this is the behavior that they expect. But guess what? Why do you care? What the Academy is doing right now, what the Academy is doing right now is trying to figure out the way to gather the forces to gather and get this Negro out the paint. But he's kind of big to do. So they are figuring the odds. As for our friend and brother Will Packer, as for our friend and brother Will Packer, who has navigated those treacherous

sands now for quite some time, they will try to get him up out the paint too. Wanda Sykes, Wanda, sis, Wesley Morris, New York Times, Wesley, bruh, you can't make these people love you. You can't make them love you. There's nothing you can say. Kareem, brother, I believe that you are saying what you're saying because that is the position

that you have. But let us not forget that if this were a backyard barbecue and we playing spade and drinking and eating barbecue and you said that, we'd get into arguing and fighting and agreeing and disagreeing. But the minute you traverse over into the white world, you went inward, too. Do you remember when you changed your name from Lou Alcindor to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? That was shortly before John Wayne threatened the Native American sister, the Lakota sister that Marlon Brando sent out there to tell him he didn't want the damn statue in 1974 after he won the best Oscar for The Godfather. And you, John Wayne, so mad,

Mr. Green Beret, Mr. American military right, let's slaughter everybody in the world. You're ready to beat this young girl up. Don't nobody give a damn about the Academy Awards. They're trying to figure out how to get Will Smith up out to paint, and he's too big to move. So they're going to keep gathering their troops. That's what we're watching happen in real time. And black people, shut your damn mouth, except you employees, which means as soon as y'all got talking, we should hit the mute button anyway, because I'm with you. Y'all trying to please somebody who can never be pleased. Final comment I'm going to make on this before I go to my next story. And I know some of y'all say, and I have purposely, you know what? Let me let me before I make the comment, I need to set this up properly so people can understand.

And that is this here. It is very easy. It's very easy it's very easy I could have very easily dedicated damn near every show this week to what took place on Sunday with Will Smith and Chris Rock the deconstruction that we did on Monday we posted that separate video on Tuesday. As I check right now, that

video has gotten 946,000 views since we posted it. It'll be at a million by 10 p.m. tonight. I have received emails from black men, from black women, from white people, thanking us for the type of conversation that we had on Monday. Having professionals like Robin May and Dr. Jeff Gardier, and having the perspectives of Avis Jones DeWeaver, having Omokongo Dabenga, having Dr. Julian Malvo on the show.

And also for folks saying, Roland, thank you for not throwing Will under the bus and throwing Chris under the bus, but also being willing to hold them accountable. And I'm going to say this in is just understand. I've communicated with both men this week. And this is what I say, and this is not and I'm doing this for a reason. And I very rarely share with you the celebrities that I text. But I said to both of them, just checking on you.

Because black men need to check on each other. I am not on team wheel. Or team Chris. I'm wheel or team Chris. I'm with wheel and Chris. We make a mistake when we play the games that they are playing, wanting us to pick. Are you with Chris? Are you with wheel?

No, we can be with both. People make mistakes all the time. And I'm not going to sit here and I've seen the video and I understand why Chris Rock didn't talk last night. Because Chris Rock has also talked before about him being bullied and going to therapy. And I'm quite sure that situation was traumatic for him because it also was a flashback. But his children were also watching. And how he handled it showed how a man is to handle certain things when they come your way.

He could have been rolling around that stage. But what I want everybody watching right now and listening to understand. Is what we cannot do is lose sight of the battles that we are currently in. I cannot listen to people talk about how traumatized they are because of what they saw on Sunday when Will Smith walked up. When we still continue on this show, show videos of police rolling up on black people in unmarked cars shooting

them in their driveways killing them and then those folks and their families having funerals and you dare say to me that somehow you are more traumatized by what happened with Will Smith and Chris Rock than that when the study comes out and they show than that? When the study comes out and they show us that when the people heard about COVID and how it

had a disproportionate impact on people of color, how they gave less of a damn about COVID when they found out it hurt black people and brown people more than anybody else. Preach. I cannot sit here and listen to people talk about how, oh my God,

what do we tell our kids about this when none of you stepped out there and protested when the Senate did not move on the George Floyd Justice Act after you witnessed what happened to George Floyd in 2020 and you were silent I'm just as traumatized as the video of the young black boy who was fishing and a white man came out and cussed him out and demanded to see his license and begin to say uh you don't belong here and the young brother said I live in this. Don't tell me you are so traumatized by what happened on Sunday. Yet you are silent by what happens to black people on a daily basis.

I simply cannot accept that. Just like I do not want to hear you talk about the atrocities in the Ukraine and how we must stand with them and you'll say nothing about South Sudan, nothing about Ethiopia, nothing about Nigeria, nothing about Cameroon. So what I'm saying to black folks, don't you fall for the okey-doke and how folk play you to cause you

to trash Will or Chris in an effort to help them do the same. Brother can make a mistake, but a brother can redeem himself brother can do something and can come back stronger than he was before but we better be very careful when we allow ourselves to be played by other folk

for their interest, who never gave a damn about us in the first place. When we come back, we're going to talk about voting rights in Florida. We'll talk with Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered, the Black Star Network. network. Thank you. I'm Debra Owens.

On the next Get Wealthy, meet Dr. Stacey McCoy, whose American dream became a nightmare because of student loan debt. Whether you're paying $300 a month or eventually I got up to $1,700 a month. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Hold that. Hold that for just a minute. You were paying $1,700 a month on your student loans? Yes. And I know other people who are paying more than that. Learn the one piece of advice that made all of it go away right here on Get Wealthy on Blackstar Network. Y'all know who Roland Martin is.

He got the ass got on. He do the news. It's fancy news. Keep it rolling. Right here. Rolling. Roland Martin. Right now.

You are watching Roland Martin. Unfiltered. I mean, could it be any other way? Really. It's Roland Martin. all right folks to continue to fight against voter suppression rages in the country in courtrooms across the country, folks. In Florida, a stunning ruling by a federal judge who did not hold back blasting the racist voter bill in Florida. And now that he called out racists in Florida, Republicans, he called out the Supreme Court. Yes, folks, this case is absolutely shocking. Now, so here's the deal. The racists in Florida, what they did was they passed SB 90, which this federal judge rule is unconstitutional.

Yo, in a two hundred and eighty eight page ruling, U.S. district court judge, U.S. District Chief Judge Mark Walker blocked these significant bills, the components of the bill, from going into effect because they suppress specifically black voters. He said, quote, a requirement that third party voter registration drives include warnings such as telling voters their registrations might not be done in time to vote. That's in the bill, y'all. New limits on ballot drop boxes, a new law criminalizing the act of helping voters waiting in line to vote. Y'all, they actually passed that, okay, which includes snacks. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law earlier this year. Yet this judge ripped it to shreds i'm going to read some of the things that he said but first i'm going to bring in cliff albright

co-founder of black voters matter joining us from atlanta cliff actually was one of the witnesses who testified uh in this case um cliff going through this i i have seen some cold-blooded, hardcore words from federal judges in some rulings. This judge did not hold back against Florida. Hey, Roland, good to see you. No, you're absolutely right. This judge did not hold back at all. He used very strong language, but not only strong language. He also had a very strong remedy, which is important because a lot of times you'll you'll see folks that are used strong language, either legislatively or perhaps in a legal case, but then then then fall short on a remedy. This judge not only declared these parts of certain parts of this bill to be unconstitutional. He then went farther to do what's often referred to as a bail in process, where basically said, but that they would on any future actions that

they try to take regarding these provisions, that they would have to get preclearance for the next 10 years. That is a strong remedy. That's the kind of remedy we need to see more of these courts coming up with. And speaking of that, he challenged the Supreme Court, saying they've been all over the map on these cases? Yeah. I mean, he was very direct and very blunt. You know, he's basically put the Supreme Court in line with the very state legislatures that have been pushing the voter suppression. And so, again, very strange, I mean, very strong words. You know, hopefully what we're hoping is that that it will hold up on on on appeals, at least, you know, even if they don't hold up the strong language that he used, that they'll hold up the essence of the decision and particularly the essence of the preclearance bail in that that he announced. But, yes, he did not hold pull any punches in criticizing the Supreme Court, which you don't often see coming from

these lower courts because they know at some point that these decisions are going to reach the Supreme Court. So, you know, it's very much a courageous decision. It shouldn't be courageous, right, because it's right on the merits, right? To a certain extent, it's common sense. He's only speaking truth, right? And so there's nothing really, you shouldn't think that it should take some courage to just speak the truth about what has been so blatant in front of us that these states are pursuing voter suppression and that too often the Supreme Court has been going along with them in doing so. It's strong language, but it's desperately needed and we're hoping that it sets a pattern for future rulings. Mark Joseph Stern is a senior writer for Slate. He posted a series of tweets that I actually reposted.

