#RolandMartinUnfiltered - SCOTUS rules against NCAA; Roland slaps down Bill Maher; Essence Festival Throwback by Coca-Cola

Episode Date: June 21, 2021

6.21.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: SCOTUS rules against NCAA; Roland slaps down Bill Maher; Essence Festival Throwback by Coca-Cola; GOP Senator who opposed Juneteenth holiday gets booed out of a Juneteenth celebration; Emory School of Medicine apologized to a Black doctor more than 60 years after denying his application; GOP Manchin voting compromise backlash; Out of spite over Texas Dems halting voter suppression legislation, Gov. Abbott vetoed the state budget that funds the legislature; San Bernardino deputy kicks man in the head during an arrest; Fitness Expert Gym Jonez breaks down if sweating means you're burning fat.Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. June 21st, 2021, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, a unanimous Supreme Court decides the NCAA must stop limiting compensation for student athletes. We'll talk about this with author and historian Taylor Branch. Remember, he wrote the book on the NAACP, Cardiff the Cartel. Well, Lin-Manuel Miranda's film In the Heights has raised the issue of colorism in the Latino community.

Bill Maher, he says, if you're complaining about it, shut up! I'm going to explain why Bill Maher, a white man, has no clue or understanding about the history of colorism in the Latinos and African Americans. Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson, remember he was the one who opposed Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday? He showed his ass up at a Juneteenth celebration in Wisconsin. He was not well received, about as well received as raisins and potato salad.

And in Georgia, the Emory School of Medicine formally apologized to a doctor 60 years after denying his application because he was black. And Democratic Senator Joe Manchin is getting backlash from Republican senators for his voting compromise. We'll show you what he was being said

and you'll hear from Senator Chuck Schumer who plans on bringing the bill to the floor for a vote this week. And Democratic state lawmakers, they walked out before the vote on Barrett's voting in Texas. Well, guess what? Texas Governor Greg Abbott, he's a little pissant.

He vetoed the state budget that funds the legislature. Aww. And in San Bernardino, California, authorities investigate the video footage of a deputy kicking a man in his head during an arrest. Also, I'll dip into our archives and show you Essence Festival interviews with Slick Rick and Master P.

Plus, for Black Music Month, we got this something something for you. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Mark Dunst-Filcher. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the miss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the find. And when it breaks, he's right on time.

And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's rolling, Martin. Yeah.

Rolling with rolling now. Yeah, yeah. It's Roland Martin. Yeah, yeah. Rolling with Roland now. Yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Roland Martin now. Martin. Martin. A big decision today by the NCAA and Supreme Court. Supreme Court unanimous decision rules of the NCAA. They cannot limit compensation for student athletes.

They ruled the NCAA was violating antitrust laws by capping education-related gifts and benefits student athletes can receive. The justices sided with a group of former college athletes who claimed the NCAA rules were unfair and violated federal laws designed to promote competition. Students can continue to receive educational benefits like computers, lab equipment, and internships from the schools they play, but the ruling does not decide whether they can be paid salaries. This, folks, is a huge, huge decision that folks have been warning for years. At the NCAA, it's executives who are making millions of dollars, football coaches making $5, $6, $7, $10 million, endorsement deals, you name it. Everybody's making money except the

athletes. Joining me right now is Taylor Branch, who wrote an ebook called The Cartel, dealing with the NCAA. We had him on my TV one show, Washington Watch, years ago when it came out. And Taylor, anybody who read your book, that e-book, anybody who follows this, look, this was coming where the NCAA was going to get their comeuppance in terms of how they have treated student athletes for decades. Absolutely. This is a great step forward. Lots of people have been working on this for a long time. I did a history of it for The Atlantic magazine, as you refer, called The Shame of College Sports. And it was a big exploration for me to figure out how they did it.

But remarkably, they had the whole brain country brainwashed to think that athletes should pay for nothing, play for nothing, uh, for the convenience of everybody else that was making money and for the viewers watching. And, uh, the court has finally said today that rights come before anybody else's convenience and profits. And if you're going to compete, you've got to allow the athletes who provide the essential talent to have a share of the rewards. This was the e-book right here. And first of all, I clicked the link, Taylor, and it said it wasn't available at Amazon. So let me know what's going on.

I can tell you, the e-book company went bankrupt. That's a long time ago. The Atlantic article, The Shame of College Sports, you can call it up on Google anytime, which has 90% of it. The Atlantic Monthly started this, and it was so long ago that there was an e-book experiment. Well, actually, if I was the Atlantic, I would be trying to figure out how to republish that sucker, y'all,

because it was called The Cartel Inside the Rise and Imminent Fall of the NCAA. And, folks, if you read that book, if you read what Taylor laid out, y'all heard me reference student-athlete. Even that phrase, that was not a phrase that was conjured up in the best interest of students. Taylor, explain to people even where the phrase student-athlete came from. It was contrived, admittedly, by the head of the NCAA, by their lawyers, to make it sound like an athlete in college was a hybrid between a student and an athlete, and then nobody could understand it but the NCAA. And so that if players were hurt and got brain damaged, they couldn't collect unemployment or workers' compensation

because they were defined as student-athletes, which weren't quite employees. So it was originally concocted to confuse people. And we don't hyphenate anybody else in college. We don't call them student cashiers. Most students have some sort of job, but the student athlete is the only one that they concocted that thing in order to help keep the schools from having any liability for injuries to the players. So it was a legal strategy to come up with that name, student-athlete, that phrase.

