#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Repubs try to steal 2022 election; 1st Black Black Sec. Of Senate; Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green sorry

Episode Date: February 5, 2021

2.4.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Republicans try to steal 2022 election; 1st Black Black Sec. Of Senate announced; Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, a Democratic health policy expert is the leading candidate to run President Joe Biden's Medicare and Medicaid agency; Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green sorry for actions; Former Trump admin official says Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was chosen for his skin color; Q-anon follower; Ted Cruz continues to delay the vote on United Nations Ambassador appointee Linda Thomas-Greenfield; Prosecutors want a warrant for the arrest of Kyle Rittenhouse; N-word gets Country Star Morgan Wallen has been suspended indefinitely from his label; NYPD fired Deputy Inspector James Kobel for posting hundreds of racist and sexist statements on an online message board; Details on the public viewing being held for Cicely TysonSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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skill through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at taylorpapersceiling.org, brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. Today is Thursday, February 4th, 2021. Coming up, a Roland Martin unfiltered. Since Donald Trump could not steal the 2020 election, Republicans are trying to do it for him. We'll be joined by Ari Berman, a voting rights expert for Mother Jones, to break this down. Sonseria Ann Barry is now the first African-American secretary of the United States Senate.

Also, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, a Democratic health policy expert, is a leading candidate to run President Joe Biden's Medicare and Medicaid agency. Also, a former Trump administration official said in an interview that Secretary of Defense Lord Austin was chosen for his for for the job because of his skin color. Really? Are you that dumb? Really? That dumb? And right now, Congress is debating willing to strip the committee assignments of QAnon supporter Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Oh, y'all ought to hear the white tears, she said today on the floor. And wait until we show you how Senator Ted Cruz tried to jam up Biden's pick for the nine nations ambassador because of the speech she gave at an HBCU. Senator Cory Booker came to her defense. Prosecutors want an arrest warrant for Kyle Rittenhouse

because he's ignoring the conditions of his bond. His ass should be in jail. And country star Morgan Wallen has been suspended, could lose his record deal, and because his neighbor recorded him shouting the N-word. Oh, you hear that apology as well. Y'all, let's get to it it's time to bring the funk a roll of muck and filter let's go

he's got it whatever the piss he's on it whatever it is he's got the scoop the fact the fine and when it breaks he's right on time and it's rolling best believe he's knowing putting it down from sports to news to politics with entertainment just for kicks he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's Roland Martin, yeah Rolling with Roland now

He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martin. Now. Martin. Donald Trump and Republicans did all they could to lie about the 2020 election. Oh, we can run them all. Trump, Kevin McCarthy, they all were lying when it came to the election. Now Republicans in Georgia and other states are going to do their damnedest

to actually steal the election in 2022 and 2024. This is a huge issue. The question is, are Democrats going to have the guts to move forward with the John Lewis voting bill? They could actually do that, use their power to prevent Republicans from doing this on the state level. Joining us right now is Ari Berman. He, of course, is with Mother Jones. He is a senior reporter there, has been focusing on these issues for a long time. Ari, glad to have you in Roland Martin Unfiltered. This is critically important. Republicans can control these legislatures in these southern states. They control the governor's mansions as well. And so they control the state Supreme Court.

So the only real way for Democrats to stop the steal, if you will, is if they enact the John Lewis Act on a federal level, because that is what is needed. The question is, will they have the guts to move forward and get it done immediately? That's right, Roland. The Republicans control the states. They control places like Georgia. And they are hell-bent on trying to make it harder to vote so there isn't a repeat of 2020, so there isn't the same kind of turnout, particularly among younger voters, black voters, voters of color, that there was in 2020 in future elections. So Republicans control the states, but Democrats control Washington, meaning they have the power finally to put in place federal standards and federal regulations for voting.

They can pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to restore the Voting Rights Act, and they can pass the For the People Act, which would be the most significant democracy reform bill in a generation. Now, the only way they can do that is to get rid of the filibuster in the Senate, because these bills are not going to get 60 votes in the U.S. Senate. But they could easily get 50 votes in the U.S. Senate if every Democrat votes for it. So that's the big question. Are they willing to get rid of the filibuster, which President Obama called a Jim Crow relic, in order to stop all of these new voter suppression laws. If they're not willing to do that, then it's going to be very, very difficult for them to fight these voter suppression laws through the state legislatures or through the courts. So how will the federal bill,

how will that protect voting rights? How will that, I won't say invalidate, but how will that keep the Republicans in these Southern states from stealing the election through voter suppression? So with the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, states that have both a long but also more recent history of voting discrimination, like Georgia, would once again have to approve their voting changes with the federal government. So the Justice Department would now have the power to block new restrictions on voting. Georgia is talking about doing things like getting rid of no-excuse absentee voting, where everyone in Georgia can vote by mail, getting rid of automatic voter registration, adding new voter ID requirements. These are all things that would be discriminatory that would violate the Voting Rights Act. And if there was teeth, once again, put in the Voting Rights Act, you could block those laws that way. There's also legislation before the People Act that would set

federal standards for federal elections. It wouldn't allow you to do discriminatory voter purging, wouldn't allow you to add new voter ID laws. It wouldn't allow you to add these kind of discriminatory changes. So these bills really work hand in hand. The For the People Act would add standards that apply to all 50 states, whereas the John Lewis Voting Rights Act would target those states that are the worst offenders when it comes to voting rights, places like Georgia. And so if those federal protections are put in place and if they're put in place soon, they would then apply to the 2020 and the 2024 elections. And Democrats would actually have power to stop

these new voter suppression laws, as opposed to trying to just litigate against them after the fact, which is very, very difficult when you're dealing with very conservative courts that we have right now. But you've got folks like West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who says under no circumstances will he consider getting rid of the filibuster? He says that now. I think what the Democratic leadership is thinking is that if Republicans obstruct enough bills, then Joe Manchin and also Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona might reconsider. But there's a lot at stake here. First off, there's power for the Democratic Party at stake. If Republicans are allowed to pass all these new voter suppression laws, all of these extremely gerrymandered maps, that's going to hurt the Democratic Party. That might cost them the House in 2022. That might cost them the Senate. That might cost them the presidency. So it hurts the Democratic Party. And that's the very thing that the Republican Party feels

threatened by. So if I'm Kyrsten Sinema in Arizona, and I see that there's record turnout in my state, and suddenly all these efforts are being put in place to try to roll back that kind of turnout, the same kind of turnout that helped elect me, and I'm thinking, do I want to save American democracy, or do I want to save the filibuster so that 41 Republican senators can block any legislation proposed by the Democrats? I don't think this is a very difficult call for them. And in fact, when you talk about Sinema, she needs to be focused on this because the Supreme Court has taken up an assault on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. And so that could very well affect her state. That's absolutely right.

The Supreme Court is going to hear a case from Arizona, Kyrsten Sinema's home state, that could make it harder to vote in that state. There's all sorts of crazy bills that have been introduced by Arizona Republicans already. They want to get rid of no-excuse absentee voting in a state where 80% of the people vote by mail. They want to dramatically close a number of polling places,

even while they make it harder to vote by mail. So in Maricopa County, Arizona, they want to go from having 100 vote centers in Maricopa County, where you can vote anywhere in the county, to having only 15 voting centers. That's gonna directly affect someone like Kyrsten Sinema. There's another bill in Arizona that would just say that the legislature can appoint whatever electors they want in the presidential election,

no matter what the voters of the state say. So this is crazy stuff for democracy, but it also threatens Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly's self-interest as Democrats. They need large turnout from young voters, from voters of color, to be able to win elections. And if those things are rolled back, it's gonna be bad for democracy,

but it's also gonna be bad for them as well. So from a purely self-interest perspective, you'd think they'd want to get rid of the filibuster. But I just think it's fundamentally undemocratic when 41 senators can block anything that's supported by a huge majority of Americans, and then that paralyzes the Congress from being able to do anything about attacks on democracy.

So one anti-democratic institution, the filibuster, is then allowing you to continue all of these other anti-democratic institutions like voter suppression at the state and federal level. But this is where, again, where for me, I've always had a problem with Democrats not having guts. Republicans have no problem changing rules to drive their agenda. Mitch McConnell can complain and bitch and moan all day about Senator Harry Reid changing the rules for for these lower level judges once.

McConnell did it twice, including the Supreme Court. That's absolutely right. I mean, that's why it was so ridiculous to hear Mitch McConnell talk about preserving the filibuster. He already got rid of the filibuster to confirm Neil Gorsuch, to confirm Amy Coney Barrett. So they have no problem. They don't care about hypocrisy. They don't care about hypocrisy.

They don't care about shamelessness. All they care is exercising power. And I've said this for a long time. Democrats have to be as aggressive about fighting voter suppression as Republicans are at doing it. And they're not there yet. And the fact that the Democrats are not on board yet

with getting rid of the filibuster is very, very worrisome because democracy is at stake right now. We are seeing it play out in the states. the Democrats are not on board yet with getting rid of the filibuster is very, very worrisome because democracy is at stake right now. We're seeing it play out in the states. We just had an election where a big lie was said for months that led to a violent coup at the U.S. Capitol. Now Republicans are trying to take up that big lie through other means. They're trying to accomplish through legislation what they couldn't accomplish through litigation. And Democrats need to be very, very serious about what's happening in front of them and realize that this is their moment to pass big transformative change, including a new Voting Rights Act.

If they don't do it now, they might never get another chance to do it anytime soon. And in fact, here's the other piece. If Democrats don't do this, they're going to get killed in 2022. Because here's the deal. You can't spend all this money and go out here telling people, let's get John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in the United States Senate for us to be able to control it, and then you don't do a damn thing with it. Then you play this game of, no, let's bipartisanship. Let's all get together. No, as it stands right now, it's 50-50.

