#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Roland in Chicago; Bipartisan $1T infrastructure deal; State of Black health; Moral march on Manchin

Episode Date: June 25, 2021

6.24.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered LIVE from Chicago! Biden announces $1T infrastructure deal & gun violence plan; State of Black health in Chicago report released; Rev. Barber talks moral march on Manchin; Footlocker commits to invest in the Black community and fight racial inequality + Essence Fest Throwback with Sheryl Lee Ralph and Bevy SmithSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$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.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Today's Thursday, June 24th, 2021. Roller Mart Unfiltered broadcasting live from Chicago, the Bureau and Bar Restaurant. President Joe Biden joins a bipartisan group of U.S. senators announcing a new infrastructure bill. But is that actually good for us? We'll break it down. Also, Dr. William J. Barber will join us sharing his thoughts on the infrastructure bill, but is that actually good for us? We'll break it down. Also, Dr. William J. Barber will join us sharing his thoughts on the infrastructure bill, but also the continuing effort of the Poor People's Campaign to fight for a voter bill. Also on today's show, we'll talk voting. Republicans

in Arizona passing another crazy voter suppression bill. Also, Black Voters Matter continue their march across the country, leading to their massive protests happening in DC on Saturday. We'll talk about that as well. Also on today's show, Biden released a plan dealing with gun violence that has been a major issue here in Chicago. We'll speak to that.

Plus we'll also be joined by the authors of a new proposal, a new report out of the Department of Health here in Chicago. It talks about the health status of African Americans in this city. They'll join us right here on the set. Also on today's show, Foot Locker talks about their commitment to black-owned businesses. We'll explain what that is. Plus our Coca-Cola Essence Festival throwback. And we'll hear from Sherri Lee Ralph as well as Bevy Smith. We've got all that and more from Chicago.

It's time to bring the funk on Roller Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the biz, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best believe he's knowing.

Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's on go, go, go, yo. It's rolling, Martin. Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, yeah, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best.

You know he's rolling, Martel. Now. Martel. President Joe Biden announced today with a group of bipartisan senators an infrastructure deal that about $1 trillion, a far cry from what he initially asked. But the question is, will there actually be enough votes to get it passed? Here's what they had to say outside of the White House today. We have to move and we have to move fast. This agreement signals signals to the world that we can function, deliver and do significant things. These investment these investments represent the

kind of national effort that throughout our history hasatively, literally transformed America and propelled us into the future. Now, again, Democrats, Republicans coming together on this particular bill. The White House desperately wants an infrastructure bill, but is it really the kind of bill that we need? The initial bill calls for a number of different things in it. Republicans whined and complained about that particular bill, saying that, oh, a lot of the stuff in it was not actually infrastructure. They wanted traditional infrastructure, but just roads and bridges and things along those lines. And so now Biden says he can trust these Republicans to actually go for it. But

are the votes actually there? Now, some say they're not going to get my 2025 vote. So the question is, will Democrats go along with this compromise? Also, this bill is different from what, of course, what would happen in the House. So the issue that you now are dealing with is, are you going to see Democrats actually vote for this bill? Will you have enough Republicans who vote for it as well? Let's break this thing down. Amisha Cross, Democratic strategist. She joins me here in Chicago. Dr. Greg Carr, Chair, Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University.

He joins us as well. We'll be joined a little bit later on the show by Recy Colbert of Black Women Abuse. Amisha, I'll start with you. So here's the whole deal. Biden wants a bill. They want an infrastructure bill. They want a win. But the question, though, is, this is a far cry They want an infrastructure bill. They want a win.

But the question, though, is this is a far cry than what they asked for. Do you think Democrats are going to go for it? And can they actually sell this to the Democratic base? This is a drastically different bill than what was originally proposed. With that being said, not only does it cut out the child care services, but also aid to those who are seniors and living in senior care facilities, in addition to the community college and education funding. There's a lot here. And it also cuts out a lot of the funding that was initially planned for the infrastructure projects themselves that Republicans act like they like, roads, rail, and bridges. This is a far cry from what we initially saw.

And I think that for Democrats right now looking towards the midterms and the ones who happen to be in purple districts and are afraid of their seats possibly flipping, they see a need to actually appease some Republicans. But to your point earlier, I don't think that they're going to get the Republican votes even with the current iteration of this bill. It is a really hard nut to crack. And at this point, I think the Democrats are just giving way too much for a bill now that is the bare bones of what it initially started as. What you also are dealing with here, Greg Carr, is that the issue of how you pay for it. Republicans were insistent they were not going to raise the corporate tax to actually pay

for it. Democrats said they were not going to support a tax on electric vehicles or increasing the gasoline tax. But here's the thing that folks don't want to deal with. This, you can have a Senate compromise all you want to. It also has to pass the House. Democrats only have a three-vote majority in the House. If four or five progressives say no to this bill, it doesn't pass the House. So this is the moment where House progressives can play the role of Senator Joe Manchin and say, I'm not accepting this damn compromise that you brokered with these United States senators. I'm not going to vote for

it. There needs to be more in it for our constituents. Perhaps theoretically play that role, Roland, for sure. But I think Amisha nailed this on the head. This is about the 2022 midterms. The only bit of political, the only bit of news made today in that little political theater in the driveway outside the White House was that Joe Biden said, I'm not signing anything that isn't accompanied by that big budget reconciliation package that puts back a great deal of what Amisha just outlined. And we all can count.

Mitt Romney's standing over there, a little feckless self. And, you know, you've got those other ones, the guy, Kennedy from bill. If it was a dollar, they'd reject it. Then they go and move toward budget reconciliation. But I think all kabuki theater or the midterm elections to try to not lose their seats by saying, we did everything we could. These people are against everything. Amisha, look, this

is real simple. You've got 59 members of the Congressional Black Caucus. You've got other House progressives. They can torpedo this bill, which will force Democrats to have to depend on Republican votes. I'm not sure if the Republican Party will go for the infrastructure bill because they want to see Biden. They don't want to see him get a win. So, again, this to me is where if you are House progressives, this is where you say, no, what y'all passed unacceptable. We're going to pass a different bill to then force it back to the Senate to see what they're going to do. And I think that you laid it out exactly how it's going to happen. House progressives are in no way going to support this bill.

We're going to watch them push for a beefing up of the original bill, but we're also going to see them say no, because one, they know that the Republican voters aren't going to be there, even with the current iteration of the bill, but they also have an understanding that the American public supported 68 percent, that's Republicans and Democrats, of the original infrastructure package. So this isn't an issue of left or right when you talk about actual voters themselves. This is Republicans,

congressional Republicans, Senate Republicans deciding that they're going to dig their heels in the sand and say, no, no matter what, no matter what Biden actually presents before them, this is going to have to go through the reconciliation process. And knowing that that's going to be the next stage, to be honest, it's time for Biden to go big or go home. It also is the question, Greg, again, of how serious do you want to play ball? How serious do you want, do Democrats want to challenge Republicans and their orthodoxy? Their whole deal is, no, we're not going to increase taxes at all, the corporate tax rate. Okay, how in the hell are you going to pay for it? How are you going to pay for this trillion dollar plan here? And so there needs to be some type of corporate tax, wealth

tax. Republicans don't want to go for it. And so again, the White House, and then you hear Biden, who keeps saying he trusts their word. I'm sitting there going, I don't know what the hell the optimism is in trusting them. Because I damn you damn sure couldn't trust them to support a January 6th commission. You damn sure couldn't support that because couldn't trust them when it came to voters, a voter suppression bill or a new voter bill. Well, again, rolling this theater, Biden said today he is not going to sign any compromise bill that could pass without it being connected to that larger package that's coming through budget reconciliation that will only have Democratic votes. I think that's where the progressive that's what Pelosi is going to go to progressives and say, look, we're not sending this quote unquote compromise legislation back over to the Senate the way it is without saying, and you are taking the budget reconciliation bill. They're playing high stakes poker, at least as high as you can, in a country where people are so damn stupid. They're either the white nationalist party who are voting against their interests.

There are $312 billion in this compromise bill. Lauren Barber is not going to vote for it in the House of Representatives even though her district, which includes Aurora and Colorado, has one of only three factories in the country that produce steel rail. She can put her whole damn district back to work and she's going to vote against it and them hillbillies are still going to vote for it. So what I'm saying is

that the progressives don't need to stuff it into this compromise piece. They just need to stuff it into this compromise piece. They just need to make sure that that tethered budget reconciliation bill comes to the president's desk as well. And that's where it's going to die in the Senate anyway, because like Amitia said, the Republicans aren't going to sign anything. And in terms of cutting taxes, there's $40 billion in this compromise bill to beef up the IRS. And they said, we'll generate $100 billion in revenue. Well, guess who's going to pay those added taxes? It ain't going to be Zuckerberg. It

ain't going to be Jeff Bezos. It's going to be the working class and middle class people in this country who the IRS are going to go after. They're all playing a ridiculous game. But ultimately, ultimately, I think this is all about trying to expose the white nationalist party for what they are. Again, the Democrats just seem to be playing this game, this strategic game, with an eye toward the 2022 elections. Well, and I think, Amisha, this is also where they have to decide whether they are going to stand up, whether they are going to flex their muscle. It seems to me that consistently, when we talk about these bills,

it is acquiescing to the needs and desires of the Republican Party. And part of the thing that Democratic voters want to see, they want to see a fight. They actually want to see that you give a damn enough to fight for the issues and the principles that are desired. That's what they also want to see. Granted, I totally understand the desire, hey, getting a win. But people also want to know that you're going to fight to the end to get your priorities.

You're right. And most people don't understand the mechanics of what goes on behind the scenes in these congressional conversations. But I think that there is a huge fervor among the American public to see Democrats with their hands in the ring. And they feel like Democrats are giving way too many concessions. They feel like you won in 2020 and somehow are screwing the pooch come 2021. And in 2022, you're going to lose seats anyway.

And if there isn't anything that's pushed that is large scale, that is an overhaul, it is going to be really tough to get those same Democratic voters who came out in large number in 2020 to show up again in 2022. And they think that because we're seeing this infrastructure bill basically get ripped apart because we haven't seen the significant movement on police reform that people voted for, because there are still issues with housing equity, because there are still issues with economic development and all get this package across the aisle, because there's a frustration amongst voters that once Democrats get in, it is that they are giving too much to Republicans, listening too much to this group that is never going to support any of their policies, but also trying to make as many concessions as possible in order to win elections,

when right now we're watching Republicans basically fight to redraw lines, fight to actually upend a lot of our electoral system in general, in addition to removing polling places, cutting voter rolls, there is nothing Democrats can do right now in terms of trying to give a carrot that will actually bring Republicans on board. You know, one of the things that I think we also have to demand here, Greg, and I was having a conversation earlier with a longtime official here in Greg, and I was having a conversation earlier with a long-time official here in Chicago, and that is, who's going to benefit from this $1.2 trillion if it doesn't be passed? Will these trade unions be forced to open their doors? I remember in the first term of

President Barack Obama, Gene Sperling came on my show, Watch. And I hit him with that question. I hit him with the question of you guys wanting black support for the infrastructure bill, but these trade unions have been blocking black people from these jobs for a very long time. So who the hell is going to benefit? Are these dollars going to come to our community? Are we going to see dollars going to black-owned construction companies? Are we going to see architecture jobs, engineering jobs going to black owned construction companies? Are we going to see the see architecture jobs, engineering jobs going to black owned companies as well? See, this is one of the things that also has to be discussed.

Sure. You want us to get excited about one point two trillion dollars. But how will black owned businesses benefit from the one point two trillion dollars? The White House better have an answer. Well, certainly, certainly there needs to be direction given by the federal government. But as we have seen with the Biden administration, with Biden's announcement this week on releasing funds that have already been encumbered to give to law enforcement in this country, they can either hire more police or they can use it to

create programming, including programming for young people and intervention programming. A lot of this decision-making is going to be driven by the state and local governments. So right there in Chicago, of course, and we're going to hear that today, talking about violence, the impact of public policy decision-makers at the local level on the lives of our people, that means that those unions are going to have to get in and press the mayor, press the city council. They're going to have to make sure their elected representatives do what they need to do, because when that money comes out of Washington, D.C., a lot of it is going to be unrestricted. Well, the restrictions are going to, they won't be so tight as to prevent the local decision makers from doing exactly what you just said. I mean, $47 billion in the compromise bill that's never going to be

voted on favorably is about resilience. What does that mean? That's clean energy. Are those jobs going to go to black businesses? Are they going to go to black people? A lot of that is going to have to do with local decision makers. Are they going to let those contracts? If $65 billion is about broadband in this compromise bill, then what's going to happen at the stake and local level to make sure that the people who are out there extending access are the local decision-makers that have pressure brought to bear on them by local people? Organization is incredibly important. That's why you've been traveling around the country, brother. It's got to be done at the local level, too. This is Speaker Nancy Pelosi today addressing the issue of the infrastructure bill. Are you getting sound?