This is what he said. In his decision blocking most of Florida's new voter suppression bill, Judge Mark Walker explicitly calls out other courts, including SCOTUS, for putting the right to vote, quote, under siege by, quote, gutting the Voting Rights Act. He also said, after quoting MLK below, Judge Walker writes, federal courts would not countenance a law denying Christians their sacred right to prayer. They should not countenance a law denying Floridians their sacred right to vote. Because he also wrote, because Florida, quote, has repeatedly, recently,

and persistently acted to deny black Floridians access to the franchise, Walker placed the state back under preclearance requiring federal approval for any future changes to election law. Then, he said, following a long study of Florida's, quote, horrendous history of racial discrimination in voting, Walker writes, at some point when the Florida legislature passes law after law disproportionately burdening black voters, this court can no longer accept that the effect is incidental. Greg, that is strong language from a federal judge. Absolutely.

And Cliff, brother, what you said is so important. You have to have some courage. If Charles Hamilton in Houston, Spotswood Robinson, Oliver Hill, if Constance Baker Motley had taken the approach that we'll just kind of go along and take what they give us, we wouldn't be here. This is my problem with the conversation that we had with the California Legislature on reparations. Sometimes you have to stand up for what's right. Now, he knows he's going to be overturned by Supreme Court. But in your mind, brother, having participated in this, and I haven't read all of it yet. I just downloaded it and I started reading it, but he's bringing that fire, as you say. Well, we say he's bringing the funk. The funk, brother. He is bringing it.

Cliff, brother, how important is it for us to understand that these narrow interpretations of the U.S. Constitution are judicial interpretations? They are not the letter of the Constitution. And if we just go out here and get the right people on the bench, they can be overturned immediately. And the decision we saw today will indeed become the law of the land if we will get up off our asses and put people in office who will appoint the judges to read the Constitution the way that Judge Walker read it today. How important is it for our people to understand that what they're ruling is not in the Constitution? This is just nine cats in robes deciding this is the way they want to read it.

Yeah, what you what you said is so important. What you said is so important, Professor Carr, because at the end of the day, you know, there are people going to get that are going to say, well, this will be overturned. It's not important. It is important that we establish a record. Right. It's important that we establish a decision using such strong language. It's important that that become a part of the record because that then becomes the basis by which future decisions are made. Just like it's important, this is connected to the battle going on right now for the Supreme Court. You got some people saying, oh, Ketanji Brown-Jackson, doesn't matter. It's still going to be a 6-3 court. The nature of, whether it's her or Sotomayor, the nature of whatever dissents that they may do becomes important because it's only a matter of time when you have folks speaking that truth, interpreting, as you said, in a way that makes common sense, that speaks plainly, right, that speaks directly to the racism and

white supremacy. When you have those decisions or when you have those dissents, it becomes a record that then sets the pattern for the future victories that we are going to have. So this is a very good, a very strong decision. Regardless of what happens on appeal, this is going to become part of a pattern and of a record, which, like you say, if there are more judges that show this type of courage, if there are more selections, appointments or elections, right, because we got to take these judge positions seriously. These Supreme Court,

a lot of these Supreme Courts in these states, when you look at what's been going on with the gerrymandering in a lot of these cases, it's some state Supreme Courts that are sending some of these racist maps back to the legislature. We have got to take Supreme Court and other judge positions just as seriously the same way that the Black Lives Matter movement taught us that we got to take DAs and sheriff races serious. Well, in fact, the ruling just came down in New York State where a judge has overruled the Constitution. The Democrats map thrown it out, saying it was too heavily gerrymandered, is ordering them to draw new maps. And so that's a case where Democrats have lost. They've been winning cases in other places, but he ruled against Democrats because they were trying to craft a significant advantage for them in the state of New York.

Larry, this is also what Mark Joseph Stern wrote, what the judge said. After canvassing the Supreme Court's wildly inconsistent and partisan application of the Purcell principle. Judge Walker writes, quote, In short, without explaining itself, the court has allowed its wholly judge made prudential rule to trump some of our most precious constitutional rights. Huh? Republicans don't say jack about judicial activists there. No, of course they don't, jack about judicial activists there. No, of course they don't, because when, you know, they're worried about, you know, chalking up the wins. So when I'm in Florida and it feels like I'm behind enemy lines. So first of all, thanks, Cliff, all the work that you do. And so, you know, dealing with these issues, essentially what they're trying to do is bring it back to Jim Crow. Right. So since 1965,

when the Voting Rights Act passed, they've since then spent decades trying to erode the law. And you see in terms of what's happening in Germantown and obviously in Florida. But a question I have for Cliff is, Cliff, can you talk a little bit, we have a governor's race and a Senate race in the state of Florida, right? These are really high profile. Florida is ground zero for culture wars. You call it whatever you want to call it. So how can we talk to Black folks about what this judge said

and the importance of voting in these elections this year and can kind of galvanize folks, Black folks in our state to come out to vote because it's key, especially the Senate race. What are some of the things we should be doing in the state of Florida to get Black folks activated? Yeah, I mean, it's been, thank you for the question. You know, it's been our philosophy at Black Voters Matter, and for years even before we formed the organization, I'm talking about me and my dear friend, Sister Latasha Brown,

you know, that we got to speak to our folks about our issues, right? If you look at our shirts or hoodies or whatever, we always have this saying on the back of them that says, it's about us. We got to speak clearly to the issues that we know our communities care about. And so whether you're talking about the governor's race, we got to talk about what it is that this governor has been doing in terms of our schools, in terms of teaching about our history, in terms of COVID, which as Roland was just talking about, the racial disparities in terms of COVID, which is not over. It is still impacting our communities disproportionately, both in terms of health, but also in terms of the economic impact. We got to have those discussions with our folks so that we are crystal clear about why that governor's position matters,

about why the Senate position matters, about what it is that we could get done in the Senate if we actually had two more seats, right? One which could be from Florida, another one that could be from someplace like, I don't know, Wisconsin or Ohio or Pennsylvania. But why this Florida Senate seat is so important, not just for what happens in Florida, but what happens to Black communities in Florida and across this country in regards to health, in regards to economic justice, in regards to, I mean, even just looking at what was signed yesterday, the Emmett Till, you know, that's something that could not happen if we didn't have a certain type of Senate, you know, in place. So we just need to speak to our folks about the issues that we know our communities care about

and connected to these positions. And there are some very clear connections that, you know, if we have those conversations with people that sometimes don't get that knock on the door, that's the other piece of it. We got to be willing to have the conversations, but we also got to be willing to talk to some folks that quite honestly, the party and even some candidates don't usually talk to. That's what we try to do when we work with local groups, community-based groups and give them resources. Folks in Florida know how to get it done. They need to have the resources in order to do so and have these conversations with our community. And hey, Reesey, and just so folk out there wondering how we feel about voting here at Roland Martin Unfiltered, I'm going to show y'all this here. Y'all go to my iPhone. I'm going to show y'all this here. This is literally y'all in our

studio. So as y'all see, we have these murals on the wall. That's one of the murals we have right there in our studio. Just so folk understand how we roll. Just so folk understand how we roll. That's what we got right here in the studio. Reesey, because also Black Voters Matter being a huge supporter of the show. Reesey, let me go ahead and read you this one here, and then you get to comment. Check this out.

Stern also writes this here. Actually, let me do this here. Let me turn off the screen mirroring from my phone, put it back on my computer so y'all can see what I'm talking about. Let's see here. All right, here we go. This is perfect for you. And interesting aside, Judge Walker notes that many contemporary politicians who recite that one MLK quote are misrepresenting MLK's actual beliefs, which were far more nuanced and skeptical of colorblindness as the cure for racism's

ills. Well, we know for a fact that Ron DeSantis is very much attuned to his discriminatory practices towards Black voters because he has an abhorrent history and recent history, actually just last year, and for instance, holding open the congressional seat that was held by the late, great Alcee Hastings to deny representation for almost a year, nine months or so. Then there were also three Black elected officials who resigned from their positions to run for that seat, who he refused to hold special elections for, essentially denying representation for those districts until the very last week or a couple of weeks left in the legislative session for this year. So he is absolutely with laser-like precision targeting Black voters.

