#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Racist Cali. Cop texts threaten cases, Daunte Wright's girlfriend testifies, Maternal Mortality

Episode Date: December 10, 2021

12.09.2021 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Racist Cali. Cop texts threaten cases, Daunte Wright's girlfriend testifies, Maternal MortalityBecause of a LA Times investigation, hundreds of Southern California criminal cases could be dismissed after more than a dozen police officers exchanged racist and homophobic text messages.Emotional testimony continues today in the manslaughter trial of the former Minnesota cop who killed Daunte Wright. The woman riding with Daunte Wright tells the jury what happened after Kim Potter shot him.We'll tell you why redistricting is postponing North Carolina's 2022 elections.North Carolina is also shelling out millions for the wrongful conviction of a black man andan improper investigation of a murder in Massachusetts led to the release of another black man almost 30 years later.And, Texas passes a Critical Race Theory Law that Regulates how Teachers can teach about slavery and race in the classroom.We'll talk to the founder of The Highland Project, a nonprofit organization working to close the racial wealth gap with Black women.Plus, we'll talk to a Maternal Wellness Expert about the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, which aims to keep women alive during and after giving birth.I'm so excited! We will also have a very special guest tonight! You don't want to miss her, I mean them!  #RolandMartinUnfiltered partners: Coca-Cola | Enjoy every magical moment of the season together. Explore ways you can be closer to the ones you love with meals worth sharing, festive playlists, and more holiday magic from Coke®. 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3CQd3dXVerizon | Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, now available in 50+ cities, is the fastest 5G in the world.* That means that downloads that used to take minutes now take seconds. 👉🏾https://bit.ly/30j6z9INissan | Check out the ALL NEW 2022 Nissan Frontier! As Efficient As It Is Powerful! 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3FqR7bPAmazon | Get 2-hour grocery delivery, set up you Amazon Day deliveries, watch Amazon Originals with Prime Video and save up to 80% on meds with Amazon Prime 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3ArwxEh+ Don’t miss Epic Daily Deals that rival Black Friday blockbuster sales 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3iP9zkv👀 Manage your calendar, follow along with recipes, catch up on news and more with Alexa smart displays + Stream music, order a pizza, control your smart home and more with Alexa smart speakers 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3ked4liBuick | It's ALL about you! The 2022 Envision has more than enough style, power and technology to make every day an occasion. 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3iJ6ouPSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfilteredDownload the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com#RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Get a 5G phone on us with select plans. Every customer, current, new, or business. Because everyone deserves better. And with plans starting at just $35, better cost less than you think. It's Thursday, December 9th, 2021. I'm Recy Colbert sitting in for Roland. And here's what's coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Blackstar Network.

Because of a LA Times investigation, hundreds of Southern California criminal cases could be dismissed after more than a dozen police officers exchanged racist and homophobic text messages. Emotional testimony continues today in the manslaughter trial of the former Minnesota cop who killed Daunte Wright. The woman rioting with Daunte Wright tells the jury what happened after Kim Porter shot him. We'll tell you why redistricting is postponing North Carolina's 2022 elections. North Carolina is also shelling out millions for the wrongful conviction of a black man and an improper investigation of a murder in Massachusetts led to the release of another black man almost 30 years later. And Texas passes a critical race theory law that regulates how teachers can teach about slavery and race in the classroom. We'll talk to the founder of the

Highland Project, a nonprofit organization working to close the racial wealth gap with black women. Plus, we'll talk to a maternal wellness expert about Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, which aims to keep women alive during and after giving birth. I'm so excited. We also have a very special guest tonight. You don't want to miss her. I mean them. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. Let's go. out. Just for kicks he's rollin' Yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roro, yo Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin

Yeah, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah He's broke, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rollin' Martin Now know he's rolling Martel. Horrid, racist and homophobic texts among officers have led to the dismissal of several cases in California and more could be dismissed. According to the L.A. Times, current and former officers and recruits of the Torrance Police Department in Los

Angeles County traded hateful comments about people of color, particularly black people and Jewish people and members of the LGBTQ community. Here are a few examples. We had to fuck her up because we knew he wouldn't. Don't ask me where that lump on her forehead came from though. Sometimes you have got to do things your own damn self. Always make torrents great again. Savages. Since 2013, the officers identified by the Times have been involved in at least seven severe use of force incidents in Torrance and Long Beach, including three that ended in the deaths of black and Latino men. Jasmine Cannett, culture critic, joins me now from Los Angeles.

Hey, Jasmine, welcome to the show. Hi, Reesey. So can you give us a little bit more insight into what's been happening with these police officers? Do you know how they were exposed and how it got to this point to where these cases have been dismissed? I think the first thing to say is people need to understand that Torrance has a notorious reputation. It was a sundown town. And so for people who don't know what that means, it meant that if you were black or brown, when the sun went down, you needed to be out of town. And so the police department there, for the most part, still kind of operates like that. And, you know, we always hear about the

LAPD and the LA Sheriff's Department, but these smaller police departments in cities like Torrance are just as bad. And so what happened was two Torrance police officers were accused of painting swastikas on a car that they were told to tow. And in investigating that is what led to the sort of Pandora's box of all of, you know, the other communications and text messages that have been going back and forth between members of that department. Hold up, hold up. Let me hear if I got this right. You said they were painting swastikas on the cars that they were supposed to be towing? Yes. Okay. And so those allegations...

And it is 2021. And they're very bored to be doing that. Okay. And so did they find that those, that they were in fact guilty of that or did it just lead to this Pandora's box, as you said, that uncovered these other allegations? So that investigation, I believe, is still ongoing.

I think we can all make a reasonable assumption after hearing about it and reading the text messages that have been traded, not only between the two officers involved in allegedly painting the swastikas, but the rest of their colleagues that the swastikas were probably painted on the car. Right. So what about these officers? Have they been suspended yet? What is their status on the force at this point? So, you know, I'm not really sure what their status is. You know, I talked a lot on social media yesterday about the importance of identifying officers involved in this type of behavior. And for no other reason than they're being paid for with taxpayer dollars, which is public money, right?

So you weren't doing this on your off time at home in your street clothes, you know, maybe in your own personal car. No, you're doing this in a uniform, in a car that's paid for by the people you are supposed to be looking out for. So anytime you have this type of behavior and it was done on the public's dime, I am a strong proponent of naming those officers. And this is what we talk about when we talk about changing the culture inside of police departments and sheriff's departments, right? And so I tell people all the time, some of them don't like to hear it, but if we keep telling our sons and daughters not to go

into law enforcement, these are the people who go into law enforcement. Their sons and daughters go into law enforcement. And so we keep the tradition going on and on. And so as long as that continues and there are no meaningful consequences for this type of behavior. And when I say meaningful, I mean, you lose your pension, you lose your job, you can be held criminally liable and civilly liable, right? We know that people really care when you hit them in their pocketbook, right? As long as that is not the norm, I think we can expect to continue to see this type of behavior because unions, between the unions and the laws that are in place, you know, these types of cops oftentimes get protected. And what we see happen is they will get suspended, they will sue the city for reverse discrimination, and then the taxpayers will end

up paying them $100,000 for being racist. Right, right. Well, do you know of any protests that have happened to try to, like you said, uncover who the officers are or to take any action against these particular officers? Well, most of the officers were named in the LA Times report, so there's not really a secret there. I think only five weren't named. Okay. But the local chapter of Black Lives Matter here in Los Angeles has been protesting the Torrance Police Department for three years, ever since the death of a young black man in Torrance in 2018. And they, you know, some of the cops involved in this scandal were the cops that were involved in killing him. And so I think a lot of, I think his family and a lot of the members of our local chapter at BLM feel vindicated, right, in knowing that they weren't off-basis in terms of the accusations that the officers in Torrance are

racist. I think it's really clear that they are. I think a lot more cases are going to be thrown out. I think that not only, you know, charges that the local city attorney may bring, may have been bringing, but I think our district attorney, George Gaston, his office is going to be dismissing a lot of charges because these are, again, officers that go to court and sit before the jury, you know, and swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. So help me God. Right. And now, you know, we know exactly how they feel, particularly about black people, but also the LGBTQ community as well.

Right. I mean, you mentioned that Black Lives Matter has been protesting, but what has been the response from the LGBTQ community or from the Jewish community since there were text messages found that were disparaging them as well? Have you heard of anything? Well, I'm black and gay, so I mean, we don't necessarily separate. I mean, we don't always separate but right right you know i think again you know i you know for the most part a lot most of these you have to understand most of these um text messages and stuff were about black people the majority of them right and i know that you put a few of them up on your screen those weren't even the worst ones at all um there was one for example that had that had a Christmas tree ornament, a candy cane, and a star on top of the tree, and an enslaved person.

And the question was, which one doesn't belong? And the officer wrote, you don't hang a star. Wow. Right. Wow. I just want to make it clear, what's happening, what's happened in Torrance, what's going on in Torrance is not just a Torrance issue. We have this issue in the LAPD. We have this issue in our sheriff's department. We have this issue in other police departments. This is a culture thing inside of our police departments within this country.

This is not just a California or a Los Angeles thing. This is something that's been going on a long time ago. Sorry, a long time. And I think what most of us are surprised about, not what was said, it's just the fact that something is actually happening, that there's actually an investigation, that there actually may be some repercussions, some discipline, something serious where people may actually lose their jobs. I think that's more of the surprise that I have, more than knowing that they, because this isn't new to many of us. Like, okay, yes, they, yes. I mean, in some cases, they don't, they talk to us like that. So, you know, yeah.

So, I mean, can you give us any insight into the potential cases that can be dismissed? I mean, what is the criteria? Are they going to be looking at reviewing cases from these particular officers, or is there something else that they're going to be using to determine which cases to review? Well, I'm not in the DA's office or the city attorney's office, but I have to imagine that these officers are going on the Brady list. I have to imagine that every arrest that they made that resulted in criminal charges being filed against particularly someone who was Black is going to be reexamined. And as we've already seen, cases have already been dismissed. And it'll be interesting to see if this also results in people who are maybe in jail or in prison

either get their sentences reduced or get released altogether due to this. Okay. Well, thank you so much, Jasmine, for joining us and giving us insight into this L.A. Times and Torrance story. We will definitely have you back again with more developments. Thanks, Tracy. Let's bring in the panel. All right, let's bring in the panel. We have joining us, as usual, Dr. Carr, Department of Afro-American Studies of Howard University, and Farraju Muhammad, radio and TV host. Hey, guys, thanks for joining us tonight. And you guys, like me in TV host. Hey, guys.

Thanks for joining us tonight. And you guys, like me in this host chair, what y'all think? You look fantastic. You are doing the thing. Recy, fantastic. Yes. Right. Recy, y'all looking all serious, not even trying to crack a smile.

She's just looking all serious like, oh. I'm cracking a smile right now. I couldn't go without saying, hey, look at me now. No question. Anyway, sorry, but let's get back serious again. Okay, so let's talk about this story. I'm going to go to you, Dr. Carr, because we always want to hear from you first on this.

