#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Rochester cops cuff, pepper spray 9-year-old girl; CBS diversity scandal deepens; Biden's 1st days

Episode Date: February 2, 2021

2.1.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: 9-year-old girl cuffed, pepper sprayed by Rochester police; Rev. William Barber dissects Biden's 1st 100 days; CBS diversity scandal widens; Police chief in Georgia resigned and an officer was fired after body camera video showed them using racial slurs; Former NASCAR driver, Bill Lester joins me to talk about his new book, Winning in ReverseSupport #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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It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today is Monday, February 1st, 2021, the first day of Black History Month, and we celebrate that every single day right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Coming up on today's show, we will talk about, first of all, we have Reverend Dr. William J. Barbara, Poor People's Campaign, what they are emphasizing for President Joe Biden, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris. A nine-year-old black girl, pepper sprayed by cops in Rochester, New York. People are angry and upset. Also, Chloe Bailey puts a

video out celebrating her one million social media followers. Why are folks attacking this black woman when other folks like the Kardashians have appropriated blackness to the tune of a billion dollars? Also, NASCAR driver Bill Lester is here to talk about his new book. It's a jam-packed show. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on Filter. Let's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. With Uncle Roro, y'all. It's rolling, Martin.

Rolling with rolling now. He's broke, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Roland Martin Now Martin Alright folks, welcome back to Roland Martin on Filter. Today is the first day of Black History Month. But as I said, we celebrate black history every single day on this show.

Does not matter. We do it 365, seven days a week. Lots of stuff for us to talk about in today's news. But first off, folks, we have got to talk about this shocking and unbelievable story out of Rochester, New York, where a young black girl, nine years old, pepper sprayed by police officers. Shocking, shocking video that has people scratching their heads. What in the world is going on? Watch this. No! I want my dad!

I want my dad! I want my dad! I'm not getting no cards! I want my dad! I want my dad! No! No! No! No! AHHHH! AHHHH! AHHHH! STOP!

STOP! I WON'T LET THEM! OKAY! OKAY! WAIT! MY MOM'S PRACTICED THOUGH! MY MOM'S PRACTICED! STOP! I WANT MY DAD! I WANT MY DAD! I WANT MY DAD! Stop. I want my dad. Two more, Sean. I want my dad. Lost for SR.

Mom's still trying to call. Wait, please. You go help my mom. She's pregnant. You go help my mom. She's pregnant. Please. Get up.

I want my dad. Get up. I want my dad. I want my dad. Get up. I want my dad. Get up. I want my dad.

Get up. I want my dad. Get up. I want my dad. Get up. I want my dad. Get up. I want my dad! I want my dad! I want my dad! I want my dad! Mom's mom to jail to. She heard.

Get in the car. I'm done telling you. Get in the car. Get in the car. Ah! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!

Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!

Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!

Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!

Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!

Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!

Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!

Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! So we're gonna play for you the video of the police union defending that will get that already. Let me go to my panel right now. Dr. Avis Jones, the weaver, leadership strategist, Mustafa Mustafa Santiago Ali, and former environmental justice formerly with the EPA, Dr. Julian Mabo, president and mayor of Merida Bennett College. Avis, nine-year-old girl.

Cops gets called. They get called. Here's a nine-year-old girl, pepper sprayed. Okay. And the cop's like, just pepper spray her. You don't know when a nine-year-old child is throwing a temper tantrum. What you do is you just sit there and say, let me know when you calm the hell down. You don't pepper spray a

nine-year-old girl. Well, you do when you don't see that nine-year-old girl as a human being. You do when you don't see her as a child. I don't even understand why you need it. I couldn't even finish counting the number of police cars that were there.

It had to have been at least six, seven police cars there for one nine-year-old girl. This is what we mean when we talk about the dehumanization of Black bodies. That's exactly what it is. And once again, you contrast that with what we just saw a couple of weeks ago. People literally storming the Capitol, beating police officers with sticks, with hockey sticks, with fire hoses, with crutches, with everything, killing one, maiming others, and then they're getting escorted out of the

space completely untouched. And now you have this, and if you're going to bring police unions into the discussion, where are the police unions on that? I haven't heard one police union say one keep.

So this is just what happens when you have a system that continuously and habitually dehumanizes and criminalizes Black bodies. I don't care how young you are. I don't care what gender you are. threat by people who unfortunately have the power to utilize violence against you in any way they want to. And in the vast majority of situations, absolutely nothing happens to them as a result. You know, it's not just the dehumanization. It's also the defeminization. Would they have done that to a white girl? Hell to the no. So Black women are systematically treated as we are less than other women. We are treated as if we don't matter. To pepper spray, the whole thing, I mean, my stomach was just nodding up. To pepper spray, to brutalize a child, that's what she was, a child, is to basically say, Dred Scott.

Black people have no rights that whites are bound to respect. That was the Dred Scott decision. And here we are again, years later, looking at this and looking at this child. And I have to just emphasize that this child, because young Black women are not allowed a childhood. And that's a really big part of the challenge. Remember the young girl who was pulled by her braids, her dreadlocks, by a police officer in Florida. But we've seen again and again and again, young Black girls being treated like they're grown women. And even as grown women, they should not have had to deal with this. This is chilling. And I hope there are consequences, but we know

all too often they're not consequences. That people get to do whatever they want to do to Black people in general and Black women in particular, and there tend to be no legal consequences to their abrupt, insane behavior. What happened here? I can't tell you anything about it. He came to the scene shortly thereafter. They were trying to get her into the car and made a decision. He made a decision there that he thought was the best action to take. You know, it resulted in her, no injury to her. If they had to go and push further and use more force, there's a good chance she could have been hurt worse.

It's very, very difficult to get somebody into the back of a police car like that. And she's nine years old. Imagine what happens when we have a full-grown individual that we deal with. You talk about the psychological impact on the officers, but what about the psychological impact on the nine-year-old girl who had to deal with this traumatic situation? How about the traumatic situations that she's been dealing with? Did you listen to the words that her mother was saying to her?

That's what's sad. That's what's sad. That's what's disturbing. That's what officers go home and say, how does that girl have a chance in life? What's that officer supposed to do? What can they do? You know what? Understand how we respond to situations. Let me go from a man with a gun call, a traffic accident, to a family disturbance, to another incident. After this, those officers probably

had to go on to several other calls that night. This doesn't happen in a vacuum. Some of those officers probably didn't even get a chance to even discuss it until when. And Mustafa, here's the issue here. OK, police were responding to a family disturbance call. The officers had to wrestle the young girl to the ground. This was the quote. Officer says you're acting like a child. What does the nine year old say?

Quote, I like a child. What does the nine-year-old say? Quote, I am a child. Now, according to the police chief, the girl tried to run away. The officer is being handcuffed to her and typically take her to a hospital in a patrol car. This is the point that I keep raising, Mustafa. You cannot

This is why when people talk about defund the police, when they talk about how you shift services, you should not be sending cops to a call departments or you have a system set up where you send mental health providers and not cops. Cops are going to do what cops do. Pull out guns, shoot people, tase them, pepper spray them. That's what happened here. And so of all the people, oh, you're so wrong about defund the police. This is what people are saying. You cannot have a law enforcement response to all

problems in America. No, I agree. This is infuriating. You know, we continue to see this time and time and time again. And especially when we see children are being placed in these situations. The little girl was scared, you know, so she had to actually go through trauma. She's seen police officers, whether on TV or in her own personal life, who have, you know, done all kinds of egregious things inside of our community. So that is how she's been socialized to the interactions that happen with police. And when you don't, you know, they're supposed to be trained in de-escalation, whether it's with adults or children. And of course, a part of that de-escalation is making sure that you also have individuals who have expertise in dealing with

children who are brought into the scene. And when you don't do that, you get these types of situations. And I'll just add the other thing. I know the asthma rates in Rochester, and I know that many black and brown children have asthma. So when you start pepper spraying children who may or may not have asthma, you are also putting them in a life and death situation. So not only have you impacted her, you know, from a mental health side of the equation, dealing with the trauma from these police officers that he just got through talking about. Well, what's the situation going to be like, you know, if someone, someone's an adult, well, you've already put in place how that person is going to be fearful of you,

how that person is not going to trust you. And then you also put their lives in danger because you don't know if that child has some type of a breathing difficulty. And you're also in a COVID-19 moment where I did not see people wearing masks. So you may have also exposed her to the virus. So there are a number of different dynamics that need to be addressed, but it goes back to the restructuring of our police system in this country, which no one wants to have a serious conversation about that. And they just want to automatically shut it down and be like, well, that's folks of color who, you know, are just, you know, calling out these issues in a way that's not truthful. You see right here in color, how serious these issues actually are and why change has to happen. We, this is the thing over and over and over again, Avis, it keeps happening. And again,

I go back to so many examples, Kojima Powell in St. Louis, the young man who was playing with a screwdriver there in Dallas. In fact, Rochester, this is the same police department where they put the bag over the head of the mentally disturbed brother and suffocated him. Same police department that led to massive resignations. Well, it looks like that not enough people resigned, right? I mean, you know, it seems like to me that police department needs to be cleared out. There needs to be a cleaning house in that

space. Maybe there needs to be a Department of Justice investigation into that police department and have it operate under some sort of consent decree such that it can treat the community to which it has sworn to protect and serve as an entity that actually does protect and serve those citizens. Some deep, rooted, clean out. I mean, it seems to me this might be a situation where everybody needs to be fired and they need to hire people that one by one based on better qualifications, better criteria, because clearly there is a systemic problem with that police department in terms of how it interacts with the community in a very violent and inhumane way. There's just, there's no fixing that.