Are you getting sound? Thank you. to hear from us. So, look, at the end of the day, the White House wants this to be a solution. They want, look, who raised the vote? They want to remain that way. They want to actually have the win here. But they still are going to have to

contend with, first of all, are you going to actually have the votes there? You also have the possibility that it's here. Democrats can filibuster it. Now, I'm sure Biden does not want to be embarrassed by his own party. He would tell Chuck Schumer, don't actually do it. But again, this is one of those moments where if you are a progressive United States senator, you can say, I'm not supporting this. OK, with $3 trillion in the issue plan, guys worked it down to 1.2 okay the hell with

that add some more stuff to it i think that's the jockey you're gonna be actually see take place 100 and we have to remember who actually pretty much created the standard points for the original infrastructure bill it was those progressives it was those progressives who had gone around during the last um election cycle in 2020 talk to the people in their communities, talked to the people on the ground, what they needed, what they saw, and the things that would help to get their states and their communities back on track. Biden's deal with progressives was largely to deliver an infrastructure package that spoke to the needs of an ever-changing society, specifically as it relates to a lot of the environmental awareness issues and the rise of storms and things like that.

But in addition to that, to speak to the everyday ails of communities, particularly communities of color across the country, where you have people who live in multigenerational households. They're working two and three jobs, but they're also taking care of grandma. They're also taking care of disabled relatives. This was an infrastructure bill originally designed to meet the needs of a society today that includes more women working than we've ever seen historically in this country, but child care at exponentially high prices that doesn't meet the needs of

those who actually need that level of assistance. So I think that what we're watching right now is progressives who also stand for reelection, who have to ensure that the things that they wanted, the things that they fought for, the things that they bargained with Biden to actually get in the infrastructure package, actually make it to the finish line. And that point there, Recy Colbert, people have to understand, Democrats, slim majority in the U.S. House. And so you can't bend over too much to satisfy Republicans. Otherwise, you're going to piss off your base. And look, they have no margin for error. Republicans are going to try to gerrymander their way into the majority in Texas and Florida and other states as well. And so the issue is now going to see what happens if it gets

through the Senate, what then happens in the House. Yeah, I mean, but I guess I'm going to have my unpopular opinion here and say I am on board with taking a win. I don't understand why every single bill has to be this massive, all-encompassing, all-sweeping, like $3, $4 trillion bill. I don't see the problem with taking a win on where there's areas of bipartisan agreement and then handling everything else in reconciliation. If they don't get the votes, they gave it the, you know, the good old college try, and you go back to the original game plan. But I don't see, I think what Democrats suffer from is purity tests that result in no results. And you don't get rewarded at the booth for purity.

You just don't. Republicans do because Republican voters are all spun up about white supremacy and abortion rights and gay rights. But Democratic voters actually want results. And so that is what they have to deliver here. And so I'm all for, I don't know all of the specific details of the bill. I'm sure there's something that each side can quibble with. But if you can actually get something through, and that's a big if, if you can get something through with bipartisan support, That gives everybody a win in this situation, and particularly the Democrats need a win.

The Republicans can go in 2020 with critical race theory and gerrymandering and voter suppression and turn off their base. Democrats have to produce something. And I think if Democrats can ever manage to message things appropriately and actually get something accomplished, then this situation can be a win for them. And then in the reconciliation part, then you deal with the stickier issues that you know for a fact are not going to get any results. But the Democrats cannot keep coming to the table and say, oh, well, Mitch McConnell blocked it. Oh, well, the Republicans blocked it. They have to deliver. And I don't think that they should wait all the way until the time you have a reconciliation bill to actually do that. Get as much done in these bills.

Start piecemealing some of these things where there is some degree of bipartisan consensus. There might only be 10 people that are willing to support it. But start getting some of these things through Congress so that you can get some wins on the table. It's not going to be pure. It's not going to make everybody

happy. The only issue there. Oh, go ahead. But, but recently, the only issue there is I get the whole point with a win, but there are some things that are actually not wins. I mean, it might appear to, it might appear to be a win. Uh, it might appear to look just like when, when the center Jim, when Congressman Jim Clyburn talked about, I prefer a half loaf versus a full loaf. Yeah, but the other deal is this here. There's no guarantee you're going to pass something down the road. And so part of the job of Democrats is to push as aggressively as possible.

And we've seen all the differences between the House and the Senate. This is a perfect example. This is a Senate negotiated deal. Well, guess what? They don't run both chambers. And so Democrats in the House can pass a completely different bill now that forces them to go to committee. And that's what I am saying. This is not a win.

This is only if it passes the Senate. The House can sit here and say, damn, you're 1.2. We're going to pass a $2 trillion infrastructure plan and now you've got the House version, you've got the Senate version, now those committees, now they come together to hash that out. What I'm arguing is that the House Democrats should not accept this,

whatever this is, and do their job the same way the Senate doesn't always accept what the House sends over. I understand that. I understand that. But that's been tried and tried and tried over and over again. That's why we don't have anti-lynching legislation. If the House had passed the Justice for Lynching Victims Act. No, no, no. The only reason we don't have the anti-lynching bill is because they wanted to pass it by unanimous consent and Senator Rand Paul objected.

Now, this is what I don't understand. What I don't understand is why Senator Chuck Schumer doesn't put it on the floor. Damn unanimous consent. Why can't you pass it out right and force folks on the record? And so maybe that's the whole issue. But really, the only reason we don't have an anti-lynching bill is because one guy, Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky, stood up and objected to unanimous consent. They could actually pass an anti-lynching bill, but they want to do it only by unanimous consent. To me, that's just dumb. But there are two reasons why. Number one, because Rand Paul filibustered the House bill, but also because the House passed their own bill versus the one that passed by unanimous consent in the Senate. So that's their prerogative to do. That is certainly

their prerogative to do. The House can pass whatever they do. They are a co-equal branch. They're equal to the Senate. But what I'm saying is if you can get the votes, and I don't know if they're going to get the votes. We all are skeptical that they're going to get the votes. But I'm saying under the circumstances that you actually can get the votes on a bipartisan measure on things that there are areas of bipartisan agreement, take it. And then on the other end, you get everything else you can get under reconciliation. I don't personally see a problem with that because at the end of the day, trying to push everything in reconciliation, you have to deal with the Joe Manchins and the Kristen Sinemas who are going to negotiate against the Democratic caucus. So the things that you don't have to

negotiate down within your own caucus, get that stuff done on a bipartisan basis. And then that way, when it comes to reconciliation, as Joe Manchin has even said, now I don't trust him, but he's even said he's willing to deal with some of those things like, you know, for instance, childcare and different kinds of cares on that end. That's what I think. I just don't think that it's wise for the Democrats to consistently show up with no results because they go by these purity tests and they don't get anything passed on both chambers. Misha, then Greg. Well, the issue here, I think, is that at the end of the day, we're going to see,

it's not just Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema specifically on this as well. There are so many people who have been shielded, basically Democrats who've been shielded by Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin basically taking the fire out front who also do not support this. So I think at the end of the day, we have to be very we have to be very strategic as Democrats, but also have to have a very strong understanding of what is being faced by some of these members. And I think that it's going to have a very uphill battle because you have Democrats who are more than willing to take this because they are not willing to make those concessions. They don't believe, and I'm with them on this, I don't believe that parsing this out into a separate bill or looking to have some of those, what is seen as social infrastructure, being a standalone bill is actually going to pass. It's not going to pass in this Congress. And looking at what may, what is probably going to happen in 2022 in terms of the House flipping, flipping Republican and the Senate being up for

grabs as well, it darn sure isn't going to make it past that. So Democrats are up against a clock right now. They're up against a clock. They're up against a calendar and they're making concessions. And it looks like this is going to yield them another big loss. Very quickly, Joe Biden said today he's not going to sign any compromise legislation that gets to his desk without the budget reconciliation

bill. That's number one. That means that with that lying Susan Collins and Kennedy and Utah's Mitt Romney out there in the driveway, there was only two people at that microphone, Kristen Sinema and Joe Manchin. Why?

Because they have already said they're not going to break the filibuster. So guess what? We all know that the white narcissist party is not going to vote for anything, including whatever these five Republicans said they agreed to. We know that. However, Joe Manchin, who two days ago said he was open to the idea of human infrastructure projects, as Biden has talked about them, meaning open to the budget reconciliation route, their whole pitch now is to get those two,

which means holding the other ones in line, including the progressives on the House and the Senate side, in that process to go ahead and vote on the reconciliation bill, because that other one is dead. Mitch McConnell is never going to allow five more Republicans to join those other five. It was political theater. I don't even think this was about a compromise bill. This is about forcing Manchin and Sinema to vote on the damn budget reconciliation bill.

That's the best hope the Republicans have, because as we've just heard, as both Recy and Amicia have said, this thing is over for the Democratic Party if they don't do it in the next few months. The white nationalist party is getting ready to destroy the infrastructure of the federal government. That's what they're doing at the statehouse level now with voter suppression. They're going to wreck the country. I don't give a damn damn because, hey, that might be the way it has to go. But let's be very clear about the fact that the Democrats don't have a play. This whole thing is hanging on two senators. And I believe today was just one more step closer

to the process of getting them to 51 with the vice president to get the reconciliation bill through because the Republicans ain't never going to vote on nothing that they claim to be negotiating for. This is Speaker Nancy Pelosi today. Let's play that soundbite. Morning. Morning. The dome of this Capitol has always been a beacon of democracy and hope to America and to the world. across our country, ended the Civil War, enfranchised women, established Medicare and Medicaid, and met the needs of the American people in so many ways under the dome of the Capitol. Children learn about our country's history and what we are doing to advance their future. Legislators pass laws, press engage in reporting on our democracy, and staff and workers enable all of this to happen. This dome has been a symbol of determination in our country.

Remember its origins. Let us recall that the Dome of the war was built during the civil war. And the civil war was built during the civil war. And the civil war was built during the civil war. And the civil war was built during the civil war. And the civil war was built during the civil war. And the civil war was built

during the civil war. And the civil war was built during the civil war. And the civil war was built during the civil war. And the civil war was built during the civil war. And the civil war was built

during the civil war. And the civil war was built during the civil war. And the civil war was built during the civil war. And the civil war was built during the civil war. And the civil war was built during the civil war. country needed a symbol of strength and unity, a reminder of the shared ideals and common purpose that bind our nation, a beacon of hope, again, to see through the darkness. January 6th was a day of darkness for our country. It was a day, as you know, that was called for in the Constitution of the United States

for us to validate the presidential election to certify the results of the electoral college. That day, one of the darkest, I say again, I'll keep saying days in our history, our temple of democracy was attacked by insurrectionists. You know all of this. the Capitol. The Capitol was the place where the president's presidency was attacked by insurrectionists. You know all of this. The gleeful desecration of the Capitol resulted in multiple

deaths, physical harm to over 140 members of law enforcement and terror and trauma among staff, workers and members. That trauma is something I can never forget or forgive. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. courage of the Capitol Police, members and support workers. We showed our country, indeed the world, that we would not be diverted from our duty and that we would respect our responsibilities under the Constitution. Not just the Capitol Police, but other law enforcement as well. On January 6th and the days, weeks and months after, the Capitol dome has been and is once again a beacon of hope as President Lincoln intended. Today, nearly six months later, it will be six months in a little while, many questions regarding the circumstances of this assault on our democracy and the response to it remain.

It is imperative that we seek the truth as to what happened. To do that, we believe that a bipartisan commission would be the response to it remain. It is imperative that we seek the truth as to what happened. To do that, we believe that a bipartisan commission would be the best way to proceed in the spirit of patriotism and bipartisanship and to establish an independent 9-11 type commission. All right, so that's going to transition out to our next topic. So Speaker Nancy Pelosi announcing this select committee. But here's what's crazy, Amisha. She allows Kevin McCarthy to pick the Republican members on the committee.