You know, California is actually supposedly more progressive. They've passed legislation to try to make police officers more accountable. What is your take just on the text messages that are found and the swastika, for goodness sakes? What in the world is going on in Torrance? Police are doing their job, protect and serve. I mean, except not to protect and serve us. You know, it's very interesting. In 1992, after the Rodney King beating, a professor at Stanford University, Cuban-Jamaican sister by the name of Sylvia Winter, wrote a long letter called No Humans Involved. And she talked about the fact that in the LAPD, when they would respond to calls involving Black folk, they would frequently say over the radio, NHI, no humans involved.

And she quotes Stephen Jay Gould, the social scientist who says that, you know, systems of classification direct our thinking and our behavior. So when you label us as falling outside the universe of obligation, in other words, we're not human, whether it be a swastika, whether it be the N-word, whether it be the nooses or the hanging. What you're basically saying is, we're not here to protect and serve you. You're not human. There are no humans involved.

So I encourage, actually, L.A. law enforcement to continue doing what they're doing, because this will finally perhaps wake us up to the fact that policing cannot be reformed. They are doing what they were put in place to do. And I think until we understand that reforming really isn't the way, I thought about it finally, looking at Sister Jasmine there, her bookshelf, she had a book behind her, Daughters of the Dust by the great filmmaker Julie Dash. One of Julie Dash's classmates at UCLA was the great Charles Burdette, the filmmaker Charles Burdette and Haley Garima. They called it the L.A. Rebellion, all those filmmakers.

Charles Burdett made a film called The Glass Shield. Remember that? Ice Cube was in it, playing a cop and the sheriff's office out there in L.A. Changing the color of the police is not going to change the attitude of the police. This is an attitudinal problem. The police have to be abolished and remade because they are doing what they are supposed to do. I think that's what we have to get through

our heads. Abolish the police. Faraji, your response to what Dr. Carr had to say and to the Torrance department. I mean, this is an absolute tragedy because when you're talking about hundreds of cases possibly being jeopardized because of some of the actions of some officers.

I mean, I'm thinking about from the victims of those cases of those incidents. You know, when we talk about just people letting out people out of prison, I'm thinking about the families that have been impacted, the families of the victims, the families of the perpetrator. I'm just thinking about trying to get a better sense of the whole thing. And I totally agree with Dr. Carr. This is an attitude problem. This isn't not, we always talk about, oh, it's training. This is, you know, maybe they didn't know better. These are grown-ass men and women. And these are grown-ass white men at that. They know better, but they don't care. Because as Sister Jasmine said, Torrance is a sundown type of town.

That's the culture of the town. So if you want to look at how to change the attitude of the police department, you know what we should start doing? Instead of leaving it on the police department and hoping and wishing upon the start that things will change, we should change the attitude on how we deal with one another. And then that way, once we change the attitude on how we see each other in the black and brown community, how we interact with one another, when the police come into the presence, they come in in, we know what they are already, what type of mindset they are in. So we're come... If they come in, if they're called in,

it's on a situation of no other, uh, options were available that we had to bring the police in. But just bringing them in, and a lot of these calls, if you look at calls not just in California, but in Baltimore, wherever you are, calls are being made to the police like, I don't know, like you call in a pizza delivery company. You know what I'm saying? Like, people are always calling the police in black and brown communities. As much as the crazy part, the irony is, we call the police even though we know the police will come there, whip our ass, shoot us, do all types of harm to us,

we still have a reliance on the police more on them than we do on changing our attitude and behavior within ourselves. Right, Faraji. I mean, some people do use the police as a personal concierge service, but the reality is that we do need the police to do what they're supposed to do, which is serve and protect. And that's why people are left with no choice sometimes to call the police. But the good news, at least if there is any good news in the story, is that the families or the people who have been victim to this to these discriminating police officers will have their cases reviewed. There's some breaking news that I want to bring you all in on. The breaking news that we have is that Jesse Smollett has been convicted, has been found guilty on

five counts. So Calvert and House, innocent. Jesse Smollett, guilty. Now, I understand, you know, it looked bad for Jesse. It definitely looked bad. However, the standard of proof is supposed to be beyond a reasonable doubt.

And I don't know. I've lived in Chicago for five years, four years, almost five years, and there were all kinds of murders and shootings that went completely unanswered. And so for me, I just feel a way about this black man being brought before a jury. I feel like it was excessive prosecutorial charges that were brought to him and being convicted in an environment where we have white nationalists running rampant and getting away with murder, literally. I'm not saying that Jesse, if he is, you know, he's been convicted, but I'm not saying, you know, you just let black people do whatever,

but all I'm saying is it just stings a little bit more when you see a person who has gunned down three people and murdered two of them walk away. Now he's doing his press tour like he's some sort of celebrity, and yet a Black man who maintains his innocence, by the way, has now been convicted guilty on five counts. Dr. Carr, your reaction to the Jussie Smollett verdict? I mean, I'll say it again. I'll keep saying it. This isn't a nation. So it happens that the United States of America occupies most of the North American

continent. But we're talking about a white nationalist judge and legal system in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a settler colonial bunch of hunter-patter-roller cowboys in Southern California amped up on a field of violence in terms of the idea of law enforcement. And I agree, we do need some form of public safety. I think policing as a concept can't be fixed. Public safety might be the option. But what we saw, what we see today in Chicago is perhaps the closest we might get to a question of all human beings being involved in deliberating, applying the law to the facts, and letting the chips fall where they may. A black prosecutor, remember Kim Foxx, they expended resources in Chicago. I think the tragedy is that if that had been in the previous story, Southern California,

then perhaps Jussie Smollett, who ostensibly engaged in this behavior because of fear as a result of his sexual orientation and having been harassed and threatened, might literally have been a subject of violence at the hands of the police, at least if we take what they were saying out there at their work, and I do at their work. But in Chicago, whatever his motivation was for doing this, if in fact he did indeed do it, it led him to an act of ostensible desperation that has now seen a jury, prosecutors, as you say, it may be overreach. Maybe we spent money. We could have been spending money trying to deal with these murders and other things.

But we spent money on this. So now we're going to get together. And so finally, we will now see what the judge does, because while he might get three years, you know, people are saying he might get suspended sentence and public service. So, I mean, perhaps now the verdict will lead to a lesson learned because hate crimes are a real thing in this country. And we have to be very careful when, you know, if you're desperate like that, bruh, we got to figure out how to surround you, but don't do that. Yeah. I mean, a lot of people obviously rallied to Jesse Smollett's defense when the horrific news came out. I mean, national politicians, celebrities of all course, regular people like us, you know, supported him. I'm going to stick beside him. I don't care if I'm guilty or not guilty. I'm going to stick beside him.

But the reality is, you mentioned Kim Foxx. I mean, she was attacked relentlessly because she did not want to pursue charges. This was not a Kim Fox decision to pursue these charges. In fact, they had actually worked out a deal to where, you know, there were no charges that were going to be brought. And then they came back and decided to charge him anyway. So I definitely think that, you know, this could have been handled a different way, but they wanted to make an example out of him. Faraji, the jury deliberated for nine hours over two days. As Dr. Carr said, he's potentially facing three years in prison. Does the punishment potentially fit the crime that he's been convicted of?

This is a hard one. And here's the dilemma that I'm personally feeling in regards to this situation. The dilemma is, you know, you see a black man, you don't want to see him go to prison. Right? It's just that simple. You don't want to see a black man prosecuted for some craziness and some foolishness. But then the other side of the story is, he did this. I mean, he really did do this. Like, he really did set up a situation where he created this whole hoax.

He's hired these brothers and the whole nine. He did this. So I think the worst part of it, and Dr. Carter, I think this is one of the big points that you were talking about as well as you, Recy. I think the worst part of it is that it struck on so many levels in terms of the hate crime, him being black, him being gay. You know, and I mean, it's just not something to play with. Even in 2019, when this incident happened, you know, President Trump was still in office.

Like, it just wasn't the right time. And I think it was absolutely selfish for him to take the extreme measure that he took to put this, to bring this whole thing together. And then you want public sympathy. And you want the people to rally around you. And it's like, bruh. You know,

and I might be wrong recently, I might, and Dr. Carr, but I read that he did this because he was trying to get a pay raise. You know what I mean? Like, he felt like he wasn't being appreciated by Fox and Empire and all of that. And it's like that level of selfishness. You know, our people are already dealing with so many things right now. Black members of the LGBTQIA community, black folks in general, we're already dealing with so many things right now.

The last thing we need is somebody to take something very, very serious, like a hate crime, and then create a showcase around it. So that way, the next person who has a legitimate crime being committed against them, how do we know that in Chicago they might not say, oh, this could be a Jesse Smollett situation? We don't know. We don't know. That's the risk that we're taking with this.

But we know as black people in America, it takes an excessive and exorbitant amount of trauma to be paraded on video just to be believed in the first place. And so I don't think that Jesse Smollett, whatever you want to call it, his situation, although if he is in fact guilty, he's been convicted, I'm a stick beside him, he innocent as far as I'm concerned. But even if he did do it, I will say this, the country has moved on from the January 6th insurrection and that just happened in 2021. So I think that we can all move on from a 2019 incident that may or may not have been a hoax.

But we have to go to a break still to come on Roland Martin Unfiltered. We go back into the courtroom for the trial of Kimberly Potter, the former Minnesota police officer who thought she was firing her taser when she killed Daunte Wright. Today, his girlfriend who was in the car with him tells the jury what she saw the day a traffic stop went wrong. We'll be right back after the break. This is the Roland Martin Unfiltered Show on the Black Star Network. Stay with us. ТРЕВОЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА Субтитры создавал DimaTorzok Betty is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now, she's free to become Bear Hug Betty. Settle in, kids. You'll be there a while.

Ooh, where you going? I'm Chrisette Michelle. Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. October 20th, 2021 was the last time Kiana Macon's family was in contact with her in LaPlace, Louisiana. The 47-year-old mother is 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighing about 220 pounds, with black hair and short afro and brown eyes. She sometimes wears wigs. She has a scar on the back of her leg from a motorcycle accident. Kiana was known to drive a blue Ford Mustang. Her car was found in Kiln, Mississippi,

about 85 miles east of LaPlace, Louisiana. Anyone with information on Kiana Macon's whereabouts should call St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana's Sheriff's Office at 985-359-8763. More compelling testimony today in the Kimberley Potter murder trial. The jury heard from several witnesses, but the most compelling of the day, a firsthand account from the witness who was in the car with Daunte Wright at the time of the shooting, Wright's girlfriend, Elenaaina Albrecht-Payton.

I just remember hearing just the boom, the bang of the gun. And then I remember just looking up and seeing another white car like coming directly towards us. I remember lifting up my hand real quick and it just opened. I just, I can't tell if it was before or after, but I just remember trying to just get him up. I think I was the only one who had everybody there. I was trying to help him. I was trying to push on his chest and call his name.

He wasn't answering me. He was just gasping. Just take breaths of air. So, I just remember being walked out of like a car. As I was driving westbound, I was probably a block and a half away when I observed, I could see the flashing lights of Officer Lucky's squad car.

I observed a white Buick take off from that traffic stop at a high rate of speed. It crossed the eastbound lane onto the westbound lane, essentially coming directly head-on at me, and it collided with a vehicle in front of me, sir. And could you give the cross streets of where you saw that collision take place? Approximately 63rd and Catherine Drive, sir. Was that a startling observation for you at that time?

