#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Police reform meeting; Question over use of force in Brown shooting; Feds to indict Chauvin, cops

Episode Date: April 30, 2021

4.29.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Police reform meeting with Sens. Graham and Scott; More questions over the use of force in the Andrew Brown Jr. shooting; Feds to indict Chauvin, other cops involved in George Floyd's death. + Family of Ma'Khia Bryant is calling for a federal investigation into her death; Mayor of Columbus, OH requests the DOJ to commit a full-scale investigation into his city's police department; Medical examiners have ruled the death of Marvin Scott III a homicide; We'll take a look at Biden's economic plan; New restrictive voting law takes another step closer to becoming law; Protesters demand a track coach be fired after making a racist remark to student and students had to evacuate the high school after one student threatened to blow it up if the coach wasn't fired.Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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For a recap, President Joe Biden's address to Congress last night. He makes his way to Atlanta, pays a visit with former President Jimmy Carter. We'll also talk to two members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Plus, an economist will take a look at Biden's economic plan. What does it mean for black America? We'll also update you on some of the police abuse stories we have been covering. In Minnesota, a grand jury will decide whether to indict Derek Chauvin and his fellow officers on civil rights violations.

In Ohio, the family of Makia Bryant, they're calling for a federal investigation into her death and the mayor there wants the feds to investigate his police department. And in Texas, medical examiners have ruled the death of Marvin Scott III a homicide. Plus in Florida, a bill that would limit drop box locations and restrict who can drop off ballots past the Senate

and is headed to the state house. In Georgia, the Morehouse College debate team, they've dropped out of the national tournament because of racism. and is headed to the state house in Georgia. The Morehouse College debate team, they've dropped out of the national tournament because of racism. We'll talk with the head of the debate team and one of the debaters. And in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,

lawmakers called for the removal of the Republican education chair for his comments about slavery. We'll talk with the chair of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus. Plus, all that more coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered. It is time to bring the funk. Let's go. He's got it.

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It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's Roland Martin Rolling with Roland now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real Yeah, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. Yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martin. Now. Martin.

On Capitol Hill today, lawmakers and advocates who want to overhaul the nation's policing laws held a series of meetings searching for a bill that could pass both. First of all, it could pass the United States Senate. The families of several victims of police violence met with South Carolina Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott to discuss negotiations over the bill related to police reform. Keep in mind, the bill has already passed the House. Now it goes to the Senate. After the meeting, the attorneys for those families said they made it clear to the senators they want to see what they describe as a meaningful change that comes from the passage of these bills. Not only that, they also met with the folks at the White House as well, including Cedric Richmond and

Susan Rice. And so they met with all of them. And so the question is, what is actually going to happen when it comes to that bill? Remember last night we talked with Congresswoman Karen Bass about that. She's leading the effort in the House. Like I said, it's already passed the House. Now it moves over to the United States Senate. So the question is, will Senator Tim Scott, can he do the heavy lifting to actually make all of that possible? Let's go to my panel, Dr. Greg Carr, Chair, Department of Afro-American Studies,

Howard University. We also have Brittany Lee Lewis, political analyst, and Xavier Pope. He is the host of Suit Up News and owner of the Pope Law Firm. I'll start with you, Xavier. Bottom line is this here. They've got to do something. The pressure is on Tim Scott to deliver. Last night, of course, he gave his reaction to President Biden's speech,

declaring there's not racism in America. But he talked about him getting pulled over by the cops. The question is, can he pull at least nine of his fellow Republicans to his side to pass a meaningful George Floyd Justice Act? Roland, I said this on the latest episode of Suit Up News just dropped today. For Tim Scott to go in front of the nation to give a Republican response to Joe Biden's speech at a joint session of Congress. And after he's stating that there's no such thing as racism and America is not a racist country, it's shameful. Now the pressure is on. What are you going to do beyond maybe posture around and become a binky for bigots on television and actually get meaningful change in the face of racism that's actually happening. If you're meeting to resolve issues of racism,

how are you saying that racism doesn't exist in America? Right now he's showing himself as a hypocrite, and is he posturing around for those that just want to see a black man in position as their black friend, or is he truly he posturing around for those that just want to see a black man in position as their black friend? Or is he truly working for meaningful change? Well, the speech last night, bottom line is, Brittany, was all about it was all about the Republican response. But now, again, he he now can show his mettle as to a talk about in his speech about how he tried to pass reform last year. He's focusing on it right now. OK, now we got to see what you can do.

Bottom line is you got to put up shut up. Yeah, well, we know Tim Scott's game. I don't think he's actually committed to any form of real justice when it comes to policing or when it comes to the racialized violence that we deal with on a day to day basis as black folks. I mean, it's very clear this is the same person who says that America is not a racist country. Granted, we know that, you know, his speech yesterday was riddled with not only historical inaccuracies, but just straight-up contradiction on multiple levels and lies. But I'm not sure that he's going to be able to be the one to lead this charge. I think he's going to put on a front as if that's something that he wants to do.

But at the end of the day, you know, he's backed by many of the same entities that are pro-police, right? So I really don't see him leading the charge here. Greg Carr. I agree with Brittany. He's not interested in anything other than the GOP returning to power. We've got the rest of this year and a little bit of next year. They're trying to play for time. To echo Brother Xavier, talk about hypocrisy and cynicism. A man who, at the beginning of March, criticized the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act after he said, y'all shot down my attempts to introduce something that could pass. Yeah, that's something that didn't touch qualified immunity, that offered, quote, unquote,

incentives for getting police body cameras and banning chokeholds, incentives. Yeah. A man who had that to say about the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act today met with members of George Floyd's family. And Senator Scott said, I'm just here to listen. I hope that at least one of those family members asked him, listen to this, Tim, why did you criticize the bill with our family member George Floyd's name on it? And be specific, son, be very specific, because you came from cotton to Congress,

but those people who would prefer all of us to still be out in that cotton field seem to have stuck you out front to play for time until they can achieve their real objective, which is to take the House back, add the Senate, and ultimately two years from then get the presidency back. Folks, as we speak right now, President Joe Biden is actually speaking at a rally in Georgia. Let's actually go live to Georgia right now. We've vastly expanded access. We've got 100 million doses of vaccine, enough for every single American. And we've done it by getting vaccines to some 40,000 pharmacies. Now, everyone over the age of 16 is now eligible to get vaccinated right away. So please do it.

Get vaccinated now. Now, now, now. And we promise to deliver emergency relief to the millions of Americans who are in financial distress, and I might add through no fault of their own. So we got out $1,400 checks to the American people, and we kept that promise. Eighty-five percent of the households in America have gotten those checks. We've already sent out more than 160 million checks out the door. And I want to stop here and give thanks to both your Senators, Senators Ossoff and Warnock, for making it happen, because those two votes — had we not come back and you elected them,

those two votes made the difference. It passed by a single vote. And that means we owe special thanks to the people of Georgia because of you, the rest of the world, because of your two senators, the rest of America was able to get the help they got so far. The American Rescue Plan would not have passed.

So much have we gotten done, like getting checks to people probably would not have happened. So if you ever wonder if elections make a difference, just remember what you did here in Georgia when you elected Ossoff and Warnock. You began to change the environment. Now, look, because of you, we passed one of the most consequential rescue bills in American history. So what did you do? What did you do with your vote here in Georgia?

Well, you changed America. You began to change America. And you're helping us prove that democracy, democracy can still deliver for the people. Look, I want to thank you for all of that. All of America wants to thank you. Because here's what we mean by delivering for the people. We created, in the first 100 days, 1,300,000 new jobs.

1,300,000 jobs in 100 days. That's more new jobs in the first 100 days of any president in history. Folks, because of you. And we're here just a few more things that we need. We provided food and nutrition assistance for children and families so they don't go hungry. Rental assistance to keep people from being evicted from their homes. Loans to small businesses like Long's to keep people — to keep them open and people employed. We made Georgia eligible to expand Medicaid, which means another 500,000 Georgians can

be covered. Excuse me. Folks, healthcare should be a right, not a privilege in America. And here's the thing I'm most proud of. We are on track to cut child poverty in half this year by having passed the child tax credit. But as much as we've done, we've got a lot more to do. That's why I proposed the American Jobs Plan. It is a once-in-a-generation investment in America. It's the biggest jobs plan in this country since World War II.

And here's what it does. It creates jobs rebuilding and modernizing our roads, our highways, our bridges, our ports, our airports. It will provide clean drinking water for every American. There are 10 million homes in America. And there are 40, 400,000 schools and daycare centers that have lead pipes where drinking the water is a danger. We're going to replace 100 percent of those nation's lead pipes and service lines. So every child can have a turn at the faucet and know what they're drinking is clean water. Folks, we're going to provide reliable high-speed internet everywhere

in America, including rural America. Fifteen percent of Georgia households do not have internet at all. We're going to change that. And those infrastructure projects are going to create millions of good-paying jobs just installing them. We also know that 2 million women, 2 million women have dropped out of the workforce during this pandemic. Two million because too often they have to choose between whether or not they can get care for their child and their family or go to work. In the 21st century, infrastructure isn't just steel and concrete. It's people. And it's time we start paying people who come to our homes and care for people that love them and going to take care of them. And folks, you know, when a lot of people talk about climate, they forget to mention the most important word.