He's not going to pick any sane people. He's going to pick the crazy fools. He's not going to pick Ken Zinger. He's not going to pick Liz Cheney. And so my deal is she's picking the House. She should have said, I'm picking all the damn members. Absolutely. I think that this is another fail for Democrats because we already know who Mike McCarthy is. At the end of the day, this is a guy who came out in taxed support of what happened on January 6th.

This is the guy who came out and supported the what he thought was a stolen election or what he knows was not but continues to tell people it was this is a guy who's going to pick the most staunch alt-right um you know these conspiracy theory republicans that happen to be at to be in the party and he's going to utilize those folks this isn't somebody who's going to do anything smart he's not looking to actually have a real investigation he's looking to sham this thing up and get rid of it as soon as possible because honestly republicans want to move on to the midterms next year. They don't want to talk about January 6th at all. This committee to me is important, Greg, because it needs to happen.

There should be a report. Of course, it was Senate Republicans who rejected a bipartisan commission. You are to see the Republicans whining, complaining, saying to Pelosi, this wasn't bipartisan. Yeah, y'all screwed that one up. You had a shot at that one. But this is what I say. I don't give a damn who Kevin McCarthy puts on this committee. You come out with a strong report. And you know what I think is probably going to end up happening, Greg? There are going to be two reports issued. I think the Republicans are going to issue their own, and they're going to sit here and focus on Black Lives Matter and Antifa. and then you've got the Democrats issue

their own. But this is where, if you're the Democrats, go as hard as possible. First of all, the head of the Department of Justice has already said, Merrick Garland, more than 500 people have been arrested so far who participated in that violent insurrection on January 6th. This is where you put them all on front. And yes, you use subpoena power to force even House Republican members of Congress who testify about their whereabouts and their phone conversations on that day. That's true. And this is a message directly to our brother, Cedric Richmond.

Brother, it's time to pull out the long Louisiana knife and start cutting heads off. Because the worst thing that could happen to the white nationalist party is for there to be a commission. I heard what you just said, Amisha. The last thing they want is the commission. See, if the white nationalists were thinking straight, they would have joined and put together and voted for that bipartisan commission. What Pelosi is doing is establishing a commission. End of story in terms of a win, because when you put tender age Matt Goetz on that committee, when you put wrestler Jim Jordan on that committee, you are keeping alive the fact that y'all

are traitors. So when you establish commission, the Republicans have lost. That's why I said this is a message to Cedric. Now the job of the Democrats would be to train every camera in the room on that commission in the hearing. So when they're in there talking about Antifa and defund the FBI like Getz, dumbass, was saying the other day, you just put it on an endless loop. And the GOP members like Cheney and them who are tearing their hair out saying, damn it, we should have at least voted to look like we were for the commission. Now we have allowed the Democrats

to set up a commission. You stopped it on our side with the loonies and they got endless campaign commercials. So everybody calm down. This is the time to press the gas because once you establish the commission, these white nationalists are going to do the rest. This is where they all have to be exposed, Recy.

This is where whoever Nancy Pelosi cannot put some weak Democrat as chair of this committee. This is where you go hard or go home because these folks have to be completely, completely blown out and shown exactly what their role was, what took place on that day. Look, you may or may not have an example of the Republican organ who held the door open a lot of the protesters in, but I don't think there's any doubt why the Republicans were so concerned about the FBI tracking the phone calls of those on that day, because they know there were some people who were in that crowd who called some Republican members of Congress. Absolutely. But I mean, listen, for historical purposes, is it important to expose it? Absolutely. For moral purposes, is it important to expose it? Absolutely. But let's just be honest. The country doesn't give a shit

about, you know, how Republicans and how these white nationalists are traitors to our country. They just don't. Yeah, they support a commission when they're polled, but that is not going to be what's going to make the difference come 2022. So I absolutely support this for

the reason that you have to continue to speak truth to power. You have to continue to expose a light on the Republican Party. You have to continue to undercut the pretext that the Republican Party is using, which is lies about the 2020 election and it being stolen from Donald Trump. You have to continue to expose and debunk that lie. But the reality is that this Republican Party is not going down because of the January 6th Commission. People are not going to be that much more soured from it because of the January 6th Commission. Now, it's a pretty decent, I guess, foil to this critical race theory that there's all this mass hysteria about. But I do think that this would be something that the Democrats are going to have to multitask on and not think that they're going to rest their laurels on this commission and people being

appalled and jumping ship from the Republican Party? Because we've seen these kinds of things happen. We saw it happen with the Russia, Trump-Russia investigation that went absolutely nowhere. They're still talking about Trump-Russia, and he's off playing golf somewhere, about to be doing tours. He's ex-president, but it's not because of Russia. And they impeached Trump twice. Nobody gave a damn. And so I think that we want to see these moral victories in terms of saying Republicans are bad, white nationalists are bad. They're traded to the country. They're not patriotic. They don't have a, you know, monopoly on patriotism. Republicans are full of shit. They want to suppress the vote with this big lie about the election. But the Democrats need to do more than this. And they are. They are. I'm not saying

that they aren't. But all I'm saying is there isn't going to be some big whoosah moment and some big come to Jesus moment that's going to happen in this country anytime soon. But here's the deal, though. I think what think what this report can do and this is the impact it will have. It's not going to have an impact in a hard right district. Of course, it's not going to have an impact in that. But it is going to have an impact in those competitive districts. You have to force people, Amisha, to be on record. You have to force them to answer the question. Just like when the Republican Party ran $100 million worth of ads talking about defund the police, and they weaponized that against Democrats. This is an example of Democrats where they can weaponize January 6th, and then when you're running, have to say, do you support what happened on January 6th? Do you, see, they got to be pressed on that.

So you can, you can take advantage of it. Again, a hard right Republican district, nah, ain't going to happen. But in those districts that are going to be toss-ups, that are competitive districts, take a Conor Lamb, his district, you take the district in South Carolina that represents Charleston, there are those places where you can actually use it to the your advantage against your Republican opponent And those are the places I think that Democrats are using that strategic mindset Which is how they regain the house to exactly and if they do get those phone records if they do get you know They go through all the tweets. They look at the videos

They go through the conversations that were literally had and the funds that were raised because mind you the majority of people who stormed the Capitol On January 6th didn't get here because of their hard work. A lot of them, this was their first time getting on a plane to go from anywhere. They were funded by many of the organizations that also fund these Republicans, these Republican candidates and these Republican electeds. So I do think that there is something to be said about investigating this and making that deep dive to prove just how close and how demonstratively I think

structured the January 6th insurrection was and why these Republicans are trying to duck and hide their tails so much at this point because they don't want it to come out. If it was a whole lot of talk about nothing, they would be absolutely fine pushing go here. They don't want to come out because of what you just said, Roland. At the end of the day, they recognize that there are some very tight districts, very purple districts, districts that are literally small margins away from a victory for Democrats and a solid victory for Democrats. They don't want to lose those spaces. And I think that at this point, should that information come out, it is going to change the minds of those individuals. We're not talking about the forever Trumpers. Nothing is going to

change their mind. But for those Republicans and those conservatives who are in the districts that are extremely right now tough for them to hold onto, there is an opportunity for Democrats to get out in front of this, to have a successful messaging strategy, to have a communication strategy that actually points directly to how Republicans, sitting Republicans, actually help to fund, but also help to provide those tours and recognizance missions and gave step-by-step instruction to the individuals who performed the January 6th insurrection? Well, the question then would be, will we see that sort of reaction? That's the question, Greg Carr. And again, this is one of those things.

Look, Republicans, we already see with critical race there. I want to talk about that a little bit later in the show as well. But if you're a Democrat, you don't give up a very good baseball bat or hammer. What you do is you swing it. That's what you do. But they have to take advantage of it. And that's why I hope that whoever chairs this is going to be a very tough, aggressive member, as opposed to somebody who wants to be mealy-mouthed and sort of too soft. No, you got to go real hard on this one and make it clear to people how close, how close these people were to causing harm to members of Congress. but more importantly, also expose the fraudulent views of Republicans when it comes to who always talk about protect the blue and Blue

Lives Matter. They didn't give a damn about those cops on January 6th. Well, it's true, Roland. And if elections in the United States of America were about information, informed voters and logic, then this would that would be the way to go. But as Recy said, nobody gives a shit. The Democratic Party is trying to work with a bad hand in part because of the election of 2020. The voter turnout wasn't where it was. So now this is the hand we have. In this country, now weaned on social media and watching reality television, somehow people think that one election leads to a complete victory.

This is a long damn haul. So you shouldn't have to explain to people that you're going to have to go out and turn out in greater numbers in 2022 and bring every kind of ID you ever had. No, because they didn't deliver. Hey, your lips. Shut them. You about to take the biggest L since the Civil War. And that's fine if y'all all strapped and ready to rock. But since you're not, let's think about the fact that this commission keeps it in the news cycle.

Like Amicia said, it may put those purple districts or those red districts that shifted blue a little bit close enough to continue to press. And then we saw yesterday, everybody from Raphael Warnock in Georgia to Gwen Moore up on the House side out of Milwaukee are saying, we don't think voter ID should be an issue. However, we're willing to maybe support voter I.D., national voter I.D., if it means visiting something that's not in the For the People Act at all, which is all of these bills, 100 plus in 35 states that have been introduced, which are taking oversight away from local officials and even secretaries of state and putting it in the hands of Republican-controlled

federal legislatures. So what I'm saying is that everything is moving. And the whole ball of wax could come down to turnout in 2022, which means getting some type of voter legislation through Congress, which means that this commission is just an attempt to keep alive this story, to shave a few points off here or there, and press and put that with voter turnout, and hopefully at least prevent the legislature from flipping in 2022. But this is what happens when you don't go out and participate. This is the hand, they're playing the hand they've been dealt. Yep, absolutely, absolutely. Our folks, I got to go to a break. We come back, where's our money segment, and we'll talk about Foot Locker, an initiative they have to work with black businesses and black creatives.

Also, we'll talk about the mistake that I believe that mainstream media is making in this whole fake ass debate about critical race theory, which is really ridiculous. We'll talk about the health issues of African-Americans here in Chicago and the impact of gun violence in this city as well. Folks, we're broadcasting live from the Windy City here in Chicago. And we're certainly glad to be at my man Kenny Johnson's spot here. And so we're going to come back in just a moment. And we've got some folks hanging out here as well. And so you're watching Roller Martin Unfiltered. We'll be back in a moment.

I believe that people our age have lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing. The challenges, there's so many of them and they're complex. And we need to be moving to address them. But I'm able to say, watch out, Tiffany. I know this road. That is so freaking dope.. . 60 years ago, the freedom

riders rode buses to fight against segregation. They won. And now as voter suppression is sweeping the country, we're riding out again. Join the blackest bus in America and hundreds of organizations on a week-long And now, as voter suppression is sweeping the country, we're riding out again. Join the blackest bus in America and hundreds of organizations on a week-long freedom ride for voting rights from June 18th to June 26th.

Come out to our rallies in New Orleans, Jackson, Birmingham, Nashville, Atlanta, Columbia, Raleigh, Charleston, Richmond, and Washington, D.C. If you can't join us in the event on the route, you can just meet us in D.C. on June 26th. Or if you can't ride at all, then show your solidarity by hosting a rally right in your own town on June 26th. No matter where you are, everybody can be a Freedom Rider. To learn how to get involved, text FREEDOMRIDE to 797979. We got power, y'all, and we're bringing it to D.C. George Floyd's death hopefully put another nail in the coffin of racism. You talk about awakening America, it led to a historic summer of protest. I hope our younger generation don't ever forget

that nonviolence is soul force. Christ, darling. What's happening? What up? Oh, yes, darling. What's happening? Everything is good, baby. Everything is good. Here we are on another carpet together. Yes, indeed.