He is leaving no stone unturned. It's not even just about targeting them for voter registration or actual voting. It's about completely denying them representation altogether. So, Cliff, I'm interested in hearing your take on, you know, this, should it stand, puts Florida back into preclearance. And so we know that that is about as strenuous as it DeSantis from pulling the kinds of disgusting tactics that he used to deny representation from, you know, largely black districts ever again? Yeah, you know, I wouldn't I wouldn't put anything past DeSantis. Right. I mean, he's gone as far as creating an electoral police force, right? He has no hesitancy to try to do something that he knows is blatantly illegal and, you know, under the belief that, well, they're going to have to catch me, right? They're going to have to enforce this. Like, they're going to have to force him to do right.

And so we know that even with the preclearance order that he is still going to try to do some stuff that flies in the face of this ruling. He's already said that he doesn't really take this ruling seriously because he believes that it's going to be overturned on appeal. So at the end of the day, we've still got to be vigilant. This is a victory. This is a clear victory. It's strong language. It's going to be precedent for the future. But we've still got to be vigilant. We've still got to know that this governor and all of his minions are still going to try to do what they do squarely to attack Black voters. We've got to keep in mind that all of this stuff that they're trying to do in Florida, in spite of the fact that Trump had still won the state, is squarely aimed at Black voters because they see the trends. They see what our increasing power, they see the way that we came out and used the absentee, the vote by mail process that traditionally Republicans had used to their benefit.

They see that we used it and wound up getting more votes through that than what they usually are able to get. That is what they're targeting. So we've got to be crystal clear about that. We've got to remain vigilant. We've got to continue to organize and educate our folks in our communities, in our communities. Because at the end of the day, you know, Ron DeSantis, from the moment he said, people forget when he was running four years ago, the whole, you know, don't monkey us up, right? People forget that remark. He let us know early on who he was. And everything that he's done for the past four years has been consistent with the racism that he showed in the midst of that campaign. So we got to be clear about who it is and what it is that we're up against. But I remain confident that as long as we do our

work, as long as we plan our work and work the plan and talk to our folks and get our folks to believe that we got power, which we do, we can defeat this white supremacy that the Sanchez is pushing in Florida and we can shock the country. All right, Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter. We appreciate the man. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks, going to a quick break. We come back. We're going to talk about the California Reparations Task Force, a very contentious vote to determine who would qualify for reparations. We'll talk to the task force chair when we come back. Right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network.

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That's our actual cash app. And so again, we busted four of these thieves last year. We shut those accounts down. We are riding cash app and square right down to shut these two frauds down as well. I'll be right back. Thank you. On the next A Balanced Life, as we grind down to the end of another long winter, it's easy to slip out of balance and into the foggy doldrums. On the next A Balanced Life, ways to push through the gray days until the warm days of spring arrive. Join me, Dr. Jackie, on A Balanced Life on Black Star Network. hey i'm amber stevens west yo what up y'all this is jay ellison you're watching roland martin unfiltered all right folks california's first in the nation statewide task force on reparations voted to limit state compensation in the event it's awarded to the descendants of free and enslaved black people in the United States in the 19th century.

This decision rejects the proposal to include all black people who would receive reparations. Camila Moore, she is the California Reparations Task Force chair. She joins us from Los Angeles to explain this decision. Camila, glad to have you here. First and foremost, there was a lot of people who talked on this issue. Dr. Greg Carr was one of the folks who participated in this hearing. How many folks did y'all count who actually testified in this matter on Tuesday? Eleven people testified. So six of those 11 people were certified genealogists. Two were Greg Carr and Jessica Ann Iyar, and the other three were Marcus Champion, who's a grassroots organizer

in California and worked on AB 3121 before it was enacted. Mike Davis, who's a former assembly member in the state of California and advocated for a lineage standard. And then lastly, Kevin Brown, who is an Evanston resident and spoke against a bit about what's going on with the reparations program in Evanston. So the vote ended up being five to four. So, I mean, obviously, that's a very close vote. What was the issue? Why was it so contentious? Great question.

So the community of eligibility discussion and debate has been kind of looming over the nine member task force since we first started meeting as early as June of 2021. So we've been having a 10 month debate around eligibility and the crux of for the institution of slavery, or should it be based on a lineage standard where if you can trace your ancestry to what we decided on, an African American descendant of a chattel enslaved person or the descendant of a free Black person living in the United States prior to the end of the 19th century, then you would be eligible. And so ultimately, five people on the task force voted for the lineage based standard and four voted for a race based standard. So so based upon that, if some if somebody black came to the United States in 1899, they make the cut. If they came if they came in 1900, they don't make the cut. Potentially, potentially, we still have to work all those details out, but that's what it says. So how so here's the issue. How then are people how are you going to prove it? How will people be able to trace it? Because what we know is you don't necessarily have clearly defined records for people to be able to search their lineage.

So how are you going to do it? So that's a really great, great question. But first, before I answer that question, I think that oftentimes people don't ask the same question about how do you prove your Blackness, right? And how do you measure Blackness? How do you prove it? So what's to stop someone like a Rachel Dolezal or Mindy Kaling's brother, who's of Indian descent, who actually wrote a book about how he pretended to be black to get into medical school. How do you determine who's black and why would we be comfortable with the state making those particular determinations? But to answer your question about lineage tracing, when you talk about international law and reparations under international law, one of those tenets is restitution. How do you make a person whole after the state has harmed you?

And so the state has a responsibility. If they've broken part of your lineage or your history, they have the duty and the responsibility to repair that. So what does that look like practically that could look like the state subpoenaing the Mormon church for for records and assisting people for for free for lineage tracing and things like that. So there's no burden or financial costs for anyone who may be eligible. So so so let's actually deal with that. If you if that is the standard, I mean, so what is it, DNA? I mean, exactly what is it? So what what then happens? Could you potentially have white folks saying I've got black lineage?

I qualify. That potentially could be happen could happen, but I want people to be clear that that same scenario could be happening under a race-based standard because race is a self-selecting category. Anyone can pick or select Black or African American on census records. And there's an example of that, for instance, Native Americans are going through this right now, where there's, you know, as we know, not many Native Americans in this country, but in the 2020 census, they were overcounted because other people who are not really Native American are clicking or checking Native American on the box. So it's a really complex issue. I mean, look, look, obviously he is. And first of all, you know, you got a variety of things going here. The state still has to decide if they're actually going to do this.

And so you're laying out a standard here. But I do want to ask this. This is very interesting. So if we're talking about lineage, if we're using slavery, California didn't become a state until 1850. California wasn't a state for very long before slavery ended. And so you realistically could have more black people who suffered under Jim Crow in California for longer than the number of black people who were actually in California before 1900. Right. But another thing, and this will come out during our process, we've hired some communication firms

to create a public education campaign because there's a lot of misunderstandings, and I wouldn't say misinformation, but just misunderstandings about the role of California and their complicity in slavery. Yes, they were admitted into the Union in 1850, but they did allow slavery in the state of California. There's people like Robert Perkins,

who was brought by his white slave owner to California during the Gold Rush as a slave. And there's many other people who were in that particular situation. But then also, two years after the state of California was admitted to the union, they enacted a Fugitive Slave Act. So in the event that, you know, free Black people escaped to California expecting freedom when that statute was enacted, that, you know, was one of the many ways that California was complicit in maintaining slavery.