A legal strategy, but once it worked, anybody from college sports, including broadcasters, uses it like a mantra. They always talk about student-athletes, but we don't talk about any other student that way. They're students in the classroom, and they're athletes or whatever else they want to do outside the classroom. But this was a way for the universities to reap the benefits of the athletic talent without any responsibility or obligation to those same athletes. And it's been going on for a long time. As you say, the court's decision today only applies to academically related benefits, which athletes can start getting. But it's a huge precedent. And the court, including, surprisingly, Justice Kavanaugh, almost invited athletes to file more suits going to the basic issues of compensation.

Once the once the student, these college athletes get some rights, it's hard to keep the rest of them from them. And in fact, to the point that you just made, I think I want to show this, folks. Let me zoom in, zoom in, zoom in if I can. This is literally what Justice Kavanaugh wrote, quote, Quote, the bottom line is that the NCAA and its member colleges are suppressing the pay of student-athletes who collectively generate billions of dollars in revenues for colleges every year. Those enormous sums of money flow to seemingly everyone except the student-athletes. College presidents, athletic directors, coaches, conference commissioners, and NCAA executives take in six- and seven-figure salaries. Colleges build lavish new facilities.

But the student-athletes who generate the revenues, many of whom are African-American and from lower-income backgrounds, end up with little or nothing. See brief for African- American antitrust lawyers. Absolutely. It sounds to me like he read what we wrote. A bunch of historians, I was pleased and privileged to be on an amicus brief of historians saying this injustice has a long history in the United States. It took a long time to build up all the layers so that a lot of people in the public were kind of brainwashed into thinking this was OK. But this begins to move toward justice after a long time. And I can't be happier that the court issued this decision today. I hope others follow from it.

And the thing that, again, we've talked about a lot, like this has been building, the Ed O'Bannon lawsuit, when they went after the video game makers for using the likenesses of athletes. NCAA claimed that their names weren't on it, so therefore that wasn't them, but you're going, yeah, but you're using the number, you're using the physical build, all of that. We know exactly what's

going on here. And Oscar Robertson complained about that. Here's Oscar Robertson, who hadn't been in college in 40, 50 years, and they were using his likeness from the University of Cincinnati, and he was like, what the hell? I ain't even been there in half

a century. And that's what they had been making all of this money, and they'd been crying, oh, but if this happens, all the other sports, we're not going to be able to fund them. No, it has now turned to big money. Now you have the Power Five conferences talking about expanding the playoffs from four of the 12 teams. Why?

More TV money. Absolutely. By the way, I predicted that in the shame of college sports was written in 2011 before the playoffs started, and they were already angling toward the four-team playoff, and inevitably it's going to grow because the revenue grows exponentially when you have a larger tournament.

That's the lesson of March Madness in basketball, which basically finances the entire NCAA budget. You know, and the thing that really jumps out at me with this, and you said it best, how they brainwash all of these people. And it has been, even when I hear black folks saying crazy stuff, Taylor, well, you know, they're getting a free education and you're like, you clearly don't know a damn thing about college sports. I worked in the athletic department at Texas A&M for two years in their video lab. I saw, now, I mean, there was one brother who went to A&M on an architecture scholarship and they were angry,

telling him he needed to stop focusing on architecture and focus on football. And he said, I'm not here for football. And now he was a player, but his whole deal was, look, I know what I'm here for, and that happens all the time, where

essentially, these are professional athletes. And the Olympics, track and field was the same way. All these so-called amateur sports. And then, of course, Prefontaine and others began to sue them. And now you have athletes who are still amateur athletes, but they're not getting paid a lot of money who run track and field and stuff like that. This whole system was designed for another group to make all the money and partaking in the free labor.