Yes, indeed. You got a new show coming up. Yeah, I'm launching the digital show in September, so looking forward to that. It's the future, so there you have it. No, digital is the present. There you have it. So, yeah, looking forward to it, so there you have it. No, this is the present. There you have it. So yeah, looking forward to it, so go have a little fun with it. First of all, what you

working on now? I'm watching a show, you just pop up, and then I flip a channel, you pop up over here. You know, it's been really an incredible season in my career. You know, I have a nice arc on MacGyver. I have a wonderful arc on Claus with Niecy Nash. I have a wonderful new series that's coming to CBS. We're a mid-season replacement. It's called Fam with Tone Bell, myself, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Nina Dubrov, and it's just outstanding.

And then you might pop up on Ray Donovan. And who knows? They might bring me back to Ray Donovan. One never knows. I'm actually leaving here to go start work on a Lifetime Christmas movie. So God is good. You know, I told somebody, I said, look, I said, now the folks realize black folks can do well. I said, if you black in Hollywood today, ain't nobody calling you, you can't act.

I don't really know about that. But, you know, I really am very thankful because I believe I'm the last of a generation that was told we couldn't do it. We couldn't make it simply because we're black. The number of times that people said to me, oh, it's too bad you're black. You know, I'm like, oh, I'm so glad that I was able to hang in there. So glad that God kept me right where I am doing what I love to do so that I could see this time where I get offered just because what? I'm real good. I'm DGA. I'm a damn great actress. And now is my time. So I say, thank you, God. Thank you. Hi, this is Cheryl Lee Ralph, and you are watching

Roland Martin, unfiltered. I mean, could it be any other way? Really? It's Roland Martin. And, folks, don't forget, beginning on Friday, beginning tomorrow, the 2021 Essence Festival of Culture Live Loud Virtual Experience. You can watch it at Essence Studios dot com and Essence dot com again, Friday through Sunday. And then, of course, next weekend, July 2nd through the 4th, we're going to have a full recap show right here on Roller Mart Unfiltered on Monday. And then, of course, we're going to have a recap show also on July 5th. Now, hold on, folks. So I want to read for you. Essence, they did send me a schedule. And so to leave the graphic up, they sent me a schedule.

And so Neil is going to be performing. He's going to be performing at the event also. D-Nice will be spinning Tank, Vic, Frida. Also, DJ Khaled and friends are also going to be performing as well, including Michelle Williams and Kirk Franklin, Israel Houghton, and many, many more. So check that out, folks. Again, this weekend, beginning tomorrow, the virtual 2021 Essence Festival. We certainly appreciate partnering with Coca-Cola on making this happen.

We've been frozen out. Facing an extinction level event. We don't fight this fight right now. You're not going to have black on you. All right, folks, a number of businesses that are making a renewed focus when it comes to black-owned companies. One of those is Foot Locker. They announced this initiative. It's called the LEAD Initiative.

Of course, they're going to be investing $10 million in black-owned brands and creators. They're going to be launching 45 new brand partnerships with black brands and also a $3 million multi-city grant program to empower youth and invest in cities. Joining us now is Patrick Walsh, his VP for Commercial Growth and Transformation, head of the LEAD Initiative. Patrick, glad to have you on Roland Martin Unfiltered. What was the genesis of this, the basis of it? Hi, Roland. First off, it's a pleasure being on your show today, so appreciate it.

You know, it's interesting when you ask about the genesis of it. So let me go a couple steps back. So overall, about a year ago, we announced that we were making a commitment, right, and making a $500 million, making a five-year, $200 million commitment to advancing economic and education opportunities in the black community. And that's what you talked about in terms of the LEAD initiative. And, you know, we realized, and this is coming out of the, you know, right after George Floyd's murder, that that was an inflection point.

And we wanted to make sure that we were being thoughtful about how we executed our business. And what I mean by that is, we didn't start this journey at that point, but it was an inflection point in terms of how do we continue to invest in what we were doing to make it even bigger and have even more of an impact. So I love the numbers that you shared, but the good thing and interesting is the numbers you shared were really just our year one update. But overall, our commitment is to get to $200 million over five years. And when you say, so that's $200 million over five years, you're talking about $40 million a year. But what areas are we talking about? Because, I mean, what are y'all looking

at? One of the things that we focus on with this segment, Where's Our Money? We look at this thing in a much bigger and broader way. Are you looking at transportation contracts? Are you looking at catering contracts? Are you looking at black-owned media span? Are you looking at how Foot Locker does business with black owned businesses? And is that what we're talking about? Because I certainly get it when it comes to creators. But what about other areas where you do business where you may not be working with black owned entities? Yes. No, I love it. So what you're getting at is the need for supplier diversity, right? And so part of that supplier diversity is a couple areas. One, it's around just also making sure that we diversify our shelf space.

So one of the things you called out were 45 new brand partnerships. And what that means is, you know, we've got 45 new black-owned and black-led businesses that are vendors that we sell product, right? So they're in the stores with the Nikes of the world, the Jordans of the world. So that's from diversifying our vendors. There's also from the marketing that you talked about. So, Patrick, hold on one second. So when you say vendors, I'll give a perfect example. There's a company, I've had them on the show, Nagast Footwear.

I wear their shoes all the time. They're out of Atlanta. And so when you talk about products on the shelves, are we talking about black-owned athletic shoe companies? Are we talking about people who do socks? People who actually, the item that you sell, are you saying you're looking to have those type of black brands selling their wares in foot lockers? Yes. looking to have those type of black brands selling their wares in foot lockers yes and so right now the initial group you'll see a lot more on the apparel and accessories uh we're also looking to grow in the footwear side as well so yes we're talking about making sure that we have more brands that are owned and led by black entrepreneurs that are sold in our stores, giving more access from the perspective

of selling product in our stores. But then also partnering, and one thing you had mentioned around marketing agencies. But it's also an opportunity for us to continue to further diversify in terms of who we're spending our money with when it comes to marketing. And so we have now started to partner with even

more black owned ad agencies but not only black ad agencies but also black creators so individuals who may not have their own agency but they're creators and they're looking to get paid and they understand the customer um and this is you know and they want to have greater access to this industry, and this is a passion for them. When it comes to, for instance, let's say when it comes to black-owned media, that's one of the things that I've been involved in with Byron Allen, Todd Brown, Junior Bridgman, Butch Graves, and others. We've really been focused on black-owned media spend. How much does Foot Locker annually spend on marketing, and specifically with black-owned media? Have you all identified what that is?

And there are other companies that have announced that, you know, 20 companies under Group M announced they would do 2%. Target announced they would do 5%. The black-owned media, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, others have been, General Motors have been making announcements as well. And so are you looking at that as well? And the reason I'm saying that, Patrick, is because I've had a lot of companies who have announced initiatives that have been more, from my vantage point, on the philanthropic side as opposed to on the investment side. And many of them have looked at this from a narrow lens. And so I'm curious to know how broad of a lens are you looking at this across the board in terms of the dollars that Foot Locker spends and saying, hey, are we spending it with, you know, again, with black owned companies to help them build and grow capacity? Roland, I love what you're talking about. And you know what? I'm happy you asked it that way.

So I can actually give you a little bit more context. So when we went through this journey of understanding and developing a lead initiative, we wanted to be thoughtful. And so a lot of the conversation was around, you know, we could be philanthropic, we could make donations. But ultimately, we wanted to be more thoughtful and actually make investments, right? And how do we invest in black-owned companies? One of the things we understand, you know, from a footlocker perspective, one thing you understand, one thing I understand personally, is the fact that when you look at the sneaker industry and you look at sneaker culture,

it really is birthed out of black culture. And so a lot of times when you see the black community, when it comes to sneaker community, it's around from the consumer perspective. What's the opportunity for us to provide greater access greater access to the economic opportunities and so it is about investing in black owned businesses whether it is um we talk about black creators talk about black businesses one of the things i didn't get a chance to talk about we also have made a commitment to invest in so far far, six VC firms, venture capital firms that are Black-owned and advancing diversity, and we're looking to advance how future venture funds are allocated.

So that's just the beginning. And the reason why we even invested in Black-owned VC firms and funds is because we also understand that African Americans disproportionately struggle when it comes to gaining access to capital in starting and actually developing and growing their businesses. You're telling me, obviously, I'm gonna go to my questions for my panel next. I mean, Foot Locker is a multi-billion dollar company. And the thing that we've really been pushing folks on is to also change how they sort of look at companies.

Look, I can give you horror stories of advertising agencies. Even when the client has said, we want to do business with Roland. When we go to the agency, they're taking us through all these BS metrics that, frankly, can never be qualified. So they are, in essence, creating a no. And so one of the things that I have been saying directly, and I have said this to Coca-Cola, I'm meeting with McDonald's very soon, I've said this to General Motors, I've said this to Verizon, I've said this to Walmart,Cola. I'm meeting with McDonald's very soon. I said this to General Motors. I said

this to Verizon. I said this to Walmart. I said, it's y'all money. It's not the agency's money. I said, and part of the deal has to be companies has to be willing to tell these agencies, you work for us. We don't work for you. And if we say we want to do business with this black-owned media company, y'all make it happen. And that's what that's been one of the hardest things, because the agencies really act as if it's their money and they can decide who they want to spend it with. And sometimes we'll tell the company, no, I've literally experienced that. No, no, I understand. And that's also partly why there's a need for us to also diversify the agencies and diversify the different partners who we're partnering with. And I go back even when I talked about the six VC firms and VC funds that are being led by black GPs. The reason why I bring that one up is, again, we could have just invested,

tried to invest our money directly into black companies. But why not partner with those individuals or those companies where this is their expertise? So again, there is a need to make sure that we are partnering with the right black organizations who understand the customer. And at the end of the day, understand the customer, understand what we're trying to do. And there's not just from a capabilities perspective, but there's also a cultural understanding. All right. Questions from our panelists. Amisha Cross, you're here with me in Chicago. You first. Thanks for being here, first and foremost. Foot Locker has been a mainstay in the black community for decades at this point. What are some of the long-term plans that you have? I'm hearing what you're saying about the venture capitalists, which kudos to you because honestly, D.C.

doesn't have too many black venture capitalist firms. But in addition to that and the creators and what you're promoting and trying to push to get more, you know, more monies to black people who have these amazing ideas, as well as get some of their products on shelves in Foot Locker. What does that look like long range? Because I see that a lot of companies are now in the post George Floyd protest era, deciding that they are going to do some things for the black community. But much of those initiatives typically die off after a year or two. Is this something that Foot Locker is ultimately committed to? And what does that look like? Yeah, you know, great question. I'm happy you brought it up.

So, you know, one of the things I'm happy about, and you heard Roland talk about some of the accomplishments and the $10 million to invest it in black-owned brands, 45 new brand partnerships, the six VC firms, launching Designing with Soul, which is a program created and in partnership with Pencil and New Balance to really train the next generation of footwear designers. The reason why I'm excited about what Roland threw out there is the fact that a year ago when we announced the LEAD initiative,

the five years, $200 million, one of the things that we talked about is being transparent about it, and that we were going to every year share, here's where we are, right? Here's the results. Here's where we are in the process. And so to answer your question, this is more than just one year. We look to be transparent. We look to provide a report on an annual basis so the public can see how we are tracking when it comes to the initiative we have. And I know I say $200 million over five years, but one of the things that the CEO, Dick Johnson, always says, that really is just, you know, it's not to say we need to end at that number. That should be the floor, and the hope is that that number is much greater.

All right. Our next question goes to Dr. Greg Hart. Greg? Thank you, Roland. And thank you, Brother Patrick. And correct me, I know you will, if my number is anywhere off. The numbers that I looked at said that in 2019, Foot Locker made $1.9 trillion, that nearly 90 billion of them were in domestic sales, which means between direct-to-customer and stores. And my sister worked at Lady Foot Locker, helped put herself through college. Most of the sales were outside the United States. And so I guess I have two questions very quickly.

I don't know that you all keep this data. I don't even know how you could keep it. But what's your estimate on how much money black people spend with Foot Locker? And given that there was an increase from $150,000 to $250,000 in terms of scholarships for associates, I think it is, Foot Locker associates, how much more would you like to see that scholarship subsidy expanded, particularly since going to Howard, for example, $150,000 would basically cover four years for one student. Yeah, no. So a couple of things is one in terms of on the sales. And I don't remember. I think you may have said two trillion dollars.