Yes, sir. What did you do when you saw that crash? I immediately got on the radio. I asked, I notified the dispatcher that I had a PI accident or personal injury accident stemming from a flea from the traffic stop. I asked for an ambulance to come immediately to the area. The vehicle, after it hit the car in front of me, the car that it hit went to my left or basically south and stopped. The car that, the Buick basically hit the car and came to a rest on the corner of 63rd and Catherine in the northwest corner. It had heavy front end damage. It was heavily tinted. Because it was a fleeing vehicle from a traffic stop and it was a felony crime,

I took my handgun out and pointed it at the vehicle. I ordered everyone in the vehicle to put their hands up even though I couldn't see. I thought that I missed them, but then I was spinning around in the highway, and of course the surprised that no one was coming to help me. Who was your, Adante Wright, was he the one driving the other car? Yes. And he's the one that hit you head on pretty much, correct? Right. And you asked if he had insurance, correct? Probably. I don't know. I have it in a statement. Okay. Okay. That's all I have.

Thank you, ma'am. Okay. Is there a redirect? Really interesting testimony there. Dr. Carr, you know, what you said earlier, no humans involved, really has, you know, stuck with me through listening through this testimony. A difference with the Daunte Wright trial is that he actually has people to testify, like his girlfriend who was in the car and gave that heart-wrenching, gut-wrenching testimony to humanize him. Do you think that that will have any impact on the trial? And what's your reaction to the things that, the testimony you just heard? Well, in the North Star state of Minnesota, where the pat-a-rollers run free, like the rest of the country, if passed as prelude, it won't have any effect. Because it was only four years ago,

we all remember Diamond Reynolds. Diamond Reynolds, who, with her four-year-old daughter in the back seat, was in the car when the patiroler Geronimo Yanez killed Philando Castile. Right. Her testimony elicited great tears, too.

And they let that white boy, that, yeah, Hispanic, that pataroller, again, the color of the pataroller really doesn't matter. But they let that pataroller go, and one of the juries said, well, he's an honest guy. We went on his word that it was

a mistake. After he emptied his clip to the tune, I think it was nine shots in the Philando Castile. So, you know, if past is prelude, then it isn't going to matter. And what we saw there, finally, we see three things at work. We see the law, meaning that officer is saying, you know, by the law, I had to draw my weapon because of X, Y, Z. And then you see policy, his training, and the defense of the killer, Kim Potter, is going to be following their policy. And then we see, as you just brought up,

the humanity involved. Here's this white woman who was harmed by Kim Potter, who's shot Daunte Wright, which is why the car hit her. And she says, I was wondering when anyone was coming to see about me. At that time, the police hadn't even radioed in that this white killer had shot this man. But there's

only one human, well, there's actually two humans involved, this lady and her husband. But ain't nobody else there human. So, no, I don't expect that she'll be convicted if the jury gives her the human benefit of the doubt, also known in the law as the reasonableness standard. What would a reasonable person do?

Did she follow her training? What was the law? And, you know, we may be seeing that Kim the killer will walk and join the rest of her pata roller family. Hmm. Ooh. Faraji, your reaction? You know, as much as that emotional testimony, T,

was heart-wrenching and just like a gut punch, you know, I'm going to stay optimistic, Recy. I'm going to say that this will lead to a situation where we may see a conviction from Kim Potter. The only reason is because I fall on the fact that she is a, she's been a member of this force for many years and that the whole taser pulling the taser situation not knowing where your taser is on your belt that you have worn day in and day out and then you know being surprised and oh i shot him and all of that i mean that's just baloney to me that's just baloney to me. That's just baloney to me.

And, you know, I think they're going to make her an example out of her because this case is so high profile. This case is up there with the other cases that we've often talked about. So I think that for this, it's not going to be, I think that they're going to have a strong case against her because she should have known better. Her judgment should have been better. And more importantly, she should have known where the damn taser was on her belt. Absolutely. Two different perspectives.

Dr. Carr, on brand, on par with what we expect. And Faraji, a surprising amount of optimism there. But the reality is. I'm going to stay optimistic on this one. I want to believe, Reesey. I want to believe that somewhere justice is going to prevail. To quote that juror, when Geronimo Yanni has killed Philando Castile, he's an honest guy.

We went on his word. Patience and them white tears coming out the face of Kim Potter when she said, I made a mistake. The jury. Watch the jury. We will stay tuned for this important story. But moving on to the next story in North Carolina, a jury awards a man $6 million after being wrongfully imprisoned for 23 years. Daryl Howard was convicted of the killing of a mother and daughter in 1991, but new DNA evidence suggested that he wasn't responsible.

Howard was released in 2016. In Massachusetts, James Lucien spent 27 years in prison for what the court is calling a wrongful murder and armed robbery conviction. Lucien was serving a life sentence in connection to the 1994 fatal shooting, but new evidence found the police conducted an improper investigation leading to Lucien's release. Dr. Carr, we have this discussion every week. Every week we are talking about black men wrongfully convicted, overzealous prosecutions. What is your reaction to these two stories? Well, I mean, as you always say, Risa, you remind us and we're constantly reminded in this space that we must be involved in organizing and using every tool to try to prevent these kind of things.

If they hadn't organized and elected a different district attorney in Los Angeles, then we wouldn't see this investigation into these convictions in Southern California. And here, in this instance, you've got prosecutors who are willing to go in and reexamine this case. Now, these cases, now, in North Carolina, 23 years, in Massachusetts, 27 years, as you say, they gave the man a $6 million settlement in North Carolina. He says that's not enough. Of course, it's not enough. But here's the thing.

At the end of the day, we are faced with this problem. The police are invisible. In other words, they have the protection of the benefit of the doubt. So in the Massachusetts case, when the family says, you know, we don't want him to be released because we're seeking justice. Hold on. As the guy said, you shouldn't be mad at this man. You should be mad at the police. But even when the police aren't making mistakes, there are black women and black men who are in prison,

and not just black women and black men, but this is a black show. We're talking about our people first, who are incarcerated because the police are hunting. They are not agents of justice. They are not agents of equity or equal justice under the law. They are an armed force that has one job and one job only, to protect those who deserve protection in this society, and we fall outside of that definition.

So they do whatever the hell they wanna do. And when you... And rather than let somebody in jail, this family said, keep him in jail even if he didn't do it. That is the assumption. It's the real criminals in this, the patty rollers, the police, even when they quote-unquote make a mistake, they are still not displaced as the authority. And until we deal with that, then we're just going to keep counting. It's death watch studies at this point. Right. Dr. Carr, Faraji, earlier Jasmine mentioned the Innocence Project and Dr. Carr just mentioned how prosecutors are the ones who are taking a second look at these cases.

We know that the Innocence Project takes on a small fraction of the cases that come their way. Do you think that we should be pushing more? I mean, we talk a lot about different criminal justice legislation, but do you think we should be pushing more for prosecutors to take this as part of their portfolio across the country? Absolutely. I mean, absolutely. Prosecutors, and, you know, it's like here in Baltimore, prosecutors are, you know, they're voted by the people. And, you know, we, you know, our prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby, state's attorney, Marilyn Mosby,

you know, she's always, I mean, since she got into office, she's been under fire for a lot of different things, right? But the point is, is that they are voted into office by the people. And I think one of the big successes for her, for example, and when you're talking about prosecutors, is being able to connect to the people and to speak their language, and most importantly, to stand on those cases that often we don't hear prosecutors about. Prosecutors make a world of difference when you're talking about these police brutality cases, when you're talking about wrongful conviction cases.

They make a world of difference. We don't—and look, I know we have some enlightened, brilliant, you know, folks that watch this show. They tune in. They're checking in on our YouTube and our Facebook page and everything. But they know that prosecutors, they will either, you know, they will win. They will create a situation for us to win or for us to lose. Prosecutors are so powerful.

I think, Dr. Carr, you can agree with me on this. Prosecutors are so powerful, they can set us, they can take us forward in history or set us back. That's how serious the prosecution is. So when you have groups like the Innocent Project, where they are already organized, they have the infrastructure, they got the network,

they got the resources, you know what pushes them over the edge, which gives them the, they become a tipping point? It's us, the people. And when the people are not informed, when the people are not educated, when the people are not in a place to see beyond themselves, then we're going to constantly have these problems. The fact that we're having police problems, the fact that we have wrongful conviction problems, is that that's a reflection of where we see ourselves, that we don't see another black

man who is suffering and languishing inside of a jail for 23 years, we don't see him to be important. We don't see a black woman who's pulled over by the police and she's suffering because she can't pay for, you know, qualified defense attorney. We don't see that as important. Again, this goes back to us because I'm personally tired of always expecting the system to change when we have really no power over the system. What we have power over, my grandmother, my mother, my father have always taught, you got power over your own actions. You got power over your own behavior. And at this point, I think we need to shift that paradigm from looking at the system to looking at the people because the system comes out of the mind of men and women.

Powerful words and advice there, Faraji. We have so much more to come on Roland Martin Unfiltered, and there's one surprise that I can't wait to share with you all. But first, redistricting is forcing one state to postpone its 2022 elections, and the fast-track debt ceiling plan is headed to the president's desk. And later, we're taking a look at maternal and infant mortality. Roland Martin Unfiltered will be right back after this break. You're watching the Black Star Network. Alexa, play our favorite song again. Okay. I only have eyes for you. Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches!

I'm real revolutionary right now. Black power! Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roland. Be black! I love y'all! All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal.

See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scape. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Yo, it's your man Deon Cole from Black-ish and you're watching... Roland Martin, unfiltered.

Stay woke. The Senate voted to break a filibuster and advance a fast-track debt limit plan. To meet the 60-vote minimum, Democrats needed Republican support, and they got it, thanks to a deal between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The final tally was 64 to 36. Fourteen Republican senators crossed the aisle to vote with Democrats. The fast-track process plan would allow Senate Democrats to raise the federal debt limit without help from Republicans.

The final vote on the plan hasn't been scheduled yet. A federal judge denies the state of Georgia's motion to dismiss a voting rights lawsuit as hundreds of protesters participate in the across-the-nation rally around the U.S. Today, civil rights groups and activists demonstrated action in several states, including California, New York, Virginia, and Georgia. Several events featured marches and a funeral for the U.S. democracy in New York. This comes as President Joe Biden hosts his Global Democracy Summit. But organizers say we can't promote democracy abroad if we can't maintain it here in the country. The North Carolina Supreme Court moved state primary elections from March 2022 to May 2022 because of political redistricting map lawsuits.