People will get away with it if they can. You mentioned the Olympics and Steve Prefontaine. Actually, ironically, Congress ended amateurism in Olympic sports because the Soviet Union was clearly paying its athletes and we were losing

too many medals. So in the 70s, they basically said the athletes themselves have to be represented on each of the Olympic committees. And as soon as they did that, the Olympics changed. But it didn't affect the popularity of the Olympics at all. The fact that Michael Phelps can make millions of dollars in endorsements. He's still competing in the Olympics, and so are Olympic athletes. And that same sort of model will probably work sometime soon, I hope, for college athletes in regular college sports. Congress itself showed that it can be done. That's how they fixed the

Olympics. Well, and again, that was because they didn't like America losing. No, they didn't like that. The Russians were doping and paying their athletes a lot and basically turning them into, that's all they did. So the Soviet Union was winning too many gold medals in the Olympics. And so we wanted to be able to compete with that. So because, you know, Steve Prefontaine was on food stamps. The rules were so strict that they couldn't get money to train with. And now, of course, they have sponsorships and they have first class training facilities and they can compete with athletes from Russia or any other country. But what does it say about our American society, Taylor?

And this goes beyond the NCAA. It's just like all of these people who are brainwashed to build billion-dollar stadiums for owners to make them richer. And then they get mad when a player decides to hold out. How dare you hold out? You're hurting our team. And that owner got no problem jacking up concession prices, ticket prices, all of that.

I mean, it is mind boggling to me when I keep seeing this happen, and I go, you do know you when you taxpayers finance that new stadium you're paying the bonds so oh oh the owner oh i'll chip in 150 million for the one billion hell if you could build me a billion dollar stadium i gotta chip in uh just 10 sure why not people people will get away with whatever they can get away with, and if they can distract you with a shiny object and an exciting play on TV and take all the money, then if you're not careful, they can convince you to be blind to elementary fairness.

And so this is not new, but the good thing about America is as long as there are courts and as long as people can fight and march and write and think, we'll be able to have a chance, at least, to correct some of these things. But this has gotten really, really bad

when you've gotten a gigantic industry with coaches multiplying. You've got million-dollar assistant coaches, million-dollar-a-year assistant coaches proliferating because they've got so much money they slather it all over the athletic department and don't have to give the athletes any salary at all. But, you know, that will change as reform comes into this system. And I think, frankly, Taylor, last point here, I think with this 9-0 decision, NCAA, get ready for an onslaught of lawsuits in other areas. Again, you laid it out,

the rise and imminent fall of the NCAA. Y'all, this is the article right here that was in The Atlantic. And all you do is just type in Taylor Branch, NCAA and The Atlantic. And it's called The Shame of College Sports. A leading civil rights historian makes the case for paying college athletes and reveals how a spate of lawsuits working their way through the courts could destroy the NCAA. Y'all, that was written in the October 2011 issue of The Atlantic. Here we are almost 10 years later, and it's coming to pass.

They're going to go down real fast. They're going to have to pass a lot of new rules to avoid this whole thing crumbling. Well, Roland, I agree, but be aware of one thing. That's a lot of money to hang on to, and they're going to hang on to it as long as they can. They'll come up with every scare tactic they can think of. They're going to say you're not going to have swimming, and that it's going to hurt every other sport, and so on and so forth. So they will cry wolf like crazy.

But the fundamentals are on the side of the athletes who produce the talent. When you watch a sporting event on television, they don't point the cameras at the coaches or the conference officials who are collecting the money. They point it at the athletes, and it's only fair that they should have a share of the benefits that they earn. Absolutely. All right, then, Taylor Branch, we surely appreciate it. Thank you so very much. Thank you, Roland. Let's go to my panel here, Dr. Julianne Malveaux, President Economist, also President in there at Bennett College.

Hey, y'all got to put Julianne's new title, y'all, okay? We got to ditch the Bennett College one. She got a new title. Oma Kongo Dabenga, professorial lecturer at School of International Service, American University. Michael Brown, former vice chair, DNC Finance Committee. Julianne, I'll start with you.

I'm always going to be the president of Merita Bennett, but I am the incoming dean of Cal State University. That's my point. I said you got a new title. So you get a new title, you use a new one, not the old one. Look, you were a new one, not the old one. Look, you were president of a college and look,

here's the deal here. NCAA been making like a fat rat. They have been I mean, these folk, the president of the NCAA makes more than when he was a president of a college. I have horrible sound guys.

All right, y'all fix Julian Sound. I'm going to go to Omicongo. Let me know what Julian Sound is, straight Omicongo. This is a huge decision, and for it to be 9-0, that shows you how significant this decision is. I was shocked. I mean, first of all, 9-0, and I never thought in my life I would be agreeing with Kavanaugh on anything. But this is important. It's necessary and it has to be done.

What they are doing with college athletes is exploitation. I was an undergrad at Georgetown University, saw it up close and personal. And really, at the end of the day, we have to make sure that these athletes are getting their just due. I remember the days of the Fab Five with Chris Webber, and he was talking about seeing his names on these jerseys, but he couldn't even afford to get a pizza. And this is ridiculous. And so I'm so happy with this decision. And I think on the flip side, one of the things that we have to start doing with our athletes who are coming from our communities is we're going to have to start making sure that if they're some type of top prospect, they may need to go into college with a financial planner,

but they're going to need some form of advocate who's going to know their rights as it relates to the educational benefits, financial benefits that are going to come later down the line, because I don't want these students who now are going to have these abilities to advocate for themselves to come in and get screwed because of what they didn't know on the other side you know michael i mean the thing that jumps out here the thing just first of all y'all fix julian sound okay y'all gotta let me know uh michael the thing that jumps out here uh again, they have been making billions of dollars. Billions. There are coaches who are sitting on $30 and $40 and $50 million.