You can run the table on your agenda. And if the other side starts yelling and screaming, all you got to say is, I'm going to show you the hand. Because y'all gave us the finger for four years when Trump was there. That's how you wield power. And if you don't wield power, you're going to piss off the very people who went out there and sacrificed themselves, tempted covid, stood in line because they're going to say, what the hell we do all that for? If you're not going to do anything with the power. Well, that's absolutely right. In Georgia, Reverend Warnock and John also were very, very clear. They said over and over, send us to Congress so so we can pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. And I think it's going to be very hard for them to go back home and

say, well, we wanted to pass it, but there's this thing called the filibuster and Republicans wouldn't let us. No, you were elected to Congress with a mandate to do this. John Ossoff didn't have an asterisk under his tweets about a new Voting Rights Act that it could then be blocked by 41 Republican senators. So Democrats have to realize they have a mandate, and they have a mandate for big structural Democratic change after an election that Republicans tried to steal, and now they're already trying to steal the next one. And if they don't deliver, democracy is going to be undermined,

and it's also going to hurt them with their own voters. So I really think there's no reason for them not to do this. People are always saying, well, if you eliminate the filibuster, Republicans could come in and they could pass bad laws. Well, guess what? Republicans are going to do that anyway. If Republicans want to get rid of the filibuster, they will get rid of the filibuster. They've already gotten rid of it for Supreme Court nominations. They've already rammed things through, like tax cuts for the rich under Trump with 51 votes. So they will do whatever it takes to control power. And Democrats, when they have power, have to use it or else democracy will suffer and they will suffer as well. All right, Berman, with Mother Jones, we still appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Thanks so much. All right, let's go to our panel. Recy Colbert, Black Women Views, Erica Savage-Wilson, host of the Savage Politics podcast, Dr. Greg Carr, chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University. Recy, the point I made there about getting penalized, and I'm telling you right now, if they don't use the power, people are going to be pissed off. They're going to say, I'm not going to goddamn bust my ass to get you elected if you're not going to do anything with it. And so they better wield that damn power. Absolutely. I mean, the time for excuses is over. We don't want to hear that

shit about the filibusters. Oh, no, we played it out during the Obama administration. Now y'all have all three chambers, or we have the House, the Senate, and you have the White House. Get it done, period. Because we saw the ruthlessness that Republicans operate, and Democrats need to step it up. The time for excuses is just over. It's played out, and people are sick of it. And like Eric Berman just said, there was no asterisk when they made all these big promises. I saw today Chuck Schumer, majority leader, now I guess finally majority leader, that they have passed the organizing resolution, is sitting up there talking about hashtag cancel student debt, hashtag pass the Voting Rights Act. How about that? You got more pressing issues to worry about. He's sitting up there trying to press,

you know, President Biden and Vice President Harris on executive orders to cancel student loan debt, and you ain't barely got nothing going in the Congress yet, in the Senate. So I, for one, am not going to be sympathetic to, nor am I going to be sitting up there trying to bust my ass, trying to convince people and arm twist them to vote in 2022 if Democrats sit up there and fumble the ball for the next two years. Look, bottom line here, Erica, is look, you have to get gangster. Simple as that. President Barack Obama played nice with Republicans and they got screwed over and over and over and over again. They got screwed on judges. They got screwed on nominees. They got screwed on Merrick Garland. And that's why you would think that the Biden folks and even some,

a lot of his staff, they say, oh, we've learned our lesson. We ain't playing that game this time around this. You have to drive the agenda. And here's the other deal that I don't get. Well, if we change the filibuster, they might do when they get power. They have and they will. So if you want to guarantee you don't have power, play that game and see what happens. Erica?

Oh, hi. Sorry, they were talking in my ear. But yeah, I mean, you're exactly right. And as we talk about these issues, and you talked about all the folks that brave conditions in order to go out and make sure that there was power in the hands of Democrat for both the House, the Senate, and the presidency, we have to remember and think about that this is the part of the engaged citizenry that needs to be activated and continue to push. Because when we think about what Senate Republicans did during 2020, they made sure that their homeboy was acquitted in 2020. That happened at the top of 2020. They also made sure that everyone in the United States and the globe knew that the co-equal branch of government was corporations. And so

because they made sure that that fact was known, they made sure that they confirmed judges all throughout 2020, and that the COVID relief that the House passed in May of 2020, that it stayed in the House. Republicans made sure that Americans stayed hungry. They made sure that uninsured unemployment benefit did not continue. They did not do anything effectively to ensure that the Republic went forward. So I think at this point, it is really incumbent on the people that did engage in the vote to make sure that their voices are again raised to let Democrats know, make shit happen.

That's just where we are. There is no left or right. We can't turn around and go back. This is exactly what they were elected to do. They are taxpayer-funded elected people. We hired them to do a job, and this job is to make sure that folks have money in their pockets, that they're doing well in this pandemic, in these number of crises that they're facing, and that they should be held to that standard.

Greg, here's what is amazing here. The filibuster is not in the United States Constitution. It is a rule. It is a rule that they created. And it was a rule that was that was frankly installed by racists. Racists installed it to stop black folks from having rights. So this is an example of Democrats today Manchin, Seminole, whatever name it is, and the other people, they are literally defending a Jim Crow tactic. Yeah. They are rolling it, as well they should.

They're soft white nationalists, and they know the people that will return them to their elective office are white nationalists. In some ways, in deeper structural ways, this should be seen as an encouraging development. The white nationalists are going to break this system. It probably has to be broken. So when we hear the assertion that we are defending democracy, you know, we shouldn't say that, not if we have any sense of history. This was inevitable. It was predictable. What

we know, what we knew what was going to happen, we knew that white nationalists would eventually engage in their last stand. We didn't, you know, we couldn't have predicted necessarily the conflagration points, the 2016 to 2020 presidency of Donald Trump, the riot at the Capitol, the white riot. But we certainly know that the restriction of voting rights is consistent. That's why folks who thought that Brad Raffensperger was some kind of hero certainly were doing that ahistorically. He is, of course, lined up with the white nationalists in Georgia, from Hancock County to the commission they've now put together, this Georgia State Commission, and he's supporting rolling back rights.

So, yeah, of course, we knew Joe Manchin. We've been saying it longer than anybody else. I mean, it's commercial white-facing news entertainment media trying to act like there's some mystery to this. No, we all knew it was going to happen. That hasn't been said. It's time to break their backs, break their entire backs. What does that mean? I'm encouraged by the fact that Vice President Harris went to

West Virginia and gave a talk or gave a talk in West Virginia. Joe's a little mad. Big boy, your back can be broken. And it needs to break. Because them coal mining jobs ain't coming back, and them people down there suffering that you're willing to give $11 an hour but not $15 as if that's the difference, they need to rise up and break your political back. But since we're in this moment, and the John Lewis Act has been passed by Congress, and of course the white nationals out of Kentucky put in this back pocket,

you know, don't even stop with that. Go to the For the People Act. Because, see, the For the People Act, which also passed Congress, would require every state to provide online, automatic, and same-day registration in federal elections, ensure at least 15 days of in-person early voting. That legislation was passed, too. So, Chuck, who's going to be primary and hopefully drilled out of the United States Senate in a couple of years, it's time now to be a man and to either stand up for our common humanity or accelerate what was going to happen anyway, Roland. They were going to break this system because it's the only way they think that they can preserve their white nationalist interests. And this is where the pressure has to be put on them.

This is where it has to be constant pressure. This is where folks should be mobilizing, pushing them. So here's the deal. It's a perfect example. Democrats are in control of the United States Senate. Where's the first bill? See, this whole deal that you got to wait, well, we got to do COVID first. I'm just trying to understand, like literally right now, I've got five projects and I got five projects going on at one time.

Like I literally can't afford to go, no, no, no, no, no. I got to do this one. Then I'm going to get to the other four. No, I got to do all these right now. And so I don't understand with staff and all this sort of stuff why you cannot have multiple bills operating at one time. It should simply be COVID bill, John Lewis bill, George Floyd Justice Act bill. Those should be the first three bills passed by Congress in the first 30 days. I'm just trying to understand, like, what the hell are you waiting on?

Let's be real clear. The Republicans are not going, excuse me, the Democrats are not going to get 10 Republican votes, Erici. It's not going to happen. There are no 10 Republican votes on any of those bills to get. None. You can try all you want to.

Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Mitt Romney. You can say Pat Toomey's retiring. You ain't getting 10. So what you going to do? No. That is the damn question. I mean, they just barely got the organizing resolution passed. So

now you have the Democrats who are controlling the committees. What's the holdup? I don't get it. I know people are going to say, oh, it's only been so many days. Oh, it's only been so many weeks. All of these things have been in the Congress before. These are not brand new solutions. They're solutions that passed already in the House. Put it back on the floor. Get it going through committees. I don't understand what the holdup is. I mean, there needs to be a lot of urgency about all of these matters. And I'm just really kind of dumbfounded here as to what the strategy is. Because just talking about COVID, okay, that's fine, but that's not stopping you from doing anything else.

And if the Republicans are going to filibuster it, put it on the damn floor and let them filibuster it, and then you get rid of the filibuster. But it just seems to me like people are trying to, or the Senate Democrats are trying to wait for the right moment or something. They should have put D.C. statehood up there. They should have put this, like you said,

John Lewis Voting Rights Act, For the People Act, and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Those are no-brainers right off the top. So I don't know what the hell is going on, but you have the momentum. Yes, you're going to have the impeachment trial coming up, you know, whatever with that. But I don't get it. It just seems really weak to me.

Well, we certainly see what's going to happen there right now. What is happening in the United States House? Democrats are making their effort when it comes to targeting that nutcase out of Georgia. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Now they are voting to strip her for committee assignments. Why? Well, let's see. She's a racist. She's a bigot. She's an idiot. She's a QAnon supporter. You name it. So you know what? Before we play her speech, let's just go ahead and roll it. So earlier today, Marjorie Taylor took to the floor of the U.S. House to plead her case, to show everyone that she's a Jesus lover, that she is someone who, oh, my goodness,

she just loves the Lord and all that sort of stuff. Actually, before I go to her, right now, Congresswoman Lucy McBath is speaking on the floor. She was being on the floor, and so we're going to try to pull her speech. But before we go back to the floor, if y'all want to just, let's see if your heart has been touched by just the words of now the humbled Marjorie Taylor Greene. Thank you. Madam Speaker, my Democrat colleagues, Republican colleagues, my district back home in Georgia 14, to the American people, to my mom and dad and my husband and my children, I've been here for one month and a day, and I've gotten to know part of my conference,

my Republican colleagues, but not even all of them yet. I haven't gotten to know any of my Democrat colleagues, and I haven't had to have any conversations with any of you to tell you who I am and what I'm about. You only know me by how Media Matters, CNN, MSNBC, and the rest of the mainstream media is portraying me. What you don't know about me is that I'm a very proud wife of almost 25 years, that I'm a mother of three children, and I consider being a mother the greatest blessing of my life and the greatest thing that I'll ever achieve. I'm proudly the first person to graduate college and my family, making my parents very happy and proud.

I'm also a very successful business owner. We've grown our company from one state to 11 states. I'm a very hard worker. I've always paid my taxes. I've never been arrested. I've never done hard worker. I've always paid my taxes. I've never been arrested. I've never done drugs. But I've gotten a few speeding tickets in my day. What you need to know about me is I'm a very regular American, just like the people I represent in my district and most people across the country. I never, ever considered to run for Congress

or even get involved in politics. As a matter of fact, I wasn't a political person until I found a candidate that I really liked, and his name is Donald J. Trump, when he ran for president. To me, he was someone I could relate to, someone that I enjoyed his plain talk, not the offensive things, but just the way he talked normally.

And I thought, finally, maybe this is someone that will do something about the things that deeply bother me, like the fact that we're so deeply in debt that our country has murdered over 62 million people in the womb, the fact that our borders are open and some of my friends have had their children murdered by illegal aliens, or perhaps that maybe we can stop sending our sons and daughters to fight in foreign wars and be used as the world's police, basically. Or maybe that our government would stand up for our American businesses and our American jobs and make the American people and the American taxpayers their focus.

These are the things that I care about deeply. So when we elected President Trump and then I started seeing things in the news that didn't make sense to me, like Russian collusion, which are conspiracy theories also and have been proven so. These things bothered me deeply, and I realized just watching CNN or Fox News, I may not find the truth. And so what I did is I started looking up things on the internet, asking questions like most people do every day.