I made a promise when I was down here running that I would, in fact, immediately rejoin the Paris Climate Accord on day one, which we did. And I would have, in the first hundred days, a climate summit here in America, inviting all the world's polluters and all the world's emitters, including the biggest nations in the world's polluters and all the world's emitters, including the biggest nations in the world.

And they came, everyone from Russia to China to the European Union to India, all of them. And you know what? What came across? Every single one of those countries, whether they're going to meet their obligations or not, is finally understanding that taking care of saving the planet is going to create millions of good-paying jobs. Millions of good-paying jobs. We're going to put engineers and construction workers, electricians, electrical

workers, building efficient buildings and homes. We're going to install 500,000 charging stations along the highways we're going to rebuild. And there's no reason why the blades for windmill turbines can't be built in Pittsburgh instead of Beijing. There's no reason. There's no reason that American workers can't lead the world in the production of electric vehicles and the batteries that propel them. We can do what we need to do in saving the planet and yet create millions of good-paying jobs. This, of course, is President Joe Biden now speaking in Duluth, Georgia. This is actually a DNC event. It is not an official White House event. That's why you do not see it being carried on the White House YouTube channel. It is available on Joe Biden's Facebook page and his YouTube channel. And so

the move here, Greg, for him to immediately hit the road harkens back to 2009 when the stimulus bill was passed. And, you know, President Obama's sort of attitude was, you know, folks will figure it out, as opposed to, no, you've got to hit the stump. You've got to, you know, make it plain in talking to people and letting them understand what's going on. That's right, Roman. You know, it's interesting. We'll look back at little moments that seem small at the time, but will likely add up to a larger inflection point.

I remember in the debates when asked the health care question, he embraced the American, the Affordable Care Act, of course, or Obamacare, and then said, but then we're going to expand it with the Medicaid expansion. It's going to be Biden care. Wait, what just happened? Oh, you're learning from the past. You need to now go on the offensive.

Last night's speech and him on the road now, which is almost like a State of the Union move, right? I mean, you're out there now selling your State of the Union address. He's really treating last night as a State of the Union address in many ways. You see, it's no mystery why he sat there and talked to, stood there and talked to Bernie Sanders immediately after coming off the podium. What he was saying last night has the fingerprints of Warren, has the fingerprints of Bernie Sanders, all over it with this expansion.

So what we're seeing is he has learned from the past, and by he, I don't just mean Biden, I mean really the Democratic apparatus, it appears. They've learned. You've got to take this fight to their throat. And by harping on this Medicaid expansion possibility in Georgia, which isn't yet a reality, shout out to the corn-pwned Klan-adjacent governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp,

who would rather see his citizens die than get Medicaid expansion, Biden is now going to put this knife on the throat of white nationalism and ask them once again, you're going to pick your whiteness over your life? I think it's a good move. He's got to go on the offensive. And he certainly, as you said, learned from the past. I know we have a couple of CBC members waiting. Let's go back to this speech. I'm going to go to Congressman Al Green,

Congresswoman Brittany Lawrence. Let me hear a little bit more President Joe Biden's speech. Then I'm going to the two CBC members. Over 10 years to increase their capacity to do everything. But, you know, cybersecurity, all those things where the jobs of the future are the second thing we're gonna do provide quality affordable childcare you know I know I was a single dad for five years when my

wife and daughter got killed right after I got elected the United States Senate as a 29 year old kid what happened was I was lucky I had a daughter I had two I WAS A 29-YEAR-OLD KID. WHAT HAPPENED WAS I WAS LUCKY. I HAD A DAUGHTER. I HAD TWO BOYS SURVIVED. MY DAUGHTER AND WIFE WERE KILLED. BUT MY TWO BOYS SURVIVED. FORTUNATELY FOR ME, I HAD AN INCREDIBLE FAMILY. MY SISTER, MY BROTHER, AND MY MOTHER AND FATHER, THEY BASICALLY MOVED IN AND HELPED ME RAISE MY KIDS. BECAUSE ALTHOUGH I WAS A

SENATOR, I WAS LISTENING TO THE POOREST SENATOR IN HISTORY, NOT HISTORY, BUT IN THE YEARS I WAS THERE, I was listening to the poorest senator in history, but not history, but in the years I was there, I couldn't afford the cost of daycare. I couldn't afford the cost of child care. But I had them. I don't know how I would have done it without them. So understand how important child care can be. Under my plan, most folks won't pay more than 7% of their income for child care as a max. And the folks who need it the most and can't afford it all won't have to spend a dime. That's important.

And the third thing is the American Family Plan will finally provide up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave. No one. Congresswoman Brendan Lawrence of Michigan, Congressman Al Green of Texas. Do a full screen of the speech. I want to, because here's something that the Democrats, again, this is what happens when you're learning. Drop our lower third, please. Drop the lower third. This is what they're doing.

First of all, this is the feed that is going out to Joe Biden's YouTube channel. President Joe Biden, his personal YouTube channel, as well as his Facebook page. You see text number 100 days, getting back on track, Democratic logo in the top left corner. Brenda Lawrence, Democrats are learning how to use communications and social media and digital platforms to drive home a message. You know what's so beautiful about being a real leader is that although our president is one of the oldest we've ever elected, he has surrounded himself with all levels of knowledge and experience. He does not walk away from youth because there is still experience regardless of what age you are. And you see it being played out. Even his speech last night, how diverse that was. I mean,

he just went down the line checking all the boxes. It was really remarkable. And I'm just, I'm just impressed. And Roland, one of the things, someone asked me, what was the difference last night? So I've been to, for seven years, I've been going. And before that, I would go to the State of the Union. And it was so electric. It was this power in the room. Everything's buzzing. And you just feel energized being there. Last night, there was no electricity. It was just Joe Biden having a conversation with the people that was elected to come and serve and do the work.

And his resounding message was jobs and let's get it done. Last night, Greg Carr was part of our coverage, Congressman Al Green, and he said something important. He said it was a workman like speech. It was a blue collar speech. And in fact, the headlines today is that Joe Biden is looking, President Joe Biden is looking to undercut Republicans by specifically appealing to blue collar workers with that type of speech and that type of agenda. Agree, disagree? Agree.

And I was honored to be in the room at the time the speech was delivered, because, as you know, for four years, I protested the previous president. This previous president took us to the edge of insurrection. This president is taking us to the brinks of resurrection in terms of the democratic process. And if this president does all that he says he's going to do, he will be a transformative figure in American politics. History will be exceedingly kind to him. He has already gone through with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, $1,400 in the pockets of people, 200 million shots in arms. And then to follow up with that, with the American Jobs Plan, a $2.3 trillion piece of legislation, and then the American Family Plan, $1.8 trillion. He has the potential to do

what no president in my lifetime has done, and that is to transform the political as well as the economics of the United States of America. Congresswoman Lawrence, one of the things that people have been saying is that specifically for African-Americans, where is that agenda? He spoke a little bit last night, obviously talked about the George Floyd Justice Act. How do you respond to that? How do you respond to people who, African Americans who want to hear a specific agenda for them? Well, you know, the thing that, a couple of things that really just hit the sweet spot for me, the education piece. I'm a firm believer and I know if my people are educated. My people can create, develop, manage, and do anything that we need in this country. And the fact that he is going to invest every child doesn't mean you meet a certain demographics. We'll get two years of preschool. And then

that community college, black women carry the highest level of student debt in America. To think that for two years you can get that education, get that certification for a skilled trade. Our skilled trades are too white. And we need, we know that those are career opportunities, but we have this barrier of joining a union, getting your apprenticeship. And so for me to hear that investment in education,

and then the other part of that is criminal justice reform. If you educate my people, they will not be in prison. But then we must address the criminal inequities that are in our country when it comes to building a police force that has been built on unfortunate turning the other head as we see racism and violence incorporated with the man wearing a woman wearing the badge and so when he talks about the George Floyd and and you know the thing that was so powerful last night Roland is he is he said, argue with me, fight with me, but get it done won't support it. And then let's not even talk about the Senate, who won't even bring forth a bill to be debated for us to do our job. So that's, to me, what do we need?