It seems to be when you see the excuses that we just heard, there's justification for that behavior. They will do it again. They don't see anything wrong with it. And so because of that, they need to go and they all need to go. Julianne, the thing here, and this is what we see this all the time. Calling the cops if you're Black could end in death. You know, Roland, it's a dilemma for many Black people because often there is intervention that's needed. But when the intervention

requires the Rochester Police Department, the DCD Police Department, whoever else police department, they come with their biases. So people should not be calling the police when a family member has a mental health crisis. There has to be someplace else for them to call. Because what we know, what we surely know about the police is that they come in with biases. This little girl, a nine year old girl, a nine year old was pepper sprayed, was handcuffed, was treated roughly because she was having a meltdown. That should never have happened. But the question then becomes, what are the resources in the community when a little girl has a meltdown? What are the resources? I mean, they shot a naked man in Atlanta, naked, butt naked man. Obviously he wasn't in his right mind running around butt naked, but he was shot because the police feared him. He didn't have

anything on him, no gun, no knife. He just was butt naked. Now, maybe there's something else they fear. We're not going to go there. But the point is that these people come with their biases and we need to get rid of these people and their biases. If you cannot deal with empathy and humanity, then you should not be on a police force. And with a nine-year-old girl, I keep saying that it hurts me to my soul, a little girl who is in a mental health crisis. Because I don't know what's going on in her house and her household, but she's in a crisis. So you pepper spray her and handcuff her? You don't have anybody to talk to her? Who are these people?

What are these people? And why are these people on a public payroll? That is certainly the issue. Folks, we're going to keep monitoring this and see what happens next with this story. Right now, I want to go to Reverend Dr. William J. Barber, of course, co-commander of the Poor People's Campaign. Dr. Barber, how are you doing? I'm well. Can you see me now? They'll let me know if we can see you. I'm actually our setup is a little bit different. We we are completely virtual today because of the snow in D.C. And so I've got staff literally all in in three different cities.

But they're telling me we are fine. I do want to before we talk about. I can hear you. I can't see you so I'm good. Alright guys. I don't think your camera is on. Hold on. I got an assistant that's trying to... Turn your video on. The camera probably has an X through it

so just turn that on. The other screen went down. Let's go ahead and talk while you're there and she's gonna work on it as we go along your audience can hear me and I can hear you yeah all this can hear you so we'll work on the signal I do got to get your reaction to what we just talked about the pepper spraying of a nine-year-old girl mom calls the calls the cops the girl was threatened to kill herself the cop says you're acting like a little child and she says I am a child right I am a child yeah and and Roland can you hear me yeah we got you go ahead yeah one of the things I'm thinking about so you pepper spray a nine year

old girl who's in a mental crisis but you don't pepper spray grown folk that aren't crazy who stormed the Capitol with guns and beat people with fire hydrants and kill people. And just think about that for a moment, y'all. Yeah, no pepper spray was used on the U.S. Capitol, and they were storming the Capitol, tossing aside barricades, beating people with flags. Yeah. And you talk to them. I mean, that's what, you know, I'm real close to saying words I try not to say when I'm listening to this. So the grown folk, you the grown the grown white folk come in they're climbing walls they're using all kinds of barricades they are beating

people hitting them with you know flagpoles and fire hydrants they're canned zip ties they are saying they're coming to link somebody telling you what they're gonna do we're coming to Lynch we're coming to earth we're coming to lynch somebody telling you what they're gonna do we're coming to lynch we're coming to hurt we're coming to destroy no pepper spray what we saw was folks saying hey how you doing this is your house oh by the way come on in then we hear a nine-year-old girl i mean the reality is this is what i think i don't think any of this is going to stop until number one, we can actually bring not local, but federal charges for murder and felony assault that have large penalties against police without any way they can get around it. Number two, we are going to have to have insurance companies say, we will no longer insure your police agency

and pay people off if you're engaged in this kind of racist activity. And number three, when we talk about defunding, I've been thinking about this. You know there's a process. It's not what everybody wants yet. But there is a process for defunding already in place. It's called Title VI Civil Rights Act of 1964. It said that anybody that gives federal money, that engages in discriminatory tactics, the federal government can defund them. Problem is we haven't been doing it. You see what I'm saying? The law is inside. Now it's not finally what Black Lives Matter, I'm not trying to suggest that,

but I'm trying to say that until we can have, that they know they're not going to be left up to the local DAs, federal charges for felony murder or for felony assault, number one, the private insurance companies that insure these folks saying, we are not going to insure your company. Just like your insurance company, you can have life insurance, but if you go out and commit suicide, then they're not going to pay, right? So it should be the same way if a police department, in essence, if you kill innocent people, you are committing a form of policy suicide and we're not going to protect you. We will break your city, your county will just have to go broke because you have no business doing that and thirdly we should be using title six of the civil rights act i heard you say

rochester this is just another time they've done it before you can you we will pull your federal money or you're going to fire the people and get this thing straight that's what's going to but look at again i i you know i you, I'm about love and all that, but I didn't see no pepper spray. Maybe it was a few instances when it really got rough, but for the most part, I saw people fussing and cussing and running and breaking and it was not even a shot rang out. A million black people came to the Million Man March and not one act of violence. Quarter million people came with the March on Washington, not one act of violence. We did six weeks in the Four People's Campaign of actions at the Capitol and 43 other places around the country.

And Roland, they arrested us every time for praying. You talk about going up the steps, they arrested us at the bottom of the steps. So I have no tolerance for this, and we've got to stop it. And it's only going to stop when people have penalties. And we can no longer leave it up to the local. It's got to be a federal penalty and it's

got to be harsh, harsh penalties for it. And we've got to pull the money back. I want to pick up on that point right there, because you talk about the use of Title six. It's only been a couple of weeks since the inauguration, January 20th. President Biden has signed a significant number of executive orders. You got the New York Times put an editorial out saying, oh, Biden needs to slow down on executive orders.

That's stupid. It's constitutional. But what you are describing is a much more aggressive use of federal law and federal powers. And I think what oftentimes happens, Reverend Barber, in this country, when we're talking about how do we help people, we have politicians who say, it's a whole lot I can't do. It's a whole lot I just can't do. We just don't have the power. Beyond how to use Title VI,

what are you also saying that the Biden administration should do to be far more aggressive to deal with race equity and to impact with existing laws on the book, you just got to be willing to use them and wield them, frankly, just as aggressively as Donald Trump and Republicans do. Exactly. So first of all, one of the things is when we talk about racial equity, we need to be talking about first what the Civil Rights Act actually allows to be done because it's never really been fully enforced.

And that act can be used against businesses because anybody that gets a corporate, anybody that gets federal money can be held accountable. Back in the day, Roland, when they were trying to pass laws, they ran some things through the interstate commerce and they said, okay, you can discriminate all you want if you can get your goods from one place to the other without using federal roads paid for by federal money. It's almost as though we used to think about how to get something done rather than how not to get it done. Take, for instance, we're going to talk about racial equity. We have to have a conversation about mass incarceration and police reform, but we can't stop there if we're talking about racial

equity. Let me give you a point. Right now, we have this conversation about living wages, and you heard the Republicans say to Biden today, they don't know what living wages has to do with COVID relief. Really? Well, here's what it has to do. And here's what it has to do in particular as it relates to black people. If you raise the living wage to $15 an hour right now, which is only finally doing what the March on Washington asked for. Because March on Washington wanted $2 an hour, which would be $15 an hour today. All right. If you do that, that would give 50 million people, poor and low wealth workers, it would pull them immediately out of poverty. Now talk about racial equity. 30% of Black people would be impacted. 25%

of Latino people would be immediately impacted. In addition to that, we know that if you add tip workers, of which Black and Brown people, especially women, because 70% of tip workers who make $2.15 plus their tips, they are low-wage workers. 60% of those could not get in unemployment because the state said they didn't make enough base pay to get unemployment. But if you raise them to $15 an hour federally, then you impact a lot of people. And in addition, 6 million people who lost their jobs during COVID and were forced to go back to work. And Roland, I heard something today that'll make you just, that tip workers in restaurants, the women, were told to pull down their mask so that people would tip them more. During COVID, pull down their mask so that people would tip them more. During COVID, pull down their mask so that people would tip them more.