Use Google. And I stumbled across something, and this is at the end of 2017, called QAnon. Well, these posts were mainly about this Russian collusion information. A lot of it was some of what I would see on the news at night, and I got very interested in it. So I posted about it on Facebook. I read about it. I talked about it. I asked questions about it. And then more information came from it. But you see, here's the problem. Throughout 2018, because I was upset about things and didn't trust the government, really,

because the people here weren't doing the things that I thought they should be doing for us, the things that I just told you I cared about. And I want you to know a lot of Americans don't trust our government, and that's sad. The problem with that is, though, is I was allowed to believe things that weren't true, and I would ask questions about them and talk about them. And that is absolutely what I regret, because if it weren't for the Facebook post and comments that I liked in 2018 I wouldn't be standing here today and you couldn't point a finger and accuse me of anything wrong because I've lived a very good

life that I'm proud of my family's proud of my husband's proud of my children are proud of and my that's what my district elected me for. So later in 2018, when I started finding misinformation, lies, things that were not true in these QAnon posts, I stopped believing it. And I want to tell you, any source—and I say this to everyone—any source of information that is a mix of truth and a mix of lies is dangerous no matter what it is saying, what party it is helping, anything or any country it's about. It's dangerous. And these are the things that happen on the left and the right. And it is a true problem in our country.

So I walked away from those things and I decided I'm going to do what I've done all my life. I'm going to work hard and try to solve the problems that I'm upset about. So I started getting involved in politics. You see, school shootings are absolutely real. And every child that is lost, those families mourn it. I understand how terrible it is because when I was 16 years old in 11th grade, my school was a gun-free school zone and one of my

schoolmates brought guns to school and took our entire school hostage. And that happened right down the hall from my classroom. I know the fear that David Hogg had that day. I know the fear that these kids have. And this is why, and I say this sincerely with all my heart, because I love our kids every single one of your children, all of our children. I truly believe that children at school should never be left unprotected. I believe they should be just as protected as we were with 30,000 National Guardsmen. Our children are our future and they're our most precious resource. I also want to tell you 9-11 absolutely happened.

I remember that day crying all day long watching it on the news. And it's a tragedy for anyone to say it didn't happen. And so that I definitely want to tell you. I do not believe that it's fake. I also want to tell you... I'm done listening to her. Bring in the panel. Now, y'all, what I didn't get to with the part...

Matter of fact, y'all find it for me. Y'all find it for me when she said, I'm a Christian, I love Jesus, and folk make mistakes, and we all sin, and y'all, she was playing that Jesus card real hard. I've been humbled by

this and I've been mm-hmm. There have been a lot of speeches on the floor today lighting her ass up. Let me tell you who brought the funk. Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Watch this. I heard about motherhood today.

Two of those women, between them have six children. They're mothers. One of them does not have children. And she's come to this body asking for more housing for people, for more health care for people, for more income for people. How awful. And they're not the squad. They're Ilan.

They're Alexandria. And they're Rashida. They are people. They are our colleagues. And yes, you may have disagreements. But I don't know anybody, including Steve King, who you precluded from going on committees. For much less. And they're the ones who are going to be the ones who are including Steve King, who you precluded from going on committees, for much less.

And this is an AR-15 in the hands of Ms. Green. This was on Facebook just a few months ago. That is a message of peace and reconciliation and peaceful democratic dialogue. The squad's worst enemy, AR-15, in hand. Sounds like the gun's eye flap. I have never, ever seen that before. Mmm. Y'all go ahead and play that. I just love Jesus.

Opportunity, and I'll tell you why. I believe in God with all my heart, and I'm so grateful to be humbled to be reminded that I'm a sinner and that Jesus died on the cross to forgive me for my sins. And this is something that I absolutely rejoice in today to tell you all. And I think it's important for all of us to remember none of us are perfect. None of us are, and none of us can even come close to earning our way into heaven just by our acts and our works, but it's only through the grace of God. And this is why I will tell you as a member of this Congress, the 117th Congress, I am a passionate person. I'm a competitor. I'm a fighter. I will work with you

for good things for the people of this country. But the things I will not stand for is abortion. I think it's the worst thing this country has ever committed. Abortion is the worst thing this country has ever committed. How about slavery when they rip the babies out of the wombs of black women? See, here's the deal here, Erica, you being from Georgia, with this trifling-ass woman right here. Steny Hoyer nailed it. She stood up there and said, I've gotten a chance to know some of the Republicans in our conference.

I haven't gotten a chance to know the Democrats. They only know me from what they've heard from media matters and CNN. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Cori Bush know about your ass. When you and your staff accosted Congresswoman

Cori Bush in the hallway forcing her to move. Your Jesus-loving, trifling ass didn't all of a sudden, yeah, you wasn't loving the Lord when you went off on her. You wasn't humble and you wasn't a mama and a loving wife and a Christian when all that was happening. But now they want to jack your sorry country ass. Now you want to do.

And I, and earlier today, y'all, I was on with David Brody and, and he, and David, you know, David,

you know, look, the good guy, we had a great conversation and, you know, David felt that I wasn't extending, you know, the compassion to her that was needed. And, you know, being a Christian, I like, but I said, bro, I said, let me help you out with that. I said, first of all, let me be real clear.

I said, married to a minister. I'm a Christian author. I said, oh, I know the word. I said, but see what y'all can't handle is that what she did today is what that German theologian who studied at Abyssinian Baptist Church, who got a taste of liberation theology and took that back to Germany when they were fighting Hitler. Y'all, his name is Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Well, that German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer laid out a concept called cheap grace. And cheap grace is when folk like her stand there with their white tears, speaking about their white Christianity, asking for forgiveness, when knowing

full well, tomorrow you're going to go back to doing what you were doing before. Dietrich Bonhoeffer called that cheap grace, when you go to God and say, Lord, forgive me, I'm sorry, then you will hold a day and then you turn around and you start holding tomorrow, but then you go to God and say, Lord, forgive me. I'm sorry. Then you will hold a day and then you turn around and you start a home in tomorrow, but then you want to ask God for forgiveness

about your home in tomorrow. And then when you hold a morrow, you ask God for forgiveness and you turn around and you hold back on Saturday and Sunday. I'm not talking about her. I'm talking about the people who do that. Lord, forgive me. Lord, forgive me. Back to Hohen. Lord, forgive me. Back to being a freak. Lord, forgive me. Bonhoeffer called that cheap grace. That is what she think we just gonna sit here and

accept. No, not happening. And from Matthew 7 21 through 23, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name

and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. That is exactly who Marjorie Greene is to her fucking core. Don't put my Lord and Savior's name in your mouth as a way to excuse the shit that you do on a daily basis. My big mama said something to me years and years ago, and it has stuck with me.

She said, when you open your mouth, you remove all doubt. All she is is a racist. When I was on the coast, which I know many of us have talked about, in Ghana, and I stood in the dungeons and looked up and saw where white people were having church while my ancestors were chained, butt naked in a dungeon about to leave

their country on a gross, gross journey through the Atlantic. trans admitted through the Atlantic. And I can't even I'm so angry. I am so angry because I'm tired, y'all. We have got to engage now. And I'm saying that because folks like Marjorie, that she is under the umbrella of blamelessness. So she'll always be blameless. She's a white woman, so she'll always be blameless. That speech fell exactly where it should have, on the floor. It has no power. What we have to do is understand that

these folks are being trained, they're being donated to, they're given space to actually occupy these spaces, have these committee spaces, because folks in power understand that they need other people to continue on their work of oppression. So this is what we have to do. It's not just during election time. This type of civic engagement is something that we have to be prepared to do

every day of the week. Republicans are always grooming the next Marjorie. They're always grooming the next Mitch McConnell. Where are our Cori Butches? Where are our Ayanna Pressleys? Where are more of our Madam Presidents, Kamala Harris? Those are the folks that we need to be training up to assume power to let them know, no, no, no, no, no.

What you will do is you will be a member of Congress. You're gonna be in Senate. You're going to be in the House of Representatives. That is the type of training that we need to have and that we need to focus on if we expect to make sure that we retain any semblance of democracy, not only just now, but for the years that are to come, because Marjorie, that type of person, they're going to continue to roll those out left and right. Let's actually go to the, let's go in a second. Give me one second. We're going to continue to roll those out left and right. Let's actually go to the let's go in a second. Give me one second.

We're going to go to Capitol Hill. The vote has been taken. Go. For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Florida seek recognition? Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. With that objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. With that objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. Madam Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that—Madam Speaker, can I ask for the House to be brought into order? The House is not in order. Madam Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I rise to honor the lives of two fallen FBI

agents, Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwarzenberger. On Tuesday morning... So the House is actually voting right now and the time is up. I'm not sure if it's extended, but right now it's 230, 230 votes. 11 Republicans

received, voted with the Democrats to strip her of her committee assignment. And they still ain't shit right along with her. So, that's fine. Erica just preached the whole word, so let me just start right there. And I just have to say,

listen, this is who they are. This is not, you know, she sat up there and still was talking shit about all kind of stuff. She was doubling down on all kind of stuff. She does not love all our children. She's sitting up there. You know, the reason why

she's there is because she was attacking white kids. Okay, let's be clear about that. Not because she was going after Ayanna, I mean, Ilyana, Rep. Congresswoman Ilyana Omar or Rashida Tlaib. It's because she went after David Hogg and her and his sister, and that is appalling.

It's disgusting. Okay? So she deserves to get all this stuff stripped. She is a truther about all this other kind of stuff. She want to deflect blame. Lady, you are 46 years old. You're too damn old to be sitting up there acting like you ain't know no better. Oh, I was on Facebook. Oh, I was on Google.

I'm not going to say the B word on your show, but I will say motherfucker, please. Okay? You was all up in there. All into it. It got you to the Congress, and now you want people to get to know who you are. Girl, bye. Period.

Right. Yes. Right. Greg, what's a trip? First of all, all the Republicans stand there and again, the interview I did earlier, they were like, you know, oh, you know what? Like RFI should be tweeted this, you know, this is going to set a precedent. And Republicans, if they get control of the House, they're going to go after Maxine Waters. And I tweeted back, try it. I know that's true. Republicans, if they get control of the House, they're going to go after Maxine Waters.

And I tweeted back, try it. I know that's the truth. Try it and see what's going to happen. See, what they can't say, and this is what I said to David. I said, David, it's real simple. If Kevin McCarthy did what he was supposed to do, Democrats would not have had to do this. Democrats didn't strip Steve King of his committee assignments. Republicans did.

Because they got so much. His white supremacy got so much. For them, they were like, okay, that's just too much white supremacy. So, like, we'll take a little bit. We'll take, like, a hunk of it. But you just gave us a whole mound of it. We can't take all that. And so, this whole deal here is and the reason the vote's important

because you need to see who is being truthful. Now see, when they had a vote in the Republican caucus, they wanted to boot Liz Cheney out of leadership. It was a secret vote. And I

think 61 voted against her and like 190 supported her. All right. But it was a secret vote. And all the people were saying, well, see, there you go. If things were taken in secret, you know, a lot of these Republicans, they wouldn't

be standing with Trump. No, no, no, no. That's why it shouldn't be in secret. Because, see, you show how's why it shouldn't be in secret. Because see, you show how punk ass you are when in secret you sit here and do one thing, but in public you do another. And when that woman stood there and said, I just didn't know better.