Because if you were caught after that, that statute was enacted, you would be deported back to the southern states to be a slave. Greg Carr, you spoke before the committee, shared with people. What was your perspective on this and where did you side on the five four? Were you with the five or with the four? I had to agree with Ermin Chemerinsky, with Dean Chemerinsky, who testified last month. And thank you for joining us, Assistant Moore, Chair Moore. You have an impossible task, of course. And I said as much,

and I think that I echo everything Dean Chemerinsky said. If it's between race and lineage, of course you have to pick lineage as a matter of law. We know that. Even though we know the legal challenge is going to say that lineage is a proxy for race and they're going to be right back where we started from. Chemerinsky said that, too. I mean, he said it's under-inclusive from jump. We're not going to be able to document everybody, even with all the resources. He said that he believes that everybody should benefit,

but he's thinking about what will be ultimately upheld by the courts. And we know it's going to be strict scrutiny and narrow taste. So I guess my question, and by the way, Roland, just to answer your question, and in that short period of time, and I agree, I was horribly miscast. I would have much rather been on the legal side trying to work through that rather than get to the point where it's an impossible choice between race and lineage, which we know legally is probably going to be about the same thing. That's what the Native Americans may find out. And plus, none of it allows us to remedy past discrimination as he walked through with

Croson and so forth and then in front of action cases. My question, Madam Chair, is how can we help people understand two things? Number one, that Pan-Africanism is not opposed to local reparations. Your presentation, which I thought was excellent yesterday with Paul Robeson and S.C. Robeson and William Thompson. These are black internationalists. They are Pan-Africanists in an international form the United States doesn't recognize. How can we help people understand that, that these things work together? And then the second thing, finally, is help me with this because you have an impossible task. You really do. How can we imagine beyond the constrictions that Dean Chemerinsky laid out?

Because the piece that he didn't articulate is the failure of political imagination that can help us think beyond these straitjackets that we think are permanent when, in fact, they're just imposed by the same judges that we just saw that Florida judge, Thomas, knows that because we can read the Constitution, too, and interpret it differently, especially since after 1965 or so, they have narrowed something that isn't in the plain language of the Constitution. How can we have a larger imagination for these reparation solutions in your mind? And how can we help people stop having this like it's a fight between Pan-Africanism and... Yeah, that's a great, that's two great points and questions. I think the first point, I agree. I think I said as much in my presentation, Pan-Africanism and local reparations or lineage-based reparations are not, you know, they're not mutually exclusive. You can be a Pan-Africanist and be pro-local or lineage-based reparations. And I brought up Queen Mother Audley Moore as a historical example of that. She was a self-professed

Pan-Africanist, but she also coined the term descendants of American slavery. She had an organization that she founded in California called, you know, United States Citizens of Slave Descendants, right? And so she is a perfect or prime example of how you can hold, you know, solidarity with, you know, all African people or people of African descent and all oppressed groups, really, while also maintaining the sacred political project that is reparation for the institution of slavery in these United States. In terms of political imagination, you know, I do agree with you to a certain extent. And, you know, there's so much that I could probably say about that. I don't have enough time to really elaborate, but I'm all for, you know, just

connecting the dots. Particularly there's Black Alliance for Just Immigration. Let's connect. Let's connect with CARECOM. Let's connect with African Union. Let's all connect because I do believe in Black internationalism as well. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. That is a critical point. Thank you. Thank you for that. Recy. I'm just curious to hear because, you know, it seems like how you determine eligibility of a specific artifacts or whatever documentation that's going to narrow the pool so narrowly that reparations just essentially becomes a rhetorical victory as opposed to real restoration being implemented in the state of California. Yeah, absolutely. So we're a nine-member task force, and at any point where we want to reevaluate, we definitely could do that. Larry?

Yeah, Chairperson Moore, thank you for all your work and everything you're doing. And I want to connect, you know, two issues that I think are important. So I know the state made a decision about returning Beachland Manhattan Beach into a Black family, historically been taken away. And now the reparations, importance of reparations now you're leading the committee. Can you talk about what's happening in the state of California at the grassroots level? Because we aren't seeing a lot of this in other states. Because I think that question is important in terms of utilizing what's happening in the state of California as a template for other Black folks in other states. Okay, that's a great question. Thank you for bringing up the Bruce Beach example. So for instance, the Bruce family, they had the historic beachfront property and hotel front in Manhattan Beach,

California, but it was taken away by the state via eminent domain. And so the descendants of the Bruce's, and I believe they used like genealogical evidence to prove that, they were able to work with L.A. County to get their property restored. And so, yeah, now they are the rightful owners again of that particular property. But in terms of your question about grassroots activists, so I'll just name some organizations. 3121, since it was just a bill with Secretary Weber, along with the National Assembly for American Slavery Descendants, led by people like Chad Brown, Friday Jones, Marcus Champion, Lori, so many people. And yeah, they've been working in concert for over two years to get bills passed through the legislature, like AB 3121, which created the task force. And then also

what's coming along the pipe from them is AB 1604, which just passed the Judiciary Committee in California. And that would require ethnic data disaggregation amongst African or Black racial groups, particularly for state boards and commissions. But I think the idea is to extrapolate that and broaden it out for the entire state of California, similar to what Asian American Pacific Islander communities have done, particularly in New York and other states, to push for data disaggregation, because there's an understanding. As the society becomes more multicultural, you know, we all share similar problems, but we also have distinct needs. And if that data isn't shown or reflected, people are rendered invisible and they can't really get the particular tailored needs that they want. And so, yeah, there's people in the grassroots fighting for reparations and data disaggregation every single day.

All right, then. Well, look, we certainly appreciate your work. It's a whole lot more to do. Thank you for explaining that. And you're right, having the right information is kind of important. A lot of people get really emotional and folk don't read. And so our goal is to be able to make sure they have correct information from various folks. Camila Moore, thanks a lot. Thank you. Always a pleasure. All right, folks, coming up next, where's our money segment? Black businesses are not even getting two percent of all federal contracts. Do y'all understand the billions upon billions upon billions of dollars, taxpayerpayer dollars. Your money, we are not getting. That was a reparations conversation. I'm talking about the money being spent right now. We're going to break that down next on Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Daily. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, folks, welcome back.

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Pull up a chair, take your seat. The Black Tape. With me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives. And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture

with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Denny Ann Green. Hey, everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond, and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, unfiltered. We've been frozen out. Facing an extinction level event. We don't fight this fight right now. You're not going to have black on you. All right, folks. So y'all always hear me talking about the money. It's the money, the money.

If you want to understand America, all you got to do is deal with the money. If you ain't talking about money, you ain't talking about America. And so you've heard me talk about the black owned advertising uh contracts how we are not receiving those dollars the gs the gao the general accounting office study that congressman illinois holmes norton commission showed in 2018 of a five year period black owned businesses black owned media companies receive $51 million out of $1 billion. Folks, 1%. That's what we got. $51 million. Now you might say, okay, fine, Roland, that's black owned media. It has to be a lot more in the rest of the federal government.

Yeah,.67 more. Out of the billion spent in the federal government and when we say billion spent in federal government that means taxpayer dollars your dollars you are only getting

1.67% of all federal contracts right now it's Ron Busby, CEO, U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. Ron, let people know, how much money are we talking about? How many billions are we talking about here? Great question, Roland. It was a great segue to what you just discussed in reference to reparations

because we understand that this is a time to talk about an economic conversation. And so up until last year, we had never really known what the government was spending with Black firms. You always heard the conversation about minority firms and minority spend. And so last year, the U.S. Black Chamber really challenged the Biden administration to say we were looking for three things, The first one being intentionality. We understood that the minority programs were really being benefited by white women. And we wanted to know what the real spin was, was for blacks. The whole site right there. So somebody's watching right now saying, hold up, how are you going to have women in the minority category?

I'm going to use the example when I was at the Chicago Defender, they were spending about $190 million rebuilding the Dan Ryan Expressway. And we were at the House of Hope of Reverend James Meeks. And he had the Illinois Black Caucus there. And I was there covering it. And they were presenting and they were showing all the numbers. And they were talking about, oh, here's our minority spin. And so I'm sitting there and I go, I got a question. They showed women, blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders and others.

And I sat there and I said, the women category. I said, if you're a black woman, which category are you in? The women category or the black category? And the guy said, well, you're in the black category. Okay. And so if you're a Latina, are you in the women category or are you in the Hispanic category he said well you're in the Hispanic category I said so if you're Native American or Pacific Islander

or other which he said well you're an Asian I said so really that W should be WW white women and what people need to understand, since affirmative action was put in place, Arthur Fletcher under President Richard Nixon, there's been no group that has benefited more from MWBE programs, minority slash women business owners, which really should be minority slash WW for white women business owners. No group has benefited

from affirmative action programs, MWBE programs more than white women. Now you can continue. Last year, we challenged the Biden administration, and for the first time, many of us saw him go to Tulsa, Oklahoma, go to the site of the massacre in Tulsa, where we called Black Wall Street. And for the first time, he disaggregated the numbers. And as you spoke earlier, we saw that that represented 1.67% of the actual spend went to Black firms. What that represents, Roland, is about $9.63 billion of the entire $560 billion in total federal contracting dollars,

which represents, again, as we say, 1.67%. Now, also, you must understand that we have about 9 percent of the certified businesses, meaning businesses that can do business with the federal government. We represent about 9 percent of those, but yet we're only getting less than 2 percent. So our goal is to say, well, how can we get to 1.67 percent to, let's say, 4 percent? We heard the president say, well, how can we get to 1.67% to, let's say, 4%? We heard the president say, hey, he wanted to increase minority spend from 5% to 11% this year and ultimately 15%. So, hold on. Hold on, hold on. So before you go forward again, I want people to see this here, y'all.