If we raise, raising the living wage is not just an economic issue, because you know, like I know, that systemic racism and economic injustice tie hand in hand. And this is why you need to federalize it and use the federal law. Because in Kansas Kansas for instance the voters voted to raise the living wage then the state legislature came back took it from them in Birmingham Alabama the black and white poor low-wealth workers got together and the city council voted their ways to live away and the state legislature took it from them. And so we have to will federal power with much more strength, which much, which, which, which, which being more strategic.

And we have to look at it in every area of this work. And, and, and, and, and that is where we are in this moment. We just had tens of thousands of people. We started 14 weeks of moral Monday today, and we had tip workers. We had black workers. We started 14 weeks of Moral Monday today. And we had tip workers, we had black workers, we had white workers from West Virginia, we had SEIU, we had One Fair Wage. We're all coming together saying that we must have just COVID relief. And we must have $15 an hour now, not five years from now, but now. Now on the COVID relief side, in terms of using federal power, what we cannot have is negotiation with bullies, compromise with bullies. That's what Republicans are. They're bullies. They have proven they don't believe in compromise, but worse than

that, we cannot have the people who were infected first, called back to work first, paid the lowest wages first, and died first to now be the last ones to get relief. And the last one. And so federal power, all of it, every bit of it has to be used in whether it's using the resolution process so that one vote gives you the majority, whether it's taking a hard relook at Title VI of Civil Rights Act and saying to folk, everywhere you're discriminating, we're going to pull your federal money if you don't straighten up and fly right. Whatever it is, federalizing $15 in a union so that state legislatures cannot unpack or cannot take away from people

their living wages, restoring the Voting Rights Act so that as these state legislatures start trying to enact now all of these racist voter suppression laws in response to the lies about voter fraud, they're starting to do that now. Well, we need immediate restoration, full restoration of the Voting Rights Act and expand it so that federal law can stop them from whatever they're planning on doing. We have to have it. Reverend Dr. William J. Barber, I certainly hope the White House is listening. Bottom line is the power is there. They just got to be willing to use it. Use it. Just got to use it. All right, sir. Thank you so very much. Mustafa, you work for the administration.

Talk about that again. The using the full force of the federal government laws already on the books. But the question is, will you be aggressive? That's one of the things that we're saying the same thing in the Department of Justice. Is Merrick Garland going to be as aggressive in using those laws? Will you have folks on the environmental side, on the housing side, the health side as well? Every federal agency using the laws to change the conditions of this country.

Yeah, we have the laws on the books currently to actually be transformative for this country and actually give people a fair chance at being able to not just survive, but thrive. You know, Reverend Barber talked about Title VI. You know, frontline communities and their leaders pulled together a commission of individuals to put together a set of recommendations that they shared with previous administrations and you can never get folks to move forward on it in any type of a serious way. When you talk about Title VI,

you've had Title VI cases around HUD and transportation that have been successful and the rest of the federal family has refused to move forward on that and folks don't wanna use that hammer. And as Reverend Barber shared with you, if you're not willing to use the hammer and actually take resources away from the states, if they're not willing to do the right thing, then folks think you're playing it. You know, they take you as a joke. I mean, I just got to get folks real talk on that. And then we were having a conversation also about the Department of Justice. If we are

serious about making transformational change inside of our country, then that means that we've got to double, maybe triple the size of the Department of Justice so that they can be all the places that they need to be, that they have the capacity and resources to hold people accountable. And if we're not willing to do that, then we're not serious about change. So the laws and statutes are on the books. The question is, are you willing to take folks to court and hold them accountable? And the other part of it, are you willing to take folks to court and hold them accountable? And the other part of it, are you willing to actually take resources away from them? Trust me, if you take one or two states resources away who violate, whether it's Title VI of the Civil Rights Act or some of these other laws and statutes we have on the books, you will get people's attention and they will get some act right. But I also say that you got to give them the tools and resources

to do the job right. So the Biden administration has some choices to make. You know, are you going to get serious on the enforcement context? And Roland, I'll close with this. You know, we never have a problem in spending huge amounts of money on enforcement when it comes to putting more police officers inside of our community. But as soon as you want to have enforcement on the entities that are impacting our community with toxic pollution or other things, then people wanna talk about, well, we really shouldn't be using the resources that way.

That's when you know people are actually serious about change or if they're only serious about change when it impacts their communities in a positive way and not yours. That's an important point there, Julian, that again, if you use the power that you have, you just got to wield it. I mean, that was the thing. Look, we were all highly critical of the use of federal authority by the Trump administration. But what they did is they went and said, okay, how far can we push this? And then, of course, they crossed the line as well. Typically,

Democrats, very cautious, not really want ruffle feathers. No, if you're going to change this country, then you got to do it. And then when folks started whining and complaining, too much federal authority, tell them, fine, don't take the money. You know, Roland, this is absolutely right. The Democrats have been timid from day one. I mean, the most bold Democrat was Lyndon Baines Johnson, who basically put a civil rights agenda in place and pushed it. And only when the Vietnam War confronted him and he said he had a wife and a mistress and he couldn't deal with both of them. I mean, his language was LBJ language, but he said he had to pick the Vietnam War or the civil rights agenda and he put more energy into the Vietnam War. But here we are again. Clinton was middle of the road,

milk toast, great fellow, middle of the road, milk toast. Obama was juggling. He was juggling his blackness. He was juggling. And not to mention Mitch McConnell, who said he wanted to make him a one-term president. Obama could have done more, but I'm going to say he did the best he could. But now we have Biden and Biden has the opportunity, the opportunity as- I won't say he did the best he could. He did the best he chose to do. All right. That's fair. That's fair. Because as you know, I got my butt kicked about my book, Are We Better Off? Got my butt kicked all over the country. People are like, why could you criticize President Obama? Because he was wrong. But as Mustafa has said, there are laws that we can use to essentially get to justice. There are laws that we can use to hold people accountable. And the question is whether President Joe Biden will do that. And he may or he may not.

I'm not really thrilled. His first few days have been great, but I'm not really thrilled with this little hokey pokey that he's doing with the Republicans who he says 1.9 trillion. They say 600 billion. I'm like, you know, you can't even put a ring on that. That's just wrong. And so the more he plays with these fools, the more he loses credibility for the people who elected him. Hold tight one second. Looks like we have lost the live stream on YouTube. Kenan, let me know what is going on. Literally. Okay. Now it looks like it is back. Uh, well, so that was lost. So, uh, let me know, uh, what's going on, um, with the stream here. Uh, send me a message in our chat. Uh, what's going on. Are we still connected on all three platforms? Uh, but again, it looks like we're having some issues, one of the platforms here folks be patient with us again we're dealing with weather here in DC we're not we're not streaming through our normal

process in terms of where we are in terms of where how we're located so it looks like it is looks like so again we're not in our normal studio. We're was the Senate majority leader, because he wielded power, he knew how to use power. Congressman Adam Clayton Powell knew how to use power. Joe Biden, President Joe Biden spent 36 years in the United States Senate. He knows the Senate rules backwards and forwards. He knows how what he knows where the power is. The question is, will they now completely use it? That is in question. I will say that he has indicated that they are willing to go straight to reconciliation and vote right over the Republicans. And I hope that they do. Because here's what we know. When the Republicans are in power, they don't even give a nanosecond of a thought around issues of bipartisanship. That's never even an issue that's in question. So I just really, you know, I understand that this is part of what he campaigned on, I believe,

largely as a way to provide even yet another contrast between him and Trump. But the reality is, why is this burden of bipartisanship supposedly only on the back of Democrats? You know, I'm really kind of tired of that. What we do know is that he won by an overwhelming majority, despite the lies that Republicans, some of them are still saying to this day. He received over 80 million votes. He received an overwhelming victory in the Electoral College. He won over 60 court cases. So in my mind, he won 60 damn times. So, you know, he has a mandate. And, you know, he is having this meeting so that he could say, you know, he couldn't all of leap out in terms of bipartisanship, which is already just that one meeting is a thousand times more than the other administration did. And definitely more of an eye towards bipartisanship than what we saw in terms of behavior of Mitch McConnell when President Obama was in office. So he checked that box. But now it's time for him to do what's necessary for the American people.

And we are in crisis mode. Clearly a package that is literally one third of what the Biden administration has proposed is not adequate to meet the dueling challenges that we face right now in terms of a health catastrophe that is literally killing thousands of people per day, as well as an economic crisis that has people facing hunger, people facing eviction and homelessness all across this country. So I think he'll have this meeting as a political act to show

that he's bipartisan. And then if I had to place a bet, I would say that he's going to do what he has to do. And the Democrats have already signaled they are ready, willing and able to take care of this on their own without one Republican vote. And I hope that's exactly what they do. All right, then. Look, absolutely. That's what needs to happen. Look, you wield power when you got it. When you go out there and you spend billions of dollars to win, then you actually win. This is exactly what you're supposed to do. Got to go to a break, folks. When we come back, we're going to talk about this story that we've been covering, dealing with the issue of CBS, allegations of racism, discrimination when it comes to pay impacting black African-Americans, Latinos.