I know. But then after I found out the truth, I stopped posting and liking that stuff. Yeah, okay. Yeah, okay. And you ain't no damn martyr. You ain't no martyr.

Well, I don't know, Rowan, she might be. She will be if she's drummed out. She'll be a martyr for the world. Okay, well, go ahead and get her some Robert E. Lee statues. Go ahead. Well, no, the reason I say it is because remember when she won that

14th congressional district election, the guy she defeated, the doctor, John Cowan, his campaign slogan was all the conservative, but none of the embarrassment. He said, yeah, I believe what she believes in terms of my

values, but I'm not going to embarrass you. So here's the thing. I think we have a fundamental challenge. Oh, I agree with Trump. Well, not the other stuff. No, baby. You got to take that with it. Well, see,

you've just put your finger on it. There it is right there, brother. There it is. Now, people have been asking, you know, what changed during Trump? Nothing. But what changed after January 6th is this. The line now

is bright. We always knew where the line was. We could draw the line once we got off the show. But now, you've got to pick. And Erica says, you know, you write recently. She preached the whole word. My thing is this, because like I said, I stood there at Elmina and looked at the grave there, Jacobus Capitan, the African they had

on their side as they blessed the boats. The fundamental thing, I think, is that when the white nationalist says Jesus, and you say Jesus, you're not talking about the same God. That's right.

Even Bonhoeffer, I mean, even, you know, when they're talking about cheap, great, that's an internal conversation for them. Cause I promise you that if Jesus come out of my mouth, nowhere in my DNA am I speaking about anything that woman is praying to. Right. My God is a fight for for God wherever God's fight.

You understand, Nat Turner. Nat Turner said, I had a vision of black angels and white angels fighting. These people are not. I go to David Walker, 1829, David Walker's appeal. You go to them. You say, are you a Christian? They say, yes. You say, is slavery ungodly?

They say, yes. You ask them are you going to let me go? If they say no, then they are not in fact with God, but they are the devil. And you have now been authorized to end your condition of servitude by any means necessary. That's 1829. This man calls himself a Christian. Let's be very clear about this.

I say the Republican Party, but really the White Nationalist Party, when she was in that primary that put her in, she got thousands of dollars from Jim Jordan's House Freedom Fund. She got thousands of dollars from Mark Meadows' PAC. And she got thousands of dollars from Koch Industries. Let's be very clear. And when she won the primary, the white nationalists in Georgia, knowing full well who she was, sent her to the federal legislature.

Let's be clear and tied to what Ari was talking about, Roland, when you interviewed him. These white boys, these white nationalists have dropped all pretenses. When they passed the law you're going to talk about later on in Wisconsin, that's the first COVID legislation they passed in 10 months, and it was to drop the mask mandate. When they filed 108 bill changes in the past month and a half or so to try to overturn voting rights, they have

declared all-out war, and they're going to stand with their God, and I love them for it. Why? Because their God, their Jesus, is the God of the Ku Klux Klan. Onward, war souls. So when you reach in in the battlefield, anybody who tolerates it, anybody who acts,

this is a country with democracy, we must somehow find a way to heal and work together, you are standing with the devil. And that authorizes the rest of us to do whatever we need to do to end our condition of servitude. That's it. There are only two sides. January 6th settled it. Anybody, you pick

and let's fight. See, that's why that's why we don't play footsie here. See, you can't sit here and talk about I care about all constituents

and Joe Biden sit here and talk about I care about all constituents and Joe Biden, you're not really practicing unity. You're not doing these things. I'm like, hold up. Y'all supporting that.

See, you can't sit here, Kevin McCarthy, give a speech on the floor, calling Trump out for his role in the insurrection, but then

you vote against the impeachment. Then you fly your ass down to Florida and take a picture with him. Because really what you're saying is, I know what I said on the floor was one thing. But the picture says I'm really with him.

See, that's why when I was with David, David was like, well, do you not accept her apology? I'm like, hell no. Y'all go ahead and take this. Take this. Action to that from Roland Martin, host and managing editor of Roland Martin

Unfiltered. Roland, great to have you back on the show. Great to be back. What's happening? All right. Well, we got a lot happening. And but I want to play. We're going to play in a moment some of Marjorie Taylor Greene's comments on the House floor first. But I want to get your overall view of Democrats taking this vote, because this is unprecedented for a Democrat, for an opposition party to say we're not having any of this? Well, if the Republicans had done their job, this wouldn't be left up to Democrats.

That was the problem there. This is an absolutely crazy and deranged woman. That's who she is. And so, sure, her crazy constituents in Georgia elected her. Well, so did those fools in Iowa who elected Steve King. Republicans took the steps against him. But when you look at not just her, see, Kevin McCarthy, oh, but her comments before. No, no, no. It's what she has said since she's been there. And then I really get a kick out of folk

who have a long track record of comments. And all of a sudden, oh, I denounced what I said. Hell, you said it. Yeah, but okay, but Roland, here's the thing. We can play the duplicity card. I mean, can I bring up Ilhan Omar? Can I bring up Maxine Waters?

Can I bring up some folks that have said some crazy stuff too? Some crazy stuff too. Try it. Try it. But also, did any of them try to lead an insurrection? Did any of them tweet 1776? Did any of them try to lead an insurrection? Did any of them tweet 1776? Did any of them talk about that? Marjorie Greene cannot be trusted as a member of Congress. Pure and simple. And here's

the deal. Do the rules allow for this to happen? Yes, they do. Republicans supposedly like playing by the rules, right? Roland, I want you to listen to Marjorie Taylor Greene. She was on the house floor today. We're going to all watch it together. Here it is. And I want you to know. All right. So I played that, and I'm going to let that go ahead and play. Y'all get ready to go back.

When y'all see us come back, just going back. But, again, I like David, and I get it. He's speaking to his right audience, but I'm going to bring that heat so they can actually hear the truth, and I'm not playing that little, again, that little Christian love game that

she thought, I mean, I'm the wrong one. No, boo, that dog don't hunt where I come from. It's just not going to work. And see, and let's just be real clear, you got too many folk on mainstream TV who's scared to say it, who's scared to actually go there, who don't want to truly call out white Christianity, who don't want to call out white nationalism.

They want to use all the other words and phrases around it. Nah, see, we're not going to sit here and dance around it. We're going to call this thing exactly what it is, and they have to get checked. They have to get called out, and it's not just folk like her. It is Marco Rubio. It is Jim. Can y'all keep that thing down about wrestlers

being sexually assaulted, Jordan? It's all the rest of these folk who want to play all of these games. And see, we're going to do a roll call. Because see, I'm telling you, as Greg said, I've been telling y'all, it's only the rest of these folks who want to play all of these games. And, see, we're going to do a roll call. Because, see, I'm telling you, as Greg said, I've been telling y'all, it's only two lines. Either you are with the folks on January 6th or you're with the rest of us. See, we ain't going to play hopscotch.

Yes, ain't going to hop over here, then come over here, then come over here. I don't want to hear you talking about unity. If you're staying with those thugs, those white domestic terrorists, or even the confused, ignorant black folks and other dark-skinned folks who were with them, then you know what? You as well. Go back to David Brolin. Don't laugh. None of us are perfect. I'm a

sinner. Words of the past. It was a mea culpa. It was a mea culpa. It was an apology. That's what you're going to get. That's pretty good. That's pretty good, Roland. Roland. You actually fell for that. So now we're not supposed to believe anybody? Look,

do you actually believe what she just said? Listen, I was led astray by things at the time that I didn't realize were not true. Now I have seen the light and now they are true. Rowan, is she the first person in the world to do a mea culpa?

She's not the first person to do a mea culpa. But no, no, no. I understand the difference between a mea culpa and being somebody who's like, yeah, I need to save my behind. I still believe that stuff, but I got to say the right thing. So Democrats have never done that? I mean, come on. Liberals haven't done that? I believe nothing that stuff, but I got to say the right thing. So Democrats have never done that? I mean, come on. Liberals haven't done that?

I believe nothing that she just said. Nothing. And then I'm a lover of Jesus Christ. Come on, David. Wait, Roland, don't get on her faith now. You're starting to condemn her faith now. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not. First of all, David, you got to remember who you're talking to.

The husband of an ordained minister. A Christian author. Yeah, so, so. I also, I also understand when theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer talked about cheap grace. Yeah, but you don't know her. You don't know her. You don't know her. No, no, no, no, no.

Here's what I, again. You don't know her. See, again, if we want to have a Christian conversation, the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer talked about those people who have cheap grace, who do things and they go, oh, Lord, forgive me. They go back to doing these things. I all I here's Marjorie Taylor Greene. Hold up. I judge her based upon what she has said since she got elected. And she has said absolutely crazy, outrageous things. Not 2018, 2020, 2021.

Roland, straight up liberals always talk about compassion for your fellow man, and then you've got this going on. Look, why can't we have some compassion for her? I mean, when I say compassion, forgiveness, forgiveness. What about forgiveness? Here's the deal. I can have compassion and still remove your behind from your committees, and then in six months, no, no, no, in six months, when we actually see if you've actually changed, then they can be restored. But but see, here's the deal. You can't do all the things she said and done in the past few months, including January 6th.

And then go, oh, I'm sorry. Lord, forgive me. No, boo. That's not how it works. Listen, Roland, I disagree with you. She can say that and then show in the future if she doesn't make the same mistake, if you will. But the point, she can say it. She can say it. She can say it. Here's the deal. Democrats take the action.

And in six months, if she actually shows what she just talked about, they can always restore. So you'd be for that? Can that happen? You'd be for that. You'd be for her restore, getting the committee assignments back if she showed true contrition. If she shows it, but let's see what she says and does for the next six months. I don't trust that she actually can be humbled and not act a fool for the next six months. But sure, let's see what happens.

What? Snatch the committee right now. Will you at least acknowledge that this is not just a conservative QAnon issue? This is the liberals do this on the other side, too. Everybody's got their baggage rolling. Everybody's got their baggage. No, no. Individuals have their bag.

Yes. Yes. And here's and here's the deal. And here's the deal. And here's the deal. It's real simple, okay? All I heard for the last four years from Republicans is that winning, you actually have the spoils of victory. Well, guess what?

Yeah. What happens when you win? Roland Martin, I'm going to say this on national television. I love you, and there's no air quotes around that. You know that. I appreciate it. See, I ain't making excuses for these folks. You're a better man than I am.

See, my deal is I knew exactly. See, again, game recognize game. See, they love, because see, here's the deal. Here's the deal. They want you to go chase that rabbit hole. Democrats said this. This is me. Mm-mm. We ain't rabbit hole. Democrats said this. This is me. Mm-mm.

Mm-mm. We ain't going now. Mm-mm. Nope. Nope. We ain't going now. We ain't going now. We're going to stay right here.