Coaches who are signing multi-year, seven-figure endorsement deals. And the NCAA would suspend the player. I remember when Pryor, who was a quarterback for Ohio State, got suspended for autographing his own damn jersey. His own jersey. They tried to go with Johnny Manziel. I mean, we can go on and on and on. Oh, receiving benefits. You receive the car.

But the university had no problem giving country clubs memberships and paying off the mortgages of coaches and things along those lines. I mean, it's shameful what's been happening. And thank God, athletes like Ed O'Bannon and others sued the NCAA and said enough is enough. The pimping has to end. Absolutely. And I agree that, you know, it's interesting that the Supreme Court ruled the way they ruled. It's great that it was a 9-0 decision. It's great that even some on the far right were able to see the exploitation of the black athlete in college athletics. Justice Kavanaugh wrote, I don't think we'll agree with him on other decisions, but on this one, we can certainly agree with him. But I think the concern also is, you know, the great organizations

are able to look into the future or whatever that old business term is, look around corners. And the NCAA has had opportunity after opportunity to fix this problem. And whenever you fix the problem, first, on your own, proactively, you're less likely for it to be legislated against you or for there to be a court ruling against you. And they have refused. They could have had revenue sharing. They could have had profit sharing. They could have had a variety of different economic ways to to compensate athletes at the same time still make zillions of dollars.

But because of greed, they wanted it all. And now, because they didn't do it proactively on their own, they're going to be forced to do it. And that's always worse. The thing here, folks, and the people who are watching, it has been amazing, as Taylor talked about on Macongo, folks who've gotten sucked into this whole deal of the hell with them. They're getting a free education. And we're just so illogical the whole time. And I'm telling you, it ticked me off when I hear black people say that kind of stuff, having no clue of understanding. No clue that this so-called scholarship wasn't a scholarship.

That really, it was actually, it wasn't. It was a grant in aid. They could snatch it when they wanted to. And people had just no idea that they believed this fallacy that, oh, the university was doing just this great thing for the good of the student. That's right. And that's one of the things I love about this, because over the years, LeBron James and so and so many other people, they've been advocating for themselves. And we see many of these universities, you get injured or they decide I want you anymore. You are completely out on the street.

And so many of us, we have to start understanding our value. Instead of too many times we've had this just be happy to be here type of mentality. These athletes are building these universities. I did not realize. I was thinking coaches who were making millions of dollars. That blew my mind. And then when he talked about a student athlete, these guys are being exploited. And so even in our own communities,

we can't just be happy enough to say that, oh, they're going to Duke, they're going to this place, they're going to that place. Get your education and you'll be fine. No, because that's not how the industry works. I mean, it's a system that is designed on exploiting people. It is exploiting our talents, and it's a system designed on building long-term wealth

for everybody else but us. And I am so happy that these players are wising up. Like you said, you talked about Ed O'Bannon and others, and it's been a continual process. We're not done. There's a lot more work to go, but we have to get out of this mentality of just be happy to be there.

You have a chance of doing something great. Get out the community. No, let's talk about not being exploited in the ways that we wouldn't tolerate for any other group or any other group of people like coaches and assistant coaches and the like. If they're going to get that paper and these other benefits, we need to be getting that, too, at the student athlete level, at the athlete level. I should say now the word student athlete is just messing with me now, even using it now that I've been educated on that term a little bit more. Let's go to, I think we fixed Julian's audio issues. All right, Julian, you there? Go ahead. All right, Julian, you can weigh in on the Supreme Court decision. I enjoyed the decision. I think it was really important. You know, I'm thinking

back to, I sat on this president's athletics commission when I was president at Bennett, that one of those groups had. And, you know, obviously Bennett's a little bitty school without, you know, we had a basketball team and a track team. That was it. So we were, I guess I was there like their affirmative action person or whatever. But, you know, the conversations that people had about what coaches were earning, how presidents were being compensated for the success of their teams

and how young brothers and sisters, but mostly brothers, were being placed in jeopardy because a booster gave them a plane ticket home. Well, they should have been able to afford the plane ticket home. They should not have needed the booster to give them a plane ticket home. But the issue, quite frankly, is, as Michael said earlier, exploitation. The fact is that, you know, basically this is the height of capitalist exploitation, taking surplus value, offering a scholarship. The worst part about it, Roland, is that when some of these young people are injured or something like that, scholarship goes away.