We need health care. We need education. And we need justice, criminal justice reform. And I tell you, we'll take it from there. Congressman Al Green, one of the issues that President Joe Biden mentioned last night, H.R. 1, John Lewis Act, you having to deal with Republicans in Texas, our home state, driving, trying to drive hard a voter suppression bill. Yes. H.R. 1 is the For the People Act. The John Lewis Voting Rights Act is absolutely something that we need in Texas because it would reinstate Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which was eviscerated, and that em all over this country, because the Voting Rights

Act has given us the protection of a preclearance requirement before you can start to do the gerrymandering that takes place too often as it relates to us. But I would say that he's done this. He has caused us to move forward with what we've always said we needed to do, and that was to have the conversation about race. This president, unlike any other I've seen in my lifetime, is not afraid to use the language of those who are suffering. You cannot change the status quo using the language of the status quo. He's not afraid to say systemic racism. He's not afraid to say institutionalized racism. He's not ashamed to associate with the LGBTQ plus community. If you recall, he came out for gay marriage before President Obama came for gay marriage. He is not afraid to take on

the challenges associated with racism. I do believe that this is a moment that can become a movement that can transform America for all of those who have been suffering because this president has something that the others didn't have. He has what I call sweet. While you're talking,

we're showing the live feeds from Georgia. He has now been joined on stage by Congressman, excuse me, Senator Raphael Warnock, as well as Senator John Ossoff. Pull the audio up, please. Sorry, there was a moment there where President Biden could not find his mask. He was looking all over the place and then it was in his pocket. So he had to have an assist there from the first lady. That's what happens sometimes when we forget stuff. Congressman Green, go ahead and finish your point.

We have bad. Say it again, Congressman. Say it again. I said a good woman has a lot of bad. See? All right. Congressman Green, go ahead and finish your point. Yes, let me, if I may, this is an important point.

You and I recognize something called street cred. That means that you can relate to the activist community. He has what I call sweet cred. He can relate to those who are in the C-suites, the CEOs, the CFOs, and he can say these things, and he does not get the same level of pushback that some of us will get when we say these things. He is uniquely positioned to do things that can make a difference that will be long-term in the lives of minorities in this country. We just have to stay with him, and we can't stop pushing. We've got to keep on pushing.

You remember that song, Can't Stop Now. But this is our opportunity. We have to take advantage of it. And to my colleague, Brenda Lawrence, it's good to see you, my dear lady. Oh, it's always good to see you. You know, when he tells you that he boycotted, not only did he boycott, he protested

against the madness of the person that was sitting in the White House. who told truth and also had the ability to talk about what we need to do, not just focus on how great he is as an individual. So it had to be a good night for you, Congressman Green. All right. Thank you. Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence, always. I just want to say thank you. You're wearing some proud colors there, dear brother.

Well, you know, I got my 32nd Alphaversary was two days ago on April 27th, which also happens to be the birthday of Dr. Greg Carr, who's on the show, a fellow alpha man. So that's that's that's why I decided to go in and wear the colors today. It's OK, current woman, Lawrence. I go, you know, I know y'all Delta's always getting current woman Lawrence. Y'all Deltas always get little shout-outs, so you got to let this alpha thing roll. My Delta anniversary was the 28th, so I should have had my red and white on today.

Well, yeah, but I see your Delta letters to your left. I got you. That's fine. I appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you, Brandon, for your time. Thanks a bunch. Let's go back to our panel, Brittany, Greg, and Xavier.

Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. That was one of the biggest mistakes. And I'll say it again. One of the biggest mistakes, and Obama's folks admitted it. They, sometimes you so smart, you dumb. And their deal was, hey, people going to figure that thing out. People know we're doing the right thing. No, Americans ain't that damn smart. So you got to make it plain, Brittany. You got to explain some stuff. You got to be clear. And, and, and I really want people to understand you need to study the

contrast of how messages are conveyed. The Obama campaign, all the people always talked about how he sort of floated above everyone else in terms of how he spoke. If you listen last night to the presentation of what Biden had to say, he was talking in a way that I swear he must've gotten advice from Joe Madison, who said, you got to put it where the goats can get it. That's important when people are trying to understand, well, what is he doing? Well, he talked about childcare. He talked about, oh, he's not going to tax us. He's going to tax the rich. And then walking through by saying, I thought it was really important to say 650 of the richest people in America earned a trillion dollars while the rest of you were losing your jobs during covid. Absolutely, Roland. I mean, Biden's strategy is so effective and we can clearly see what he's doing. In the era of

misinformation, and we know there's plenty of it going around, still, quite frankly, with the big lie related to this election, what he is saying, his delivery and his follow-up is so, so important. And he gave us nothing but calm, facts, dates, statistics, and everything that the American people could possibly need. And it's exciting to see him getting back out there physically to continue to spread his message to the people. And I hope his strategy is useful. Xavier, messaging is going to be important. I think hitting the campaign trail is vital as well because he has to rally people to get behind the agenda, to put pressure on their senators to vote for it.

He learned from Donald Trump. Donald Trump spent his entire time in office trying to take his message out to his constituency, selling lies over and over and over and over and over again until it affected the mainstream view of what was happening in American politics. And so Joe Biden is taking a cue not only from Barack Obama in terms of some of the progressive policies, but now using the instrumentality of Donald Trump in continuously putting out the message in front of the American people and speaking in language that they understand. I don't necessarily see it as following in terms of the footsteps of Donald Trump, because many presidents did that.

But I think the key is, again, driving home your message. And it's no shock the first place he went was Georgia, Greg. That's absolutely right, Roland. He is going to have to be a bit of a happy warrior. Of course, Walter Mondale made transition a few days ago, a couple of weeks ago, in the spirit of Walter Mondale's mentor, Hubert Humphrey. This is more like FDR, us versus them.

Of course, FDR was a member of the us class, the moneyed class. So that form of class treason that he committed, which strained his relations with the members of that millionaire and billionaire class for the rest of his life, he nevertheless took the fight to them. And it's interesting to hear and listen to Congresswoman Lawrence. You know, when this man says that clean drinking water will be everywhere, and he names the number of schools that, where you can't drink the water, I'm sure all of us remember those schools. I mean, if you're like me, you went to one of those schools. Don't drink out of that water fountain. And I worked for a school just in Philadelphia. You go into buildings, no. So what does it mean for Joe Biden, after having kind of clothed himself in the spirit of, in some people's construction,

the last good president, Jimmy Carter, the Christian president who's still out there building houses, what does it mean for him to emerge and basically tell Brian Kemp, you're not going to expand Medicaid? We got that done. It's on you now, chief. What will it mean for him to drop down and land in some of that upper peninsula part of Michigan and say, we're trying to put these pipes in? By the way, those of you who say, what are they doing for Black people? Last I checked, Flint was Black. And what does it mean for him then to talk about, and Paul Krugman wrote this in The New York Times today, he said, you know, once you expand, once you create child care, universal

pre-K and paid family leave. Yeah. Good luck, Republicans trying to take that away. What will it mean for Joe Biden to drop out of the sky in West Virginia? Joe Manchin, Arizona, Christian Cinema, Wisconsin, Ron Johnson soon to be shown the door and say all of these things are here for you. If your senators will get out of the way. This is the time to press the advantage. And I think you're absolutely right. That's exactly what he's doing. Absolutely. Obviously, one of the issues that he kept talking about last night in the speech dealt with the economy, taxes, the impact of that. I want to bring in now Dr. William Spriggs, of course, who is an economist

with the AFL-CIO, Howard University. Doc, it was interesting. Senator Tim Scott said in his response that, oh, oh, if Biden increases your taxes, wages are going to go down. Biden was very specific. The taxes he wants to increase on corporations, 21 to 28 percent, and going back to the tax, the Bush-level tax cuts that were just in place four years ago. I'm trying to figure out how in the hell is that going to drop wages? Well, we were promised that with the tax cut that came in place that gave billions of dollars to the richest

corporations and richest individuals, that would lead to tax breaks for them, wage increases for us. And the promise was that wages would accelerate. So that's what Scott is talking about, except we gave billions of dollars. And exactly as Joe Biden said, because not only did that windfall help Amazon, but then the way in which COVID shut down their competitors gave Amazon trillions in wealth, trillions in wealth. And what do we see? They still have to fight for decent wages. They still have to fight for a safe place at work. And so as Biden made clear, trickle down

doesn't work. And this was amazing to have an American president finally say in clear language, trickle down doesn't work. Well, in fact, he also made clear that when we talk about these corporations, they said, we ain't using that money to invest back in the companies. We're going to buy stock back. They said it. They were very clear. Well, and they did, which is part of the reason why CEO pay went up, because that increase in stock price directly goes to their compensation. But more importantly, I think, was the challenge that he now put to fiscal conservatives, because they passed that tax cut and said, we don't care that it's

creating $2 trillion in deficit. We don't care. It's going to pay for itself. But he put forth a program and said, I'm not going to increase the deficit. I'm going to take back your tax cut because America can afford clean water. America can afford for mothers to be able to have paid time off. America can afford for its children, like the rest of the children in the industrialized world, to have access to quality end-of-life care. We can afford it. Here's how I'm going to pay for it. Now, here's the debate. It's paid for. It's not a deficit thing. But his tax plan cannot pay for all the things that he's saying.