So y'all see right here here because i'm all about damn percentages i want numbers so the federal government spent matter of fact the federal government spends 560 billion dollars total in federal contracting so out of 560 billion, black people are getting 9.366 billion, right? Okay, now, I'm going to put a pin here because, see, right now this is where I'm about to smack all you dumbass black people who fell for the okey-doke with Donald Trump's platinum plan.

All y'all fools who were like, why y'all didn't support the Trump platinum plan? He was offering $500 billion to black people. Yo dumbasses got played. Y'all didn't realize that Donald Trump, all he did was take the total amount. Donald Trump was not trying to offer 500

billion to black people because he couldn't do that when the federal government spends 560 billion total. He was playing black people with the numbers and so we always make that point to these silly fools who still tout the platinum plan which was a joke so that's the deal that's what we got to be focusing on right there and so when we go over here we go over here this is what we see and i want y'all to understand this. $7 billion for Asian Pacific American owned.

$9 billion for subcontinent Asian American owned small. Black owned small, $9 billion. Hispanic owned small, $10 billion. Native American owned small is $15 billion. Other minority owned small is $3 billion. So, Ron, what is other small business $88 billion? What is that? A very unique category that Native American Alaskans have called the Native American Alaskan 8A Program.

So there's another slide that we're going to showcase. But for Black businesses that do business with the federal government, there was a program that was really created for minority firms called the 8A program. It was a great program in the original stages. It was created by the Republican Party. It was for underutilized, underserved communities that you could get registered, you could get certified, and do business with the federal government. Very difficult to get in. The challenge is most of the contracts that Black businesses could apply for fall under the sole source arrangement. Under the sole source arrangement, the largest contract that you can get is a $4 million contract. The Native Americans, on the other hand, and I heard you just mentioning this in the previous conversation, they can get up to a $100 million contract. Hold up. I want you to repeat that. What's our maximum?

Our maximum is $4 million for a sole source contract. That means I go to a hospital. Or let's say we're talking about this new infrastructure. So we're going to build bridges and highways and stations. You can't build a bridge for $4 million. The total contract that I can be awarded is a $4 million contract, and I can only have it up to nine years that I can be in the program, the 8A program. For the Native Americans, they can be in it for perpetuity. We were just talking about being able

to trace your heritage. If I can say that my great-great-grandfather was Native American or lived in Alaska, then I can consider myself Native American, which allows me to get into a program that my great, great, great grandchildren can now benefit from, never having to reapply for the particular program or for the contracts that they get awarded. You're Native American. Once you're in, you're in. You're in. Okay. And so we're saying, how can we create generational wealth in a nine-year span?

It just cannot be. First of all, in a nine-year span when it's capped at $4 million. At $4 million. Okay. So let's do this here. Go back to the last slide, y'all, because I think it's important for us to do this because people need to understand. So it says not a small business. Four hundred and twenty billion. We learned we learned this during the whole PPP thing, Ron, that in the United States, a small business is categorized as less than 500 employees.

Correct. So it's a lot of large businesses running around. And we start with the restaurants, the chain restaurants broke it down to individual locations to qualify for PPP loans. So we're talking about again. So people understand how the numbers work. When we when you hear the phrase, let's help small businesses in America. Really, they're talking about folks from 499 employees on down. Black-owned businesses, look, pre-COVID, there were 2.6 million black-owned businesses. 2.5 million had one employee. Since COVID, those numbers have been updated, but the percentages are about the same. We're down to about 900,000 black people. Now, before I go back to the other slide,

I need you also to explain to people, in this not a small business category, now, y'all listen, we're teaching y'all that civics 101, your government money. Not a small business, got $420 billion out of the $560 billion. Now, what y'all don't realize is, under Republican presidents,

they bundle the contracts, meaning they can only, if you wanted these folk, you can only qualify for the projects because you can't afford the investment, the bonding, and everything else. Biden, Obama, Biden, they unbundle the contracts to allow for minority businesses to compete. Trump came in, then bundled them back. Ron, are we seeing Biden-Harris unbundling these contracts

to allow for minorities to compete? We're seeing some of that and you'll see us doing more advocating on that behalf as we really start to look at this infrastructure opportunities. We had a meeting yesterday or this week with HUD. They were very intentional because we're looking for three things. The first one being the intentionality, what we're speaking about. The second one is the transparency, which we now actually see. And then the third piece is the accountability. Because as you stated, many of the large contracts go to large government contractors, and they say we're going to subcontract to minority firms. But we see very little of that actually happening to Black firms. What we have here is to say, okay, well, I know that my good friends here

want to talk about government contracts. And you'll see that the majority of the firms are getting sole source contracts. But for black firms, the largest contract we can get under a sole source relationship is a $4 million contract, which isn't going to cut it in these new opportunities that are being discussed and implemented across.

So with that point, and the reason it's important, y'all, and I keep telling y'all, all these other folk who claim in they media, they ain't having these conversations. So that's why you have to understand who's real and who's not. So, Ron, what should our marching orders be? Because if you're sitting here with the 8A contracts, that's right here, and you're seeing, first of all, before I go to that question, just hold that question, explain the chart here. I see other 8A awards, I see sole source, then I see set aside. Explain those three for the people who watch it. Great question.

So I'm a former 8A contractor. It's a great program. Many times there would be contracts that were already there in the 8A program that were just awarded to the new companies that are coming in. You could go and negotiate a contract for yourself as an 8A company, and it would be sole source to you.

There are other contracts that are set aside just for the 8A program, so no other firms could compete for it. And those were already in the program year after year after year. They were set aside for 8A firms. No other firm can compete. Some of the things that have happened since this administration has been in that people don't really understand many of the terms and conditions that go inside the contracts. There used to be this program called Best in Class. And so, for instance, during COVID and during the unrest, there was a great deal of concern in reference to American flags. And so we had companies come to us and say, hey, Ron, can you find a Black firm that can manufacture flags? And we said, sure. We got firms that,

you know, can sew and put together a manufacturing right here in Baltimore. Went to them, came back with a great proposal to the federal government. But there are best-in-class firms that we just can't compete with, i.e., private prisons. Private prisons are government contractors that pay 30 cents an hour to do the work of contractors on the outside that are paying minimum wage, $15 an hour, that will never be awarded those contracts. All right. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. I want you to stop there. I want you to repeat that. So I need everybody to listen to what Ron just said. Black-owned businesses. Listen to everybody, listen to me. What he just said is

black-owned businesses cannot compete against companies that are using prison labor to do the work, which means when you say prison labor, that's black people. Same black guy that's in prison today doing the work can't get the contract when he comes out of prison that wants to do the same type of effort for a similar opportunity, it's just not being awarded. And so we have changed some of those terms and conditions, and that's some of the good things. But what happens, Roland, for your listeners is there's

so much in these contracts, in the policy that's written in the middle of the night that we agree to that we really don't understand. And so to be on your show, to be able to tell people, hey, here's some of the things that we're fighting for are also good information. Last year, 40 percent, we all heard, 41 percent of Black businesses went out of business. But when we interviewed them, 70 percent said the reason that they went out of business is because they just didn't have the information. We know that it wasn't about, oh, black folk aren't financially literate. That's not true. We didn't have the relationships with the banks. But more importantly, as you've been discussing before, on a Friday, contracted $439 billion from the federal government saying, hey, we're going to release PPP Saturday.

$250 billion of it already been awarded to 50 white publicly traded firms. We didn't have an opportunity to be able to even understand the information to be able to go and then they tell you to go establish a new banking relationship in the middle of a virus.