So they thought they had a four-year deal, and then they have a knee injury. That's the end of that. So we really need to, I'm glad the court did this. I'm quite pleased with the court decision. And I think there's a lot more that has to be done in the area of athletics. And I don't like the term student athlete either, Oman, Congo.

I mean, come on now. Like someone said, I think Taylor Branson said, you don't have student cashiers. You don't have student cashiers. You don't have a student maintenance workers. They get paid for being maintenance workers. They get paid. They get scholarships for being students. So why can't we treat athletes the same way and with the same dignity? Because they trot these brothers out. And I'm saying brothers because there's not that many sisters. They trot these brothers out to show up here, to show up there, and then they don't even want them to have the benefit of the profits from their jerseys. And there you go.

All right, folks, y'all are going to love this one. So, of course, Juneteenth, national holiday, celebrated that on Saturday. Guess who tried to roll up to a Juneteenth event in Wisconsin? Senator Ron Johnson, the Republican, who blocked it last year and who still said this year he was against it because there simply are just too many federal holidays. He got a wonderful greeting when he did. Well, on the Congo, Ron Johnson shows up to an event in Milwaukee. They booed him until he left.

This was his quote. It still seems strange that having taxpayers provide federal employees paid time off is now required to celebrate the end of slavery. Well, guess what? Those folks said, we ain't got to listen to your ass talk. I loved it. Man, I was listening to some of the background comments of one woman in particular. And look, the beautiful thing about this and all of these shenanigans that the Republicans are pulling is that it actually makes me often miss. All right. All right. So we have an issue, Omicongo. We have an issue with your connection.

We have a hold of sight. We're going to fix the problem with your connection. Michael, go ahead. It shows, Roland, that as a former elected official, it just shows that politicians have no shame. He knows exactly what he did. He knows exactly what he said. He knows exactly where he stands on a variety of issues, not just the June 10th issue. And to show up at an event, because because he's obviously thinking oh i'm not going to get booed i'm going to get applauded for showing up you know because he's of course not big his staff didn't say well you know maybe you may get booed you may get a couple boos here and there so oh no way because i'm showing up i'm showing i'm the bigger person and that was his

mentality and he deserved to get what he got. And it's a shame that he put up the, you know, I imagine he has never said anything about any other holiday, in particular, whether it's Christopher Columbus, Columbus Day. I'm sure he hasn't said, oh, federal workers shouldn't get Columbus Day off. You better believe he hasn't said that. So, you know, Ron Johnson, he is who he is, and I'm glad he got booed. Omicongo, you there now? Yeah. Again, I think that it's really, it can be very good for us that the Republicans are pulling on all of these shenanigans if they're not successful, because really what it's doing is it's keeping us engaged,

it's keeping us involved in the term elections. And so when Ron Johnson and these others show up, it's sort of like when they come into the black churches during the election season, we got to let them know that they're not welcome, that they can't put posters on their posters in the black community. People are tired, they're upset, and they know that these guys are going to stop at nothing to disenfranchise us.

So Ron Johnson got exactly what he deserved. I hope that this happens across the country because people need to know that you're not just going to come out and just show up for these pictures and these photo ops and then come back and disrespect our culture and history. We're not standing for it anymore. Julianne? Julianne? You know, like I said earlier, look at the racial composition of the crowd.

People are tired of this nonsense. People are tired of this man. People are tired of the spit that he talks, I did say spit, that he talks on the floor of this man. People are tired of the spit that he talks. I did say spit. That he talks on the floor of the Senate. And he really, he's going to get a backlash. Now, whether it's enough to get him out of office in Wisconsin, I don't know. But what I do know is that we need to look at the hundred senators who voted for Juneteenth. If they really believe in Juneteenth, they need to vote for voting rights. They need to vote for voting rights. They need to vote for voting rights. They need to vote for the George Floyd bill.

So while I'm thrilled, well, I'm not quite thrilled. I'm not jumping for Juneteenth, but I'm happy that we have it. But I wish that these folks could take a unanimous vote and do something with it that was substantive. Well, I'm good with it. And I say every time Ron Johnson talks, boo his ass. All right, y'all. Now, let's talk about this issue with the movie In the Heights. Lin-Manuel Miranda, of course, of course, a force behind Hamilton, came out with this movie and a lot of conversation, a lot of conversation. Latinos excited. I mean, it was about New York and it was about the music and the culture.

But then when the movie came out, there were issues. There were issues with the movie because where were the Afro-Latinos? Where did they go? Why weren't they exhibited? Why were they only sort of extras in the movie? And so Lynn had to apologize for this. He actually released a statement.