But also about this freelancer lawsuit as well, folks, and how folks have been greatly impacted. We'll talk to a woman who has put her career on the line to sue CBS on this very issue. We'll talk about that also. Boy, don't you just love it when the racists show how racist they are with the body cameras rolling? Yeah. Police chief and cops in Georgia. They've quit. Why? Because they were all caught on tape expressing how racist they are. We'll discuss all of that when we come back on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Back in a moment.

We're about to get on the highway, so keep resisting. God bless. I've been following you guys from way back. And I said, man, I really want to partner with you guys. I sent you all a tweet. Jordy, man, he hit me right back. Like, boom. Like, hey, can you get on the call?

And I said, yeah, sure. And so, like, literally five minutes later, we, we were gonna call and the rest is history. Vote yourself a raise January 5th. To me, it was one of the first few campaign messages that I seen that resonate with me. We can get lost in all the jargon that's going on with politics. You cut through all that.

So you're going to vote right now, right? Yes. I know that's right. You're voting for your boy, huh? I was trying to get me a photo. I love it. It's so nice. I had this perception about Georgia, but the tour allowed me to run across

so many different people of all different backgrounds. We hit Augusta. We hit Macon, Savannah, Adasta, Warren Robbins, Atlanta, Kennesaw. We really hit like 15 different cities. It was really eye-opening. You know when we went to Valdosta, right? And that was the last place Trump had visited. What we would receive was so much love.

I was blown away that the support and the people came out with honking a horn. Yeah, thumbs up. Yeah, man, appreciate y'all too. Okay, brother. You're a painter, man. You gotta spread the word, man. And it changed my perspective of Georgia.

And I started thinking like, man, we really can do this. I feel like this is an army. I feel like there's a camaraderie amongst us that, you know, the resistance that I felt when I was in the military. I love this country, bro. I love America.

It's the best country in the world to me. And to see so many people coming together to defend it, to fight for it in the midst of all the opposition, the American spirit, the American fortitude is still strong. I seen it. I was out there.

I witnessed it. I'm just grateful to be a part of it. So just keep fighting. Just keep the unity, keep the love. We really can turn Georgia blue. there i witnessed it i'm just grateful to be a part of it so just keep fighting just keep you know keep the union keep the love we really can turn georgia blue so this is roger bob i got a message for Roland mascot. Oh, I'm sorry. Ask Scott Martin, buddy. You're supposed to be hooking me up with some of these mascots. I'm sorry. Ask Scott's that you claim to wear. Where's mine, buddy?

Hey yo peace world. What's going on? It's the love king of R&B Raheem Devon and you're watching Roland Martin unfiltered. When you think about the fact that 2043, we are going to be a nation that's majority people of color. I've really focused on this a lot on television, on radio, in my speeches, that my focus is trying to prepare us to have demographic power while also having educational economic power at the same time. Because there's nothing worse than having demographic numbers, but then you still don't have that economic power, that political power, and education power. Well you know you and I and I think most people know and understand that education is what we've got to impress on all of our people. We've got to help people to understand

that if you want a decent quality of life, if you want the kind of quality of life where you're not having to worry about your food and your nutrition and, you know, being able to pay your bills or buy a house, then you've got to become educated. The more education you have, the larger the paycheck is. And of course, we've got to be involved in entrepreneurship, taking the talent that we have to create businesses. And there's a lot of opportunity for that. All right, folks, we're back on Roland Martin Unfiltered. We told you that the folks at CBS, they have put on administrative leave two of their executives who were accused of using racist, sexist and homophobic comments. One of the issues they've also had to deal with is employees saying that they were being unfairly paid for their work as well.

This has been an issue. A lawsuit was actually filed on this very point that. And in fact, remember, we had we had a former CBS employee last week who was on who talked about Don Champion his how his whole livelihood was based on whether or not he would of course get assignments when he was a freelancer and so was was interesting about this is that a former freelancer is soon the sewing of course CBS and the station is based in Fort Lauderdale WF or our channel for uh and the station is based in fort lauderdale wfor channel 4 she claims the station engaged in wage discrimination as well as gender discrimination okay so uh let's talk about this right now with sylvia hapershi and also peter uh hugerberg who is her attorney as well folks how you doing all right let's let's Sylvia so lay out for us first the basis of your

lawsuit because we've heard others again Don Champion talked about again the executives if they didn't like him that determined whether or not he got money, you know, whether he would get assignments. And we've heard others. I'm the vice president digital for the National Association of Black Journalists. We've heard others talk about how the use of freelancers was keeping folks from being able to to earn a living. And some people were freelancing for more than a decade. Yeah. It's a problem that you don't realize is so widespread because you're so, as a journalist, focused on doing your job and making sure that you do it so well so that you get called back. So this idea of creating instability in your life and put you in a survival mode so that you don't necessarily question what's going on around you. I worked at CBS Miami for seven years. I was praised and

promoted only by title. And in those seven years, job openings came and went. And I was never offered a full-time position. Other people were hired. And when I asked about it, I was told the position isn't available to you. And when I was asked about a raise potentially on my day rate, I was asked, I was told that the money isn't available to you. And this went on for seven years. And you don't think to ask because, well, this is what we want to do. And we do it because this is what we love. This is our dream. But seven years is a long time. And when I think back, there were so many people that were working as freelancers, writers, producers, assignment desk editors, all of us for more than three years at a time, some people for a decade. And to be honest with you, I am nervous being here, even though I took legal action and my attorneys joining on this call, it's scary because the way CBS has managed from the top down, it trickled down into the local newsroom. And the message was always very clear. Speak up or put it in writing or ask questions, go to HR or

business department. The consequences are severe. The bullying and the retaliation is severe. You're either not going to be scheduled or you, if you are, you're not going to get the assignments that you rightfully have worked for or deserved. I've spoken to dozens of people out of WCBS, KPEX, out of KCBS. Some people were fired and let go because they asked questions about their time cards. And the issue is that CBS blatantly and bluntly told all of us to write a flat eight hours on our time cards, regardless of whether we worked for more than eight or not. So when you think about it, if I'm covering a hurricane, which I did on multiple occasions, and I'm working 18 hours for five, six days in a row, I'm getting a flat rate of eight hours

day pay. And when that happens over and over again, the economic disparities and the difficulties are very difficult to overcome. Personally, I, and this is embarrassing to admit on some level, but I could no longer afford my car to make my car payment. So I had to turn my lease in and I had to buy a scooter to get to work. I've talked to several people out of WCBS. There was a person who was getting paid $80 a day

in New York, $80 a day. And how are you supposed to survive? And when you hear these stories, and I hear these stories because after the lawsuit, dozens of people have called me and have told me their stories. And you hear them over and over again, you realize you're not the only one

who was passed over for a job. You're not the only one who was put in that kind of position. So I thought it was extremely important to speak up and stand up and do something about it. Peter, share with us what you learned because what Silva's laying out is just is shocking and stunning and uh you know 80 bucks in new york city you know if you jesus that's ten dollars an hour for eight hours and if you're working 10 12 14 hours but you're only getting paid for eight

well the uh contention of cbs has been throughout the litigation that these independent television stations are operated with collective bargaining agreements. In Solva's case, there was no collective bargaining agreement through an organization that is SAG-AFTRA. And the SAG-AFTRA union contracts have been negotiated, but frequently there is a per diem rate and the stations are somewhat different inors are paid a day rate. In Miami, I think Silva was only paid $210 for a day for an extended period of time. And this certainly creates issues. We have advanced her lawsuit under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Equal Pay Act, alleging violations of both of these statutes and also Title VII for gender discrimination

and age discrimination. And a lot of the people that I have spoken to who have come forward as witnesses are scared because of the retaliation that they may face, of fear of being blackballed in the industry. And so presently, we have a motion pending before the court to see if we can allow these people would be allowed to proceed anonymously, which is a novel concept. But when you're dealing with such a big entity, the repercussions of speaking up are palpable. That point right there, Silva, and that is the fear. The fear, if I sue, I'm going to be blackballed. How has this impacted your career and ability to work? I mean, the consequences are severe. There's a cost to this. And I mean, the consequences are severe. There is a cost to this. And I mean, I haven't worked in this industry since 2018.