The lawsuits are challenging the congressional and state legislator maps that favor Republicans. After the 2020 census, an additional congressional seat was added. Republicans have an advantage in nine of the 14 seats. The previous map gave Democrats at least five seats. North Carolina has a long history of gerrymandering, and in 2019, a case was heard before the Supreme Court. Let me bring in the panel, Dr. Carr, I'm very interested to hear your take in particular about this fast track debt ceiling vote, because essentially what it is, it's a workaround, the all powerful,

all, you know, encompassing filibuster, the Jim Crow filibuster. What is your take on Mitch McConnell striking a deal to raise the debt ceiling with 50 votes, which is essentially a filibuster carve out? Well, it does no good to be a white nationalist if you don't have a country to be a white nationalist in. And at this moment in world history, with the geopolitics that are playing their way, the right wing rising in Europe, particularly places like Poland and France, with the transition of power in Germany, with China continuing to expand, even as it's kind of paring back some of its ambition, the last thing the United States must do is run broke on the second week of December. So Mitch McConnell, a good nationalist, understands that this, I think, has less to do with domestic issues than foreign issues. And so kicking this can down the road and the deal that they struck allows two things to happen. Number one, it allows them to get perhaps to the midterm elections in November, where

the white nationalist party, through redistricting and voter suppression, hopes to take the federal legislature. And the other thing it allows to do is to blame the Democrats for the debt, which is why they will be now allowed to do this on their own. So there's really no loss in this. I mean, McConnell understands if the country goes broke two weeks into December, this is not going to play well in terms of the United States continuing shrinking status in the world. Right. Right. I mean, that's a great point. I mean, politically speaking, even though the Republicans have run up the debt with that Trump tax scam, it's always easier to blame the Democrats for debt because people have the notion that Democrats are tax and spend liberals, for instance. Faraji, though, do you think, though, that this does open up the door for further pressure like

the rallies that we've seen across the country today towards the Democrats to actually at least do a filibuster carve out for voting rights legislation? Oh, yeah, no doubt. No doubt at all. And look, let's just keep it real, Reesey and Dr. Carr. The fact remains that black folks are tired of Democrats. I mean, let's just look at it. If black folks are tired of the Democratic Party, if you were to go in, check in into any of our, you know, Facebook, YouTube, and just look at the comments, people are really upset. And if we keep playing these games, I mean, look, the redistricting is a major, major tool. Dr. Carr and Risa, y'all both know that when you can determine the boundaries of a given areas, that that shifts the politics game, you know, it just puts it out of proportion because, one, redistricting talks about resources to particularly neighborhoods and communities. It's talking about where money is going or how money is allocated.

It's talking about the population. So that gives whoever is going to be representing those areas more power. I mean, there's a lot at stake at this. So if we're playing the game, if the Democrats are trying to play this game while the Republicans are trying to gain power, it's two different pages that both of these parties are working on. And guess what? We're going to be the losers. We are the, when two elephants are rustling and tussling in the jungle. The grass is the one that lose. We're the grass, okay? We are losing. And guess what?

Here's the thing, and Dr. Carr, you're talking about Mitch McConnell. This is the part of the American history I don't think that those, any one of those jokers ever think about, that somebody is going to rise up, that there may be some rebellion that's going to rise up, that there may be some rebellion that's going to emerge

because people are at a breaking point in this country, that politics is just nothing but a scam. Politics is all about getting your name and getting reelected. Politics, I mean, people are going to say enough and enough. By the time 2024 gets around, I think we're going to see a different electorate. We're going to see different constituents that's going to come out to the polls. It's going to be a different scenario for this country.

Even when 2022 around, as much as we talk about the midterms, let's see if people come out to actually vote. Because why? The disappointment, dissatisfaction is at such a high level, it's going to bring about a universal change. And if the people are finally saying, I'm not even going to vote, even though I have voted in the past 10 elections or whatever the case may be, people are going to say enough is enough. I'll watch this thing crumble because what's the point? If my vote is not going to change my reality, so why should I even invest in putting something in the ballot box? And I don't think that's a bad place to be in because we got to get through a very authentic and honest place to get to the place where we can finally get some gains from this political system.

Ooh, Faraji, okay, you gave a lot to chew on there, so I'm going to try to address that. I'm just thinking, I'm just talking to my two favorite panelists. That's all I'm doing tonight. I know, I know, right? I love it. But let me just, I agree with many of the points that you made. I mean, I do think that there is a level of dissatisfaction

that's really quite divorced from if you just look at the metrics, right? Unemployment is at a record low. Even black unemployment is down. Even black woman unemployment is down. Inflation is high, which is obviously super alarming. But you look at how much more money people are getting if you have kids, hundreds of dollars a month per child. And yet the results, the massive infrastructure package that passed, the different stimulus packages, there's a variety of things that have been really positive. But the sentiment is not aligning with the results. And my theory part of that is the way that black people in particular are targeted with disinformation and misinformation and with, again, trying to tap into that sentiment of dissatisfaction.

And so when you look at a lack of progress on voting rights legislation or on criminal justice legislation, I think that's where the sentiment is kind of getting further and further apart from what the results are. And that's why the discussions that we have on Roland Martin Unfiltered and the Black Start Network are so important, because we do talk about substantive things in addition to the sentiment aspect of politics as it relates to Black people. Okay, so I got all that out. But the reality is that Democrats absolutely have to bring results, and they have to bring results to the Black community on things that we care about. And then you have to message their results because if you do it and nobody knows about it, then you ain't really going to get the benefits from it. And so we have to find a way in 2022 to keep the black electorate engaged because they're not going to be

less democratic per se, but they might be less engaged to your point for Raji. So there are a lot of different challenges that we have. But I mean, Dr. Carr, you always say that, you know, this is this is a variety of things in particular about how we are kind of unraveling as a nation. But do you think that we can afford to check out of the process, even when we aren't so satisfied with the progress on certain issues that we care about? That's a difficult question, Recy. Woo! My friends who would consider themselves revolutionaries and radicals,

and sometimes they don't like, they bristle when I call them cosplay revolutionaries because I don't see them with the strap in the bush yet, will certainly have to consider the fact that, as you say, Faraji, if we disengage in this process, then it is going to end up in a very different kind of conflict. As I say, we can never underestimate the stupidity of the American people who live in this country. You can't. The disinformation you talk about is absolutely real.

It is weaponized ignorance. And what we have is two issues involved. We have intrastate battles and we have interstate battles, federalism. The intrastate battles that you talked about today with this North Carolina gerrymandered case, I mean, and you mentioned the Rucho v. Common Cause case in 2019 where the Supreme Court, looking at Wisconsin in particular, says, you know, partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal court. Well, you know, John Roberts, a good white nationalist, now having been joined by several other white nationalists, are more than willing to, absolutely nothing except citizenship, which is a political

status, not a cultural status. What Mr. Roberts doesn't seem to understand, and he's shown his ass in just about every case involving having to have some sense of what it means to have national identity, whether it be the voting rights case, whether it be adoptive couple versus baby girl, the Native American case, the Indian Child Welfare Act. What John Roberts doesn't understand is this is not a nation. And so the intrastate issue of gerrymandering, that they are willing to say, well, this is political gerrymandering, but it has racial impact.

Yes, no, but it's political parties. OK, look the other way. All you are doing is creating a situation where this country is going to unravel on the interstate issue, the federalism issue. You can't have states' rights within a state and say that California, in a story you're about to cover, can't say, in the state of California, you can terminate a pregnancy. You can't reach into California from Texas and stop them. And what they don't understand is that this country has been on the brink of fracture since it was created. People say, well, it only happened

during the Civil War. You better start paying a lot more attention because this is going to be worse than the Civil War. Because this time, there will be no federal mechanism to intervene, and there won't be 200,000 Black men and all those Black women like Harriet Ross Tubman to come save y'all asses. Because when it breaks this time, the white nationalists are going to be in charge of the federal legislature. And this time, you're going to have something. You want to get your strap now? In Maryland, in California, in New York State. Yeah, because guess what? You're going to see war in the streets. This is what you're talking

about, Faraji. But people don't think that's real? Just keep on paying attention. So, it would probably be better to get in the street and get that right to vote shored up if you don't want the alternative. Because either way, this will be resolved. Well, look, white folks have all the guns

and so i think we got a lot of catching up to do on that here so i say let's go ahead and stay engaged in this political process as flawed as it may be and to your point dr carr the state level if you don't care about nothing else you need to be worried about what's going on in your local and state levels because as the federalism fractures we are going to be worried about what's going on in your local and state levels because as the federalism fractures, we are going to be basically governed differently depending on what state that you live in. That's exactly right. Just real quick, this is why with Brother Cliff Albright and the Black Voters Matters movement is doing is so important. It's really... democracy is being held up by black and brown people of this country. I mean, those of us who have

the greatest expectation and hopes are the ones that are keeping this democratic system, quote-unquote, alive and well, or at least on its deathbed. You know what I mean? We are resuscitating, constantly giving air and oxygen and blood to a dying system. We are black and brown people because why? We never got the not to talk about the 40 acres and a mule, but we never got a true fulfillment.

The true experience of being a whole citizen in this country. So, what-what Brother Cliff is doing and so many others that are on the lines, what they're doing right now is saving America. But white people got to see that. Like, white people got... This... If the country... And Dr. Carr, with the picture you just... you just painted, the country is going in that direction.

And this is... this is not gloom and doom, but this is just facts, looking at is going in that direction. And this is not gloom and doom, but this is just facts. Looking at how history has brought us to this point, and most importantly, how our humanity is crying out against oppressive tactics that are so engaged that we run into in this country, something has to give. Something has to give. And we're holding up the last few pillars, black men and women and brown. We're just sitting there.

We're holding it, hoping like, oh, no, it's not going to fall. It's not going to fall. But something is going to give. This country is in dire straits right now. And the only way we can get out of it is if you give the people justice and truth and you humanize us. Otherwise, man, we're gonna hit that,

we're gonna go to hell in a flaming pair of trousers. Yeah. Where did the optimism go, Rashi? I mean, I'm just saying, I'm optimistic? I'm optimistic. I'm optimistic. But you're just telling us. You're just giving us a warning. I get it.

I get it. Optimism with a little bit of warning on the side. No, no. I'm optimistic. I got you. But see, that's what. It comes down to us as the people. Yeah.

We have to be realistic. We have to be realistic. And the reality. He told you everything, Reesey. Hey, Faraji. What's the shock of the hour but anyway anybody know what i'm talking about you know the shock of the hour okay okay okay we gotta go to a break but're going to end this segment with a little bit of optimism. Okay? Okay, a little bit of optimism.

All right. So we're going to be right back. Roland Martin, filtered on the Black Star Network. Alexa, play our favorite song again. Okay. I only have eyes for you. ТРЕВОЧНАЯ МУЗЫКА Maureen is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now she's free to become Maureen the Merrier. Food is her love language.

And she really loves her grandson. Like, really loves. Hi, I'm Vivian Green. Hey, everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond, and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, unfiltered. According to the CDC, in 2018, black babies had the highest infant mortality rate among any race, almost three times higher than their white counterparts. Among black babies, there were 10.8 deaths per 1,000 live births,

compared to 4.6 white babies per 1,000 live births. When Merlin Martin Unfiltered returns, we'll talk about matern... Okay, I'm sorry. Sorry. All right, and today we're going to actually be talking to Dr. Vernette Koontz. She is the founder of My Doula is Black,

a doula and childbirth education service, and her newest initiative that will launch in 2022, the Perinatal Wellness Institute, a nonprofit organization that provides evidence-based resources, services, and care for the advancement of black maternal health from preconception to postpartum. Dr. V serves her communities as a perinatal integrative clinician, educator, birth worker, maternal wellness TV host, and childbirth expert for our bodies, ourselves today. Beyond those accolades, she's also a mom of seven, including a surrogate mother of twins.