I'm going to read this one again. I want to read this one again. Because again, y'all, I need y'all to understand. See, y'all always talking about, man, why y'all talking about the money? What did Ron just say? We don't have the information. No one's explaining it. That's why this show matters.

Do y'all understand that right now more people are watching this segment and getting this information at a single time. There's no other group in a country in the country that's talking to this many people, this many black people at one time breaking this thing down. Ron, this is what just the 8 program is effectively only for a very small portion of all minority firms as a percentage of the estimated total number of minority firms. Only point zero three five percent receive an actual federal government contract from this source this means that for 99.7 percent of minority firms this source is unavailable for black firms the picture is even more damaging. Why? For a couple of reasons. One of them, you mentioned the bundling and debundling of the contracts. We had a lot of firms that were getting into the ADA program and just weren't getting any contracts. Second piece of that, you can get a contract January 1st and may not get paid till July 15th because the federal government is a very slow payer. During

the Obama administration, they implemented the prompt pay program which allowed you to get paid within 15 days. Under the Trump administration that was removed, it went back to somewhere around anywhere from 90 days all the way up to 6 months. No, no, no. Wait, wait, wait. No, no, no.

See, again, I know some of y'all. I love y'all at home when y'all say, Rahul, why y'all interrupting? Because sometimes you've got to slow No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no'all, I want y'all to listen to what Ron just said. I'm going to use a real life example. There was some work that we did for a major company in August of 2021 that we here did not, the payment did not show up at our bank until January. I need y'all to hear what I just said. That was some work that we did six-figure work in August. The payment didn't show up to January. Now because of y'all giving because I know how to manage money. We were able to pay our payroll in September October November December in January and we're not sweating

the money coming in a lot of other people not in that situation. So if you don't change the rules for payment, then black firms are sitting here. We can't wait six months for a check to come in. Ron, go ahead. And we know we pay twice the rate for the same capital that our white firms that are competing us against. When you say twice the rate, you mean interest rates? Interest rates.

Right. The average black person is paying twice the rate. Right. And luckily for us, praise the Lord, I got no debt. I got no loans. I got no interest. So I don't have that issue. But again, that's just this is what we have to deal with.

Okay, Ron, go ahead. Finish the point. So the last thing I want to tell you is about media, because I think we're going to ask this question. How much is actually being spent with black owned media? Because I hear you talk about this often and I don't have a total number. What we do know is that, and you probably have heard this, Congressman Hank Johnson and 31 other members from the Congressional Black Caucus sent a letter to President Biden asking him what their spin was with Black media. We can say that during the virus that HHS spent $360 million total. Of that, roughly $20 million went to black media, which represents about 5.5%.

Actually, I'm going to hold you on that, Ron, because I need you to do some help here. I read that letter. In that letter, under the $20 million for black-owned businesses, they included the Oprah Winfrey Network. The Oprah Winfrey Network is not a black owned business. Discovery, which now is Discovery Warner, owns 95% of the Oprah Winfrey Network. So I've told Congressman Hank Johnson's office, and I would like for y'all to hit HHS as well, is to say, HHS,

what we need is, and they only cited three black businesses when it's hit the 20 no what we need to see Ron we need to see the whole list of all of the so-called black-owned media that got that 20 million dollars so we can look at it and go no they're not black-owned they're not black-owned. They're not black-owned. So I'm still waiting on that as well. So I'm curious to know how much OWN got, because they're claiming a total of $20 million. Well, if OWN got a majority of the $20 million,

that five points goes down. So that's a great segue into what we do effective last year. And that is we now certify black owned businesses. Many businesses claim to be black owned. We saw that last year under a lot of the programs that were being discussed. We heard a lot of corporations saying they were going to spend with Black firms. We heard billion dollars of commitments, but very little of that could be traced back to real spend. And so a lot of the conversation was, well, we don't know where to find Black firms. And so the U.S. Black Chamber came up with a certification, B-Y-B-L-A-C-K.U-S, buyblack.us, where if you are 51% owned by a black person or more, you can now be certified. I, as a certifying agency, I'm not as concerned about your profitability or

your losses. I want to know, are you who you say you are? And is the owner who they say they are? We've seen, as Roland has just mentioned, many businesses claim to be Black-owned, but we cannot find the fact that they are. They may have two different owners on different documentation, depending upon where the opportunity lies. We also know that many of our firms aren't certified, and so it's difficult for them to be classified as Black-owned or to be found and to be supported. So a lot of organizations are charging exorbitant dollars just to say you're certified. You can be certified as an Asian-owned business in America. You can be certified as a gay and lesbian-owned business in America.

You can be certified as a woman-owned business. But Black and brown businesses are certified as a woman-owned business, but Black and Brown businesses are certified as minority programs, minority businesses. We say, no, we want intentionality. We want to make sure that you are being certified as a Black-owned business so that we can now hold the federal government as well as the private sector accountable, and that we can also hold you accountable. Understand that we even partnered with a national organization that wanted to give us a face of our certification program, but they couldn't be identified as Black-owned initially because of venture capital. The owner said, gosh, you're right, and then they went and bought back some of the shares of their

own business to make sure that they were 51 percent%. So the U.S. Black Chamber understands the concerns and we're putting in programs to make sure that there's accountability. Well, I will tell you this, Ron. We were meeting with a particular company and they actually asked us, were we certified as an MWBE? And I said, who the hell are you looking at? And they're like, what do you mean? I said, I own 100% of the company.

I'm 100% black. I think I'm certified. We can make sure you can get certified then. Yeah, I let them know. I think I'm certified. We got questions. Larry, I'd love to know. I think I'm certified. We got questions. Larry, I saw during some of the presentations, you were just shaking your head at hearing some of those numbers.

I'm going to let you go first. Wow, Roland, I mean, that's a good class. And don't hold against Ron here, Kaplan. But go ahead, Alpha. Go ahead. Go ahead, Brother Larry. Yeah, Ron, I'm not going to hold against you, brother. But I want to say, first of all, Roland, that you gave a master class in having Ron on because, honestly, there are a lot of black folks, including me, some of these stats, even had worked on Capitol Hill, I wasn't aware of currently.

So thank you for that. So, Ron, I want to talk a little bit about these percentages, which are really tiny, right? So black people make up about 13 percent of the U.S. population. Do you have any studies, reports, because we talk about generational wealth, and then you talk about this lack of information, right? So can you even give us an idea if that money in terms of some of these contracts, federal contracts, equated to 13% of Black folks, you know, in terms of the most recent census data, What kind of number, what would that number, if you have a study or have any idea what that number, was that 13%,

what would it look like overall in terms of money that came to the Black community? Great question. I don't know what the 13%, but we could do the math. I will tell you, though, that we have gone to the federal government and said, hey, what would 4% look like? So not being unrealistic, but to go from 1.5% to 4%, we think that's attainable. And to answer your question, that could represent somewhere around $20 billion. That's a lot of $100 billion. Hold on. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. I can't let you just feed past that. Listen to what y'all he just

said. We're getting $9 billion right now. You go from one to four. Y'all, that's an additional $11 billion, which means what now takes us two and a quarter years to get, we could get in one year. Ron, go ahead. So that's the answer to your question in reference to the 4%. That is the goal.