Y'all pull the statement up if you have it, please. This is the statement that he released. I started writing In the Heights because I didn't feel seen. And over the past 20 years, all I wanted was for us, all of us, to feel seen. I'm seeing the discussion around Afro-Latino representation in our film this weekend. It is clear that many in our dark-skinned Afro-Latino community don't feel sufficiently represented within it, particularly among the leading roles. I can hear the hurt and frustration over colorism, a feeling still unseen in the

feedback. I hear that without sufficient dark-skinned Afro-Latino representation, the work feels extractive of a community we wanted so much to represent with pride and joy. In trying to paint a mosaic of this community, we fell short. I'm truly sorry. I'm learning from the feedback. I thank you for raising it, and I'm listening. I'm trying to hold space for both the incredible pride in the movie we made and be accountable

for our shortcomings. Thanks for your honest feedback. I promise to do better in my future projects, and I'm dedicated to the learning and evolving we all have to do to make sure we are honoring our diverse and vibrant community. Siempre LMM. Now, you might remember Rita Moreno. She went on, I believe it was Stephen Colbert's show,

and she had some thoughts about show. And she... had some thoughts about that. And this is what Rita Moreno said. For a second about that criticism about Lin-Manuel, that really upsets me. Oh, yeah, for the people who don't know, your friend and ours, Lin-Manuel Miranda, has been in the news.

He also co-produced my, uh... Documentary? Documentary, yeah. Um, there's been some criticism for the lack of Afro-Latino people in The Heights, the movie adaptation of his play. What do you make of that? You can never do right, it seems. This is the man who literally has brought Latinoness and Puerto Ricaness to America. I couldn't do it. I mean, I would love to say I did but I couldn't

Lin Manuel has done that Really single-handedly and I'm thrilled to pieces and I'm proud that he produced my documentary And so are you saying that while you may understand where people's concerns come from that perhaps it's misplaced and criticizing him in this Well, I'm simply saying can't you just wait a while and leave it alone? There's a lot of people who are Puerto Rican who are also from Guatemala who are dark and who are also fair. We are all colors in Puerto Rico and this is how it is and I just it would be so nice if they hadn't come up with that and left it alone, just for now.

I mean, they're really attacking the wrong person. Now, after that, Rita Moreno got a whole lot of criticism. And Rita had to come out and say that, you know what? Yeah, I kind of messed up. Um, uh, I kind of messed up. She, she admitted that, uh, she was disappointed, uh, in herself for, um, those comments. Friday, real time with Bill Maher, the conversation came up.

And leave it to Mr. I'm white, but I can opine on anything. Bill Maher, this is what he had to say. Reading also about Lin-Manuel Miranda this week, he of Hamilton fame and, you know, won a Pulitzer Prize for it. He's got a new musical, The Heights, which is about Washington Heights. I know that neighborhood.

My father parked in it every day of his life, going to New York, coming over from New Jersey and then taking the subway down to Midtown. And he wrote the music and lyrics. He's... His parents are Puerto Rican, came to this country from Puerto Rico. The book is by someone who's half Puerto Rican. It got 96% Rotten Tomatoes. People loved it.

Great reviews, for which he has apologized profusely. Why? Well, there's Latinx performers, one black lead, but no Afro-Latinx. The committee that makes note of everyone's skin tone discovered this and then Lin Manuel Miranda had to say, I'm truly sorry, I'm learning from the feedback. I thank you for raising it, and I'm listening. I promise to do better in my future projects. This is what I was talking about with Nikki. Please stop the apologizing.

You're the guy who made the founding fathers black and Hispanic. I don't think you have to apologize to Twitter. For fuck's sake. This is why people hate Democrats. It's cringey. Well, they can't seem to distinguish between an oversight and an outrage. Okay?

Let me help them. As a white boy, I had to look this up because it's not my lived experience. But if you're a black woman giving birth, you're four times more likely to die in childbirth than a white woman. If you're a black kid, you're two and a half times more likely to be shot by a cop than a white kid. If you happen to survive all that, you make less money, you have less wealth. Oh, and you die sooner. Those are outrages.

And liberals ought to be focused on that, not the casting choices of, I think, a heroic guy who's making a film about a minority community. Right. I mean... Here are two white men on a national television show telling people of color what the hell we

should be focused on allow me to unpack the bullshit Paul Bagalia just said I'm a deal with bill too but the bullshit from Bagalia the things that he cited are issues we've covered but what Paul does not understand what Bill Maher does not understand is that black people and Afro Latinos have had to deal with whiteness

deciding what's palatable. We can go through history when you were a light-skinned black actress. Hollywood said we'll accept Lena Horne. We'll accept Dorothy Dandridge. But oh, no, no, we are not going to accept a dark-skinned black woman. The idea of colorism is real because within the Latino-Latina community, within the black community, not just in the United States, but all across the globe, white supremacy has caused even us and those of us in our communities to go through the light skin, dark skin thing because white has been defined as right.