You say that is incorrect. It can. It can and it does. It's paid for. It's paid for. The money that went to buy back stocks, the money that went so that CEOs could double their pay relative to their average worker. America can afford, can afford to have the things it needs to have an economy that can sustain itself and grow in the 21st century. We can afford that as this nation. We just gave the money to the wrong people. Last question for you. In terms of trying to push through the infrastructure bill, do black folks benefit? Well, this portion of the bill is the one that has the greatest benefit for black families because the majority of Black workers are women. And this addresses key issues that prevent women from having decent earnings. One,

by changing the wages of daycare workers, which therefore changes the wage that women can offer, right? Because if I'm guaranteed $15 an hour by being a child care worker, this ups the ante of your Amazon. Because I'm not going to be working in your Bessemer plant with you monitoring every time I go to the bathroom if I can get a job for $15 an hour being a daycare worker. So this changes the reference wage for women. It gives women access to quality child care for their children, which is what black women have always lacked, was access to quality child care for their children. This has always been the negative equation for black women that they had to deal with. How can I take care of somebody else's

child when I can't take care of my own? This has always been the economic conundrum of how to get ahead. Paid leave. Paid leave so that all workers are going to be guaranteed that most important for women. And the fact that we're going to have a refundable child credit so that every month, not every year like with the earned income tax credit, but every month that mother will know, how am I paying for the child care? Because that credit is going to come to her and she knows where the money is going to come from to pay for her child care. So it's revolutionary when you think about what this does to free up black women's labor force participation, which already was higher than for white women anyway. All right, then.

Dr. Bill Spriggs, I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you. Folks, I got to get the thoughts of my panel on this one. We all know that Dr. Cornel West was not the biggest fan of President Barack Obama, but he appeared on CNN International today, and he said something that was interesting, where he praised President Biden, said that he had more courage to fight on core issues than President Barack Obama. Can't wait to get your thoughts on this one. Listen.

When he ran for the president, you supported Bernie Sanders. Now that we're 100 days into the Biden administration. 400,000 schools and daycares. Have you revised your assessment of him and maybe think that he could be a little bit like Lyndon Baines Johnson and surprise us, especially on the issue of race? I think that Biden is going to surprise us. He surprised me when he went in, my view was that he was tied to four crimes against humanity, mass incarceration, unleashing Wall Street greed with the Glass-Steagall Act repeal, with the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and Israeli occupation. All of those he would not say a critical word about in any substantive way. And in many ways, he was the architect and supporter of them. And coming into office,

hits the issue of Yemen and Afghanistan, head on. Relief bill, infrastructure bill, deeply concerned about police brutality, talks about white supremacy, talks about Jim Crow. He reminds me very much of LBJ, who started as a white supremacist from Jim Crow, Texas, and ended up one of the major forces for good against white supremacy. That's why you never give up on people. You never know which way they 're headed. You never know what kind of change they can put forward. If Biden continues in this way, he's going to be very much like LBJ and will be a much stronger force for good against white supremacy on the ground than Barack Obama was.

Now, Barack Obama had the symbol. He's brilliant, he's black, he's poised and so forth. Didn't have the courage, didn't have the willingness to fight that Biden does when it comes to this issue, when it comes to a variety of issues. Xavier, agree, disagree? I disagree. I think the glaring issue in the room is race. Joe Biden is a white man.

He has the privilege to be able to stand after having Barack Obama use him in his bona fide as being a working class representative of white folks to get elected. Then you have to face opposition at every angle from Republicans and then a lead to the election of Donald Trump. And then come into office and ride the coattails of how he got office in the first place, had Kamala Harris, and then come into office and do all these different ambitious things.

Great on its face, but Joe Biden is a white man, and he has so much more leeway to be able to do the things he's doing because he's a white man. That simple. Brittany? Yeah, it's tough because I love Cornel West, and I do often think that his critiques of Obama have been fair. But this time, I think the point that was just made in regards to the fact that Joe

Biden is a white man, obviously we need to talk about that, because that has a lot to do with what Barack Obama felt like he could and couldn't say because of race. And he's made that very clear. But I also think he's being too forgiving of Biden, to be fair. Yes, I was surprised to hear the way in which Biden and Warren's ideology have finally kind of struck— or, excuse me, how Bernie and Warren's ideology has kind of struck Biden in the head in terms of what he's talking about taxing the rich, and I'm happy about that. But I still hear so many echoes of things that aren't demonstrating that Biden is really creating this super radical agenda. I mean, if we just talk about his conversations around the U.S. military,

this myth that strong military presence is not to start a conflict, but to prevent one, it's a commitment to human rights and fundamental freedoms. I'm just not sure that that shows a really radical agenda. Or even like I mentioned last night, I was really bummed that Biden didn't spend more time talking about race relations or talking about policing. And everything that I've read as of recent demonstrates that he's not going to be doing nearly enough on that front and truly still believes in reforming the police department as opposed to defunding. Greg? Yeah, I think Cornell is right, but it's much more complicated, I think, than he kind of portrayed it there. Let's not forget the United States of America is still a criminal enterprise that is based on wealth extraction. So business runs this country. That's why we're here having this conversation in

English. They came to get us to do that labor. So in that regard, Biden is a neoliberal, just like Barack Obama's a neoliberal. You know, set the symbols aside. That having been said, you can't win elections in the Democratic Party anymore without a constituency whose interests are in direct opposition to that criminal enterprise. And so in order to do that,

I think what Barack Obama was doing by being too clever than half, and I think this may be where it's a little personal for Brother Cornell, who campaigned extensively for Barack Obama and who felt rightly so, I think, in some ways slighted by Obama. See, when you're that smart as Barack Obama is

and you surround yourself with these brilliant people like David Plouffe and Axelrod, you know, you basically tune out all the people who could tell you how to do things. And I think what working class Joe has done, and I think this is the strategy Jim Clyburn embraced, of course, when those of us who were saying, no, you know, let's go Warren, let's go Sanders. They're like, no, Jim Clyburn is like, they're not going to vote for Warren or Sanders. They're going to say, you better put an old white man in there. But what Biden has done,

and here's a shout out to Spencer Overton and him, just dropped this report with the Joint Center. It says, you know, they're about 18 percent of the hires they've made in the federal government so far in the Biden administration have been black. That's not counting black folk or other non-whites. And it's more than just symbolism. You could hear different voice. You can hear Cedric Richmond in there. You can certainly hear Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in what he's saying. Joe Biden seems to have released the wheel in terms of his policy to people in a circle that is much more broad than anything Barack Obama, trying to

channel himself almost like a black JFK did. So I think that is the kind of difference. And so when Cornell is saying that, I wouldn't typify that as courage. I wouldn't typify that as courage, nor would I say that Joe Biden is so suddenly enlightened. The Democrats can't win any elections without the constituency that they're going to have to bow to. And so I think the Barack Obama presidency was a missed opportunity. But remember, one final thing, Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland, which was a missed opportunity, as you always remind us. He put a sister up there. You may not have heard of Donald Trump.

People would have gone out and turned out. However, what is Merrick Garland doing now? He damn near like the sheriff of America. He dropping down in the middle of the cities, launching investigations into police forces like Omar from The Wire. It's like Merrick The Wire. It's like, you know, it's like America's coming. And so my point is this. Joe Biden has learned from the time he spent in the Obama administration in some ways, as you said at the beginning, what to do and what not to do. All right, then.

Folks, let's talk about some of those police cases in North Carolina. We, of course, are getting an update on what's happening there. During Wednesday's hearing to release the body cam video in the Andrew Brown case, DA Andrew Womble claimed the footage shows Brown hitting officers with his car. That's interesting, especially considering the Pascoa-Tank County Sheriff's Department posted its use of force policy to the county's new website created to provide factual information to correct any false information and rumors that are circulating. Here's what the county sheriff's office use of force policy says about shooting into a vehicle. Quote, shots fired at or from a

moving vehicle involve additional considerations and risk and are rarely effective. When feasible, deputies should take reasonable steps to move out of the path of an approaching vehicle instead of discharging their firearm at the vehicle or any of its occupants. A deputy should only discharge a firearm at a moving vehicle or its occupants when the deputy reasonably believes there are no other reasonable means available to avert the imminent threat of the vehicle or if deadly force other than the vehicle is directed at the deputy or others. Deputies should not shoot at any part of a vehicle in an attempt to disable a vehicle. Deputies shall use only that amount of force that reasonably appears necessary given the facts and circumstances perceived by the deputy at the

time of the event to accomplish a legitimate law enforcement purpose. The reasonableness of force will be judged from the perspective of a reasonable deputy on the scene at the time of the incident. Deputies may use reasonable force policy actually reads. Now, also today, the sheriff released the names of three of the deputies involved. But if y'all have the video that we showed yesterday, can y'all show the actual video? It was more than three deputies who were involved. I don't quite understand why they're only showing, giving us three names.

That's kind of interesting. Makes no sense to me. What we still are dealing with here, Brittany, like this is the video right here. So I'm just trying to understand, you know, why only three names are being revealed. Just makes no sense to me. But that's sort of what we have. And again, the sheriff released those names. Let me, if I can pull up right now, I'm gonna go to the Charlotte Observer, their website, where they actually have a story listing those names.