See, Erica, that's the real deal here. And see, and what I need folk to understand is, again, it's only two sides now. If you allied in any way with them white domestic terrorists on January 6 you are my enemy you are my people's enemy

we ain't sitting here that's why I was like alright all them words I'm alive my mother let me see what you do for the next six months but here's what we already know. She's already sent a fundraising appeal lying on AOC.

So, Heffa, you already showed me who you are. You already raising money and you lied on AOC in your fundraising appeal. That's why snatch your committee. Yeah, and snatch your wig while you're

at it. I got to finish that out. Greg, he gave me my life back in a text message just that quickly because you personalized this, right? It's just really the apologist kind of narrative that continues to flow out of whiteness,

but this is why we have to stay vigilant. I know you've already discussed this on the show earlier this week, but we're thinking about the lack of grace, the lack of understanding that was not given to a nine-year-old black child in Rochester, New York. And so we see how

there's always a runway for whiteness to be considered otherwise. You don't know what's in their heart. Well, you know, the Bible clearly says the heart is vile, it's full of things that are not pleasing unto God. So, you know, scratch that, like throw that all the way out of the window. We know who she is because she told us who she was. She told us who she was when she was running for office. And when she got into office, she continued to tell us who she

was. She said that she engaged in politics because she was drawn by the son of a Klansman. And I continue to say he's the son of a Klansman because we have to always go back to what the Klan was founded on. And Dr. Carr laid it out for us. They were founded on some type of Christian belief system, but it's not a belief system that extends to all people. It is very much so narrow and centers and upholds and makes sure that the supremacy is always with whiteness. Everyone else is there to serve whiteness. And so as we think about this and as we continue to hear the media talk about her ad nauseum, as we continue to hear QAnon become more mainstream, that we continue to hold true to who she and the Republican Party is. What we saw on January the 6th is really the

outflow of what the natives and what Black people have experienced in this very nation by white mobs. It has always been like this for us. It has always been like this for natives. We are the ones who built this damn thing. So understand that Marjorie Greene ain't shit, but another copy out of this whole prototype of how you aggressively attack, oppress, suppress all

voices that are non-white. That is all it is. And so if there cannot be some type of courage gained by the Democrats, outflow from all of the Black folks, 90 percent of Black people, excuse me, of Black women, 80% of black men that made their way to the polls to make sure that they were in power in the White House, in both chambers of Congress, then we have a real issue here. We got the wrong people in power. See, Recy, what they want us to do they want us to play the go along get along

with this fallacy that no no no no that's not me see what i keep trying to explain to people when you show your racism and your bigotry, you don't show that wearing a hood. You don't show that burning a cross. You don't show that hurling the N-word. You do it when you defend those who do. You do it when you pass laws that are specifically tailored at black people. You do it

when you stand up and 140 House Republicans vote not to accept the electors from one of four or five states because really, you're saying black people.

It was your votes. See, they didn't contest the white votes. When the white Republican in Michigan said, oh, let's certify all the votes in Michigan except Detroit. We know what you're saying, boo. We know what you're saying. And if y'all go along with her, your raggedy asses go along with bigotry.

Absolutely. I mean, this is the same party that basically made the case over 60 times that black people, Latino people, Native American people are second-class citizens, that we don't even deserve full enfranchisement, we don't deserve full citizenship, and then you got the damn nerve to act like we supposed to let this woman sit on these committees? Hell no. Bye, Ashy. Period. And, you know, it's nothing more than the media loves is to rehabilitate the image of a white nationalist, a white supremacist. Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm just a little innocent little white lady. Even though you were sitting up there armed, harassing two white kids after they were up there to do what she said she can't watch them to do, which is to make change, to advocate for themselves. And she's sitting up there hounding them with a weapon.

She's lucky there was no black mama around because it would have been a situation. You know, they say monkey know which tree to climb. And she knew which tree to climb on that day. But now look, because now she does not strip. But I do want to say one thing, though, because it's a little off topic topic but I'm sure tonight and this is no shade I'm sure tonight that Don Lemon is going to go viral for some you know

mild rebuke and he's gonna say some words you know that's cool I like Don I ain't got no problem I ain't got no beef with Don but let's keep it real this is where the real is and another thing I just wanted to say for Don, but let's keep it real. This is where the real is.

Another thing I just wanted to say is the NAACP image awards came out, and what I want to say, too, again, we talked about this last week, about how Black people can validate other Black people, how we are the trendsetters, and I just noticed

in the news category, there was no Black people, how we are the trendsetters. And I just noticed in the news category, there was no Black media, Black-owned media, people that were recognized. It was all, you know, CNN special, MSNBC special, or whatever the situation is. Red table towel. And I like all those people, don't get me wrong. It's no shade to any of them.

But when we start to validate ourselves and the stuff that we're doing and we start to look beyond what the mainstream is doing and saying okay we're only gonna pull from the pool of mainstream white you know um white uh comforting media you know then maybe we could get somewhere on our own too because we got a lot of work to do on ourselves and empowering ourselves. Like Erica said, like Dr. Carson, like you said, Roman, the Marjorie's are going to be the Marjorie's, okay?

They got the Karen's, they got the Marjorie's, they got the Jim's, and all of these folks. But we got to get ourselves together. We got to start recognizing our own power, and we got to start validating ourselves and recognizing that, and then maybe that will push us even further.

Well, and look, um, we... Um... Just so folks know, um... We, you know, the first two, the first two Image Awards ever won by TV One, um, I won. The first two in their history. It was for first the Barack Obama special, the second one was for the Michelle Obama special. Then the first two years, the NAACP created a category called Best Host. The first

two years that category existed, I won those first two years. And then we were not nominated the last three years. We were not nominated the last three years. Not nominated

for this show each year. And it was interesting because I'm the same guy. Now, I'm not with TV One, but I'm literally the same guy. So I won Best Host the first two years. Jada Pinkett Smith won Best Host the last two years. I was the one who, she wasn't there, I actually was the one who sent her a text, told her she won. I told her, said, we tied two and two, so we'll see who breaks the tie next year. And so the nominations came out, she's nominated again, not nominated. And you're absolutely right when you decide to be black-owned,

when you decide to cover the issues, when you decide to do those things. And for everybody out there to understand, what we put up for our special was our Chadwick Boseman tribute. That's what we put up. Yes, sir. I don't know.

I mean, and so again, we could have picked from the Joseph Lowry. We could have picked from the John Lewis, any of those, but we put up the Chadwick Bozeman three-hour special that we did. And this is a photo in my house there. You'll see of those awards right there.

And that's the four image awards. That's the Hank Aaron Award, the NABJ Journalist of the Year. And also, when Colin Kaepernick sent me the jersey, this came with it. And so I went ahead and put that right there as well. So the thing is this here, what I said to some folk,

we're going to keep doing what we do because the reality is I've never needed white validation, nor have I ever needed black validation. But it is important for us when we do understand that, how we recognize our own, because we see, we do this 365. Yes, sir. I don't pop in and pop out. You know,

I don't see all of a sudden, I ain't never all of a sudden discovered my blackness. I never had, you know, an epiphany where all of a sudden, no one has ever said, where did Roland's boldness all of a sudden come from?

It came the day I got hired. So, you know, that's why we do what we do. See, that's why, that's why, and I said it. I mean, there's a reason why these black mainstream show hosts don't invite me. Sure. But when they books come out they sure call me when they get in trouble they want me to tweet support for them and then that's just how folk folk do um and just for everybody understand um for everybody out there to understand i need y'all to understand this here my validation comes when a brother picked me up the uber driver the other day and i had the mask

on and the brother was like oh man this is when i took the the robo mobile in to get serviced he said man it's a nice vehicle. What you do? And he said, he knew my name because he said he had it on the phone. He's like, Roland, what you do? And then I took it off. He went, oh, Roland, Roland. Oh, yes, sir. He was like, oh, yes, sir. It's on the drive you. See, that's the validation. The validation is when I'm on the street corner and I was talking to somebody

and literally 30 folk buses and taxi cab drivers drove by honking. The woman was out talking. She's like, damn. She says, is there a parade or something out there? I said, hey, there's black people driving by. And that's just what it boils down to. And so the thing that we're also going to do, because I want to talk to you about this here, because we had this subject on yesterday. And I'm going to bring in the COVID piece to tie it into it.

We had Wendell Pierce on yesterday talking about the Black Media Coalition they created in New Orleans. And we're dealing right now with a fundamental problem in this country when it comes to the COVID vaccine. My CFO called me today to say she and her mama and another relative went to a Walmart

on 119th Street in Chicago. For anybody who ain't from Chicago, that's like deep, deep South Side. Yes, it is. That ain't like Bronzeville South Side. That ain't 32nd, 35th, 40th. No. It's 119th Street. Damn, damn, this Chicago land. You. It's 119th. Damn near Chicagoland.

You ain't in Chicago no more. She told me that there were 10 black people in line, a handful of Hispanics, and everybody else was white. And so here we're dealing with a COVID issue, black folks not trusting it, but also black folks not even knowing where to go. So I've been raising the question to CBC members, to the Biden administration. OK. Who got the contract to handle public engagement in media for COVID? And is there a black ad agency that's a part of that

who knows where to go to the black people? And see, I already know how the agencies think. So they figure, well, we're going to go find some black celebrities. But the data shows that black people, only 7% of black people listen to black celebrities to make major decisions that affect

their lives. That means 93% don't. So y'all can go get all the rappers and the singers and the actors you want, and there's no disrespect to any of them, but that's not who they're listening to. Nope. Thirdly, and this is why I'm bringing up mainstream media,

since March of 2020, we've done more than 100, y'all get that commercial ready for the commercial break, we've done more than 100 different segments on this show specifically about black people

and COVID. Featuring black experts. And so what you're talking about, Recy, is critically important, but here's what I prefer. They can keep the image award.

I want the $25 million advertising. How about that? I heard that. I want the $50 million. I want the $100 million because I want to be able to hire 10, 25, 30, 40, 50, 65, 75 reporters. And see, and just so I said last night, just so folks don't know I'm not playing on this, Greg, I said last night, we're going to put up 100,000 to go hire a writer

to focus specifically on how black media is getting screwed out of advertising dollars, and we're going to put some folk on Front Street in the government and the private sector come on because see what people need to understand is that when you choke off the ad money and then you then choke off the black ad agencies then when you choke off the black ad agencies, you choke off the black media. Then when you choke off black media, you then choke off the unfiltered information flow to black people. And then when you choke off the unfiltered information flow to black people, then

you suffocate black people with mainstream drivel or gossip and entertainment coming from black targeted sources. And so then we are walking around looking like

zombies in the movie Us. Brother. And that's what we are sitting here trying to fight. Greg, go ahead. That's right. No, I was going to say, I mean, Roland, what you just broke down, brother, is really at the end of the day, a conversation

about black institutions. The NAACP was not founded as a black institution. From its birth, there has been a tension between its local branches and the national. Because it's driven by this, brother. This right here. The dollar bill. I had to go find one.