And to be honest with you- Since 2018? 2018, yeah. Anywhere? Anywhere. And the reality is even when I was working at CBS, I applied for other jobs. But you know what the question is, is why have you been working at the station for seven years as a freelancer? Why have why were you not made a full time employee insinuating that there is some backstory or some not realizing that this is just a cost-cutting measure at the

expense of the people who literally show up on a daily basis and do the work of six people in a newsroom. You know, as an employee at CBS, I produced stories for other people to voice in front. I showed up to report on a daily basis, so five days a week, sometimes six in a row, and then I write for digital, and then I do a row. And then I write for digital and then I do social media and then I write for the magazine. All of that is not an eight hour job. And to be truthful, you know, I put my entire life in this business. I was born in the Middle East. I got to this country when I was 14 years old. I learned to speak English as a sophomore in high school. And to think that I have put everything I have had into building a career and trying to move up the ladder the right way.

And to end up in a situation where I have to make a decision between the career I've built and my integrity as a journalist, because how could I ever ask anyone in the street to put their, to risk their life, to put their livelihood on the line, to put their face on camera, to tell a story when I can't even do that in my own life. So I, I just, I grappled and struggled with the integrity of being a journalist. And the cost has been, sorry. I understand. Take your time. Take your time.

Sorry. And the reality of it is since the news broke and this has been made public, and let me just go back and say I tried to address this with management at the local level. And because of the way this leadership with the two people that now are administrative leave, the way they've emboldened and encouraged leadership on the local level to be, there are no consequences, right, to their actions. So this trickle-down effect is real. So people are walking on eggshells. People who worked at CBS a decade ago, I've talked to them in person person and I've got names and stories dating back a decade ago, and they're still afraid to come forward and tell their stories because of the fear of retaliation.

And the reality is it's not enough to hold those two people accountable. We have to address this trickle down effect on the local level where management is able to get away with anything. You know, part of the reason I came forward is because I tried to address this with my manager, and then after I left in 2018, I did file a complaint during that investigation, and nothing happened. I filed an EEOC complaint, but really the last thing that happened to me was that as a reporter, I was sent on assignment, which was, and Roland, you can appreciate this, to go cover a story at the public parking lot of a football game at the Dolphin Stadium, where for 13 hours, people have been telegating and drinking and to do a live shot at 11 o'clock. And when I addressed my concerns to be put in that kind of circumstance, I was told, are you refusing to do your job? And seconds before a live shot, my ass is smacked,

I'm groped and touched inappropriately. And when I complain, and again, I'm told, are you trying to say you're refusing to do your job? And sent back to the same circumstances for the second time three weeks later. And when I finally took it to my female news director, her response to that kind of environment was to stop complaining and to stop whining. When you have a culture, a toxic environment and toxic culture that allows for that kind of behavior and that kind of management to deal with issues on that level, then it makes you kind of wonder, what am I doing here for $210 a day without a car and working 18 hours? And to think that there are hundreds of people who have gone through this

organization and have experienced exactly, well, not exactly the same thing I did, but very close. And I can't even pretend to understand what my black and brown journalist brothers and sisters go through. You heard Don Champion's story. And when you look at the Excel spreadsheet, Peter and I have, where we continue to talk to people from CBS, from several, from all of the different stations across the country, and they repeat exactly the same stories and the same MO, the being bullied, retaliated against, if they spoke up. People have lost their jobs. People have lost their livelihoods. And 95% of those people are women above the age of 40. There are people of color. Then there are people of members of the LGBTQ community. And you can't turn your face from

that kind of circumstance. And if it's one person, then you have a disgruntled employee. But you have hundreds of people with the same story, you have a problem. You have a cultural problem. I'm hopeful that they have been put on administrative leave and that the powers that be are trying to change things. And this independent investigation has been launched. But I'm going to be honest with you. I've gotten calls from almost everyone on that list and everyone is still afraid to speak to people who are leading this independent investigation. So the fear and impact on our careers, it runs deep. And it's important to know that our lives have changed. My life may never be the same again. For 20 years, I built a career that I was hopeful to just

show up to work and to do my job. And that may never happen for me again. But how could I ever ask someone else to put their life on the line, to be a witness or to tell their story if I'm not willing to do the same for myself? Peter, final comment. Well, I mean, the law is in place to protect people like Silva. We've advanced her cause in the court. And only a jury can decide who's right and who's wrong on these things. But the arguments that I think that we're advancing are trying to change the dialogue and make the people who do the hard work in the field and produce the stories, report the stories, make it so that it's a fair workplace and environment.

And when the people who are asking the reporters in the field to put only eight hours on their timesheet, when that's not factually true, I think there's a lot of implications to the local station and to the network for their employees who are being asked to not report accurately something that's a key component for their job. But we'll have to let the courts decide. Peter, we appreciate it. Silva, thank you so very much for sharing your story. Again, as one of the folks involved in NABJ, we're going to do our best to ensure that this external investigation is done properly and fairly, that people are also going to be heard out. And so, again, CBS has already announced who that's going to be. We are going

to be talking with those lawyers very soon, hopefully in the next 48 hours to make clear how we believe this investigation should be conducted and we'll stay on top of that. So we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you very much. Folks, got to go to break. When we come back, cops in

Georgia busted the racism all out in the open now. We'll discuss plus nascar driver bill lester talks about what it's like being one of the few blacks in the history of nascar to make it to the big stage that is next on roller martin unfiltered you want to support roller martin unfiltered be sure to join our bring the funk fan club every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real.

As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered daily digital show by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com All right, so a lot of y'all are always asking me about some of the pocket squares that I wear. Now, I don't know. Robby don't have one on. Now, I don't particularly like the white pocket squares.

I don't like even the silk ones. And so I was reading GQ magazine a number of years ago, and I saw this guy who had this pocket square here, and it looks like a flower this is called a shibori pocket square this is how the Japanese manipulate the fabric to create this sort of flower effect so I'm gonna take it out and then place it in my hand so you see what it looks like and I said man this is pretty cool and so I tracked down that it took me a year to find a company that did it and And so, they're basically about 47 different colors. And so, I love them because, again, as men, we don't have many accessories to wear, so

we don't have many options. And so, this is really a pretty cool pocket screen. And what I love about this here is you saw when it's in the pocket, you know, it gives you that flower effect like that. But if I wanted to also, unlike other, because if I flip it and turn it over it actually gives me a different type of texture and so therefore it gives me a different look so there you go so you actually want to get one of these shibori pocket squares we have them in 47 different colors all you got to do is go to rolling this

Martin comm for slash pocket squares so So it's rollinglessmartin.com forward slash pocket squares. All you got to do is go to my website and you can actually get this. Now, for those of you who are members of our Bring the Funk fan club, there's a discount for you to get our pocket squares. That's why you also got to be a part of our Bring the Funk fan club. And so that's what we want you to do. And so it's pretty cool. So if you want to jazz your look up, you can do that.

In addition, y'all see me with some of the feather pocket squares. My sister who is a designer, she actually makes these. They're all custom made. So when you also go to the website, you can also order one of the customized feather pocket squares right there at RolandSMartin.com forward slash pocket squares. So please do so. And of course, it goes to support the show.

And again, if you're a Bring the Funk fan club member, you get a discount. This is why you should join the fan club. It's time to be smart. When we control our institutions, we win. This is the most important news show on television of any racial background. Y'all put two, three, four, five, 10, 15, 20, $30 on this and keep this going. What you've done,

Roland, since this crisis came out in full bloom. Anybody watching this, tell your friends, go back and look at the last two weeks, especially if Roland Martin unfiltered. I mean, hell, go back and look at the last two days. You've had sitting United States senators today, Klobuchar and Harris. Whatever you have that you have, you can bring to Roland Martin unfiltered to support it. Please do, because this information may literally save your life.

Watch Roland Martin unfiltered daily at 6 p.m. Eastern on YouTube, Facebook, or Periscope, or go to rolandmartin unfiltered.com support the roland martin unfiltered daily digital show by going to rolandmartinunfiltered.com our goal is to get 20 000 of our fans distributing 50 bucks each for the whole year you can make this possible rolandmartinunfiltered.com Alright folks, welcome back to Rolling Mark Unfiltered. You gotta love body cameras. They're there

for our benefit, really. To protect the citizens. But what happens when they're there to record the racism of cops? This took place in Georgia. Roll it. He said, you know, what they're saying now is,

well, he didn't have to shoot him. It's just a taser. Then how come when you taser a f***ing a**hole, it's like you done killed him 27 times? If I had a f***ing a fucking hair, I'd rather fuck the mayor than Stacy Edwards. Yes, sir. No one there, Hamilton. Hamilton. I don't own no slaves. My folks didn't own no slaves.