That's why you had black folks in America who passed. Because they said, I will have a better existence in this society if I'm white. Jane Elliott has challenged white America saying if you could play traces if you could trade places with somebody black even if they're successful would you hell no the hands Chris Rock he said no white man would trade places with me So for Paul Magalia and Bill Maher to be so dismissive of the concerns also shows how they have no understanding of how deep this thing is. It has an economic impact. It has an impact on how you see yourself. See, it's real easy for two white men like Paul Begaglia and Bill Maher

to sit on television and say that because they've never been erased. They don't know what erasure is like. Black folks have had to deal with erasure in everything the movie came out about stonewall all gay folks were excited how you erase the black people who actually made stonewall real. Stonewall was led by black gay people. Well, Hollywood was like, no, y'all don't even exist. We can go down the line. How Hollywood consistently has to frame things through the white prism. Not the black star, but the white stars. George Lucas experienced this when he made Red Tails.

Went to every major Hollywood studio, they said, hey, where are the white heroes? He said, the white people are the villains. The heroes are the black people. No, no, we need some white heroes. What Bill Maher and Paul Begaya don't get is that in American society, dark skin has always been seen like a savage. Ooh, you got nice hair.

Ooh, when black and white people get together, they make pretty babies. We could go down the line. A few years ago, Afro-Latinos were criticizing Telemundo and criticizing Univision, saying, why am I seeing white Hispanics? Why are we not seeing darker-hued folks on those networks, in the novellas, on the news? Colorism. Go to Haiti.

Colorism. Go to Jamaica, other places in the Caribbean. Colorism. colorism go to Haiti colorism go to Jamaica other places in the Caribbean colorism go to Africa where the bleaching creams sales have exploded why because in this world

white men and white women have said that whiteness reigns supreme. And so for Bill Maher and Paul Begayen, they had that conversation. How about this, Bill? Why, if you want to discuss that, why didn't you book a Latino to be on the show? Yeah, I know you had the light-skinned sister, and I've seen that for a reason, with the New York

Times. But maybe if you had an Afro-Latino on the show, and in fact, Bill, I'll ask this, how many Afro-Latino commentators have you had on your show? And I know as an African-American, y'all only had me one time, October 2014, and y'all can't return our phone calls, so it's been seven years.

But I want to know, where are they? See, if y'all really want to go there, let's talk about CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ABC, NBC, CBS. First, how many Latino commentators do you see on network news? And if you see them, what do they look like? Do you see Afro-Latinos? America has never understood. America thought Roberto Clemente, oh, he black.

He's like, no, I'm not. Gina Torres, oh, she black. She's like, no, that's who I am. And so here you got two white men in all of their whiteness, in all of their white maleness, in all of their superiority, and in their paternalistic tone, sitting there saying,

how dare y'all? How dare y'all get outraged? What's wrong with you? Here are the other more important issues that y'all should be concerned about. How dare y'all get concerned about those things? Well, Paul, you're a big time Democrat. Should I get outraged by the lack of dollars flowing to black owned media from Democrat run PACs like the ones you've worked with?

Should Latinos be concerned with the lack of dollars flowing to them? Or are you going to tell me I should only be concerned about black women and childbirth? No, Paul, I want to be concerned about both. What we're dealing with here, y'all, is the history of America that has erased black people, that has erased Latinos. And then when you go inside of the black community,

how colorism and the paper bag test and all of those things have greatly impacted our communities. So Paul and Bill, how dare the two of you be so damn arrogant in your whiteness that you wanna have the audacity to tell us what in the hell we should be concerned about. Because maybe Afro-Latinos want to see themselves on the big screen too.

Maybe they want their culture and maybe they want their children to see somebody who looks like them. But y'all wouldn't understand that because hell, y'all have been looking at white men in power for your whole damn lives. Joining us right now is the director for Student Success with the Lumina Foundation is Dr. Jasmine Haywood and also community

organizer Rosa Clemente. Glad to have both of you on the show. Obviously, y'all can tell I'm a little pissed off after I saw that bullshit on Friday. And Rosa, you're one of the first folks I text and you actually said, you know what, I'm writing about this tomorrow. Yeah, you know, Roland,

I don't really care about neoliberal racists and then also misogynist, sexist, and Muslim, anti-Muslim Bill Maher. I think our greater concern, especially as Puerto Ricans, is first and foremost, if you're making a movie in Washington Heights, it should be a movie about the Dominican community in Washington Heights. This movie casts no Dominican actors. It casts light-skinned Puerto Ricans. But my beef is way bigger than the representation, because I'm at a point in my life where if we're going to be represented, we have to make the

stories ourselves, just like you have been a guide for the last 25 years for so many of us that do quote-unquote independent journalism, but journalism that cares about our communities. Our biggest concern, my biggest concern, is that Lin-Manuel Miranda and his father have been anti-Black since before Lin was born and throughout his success with Hamilton. We can all agree that Hamilton in this day and era would never be made. You would never make a show now about a white man and another white man that enslaved Africans and the way that Lin turned that into a success. But second, the biggest concern, especially from the Puerto Rican community,

is that Lin-Manuel supported, gave testimony, and was there when President Barack Obama signed PROMESA. PROMESA is now an oversight board that handles all of our island finances, all mostly white men and women who work on Wall Street and decide each month how much money Puerto Rico, the government, can spend on the social good and municipal welfare. So for me, Lin-Manuel has been anti-black when he supported Promesa. He was anti-black when he went to Puerto Rico against the wishes of Puerto Rican organizers and students and brought Hamilton down there where people paid $10,000 a head to be there. The average yearly economy of a Puerto Rican with four people in a family is $37,000.