Allow me to pull it up right now. Let's see if we can pull it up. All right. All right, having some issues here. Looks like they have these blocks on the site. But it says that the sheriff, he's actually released three of those names. I was told by folks when I was in Elizabeth City that one of the things that you have there is that you had another county officers who were involved there.

We're still waiting to get, again again more information on that particular case. And so again, the craziness continues to happen there in Elizabeth City. Now in Minneapolis, federal prosecutors are moving forward with their case against the officers involved in the death of George Floyd. In fact, they were deciding, they had already determined that had Derek Chauvin been found not guilty, they were prepared to arrest him in court and then take him straight to jail to charge him with civil rights violations. They're going to take it to a grand jury to decide to indict Chauvin and the three other officers who were involved on civil rights

violations. In addition to Floyd's murder, Chauvin could face the indictment for the violent arrest of a 14-year-old boy in 2017. He's accused of striking the teen on the head with his flashlight, grabbing him by the throat, and hitting him. Xavier, again, this is the difference between an aggressive Department of Justice and one that makes excuses for police misconduct. Yeah, we saw the previous Department of Justice openly say that there were no issues, attack the consent decrees, and put out all types of barriers in terms of being able to get to the bottom of policing. And we saw, you just showed a couple of weeks ago, Roland, an old white man running his car into police, and police didn't decide to shoot him. But we do see police rolling up like it's a movie of Mad Max on the scene

to be able to deal with this gentleman. So we're seeing a completely different set of rules and laws being applied to African Americans in policing than it applied to others. It's open, it's clear. It's something that's hard to debate when we're seeing what's happening right now. Brittany.

Yeah, I mean, under Trump, we know the pattern of practice investigations were largely curtailed. Um, you know, but Attorney General Garland is definitely showing some eagerness to revamp them. He's opening, like you said, investigations all over the place, so... I mean, and we need it, Raleigh, when we think about what happened with Andrew Brown. You know, these folks only provided 20 seconds of body cam footage. You know, they decided to immediately declare a state of emergency. Seven people were placed on leave,

three others resigned. And I just feel like if that doesn't tell you something isn't right, then I don't really know what would. And I'm glad, you know, there is a continued pattern here. And I am glad that the DOJ is stepping in. This continues to be an ongoing problem. Real quick, Roland, we also saw in Chicago that Adam Toledo, there was a DA that was disciplined after he misrepresented what was on the video. And so who are we to believe what's going on with this particular DA representing what's actually in the video when they're withholding the video right now?

Well, again, we're still just waiting for more information there. So we will continue to press on this. Now, let's go to Columbus, where the family of Makia Bryant is calling for a federal investigation into her death. A 16-year-old was fatally shot last week by Officer Nicholas Reardon, who responded to a 911 call about an attacker at her residence. During a news conference,

Bryant's family and their attorney, Michelle Martin, announced they're calling for investigations into Ohio's foster care system and the shooting incident. Investigate every agency that had a time and an opportunity to prevent Micaiah's death. I stand here with her family committed to getting answers. We'll be calling for a couple federal investigations, one being from the Health and Human Ohio that we look into Oh system starting here in F

also going to be calling justice investigation int we're still investigating at fault because this can served as a guardian at Lytton for over 200 children over the past decade. I've seen the pain in their eyes, their eyes far too often. And we need to protect and cherish all of our children, especially those in distress who need us the most. She was very sweet and caring and loving. She was a Christian. And she didn't deserve this. To know her was to know peace. She was here with me for 16 years. She was labeled to be my

peacemaker. For something tragic like this to happen is unimaginable. So I want justice for my grandbaby. Brown's funeral service will be held tomorrow at the First Church of God in Columbus. The viewing will begin at noon, followed by the service at 1 p.m. In addition to that, the mayor of Columbus, Andrew Gemther, he is asking the DOJ to commit a full-scale investigation into his city's police department after several high-profile fatal police shootings. He wants the DOJ to commit a full-scale investigation into his city's police department after several high-profile fatal police shootings. He wants the DOJ to evaluate the city's current reform measures, determine whether they are efficient, make recommendations on what to change. They also asked federal officials to determine if racial disparities exist within the city's police

department within areas such as hiring, use of force, recruitment, and discipline. That is something that we have seen before, Brittany. We saw the police chief in Philadelphia a few years ago, the mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu, a number of years ago as well. Of course, we saw Merrick Garland announced the DOJ was going to be looking at the patterns and practices in Minneapolis as well as Louisville. Yeah, I mean, I'm glad that the DOJ is doing a deep dive. You know, Representative Bass that you had on last night, I really thought that she hit the nail on the head when she put it so eloquently. She said, white folks get public servants and black folks get warriors. And we are so tired of watching our own die. And when we just think about specifically Columbus, Ohio, you know, I saw some statistics recently that were talking about how the Black

population there is around 240,000, and yet Black people killed by police just in a single year was 31. And the average annual rate of killing Black folks there by the police is about 16. That's insane. Black folks there are killed five times. They're five times more likely to be killed than their white counterparts. First off, no one should be getting killed unjustly by the police. But the disparity in regards to the amount of black folks that are being killed at the hands of police is absolutely ridiculous. And don't even get me started on the city's budget. You know, the 2020 proposed budget for Columbus, Ohio alone allocated almost $400 million to the police

and around $100 million on education, health, public services, and recreation combined. So you can't tell me that Columbus, Ohio is really not just a police department in and of itself with underfunded services on the side. Folks, let me give you an update of a case out of Texas where the official cause of the death of Marvin Scott III has been determined as a fatal acute stress response in an individual with previously

diagnosed schizophrenia during restraint struggle with law enforcement. More than a month after his death, the family was allowed to view the video of his last moments. What we saw in almost five hours of video of Marvin's last moments was repeated opportunities for our higher professionals, for legal professionals to engage with one of the most vulnerable members of our community, someone suffering from a disability in a way that they were aware of, in a way that Allen Police Department was aware of it. Marvin Scott was clearly in a schizophrenic episode, a manic episode.

There were clear open signs that even the untrained eye could have observed that Marvin Scott needed help. Instead he received brutality. After reviewing the video, it took a while to review it. I feel that justice has to be served. It has to be. I feel that the officers involved have to be arrested. That's what I feel. I feel that the officers involved have to be arrested. That's what I feel. I feel that way. We demand that. The Texas Rangers continue to investigate Scott's case,

and so we'll continue to stay on top of that. All right, folks, got to go to a break. When we come back, what's wrong with some of these people in Louisiana? Y'all, wait until I explain to you what this crazy legislator said during the hearing. You want to talk about crazy-ass white people? This qualifies. That's next to Roland Martin unfiltered.

Shortly after 9-11, America and its allies went to war in Afghanistan to defeat a terrorist stronghold. We accomplished that mission years ago. Trillions of dollars lost, over 2,000 Americans dead, countless Afghans dead. It's time to get out.

Many presidents have tried to end the war in Afghanistan, but President Biden is actually going to do it. And by 9-11, over 20 years after the war was started, the last American soldier will depart, and America's longest war will be over. Promise made, promise kept. Hello, everyone. I'm Godfrey, and you're watching... Roland Martin Unfiltered, and while he's doing Unfiltered,

I'm practicingfrey and you're watching Roland Martin unfiltered. And while he's doing unfiltered, I'm practicing the wobble. Why? I got you. Illegally selling water without a permit on my property. Whoa. I'm uncomfortable. Lord, y'all. Some people who were in elected office,

I don't understand how they got there. Lord have mercy. I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't. Listen to what this fool said during an education hearing in Louisiana. This actually happened, y'all. This is not an SNL skit. Let's talk about page 4, section E, line 21.

On the original bill? This is the bill that you had marked up for us and sent us that shows the red line changes. So that might be a little different, but I think it is section E. It says nothing in the section shall be construed to do any of the following inhibit or violate first amendment rights of students or employees um and or undermine intellectual freedom or freedom of expression prevent a school from promoting racial cultural ethic ethnic intellectual or academic diversity or inclusiveness if such efforts are consistent with the provisions of this section.

Is that section it's referring back to the entire bill? Yeah, that's when you use that term, when it's capitalized, it's referring to this section of law. Section three, part three of this. Prohibited discussion of divisive concepts as part of a larger course of academic instruction. To me, what you're saying here contradicts much of the bill. When I initially reviewed this bill, I found it confusing and hard to follow. And I think when we give it to a teacher in the classroom, I don't know how they're going to make this section E seems to contradict what you're saying in the rest of the bill.

So what would you consider part of a larger course of academic instruction? First off, if you go to page 4, line 16, it says, D1, each school governing authority shall adopt policies and procedures for the investigation of complaints relative to noncompliance with this section. So the policies and procedures sets out what the policies and procedures should maintain. So the teachers won't get this bill. The teachers will receive the policies and procedures as set out by the district. Okay, but let's go back to part three of this. Prohibit discussion of divisive concepts as part of a larger course of academic instruction.