Thank you so much, Dr. Koontz, for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. Well, I want to talk to you a little bit today because as you know, Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday actually hosted a full day. It was called the White House Day of Maternal Health Action. And this was the first time it had ever occurred in the White House. And I wanted to talk about it today because Black maternal health and maternal health in general is such a topic that does not get nearly enough coverage. And then when you bring in the

alarming and just absolutely tragic and devastating statistics around infant mortality, it gets even more dire. Part of the legislation and the funding in the Build Back Better Act actually provides funding and grants for doulas and midwives. And so can you just talk to us a little bit about how more Black women are seeking out doulas and midwives and how that has, in fact, proven, like in the case of a North Carolina pilot program, to close the racial disparities between Black maternal mortality and white women dying in childbirth? Of course, yeah. So as you stated earlier, like this is not a new issue that we've been dealing with. It's just now being spotlighted, which we're appreciative of, and we're gaining funding for those programs to provide education and awareness, birth equity and resources for

doula support. And speaking of the doula support, my doula is black, was started basically just kind of as a call to action in my community, which I'm based in Atlanta, Georgia, and have a really good relationship with the Atlanta Birth Center, which is a birthing center here in Atlanta, Georgia. And so the purpose of that company, if you will, is to bring childbirth education and preparation for parenthood, not only for mothers, but also for fathers, because as you were able to witness on the summit on Tuesday, they had a portion of the panelists, which I thought was a perfect preview into how fathers are affected. But providing that type of education and resource, mothers, especially BIPOC mothers, are reaching out for doula support. And hospitals are supportive, whether they're in person or virtual.

You know, research shows that a woman is a birthing person has a significantly more positive experience and a significantly reduced risk of birth trauma with doula support. Some other things that Black mothers are doing are, you know, community-based outreach programs on the virtual level, right? So they're being more intentional about finding and gaining that community, especially with the pandemic kind of interrupting a huge portion of community support and family support. You know, and me being a recently postpartum mother to my fifth child, he's only seven months old. And being pregnant during a pandemic is scary. You know, we already show up as black mothers scared to birth in the health care system because it's already set up against us, right? Absolutely. Whether it's lack of education in the maternal mental health setting or lack of resources.

And so for us, we come in and we come in scared and we want to make sure that people see us. And usually we go to people that look like us. They're going to kind of be that first choice, you know, and then, you know, going to a white ally provider. So, you know, when we're looking at gaining support as a Black mother, specifically for me as a lived experience and as a doula and childbirth educator, we are looking for the opportunity to have someone advocate for us when i tell my clients and i and i work with the women in our community that are they're birthing as black women i tell them like you need to find a team build a team that is going to advocate you in

the most vulnerable space that you will ever be in you know and and and so that's that is creating a culture of not only awareness, but of empowerment when we take that power back. And through education and advocacy, you know, we're able to see great things and hopefully having the rates of the the of our community decreasing in regards to mortality within the black community. Yeah. Absolutely. I actually participated in a black maternal mortality or black maternal health week virtual program with Vice President Kamala Harris, then Senator Kamala Harris last year. And she mentioned the exact thing that you just did about empowering yourself and advocating for yourself, that how important that is, particularly as a black woman, when we see that the black maternal mortality rate is three times that of our white counterparts and a large part of, I mean, it's strictly because of race. It's not about lack of healthcare insurance. It's about race. I mean, a college educated black woman has a higher mortality rate or maternal mortality rate than a non-high school or than just a high school graduate white woman. So it's not,

if people just think that this is a socioeconomic issue, it's not, it's a racial issue. But I did want to bring up one point because I hate to talk about internet drama and stupid things that go viral on Twitter. But, you know, a couple of weeks ago, there was a video of a doula who was providing overnight support for a new mother. I am a new mother as well. I have an eight-month-old, and I'm very fortunate that I have an amazing tribe, my husband, my mother-in-law, my mother, who was there to really provide support for me during that time in our baby. But I feel like the perception that people tend to have of postpartum mothers is that they're supposed to be just exhausted and they're supposed to be laboring non-stop and only tending to the baby and people were objecting to the fact that she was getting sleep and that you know the doula was actually

you know feeding her with the bottle and things like that so can you just talk about number one um the un unrealistic and and actually detrimental expectations people have of new mothers, as well as what a doula can do to help alleviate some of that burden that new mothers have to carry? Absolutely. So what people typically see, right, when they see a doula is the birth side of a doula. Right. She can help for that emotional and physical support during labor and birth and then shortly after. But there is a support person that provides support in the postpartum phase. Right. And so we don't really get to see that in society. That's not necessarily shown. And so in addition to that, we expect moms to, to just jump back into the groove of things. And that's not always the case, you know? And so we're looking at a postpartum recovery for the mom. And so with a postpartum doula, basically typically what happens is she'll come in and she can do lighthouse work and she can kind of help with the rhythm of this new baby in, you know, Earthside, coming Earthside.

And so when the postpartum doula comes to the house, she can cook meals, she can, you know, clean, but she can also care to the mom as well. So even though that video that you're referring to is allowing the mom to sleep, which she needs, right? Sleep deprivation actually is one of the risk factors for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, which is a whole nother topic that is not talked about. And so for several reasons, but, you know, to stay on topic and to answer the question directly, postpartum support through, you know, a doula coming to the house can look like bathing the mom, mothering the mother in the postpartum. And when you're looking at a season where we're in a pandemic, everyone doesn't have that community support. Like I think that it's such a great thing to highlight the fact that a postpartum doula can come in and create those

resources. And also typically postpartum doulas are educated in different natural herbs that can help to regulate mom's hormonal balances because you've had a spike in your hormones to get this baby earthside. And so now your body is trying to self-regulate itself back to kind of this homeostasis. And so we might need some added support with that. And so I think it's a beautiful thing that this video went viral to at least just show a little bit of what reality looks like with a postpartum mom. And then the second question, can you ask that one more time for me, please? Girl, I forgot. But you were so spectacular on everything that you said is so important.

But, you know, the one thing that is so interesting about motherhood, too, is you're a surrogate mom. Can you tell us a little bit about that experience? Because there's so many definitions of motherhood and what makes you a real mom and this, that, and the other. So can you just lay waste the idea that, you know, women are not a real mom if they don't carry their own baby? Or some people even, you know, have crazy things to say about having in vitro or other, you know, ways of conceiving. What is your thought or birthing parent? What are your thoughts on that, Kate, that you can share with us? Yeah, absolutely. So like you shared with everyone, I am a surrogate. I'm a gestational surrogate mother, which means that I carried

the embryo. So the egg and the sperm were already connected through science. And then on day five, they did a transfer with me. And so I was able to carry boy-girl twins to 39 weeks, which is, you know, typically twins or multiples are born premature around 34, 35 weeks. And these babies just found a home and didn't want to come earthside. And so, you know, even though I birthed in the hospital setting in the OR, because it is considered a high risk pregnancy, I was able to have a provider and my doula and my birth provider all in the room to capture this moment. And I was able to deliver vaginally. Baby A

was head down and baby B was breached. So my provider gently brought baby down. And so I wasn't able to be affected in a negative way with having a breach presentation with baby B. But that experience, to be honest with you, I prepare for it. You know, I knew I was called early on to be a surrogate and I served in that purpose because when I was 16, I had an abortion and I make that very clear because again, that's another taboo topic that we don't talk about. And so my attunement was to serve as a surrogate. And so, because I felt like I took life, I wanted to give life twofold. And I was able to do that in 2018. And so what it looked like was finding providers that were in alignment with my wishes, doing prenatal physical activity.

Nutrition was a huge portion of it. Having a doula that supported me wholeheartedly. And at that time, I made it clear to everyone that was on my me wholeheartedly. And, and, you know, at that time I made it clear to everyone that was on my team, my intentions. And so to have, you know, three years, uh, with these beautiful souls now, um, earth side, you know, I'm, I'm still very much involved in, in, in even taking it to, uh, another level. The, the parents actually added me to their birth certificate, even though I don't have parental rights. And so I'm fine. That was part of the conversation. That's nothing new or abnormal. But the beautiful part of this whole journey was that I was able to share my story and share it in such a positive way because you're right. Real motherhood is this kind of stigma for women who don't

naturally birth their own babies. And that's not always the case of motherhood. You have, you know, step parents, you have adoptive parents, you have foster parents, you have surrogate parents, you, you know, you have so many ways of becoming a mother that there's not this linear way of, you know, incorporating motherhood into your life. And so that journey definitely is one that is more than memorable. And I think it's a testament to the ability to have such a positive experience in creating life for another family. Wow. Thank you. That is so amazing that you did that. And I was actually curious too, because you said you had a doula. That was going to be my question, but you answered it. Oh, yeah. Dr. Carr actually has a question. Dr. Carr, your question for Dr. Koontz.

Yes. the amount of respect I have for the craft of doula, particularly as an African person, knowing that this is, you know, I suspect we're getting closer to the way that we did things for a very long time before we so rudely interrupted. So, Sister Cousin, I want to ask you, I was looking at the Black Doula's website, and I was intrigued by this notion

of full-spectrum doulas. And I think you kind of touched on it a little bit when you started talking about, you know, terminating pregnancies, but miscarriage, fertility, sex. I mean, the doula conceptual universe, how big is it? I mean, when you say full spectrum doula, what does that mean? So full spectrum doula means you work in different arenas, right? So when you talk about women's health, really, if we want to go all the way back, we are teaching our female bodies, our growing bodies, even when we start our menstrual cycles, to hate the symptoms and disconnect from menstrual cycles. And to be honest with you, when we bleed, that is creating a natural cleansing environment, a healthy environment

for there to be future life grown in that space. So to answer your question, full doula spectrum means working with maybe a mom that has fertility issues. Maybe she needs to detox first and gain some nutritional console and other modalities that will help provide a more safe space and less hostile space for her womb. We're living in just this flight or fight mentality and lifestyle where we're always go, go, go. And so when you're working with women that are trying to get pregnant, sometimes they don't know the tools that will help their womb to be a more safe space. So you're looking at a fertility doula, you're looking at a sex doula. So that's not only just the physical act of sex, but you're looking at a fertility doula, you're looking at a sex doula. So that's not only

just the physical act of sex, but you're looking at intimacy and how that connects to your mind and your body. You have grievance doulas where you're looking at loss, right? So loss either within your womb, or there's several women that don't even talk about having miscarriages. How many lives have been lost within your womb and how are you carrying that in your womb, right? And then we go into birth doula and postpartum doula, right? So the birth doula is typically like the flashing lights, but that's the full spectrum.

You're looking at fertility and sex doula and bereavement doula or grief and loss doula, birth doula, and at fertility and sex doula and bereavement doula or grief and loss doula, birth doula, and finally postpartum doula. So you got a lot to work with. Thank you, Reese. And thanks, doc. Respect. Thank you. Dr. Koontz, wow. That is amazing. I had never heard of a bereavement doula and so many women struggle in private with miscarriages. And just to know that that kind of resources there is so important.