Hey, I'm a, hey. You know, what did we talk about 200 years ago? Hey, I've been doing a I do a lot of stuff on my family history on ancestry. I did find evidence of some slave owning part of my family, even though we're from Ohio and didn't nobody up there. But I will tell you, looking at Chris's family. Holy man, let to tell you, looking at Chris's family, holy s***. Man, let me tell you what. After the Civil War was over with, he became an overseer on a plantation. So he was in charge of all the slaves. It seems to me like they furnished him a house to live in. They furnished him clothes to

put on their back. They furnished them clothes to put on their back. They furnished them food to put on their table. And all they had to do was f***ing work. And now we give them all those things and they don't have to f***ing work. Well, the police chief quit. The cop got fired. And I swear, Julian, you gotta appreciate the the races who love to run their mouths Roland these people are crazy they are totally crazy but the fact is that

they're illustrating something that runs deep in our society and our country, the racism that has deep historical roots, the ways that unless we do the kind of legislation we need to do, this stuff is not going to stop. I mean, I listen to these people and you can't help but on one hand crack up, but on the other hand, be extremely sad. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Can somebody just do something about that woman? The things that come out of her mouth are like vitriol, violence, and we can't really have that. And that's the issue, is that these people have somehow believed that it's okay for them not only to be racist, but to articulate this nonsense on a regular basis. Avis, first of all, this is in West Georgia, Hamilton, Georgia, Police Chief Gene Allman, he's the one who quit. John Brooks was actually fired,

and it was Brooks' body cam that was recording this. And the conversation took place in front of the police station before Black Lives Matter protests. My goodness. Well, thank God for the incompetence of that fool that left his camera on, because you get to see what people say when they are comforted by the fact that they don't believe anybody's listening. And, you know, what's really instructive, though, about this conversation is the deep hate and vitriol that it seems to indicate that they have for Black people. Is it any wonder, then, why you have this rush to violence, while you have this overabundance of use of force, while you have this likelihood to kill rather than to de-escalate. It's because deep down people hold these very deep-seated racist beliefs, which they have enough sense not to express in public. But when they are amongst one another,

it comes out. We're just lucky that we caught it the time. But it also makes you think that if that was the police chief, and that was a police officer speaking this freely among each other, what does the rest of that department look like? I can tell you with 100% certainty that's likely not the first time they said anything like that. And I can probably also guarantee that they're not the only ones to express such beliefs. They just got caught. Mustafa. Set you free, set you free from your job when you share these types of racist belief systems. And, you know, we know that this is unfortunately integrated throughout both military, through many of our law enforcement, not everyone, but far too many, which makes it a dangerous situation because these

are the folks who have guns. These are the folks who are making split decisions about whether you live or you die. And we also got to make sure that, you know, we have this administration to start to think more critically about law enforcement. And again, there are good folks who are in law enforcement. Let's be sure. And one of the ways that we can be sure, and it takes some resources, is that there needs to be a psychological evaluation before one, people are hired, and two, periodically throughout their career. You know, you have all these evaluations that go on for folks who are airline pilots because they have people's lives in their hands. So we should also have these evaluations that have to happen for those who have guns and who are making

decisions. And, you know, if we're not willing to invest the dollars, then we're going to continue to get what we're going to get. Oh, you're absolutely right. And so bottom line here, again, and for all the people out there who keep saying, oh, no, there are no races on the department. Really? Really? Yeah, I thought so. we always got to tell them are y'all you know what time it is on my property. Whoa! I'm uncomfortable. Folks are really losing their minds over

simply being asked to put on a damn mask. They are consistently showing their ass. Well, this woman here decided to show

her breasts. Bitch up here at Trader Joe's tripping. She ran it up all sheet. Oh no What the fuck going on in the world Bruh What the fuck was that I just needed some juice.

He just needed some juice. You know what? Y'all think I was lying. Y'all think I was lying. Roll that video again. You don't need to see it. Roll it. She ran it up on shit. Oh, no. Oh, no.

What the fuck going on in the world, bruh? What the fuck was that? I just needed some juice. Julianne, I'm trying to figure out. What the show on her wrist? I'm trying to figure out. WTF was that? WTF

was that, Roland? This is called a crazy you know what white ignorant person. I mean WTF? Seriously.

What wrong with these people? So, Avis, she don't want to wear a mask, but she's going to fly off her breath. Mike, somebody want to see that shit. Excuse my language.

Excuse my language. I don't care if you don't want to wear a bra. I understand. We kind of on lockdown still I really put on all my stuff these days but let me just say when you outside in public you need to put on a mask

however I don't really understand why there was the connection between the mask situation and the flashing people I mean it's like shock and awe. What was she trying to do? I don't understand. Do you flash when you go outside?

No, no, no. And I'm too old to flash. I will say, though, the whole lockdown situation has liberated women with that bra situation. However, I will have to tell you... Look, I'm taking it too far. I'm fine,

Mustafa. You ain't got to wear a bra. COVID is not going to attack your breasts. So you ain't got to put a bra on, but your ass got to put a mask on. Hey, we with you. I don't know what's wrong with these crazy people

I truly really truly do not and it's ironic it was at Trader Joe's I was there about two weeks ago and this white woman wouldn't put a mask on she refused to I could feel her breath on the back of my neck

so I was trying to be kinder and gentler I turned around and said ma', could we please observe social distancing? And could you please put your mask on? And Heather told me no. But the young white man who was behind her called for security. Unfortunately, I'm well noted by neighborhood. I'm not understanding, Mustafa. Show my breasts, but I ain't going to wear a mask. It was corny.

It was corny. I'm trying to forget. That is now burnt into my mind. Have some therapy service. You know, you got this no shoes, no shirt, no service. It's no shoes.

And don't say no bra. Well, they need to say no tatas out in the open because I don't know what that was. But, you know, the reality of the situation isn't all seriousness. You still got folks who feel that they have the privilege to not protect themselves and others. And, you know, if you want to go to your house and do whatever you want to do with your house, that's one thing. But when you're putting other people's lives in danger, that is a completely different scenario. So they will arrest folks if you try and go into

a store and they've got that sign and you, for whatever reason, decide you don't want to move forward on it. They should also make sure they continue to arrest these folks who are putting other people's lives in danger. And especially, you know, that deals with the public decency laws that are out there. You can't just go around showing folks your special stuff. I'm not going to say that's special. The bottom

line is this. There is no bottom line. These white folks are crazy. I don't know what's wrong with them. They can't handle being told to put a damn mask on. Look, if you want to kill your damn self, go on right ahead.

But guess what? Trader Joe's, you're being too nice. It was way too much conversation. I'm telling you right now, they need to get some 10-foot poles. Some 10-foot poles and then, and if they ass is roll up, hit them with a stun gun. Back up. Okay?

No, you come close. Now forget six feet. It should be ten feet. It should be cattle prods. That's what you do. Hit the ass with a cattle prod. They want to act like cattle. Hit them with a cattle prod and see how it goes. Look, they're just so stupid.

Just put a damn mask on. All right, y'all. Of course, on Mondays, we always, of course, like to have book offers on. Today, I'm going to talk with a brother, Bill Lester, y'all. He got to the highest point of NASCAR on the NASCAR

Craftsman Truck Series. The book is called Winning in Reverse to Find the Odds and Achieving Dreams of the Bill Lester Story. I got a chance to actually drop a blurb for this book, folks. This is the book right here, his book. It talks about his career in NASCAR. Bill, welcome to Rolling Martin Unfiltered.

Pleasure, man. Good to see you again. It's been a minute since we were out there on the golf course, you know. Has been a minute. And I was, I remember, oh, my God, whether I was I remember oh my god Whether I was I think wasn't I can't remember if I was with the Dallas weekly Probably the Dallas weekly. Oh, it was with black American web. I cannot remember When you were on the NASCAR craftsman truck series, I remember going to Daytona

and it was you were driving for Dodge and and you were the first time we actually got to meet in and you took a conventional route. I mean typically what happens with folks who become NASCAR drivers they they start young they grow. They join the circuit very early. Your you had a different rise. Explain. Yeah, man. Totally different. It kind of leads to why the name of the memoir is called Winning in Reverse, because I did it completely atypical from what most race car drivers do. Most race car drivers start out, like you were saying, at a very young age, usually in their single digit years, less than 10, in either a go-kart

or a quarter midget, a very small mini race car. And then they work their way up the ladder to getting into big cars. And then they have their professional career. And by the time they're in their 40s, usually they're retiring. My situation was completely different. You know, I was fortunate that my father took me to a race when I was just shy of eight years old. And that set the hook. You know, I was mesmerized by the cars going by me at 160 miles an hour and so, but never thought it was something that I could necessarily aspire to be because when I look to my left and I look to my right, nobody looked like us, right? So, but you know, at that age, I wasn't tripping off of it, but I do recall distinctly that that was

the environment. But you know, as I grew up, I got my driver's license and I realized that not only did I have an obsession for speed, I was pretty darn good behind the wheel because I was doing all sorts of things that I didn't condone, like racing on the streets. I was doing the fast and the furious before it was a movie. And somebody said, before you kill yourself or somebody else, take it to a racetrack. And so that's effectively what I did. I went through engineering school. I got a degree in electrical engineering and computer science, but it was not my passion. It was a tool. It was so that I could get myself a good paying career and go racing. And that's effectively what I did almost with my