What does that mean? Exactly what it says. I mean, the words on the page are if there's a... But what is a larger course of academic instruction? If you're teaching, if you're having a discussion on whatever the case may be on slavery, then you can talk about everything dealing with slavery, the good, the bad, the ugly. There's no good to slavery, though. Well,

then whatever whatever the case may be. You're right. You're right. I didn't mean to imply that. And I don't believe that. And I know that that's the case. But I'm using that good, bad, and ugly as a generic way of saying that you can teach any factually based anything. None of us were around when slavery occurred. We can rely on the history that was written about that time. We can rely on primary documents that we have found, but nobody sitting here on this, on the earth was around, um, when, when the United States had slavery. So I, I, I just, none of us were alive when most of history was written. History is constantly being written. It is a fluid concept. How can history, a fact is a fact.

So I don't understand what you mean by a fluid, please explain to me what you mean by a fluid concept. I'm saying history, history is yesterday. History is two days ago. And what occurred, occurred. That's exactly what I'm saying. We agree on that. But we can experience the same event and potentially have differing views. I mean, you know that as an attorney that witness testimony can vary.

I just, it comes back to, there are divisive concepts that are taught in the larger course of academic instruction and the first part of this bill seems to contradict the ability that you're allowing them to teach divisive concepts as a part of a larger course of academic instruction. That's and I think that's when many of the opponents have had trouble reconciling those two ideas. The Black Caucus, they want Representative Ted James to be removed as a result of this nonsense. I can't even just really. First of all, Ted James joins us right now.

This is Representative Garofalo with these crazy comments. The good, the bad. Really? Really, sir? I'm confused. You know, Roland, we were all confused. You know, the fact that he he even the fact that this person was elected that's problematic um the fact that this person is the chairman of the education

committee um he is a leader in our body um and would say something so stupid so insensitive and borderline racist um is extremely problematic to us. And as the chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, we've asked for his immediate removal from the position. And I think that we've also been joined by several of our Republican colleagues who also know that he shouldn't represent our body in a leadership role. So Republicans agree with y'all and say, yeah, he got to go. You know, Republicans pleaded with him for months. Three months ago, he brought up an issue because LSU had a series called Dismantling the Vestiges of Racism, and they wanted to dismantle white supremacy.

And he said that white supremacy doesn't exist. We don't have structural racism. So him starting this conversation three months ago and on yesterday, our Speaker of the House, who was a Republican, asked him not to run that bill. And he had promised the Speaker, and he promised myself that he wouldn't run the bill. And three hours later, he's now a national headline for his racism and his stupidity. So what's next? Is it going to be removed? We don't know yet. I had a two-hour meeting today with the Speaker.

The Speaker is hearing from not only the Black Caucus, but other members of the legislature who are Republican and other constituency groups. I know that the Speaker of the House, the Democrats in the Black Caucus put him in office as Speaker, but I know he's going to take the weekend to, you know, make a decision. I really get a kick out of, I mean, this is, you know, I listened to Senator Tim Scott last night. I really get a kick out of how nearly every time it's one of these stories, it's a Republican who's involved. You know, Republicans continue to show us why we need to elect more Democrats. You know, I was appalled that Tim Scott continues to allow himself to be used by the Republican Party to stand up there and say what we all know to be false.

We know, especially in a state like Louisiana, we rank 50th in education, and this is the guy who is the chair of our education committee. And he says that there's no structural racism in a building. You know, I go into a state capitol every day with the images of slaves sketched into the building. So for him to make that idiotic comment as a chairman is extremely problematic. And then, you know, I think that was what was even worse is that he took the floor yesterday in what we thought was going to be an apology. And he said, well, number one, the speaker asked me to come down here. And I apologize that the media is taking my comment out of context.

You all know me. And if you want to come talk to me about it come see me at my desk um that was equally as insulting and probably even more insulting than his idiotic comment that he made um in that committee yesterday i got a kick out of folks who are saying comments taken out of context when we played the entire comment in tech in in uh in in text no go ahead final comments No. Go ahead. Final comments. You know, we'll continue to push for his removal. We've also said that he needs to be made to attend some of those classes at LSU because I think his comments speak to the need for institutions like LSU and Southern University to have these conversations, because obviously the people that we've elected don't understand the history of racism because they can't even admit that it exists. So I would hope that the speaker would also encourage him and if not demand that he attend some of these conversations because obviously he needs to hear them.

All right. Representative James, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you, brother. All right, Xavier, this is a pretty interesting one here. In Idaho, a bill that will prohibit public schools from teaching that any sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin is inherently superior or inferior has passed the state Senate. Some GOP folks there believe discussions about critical race theory are teaching students to hate their country. However, students disagree with that notion and say the discussions on racism don't teach them to hate their country,

but instead allow them to understand the U.S.'s history. Students held a protest against House Bill 377 on the Idaho Capitol steps. During that protest, the Senate announced they would be taking up the bill. It's just nuts. It's just nuts, Xavier, how these Republicans are just going crazy. Oh my God, critical race theory, frankly, being led by the white supremacist Tucker Carlson on Fox News. Roland, they want to continuously shift the

conversation away from having a conversation about race and structural racism and solutions and governing to be able to resolve these issues by stating that bringing up these issues themselves are racist, which is ridiculous. And like the previous segment,

talking about the representative who openly said, I didn't say that, just used lies as ways to be able to stand firm and go against these issues. And so we're seeing this ridiculous culture war, the attempt to misdirect the conversations about ways that we can actually change how we do things in this country. They want to stand firm, sell their narrative of racism to their constituencies, and try to win offices based on them, change

the rules, and try to continue to get things working in their favor. It's ridiculous. This whole attack on critical race theory, I'm really laughing at it because it's just driving these people nuts, Brittany. They just, they don't know what to do. They really don't, Roland. And we're seeing this,

these types of bills go out all over the place. We've seen it in Iowa, like you just showed. We saw it in Louisiana. We're seeing it now in Idaho. And what's interesting to me is, first off, you cannot force-feed Americans ahistorical information really for the purpose of patriotism and trying to get them to, I guess, essentially try and rebuild the Republican Party, because you can't vote that way if you truly understand the history and what their policies stand on, which is this history of racism and sexism. And then I feel like if they're looking for this blind patriotism, right, if this country

as exceptional as profound as the GOP constantly suggests, which is why we shouldn't be teaching anything counter, why do they feel the need to remove indisputable facts about the country's history? Allow people to be patriots or to join your party after they obtained a diverse array of information and develop critical thinking skills. I really want to know how limiting censoring and cherry picking what can be taught in the classroom is any different than what the GOP claims happen in communist countries. Isn't the American way based on freedom of information and knowledge? So, I mean, the question really comes down to, do we want historical facts and details that are well-researched and published by experts, or do we want this kind of cherry-picked nationalism in thought? And to be

quite frank, the latter is petrifying. And we're seeing this kind of ideological attack happen in so many states. So we got some work to do. We got some work to do. I'm just laughing at them. I think they're crazy. All right, y'all. Gotta go to a break.

When we come back, we're going to talk about the Morehouse debate team saying, hey, y'all white folks want to sit here, play racist game with us? Yeah, we got this debate competition. We'll talk to the head of the debate team and one of its members next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. I believe that it's movement time again. In America today, the economy is not working for working people. The poor and the needy are being abused.

You are the victims of power, and this is the abuse of economic power. I'm 23 years old. I work three jobs. I work seven days a week. No days off. They're paying people pennies on the dollar compared to what they profit. And it is time for this to end. Essential workers have been showing up to work, feeding us, caring for us, delivering goods to us throughout this entire pandemic. And they've been doing it on a measly $7.25 minimum wage. The highest check I ever got was literally $291. I can't take it no more. You know, the fight for 15 is a lot more than about $15 an hour. This is about a fight for

your dignity. We have got to recognize that working people deserve livable wages. And it's long past time for this nation to go to 15 so that moms and dads don't have to choose between asthma inhalers and rent. I'm halfway homeless. The main reason that people end up in their cars is because income does not match housing costs. If I could just only work one job,

I could have more time with them. It is time for the owners of Walmart, McDonald's, Dollar General, and other large corporations to get off welfare and pay their workers a living wage. And if you really want to tackle racial equity, you have to raise the minimum wage. We're not just fighting for our families, we're fighting for yours too. We need this. I'm going to fight for it until we get it. I'm not going to give up. We just need all workers to stand up as one nation and just fight together.

Families are relying on these salaries, and they must be paid at a minimum $15 an hour. $15 a minimum anyone should be making just to be able to stay out of poverty. I can't take it no more. I'm doing this for not only me, but for everybody. We need 15 right now. I believe that people our age have lost the ability

to focus the discipline on the art of organizing. It takes all of y'all to represent your generation. The African proverb says, the young go fast, the elders know the way. That is so freaking dope. What a powerful combination. The challenges, there's so many of them, and they're complex. And we need to be moving to address them.

But I'm able to say, watch out, Tiffany. I know this road. Like you said, giving folks the wisdom and we can go fast together. Mm-hmm. It happens in a lot of spaces. I don't think it happens enough. Everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond.