There's got to be some... No, no, no, no, no, no. That's, that's, no, hold up. That ain't the goal. There you no. That ain't the goal. There you go. That ain't the goal. That's where we want to get to next year. The goal is by 15%. Yeah, go ahead. I don't want them

sitting there going, oh, Ron said the goal. No, no, no. That's the goal for next year. The goal goal is to match our population. Ron, go ahead. And so there's ways that that can be done, but you have to be intentional. And so we had a great meeting with HUD this week and brought ideas to Secretary of HUD, Marsha Fudge, who really understands intentionality. You have to have people on the other side to understand the issue, and then you have to have real data. For so long, we've just been taking it like, okay, well, minority spend is somewhere around 20, 23 percent, and Black folk minorities were okay with that. We're saying, no, no, no. We need to really see intentionality. That's where we get the numbers today. And as Roland said, that's just the floor. We want to have real conversations

about how we get to at least the 10% in some short window, because I really believe that's how we reach a reparations conversation in the near term. And see, Reese, your question's next. This is why I keep trying to explain to people. If black businesses get nine and we get 20 billion, how many more folks we hiring? How much money going to HBCUs? How much money going to our churches? How much money is going to building wealth? And so when I hear these people, man, all you do is begging a white man for money. No, food is our

money. Risa, go ahead. Yeah, I actually have been in federal contracting for over 15 years, so there's a lot of money out there. And I have seen an increased emphasis in holding accountable these large corporations in terms of their small business goals. But we have heard throughout this evening how that is manipulated or how it's gamed so that, you know, predominantly white woman businesses are the ones that are benefiting from it. And the Alaska Native requirements are a huge deal. I have personal experience with that in the contract that I worked on. So I guess my question is, you know, so much of the emphasis is always put on personal responsibility in terms of, you know, individuals getting licensed or them meeting the requirements. But how much of this do you think really is going to take the federal government actually, you know, making more contingencies or making more provisions

to target Black companies, whether that is with changing the requirements? Just as another example, the administration recently announced that they're going to try to do more to increase the diversity and appraisers because that's 97 percent white. And part of what they are targeting is the requirements in terms of the education and in terms of the the apprenticeships and things of that nature. So so I think that they're perfectly capable of doing it. I just want to get your read on, you know, is this really a two pronged approach where we have to emphasize individual action as well as federal action? I think it's a combination. You've also mentioned the private sector. I think the private sector looks at D&I, diversity and inclusion many times in reference to hires and HR. We're saying,

as Roland has been stating, where is the money? I want to know where the dollars are being spent. In reference to individuals, yes, there's some things that Black business owners can do to make themselves be found, prepare themselves for contract opportunities. But then there's a great deal of responsibility on the federal government. And I think that this administration is attempting to at least understand where they are. For so long, we've not even heard the numbers of the data to be able to have a conversation. And so often we go in with emotional cries. I think now we're saying, hey, we're at 1.67%, but yet we represent 13% of the population. We want to see a 4% spin with Black firms and bring them a plan to say, here's how you reach that goal.

Part of it is debundling. Part of it is paying on time or even early. Part of it is making sure that we have access to the information as well as access to good credit and access to good organizations that are going to be able to bring you the information like this we're doing this evening. Greg. Thank you, Roland, and I agree with Larry. This is a master class, and thank you, Brother Busby. I'm still fired up off that Florida voting rights decision and the reparations conversation, so I'm going to use that momentum to come in right here because as I'm sitting here, I'm trying to think, how could you make a tax code argument with the 14th Amendment? I mean, the universe of possibilities comes down to this.

This is public theft. We know this is public theft. We paid those taxes, and they have set up a system where they can steal it legally. Can I ask you, even the unbundling and the bundling policy really just really floored me. And so my question, I guess, comes really in the wake of what Recy just laid out in terms of the involvement of the federal government. What are the obstacles, the largest obstacles to policy changing at the federal level? And what is the role of lobbyists? And how important is campaign finance reform? Because it seems to me that these politicians that are allowing this to pass

have been bought and paid for. This public theft, this theft of public dollars is something that they've been basically rented to enable. I mean, what can we do politically to even think about how Cliff was talking earlier to kind of loosen some of these things and get our money back. As Roland said, where's our money? We know it's going to these private companies. But for a long time, the Republican Party did a great thing.

And again, I'm not blaming the Democrats or the Republicans for this, because for a long time, this country said that it wasn't going to have race based policy as it related to economic conversations. And so for a long time, we couldn't have conversations about intentionality, where and how are we going to mandate that we spend with Black firms, because there weren't Black policies as related to contracts. The closest thing we had was the 8A program, which was created by a black man, Percy Sutton, who really understood the challenges that black business owners had. But it had to be written under the guides of minority programs. And so once again, what we thought and created for us has now been kind of changed to benefit other groups outside of what it was originally created for. And so what we can really start to talk about political juice and relationships, as well as

lobbyists, is to make sure that they go in and they understand policies that are really having impact and how to be able to change some of those policies to really have positive impact. And some of it is just really difficult because it is very detail-oriented and it's overlaid with layers and layers of different policies to get to the crust of really where the concern and the issue can be addressed. All right. Ron Busby, CEO of U.S. Black Chamber, Inc. Man, I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Again, we're going to keep pressing our people. In the words of Frank Lucas, an American gangster, I'm going to get that money.

There you go. All right. Thanks so much. I appreciate it. All right, folks. See, this is why you need to be supporting Roland Martin on the filter on the Black Star Network. Ain't no other show out there. Black News Channel, they gone.

These other so-called people out here who claim they are new black media they're not breaking this kind of stuff down they're not bringing these kind of experts to the table so you can hear the information direct and giving you the roadmap to know what you should do that's why you should support this show download the black star network app apple phone android phone apple tv android tv roku amazon fire xbox one samsung smart tv also support us in our bring the funk fan club cash app is dollar Dallas Sign, RM Unfiltered. PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zill is Roland at RolandXMartin.com.

And, of course, you can see your check or money order to P.O. Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Matt, you ever wanted to do a soap opera? I did it before on Another World. I did it years ago with Joe Morton, Morgan Freeman, called Another World. It's a funk now, but that's how I started, in TV. You? My first job.

You? My very first TV job. Joe Morton and Morgan Freeman were on a soap opera? Together. Yes. Wow. I know. Oh, I loved it. I played a prostitute.

I was real raw. My name was Lily Mason. I was a hoe on Tuesday, and then I owned the town two weeks later. That's how they do you. Right, that's how soap opera. You evolve, yeah. So now I'm on this, but I'm rich from Jump Street. So I'm loving it.

On the next A Balanced Life, as we grind down to the end of another long winter, it's easy to slip out of balance and into the foggy doldrums. On the next A Balanced Life, ways to push through the gray days until the warm days of spring arrive. Join me, Dr. Jackie, on A Balanced Life on Black Star Network. Hey, what's up, everybody? It's Godfrey, the funniest dude on the planet. Hey, I'm Taj.

I'm Coco. And I'm Lili. And we're SWB. What's up, y'all? It's Ryan Destiny, and you're watching Rolling Mark. All right, folks, the whole issue of COVID continues to be on our minds. And a new study shows that Iver Medicine, yeah, that bullshit didn't work. You know, you had Donald Trump and all these other people out here yelling, howling, screaming, Joe Rogan and others saying, oh, we should have everybody taking ivermedicine. Well, they found to be ineffective in decreasing the chance of hospitalization for patients with COVID. The drug, typically used for parasites,

was promoted by conservative commentators in Fox News as a treatment despite a lack of conclusive evidence early in the pandemic. Well, researchers with the New England Journal of Medicine say they did not find a significantly or clinically meaningful lower risk of medical admission to a hospital or prolonged emergency department observation. Ivory medicine is not authorized or approved by the FDA for use against COVID, and most health experts recommend against prescribing the anti-parasite drug for this purpose. Dr. Alexa Gaffey, an infectious disease specialist, joins us now. Well, hello.

Hey, how are you? As they say, as we say on here, hashtag, we tried to tell you. Yes, joins us now. Well, hello. Hey, how are you? As they say, as we say on here, hashtag, we tried to tell you. Yes, we sure did. And it's like beating a dead horse. People will not let it go. Hold on. Beating a dead horse, no pun intended. None. No pun intended. So yeah, so over the course of this pandemic, since this whole notion that ivermectin could be helpful against COVID-19, there's been tons of quote unquote clinical trials. And I'm throwing air quotes because when they tried to do a meta analysis of all of this data, they had to throw out a significant portion of these studies because they were they just weren't done properly. The gold standard of a clinical study is a double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial, and most of the people who are out here supporting ivermectin don't even know what that means. So when they looked at data, they found

that, yes, there was no statistically significant difference in outcomes in people who received ivermectin early in the course of their COVID-19 infection, looking to see did these individuals end up being hospitalized or did they have to have prolonged emergency room evaluation. And the reason for the prolonged emergency room evaluation was because they looked at this data at a time where COVID was so rampant, many of these hospitals did not have room to admit these people. So a prolonged ER evaluation or observation meant that you would have been hospitalized if there was room at the end. So there was no clinically significant benefit of being on ivermectin for a COVID-19 infection. So we need to let this go.