first paycheck from Hewlett Packard Company. I went and bought a race car and did extremely well. And so lo and behold, when you and I met, I had finally got an opportunity to race in NASCAR, which is something that I never had any ambition of doing when I was young. I was growing up in Northern California. And what I thought was cool was IndyCar racing or sports car racing, not NASCAR racing, not running around in a circle trying to stay off of a concrete wall. But I wanted to be where the growth of the sport was, where the most excitement was, where the most fans were, where I could make the biggest name for myself. And that was NASCAR racing. And lo and behold, you and I met each other when I was with the Dodge program in 2002 and 2003 in the Craftsman Truck Series, is what it was called at that time. Now it's got a different name because there's a different sponsor, but I did that for a

number of years. But my crowning achievement in NASCAR was being one of the few black drivers to ever race on Sunday, which means racing in the Cup Series. The Cup Series is the top level of NASCAR. That's where you race against the names you heard like Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt and Jimmy Johnson, guys like that. I was able to do that. I'm proud to say that I was one of only four in the last 60 years to be able to do that. I'm few and far in between. Wendell Scott was racing in the 60s. A guy named Willie T. Ribs was racing in the 80s. I came through in the mid-2000s, and now you guys have probably heard of Daryl Wallace Jr. or Bubba Wallace. He's out there now, and he's doing a good job out there on the circuit.

You mentioned Willie T. Ribs. You mentioned what Ben Nasc, he's also was in Indy. That's a phenomenal documentary about his story on, uh, on Netflix. Um, was you, what was your experience similar or different than what he had to endure? You know, we both encountered racism out there on the circuit, but the way that he got into racing and the way that he got into racing and the way that I got into racing were very different. He came about it more traditionally, such that he came about at a very young age, having the opportunity to go and race cars.

He comes from a racing family. His father was also a racer. And so he actually went to Europe, which was a wonderful training ground for him to hone his skills. He got to do it at a very young age. I didn't get to do it until I was in my 20s to begin racing. Then I didn't become a professional race car driver until I was 40 years old.

That's when I became a full-time professional. I had a 15-year career in the high-tech industry at Hewlett Packard. I was a research and development project manager. Everybody thought I was crazy to go and pursue this dream of racing. But, you know, that's what I wanted to do with my life. And I didn't want to live a life of coulda, woulda, shoulda. And I had my wife's blessing and support, you know, and thank goodness, because I would never have been able to do it without her. But, you know, at 40 years of age, when most professional drivers are winding down their career, that's when my career took off. And so, yeah, Willie's

Ascension and my Ascension were completely different. But the bottom line is when we got to the racetrack, some of that stuff that you guys were talking about earlier in terms of how these folks think over there on the other side, we obviously both experienced it. I was not embraced out there on the circuit. I mean, when I went to tracks like Talladega, Alabama, Martinsville, Virginia, Darlington, South Carolina, the last person those fans wanted to see is somebody looking like me. I mean, it was the point where I was getting booed on stage during driver introductions. You know what I mean? Before the race, when you go up and you're introduced to the crowd, you know, people were booing me. And I was like, you know, really seriously? But, you know,

I guess basically comes with an old, you know, traditional redneck mindset that this is their sport. And they've been able to hold on to NASCAR because of the dollars that are required to be able to compete in it. Most people don't realize that every year you need about 18 to 22 million dollars a year to compete for a single car. You know, how many people in the black community are going to stroke an $18 to $22 million check per year? Not many. So you're going to mainstream America, and corporate America is very risk averse. They do the same thing over and over. They're not going to sit there and put their neck out for somebody that doesn't look like them. So you go through all the politics of the sport, and it just burns most people out. And that's why a lot of drivers who want to be professional don't get there because

they're so discouraged and, you know, they're so, so, uh, beaten down. They just become dejected and, you know, demoralized and they give up. I couldn't, I could not, and I would not take no for an answer. And even though it took me a long time to get there, I managed to. I made it. You talked about that and it's very interesting if folks y'all really ought to go see the documentary on Willie T. Reeves because he talks about how Bill Cosby

put up the first $250,000 for him to race in Indy. At the time Bill Cosby was doing Jell-O pudding and he was doing Coca-Cola and all of these major sponsors. And he thought, no brainer. All right. This guy's good. I've got all these corporate connections. And one by one, they all said no. And even Bill Cosby was stunned that these are people who he was in business with. And they were like, they were fine with Bill Cosby selling their products.

They were not going to support this product of Willie T. Ribs in India. And so another thing that people don't realize, we talk about, you know, NASCAR and how it operates. You know, we think about traditional teams, football teams and basketball teams and baseball teams. And you have that structure. NASCAR is different. your teams are individuals they're not it's not you don't have a city it's

not like uh the the league awards a franchise the reality is nascar is really controlled by one family yeah that's right the france family you know it's uh not it's independently owned and operated effectively and so most people don't realize that either there's family, you know, it's not, it's independently owned and operated effectively. And so most people don't realize that either. There's no like, you know, in the stick and ball sports, there's usually players unions and things of that nature. There doesn't, that does not exist in professional motorsports, especially not in NASCAR. I mean, as a NASCAR driver, I was an independent contractor. You know, I wasn't even a employee of the race team that I drove for, right? Every year, I had to determine what was the best opportunity for me to be

successful, whether it was being, you know, a part of the team that I was just racing for, or whether or not, you know, the past years were greener by taking my skills, my talents, my helmet, and going to another team, you know, so there was no job security. And it was crazy. Every race team, effectively, was looking for drivers to bring sponsorship along with their talents. It's almost as crazy as telling LeBron James, well, LeBron, we see that you can jump out of the gym. You got eyes in the back of your head. You can pull three pointers out of your rear like there's no tomorrow. OK, now bring $18, $ 22 million dollars with you and you can play on our team. It's almost effectively what it's like in terms of a NASCAR analogy.

I mean, we have to bring the resources to the team so that the team can operate. What the teams do is they provide the infrastructure. They provide all the people. They provide the equipment, the engines, the shop, the transporters and all that stuff. But the operational budget is the responsibility more often than not of the race car driver. So it's about the most silly financial dynamic that you can imagine. You know, Bubba's got this team that he's with, with Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, which I'm really excited about. But for that to take place, Bubba had to bring DoorDash, McDonald's, Dr. Pepper, Columbia Sportswear.

He's got all these sponsors that he had to bring with him so that Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin were interested in creating this team around him. That's how crazy the sport is. People think that, you know, yeah, all you do is bring your helmet and you go and race. The easy part of being a professional race car driver is actually racing.

From my panel, let me start with Avis Jones-Dweaver. Avis, what's your question for Bill Lester? Hi there. This is a really, really interesting dynamic. I never knew about the finances behind it. So when you made this huge leap from your, you know, quote unquote, good job, right? Very stable, very, very prestigious career that you had to this new, you know, basically following your passion, but understanding that financial dynamic, you know, what made you sort of take that, not fear, for example, that huge financial commitment, sort of like that upside down situation that you may have been putting yourself and your family in by having that huge responsibility on your back over and over and over again with regards to just plain funding your passion at such a high level year after year after year? Yeah, I mean, that's an excellent question. The fact is that I knew I had God-given talent and ability. I was never formally trained as a race car driver, and I was able to be successful in just about every discipline that I applied myself racing-wise. So, you know, I had the utmost confidence in my ability. And,

you know, the other thing is that I knew that I had to get out of my comfort zone. I also knew that with great risk comes great reward. You know, I mean, I was blazing a trail. It wasn't something I knew that was going to be easy. Most people tried to discourage me, believe it or not, you know, not my parents so much, but, you know, friends and maybe, you know, distant or, you know, not related, immediately related family, but distant family would say, well, why are you doing this? I mean, you're successful. Well, my definition of success is happiness. I wasn't happy doing what I was doing. I was successful by everybody else's definition because I was making big money. I had responsibility, but I was miserable going through the eight to five,

the Monday through Friday. I was living for the weekend. I couldn't wait to get to a racetrack and try to either race a car or talk to people that were at the track that could make some of my dreams and ambitions come together. I mean, my heart and my mind and my passion was elsewhere. It wasn't at corporate America. I could do the job, but I had no passion for it. And I just didn't want to live a life of regret. So I knew I had one opportunity to do it. And with my wife's blessing and support, again, he's the one who kicked me out of the nest. You know, here I am at 37 years of age.