Hi, my name is Bresha Webb and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. And, well, I like a nice filter usually, but we can be on filter. If y'all want to see that Janetta B. Cole, Tiffany Lofton interview, just simply go to my Facebook page, facebook.com forward slash Roland S. Martin fan page. We append it at the top. It's a conversation you do not want to miss, that intergenerational conversation.

All right, folks, let's talk about the drama at Morehouse. Award-winning members of Atlanta's Morehouse College speech and debate team suddenly pulled out the U.S. University's debating championship tournament in protest earlier this month. During the debate, which was being held on Zoom, the black debaters could see and hear white debaters from other colleges mocking them and using racist gestures and comments. Professor Kenneth A. Newby, the director of the debate team at Morehouse College, joins us right now. Doc, glad to have you.

So take us through, first of all, explain to people what is this national championship? Sure. This is the United States University's debating championship. It is the national championship for the British parliamentary debate format. And it's grown over the years to be the largest intercollegiate debate championship in the country. You regularly have over 200 teams competing from colleges and universities from around the country, everywhere from the University of Alaska to the University of Miami to Harvard, Yale, Brown, Morehouse, Spelman, you name it. So it's the movie The Great Debaters on Steroids.

Yeah, that's a fair characterization, although the format is a little bit unique because you don't have one team versus another team. In each debate round, you actually have four teams that compete against each other, and they don't compete for just a win. They compete for a ranking. So the teams are ranked in ordinal fashion from one to four in order of who did the best debating. All right. So y'all are participating in this debate. Your team is on Zoom. Then what happens? What I'm going to recount for you is my best explanation from what was told to me, because I wasn't in the debate room, the virtual room. I didn't have a chance

to observe it, and it wasn't recorded. So I didn't have a chance to even witness it on a rewatch to see what happened. But what was communicated to me by my students is that the other debaters that were in the round that they were debating against were engaged in inappropriate behavior, making inappropriate gestures, making anti-Black, mocking them, mocking their tonality, even when they were asking them questions in the debate. There's a procedure called points of information that allows you to interrupt a speaker to ask a question. And when they were doing that and having those interruptions, they were doing it in the most inappropriate ways. But then sort of the offensive behavior in their space didn't end there.

The debaters were also making arguments that were rooted in blackness, rooted in black examples to illustrate their points for evidence. And the judges at the end of the debate told them that they didn't give much credit. They discounted those examples maybe because they were unfamiliar with them and instead only credited the arguments from their white opponents. And so my debaters felt like that was a slap in the face, because now after being mocked, after suffering the gestures, after suffering sort of the anti-black conduct, then to have the judges sort of reinforce that by giving them a lower rank in the round, it was almost as if they were being rewarded for bad behavior. The decision to pull out, when your debaters came to you and they said this is happening,

did you try to talk them into staying or did you say your call? I did not try to talk them into staying. In fact, what happened was this, you got to understand, this is my best team for this school year. This is a team that won the competition at Vanderbilt University, that won the social justice national championship. And that two weeks before this tournament was in the final round at the Western Regional Championship with dozens of schools from the West Coast. So this is a top-tier team that had the ability to win the national title. So when they came to me with this issue and said, we don't want to debate in this tournament anymore, we filed an equity complaint based on

the conduct, and one of my debaters was literally incapable of even talking to me about it. His partner had to talk to me and relay the information. I knew it was a situation that we had to immediately take seriously. So what I told them was that this was not going to be your issue as individuals. This was going to be a team issue and that as a program, we're going to stand together and we're going to pull out this tournament, but we're also going to continue to demand that the tournament address the issues that you raised, as they promised to do. And did they, and have they? So what happened was they initially delayed addressing the issues. So I followed up with

what's known as the equity team at the tournament, who's the group that's charged with addressing the issues, and confirmed that they promised my team a public response, a statement to condemn the behavior and address that in front of the entire tournament. And they said they were working on it. And so while they were working on it, Morehouse drafted its own statement. I came back to him and said, do you have your statement? Are you ready? They said, we're still working on it. We said, well, you know, it's not acceptable to just continue the tournament as if nothing has happened when there is an important issue that you've acknowledged that you need to address and it's not being done.

So we demanded that they then post our statement. They refused. So we posted our statement ourselves and we asked other schools to stand in solidarity with us and to refuse to continue to debate in the competition until these issues of anti-blackness within this debate space were addressed. Are you satisfied? What more do you want to see done? No, I wouldn't say it's impossible to be satisfied yet because the problems haven't been solved. I mean, the problems started with a complaint from the Morehouse debate team, in which debaters from all over the country talked about their very important issues, talked about the issues of anti-Blackness that they had experienced at the tournament and writ large in the British parliamentary debate space. In particular, for example, there was an amazing contribution from the debaters from Spelman College who recounted

some of their experiences in the preliminary rounds of the debate. And the Spelman College debaters also called upon folks to join Morehouse and to pull out and to refuse to continue to debate in the tournament. And what happened was you saw a series of teams who were withdrawing from the tournament and saying, you know what, if Morehouse is not debating in this tournament any longer, neither are we. And that ultimately led to the cancellation of the tournament. Now, the fact that the tournament was canceled is in and of itself is not sufficient because that does not address the equity issues that were raised now, not just by Morehouse, but by numerous colleges and universities.

So that's the larger, more complicated challenge that we have to address as a debate community, how to deal with these issues, how to mitigate them, to prevent them from occurring in the debate space in the first place, and how to better address them when they do emerge. And those conversations are now starting to happen with coaches from around the country. Question. Brittany, you first. Yeah. So my first question is, how are judges picked for these debates? Like, is there any type of screening to make sure that they're well-versed on racial issues? Yeah. What's the process there? So the way, so the tournament's hosted this year by the university, by students from the University of Pennsylvania. Those students then select what's

known as a chief adjudication team. That chief adjudication team is responsible for managing all of the judges in the tournament. But the judges in the tournament are a mixture. They're a mixture of what we'll call institutional judges, in other words, judges that are provided by the colleges and universities that are in attendance. And then there are also judges that are recruited, so independent, who are called independent adjudicators. And those judges are recruited by the chief adjudication team. They come from a variety of places. They're often very experienced judges in terms of being skilled in judges. They have to submit judge CVs, which are considered. And then based on those judge CVs, they're selected and then provided subsidies to attend the tournament.

But in fact, one notable judge, a couple notable judges rather, who were attending from South Africa, noted that once they heard our issues, they were no longer going to continue to judge in the competition. In fact, they noted that Morehouse had previously stood with debaters from South Africa when they protested at the World University's debating championship in 2019, and they remembered that support and wanted to return it and stand with Morehouse in solidarity at this national championship. Xavier. Ken, what were the names of the institutions that were involved

in this egregious conduct? Are they disciplined in any way? And are there any procedures on the books to be able to address some of the behavior that they were involved in? And who is going to be involved if there is anything on the books to be able to address some of the behavior that they were involved in? And who is going to be involved if there aren't anything, if there is anything on the books, to be able to institute new policies to maybe to penalize teams that engage in conduct like we've seen here? Well, let me deal with all parts of those questions. So first, as far as the names, we don't really know the names.

The reason why we can't be sure of the names is because when teams are competing, they compete under pseudonyms. And the reason why they compete with this type of anonymity is you want to try to mitigate any bias that may come against the fact that you may have, say, Harvard University debating Atlanta Community College. You don't want Harvard to win just because they're Harvard. You want the debate to be decided based on the arguments. So we can't even specifically identify all of the teams that were in the round with us. But as far as the discipline goes, the tournament does have equity procedures. They're written procedures set up. They're not supposed to countenance or accept any kind of discriminatory behavior off of any protected class, such as race, for example,

or sex, that type of discrimination, whether it would be sexism, racism, any conduct of that matter is expressly prohibited under the tournament's policies. And the equity team is the team that is charged with addressing any complaints. And so that's why I highlighted the fact that my team filed an equity complaint, had their equity complaint investigated by this team. That team determined a response was warranted, but then didn't deliver the response that they should have delivered under their own policies, frankly. And that's why it was such a big deal to us at Morehouse, because if you're going to have a tournament and you're going to have rules and procedures, then you need to follow those rules and procedures.

And delaying addressing issues that are of urgency in terms of importance is just not acceptable. And if I could belabor that point for one moment, we didn't want anyone to continue debating in the tournament under the guise that that behavior was somehow acceptable. And that's what happens if the tournament doesn't say, hey, something inappropriate happened in this last round. We're not going to stand for it. We condemn that behavior. It's against our policies. And if it happens again with these people or continues, you will risk being removed from the tournament. That's the type of support that a tournament should offer to students who make these sort of complaints. All right, then. Well, a great job. Keep giving them hell.