And also just want to get your thoughts real quick on that other study that showed that once white folks found out that COVID was hurting us and brown people, they gave less of a damn. Yeah. Yeah. And that's been my argument all along in talking to our people, talking to black people. You know, we have to remind ourselves, we have to remember that we are living in Black bodies, and we were more significantly, more negatively impacted by COVID-19 than our white counterparts for a number of reasons. Inability to work from home, access to health care, different levels of health insurance or lack of insurance? Did our hospitals have

clinical trial medications available? Did our hospitals have resources available? And so even though men were more likely to die from COVID-19 infection, Black women were four times more likely to die from COVID than white men. And so, yes, people are over it and they have the luxury of being over it because, you know, God forbid, if they wind up being hospitalized, somebody is going to fight for their lives much harder than they're going to fight for our lives. So we cannot be in a position where we are behaving like the privileged people. We do not have the privilege. We don't have the same access and we don't have the same outcomes. And we have to be incredibly mindful of that. All right, then, Dr. Gaffney, last question for you. access and we don't have the same outcomes. And we have to be incredibly mindful of that.

All right, then. Well, Dr. Gaffney, last question for you. What about, I'm seeing these reports, I was just seeing a text message a little bit earlier, an alert from the Wall Street Journal about more outbreaks happening in other parts of the world for a new strain of COVID. What should we be concerned about? In fact, the Wall Street Journal said deaths at a Shanghai hospital battling a COVID outbreak suggests infections are hitting the city harder than officials have disclosed. What should we be concerned about? Yeah, so there's a BA.2 or BA.2 variant of COVID-19. It's an Omicron sub-variant, and they're seeing it in areas of China, Hong Kong, and of course, over in Europe. And remember, previously in the pandemic, what we experienced in terms of surges or big outbreaks of COVID followed about three or four weeks behind what was going on in Europe or Italy

at any given time, and a month or so behind what was happening in Asia. So their COVID-19 activity is predictive of what is to follow here in the United States. And we've seen an uptick in cases due to the BA.2 variant. So over the course of two weeks or three weeks, we had no BA.2 being reported. And then it was about 13 percent of cases of COVID-19 were due to this variant. And now it's upwards of 24 percent of COVID-19 cases. We do have pockets of the country that are well vaccinated or maybe have a lot of natural immunity and other pockets of the country that don't. But we have to remember that nationwide vaccination for Black people is only about 8%.

So we can't go based on the numbers that are representative of the whole country. We have to look at what is going on in our own communities in order to understand, you know, do we have any sort of protective bubble around us because people have COVID immunity? And I would say in Black communities, probably not. All right. Dr. Alexa Gaffney, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

My pleasure. Have a good night. Likewise. Thanks a bunch. All right, y'all. That's it for us. Recy, I'm real mad right now, Recy. I'm real mad. Uh-oh. What'd I do? I'm real mad, Recy. I'm sitting here. Somebody sent me a text, and somebody said, man, why are we not at the Jodeci New Edition Charlie Wilson concert tonight? And I'm like, they in D.C. tonight? Yes. There's a lot of

fabulous concerts on Thursdays. Say what? I said there's a lot of fabulous concerts on Thursdays. I think Babyface is tonight in Baltimore. Reese, how you ain't say nothing about New Edition and Charlie Wilson coming to D.C. tonight? Well, I'm going to be seeing New Edition

and Aruba for Soul Beach. So, you know, it's okay. That's just me. Well, I'm sitting here. But literally, I got a text message about 15 minutes ago, and I was like, what? What? I'm like, damn. So I'm sitting here. Look, you know me. I'm texting everybody. So you got to get some tickets. You probably texting Charlie Wilson. No, no. I text Charlie. I text his manager.

I text Johnny Gill, Ralph Trezvan and Michael Bivens. Then I told Alex, you got to start working. Call all of them right now during the break. So, you know what? It's fine. You know what I'm going to do? I'm just going to go by the Capital One Center and I'm just got to stop working. Call all of them right now during the break. So, you know what? It's fine. Y'all know what I'm going to do? I'm just going to go by the Capital One Center, and I'm just going to walk in. Y'all know how I'm going to do this. You got it like that.

You got it. I'm used to talking my way into buildings. So, look, those are my guys. Maxwell's in D.C. on Saturday. I'm good. I hit Maxwell today. I'm going to see him on Saturday. So, Carol, why are you looking at me like that? Carol, give me the evil eye. You should have said something.

You should have said something. Wait, wait, wait. All in the control room like, we like him too. Well, hell, y'all should have said they were in town. I blame y'all. Y'all didn't say a damn thing. How y'all going to wait till right now? Y'all should have said they were in town. I blame y'all. Y'all didn't say a damn thing. How y'all going to wait until right now? Y'all supposed to be staffed, damn it. You're supposed to be help. It's like, look, y'all supposed to be the equivalent of what the Bible says about a wife or helpmate.

Y'all ain't helping shit. Y'all didn't say nothing about it. Y'all didn't say, Carol said, we had a show tonight. That's why I didn't work. Carol, who the host? Who owned the show, Carol? Look at them clapping. Hell, yeah.

We would have had a 45-minute show. We would have had the panel live from 6 to 6.45, and I would have ran something else for the 7 o'clock hour. In fact, we're running a live stream right now of the Black Women's Roundtable on Black Star Network. So hell, I could have slid that into the 7 o'clock hour. So damn it, next time y'all need

to say something, sitting here not saying nothing, I'll be damned. Man, y'all sitting here, my goodness. Hey ladies, can I say how beautiful it is to see those sisters in there? And they've gone from voting rights to reparations to a master class on contracts and federal government. And the end with the blackest exchange in a studio full of black women. How can y'all not support?

This is what it looks like. Well, hold on. It's two black dudes and a white guy in there, too. So you don't see him. Steve over there on audio, he white. And then you got Alex and Henry over there. So you got five black women, two black dudes, and a white dude. So we got

it all going on in there. Ain't no white women here, but that's pretty much the whole rundown of the show. OK, whatever. So but I'm just simply saying, y'all need to do a better job. But before I'm busy and informing me when people come into town, because, you know, I know people. So absolutely. So rolling. Because, see, look, I'll be trying to not be flaky. I'm like, you know what? I have Thursday night commitments. So if it's on Thursday, I can't do it. Now I know I'm like, well, we'll be doing it because this ain't going to work. Now I know for future. Yeah. I mean, first of all, if it's somebody we're trying to go see, we're going to be here.

But come on. You should you should have sent me a text like yesterday, hell, this morning. Like, Ro, you don't realize Charlie Wilson, Jodeci, and New Edition in town tonight? I've been watching everybody else posting. See, now I got to go fly somewhere else to go see them. I mean, they ain't no problem, but they down the street. Go to Aruba. Soul Beach. Go to Aruba for Soul Beach.

I mean, that's a damn shame. I ain't got no help around here at all. I'm just sitting here. I'm literally, y'all think I'm lying. I'm texting everybody right now. I'm texting. Look,

they, they sitting about to get to hear another one, get a call right now. So, all right, y'all, that's it for us. I appreciate Larry being here.

Reesey being here. Greg being here for Thursday panel. Fantastic conversation. fantastic dialogue. We're going to put that what I say to y'all about that Will Smith video, we're going to put that out as well because y'all, we speaking truth and we bringing that funk every single day on

Roland Martin Unfiltered. I tell y'all, ain't no other blacker show out there. Y'all can waste y'all time flipping through the channels and y'all can see maybe one person. No, they ain't doing it how we do it. And so y'all can waste y'all time flipping through the channels, and y'all can see maybe one person. No, they ain't doing it how we do it. And so y'all know what you do. Download the Black Star Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV.

Also, support us when I bring the Funk Fan Club. That's what you must do as well, folks. And, of course, send a check on money order the p.o box five seven one nine six washington dc two zero zero three seven the cash app is dollar sign rm unfiltered i told y'all we got them fraudulent people uh who are out there uh doing their thing uh so uh i showed y'all earlier the frauds uh them down. This is the only cash app we have. Dollar sign RM unfiltered. PayPal is RMartin unfiltered.

Venmo is RM unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Folks, that is it. Some people hit me up. They were like, man, why you got a suit on? I had to do a TV interview today. And then I had to have a meeting at lunch with Entrepreneurship, a.k.a.

So I was like, all right, I'm going to go ahead and wear the pinky green. So y'all know. It's called coordinated. So some of y'all are like, I didn't realize he has suits. Y'all, I got 150 suits. I just don't feel like wearing them. That's it. I'm going to see y'all tomorrow right here.

Roland Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Holla!