Yeah, close to two trillion. One point nine. Well, Footlock, I can't tell you that that's not our revenue number. So that's that that's not the revenue number in terms of two trillion. then help me what what what do y'all do in an annual would you say last and then what what i what i actually wanted to get at because and i understand the the route that you have here right so there's a couple things around education and what more and what does success look like from an education perspective and And so you hit it when you talked about the fact that, you know, Foot Locker as a whole last year increased its scholarship funding by nearly 50 percent. And then over the next five years, the company is looking to add

an additional 50 new scholarships for our Foot Locker Associates, but having it dedicated to Black team members. And so that's a little bit of that start. Interestingly, you know, I was just had a couple of conversations early today as we continue to look at, well, what else can we do from a scholarship perspective? And so some of it is about, you know, how much more in terms of number of scholarships. But the other thing we're looking at, too, is what additional support can we provide in addition to those scholarships? And, you know, is there a connectivity to the internships we're providing? But what else can we do as we look at going beyond scholarships and our engagement with black students? So there's an opportunity. And the thing I want to get across, too, is that, you know, this is a journey.

And so everything that we're talking about is is year one. We understand it's going to be a process. And one of the things we talk about is not being afraid to get started and have perfection keep us from, you know, getting started. And at the end of the day, we're looking to make progress. OK. And thank you, brother. I mean, excuse me, I just want to make sure I correct myself. It's $8 billion net worldwide and $5.58 domestic. Does that sound right? Because a trillion was a little off. I didn't check down on the second.

That is precisely it because I was about to pull up. Go to my iPad, please. I was going to show you from the Yahoo stats because Foot Locker is publicly traded. This is. If y'all go to my iPad, please. I was going to show you from the Yahoo stats, because Foot Locker is publicly traded. This is their income statement. Please go to my iPad. You'll see revenue, $8.53 billion revenues per share. It lays

out quarterly revenue growth, all those things. So yeah, I'm sure Patrick, when you heard him say a trillion, he was thinking, oh hell, my stock options have gone up. So, yeah. That's a lot of money, though. That's a lot of money right there.

It's still $8.8 billion. Yeah, because there are only two companies that hit the trillion-dollar valuation, Apple and Google. And so I'm sure Patrick was like, man, let me check on my stock right now. Lareesa, your question for Patrick was like, man, let me check on my stock right now. LaRees, your question for Patrick. Hi, Patrick. You know, often with these sorts of initiatives, they're kind of siloed in an area that's specifically about diversity. Can you give us an insight into how much company-wide this sort of new emphasis or renewed emphasis or increased emphasis,

you can determine which one is the appropriate adjective there. Is there on, you know, equity and diversity and inclusion, not just in the diversity department, not just as a corporate social responsibility thing, but actually in terms of, you know, mobility within the corporation, you know, the people who are managing the stores as opposed to the people who are working in the corporation, you know, the people who are managing the stores as opposed to the people who are working in the stores? Because as Amisha and Dr. Carr pointed out, a lot of these stores are young Black kids or young Latino kids.

You know, does the management structure in those stores tend to, or are you guys looking at making sure that that mirrors the communities that they're serving? 100%. And you probably saw me smiling. The reason I'm smiling is I feel like that you were in the room as they're serving. 100%. And you probably saw me smiling. The reason I'm smiling is I feel like you were in the room as we were just thinking about how do we develop the program. So part of it was to make sure that it's not in a silo and to make sure that, again, we're being much more thoughtful

and we continue to be thoughtful in every role, every function in the company, right? And so it's a couple of areas. So when you talk about at the store level, great opportunity and some of the initiatives and some of the things that we partner with the store teams on is a couple of things. One, I talked about the scholarships.

So making sure we provided additional scholarships to our store teams and specifically for Black team members. We also created what we call a bridge internship program. And so we've selected more than 30 team members this year. And essentially with that bridge internship, it's an opportunity for our employees who are in the stores to get an opportunity to work in store support or with the corporate teams and get additional access as well as build capabilities and hopefully provide a bridge if they choose to, to move from the stores to working in the corporate office.

So that's another thing that we've done. And then also one of the things that we got from feedback from our Black ERG, but also from our employees that, you know, they wanted to make sure that they were making a bigger difference in the communities in which they serve. And so, you know, and that was part of that announcement of a $3 million multi-city grant partnership with LISC so that we could empower our store teams to be able to support Black youth as well as invest in Black communities. And it's not just cutting the check. It also means that those teams also have to play a role in volunteering and working in the community as well. Oh, you know, one other thing.

Sorry, there was one other one that I... Yes, go ahead. Go ahead. One other thing I wanted to also talk about is, you know, I kind of mentioned it earlier around our partnership with Pencil. So Pencil started by, you know, an ex-Nike Jordan footwear designer. And Dwayne, African-American, one of only very few at the time when he was designing for Nike Jordan, he created a company called Pencil, understood that African-Americans were underrepresented when it came to sneaker design.

And so he created this company, Foot Locker, invested in it a few years back to help support. But we partnered with Duane and Pencil, as well as New Balance, to create a program called Designing with Soul, where we are providing resources and skill development for aspiring black designers. And that's a global program. And it's not only for our customers, but it's also for our employees as well. And as part of that program, some individuals will get a chance to earn internships, as well as the opportunity to develop product that will be sold in our stores. All right then. Well, Patrick, we certainly appreciate it. And I do love the transparency part. That's so important because there's a whole bunch of companies out here making announcements, dropping press releases. When you start asking questions, you get, uh, uh, we don't know.

And so that sort of annual report, it really, really, really is important because it also it lets the folks internally know that we have to honor the commitment that we make. And it's not just about putting a black square and saying Black Lives Matter on social media. It's about having something that's real and substantial when it comes to commitment. So we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Appreciate you. Thanks a lot. Appreciate you. Thanks a lot. All right, folks. There's always a lot of attention being paid to what happens with national politics. But a lot of things have been happening on the local level. You've been seeing African-Americans run for local offices. This is Robin Mouton photo here. She became the first black female mayor of Beaumont, Texas.

And so if y'all go to my iPad, please. This is a photo of her being congratulated. Again, Robin Mouton of Beaumont, Texas won here. So go to my iPad, please. Thank you. This is the photo from Xavier, one of the council members, after she found out that she won. Also, just the other day, we saw other races take place across the country where incumbents actually lost. In Buffalo, you had a sister who was with the Working Family Party, a socialist, beat the four-term incumbent mayor there in Buffalo. Same thing happened in Rochester, Maryland, where lovely Warren, she was the mayor. She was beat by Malik Evans,

who also was endorsed by the Working Families Party. Malik joins us right now. Malik, one of the things, first of all, congratulations. And a lot of people, I love the people who keep saying that, oh, progressives haven't been winning locally, but the reality is they have not been winning in these races. But they keep looking at national politics. We're seeing these, not just your race and others, but we're talking about DA races, judicial races. We're actually seeing it happen on the local level.

On the local level, particularly if you have a message. I think if you have a message that resonates with the larger community, you absolutely can win on the local level. And I think we showed that here in Rochester on Tuesday. And one of the issues that you had in Rochester there, you had several, a couple of police cases that went national that played a role in this. You also had an example where the mayor's husband was arrested, supposedly his involvement in the drug ring. And so you had a lot of folks who were saying that they wanted someone to really deal with the police department there in Rochester.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Rochester, we've been known in the national news. It's been an embarrassment. Obviously, the Daniel Prude case brought us to national attention when when an African-American man died in police custody in March. And it was covered up and did not be and was not revealed to the larger community until September. So that created serious unrest for months. Rochester looked like a war zone as we had protests, an independent investigation. And what came out of that investigation was that city officials tried to cover up this tragedy instead of being forthcoming. And I think that that really helped my message in terms of trust and transparency that needed to be restored, both at City Hall as well as in the police department.

Misha, what do you make of what we're seeing again, what we're seeing what's happening in these local markets, where we're in these cities where we are seeing black elected officials win? And again, in non-traditional ways, not your typical. And a lot of these races are nonpartisan, so you're not stuck with the D and the R. Part of it, I think, is that there are a lot of black electeds or newly running black electeds or would-be electeds who understand the ground game more than what we're seeing from some of these traditional candidates. With that being said, they're speaking to the needs of families. You talked about the working families and the conversation around that and the push for that.

A lot of the change that people see in their daily lives happens at the local level, despite the fact that national politics gets all the media attention and shine. And I think that a lot of these black local elected candidates are people who are speaking to the needs of their constituents, but they're also very intuitive because they have an ear directly to the ground. As everyone knows, once you're in D.C. for a while, there's a limit to your view of what's actually happening outside of the D.C. bubble. I think that you have a lot of black candidates who understand the challenges that are faced locally, but also have developed campaigns and strategies by listening to the people who are most affected, but also by working with a lot of the programs that exist within their communities. they have an understanding of how to get things done.

And they're running these campaigns strategically. They're running smart. They're also making sure that they have a strong communication strategy. And they're not shying away from the fact that many of them are challenging longstanding incumbents and the money game. A lot of what pushes new and vibrant ideas out of the electoral space at the local level is what happens at the federal level as well, in terms of being shut down because of fundraising capacity. We're seeing that a lot of these messages are actually trouncing even that

big obstacle. And I will say that, you know, going into this next electoral cycle, I predict that we're actually going to have more strong black candidates who win elections in places where, honestly, we haven't seen it happen before. Malik, was that the point there in terms of how you connected with voters who understood bread and butter issues? Was that how you won? Absolutely. She's absolutely right. You know, I had a lot of naysayers that said, oh, you just got to go negative. You got to do this. But we actually took our whole campaign strategy based upon comments and meetings that we had with regular folks in the community. I call it the Mrs. Smith test. You know, you have the political chattering class that has all of their ideas,

but we really worked hard to make sure that we focused on, as I say, Mrs. Smith. And that's regular, ordinary issues. Issues like economic empowerment, public safety, neighborhood stability, youth opportunity. Those were all things that we talked safety, neighborhood stability, youth opportunity. Those were all things that we talked about, and they resonated with voters. We called our whole package our compact with the community because we wanted to say what we're going to do is stuff for the community, not for lobbyists or special interests, but for the community. And that resonated with the folks. Recy, question for Malik, but also a comment again on so much attention is always focused on what happens nationally,

but if you're able to build from the ground up, then you can actually have much better results statewide and then, of course, in national races. Hi, Malik. Congratulations on your win in the primary. Thank you. My question for you is, I know that there were a lot of controversy. There was a lot of controversy that kind of plagued the incumbent mayor.

And you say you didn't go negative. How did you, how were you able to kind of message that change was necessary without necessarily making that kind of contrast with your opponent? And, you know, what was one or two specific economic issues that you think resonated the most with your community in particular? I'll tell you, one of the ones that resonated was home ownership. So home ownership in the city of Rochester among African Americans is only 28%. Now, Rochester is not like New York City or some of the larger cities. We're a medium-sized city where we have single family.

Now, anybody that knows, I have a financial services background. So home ownership is something that's extremely important to me. And I said, listen, we're missing opportunities to build generational wealth. So how we connected with folks was how could we help with them getting the education and the down payment assistance to increase the level of Black home ownership, at least up to the state level. And the overall homeownership rate in the city of Rochester is only about 35 percent. So we were able to connect not with only Black voters, but all voters overall to push this economic message.