This dollar bill. It's driven by this, brother. See, this is Booker T. Washington. People talking about Harriet Tubman. He was on a coin at one time. Or more importantly, the image awards may be driven a little bit more by this. Pennies on the dollar. Why? Because when you

look at who's nominated, and I'm looking at these white publishers pushing their books, and you know I read everything, so I read all those books, and I just laugh every time the Image Awards list the books that have been nominated. I don't see the books. I see the publishers that wrote the check for the fundraiser. When I see the films that have been nominated, I don't see the films. I see the publishers that wrote the check for the fundraiser. When I see the films that have been nominated,

I don't see the films. I see the companies that wrote the check for the fundraiser. When I see the hosted shows, I don't see that. The thing that changed was, you're not a TV one anymore. Individuals don't beat institutions. But here's the thing, and what you just wrote down is very important.

And that's why you're always talking about Ebony Magazine. That's why you worked with the Chicago Defender and ran the Defender. When you own your own thing, and when you talked to Wendell Pierce last night, man, it moved me so greatly to listen to that conversation. The people then fund you

and that advertising, see, there used to be black businesses that could fund black media. And once that assault and that erosion that you walked us through happened, we are now left with this, a handful like Time magazine. Next week's Time magazine is going to have Amanda Gorman on the front and my old classmate Ibram Kendi, who's got a book out that they slapped together in one world publishing, is selling, selling, selling, selling.

And all the response I see is from white people. Why? Because that's who's going to buy it. And half of them ain't going to pick up the book. Go see what happened with how to be anti-racist or white fragility. They bought books by the hundreds of thousands and left them in the bookstores. They were doing that, you know, cosplay activism

after George Floyd's death. But the cover of next week's Time Magazine got Gorman on the front and an essay by Ibram Kennedy talking about this is the period of the new black renaissance. Nah, bruh. Let me help you with this, young brother. Let me help you with this, young brother. Let me help you with this. Time magazine is not black owned.

Getting a few, hey, look at us. It's like putting a few earrings on a pig. Why? Because as our people are worried about eviction, as our people are worried about COVID, then, you know, sprinkling a few black accoutrements on the front of white magazines is about market share.

It's about marketing and it's about keeping this white supremacist hierarchy going just a little bit longer by letting three Negroes in the room, putting one on the cover and saying, see, we're not that bad. The question that must be raised, the one Pete Seeger wrote a song back in the 60s where they sang it in the civil rights and went based on what happened in Kentucky. That's right, Mitch McConnell. Kentucky in 1931, which started the Harlan County wars, was when they busted those poor white people working in the coal mines and wouldn't pay them. And they went on strike and they sent the police out to break their backs. A white woman asked a question, a simple question that years later became a song.

Which side are you on, boys? Which side are you on? This is a white supremacist capitalist society. And when they're giving out image awards to people based on who is going to write the biggest check to keep the NAACP going, you know who that's an indictment of? I don't blame the leadership at NAACP. I blame black people for not supporting black institutions and then not having the sense to understand what you just said, which is when you see the award system, the NAACP image awards has now been pulled into a hierarchy that that's not even a thing y'all want.

You know what you're dreaming of? You know what you're dreaming of. You're dreaming of a Golden Globe. You're dreaming of an Academy Award. You're dreaming of a golden globe. You're dreaming of an academy award. You're dreaming of your master's voice, just like that damn dog sitting in front of that Victrola projector on RCA. You're listening for your master's voice. And see,

this is not what Roland Martin and Filtered is doing. And guess what? You're going to keep getting the image award from all the people in the street because them Negroes never listen to the master's voice and they're the only reason we get free enough to have this conversation right now. So go on and give them awards. Go on and put people on top of Cover Time magazine. We're not paying attention

and we won't be distracted. See, Erica, and I've said this here, I have had three different publicists send information out to all of these media writers, to all of these publications, you can name them,

showing the success of this show, showing how it was organically built, showing how in the middle of a pandemic, a black-owned, feisty, small digital company showing how in the middle of a pandemic, a black-owned, feisty, small digital company was profitable. Not a single one will write a story. But I'll see a story about somebody doing a deal with another media company

and they launching this whole deal, I see all this coverage. I see, and the thing is, I've been engaged in these conversations with people, fighting, talking about, trying to get advertising dollars, trying to get people to understand this whole deal.

And a lot of these black media folks been silent as well. And in fact, earlier today I was dealing with some people about even this whole deal with COVID. And I was trying to get them to understand. I said, y'all, y'all, y'all, y'all, y'all focus on the wrong thing.

You got to follow the money. Right. Right. If all they are doing is saying we're gonna spread around a million million 200 two million dollars to all the black groups to all the black churches but 30 of the medical workers who have died are black? When we're disproportionately dying because of COVID? And you think y'all about to spend $500 million and we only gonna get

two? See, I'm purposely walking people through. See, I took offense when the folks at the Neiman Reports dropped this story right here called Meet the New Black Press. I took offense to it. And again, they had people in the story who, and people who I know, and it's all good.

And I know the sister who wrote the story, but the reason the new black press is changing the lenses of victimization and dysfunction into lenses of empowerment and agency. See, the reason I had to sit here and take offense to that, because they listed the Griot,

okay, Zora, I love Vanessa DeLuca, but Zora's not black-owned. Come on, brother. Come on, break it down. The Undefeated. Kevin Merritt is my boy. I know many of their writers. That's ESPN. That's

Disney. That ain't black-owned. Then they listed some other... The Root? The Root was started by Skip Gates, but The Root is owned by a white hedge fund company, G.O. Media. Before that, they were owned by Univision.

They not black owned. Then outlier media it right there, though outlier media doesn't identify as black press per se. Candace Fortman, the outlet's chief of engagement and operations, acknowledges that serving low wealth information in a nearly 80 percent black community means that race does matter. Well, first of all, if you can't identify as black press, you ain't black press. And then the plug. OK, they are. They are. I believe they're black. They're black on. Then I go down. Blavity, blavity, black on. You know, then I see this this other. Here's why. And I reached out to him and I said, here's why I took offense.

I said the phrase the black press is specifically talking about black newspapers. And then when you hear people talk about legacy, legacy media, I know what they're talking about. In fact, NNPA is called the black press of America. And see, if you can't identify, if you do not come out of the lineage

of Freedom's Journal, if anybody on this list cannot out of the lineage of Freedom's Journal. If anybody on this list cannot recite the quote in the March 16th 1827 edition of

Freedom's Journal, if I say Samuel Cornish and John Russworm, and you have no idea who I'm talking about. If I say AI Scott and the land daily world, and I say the Pittsburgh courier, and I say Robert Abbott and the Chicago defender. Yes,

sir. And if I say Louis Martin and the Michigan Chronicle and John Sinstack, if I say any of those folks and you ask me who, you will never be able to identify as black press. Come on, brother. Carlotta Bass and the California Eagle, the black women, too. I'd be well. What y'all talk when they talk about. I need, 1827 said, we wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us. If you do not know the history of the black press, you would not know of something that was called the Abbott monthly. Robert Abbott,

the founder of the Chicago defender created a black magazine that was the equivalent of the New Yorker. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Had a circulation of a hundred thousand. Y'all that that 100,000. The leading writers at the time, Richard Wright couldn't get published, but he was published by Robert Abbott. Come on.

Y'all got to understand, before Langston Hughes became Langston Hughes, Langston Hughes was writing for the Chicago Defender. That's right. That's right. Ethel Payne started writing her fictional stories for the Abbott Monthly, and then later, the Chicago Defender. Yes. If we, Erica,

continue to allow others to monetize our culture and then we not monetize our culture that means that the see y'all let let let let let let let me break this thing down for everybody to understand how the money flows. Come on, brother. The white ad agencies are snatching multicultural dollars. See, there used to be a budget card. That's multicultural money.

They were like, that's Negro money. We don't care about that money. We got general market money. But then when the demographic shifts begin to take place, Obama gets elected in 2009. See, this is, and see, and I got to go there. Obama didn't learn this lesson. Obama did not put the resources in black media

during his campaign and allowed David Plouffe and David Axelrod to ignore his edict to give money to black media. And what ended up happening was white Democrats said, well, hell, look at what Obama's doing. We don't have to spend it ourselves. What I'm trying to say is when you black in a position of authority, what you cannot do is negate your own because they are watching and then they will then follow your lead that's right so what ends up happening we then don't get political dollars then the multicultural market begins to dry up you used to have agencies eugene morris rj dale go look at the black enterprise list of the top black ad agencies 20 years ago and see how many of them exist today So then multicultural y'all becomes general market General market y'all means white

And let me tell you what they do to us See y'all don't see the reason I need everybody watching to understand why I'm keep hitting this thing and why I'm going to keep hitting this thing. It's because what they then say is the agency says, well, we don't need to buy Roland Martin unfiltered.

We can buy the Young Turks. In fact, they don't even buy the Young Turks. They say we don't even, no, no, no. This is what they say. We're going to buy the NBA Turks. They say, we don't even... No, no, no. This is what they say. We're going to buy the NBA on TNT since black men watch basketball, and that's how we're going to sell our products to them. That's right. They say, oh, we don't need to buy...

Well, OWN is no longer... She sold 95% to Discovery, so Oprah only owns 5%. But when she owned it, they said, we don't need to buy on. We can just go over here and spend our money on how to get away with murder and scandal,

and we're going to pick y'all black people up on the way. My God. I'm describing for y'all how the game is being played. And so then what they do is when we call, first question, what are your metrics? Because they have set an artificial number that we can't reach. Well, see, the problem is, thanks to y'all, it's hard for them to fight our numbers. How about that because see when we come

in and we say uh we average 20 to 30 million views a month now they're like damn um now my job we took we have not bought any advertising do y'all, we have not bought any advertising. Do y'all understand? If I could afford to spend $25,000 a month on advertising, my 20 to 30 million views a month would probably be 40 to 60 million a month. You'd be giving out the image awards. Then they really got to come out and spend the money. Erica, this is, I need black people to be extremely cognizant of what is black targeted and what is black owned. When you talk BET and a lot of people that I love and appreciate them. Those are ad deals being cut by Viacom. Right.

Viacom. Okay. And so we got to be real careful, black people, by continuing. Oh, my goodness. That's wonderful. That's hype. No, no, no. But who owns it?

And then who does that then support? Then what does their staff look like? How many black folks on their staff? How many folks are on the on the sports of directors? How many senior executives? What are the black vendors? Do they support? See, when you start breaking those things down, that's how you really get at the real issue. Because Erica, we don't do that. We're going to look up one day and we're going to be asking somebody else for permission. Can they cover us?

And then we're going to say, well, why aren't they featuring so-and-so? Because we don't own it. And we don't own it. We don't control it. And we don't own it. We don't own it, we don't control it. And when we don't own it, we don't control it, then we do not wield the power to speak truth to our people, even if sometimes it tastes like castor oil,

because some of y'all need to understand, you're being fed candy. Yes, sir. Other places. When that ain't all that we need? Erica, go ahead. I mean, the doors of the church are open. I think that this is really time for everybody to

pop open Cash App, hit Roland Martin unfiltered, and give. Because you plainly laid out how we are going to end up giving away our culture that we say that we own and that we work hard for. It is semantics. It's not semantics.