We only talk about motherhood and birthing just as, like, as though women are mules who just are there to carry babies. And we don't talk about the full spectrum of the emotional aspects of trying to conceive and having a baby and then the postpartum aspect. Faraji, though, has a question. Faraji, your question for Dr. Koontz. Yes. Dr. Koontz, thank you so much for joining us. First and foremost, as just a man, I'm just shutting up and I'm just listening, you know, I'm just enjoying. I'm just going to listen, you know what I mean? So I really appreciate you breaking it down for us so we can all understand. And I know many of our watchers are just thinking this is a great opportunity and segment. But I do have a question in regards to maternal health, because we do know that black

women are oftentimes given so many wrong diagnosis when they get into the doctor's office, right, when they are pregnant. And a lot of times, you know, depending on the woman, she might believe it or she might go and seek a second or third opinion about, you know, any levels of complications during that great period. I'm wondering how much of that has played a role in the infant mortality conversation? Is there a way that black women and Latina sisters, can they get better care from doctors? Can they get better advice from doctors to make sure that they are, you know, going through the great process of being pregnant properly instead of getting all these wrong answers, which is going to create, you know, stress, confusion, pain and hurt and all of those things. I'm wondering about how much, what can be done

about the doctor's advice when they cannot properly diagnose a black woman's pregnancy? Yeah, sure. No, I think that's a great question. So I have a couple of theories, right? So what I tell, you know, my communities is to, it's the importance of building your birth team, so it's not just your provider, your partner, and your doula. Maybe that looks like a dietician that specializes in prenatal care. Maybe that looks like a prenatal, you know, fitness provider. You have pelvic floor specialists. So, you know, those who have pelvic floor dysfunction, they can go to that type of provider. There's chiropractic care as well. And then also that second opinion, right? So you're having a different vantage point from different specialties that are on your team, right? So I

think that having a diversified birthing team on your side and discussing, right? It's kind of that co-management mentality. You can get different perspectives and not just that one linear opinion. The other thing that I would kind of throw in the ring is that, you know, at times it can be challenging, you know, from a clinical standpoint, when you're looking at diagnosing a patient, a lot comes in that. Some people don't present the way that it's textbook presented, you know, in school. And so I'm glad that you asked that question because there was a Nigerian artist that kind of went viral when he posted on his social media page an illustration of an anatomical Black woman

carrying a Black baby. And so, you know, it's been reposted thousands and thousands of times. But the reason why is because we don't see black illustrations in medical books. And so if we don't have black representation on the educational side, how can we really expect our providers, black or white or otherwise, to really be able to see how we as black women present differently than our white counterparts. And so if we're looking at the bird's eye view, it's not just the doctor's fault. And I say that when I work with clients, I'm like, I want to say, right, that your doctor has your best interest at heart. We take an oath when we gain our degree and our board certification that we are, the first thing in the oath is to do no harm, right? Now, it's fair to say that not everybody is on the same page and there's implicit bias and there's racial

disparities. And yes, that is the truth. But also in that truth, on the educational side, all through my clinical education, I rarely, if ever, saw any black illustration. So you're talking about the presentation of a black body looking very different than their white counterparts. Sometimes it can be part of the conversation of why there is that misdiagnosis. So it's not always a straightforward diagnosis when you're looking at reproductive health and women health and obstetrics health. And then the other thing that I do want to mention is that when a black birthing body is going for a second and a third opinion, you know, they should be taking notes and they should be gaining their medical records so that way, and they have patient rights to gain their medical records so that way everything can be streamlined because when mothers or patients in general jump around to different providers and they don't carry their medical records with them, they are at a higher risk of being misdiagnosed, right? So it's a comprehensive

thought process when you're looking at misdiagnosis and also having a team that's going to help you create an environment that's going to be in the best interest of mom and baby to reduce maternal mortality rates and therefore infant mortality rates. Long answer. No, but it was complicated. It was a very comprehensive and insightful answer that we need to hear, particularly, you know, the black audience. We need to hear more from people like you. So Dr. Coons, please tell the Roland Martin Unfiltered family how to get in contact with you if they're interested to hear more about My Doula is Black and your other initiatives. Yeah, absolutely. So they can follow me on Instagram at Dr. Burnett. I also have My Doula is Black on Instagram, but the main source of information is on my website at drburnett.com.

Thank you so much for joining us today, Dr. Coontz. Thank you for having me. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, a nonprofit organization is making strides to close the wealth gap of black women. The founder of the Highland Project will be here to tell us how they're helping black women advance. But first, the state of Texas is at it again. They have passed a law restricting how educators can teach about slavery. We'll be back after this break. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network.

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Hello, everyone. I'm Godfrey, and you're watching... Roland Martin Unfiltered. And while he's doing Unfiltered, I'm practicing the wobble. Black woman entrepreneurs are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in America. Yet black women hold more than 90% less wealth than white men. In 2019, black women were paid 63% of what non-Hispanic white men earned. That means it would take the typical black woman 19 months to be paid what the average white man makes

in 12 months. The Highland Project is a nonprofit organization that wants to change that by working to close the racial wealth gap with Black women. Highland Project founder Gabrielle Wyatt is here to tell us how. Welcome, Gabrielle. How are you doing today? Good evening. How are you doing? I'm great. Thank you. Can you tell us a little bit more about the Highland Project? Sure. The Highland Project is focused on building and sustaining a pipeline of Black women leaders across education, economic empowerment, well-being, and political agency who are creating sustainable change in their communities resulting in multi-generational wealth. We focus on a holistic definition of wealth because we know that wealth is beyond

dollars and pocket, but our ability to access great food, great food for our lives to be protected and thriving. And so we're cultivating a movement that's a coalition of women across sectors. We provide them with sisterhood, a focus on well-being, building political power. And we pair that with $100,000 in Genius Awards for each woman to scale her vision. Wow, that's pretty spectacular. I noticed on the website you talk about Black political power. Like, for instance, there are no Black women in the Senate. We talked a little bit earlier about the engagement that we need to have for the 2022 midterms. A lot of people are already announcing their campaigns, Stacey Abrams, for instance, in Georgia. So what level of engagement are you having with potentially recruiting or do you get involved in the recruiting aspect for black women who are looking to run for office?

We are a 501c3 nonprofit, so we engage in advocacy. We engage in ensuring that we can help to sustain women who are engaging politically, not just in a traditional electoral sense, but also in terms of how are they investing their time and showing up at the polls and writing op-eds and more. I'm proud to say that last Tuesday we announced our first cohort, and we have several women who are engaged in advocacy and politics. We have Ms. LaTosha Brown out of Georgia, who we all know has been an incredible champion for the protection of voter rights in our communities and our voices, quite frankly, as Black women. We have Leslie Harrod, who is a representative out of Colorado, who was

the first openly gay representative in the statehouse. Mary Pat Hector out of Georgia, who is just an inspiration. She's been organizing in her communities from quite a young age. She ran for office previously in Atlanta and continues to organize youth in her community. And so we really, I share that with you because we take a holistic look at what does our political power mean? Yes, it's important to get us into office. Yes, it's important to make sure that there's a bench of us coming up from behind, right? I look at the stats that 0% of us are governor, that we have zero U.S. senators. And so we're focused on numbers, but we're also focused on what are the other aspects that influence change. And so that is that Mary Pat Hector, who's organizing youth,

the youth of tomorrow. It is leaders who are focused on how do they use their seat in corporate to take stands that nonprofit leaders may not be able to. Absolutely. So can you explain a little bit more about what the cohort itself does? Sure. So they meet together over the course of one year to first center their own well-being. As I think about ways in which we've tried to increase Black women in seats of power, they've been impactful. And yet I keep going back to the fact that we have 0 percent of U.S. senators, that we continue to see black women who sit in C-suite roles, leaving their sectors, burning out. And so we have an unapologetic focus on what does it mean to protect ourselves, our own well-being, so that we can continue to sit in seats of power and not leave the very impactful work that we're leading. So we focus on that when they're together. We focus on how are they building their legacies, not only in their current seat, but outside of that seat.

How are they building up the generations coming up behind them and the ones that have come before them? How are they listening to enact change? We then pair that with $100,000 in capital. And so when leaders are together, they're discussing how they might use that capital, whether or not they might pool those resources together and more. Yeah, $100,000 is, to me, at least to me, it sounds huge because, you know, Black women are very typically underfunded when it comes to political campaigns or even nonprofits. You know, Black women nonprofits are not as well funded as other

ones, even when we have these racial reckonings like we did last summer. And so can you just explain, for instance, what kind of activities somebody could use with the a little bit more detail with that $100,000 that's granted? What are the strings, essentially, are what I'm asking you? What are the strings attached? Yes, yes. I mean, the first thing I'll just say, though, is like the amount of dollars that we have not seen moved since 2020 is egregious. So in 2017, we saw that 1% of dollars were going to women and girls of color. We've only seen the needle move since the 2020 racial reckoning by at least a little bit of a 1%. It's less than 2% of dollars still are going to women and girls of color, despite the calls we saw last year. And so you're right that 100K is a lot.

We're hoping to move the needle in that. The strings are attached is that you do incredible work in your communities. So this is trusting capital. I like to think about us as the MacArthur Genius Award for black women. I ask myself, what if we gave more trust and capital to leaders like Nicole Hannah-Jones, who received a MacArthur Genius Award, right, and is continuing to pathblaze in our community? So we ask that women, as they look at this $100,000, that they do not use it to plug gaps in their operating budgets, but they use it in transformative ways to embed change and, again, to sustain themselves. So I suspect what you'll see leaders doing is asking what additional initiative or capital or power needs to exist in my community so that my efforts to date can really be sustainable? And what are

things that I might want to pilot or test or frankly fail at? Because we know we can learn from failure. And yet as Black women, we're never given the capital to experiment, to try new things. And so I think that's what you'll see coming out. You're absolutely right about that. I mean, white men fail up all the time, but with Black people, they want to see their return on investment. And sometimes that return on investment is, like you said, experimenting and getting the latitude to try things that haven't been done before. So, Gabrielle, can you tell the viewers how to get in contact with the Highland Project or what they can do if they want to support? Sure. I would not be a nonprofit founder if I didn't say support us by investing directly in our vision. If you invest in us, your dollars go right into our $100,000 Genius Award.

So you're investing in the legacy of the women who we partner with. So you can join us. You can invest by following us at Lead Highland on Twitter and Instagram. You can donate to us on our website, which is thehighlandproject.org. You're also able to give us your contact information so that we can figure out other ways to get you involved in our work. Thank you, Gabrielle and the Highland Project for investing in Black women and tackling this very important cause. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. We'll be right back. Olin Martin, unfiltered after the break.

Thank you. Take care. Happy holidays. Okay, where are we going now? Are the stars of tonight. Alexa, play our favorite song again. OK. I only have eyes for you. Fire. Fire. Norske Norske. Hi, I'm Eldie Barge. Hey, yo, peace world.