The other issue that we talked about was public safety. We said we wanted police officers to operate as guardians and not warriors. And some people said, oh, why are you saying that? But that resonated with people because people were tired of the challenges that we saw in the Rochester Police Department. A nine year old girl getting pepper sprayed, a man dying in police custody and being covered up, a mother being tackled by her with her child carrying her while she was leaving the store when she was accused of shoplifting. And it turned out it wasn't the case. So we brought these real world life issues to light. The other thing we did was we connected public safety with economic development and said

the two go together like love and marriage. You can't have one without the other. So we were able to have this broader conversation that just wasn't simplistic, and I think that that really connected with the voters. Thank you. Greg Carr. Thank you, Roland, and congratulations, Brother Evans. I want to ask you a quick question. As we see at the national level, as Roland has been saying, we're really seeing an attempt to take over local politics when there's a kind of this fascistic wind blowing through the United States. I'm wondering, since local power is the base to

build from, how important is the way you've gone about things? I mean, serving all those years on the School of Board Commissioners, your background in financial services, so you have a grasp of how economics works and how to really structure things, and then your term on the city council. How important would you say it is for those out there considering running for office who are really hard progressives to think about building those types of capacity so that when they present themselves to the voters, it isn't just about their ideology? Absolutely. I mean, brother, you hit it right on that right on the head. Messaging is so very important because sometimes you can be saying the same thing, but if you don't message it right, you're not going to get Ms. Smith, because Ms. Smith is concerned about her grandson who doesn't have that job because you're spending millions of dollars on trying to lock them up. So how do you put a message together that says, look, here's what we're going to do from an

economic development standpoint. We're going to make sure I push something where I said any child between the ages of 14 and 18 that wants a job, we're going to give them that job because in the long run, that's going to allow us to decrease the amount of money that we spend on public safety, because these kids are going to be working so hard, making money that they're not going to want to pick up a gun or buy a gun. So it's all about making sure that you are really connected with with with folks in the community and you're speaking their language. And I think a lot of people at the national level, where they miss the mark is, is that they don't do that. And my experiences, both in terms of the private, public sector,

and working on behalf of Economic Empowerment, which has been the center of my life, really allowed me to connect with voters and really speak their language. And I think that that's why we were successful by an overwhelming margin margin on on Tuesday night. Thank you. Well, I'll say this here. The focus should be on economics because you can't have Frederick Douglass buried in Rochester, New York. And then you have a 35 percent black home ownership rate. Exactly. That obviously is is important to Malik Malik Evans. We certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right then. Folks, India Walton, she was a sister, a socialist who also was endorsed by the Working Families Party, who upset a four-term incumbent in Buffalo to become the mayor of

Buffalo. There's nobody running on the Republican side, so she is going to be the winner after the primary. This is always interesting when you win and you call your mama. This was a shot by a media outlet there in Buffalo. They posted this video, and this is her telling her mama, yes, mama, I won. Mommy! I won! Mommy, I'm the mayor of Buffalo! Well, not in January, but yeah! Like, yes! Yes, Mom! I won! Thank you.

That's fantastic. I'm so happy. I'm so happy. I'm so happy. I'm so happy. I'm so happy. I'm so happy. I'm so happy.

I'm so happy. I'm so happy. I'm so happy. I'm so happy. I'm so happy. I'm so happy. I'm so happy. I'm so happy.

I'm so happy. I'm so happy. I'm so happy. I'm so happy. I'm so happy. I'm so happy. Thank you. Fantastic. Misha Cross, when it becomes official in November, she'll be the first major mayor socialist since 1960. Breaking records, making history. You know, that was a beautiful video. At the end of the day, I think that there's so much that our elected officials carry on their backs, specifically those who are running in areas where people like them have not made it. And I think

that for her, because she ran such a smart campaign, because she knew what was happening on the ground, even with all of that going on, the stakes were still really high. So, you know, kudos to her for making history, but also for having a vision and having a goal that I think that the city kind of wrapped itself around. This is also, Recy, what we keep saying on this show. Democrats, you can't run cooker-cutter races. What you have to do is understand your district, which is one of the things that sort of drives me crazy when people who are, actually on both sides, people who are critical of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,

Congresswoman from New York, when one, how she runs in her district is totally different than how a Lucy McBath can run in her district. And so when you hear these Democratic candidates complaining about defund the police, well, first of all, maybe you just ran a bad campaign as well and you got lazy with it. What we're seeing are people who look at the voters, who come up with, as we always talk about, messaging that resonates with people who don't ordinarily come

out and vote. And that's why we're sort of seeing these upsets in Rochester, in Buffalo, and other cities as well. Absolutely. I mean, India Walton, she did not, you know, regardless of whether you can define socialism or not, you can understand economic development. You can understand bringing jobs and tackling the housing crisis and unemployment rates are sky high in her city. And so I think what my takeaway from this is proving once again that Black women are electable. And Black women are electable even when they don't come in the mold that people expect Black women politicians to come in. She's a socialist. She had twins when she was 14 years old. She's a nurse. She has so many different facets of her life experience that she's bringing to the table that's not a traditional

political background. And yet she won the primaries and she defeated a long-term incumbent. And so I hope that the message that people take away from this is to quit discounting and counting out Black women before they even get their foot in the door. I hope that this sends a message that black people, look at Malik Evans and look at the woman who just won in Beaumont, Texas, as you pointed out, these are black candidates that need funding. 2022, let's not go with the Democratic white is default mentality that they always do. Let's take a second look at a Malcolm Kenyatta or a Sherry Beasley instead of looking

at a Conor Lamb or the white guy in North Carolina. I forget his name now. But anyway, the moral of the story is black people, when they're given the opportunity to actually compete and they're given the opportunity to get their message across and actually meet the people on the ground and connect with them, they can actually win. So that's what I hope people learn, if nothing else, from these several races that you're highlighting. Rick?

No, absolutely. I think you're right, Recy, of course. This sister, very impressive. As you said, I mean, she and her husband, they're four boys, strong family ties, a major voice in her union, SEI four boys, strong family ties, a major voice in her union, SEIU. She's a nurse by training, went back to school.

And most importantly, she was the executive director of the Fruit Belt Land Trust. Those of you in Buffalo know what the Fruit Belt is on the east side of Buffalo. First time I went to Buffalo, that's where they took me to get my haircut. I realized, oh, you niggeros from Alabama. So 37 percent of Buffalo is black. And to the point that is being raised, as we see this country literally dissolve, as these white nationals throw themselves into a frenzy, as they try to centralize power at the federal and state level,

the local politics is the future of the United States of America. And whatever is going to come after this thing disintegrates, because I really think they're going to overplay their hand. So when you're looking at India Walton, you're looking at the future of this country. And just like Malik Evans, she has a deep background in economic development. But in contrast to Malik Evans, she came through the community land trust movement to stop gentrification in the fruit belt on the east side of Buffalo. Those of you interested in reparations, look up community land trusts. That's one of the ways you approach the prospect of reparations.

And now at Buffalo, they've got a mayor who speaks your language. All right, then. All right. So, folks, check this out. Black TikTok users right now are on strike because they are sick and tired of coming up with creative dances and then seeing some white kids do them and then make all the money from it. And we've seen this sort of thing before. And, you know, this is one of those things that Isaac Hayes III has been talking about, which is why he created his own app called Fanbase. Go to my iPad, please. This is a perfect example, Reece, that here's his black app, which allows for you to actually get paid from your content. And this is the thing that we talk about on this show all the time, especially in our Tech Talk segment. people we made clubhouse sexy and in less than a year it

went from nothing to a four billion dollar valuation you know what i get the whole thing with tiktok but all of those black tiktok users imagine the black folks who are who are setting standards if we said you know what we're gonna hop on this black owned black created app fan base and and blow that up. And guess what? You can also get paid there. Then you begin to change the game. This is where we also, Recy, really got to get our folks to understand that if you keep getting screwed over there, stop going.

Yeah, I mean, TikTok was not as anywhere near where it is right now. And black people are obviously the driving creative force behind making things popular. I mean, TikTok has a variety of things, a variety of things that they cover. It's not just dancing and it's not just teens, you know, doing all this, you know, all that stuff. Chad, I can't do all the TikTok dances. You know, even Tabitha Brown became super famous off of her TikTok and things like that. So but but it goes to the point about this new app called Fanbase that I've been making about how black people are the cultural validators. And if we actually validated our own black owned things, that could be the next wave. And so this is something I haven't particularly, you know, looked at it.

I don't need another social media website, but I will, because it is black-on, go on ahead and check it out and see if I can make a little bit of coin after running this mouth on the Internet all day. Well, and again, Amisha, look, we're on Instagram. Look, we over-index on Instagram, on Twitter, on Facebook. We under... Our usage of these. And I'm just simply saying, if're going to use them, fine.

Actually use a black-owned app that we can actually build up. We make other people billionaires, not our people. And that's been happening for generations at this point. There is no denying that black people have basically taken over and created the audience for social media in general. It doesn't matter what the platform is. But when we're talking about specifically places like TikTok, where you see so many young black creatives who are really, you know, putting the name in the game when it comes to what they're doing there. And then you're watching in real time those exact same things be stolen by white people who are getting spots on

the lake show or on saturday night live or are now being highlighted on episodes of reality tv and they're really taking off and getting spotlighted and getting deals and contracts meanwhile these same black kids who created these the trends are falling by the wayside it's really frustrating for those young people, their families, the communities that support them. But to Roland's point, at the end of the day, until we start really investing in and believing in and actually working with our own people and their own platforms, it's going to continue to happen. Our creativity has been stolen by white people forever. I mean, we can go back through, you know, the music. We know Elvis took some of every black person's stuff and created it and, you know, basically ran with it. We're seeing that happen now with a lot of the digital

creatives as well. And it's sad because these young people don't really feel like they have anywhere to turn. So at any point when we can promote black platforms that are coming out, that are going to and are aiming to produce, to help, to gather that audience for a lot of our young black creatives, that's going to be extremely important because what we've seen thus far is a lot of the hard work and the grit that has come from black people in communities across this country is literally being stolen

by people who don't look like us who are literally standing to make millions off of that creativity. And here's the deal, Greg, and obviously those black TikTok folks, I agree with their position 100%. So guess what? Say we're leaving TikTok

and go to fan base. Go to this black own app. Again, Isaac Hayes III, he's the son of, yes, legendary singer Isaac Hayes. We make, as I said earlier to Amisha, we love to make other folks billionaires except us. This is where we should be monetizing off of our own talent.

It's true, Roland. I mean, take Isaac, take his daddy's advice. And when he remixed that great Burt Bacharach song that was made popular by the great Dionne Warwick, walk on by. Walk on by TikTok and go to fan base. You know what's interesting? The New York Times had an article a couple of weeks ago,

and it talked about how these teenagers and early 20-somethings on TikTok and social media are burning themselves out. They estimated, the article estimated there are about 50 million people who call themselves content creators. And this pressure of constantly trying to attract eyeballs is literally driving a lot of these young people crazy. They talked about mental health over this last year of COVID quarantine. constantly trying to attract eyeballs, is literally driving a lot of these young people crazy. They talked about mental health over this last year of COVID quarantine. I bring that up because I remember a couple of years ago, Nick Cannon, when he was still in school at Howard, he came to my hip hop class

and he walked the students through how the record companies now don't have to do anything. They just sit back. They get rid of all their A&R departments. They just wait for you to become digital sharecroppers. You just upload your dance, upload your song, and for every Lil Nas X, who started out

as kind of like this fan of Nicki Minaj, parlayed that into notoriety, then releases Old Town Road after he wasn't even a musician. He just, NBA Youngboy, all them guys do the same thing. For every one of them, there are millions who just get burnt out. Meanwhile, the companies, digital sharecropping,

pick out the one-hit wonders and get all the profit. Walk on by, jailbreak it. You've been talking about this for years. That's what led you to go into the digital universe before these other people even realized there was a digital universe. This is a small window, and capitalism will figure out a way to slam it shut on your fingers. So while you got this crap, walk on by.

I'm with you, man. Go straight to the place where you can get your profit because right now you're a digital sharecropper if you're doing it with TikTok and these other platforms. Absolutely. All right, y'all. So we were live yesterday from Los Angeles for Memorial Service for comedian Paul Mooney.

And we saw this video of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff just chin-checking Republicans in Congress. These white folks have been losing their mind about critical race theory. It's all a bogus conversation. It's a bogus discussion. But listen to this white general lay it on the line. And he was really speaking to, after a confrontation earlier, Congressman Matt Gaetz, as well as Lord Austin, who's the Pentagon Secretary of Defense. Listen to this general break it down. And we're going to talk. And after this, I'm going to explain why mainstream media is screwing this thing up on critical race theory.

Watch this. First of all, on the importance of white rage. First of all, on the issue of critical race theory, et cetera, I'll obviously have to get much smarter on whatever the theory is. But I do think it's important,

actually, for those of us in uniform to be open-minded and be widely read. And the united states military academy is a university. And it is important that we train and we understand. I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man.

I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man.

I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man.

I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I'm a white man. I want to maintain an open mind here and I do want to analyze it. It's important that we understand that because our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and guardians, they come from the American people. So it is important that the leaders now and in the future do understand it.

I've read miles seitung. I've read Karl Marx. I've read Lenin. That doesn't make me a communist. So what is wrong with understanding, having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend?