Black targeted. And as you laid out for us, Roland, and Black owned, there is a very distinct difference. And so there is something to be said about a platform that you rolled out in 2018, seeing what was happening. So you were not looking at 2017. You were not looking at 2018. You were looking at beyond. And that 20 to 30 million people trust Roland Martin, trust Roland Martin Unfiltered, where you can, Monday through Friday, see panelists that are Black, that reflect the community, that reflect a diverse set of views, but very much so committed to bringing truth, because that is your brand. Truth is your brand. And that the people that

come in to speak, the expert panels, they're Black as well. So we're talking about when, especially since you talked about COVID, that critical, very critical time from March up until now, but especially March, those spring and summer months, you could not not turn on Roland Martin unfiltered and not see a Black person that had been in medicine for 10, 20, and 30 years. That was when people really discovered that, oh, wow, that there are Black people that are virologists, that are immunologists, that are researchers. Absolutely. That Black people have already always been there, but that they were not attractive to mainstream media. Mainstream media already has their list of people that they pull for opinions and to get expert opinions on regarding specific subject matters.

All of that happened here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. So this, again, is a call for engaged citizenry, a call to action. I would much rather be listening to a program that is going to help me throughout my day that features and stands behind people that look exactly like me. And so I think that this is something that absolutely bears repeating. It's important for people to know exactly what they're getting when they're actually selecting what they're actually looking at. That's critically important. And so, again, the call to action for this as well is for people to make sure that they are donating to this platform.

I'm not saying anything that me or anybody else has not done. If we want to continue to make sure that we retain some power over our culture, then we have to respond and we have to donate and we have to uplift those people who are in our culture that are committed to a thing. When you think about Roland Martin and you think about truth, I think about truth and I think about journalism. And so if those are two things that Roland Martin is committed to, if those are the two things that he's engaged to during this time where this is pretty much what people can expect, and that you're also traveling, that you're making sure that you're hitting all corners to hear from all different voices, voters, elected, people that are organizing, people that are mobilizing, then the least that we can do on the other side of the screen

is to make sure that it is supported. And we have seen, by way of people who have been doing well in entrepreneurial endeavors, people are not lacking money. People have money. Take your money. You know, Dr. Carr has told us this. You know, put something with something. Take your money.

Do it today. And make sure you donate to Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let me re-see the thing that, and I'll be honest, Recy, it does piss me off at times when I see black celebrities, folk who I know personally, when I see, oh yeah, man, man, watch so-and-so.

Oh, I watch so-and-so big up, big up, big up, and big up-so. Oh, I watch so-and-so big up, big up, big up, and big up. But when Warnock and Ossoff were scrapping in Georgia, I didn't run into none of them people

in Georgia. In two weeks I'm going to be on the ground in St. Louis talking to, doing a town hall for one of the black mayoral candidates I know who I ain't going to run into and the thing is then i listen to the same folk talk about ownership what's ours what we need we gotta tell our own story and i i know how folk feel up it's a bunch of people

they hate tala perry but let me tell y'all something right now. You can hate Tyler Perry movies all you want to. And you can have disagreements on Tyler Perry for any number of things. But Tyler Perry, in fact, Kenan, I want you, Kenan, after today's show, I want you to get the Tyler Perry speech that he did at NABJ. I want you to stream it after the show. Because when he spoke to NABJ in 2018, Recy, he talked about damn they table, building your own table. But this is what he said. He said,

if I serve my people, my people will take care of me. Black people built that 250 acre studio in Atlanta. This is true. Black people are the reason Tyler has his second or third jet. Black people are the reason he was able, according to Cicely Tyson in her book, paid her salary two, three, four times as much. I sent him a text. I'm not going to say how much.

I know how much he paid her for a movie. He told me. I was like, damn. And I said to him, now that's black power. And I think too many of our folk, again, we get so consumed. And let me clear. I keep telling you, I have no issue. And I'm as a vice president of NABJ, I'm fighting for black people at ABC. We just sent out a statement calling for ABC News to name a first black president of a network news division. And I said that it was ABC News that in 1962 named my alpha brother Mal Good as the first black national correspondent of network news.

It was in 1978 that ABC named Max Robinson as the first black evening news anchor. And I said, ABC, Disney, it's time for y'all to make history as the first black network news president. I support. I sent her a text last night and today. Rashida Jones, the first black president of a cable news network. She started last Monday on that. No, this Monday on MSNBC. I'm fighting for more black folks on air there. But while I'm fighting for them, I'm damn sure fighting for us to own our own stuff.

Because here's what I do know. And I just saw Angela Rice. She's no longer on CNN. I saw her on Joanne Reid's show. I know who she came on first. Oh, yeah. I know who Tiffany

Cross came on TV first. I know before Gianna Caldwell was at Fox News where he was on TV first. I know where Michael Singleton and Paris Denard and David Swirlick got the opportunities. Before

Laura Coates hosted anything on CNN, she hosted my show. See, I can go down the line here. The point I'm saying is, none of those folk get the shot unless they come through a black-owned platform

that affirmed their expertise, Recy. Absolutely. And that's the thing. It's like I said, it's no shade to anybody else. I'm rooting for everybody black. I'm rooting for black people in all the spaces, in the white spaces and in the black spaces. But all I'm saying is,

don't put the black media spaces in the back of the bus. Don't try to put the black media spaces down a notch. Like it's not up to the par in the caliber because it doesn't have that white validation because it doesn't have that white cosign. That's all that I'm saying. And we have the power to validate ourselves. You know, like you said about Tyler Perry, Tyler Perry perry you know people feel whatever they feel about his stuff but he is putting black people on and you see them go on to do a variety of things and it's black power we have trillions of dollars of buying power and other people are getting in on it and we need to get in on it and we need to be the ones to really see the value in ourselves that's the only point that I'm trying to make.

And I'm glad that y'all, everybody laid it out because we got to keep repeating it, that the onus is on us. We can't complain about, oh, you don't have black this, you don't have black that, or the one black person that was on that white network or the one black person that has that show, that show gets canceled and everybody is up in arms about that. Don't let it just be one. Don't let it just be two or three. We have to own our own stuff, and we have to put just as much support around our own as we do around things that are being propped up.

And I don't mean it in a derogatory way, but being propped up by the mainstream media. It is a final comment on this one, Greg, and I'll leave it for you to take us home. Y'all, it was a whole bunch of other stuff we had on the show. Y'all can blame Reesey. She threw the whole show off. Sorry.

Sorry. But we've been, and I just need folk to understand that there's no piece of this game I haven't seen. Right. I had somebody, I forgot who that fool was. This fool actually tried to question my black media credentials. And I cracked up laughing because I think the last count, this is like my 13th or 14th black owned media experience. I've done black radio, black newspaper, black magazine,

black online, black television. Yes, sir. I don't know nobody else. One you wearing? Are you counting the one that you wearing? I don't know anybody else. And I don't know anybody else. And I don't know anybody else. I don't know anybody else who's worked in every medium of television that's black owned.

Yes, sir. And I've done it as a reporter, as an editor and as an executive. So when I'm giving y'all this information, I want y'all to understand I'm sitting in the room. I'm hearing the conversations. I'm giving you direct what the numbers are. I'm telling you when we sought political advertising,

the offer that came back to us was 22 cents on the dollar. That meant what we got was 78% less than what we asked for. I told y'all before when Brett Pulley did the book, The Billion Dollar Bet,

the unauthorized biography of BET. In the book, BET was charging $1,500 for a 30 second ad and MTV was charging $8,000 for the same 30 second ad. That means that there was a tax on blackness. So what I need y'all to understand, and I know, y'all, I've heard it. Yeah, Roland being a hard ass,

Roland being a stick-up artist, Roland sitting here, why can't he just be happy? Y'all, I've had black people who are across the table say that. Of course. I've had black, one person who's an alpha. Me and him going to have a conversation one day, trust me. Yikes. Well, Roland's just a noise maker

Roland's just you know he too aggressive you know he too he too pushy you know but the same person

when they were catching a heel on a political campaign, guess who they called to bail their ass out? Hmm. See, I need y'all to understand. I have long described myself as I am the negro

behind the glass case break in case of emergency. Yes, sir. It's a whole bunch of people been talking trash about me. But then when they need to swing, they like break the glass.

The reason black media is in the state let me be clear y'all the reason black owned media is in the state it is in right now is because there are scared black people who won't open their mouths. The reason black-owned media is in the state that it is in right now is because someone will give them a dollar when they should be giving them $10, and they accept the dollar and they say, why, thank you. Thank you, that's so wonderful. I am not a parking lot militant. I am not going to be the person who stands in the parking lot

and complains about what they do on the inside. I am going to be that brother and have always been that brother who said what is on my mind in the parking lot and on the 10th floor. Greg, the only way forward for Black-owned media is to grow a spine and to use the one thing that we have, the pen, the paper, the microphone, the platform to call out injustice where we see it and be willing to walk away from a bad deal by letting folk know you are not going to play me small.

Take us home. No, brother, you've already done it. I want to just add my voice to Teresa and to Erica on the importance of your vision to see that this is where it was going in terms of technology. First of all Everybody's coming over this way the disruption Has put this whole thing in a precarious situation And I want to just say one thing about the nature of this show that we all know but it bears repeating at this moment This is the space that changes all the other spaces. You know, I don't really watch

whiteface in commercial media because particularly the academics they have on who are black, a lot of my friends, and it pains me sometimes to watch them swallow their tongues and hearts as these open white nationalists like Joe Scarborough and others try to keep their little settler project going. It's going to disintegrate, boys. You can't save it. But to watch people who look like me, who I know if they weren't there but here, would be talking different, some of them. Some of them, they could actually believe that, which is hilarious to me.