What's going on? It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Texas passed a new restrictive law banning critical race theory from K-12 classrooms. This new law says a teacher may not be compelled to discuss a widely debated and currently controversial public policy or social affairs issue. If a controversial topic is discussed, the teacher must explore that topic objectively and free from political bias. Eight other states have banned critical race theory or topics surrounding race and gender from the classrooms. A family in Oklahoma wants a judge removed from the bench. Judge Susan Worthington gave an alleged murderer a $500,000 bond,

and he's out of jail. Joseph Daniel Triplett is charged with first-degree murder and desecration of a human corpse after he allegedly killed his employee, Brent Mack, and buried him under a septic tank. Triplett has since bonded out and awaits trial. In Oklahoma, any crime is eligible for bond and a judge considers the suspect's prior history and risk to the community when assessing each case. However, the other murder suspects on Judge Wertherteen's caseload

remain in jail because she did not give them bond. Dr. Carr, desecration of a body, Lord Jesus, and she let him out or she or he let him out of the jail. And then we have to talk about critical race theory. Your reaction to those two stories? Well, I'll do the second one first. I really, I'm very happy to see these critical race theory laws being passed. See, again, what these people understand, I am, I really am, because if I just go to something you said earlier, brother, they're going to break it. They're going to break it. First of all, you can't enforce those critical race theory laws. Second of all, this is how dumb these white people are.

If you say that you can't teach that one race is superior to another race, if you say you can't put, you can't have one point without the other point, and you saw what happened in Texas, they tied themselves into a frenzy where somebody had to end up counterpointing the Holocaust. But then you do realize, of course, that the one group in this country that has weaponized race has been white people. So actually, to enforce

the critical race theory laws would require you, in fact, to interrogate whiteness. This is how stupid they are. But I'm enjoying it. But on the first one, of course, that's just simple. NHI, there are no humans involved.

Wasn't that a black dude? I don't even know if that counts as, I guess it would count as the body in the same way that perhaps putting a dog under the septic tank would qualify as a body. But there's no humans involved. So this judge had no problem giving him bail. He was, you know, as Doobie Brothers said, you don't know me, but I'm your brother. That's basically what he told his white man. You don't know me, but I'm your brother. That's basically what he told his white man. You don't know me, but I'm your brother. It's not like you killed a human.

So, you know, go out on bail, and we're worried about getting you exonerated at trial a little bit later on down the road. Merry Christmas. And Faraji, isn't it amazing how these white nationalists managed to raise $500,000, Kyle Rittenhouse $1 million, and yet you have Black people across the country who can't even get out on bail. Kaylee Broder was held in prison for years. Sandra Bland died in jail because of bond or bail. What is your reaction to this? I mean, I think it's very simple. We have been pushing this idea for quite some time,

ever since I've been a part of the show. The reason that we see white nationalists do it is because of one simple principle. They know how to organize. I mean, it's just that simple. They know how to organize. There are white nationalist communities that exist in this country. Both of you know that, you know what I mean? Whether you're talking about the hills of Montana or some other part of the country, white nationalist neighborhoods, white nationalist communities, they have white nationalist stores,

they have schools and the whole nine. So they have organized, they have used their critical thinking skills and say, okay, we're going to disconnect ourselves from this governmental structure and we're going to create our own government. And so we do have to look at that and say, okay, is that something that black people need to do at this point? And I think when you were talking about the whole piece around critical race theory, look, look, let me just break it down very simply. If this country deny its role in the transatlantic slave trade, if this country denies the history of its own origin, guess who's going to reap the consequences of that denial? This country. Leadership.

Exactly. State leaders. They're going to reap this. Look, let me just tell you, and Dr. Carr, I think you can attest to this. If you don't teach a people, whether you're talking about white or black, if you don't teach people real history, and you teach children, let's look at the babies, you teach children this very filtered, whitewashed, sanitized view of history that speaks to the noble attempts of the slave master to free and to rescue the black savages of Africa. If you teach white babies that, and then you think you're going to bring them up. Now, look at this. You're teaching that, but at the same time, the country is becoming more diverse. The same time, black people are becoming more aware.

You are setting your people up for failure. They're going to run up against the wall of time and run up against the wall of change, and they're going to get their back broke. So you can play around and act like, oh, no, if we don't teach it, therefore it doesn't exist. When those white students leave, what do you think they're going to see when they go out into the world? Their minds are not going to be able to handle it. They're going to be like a cow written house or they're going to be like that devil that killed our people down in South Carolina in the church. I mean, they're going to... You are setting your people up for disaster because truth frees the mind. When you lie to people,

you create an imbalance in people's heads about themselves and about the world around them. Watch. This thing is going... Like, Dr. Cullen, you said it. It's going to backfire. Trust and believe. It's going to backfire. And it's not going to backfire on black people because we already been denied. We already know our history has been hidden

and kept from us. White people are going to feel this. They're going to feel this. Well, make no mistake about it. These CRT laws, which is a pretext really for entrenching white nationalism into the curriculum, are not actually changing CRT because it was never taught at K-12. But I think what's important is that we know, particularly black people, as you point out, Faraj, you know that the onus is going to be on us that much more to make sure that our history is taught and we cannot leave it up to the school system to do that.

After the break, I have a special surprise for you. I've been teasing it all night. The Roland Martin Unfiltered family is going to want to see this right after the break on the Black Star Network. Betty is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now she's free to become Bear Hug Betty. Settle in, kids. You'll be there a while.

Ooh, where you going? Y'all know who Roland Martin is. He got the ascot on. He do the news. It's fancy news. Keep it rolling. Right here. Rolling.

Roland Martin. Right now. You are watching Roland Martin. Unfiltered. I mean, could it be any other way? Really, it's Roland Martin. All right, y'all. Let me give you a spoiler alert.

It's now Vice President Kamala Harris. I ain't got that kind of pool to have Vice President Kamala Harris on a Roland Martin Unfiltered show. This short notice may be sometime in the future, but it is one of my favorite people and one of your favorite people. I could give a long, drowned out explanation, but without further ado,

welcome back for the first time to the Roland Martin Unfiltered Show on the Black Star Network, Erica Savage Wilson. Hey, girl! Hey, boo! Hey, Reesey! Hey, G! Okay, I'm gonna give the panel the time to say,

hey, go ahead, go ahead, everybody. Get it out, get it out, get it out. Quieter! Yes! That was chef's kiss. That was so beautiful! What? G, what's up? What's going on, G?

Hi, Faraj. I haven't met you, but I've been watching you. Good to see you. I'm just glad to be here. And to the RMU production team, I love you all. You all have no idea how awesome that production crew is. The folks that work behind the scenes, they're also in front of the scenes as well.

They are absolutely amazing. So much love to the RMU production crew and to our big brother, Roland. Yes, Roland. The only thing missing is Roland. I'm sorry, Roland, if I stole your thunder, but I was like, I can't be on the Roland Martin Unfiltered show

and be in this host chair without checking in with my sis, my girl, Erica. Erica, you look as beautiful as amazing. I want you to tell the audience about what you're up to now. You've been producing our publishing medium pieces as well as back in the swing

of things with some IG Lives and some newsletters. So please let the audience know what you're up to. Thank you so much, Recy. And y'all, first of all, y'all please light up social media with how awesome Recy has done it in the guest chair. It's been great all week, but of course, I'm always partial to the Thursday VIP panel as we dubbed it almost two years ago. Always partial. So please light up social media, letting everybody, the whole world know how

awesome our good sis Recy Colbert Black Women Views is a follow. You must have. I am y'all, I'm healing. That is probably one of the best ways that I can put it. And my healing is coming through

really just enjoying being outside of the other side of what I was engaged in, which was pretty much work 24-7. What I have been up to as of late is definitely a bunch of appointments still, but doing, as Recy noted, writings. I'm working on a piece now that I'm going to be sending out, hoping that it will be pitched. So USA Today, Blabity, all of y'all look up. I'm going to be sending this piece to you all. Also, I definitely, as Recy said, I did one Facebook and IG Live just last month to let everyone know that I'm healing. I'm still here, but I'm taking that

very, very seriously. And as a result of that, one of my favorite people, my mentor, Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeaver, who kicked off this week hosting in that very seat that Recy is occupying so wonderfully, has really folded me in. And I will be launching a podcast, another podcast, January of 2022. This will be focused on what I'm working on and what I've been really moving through my healing, which is the reframed brain. That is going to be the name of the podcast, the reframed brain. And what I have learned through this brain injury and through a myriad of other injuries that I've endured is that the thing that we are all connected by is this global pandemic trauma, that we are not to take lightly what we have been experiencing in this pandemic, not just COVID-19 in and of itself, but the anxiety, the insomnia, the stressors, the worry. Recy talked about having a baby during the pandemic and the joy that she would have with having that room filled with friends and families and well wishes. That was significantly reduced to her husband and her mother-in-law and her mother. There has been a real social impact that we are going to

be experiencing here this next wave in 2022 and beyond. And so no one has to have a brain injury to understand that brain health is so very important. And so the Reframe Brain is really going to be bringing to the audience, not just letting you know that I'm a brain injury champion, but how we are all very much so included and connected by the trauma that we have experienced through this pandemic. And I want for people to be able to live a more intentional life, understanding that there's some things that you just don't have to endure. Preaching. This is why we love you so much, Erica, the reframed brain. I love that. You know, in your medium piece, you talked about the new Erica. We love the new Erica, the old Erica, but for people who want to know like what's different now, you've, like you said,

you're healing and that's a process. That's an iterative process. It's not a straight line. Give people a little bit of insight into parts of what you can share of the new Erica. Sure. I really appreciate the question. It is definitely ongoing. I, And this is not a downer. This is just very real. The unseen part of what I'm experiencing is that people see me and they see Erica. What everyone is not seeing is the heavy lift that it takes for me to move throughout the day. I have a wonderful, wonderful medical care team, home health care, occupational therapy, a myriad of team members within the medical community that help me. I meet with throughout on a weekly basis that the mental warfare, because I don't have the capabilities that I used to, for instance, every day for at least two and a half hours, my body shuts down because my brain has to breathe. Me being on social media, the way that

I've been able to come back into social media, I'm not able to really participate in the way that I was before because I have light sensitivity. The scrolling activity is difficult on the brain. It's not good on any of our brains, but particularly when the brain has been compromised by an injury, like the one that I sustained being hit by an 18-wheeler twice while traveling for work. So it wasn't just I was, you know, traveling. I was traveling for work at the time that the accident occurred. What people also don't see is that it takes me longer to process. So I love Roland Martin and Filter. I love political news, just like all of these panelists. It's a heavy investment to actually present the information that the audience received,

whether it's in two hours, whether it's a segment that's six or seven minutes, what Recy, what Faraj, what Dr. Carr, what they are listening to all day long, it's not just political news, it's social coverage, it's via the radio, they're looking at things. So there's constant consummation of this. And then to be able to break down that minutiae into bites where the audience can receive it outside of having a personal life, that is a lot. Y'all, I do not have that capacity right now. And it is liberating to be able to say that because that is where I am right now. I can remember, and I still face this, my doctor cleared me to begin to drive again. So I drive locally pretty much. And I can remember breaking down crying and having to call my partner and tell him I'm like, I'm lost. I'm literally

going less than a mile up the road and I am lost. So it's things like that, the setting that I have to do when I go to an appointment. And also, I'm so glad, Recy, you had Dr. Coots on and you all had that great discussion around Black maternal health. When you think about what the expectation is for a woman, for a person after they have given birth, after they have gone through a traumatic process, which birth is. It's not that easy. That whole snapback term, which I greatly despise, there is no snapback. I hate it too, sis.