And I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military, our general officers, our commission, non-commissioned officers of being, quote, woke or something else because we're studying some theories that are out there. That was started at Harvard Law School years ago, and it proposed that there were laws in the United States, antebellum laws prior to the Civil War, that led to a power differential with African Americans that were three quarters of a human being when this country was formed. And then we had a Civil War and Emancipation Proclamation to change it, and we brought it up to the Civil Rights Act in 1964. It took another hundred years to change that. So look it, I do want to know, and I respect your service, and you and I are both Green Berets. But I want to know. And it matters to our military and the discipline and cohesion of this military. And I thank you for the opportunity to make a comment on that.

Thank you, General. I think the only thing he wanted to add at the end of that, Greg, was dumb asses. Well, he was very, you know, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Chairman Mark Milley, did a good job, I thought, of doing what, see, this is what military historians, y'all understand, when you're talking to

military historians, this is what they study. Who won, who lost, and why. So, I'm no patriot. I don't give a damn. But this man clearly is a patriot. He wants his country to continue. So he understands. You heard him say, I read Mao, I read Marx, I read Lenin. I'm not a communist. But military thinkers and strategists understand you got to know your opponent. His opponent is white nationalists who are going to destroy his country. And listen to the language of a military thinker.

He said power differential when he said between blacks and whites. Now, he got the percentages wrong. It's not three-fourths, it's three-fifths, but that's forgivable. He said power differential. He understands that in order to neutralize this threat to his country, he's got to know what they're thinking. Finally, you know, you saw Matt Gaetz shake his head. At that point, I think what was going through his mind is, I wonder what Joel Greenberg told the feds about me and that 17-year-old girl. Anyway.

Here's, I think, where mainstream media is screwing up again, Recy. So, Steve Bannon has discussed this. This was Roger L's strategy. It is conservative strategy. They create bullshit. They then challenge mainstream media, why aren't you covering it? Then they cover it. I saw the segment that

Joy Ann Reid had, that fool Christopher Ruffo. I saw a lot of the other ones as well. Here's the whole deal. They make no sense. They want you to talk about it. This is how mainstream media should be discussing critical race theory. We ain't talking about it.

It's not been taught in the schools. We ain't wasting our damn time. These are a bunch of yahoos who are trying to gin up white folks. That's it. But even by having Rufo on, and I get Joy's point, but even by having Rufo on, for Rufo, that's a win. Because you're actually expending

you're expending 10, 12 minutes amplifying a BS store that they've actually created. That's what's going on here. And I just think they keep falling for the banana in the tailpipe, and they get played every time. They should tell

Republicans and conservatives who come up with this stuff, go to hell. Go to hell. It's a big lie with Trump winning, and it's a big damn lie with this one. Absolutely. I'm so tired of goddamn hearing about critical race theory. That's why I said last week, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, okay?

All critical race theory is at this point is it's so far divorced from the actual substance behind it. And it's a catch-all for you guys are teaching everybody about how messed up I ain't gonna say the F word, how messed up this country has been to people who are

not white and even to some white people, to be honest with you, because like I've said before, the whole white people up in Kentucky that's losing their legs because they got diabetes and ain't got no rural hospitals, that's still white supremacy. You're just on the other end of that, even though you're white, because you're voting with the white nationalist party, who's going to keep

them hospitals out of your districts. And so, I'm sick of hearing about it. It's a bunch of hysteria. It's the new radical Islamic terrorists. It's the new immigrant caravan. It's the new Antifa. It's a bunch of hysteria. It's the new radical Islamic terrorists. It's the new immigrant caravan. It's the new Antifa. It's hell, even the new Black Lives Matter, okay? And so what they have done, what Republicans are absolutely genius of doing, is creating a new term, not a new term, but maybe co-opting, let me say that,'re co-opting a term, to give that dog whistle that allows for this white grievance politics that energizes their base.

And what it does is it makes everybody have to come to their side of the narrative, and you're forced to have the discussion, whether you're refuting it or whether you're agreeing with it. It's a win for them either way, because if you're rejecting them, then that makes them more incensed. It makes them feel like they're being persecuted and a number of things. And that keeps them riled up. And so this is nothing more than Republicans completely deflecting away from the things that have happened, like January 6th, deflecting away from the fact that they want to take away health care, the fact that they want to take away rights, the fact that they are taking away voting rights right now

as we speak in practically every Republican-led state. And so what Democrats and what even the media has to stop doing is stop falling for. End of discussion. Critical race theory is not being taught on a widespread basis. Let's talk about voting rights. Let's talk about health care. Let's talk about any number. Let's talk about health care. Let's talk about any number of things and change the subject. Stop

always fighting on Republican territory. Amisha, I think part of the default of liberals and progressives is, no, no, no, no, no, no. We're going to explain to you what it is. That's their default.

I ain't explaining a damn thing. It's sort of like when somebody says, well, Roland, can you explain why you made the decision? No, I made it. It's your damn, take your ass and I'm going to figure out why I made it. I'm not about to sit here and go through all of this

to get you to understand why I made the decision. No. And that's the deal. They fall for this every single time. They don't know how to tell them go to hell. They don't. And the frustrating part is that we see this cyclical. It repeats itself time and time again. At the end of the day, a lot of these aren't even real theories.

They aren't things that are affecting people's daily lives to the point that, you know. But it's all a lie. It's all a lie. It's just one big-ass lie. Same with the election know it drives their culture wars it drives their people to the polls it brings it gives them something to unify around so Republicans have a strategy and that strategy is working for them the fact that Democrats are falling into it is a huge problem because they can see it coming they should be able to see it coming because it's happened over and over no no no no no no but me she is deal but liberals and progressives love They should be able to see it coming because it's happened over and over

But liberals and progressives love to work a week we're gonna educate people No, I'm telling this is this is where you have to say y'all full of shit next and you can't educate somebody on a fallacy You can't educate someone on a lot. These are All these white folks who are showing up at school board meetings acting a damn fool. I mean, in Loudoun County, last month, the superintendent literally said, we don't teach that. We don't teach it. They came back for a second month. Again, the reality is, I don't care. People, I remember I was on CNN.

John Avalon was like, Roland, oh, you can't call me the American voters dumb. Yes, I can. If you watch Fox News and OWN and Newsmax and listen to Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, if you listen to any of these fools, Maria Bartiromo, or any of these talk radio people, and you actually believe them, you are a dumbass. If you listen to Will Kane and believe anything he says, you are a dumbass.

They are lying to you. They are lying. They are liars. They are also very strategic communicators. They are lying to you. They are lying. They are liars. They are also very strategic communicators. They are paying people. Yes, strategic liars. They are paying people to come onto their show to act as though they're the parents of students who have learned critical race theory, which is absolutely untrue because

the school districts themselves, it's not a part of their curriculum. There is no school district in America in K-12 education that actually teaches critical race theory. That's not a thing. And just like there was no voter fraud. But what they want is they actually want the debate, but this is where your response has to be, y'all

full of it, and you're stupid, and you're dumb, and we ain't gonna have that conversation. And you gotta shut them down. You have to mock them. See, I think that's the thing, Greg. You have to mock them. You, I think that's the thing, Greg. You have to mock them. You have to make fun of them. You have to treat them as if they are illiterate,

illiterates, but when you talk to them with common sense, like, no, no, no, the guy like, no, no, no, no, you're not allowing me to get out a paragraph. I want to, can I complete a sentence? No, because you're a fool. Like that fool, I haven't showed that, Keisha, whatever the woman. She was ignorant. She's still trying to post videos saying, I have a show that Keisha, whatever the woman, she was ignorant.

She's still trying to post videos saying I didn't give her time to talk. I'm like, because you were lying. Brother, but like you said, it don't matter. That's what I mean. That's what I mean she's saying. They are masters, like you said. It don't matter. They don't care. And you know, it's interesting, General Miley,

listening to him, I'm thinking about it again. You know, I love how these military generals who are also kind of thinkers play country dumb. He said, I got to read up on it. You know, it came out of Harvard. That's exactly right. It came out of the critical legal studies movement of the 1950s and 60s.

The basic thesis of critical race theory coming out of critical legal studies is that all of these socially constructed ideas we have about society are malleable and can be moved around a power matrix based on individuals' interests. That's one of the central theses. See, Greg, you just messed up. Greg, you just messed up.

Greg, you just messed up. The entire Fox News audience cannot spell nor define malleable. See it right there. That's true, but what Reese said is right. Reese doesn't tell you what it is. They don't care. C-O-T is the new Sharia

law. They don't care. It's a label. What I'm saying is not only is it not being taught anywhere, K-12, ain't no student in high school, middle school, elementary school reading Kimberly Crenshaw's law review articles debating whether Derrick Bell is better than. I mean, but it doesn't matter when they when you like you said, well, no. What are we doing? CRT. I'm going to get CRT is the N word, brother.

That's all they need. Hey, that's all it is. And again, these fools, if you think Trump won, and then if you actually walk around believing he was going to get installed in the presidency in August, yo ass dumb. You dumb. All right, y'all, I got to go to a break. We come back, we're going to talk about a study

on the public health of African Americans here in Chicago, where we are at the Bureau and Bar Restaurant. Glad to be broadcasting live from here. We'll be back in a moment on Roller Martin Unfiltered. White supremacy ain't just about hurting black folk. Right. You got to deal with it. It's injustice.

It's just about hurting black folk. Right. We've got to deal with it. It's injustice. It's wrong. I do feel like in this generation, we've got to do more around being intentional and resolving conflict. You and I have always agreed. Yeah. But we agree on the big piece. Yeah. Our conflict is not about destruction.

Conflict's going to happen. Racial injustice is a scourge on this nation, and the Black community has felt it for generations. We have an obligation to do something about it. Whether it's canceling student debt, increasing the minimum wage, or investing in Black-owned businesses, the Black community deserves so much better. I'm Nina Turner, and I'm running for Congress to do something about it.

Hey, y'all. Join the Blackest Bus in America and hundreds of organizations on a freedom ride for voting rights. From June 18th to June 26th, join our caravan for rallies in cities and states from Louisiana to Virginia. And on June 26th, you can join us in Washington, D.C. or host a voting rights event in your own city. To learn how to get involved, text FREEDOMRIDE to 797979. Before Till's murder, we saw struggle for civil rights as something grown-ups did.

I feel that the generations before us have offered a lot of instruction. Organizing is really one of the only things that gives me the sanity and makes me feel purposeful. When Emmett Till was murdered, that's what attracted our attention. I'm here with my homegirl, Bevy Smith. Bevy got more jobs than I do. Almost. Not quite. You know I follow your lead, darling. We had a big talk about that at the concert.

I'm following your lead. And that's one of the things I love about McDonald's. They really support entrepreneurs. So that's why I'm happy to be here. Black forward, baby. Absolutely. Absolutely. And so how good has this weekend been?

It's been phenomenal. I've danced with you several times at the concert. So, you know, that's really the highlight always for me. Always. You ain't got no sense whatsoever. No sense whatsoever. Anything new you're working on? A book.

I got a book deal 2019 super excited. Gonna talk about my journey from being an advertising executive to becoming the TV personality. Yeah, looking forward to it. I'm Debbie Smith and you're watching Roland Martin unfiltered at all times. Is there a third mic? Don't forget the Washington 2021 Essence Festival of Culture Live Loud virtual experience on EssenceStudios.com and Essence.com beginning tomorrow. Going tomorrow, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Also taking place on July 2nd through the 4th. We'll have recap shows on Monday the 28th and on Monday, July 5th. All right, folks, let's talk about the issue of the health of African-Americans here in Chicago. A new report has been put together called 2021, the state of health for blacks in Chicago, and it lays out exactly what is going on in this city. Chicago, the third largest concentration of African Americans in the country, behind New York and Atlanta. It used to be number two, but a lot of people have been moving out in the past decade. And so the reason this is important is because it gives you a sense of exactly how dire the situation is

and how poverty greatly impacts health in this city. People love talking about gun violence. They love talking about, you know, white conservatives always say, what about the violence in Chicago? And I'm like, not like y'all give a damn about it, but it's all about a talking point, and that's just one of the issues that we have. Now, I've got a couple of guests from the Department of Health, but also Patrick Donovan Price is here.

So y'all let me know. Do we only have two mics or do we have a third one? Do we have a third mic? Okay, so we can add one more. Can we add one more because I want to pull in Pastor Price because I want to have him part of this conversation because it actually deals with the exact same thing.