And she says, listen, hon, one, you're not getting any younger. And two, you're not getting any easier to live with. So either make this dream a reality or say you gave it your best and it wasn't meant to be. So what we did is we gave myself a three-year window of opportunity. I left HP at 37 years of age. And I knew that if I didn't land a professional gig by 40, I was going to have to go back to the reality of being back in the high-tech sector. But lo and behold, my ship came in, all the networking I did, all the perseverance and persistence, trying to not take no for an answer, which I didn't do, it paid off. But you're right. It

was a leap of faith. There was no guarantee that I was going to be successful. So I landed on my feet fortunately. Mustafa. Yeah. Well, one, it's an honor to be able to talk to you. My father and my uncle both race cars locally. So it's great to see you. So what advice would you give a young man or woman who is interested in following in your footsteps? What are the skills you think that they should make sure that they hone to be able to be successful? Well, I would say the most important thing is to start at a young age. You know, the way that I did it, I probably broke the mold.

I don't think that's going to happen anymore. As you know, with all sports, the athletes start younger and younger. And, you know, it's just so difficult to amass the resources that are necessary to start at a young age, because when I say young age, we're talking about families that are spending six figures for their, you know, six, seven, eight year old, you know, son or daughter to try to win a karting championship. And why does it cost so much? Because to win that championship, you got to get out of your own city. You're traveling. Okay. And you're paying for a traveling circus, which means the cars are going on the road.

The personnel is going on the road, you know, and all that sort of thing. I mean, how many black families are willing to drop six figures behind their, you know, single digit age kid to go and do it. But that would be the advice that I would have to insist upon is that you can't start young enough. Why? Because your competition starting that young. I'm telling you that most of the drivers that come up these days are what I call trust fund kids, kids that come from wealth and opportunity and don't have to worry about, you know, their families don't have to worry about where that money's coming from. They just have it. You know, a lot of the drivers you see out there on the circuit these days, you know, father's a CEO, mom's the CMO, vice president of marketing, whatever the case is. That's what you see by and large now. I would say that a lot of the most talented drivers

are out there, but the most talented drivers are not out there because they don't have the opportunity. And it's because they don't have these doors that are open to them at a young age. So in answer to your question, you can't start early enough. And by that, you can't also start networking early enough, which means talking to those people and getting those relationships, whether it be with you or your parents, to that access to capital. That's the one thing, the biggest reason why there aren't more of us in professional racing. One is exposure. You have to be exposed to it at a young age. And two, opportunity. You've got to have the opportunity to take advantage of being able to be in the game, to be in the sport. And

it's so expensive. It's such a deterrent. And that's why there's so few of us that have made it. But that's the answer to your question. Start early and network your rear end off. Julianne. I mean, your enthusiasm for your sport is overwhelmingly just inspirational. The thing that I heard from you that transcends sport racing was your admonition to get out of your comfort zone, which I think is something that wherever we are, we have to push. So how do you get out of your comfort zone? What would you tell young people and not necessarily not tell young people about getting out of their comfort zone? And by the way, I appreciate you. Thank you so much. Well, getting out of your comfort zone, really, as far as I'm concerned, is a function of finding a passion. If you find a passion, something that you just can't do without,

that was what racing was to me. I ate it. I slept it. It was the first thing I thought about in the morning. It was the last thing I thought about when I put my head on the pillow. I knew I wanted to race. And if you're willing to find that passion, believe in yourself, not take no for an answer, you will find a way to get out of your comfort zone. Trust me when I tell you that it was not the most enjoyable experience being around some of these racetracks when these folks, you know, don in their Confederate flag apparel and walking around with their Confederate flags, you know, it was just like, I can tell you, you know, the stories are in the memoir about just how disheartening

that was to me. But, you know, I didn't let me, it didn't make me bow my head. I knew who I was. I was strong. I knew that I was there for a reason. I knew what I needed to do, but, you know, it's just not easy. So getting out of your comfort zone, all is, it all circles around to, do you have a passion for something? Do you have the drive? Do you have the perseverance and the persistence to do those sorts of things that are required to get where you want to go? And for me, I had to get out of my comfort zone. Listen, I'm telling you, I'm a guy, as you can tell, no Southern drawl. I grew up in Northern California in the Bay Area, went to Cal Berkeley, and then come to the deep south to race in NASCAR.

Nothing would have been further from what I thought my racing career would have taken me to. I would have thought that I'd wind up in the Indy 500 with open wheel cars, or the 24 hours of Daytona in Florida, or 24 hours of Le Mans in France, but not running around in a stock car in circles trying to stay off a concrete wall hanging out with the good old boys. But sure enough- circles trying to stay off a concrete wall hanging out with the good old boys. By the way, we share a Bay Area connection. I was on faculty at UC Berkeley many years ago. No kidding. So that's where I graduated with my degree in engineering. And my father was also a member of the staff in the Department of Chemistry. So yeah.

I was at American Studies at Econ. Okay. Very cool. So yeah. So we share American studies and econ. OK, very cool. So, yeah, Bill, I was asked this question of book authors, and that is even those who write their own books. What was that one wow moment as they were writing, as they were researching, where they were like, wow. Did you have one? You know, I'm not convinced that I had a wow moment, but it was difficult to talk about some of the pain of being in the environments that I was in and how, again, I wasn't embraced. I did nothing wrong to get the disparaging remarks

and just, you guys use the word vitriol and, you know, that sort of thing. It was unjustified and it was disappointing to me because I carry myself, you know, I think properly and I treat people as, you know, individuals and, you know, I don't prejudge and everything. Everybody was prejudging me, you know, and I was like, really? I mean, you guys are so deep seated in your culture and your prejudice and your racism that you're not even going to give me a fair shot. You know, I mean, I didn't say anything disparaging about your sport or NASCAR. I always, you know, was effectively complimentary about being grateful that I got the chance to be in that sport, you know, and to be in your environment. And it was still just, you know,

they didn't want me, you know, so that was probably one of the difficult things. One of the other difficult things is just being so close to having had a victory at a point in my career. And it was effectively taken away from me by a teammate. And that was really a painful lesson, you know, that I hated to have to relive. But to tell the whole story, you've got to. I mean, people have said it before, and I think it's true, that to be truthful in a memoir, you got to open a vein. And so, you know, I did just that. I opened a vein.

And, you know, I just also wanted to say that, you know, my memoir is just that. It's a motivational memoir with a racing backdrop. I don't want people to think that it's a racing story because it's not. It's basically a situation where I've identified eight keys to allow me to be successful and live my dream. And I think these are eight keys that anybody in any walk of life trying to do anything or accomplish anything can take and resonate with and allow them to live their dreams. Call winning in reverse to find the odds and achieving dreams. The Bill Lester story. You definitely want to check it out. Bill, it's a pleasure, man. Thank you so very much for sharing your story with us.

I hope folks get their copy of this. And then once we're past COVID, then you'd be able to autograph these bad boys, all the folks will get it. Absolutely. Roland, I appreciate you having me on. The official release is tomorrow. Amazon, Barnes and Noble. You can even go to BillLester.com, learn a little bit about me and order it from my website. So I hope you guys enjoy. All right, Bill. Thank you so very much. Folks, if y'all want to support what we do here at Roland Martin Unfiltered, even though we had snow here, let me also apologize. I don't know what is going on with YouTube today, but our signal was buffering. It was stopping. It was all sorts of problems all day. And so same issues we've

been having on Facebook. And so we're dealing with lots of snow on the East Coast. It's causing problems with fiber optics and you name it it but the show must go on we literally also did this story from multiple places uh my staff did not come into the office and so i'm in one city i got staff in three other parts seated actually four other cities but we all make it all possible uh y'all want to support what we do here at roller mart unfiltered uh please join our bring the funk fan club our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing at least 50 bucks each, which comes out to be $4.19 a month,

13 cents a day. Please assist us. Cash app, Dallas Sign, RM Unfiltered. Of course, paypal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered. Venmo.com is forward slash rmunfiltered. Then you have, of course, Zale. You can send an email. It's roland at rolandsmartin.com.

Money or mail it to New Vision Media, 1625 K Street, Northwest, Suite 400, Washington, D.C., 2006. Avis, Julianne, Mustafa, we certainly thank y'all so very much. Tomorrow on the show, we will talk with the co-chair of President Biden's

COVID Task Force about the importance of African Americans taking that vaccine. It's going to be on tomorrow's show. And I was going to do it today, but because we were delayed because of the signal and all the other drama today, I want to talk about Chloe, the young lady, Chloe. She put a video out, her dancing. To celebrate crossing million of followers on social media and folks have been attacking her and ripping her to shreds and i gotta deal with this whole issue of black women being attacked for showing themselves and their body but we ain't got a problem with the Kardashians and the Jenners riding their bodies

to a billion-dollar company. I'm going to need folks to explain that. Also, I'm going to do a Roland Martin deconstruction, how black businesses are playing themselves small. Trust me, the Chloe conversation, COVID conversation, and the deconstruction, y'all do not want to miss tomorrow's Roland Martin Unfiltered.

I promise. That's it, folks. I certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much. I'll see y'all tomorrow. Help! A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways.

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