And maybe Senator Tim Scott is watching and realized that there's still racism in America. Thanks. I appreciate it. Doc, thanks a lot. Okay. Take care. All right. Thank you very much. All right, folks, let's go to Illinois, where students had to evacuate Illinois High School

after a caller threatened to blow it up if a track coach did not lose her job for making a racist remark to a black student. During practice, the girl's P.E. teacher and track coach at Marion High School, Sarah Baker, allegedly called one of her 15-year-old runners a black, barefooted African from the third world. Hmm. Protesters marched to the school, demanding Baker's firing.

Baker is now on paid leave. In Pennsylvania, a school assignment about the trial of Derek Chauvin has upset many parents and students. A teacher asked students 10 questions about the case. Here are some examples. Should Chauvin have been charged with murder if he did not directly kill him because there was an amount of drugs in his system that then affected his heart? Another question, Chauvin did not follow protocol and had a knee on Floyd's neck for way longer than necessary. Floyd was resisting arrest, so why is Chauvin still considering breaking the law through negligence? Explain if you don't know what negligence is, then look up the word.

Students who felt uncomfortable were given an alternative assignment. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia released a statement saying in part, school administration immediately communicated with those families after reviewing the assignment in question to apologize and discuss a plan of action moving forward to address the concerns. Those families with whom school administration was in contact expressed that they were pleased with the plan resolution. Really? That's how we roll in, Xavier? I mean, this is just ridiculous.

I mean, calling someone an African booty scratcher, basically, in one instance. You have another instance that misapplies the facts and what the jury found in order to press upon students to be able to teach them something that's not true. Nelson Mandela said that no child is born hating. They have to be taught to hate. They have to be taught to love. And so educational institutions are the first place that people learn to be able to get along with each other and find more about the outside world. And if you're fostering hate within the educational environment, why are you teaching in the first place? Disgusting.

Brittany? Absolutely. I agree with everything that was just said. The violence that happens at these schools, at the hands of these ignorant and racist teachers, is rampant and constantly ongoing. To me, Roland, it's really not just about the teachers. There's a larger issue

with the administration and possibly with many of these school districts. What's scary is what with the administration and possibly with many of these school districts. What's scary is what is the screening process that allows folks with these types of beliefs and ideologies to get hired in the first place and do this type of psychological damage? And certainly, Catholic schools are not exempt from this type of behavior. I've been to a Catholic school myself. I was told all types of things. I'm only getting into college because of affirmative action. They couldn't play rap music at our prom

because the music was inappropriate. I mean, these things have been going on and I was in high school how long ago? So this is an ongoing problem, not just with the teachers, but with the schools themselves

and with the school district. Hey, folks, the man whose face went viral from the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia is out of a job. The Nevada National Guard expelled 24-year-old Peter Satanovich after uncovering his extremist affiliations.

A Defense Department background check revealed the FBI opened an investigation into his participation in the violent Charlottesville rally that resulted in one death and 19 injuries. Satanovich could not obtain a security clearance, and as a result, he got expelled from the armed forces. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry he lost his job. No, I'm not.

Speaking of losing a job, folks, this crazy-ass white woman in Virginia caught a video harassing her black neighbor, calling her not the right color. She lost her job, too. Roll it. They're so trash her job too. Roll it. I'm a what? I'm a nigga? I'm a what? I'm a what? You don't mind? You don't mind on my property? Laquetta Good, the black woman being yelled at, says the woman has called the police on her before to search her home for drugs because she assumed Good could not afford a house.

And the police did search her home. Good also says the incident was part of an ongoing problem due to their children not getting along. The woman was fired from her job at a local food bank. I just keep saying, Brittany, look, if all these crazy-ass white people, they want to keep acting a fool, we could end black unemployment.

Every time they get fired, black people should show up in mass applying for their job. Roland, I know that's right. I'm just glad they're getting fired left and right. These folks can't keep their jobs. We're going to pull out a camera. We're going to record you.

We're going to catch you. We're going to find you, and we're going to hold you accountable because, yeah, these folks are out of control. Every other time we turn around, there's some crazy foolishness happening, and on her property, too. This woman had the audacity to come on her property. Her property. I don't get, Xavier, how you

gonna call a cop and say, you don't think I can afford the house, so search my house for drugs. Oh, hell no, y'all ain't getting in the house. She should've came out and says, you about to lose your job. I think that they saw a president that

did whatever he wanted and was rewarded for it, and they think they can all be little versions of Donald Trump's, too. You don't have the same amount of money as him or the amount of power. You'll lose your job. Yeah, it's not going to work out well for you on that one. All right, folks, we told you, you go to our Facebook page, you can watch the conversation between Janetta B. Cole and Tiffany Lofton. Monday, Great discussion.

Ambassador Andrew Young and the co-founder of Black Voters Matter, Cliff Albright, is a sneak peek. ...watch this. Hopefully put another nail in the coffin of racism. You talk about awakening America. It led to a historic summer of protest. I hope our younger generation don't ever forget that nonviolence is soul force. Christ.

Folks, we have six weeks of this intergenerational conversation, so it is phenomenal. I certainly hope you guys can participate in watching it. So go to our Facebook page. It's going to be on Facebook and Instagram. Every single Monday it's going to be premiering, 11 a.m. on Monday. Looking forward to that. Hey, if you all want to support what we do,

please join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar you give goes to support the show and what we're able to do as we travel around the country, giving you the kind of perspective you're not going to get anywhere else. You can do so, of course, Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered,

Venmo.com forward slash rmunfiltered, Zelle is rolling at rollingsmartin.com, also rolling at rollingmartinunfiltered.com. You can also, of course, send us a money order to 1625 K Street, Northwest, Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 2006. Well, I certainly want to thank Dr. Greg Carr, Brittany, and Xavier for being on our panel today. Thank you so very much. That's certainly appreciated.

Folks, that is it for us. We shall see you tomorrow right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Don't forget, after the show here, we're going to actually restream President Joe Biden's rally in Duluth, Georgia today. And so you can look forward to that. As I said, go to our Facebook page, go to the top of the page. You'll see the conversation between Janetta B. Cole and Tiffany Lofton. It's amazing. In fact. Oh, I got to do one more thing. Sorry, sorry. So, I was, so I came into work today,

and so this woman, she dropped off her Bring the Funk fan club membership, y'all. I want y'all to see this here. And she was hanging around, waiting for me to speak, to give it to me. Her she was hanging around, waiting for me to speak, to give it to me. Her name was Camille Surratton. I believe she is, did you say she's Iranian or Iraqi?

I thought Henry told me that. So, it closes a small contribution to support the truthful journalism. And she actually, Henry, shot this video. Watch this. Come on, guys. All right, hold on. I'm going to fix that.

Hold on. She did do audio on here, so give me a second. I want to get this right here, y'all. I don't know why we don't have audio because it's on here. Let's see here. Go up here. Sound. You guys should have the sound.

Not sure why you don't have sound. It's telling me you have sound. Sounds all the way up. OK, guys, I don't know what's going on. OK, we got, I don't know why we're not hearing the sound. The sound's on the iPhone. So let me try it this way then. Fine. OK, since that ain't working, go to plan B.

Let's see if this works here. Give me a second y'all. This was pretty cute, so I wanted to go ahead and show it for y'all. Not sure why it's not picking up. Let's see if I can go ahead and play this. Henry sent this to me. Small donation to support you.

I support your show. I live in the neighborhood, so I didn't even rely on the post. I walked it over. Thank you. Now I'm running home I live in the neighborhood, so I didn't even rely on the post, I walked in over. Thank you, now running home to tune in to Roland Martin on filter. Okay. Let me run. Y'all, she literally was like,

no, I do not wanna miss the show. I wanna see the top of the show. And so she was like, I'm racing home. So Henry said, no, Roland will be here soon. She's like, mm-mm, I top of the show. And so she was like, I'm racing home. So Henry said, no, Rola will be here soon. She's like, mm-mm, I cannot miss the show. And so I appreciate her dropping off her Bring the Funk fan club. See, I told y'all. See, look, I appreciate all the folks who watch this show.

There are people who are Middle Eastern descent. There are people who are Asian, who are white, a Latino who watch the show. I appreciate folks, African-Americans and others. People understand that we're providing something that you're not getting, the level of honesty and the honest truth that other people are afraid to say. And so we appreciate everybody who watches the show, who supports us. And I'm telling you, your dollars are critically important.

Again, y'all, Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered. Our goal is real simple. We want to get 20,000 of our fans contributing a minimum of 50 bucks each. That's a million dollars a year to pay for what we do. We've got some amazing announcements coming up. I cannot wait to share them with you. You can support us again at Cash App, Dollar dollar sign RM Unfiltered, paypal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered, venmo.com forward slash rmunfiltered,

Roland at rolandsmartin.com. And I told y'all, if any of y'all are buying show gear, send us a photo and then we'll show the photo. We'll give you a special shout out. We will show the photo of you in your Roland bar unfiltered gear right here on the show. So thank you so very much. I shall see y'all tomorrow. Ha! A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways.

Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Sure. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of starts that a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We'll be right back. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here's the deal.

We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things.

Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. This is an iHeart Podcast.