But just watch them sit there with them pained look on their face. But there's a different look on their face now than there was two years ago, to go to Erica's point. Since this show has emerged, and before that, when you were on TV One, but especially since this show has emerged, you've seen an emboldenment in some of them. Why? This is the only news place anywhere where you could open a show with Ari Berman, one of the country's leading experts, who you will see on all those other places, NBC, CNBC, wherever you want to put CNN or MSNBC, because that's neoliberal media, but you might see on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman, which then followed by three, four members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who you might see on CNN, but they've already been framed by the unvarnished truth. And in between each segment, a roster of Black folk, as Recy and Eric have said, who have deep expertise across the way, framing the whole

conversation. Emptying then into stories that are not only not covered in media, when they are covered, aren't given the proper frame. Oh, Cicely Tyson, and then they show all the Hollywood movies and ignore everything about Cicely Tyson's life. And in the middle

of a show, you pivot and get person after person who white people think they know, but who don't know, who come to this space and are able to talk like a Danny Glover, are able to talk like a Susan Taylor. And then we leave this space, as Eric said, inspired, renewed. And what that means is, and I'll end with this, I think about the honorable Elijah Muhammad, because I was a freshman at Tennessee State when Jesse Jackson ran president the first time. And I remember when the Secret Service wouldn't give him security, as you do as well, when they wouldn't give him security because they didn't consider him a

serious candidate. And who did he reach out to? His neighbor in Chicago, Louis Farrakhan. The Fruit of Islam were the first security for Jesse Jackson. And when the fruit showed up and Jesse's getting momentum, the feds decided now it's time to give him secret service. Yeah, because see, when black people get in trouble, we all know the nation of Islam. But you don't want to say it on CNN because you're scared to lose your job until they fire you, at which point you ask the final call to run the story. So, yes, but the existence of the black press, the existence of Roland Martin unfiltered, is like that scene in Malcolm X when the great Al Freeman Jr., my faculty colleague at Howard, now an ancestor, one of the great actors who should have got, if them little damn statues

mean nothing, and they don't, an Academy Award alongside Denzel Washington for Malcolm X. But of course, they were only gonna give Denzel Washington Academy Awards for playing like Dirty Cop, because y'all understand how this award game goes. They're framing your ass forever in the memory of America. But when Al Freeman Jr. playing Elijah Muhammad pours that glass of water and dumps that ink in it and shows Denzel Washington and says, brother, if the people only have this to drink, they'll drink it. And then he takes another glass, pours a clean glass of water. He says, but if they have a choice, they will always drink the clean glass of water.

Don't get distracted with this BS, with these little dodge things, people hiring people to do all this. No. Roland Martin Unfiltered is pouring a clean glass of water. And as long as you are pouring that clean glass of water, the people are going to choose the clean glass. And eventually, these people who are pouring this water and putting

a little ink in it, and I mean that metaphor every kind of way you can imagine, going to look and see as these people are drinking this clean water, they turn to the Negroes they have on the payroll and say, beat us up a little harder. Because I remember when Don Lemon was on the other side.

But guess what? The presence of places like this then made Don Lemon blacker, then made Eddie Glaude blacker, then made Joy Reid blacker, then made everybody in them spaces a little blacker because it is the Reid blacker, that made everybody in them spaces a little blacker, because it is the existence of this space that moves the needle, not the existence of people in those other spaces. Don't ever get that twisted. Support this institution, and you're going to

watch. You're going to see how this whole thing is going to change, but we got to prop you. We got to keep you going, brother. Greg, if y'all heard Greg mention what I was wearing. So this is my high school, Jack Kids High School in Houston, Texas, one of the most historic high schools in the city. I sent the principal as well as the superintendent, Greta Latham. And let me go ahead and say this right now. To the Houston Independent School, trifling as board of trustees, that black woman has saved that district. The Texas education agency was going to take over H I S D. It was going to be the largest state takeover in United States history.

But that sister came in as the interim superintendent and she saved it. And there's a cabal of board trustees, most of them Latino, who wanted to bring in Latino superintendent who failed before he was previously the superintendent. He failed because the previous superintendent Carranza left to go to New York city. And then when they, they could have voted for her to get the job, but they voted to keep the interim tag. Grenita Lathan deserves to be the superintendent of the Houston independent school district. And I need y'all to understand that she is doing great things for that district, for those schools, and y'all need to have the guts to get out of the way and allow her to

do that. And so that's one of the reasons why, and look, my publicist, she can get mad about it. I don't care. Just so y'all understand why we have to also pay things forward. So first, you see me rocking my Yates colors. You see what the colors in the logo are because you've got to understand where this thing comes from.

And I showed y'all before because I was rocking today my School of Communications jacket, and I was the only TV student who got one. And it was so, y' the odd this is a true story Shirley Hall was the School of Communications coordinator and I was talking so the newspaper people used to always get they always get jackets and I was like, yo honey. Why they always getting jackets, but I was a television so I'm standing in her doorway

And my boy David was standing right there y'all she literally this I can't believe she even fixed her mouth to let this come out her mouth She said to me You hadn't done anything to earn one. When I say I let loose on that white woman, and when I told her, I said, who you think you talking to? I said, for four years, every major program at this school was shot by me. I said, I'm a top student in every single field here

TV radio newspaper there's nothing I can't do I ran down y'all this was her look on her face she picks the phone up calls Thelma Johnson. Miss Johnson, I'm sitting there rolling Martin down. Can you order whatever jacket that he wants? And she hung up. Now, y'all, I was a high school senior. I wasn't going to let this woman sit here and diminish what the hell work I put in when I was in high school. And so this is actually a replica jacket of that. So yeah, you damn right. I got that jacket. And on the back of it, of course, that's why I had Mr. TV

put on the back. That's what the students called me when I was there. So I'm always repping J.Y. And that's why. And I'll go ahead and tell y'all first. And again, Tasha, my publicist, she's going to be upset, but she'll get over it. That's why I created a $25,000 scholarship fund at Jack Yates High School to annually give a $1,000 scholarship to a student in the School of Communications, which produced me, and a student in the regular school. So every year, $ two thousand dollars will be given to two students uh to attend either a two or four year institution because part of the problem is that there are a lot of pro too many scholarships are only for four-year institutions and not for two-year institutions uh they do they are going to have to write an essay that i will read and then whoever

and then those two students, when I pick them, I will bring them on this show. I'm saying all of that because, listen to me, y'all. When you support black media and when we force advertising agencies to fund black media, then those of us who own black media can then take those resources and give it back to our people. The only way I can afford that, and I've already sent the money to the Houston Independent School District. They already got the money.

And then that, so that means that that money right now will pay for this scholarship, two grand a year for the next uh 11 12 years and i won't wait and simply replenish that so it's always there but the point i'm making is this here that's why you got to support when we own stuff because when we own and look i look i'm telling you right now i already have you you go You look at these journalism schools on HBCU campuses. OK. Oh, I have. Look, I already know. My plan is to say, you know what? Here's going to be an allocation to my high school and have a school of communication named after me. TSU is right across the street. Texas, Texas Southern. Yes, sir. See, this is what

I need y'all to understand. Are these media companies that are black targeted, what are they giving back to black people? Mm-hmm. All these black targeted media companies, what programs do they have for HBCU students?

Mm. Are they engaging with those HBCUs? What are they doing to bring in more black journalists into the field? This is why you have got to stop letting folk give money to black targeted, because see, when you support black targeted and black targeted ain't supporting you,

all you're doing is making another community richer, and then you are simply making our community poor. That's why we are focused on this. That's why you have to understand that when you support what is black-owned, black-owned will support you. Folks, if you want to join our Bring the Funk fan club, you can do so. Cash app. If you go to YouTube, understand, it's a 55-45 split on YouTube.

So if you give on YouTube, that's fine, but we only get 55%. If you give directly to us, we get the whole 100%. Cash App is dollar sign RM unfiltered. PayPal is paypal.me forward slash R. Martin unfiltered. Venmo.com is RM unfiltered. You can support us via Zelle. The email there is roland at rolandsm Venmo.com is RM unfiltered. You can support us via Zelle. The email there is Roland at RolandSMartin.com Then you can also

send us a money order. We don't have the address. We'll have it up tomorrow. 1625 K Street, Northwest, Suite 400 Washington, D.C., 2006. Let me quickly do this here. I want to hopefully, I ain't got no photos for um for erica um uh hold on hold on hold on see just hold on i just realized that photo is right here hold on oh no no no bro don't do it

we love character look the man is not crazy. Don't, don't, don't. My man. Don't be talking about Henry. Henry don't work for you. My man. I pay Henry. He better zoom in. That's right.

Carly Jordan to Erica with love. Look at that clean brother. He ain't an alpha, but he dressed like a. Here, zoom in. For everybody who missed the story, this brother y'all sent me, he sent me a check. He said, I want you to read this on Thursday. He's not an alpha, but he is clean.

And man, he said he loved the Thursday panel and he just loved him some Erica Savage. Woo, he said. And my man said, be sure to get this photo to Erica. And so, just so y'all know, I keep this photo right here on my set. Henry,

go to a wide shot. Give me a wide shot. I keep this photo right here on my set. So when we return back in... Let me put this down. Y'all can see it. It's right here. So when we return back in studio, let me put this down. Y'all can see it. It's right here. So when COVID is over and the panel comes back in studio, this is going to be right here so I can give that thing to Erica.

It's right there. Y'all. So I just want to go ahead. So let me give a shout out right here. Ingrid John. Ingrid, I appreciate it. Y'all So let me give a shout out right here. Ingrid John. Ingrid, I appreciate it. Y'all, Ingrid made a $100 donation. I told y'all, anybody who give more than $50, y'all get a personal shout out, just like in church.

Let's see here real quick. Let's see here. Who is this here? Who is this here? There we go. All right. Who we got right here? Isabella Johnson. First of right who we got right here uh isabella johnson uh first of

all um this check right here ingrid said roland you are doing really good work i will continue to follow you ingrid i appreciate your 100 donation uh this here is uh isabella thank you very much for all you do i really enjoy watching roller mart unfiltered you bring the truth and facts i thank you once i thank you twice i thank you thank you thank you isabella i appreciate that i appreciate your 50 check as well i got two more to open and y'all we done uh oh i hope i get i get hey fellas if any y'all out there uh want me to uh show your photo and your affection for erica please send it in i'll be be more than happy to do that. I'll be more than happy. Yeah, I know she

blushing, but she'll get over it. Jerry McLean. Jerry, I appreciate your $50 money order, my brother. Thank you so very much. And last one I'm going to open today. I got a whole bunch, y'all. I got a whole bunch at the house that I got to open. And, you know, we

got to sit here. Y'all make it easy on me when y'all give electronically because i ain't gotta scan each one of these things and like literally uh do it but uh cheryl pixley cheryl i appreciate that from seattle washington thank you for supporting our show uh thank you so very much uh you know and again, I need y'all to understand, last year y'all gave $672,000 to this show. Last year. Our target goal is a million. Our goal is if 20,000 of our fans give $50 each, we can hit a million to fund this show, to fund the great work that we're doing.

And so, please, that's the number that we're trying to hit. But if you can't give 50, if you can give more, that's great. If you got less, that's fine as well. I certainly appreciate that. Thank you so very much for all of your support again, because again, y'all make it possible. And here's the other thing. Your support makes it possible for me to go hard against these other people because that's how we're able to be funded. This is no different than when black people, black people funded the black church. And see, that allowed the preacher to have the courage to speak truth from the pulpit. The day black preachers stop speaking truth is when their funding sources did not come from their people. That's another whole show.

But I'm just going to leave that one right there. But I got to close on this. Go to my iPad. so uh reesey did think that the busted challenge to announce that uh she's pregnant uh her and her husband congratulations uh i was i was i was wondering why she stopped cussing so much She's pregnant. Her and her husband, congratulations. I was wondering why she stopped cussing so much. Now we know why. She don't want it to have an impact. She don't want that baby to come out the womb cussing.

And so congratulations, Reesey. I'm still going to be cussing. I don't care. Y'all, that is it. Erica, Greg, Reesey, I appreciate it. Thank you so very much. I will see y'all tomorrow right here on Rolling Mark Unfiltered. I'm going to let y'all do it with me on three.

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