And that is the issue of health in Chicago. Folks, as y'all know, I spent six years here in Chicago at the Chicago Defender, Executive you all know, I spent six years here in Chicago at the Chicago Defender, executive editor, but also WBON radio. And it is something that we see take place here, but also across the country.

Dr. Blair Akins is from the Chicago Department of Public Health and from the Association of Clinical Trial Services Bioethnists. Is it YAH Simpson? Sister YAH, yeah. Sister YAH. All right, glad to have y'all here. Where's Pastor Price?

Pastor Price, we'll get a microphone for you as well. But it's all a part of the exact same conversation. So the value of this, compiling this, what does it do for the community to be able to say, this is the results of the health of black folks in the city? What do you do with it? Okay, so thank you for having us on the show. So what we're talking about, this, in essence, to answer your question

succinctly, is to establish a baseline. In order to talk about how something is as bad as it is, you've got to know where it is. So the State of Health for Blacks was put together by five black women who have come together to do this type of research. Never been done in 200 years of the health department. What we were able to look at is a proxy, if you will, for how the quality of life for blacks are. And that's called life expectancy.

So what we've unfortunately were able to see is that our life expectancy in 2012 going into 2017 is now has gone down. We went from being 72 years old life expectancy to 71.4. And when you compare that to blacks to non-blacks, which is another reason that this report is unique, it doesn't do non-blacks. We're the only ones to have a black reference. We found out that it was 9.2 years difference for life expectancy. So we want people to utilize this book as a tool to advocate for themselves, to be better aware of what we should do. And my colleague is going to talk about the five drivers that is pushing life expectancy down for blacks. Yeah. So in the report, we identified the five top drivers of the life expectancy gap between Chicagoans, black Chicagoans and non-black Chicagoans, those being chronic diseases, infant mortality, homicides, opioids, overdoses and infectious diseases such as HIV, flu and COVID-19.

So here's the thing that I keep saying And so much of the attention is always Placed on gun violence in the city But the same thing When you talk about health You have to talk about what creates this And not just this If you don't talk about that Then we're just having a waste of conversation

Exactly And so that's why It really comes down to addressing the root causes. And one of those root causes is racism, both individual and systematic racism. And that's one of the things that we call out here in the book. Again, this book has a unique perspective, Roland. It's not your just same book that you've been seeing in data book. And we're not just having the same old conversations. This book is a call to action. We're not trying to just say, give you the numbers,

although we are epidemiologists. And that's also a first. You don't see too many of us on other news stations. So you get black epidemiologists talking about it from a perspective of evidence-based and from a perspective of health equity lens. That is also a new word that says, how do we achieve the best health possible no matter who we are or where we live? That's not done because that's not a measure that's been used in the past. So health equity index and health equity lens is what we've done as a collective. By the way, the name of our group is the Health Equity Index Committee is five of us. You're just seeing two of us today, but we represent a collective group of black women

who want to see a change for all people, but specifically black people in Chicago. Pastor Price, when we talk about gun violence, that's a part of this report, but it's never talked about within the context of health. It's always talked about in the context of violence. Absolutely, and that's a mistake. He's good.

In Chicago, every two hours and 15 minutes, somebody is killed in Chicago, or shot in Chicago. And every 12 hours and 30 minutes, someone is killed, not to mention the children under 13. One week we had a... Okay, hold tight. Go ahead. They can't hear the audio.

They just can't hear the microphone there. Something Okay, hold tight. Go ahead. They can't hear the audio. They just can't hear the microphone there. Something up that audio. Go ahead. I was saying every 2 hours and 18 minutes somebody is shot in Chicago and every 12 hours and 30 minutes somebody is killed in Chicago. Not to mention the amount of children who are shot under the age of 13.

If we don't consider gun violence as a health epidemic in terms of perhaps community to community even, then we're making a sad mistake because at this point, when you're talking about having the biggest, the deadliest year since before 2016, then you're talking about affecting us generationally at this point. But are policymakers confronting how to change this, or are they having soul conversations just about, man, this is a doggone shame? No, policymakers are talking about it. In fact, in Illinois, I have to tell you, it's not in our book, but they just, Prickster

just signed a bill, HB 158. He just signed that bill. That isn't talking about violence as a disease or a healthcare crisis. So the mantle is being sung. We are seeing policymakers deal with it. What we're talking about is like our call to action is we're demanding for more dollars. We want to see the money follow your mouth. We want to see the legislation be written and then be actualized in the communities that the pastor was talking about. We've had other pastors who have been, is now going to be watching, walking to Washington DC with the call to action about this health crisis with violence. So if the

mayor said you know racism is a health care crisis, we're saying violence is a health care crisis and we're utilizing violence is a health care crisis. And we're utilizing this book with the data and the drivers to bring the evidence to regular folks so they'll know we're not making this up and that they can do something about it. So our book is not just data for data's sake. Our book is about a call to action for everyone to do their part, whether you're an individual, a community, or a collective. Do something about this racism and help our lives to be better and more improved. See, I'm interested, Pastor, where are the pro-life people?

When I look at infant mortality, non-blacks is 4.5 percent, for blacks 11.4 percent. Well, they're always talking about being pro-life. I never hear them talk about those issues. Because we choose both the pro and the life. We choose both the life and the matters. And so as long as we keep making choices, politicians keep making choices, individuals keep making choices,

grant receivers keep making choices about what they're going to support, what they're going to go with, what they're going to back based upon their individual ideology about what causes the violence. So what's the cause of, well, the cause of the violence is this. And then they, everybody moves toward that who moves toward them. Then that's when we're going to continue to have a problem.

When you have children dying at the rate they are, I respond to I responded to three mass shootings in a 10 day period, one of which did not appear on TV because I think something bigger had happened in another city with a fire or something like that. And so it did not appear on TV. One of the mass shootings had five people dead, eight people shot, mostly women. I ran across the little boy, one of the little boys whose mother had been killed a couple of hours earlier. And I sat with him and talked and cried as he did. Went home, tried to have a decompression session for myself. And an 18-year-old, doors down from me hung herself in her room. And this was all in a two-day period. And so if mental health is considered, but the fact that the people, the rate at which we're dying as a result of gun violence,

and that gun violence that we're dying from is different than Columbine, or different than the white guy going into the Walmart with a rifle and hollering out, vive la Trump, or something like that. This is a whole different world. And so because it is so different world, the FOID card is not a factor in what we're doing. And this perhaps is not as popular, perhaps not as profitable. In Chicago, everything can be monetized or politicized. And unfortunately, the tears of these mothers in Chicago is falling into that same category.

Mr. Akins, are you hopeful that with this, the community will use this as an opportunity to mobilize and to organize, to put pressure on city, school board, county, state to address these underlying issues. Because again, if they don't, this has an impact on homeowners, has an impact on employers. I mean, this impacts in multiple ways the city in this region. Absolutely. That was one of the reasons why we decided to come together and build this report in the first place. We wanted to make a tool that community members could use so they could take it to their community organizers. They could take it to their politicians. They could take it to anyone and point to and say, this is a problem right here in my community.

How do we fix it? So absolutely, we want this tool to be used by everyone as a rallying point. Go ahead. Mr. Martin, I'll say Dr. Martin. That's all right. What I also want you to recognize is that just like the 12 systems in the body, okay, this is what we study. We're epidemiologists. We have to use systematic approaches, just like we got systematic racism. It didn't happen overnight, and it's not going to just dissipate to tomorrow. But what we have to do is be very intentional. And that's why this book is written the way it is. It's not for

your PhD like a Dr. Carr. It's written for the average person to say, what can I tell my family? What can I do for myself, my family, and my community? But I don't want this to be just about numbers. Martin, I don't want that. I want this to be about how do we improve our health? You've got to do a baseline. If the life expectancy for us as black people is 71 years, 71.4, then what is it going to be next year? And our life expectancy is dropping. It's not getting better. Non-blacks is actually staying the same in the city of Chicago. And actually, the only reason is actually staying the same in the city of Chicago with all these violence.

And actually, the only reason is actually the gap is closing because white folks have been dying because of opioids. In Chicago, black folks have died from opioids. No, say it again. I said in Chicago, black opioids is kind of what I studied outside the House of Parliament. And in Chicago, it's black folks that have died from opioids. And that's in the report. And that's one of the drivers.

Yeah, I mean, initially, they were prescribing those white folks's black folks that are dying from opioids. And that's in the report and that's one of the drivers. Initially, they were prescribing those white folks. They would give us Tylenol. But then, of course, when all the racist doctors, then when that changed, all of a sudden those black numbers went up. Pastor, last point for you. How do you want churches, how do you want them to take this data

and use it to get their members to realize that you cannot just come in here and say, pray for me. Praying is one thing, but you've got to change policy. Absolutely. I think it's time for the pastors in general, the churches in general, to step up, period, on every level. I think they need to take time to realize that their church on that block is just like any other house on that block and any other place in that community, and that the concerns of that house, the concerns of that community, the concerns of that block, the ills of that block,

that community are the ills of that church, are the concerns of that church, and thus, if there's a block club meeting, then the pastor or deacon or somebody, the usher, we'll take an usher, need to be at that meeting. Whatever they have, they need to realize that they can't just come to church on Sunday, lock the door, have the deacon go home, they all get into their Cadillacs, drive back to the suburbs where they come from, and then come back next Sunday and consider themselves a part of that neighborhood because they need parking spaces. What they need to do is start to move, act, get up, and hopefully COVID taught them something, and that is that they cannot just sit in that church and make a loud noise and think that loud noise is going to change the block.

I'm tired of picking up these young dead children up off of the church stairs and looking at the locked up doors of the church, realizing that they're not going to be opened until the next Thursday when a couple of people come to sing in the church and then they lock them back after they leave quickly and then won't open them back up till Deacon do it all, gets there Sunday morning and does it. What he just described was psychological and what we put in our book is called psychological stresses. Okay, that's a big term. Mental health and challenges. We are not, we are unfortunately at the highest levels for that. I hear what you're saying, but all of that is behavioral. That means it can be changed. You don't have to be born in this world to deal with that. You have to be matriculated through this world, and we have matriculated through trauma. We've been here over 500, and Dr. John Henry Clark, more than 500 years, and we still are

talking about violence upon our people. Now it's us doing it to us too. So this is a mental, it's a spiritual, and that's why I was looking at the pastor. Now I know I'm from the health department and we don't use words like spirituality, but as being a black woman, an African woman, a pan Africanist, we have to say spirit first. We have to have balance to live. We have to eat to live. You got to sleep to live. This is about balance. And if you don't acquire that mindset, it's going to be hard to save you to live. All right. Folks, where can folks, people who are watching, where can they actually

go get the report? You can go to Chicago.gov backslash black health to find the report. Chicago.gov forward slash black health. So it's the forward slash, because if you don't go, there's a PDF and it's a digital book, and we can get that too. Pastor, where do they reach you? That can be reached at www.solutionsandresources.org. All right, folks, thank you so very much. Can I give a shout-out to Dr. Carr? Yes, you can.

Yes, Dr. Carr, I haven't seen you since the last time you came here for Dr. Anderson Thompson's homegoing, and I just want to say thank you, and it was such an honor to talk with you at that time. No, the honor was mine, Sister Yacht. Of course, Mr. Roland, you know I've been watching Ava, been reaching out to me. Me and her, we talk online and thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you for having us. Keep up the good work.

Thanks a lot. Thank you very much. Greg, Recy, and Michelle, I really appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Also, to my man, Kenny Johnson, and the folks here at Bureau Bar and Restaurant. Folks, we're going to be here tomorrow as well. If you're in Chicago, y'all can simply make a reservation at the website

to come on by. We'd love to pack this joint out to see y'all here tomorrow broadcasting from 6 to 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 to 7 Chicago time. Folks, don't forget to support what we do here at Roland Martin Unfiltered. Your dollars make it possible for us to be able to travel across the country, cover the stories that other people are not covering.

Support us via Cash App, dollar sign RM Unfiltered, paypal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered, venmo.com forward slash rmunfiltered. Of course, Zelle is Roland at rolandsmartin.com or roland at rolandmartinunfiltered.com. All right, I'll see you tomorrow right here, live from Chicago. Holla! This is an iHeart Podcast.