There is no snapping back. There is a hold adjustment because something has died, just like the way that we were in 2019 is no longer. That is the former. This is the new. How do I make that adjustment? Mind, body, and spirit. And so the new, how do I make that adjustment, mind, body, and spirit? And so for Erica, these AirPods that I have, this is my number one safety dynamic. If I do engage in the public, I have these on, right? Because it keeps me safe. I know that

people aren't going to run up to me because I can't handle a bunch of humans at one time, no more than about three or four at one time. And then I'm also very aware of where I am, the exit, how long I'm going to be there, and then what my next stop, which is usually home. So there is a lot of rerouting that has happened. The capacity to do laundry and things like that. I celebrate it because I'm able to do those things, but it's very, very concentrated and very strategic the way that I do that. So what people don't see with unseen injuries is the mental and then the emotional preparation. I'm a big holiday person. Everybody who knows me knows that I love Thanksgiving and Christmas. I literally had a mental crisis breaking things, breaking things because it was just me and my partner at home. I couldn't tolerate being around my family because I still can't tolerate traveling outside

of about a 10, 15 mile radius. Those are the type of limitations that I am accepting in my present, understanding that things will improve in my future, but I have to accept it now because that's just where your girl is at. And it does not mean that I was not born and created to fly. I've done it. I'm going to do it in a much higher and different way. However, at the moment with a brain injury, PTSD, anxiety, depression, and insomnia, which is mad crazy, I have with my plants and with my family support and supportive mom, my good sis Reesey, and just so many people who have really, really just kind of held me up. I have been able to manage. And I also want to mention as well, I talked about in my medium piece, the suicide attempt. It's very real. It happens to black folks. It happened to black people that believe in Jesus. It does not mean

you're not a believer. It doesn't mean that you're a person of faith. It means that your response to literally grieving your own death, or as I talked about with the pandemic, grieving what we were before and where we are now, and the constant reminders about social distancing and wearing masks and the anxiety that we feel about going outside into different areas or those that are having to return to in-office settings is real. And so the thoughts, those things that we can ideate on that say this is it no longer is very, very real. Having support that literally says I'm making space for you to grieve what was, what is to come, what is now is very, very important. And it does not mean that we are somehow not normal, as people would say. I don't even know what that means now. But it does mean that we are human and that there's another well of empathy that we must introduce into our own personal lives. Wow. Erica, you are extraordinary.

And sharing that, I want people to just, I just thank you so much for that transparency because we have to expand the expectations that we put on Black women. Black women need to heal, whether it's from a traumatic brain injury, it's what you're doing with people, or black women, men, people across the world are really suffering in this pandemic for a lot of reasons. And so your story and this reframed brain podcast that you are going to be doing is going to be just a blessing to so many people. I want to be respectful of your time, but I know that I cannot end this segment without going to our big bro, Dr. Carr. Dr. Carr, I want to hand the mic over to you to talk

to Erica for a moment. I need to clear my throat because what we just witnessed, first of all, Recy, thank you. If Ron was sitting there, he probably would have had that picture. He probably got that picture of that dude somewhere around here. Oh, God, no, no.

You know what he would have done, Erica. But, no, thank you, Recy. Erica, I'm so glad to see you. I love you. I love you, too. Oh, my God. What you just did for all of us, for me, for everybody watching, for everybody

who will watch, I just want to say to you, thank you, not only for your witness, your strength, you say you're working and sailing in a different way and soaring in a different way. And for those of us who have experienced you and will continue to love and experience you and surround you, I just want to say thank you. Because that was more than a word. That was more than a witness. That was a roadmap. There are a lot of people suffering.

All of us are suffering. And what you did, I'm going to play that for some folks watch the in but I must stop talking right next I'm choking up thinking about they thank you really love. For I love you got the car. I think your response response. I I first of all I think everybody knows you know a person with the library is always somebody who is going to be deep into my heart anyway.

My late grandmother is a was a retired librarian and really we could not walk into. And I praise and I thank God for that, that as a young child, I have memories of walking to my grandparents house and there was a library about the wall. And so I always say that and brag on that about you, Dr. Carr, or excuse me, Greg, because it is something to have a person, a human, but a brother who is literally a walking library, a national treasure. I would say not just in our community and that Howard University is so blessed to have him, but literally in our nation that the information that this audience gets is privy to every Thursday. My God, there is no reason that we should not be engaging and stepping in our power. So I mean this from the bottom of my heart. Thank you, my brother. It was excellent that we were able to be in person and be in the studio and connect and laugh and talk and then text as well.

But to be able to experience a Greg Carr, who is a mind, you all have to join him on Saturdays on YouTube with Karen Hunter in class with Carr, so you can get more of that. But we have to own what we are getting on this day, on every Thursday from 6 to 8, from the great mind of Greg Carr. I love you. Love you. Always.

I love you. It's a family reunion. Faraji, you stepped in to the great Erica Savage-Wilson shoes. So you get a word to, you know, your predecessor. And hopefully she'll be back at some point. But, Faraji, a couple words. Look, I just want to say, Sister Erica, first and foremost, it's been an honor and a privilege and a real pleasure to be on a panel

with Dr. Cotton Reesey. When he threw me in, I'm the new kid on the block. I saw people on YouTube and Facebook like, who the hell is he? Where's Eric? Except Corral. I was thinking to myself, oh boy. I'm going to be honest with you.

But, you know what I mean? They have embraced me and therefore I have learned about you because of the great knowledge and wisdom that you have always expounded being on this platform and on this panel. So I'm really just, you know, I'm just humbled because of who you are. But more importantly, I'm truly, truly touched, Sister Erica, by your story. And, you know, I'm looking at our watchers on YouTube, joining them in a chat. I mean, we got hearts going everywhere, people saying, and I just want to be a conduit, a vessel for you. They are saying they love you.

I mean, you know, they love you. When I say they love you, I mean, the hearts are filling up. People are saying that Erica is my best friend. You know, this sister is always bringing it. They said your story. I want to share this with you. I mean, I'm just, they're saying that your story. Look, Banana

said no one can fill Erica's shoes. All right, Banana, there we go. Go ahead. Keep it moving. Keep it moving. And look, Kenthia, nothing but hearts. I mean, hearts, hearts, hearts, and everybody's saying God bless you. But your, hearts, hearts, hearts, and everybody's saying, God bless you. But your testimony tonight says your testimony is one that, that I truly, truly believe

that we're all going to gain something from. I mean, that's, that's a powerful testimony. And, you know, I loved how you framed it, whether you are a believer in Jesus or not, doesn't mean that you don't go through no trials and challenges. And that right there stuck for me, and it resonated with me because, you know, so many of us, especially, you know, my wife and I, we have these conversations. She's like, I hate when people say black women are strong. She said, because I can't, she told me,

she said, if I'm always strong, when can I break down? When can I be tired? When can I feel like I need you to help me through the day and all of those things. So I'm starting to just, my appreciation for the struggle of black women is becoming deeper and deeper listening to you, listening to Recy and so many other powerful women that come on this panel because y'all tell a story that men,

and I think Dr. Carr can attest to it, that men just need to listen to. Yes, sir. And just to hear you say that you reached out to your partner and you got to, you know, just for that support, but you got to, it's hard for you to carry yourself through a day. I mean, I'm just, look, sis, look, whenever you ready, whenever you ready, you don't have to bump those two off.

You could just be like, Faraji, I'm ready. I'd be like, yes, ma'am. I'm just backing off the chair. I'd be like, all right, yes, ma'am. It was nice knowing y'all. Thank you for your time. Oh, you're family now. You're not going anywhere.

Erica, we just cannot say enough how much we love you. If you're out there, you heard Erica. She's writing USA Today, Blavity, The Griot, Essence Magazine, Ebony, etc., etc., etc. If you are an editor, if you are a person who has the access, who heard Erica's story and you want more people to hear it, reach

out to her. Her Medium piece is called Things Not Seen. It is a must-read. Her upcoming podcast is called The Reframed Brain. Erica, tell us how to get in contact. Oh, one more thing. You didn't ask me to do this, but if you want to pour into Erica, give her a love offering. It's Cash App, dollar sign, Erica Savage Wilson. Okay, y'all getting all this free testimony. Pour into our good sis, Erica Savage Wilson. Okay? I can't let that go without saying that,

but Erica, please tell the audience, the family, how to get in contact with you, where to follow you if they want to hear more from you and what you have coming up. Yes. Thank you so much, Recy. And I gotta say thank you to Recy. She kicked off a catch app

like Avalanche earlier this year and I was just like, whoa. So thank you. Let me tell you something. Do you understand? And she should be getting paid for all of the work that she does for the disinformation and making sure that people stay off of Madam Vice President, our first woman vice president, first woman. OK, she ought to be getting paid for that.

So thank you so much, sis, because I'm not working nine months and I'm not I'm not able to go back in that capacity for a myriad of issues. How you can get in touch with me and stay connected with me is at one Erica Savage. I'm on Twitter. I'm also on IG and Facebook. That way there's a link tree app. It takes you so you'll be able to see the reframe brain. The page is not up yet, but it's already landed. I also just created a TikTok account so that I'm going to be releasing short form content that way so people can understand more about the Reframe brand and just understand how to engage people with unseen injuries. Because again, we are all globally connected by trauma and by this serious pandemic event we've all experienced. So a lot of the things that I'm experiencing or some of the things I'm

experiencing, we have all experienced it collectively as well. So check me out on TikTok. I've not done a video just yet, but just created that this week and it's at the Reframe Brain. And then as always, comments that you leave in social media, if I have the ability to go through or respond, I will respond. But please see me there. And if you would love to engage with me and my writings, you can also go to that Linktree site, which is Linktree Erica Savage Wilson. And it's on my Twitter page. It's on my Instagram page. And for those of us that are still hanging out on Facebook,

it's on Facebook as well. That way you'll be able to keep in touch with all things Erica Savage Wilson. And I am still making noise politically here and there. I just released a newsletter. So when you go to Linktree, you can get subscribed on there as well if you want to get some of my power talks that I release twice a month through that. Well, Erica, you got to stick around for the closing moment because you know it's been a while it's been a while so thank you so much for joining us good sis that's it for us tonight i want to thank my panel the normal the regular panel dr greg carr from the department of afro-american studies at harvard University and radio TV host Faraji Mohammed. Thank you for

and Erica. Yeah, I can back on the back with air. I cannot wait to see more from you and the reframed brain. Thank you so much for being here. Great job. We see thank you. Thank you. Excellent job. Love you. Thank you. Excellent job, Recy. Is she? Love you, Army family.

Thank you. Hey, look, black women was blowing it out this week. Hey, I was saying the same thing. This is a black women's show right here. I'm going to sit back and shut up. Yes, sir. Thanks, everybody. Thank you.

And if you haven't done it yet, download the Black Star Network on all of your devices. You can find the Black Star Network on iPhone, Apple TV, all your devices. Y'all don't like you don't know how to use the Google Play Store and your Apple Store. If you would like to support us so we can continue bringing the stories that matter to us you can donate through cash app cash app roland martin unfiltered paypal um slash rm unfiltered venmo arm unfiltered zelle I'm Reesey Colbert. Ray Baker will be your host tomorrow. Have a good night. Holla! Holla! Holla!

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