And lastly, his anti-Blackness and what his father has done in New York City is a story that a lot of people don't know. People need to investigate who his father is. And if you talk to any elder activists or organizers from the 60s to the 90s, they considered his father a poverty pimp. And I would consider him that as well. But lastly, who in Puerto Rico did they think Promesa was going to affect the most?

The white elite who live in gated communities in a hill or the predominantly Afro and indigenous Puerto Ricans that reside in Ponce, in Cabo Rojo, in Bayamón, in La Pela, in Loíza, which has the highest descendant of African descendants in our community. So for me, it's bigger than that, because I know we can make good stories. I spent the last three years making a really dope movie with incredible filmmakers, all brothers and sisters, called Judas and the Black Messiah.

And that was not a biography. And we should have more movies on that. But Lin now has to atone, and he has to restore for the continual harm. I don't care about his prayers. I don't care about his thoughts. And honestly, Roland, I think this is going to end up happening. Lynn is going to go the white way in Hollywood. He'll now direct movies with white

people in it. He'll be in cartoons and all of that because he has no space and his father has no space in our community. I actually, and this will probably be controversial, I think they're traitors to their Puerto Rican self, our elders, and our ancestors. Dr. Jasmine Haywood, the thing that... what really, again, troubles me about this are the people who have two white guys who ain't got no clue about the reality of how deeply embedded colorism is.

And for them, it's like, oh, be happy. Y'all is some Latinos. Well, I remember when black women criticized how Spike Lee was writing black female roles just because, and again, I know Spike is a friend, but he took the hit. Tyler Perry gets criticized. We've seen folks say the exact same thing.

We don't see this person, that person. I mean, we talk about in this country, America loves talking about Cubans. There are very few Afro-Cubans. And again, what these two are projecting, but to say basically, how dare y'all even speak speak your piece just be quiet and go sit down and just enjoy the movie that's pretty much what they were saying just shut up and watch the movie and be happy yeah i mean It's all a function of white supremacy. Colorism is a global phenomenon. It's not,

as you mentioned earlier, it cuts through the Black community, the Latino community, the Asian community. In fact, John Chu, who directed In the Heights, had this same criticism when he directed Crazy Rich Asians in terms of casting more lighter-skinned Asians in the main lead roles. And so this is a global issue. Colorism is a cousin of white supremacy. And, you know, what it does, you know, what they were talking about on the show

was the perpetuation of a monolithic view of what it means to be Latino, what it means to look like a Latino. And all that does is serve white supremacy and serve the gazeof whiteness. Uh, the-the reason I brought up, um, Stonewall, and either one of you can jump in here, was because black gay people said the same thing.

How in the hell y'all gonna do a movie about a movement that started and you erased the people who led the damn movement? That's outlandish. But again, Hollywood and its history has always been, how can we promote whiteness or folks who are lighter? Because let's be clear, there are white studio executives who are greenlighting films and for them, what makes them more comfortable. That's what we're talking about here. And I think it's important to call folks out, like call Bill Maher out, call Paul Begaglia out for their comments, because power determines what

we see. American movies and television is actually America's greatest export. So when the world is looking at America, they're looking at movies and they're seeing a certain thing all of a sudden it's like, Oh, well that's America. And erasure is a real thing. It's real. And Rosa, we can't deny the realness of erasure. It exists. We can't deny it, but this is what I'm saying, Roland. They're the two most unsignificant people, especially to younger generations. No, no, no, no. But here's why. The issue is not significance in terms of younger people. This is why I'm saying this. Because they are on a... See, this is where the platform comes in. They are on a platform, HBO, national, international. You look at who

you're talking to. You got nobody who can offer a counter to what you're saying. So when Bill and Paul speak up, you hear the audience clap. And what I am arguing, and this is really where we are, and this is probably what's pissing Bill off the most right now, is the same thing on this book I'm writing on white fear. We now get to have an opinion. We now get to express it. We now get to share it.

And it's hard because they're like, damn, here they go again. Yes, we're going to express our viewpoint. And it has to be called out because if you use your platform like that, then you should get checked and you should get checked immediately. Yeah, but what I'm saying is a younger generation

isn't tuned in to Bill Maher. Like this is what I'm saying. The thing that's critical about this is addressing, as Sister earlier said, you know, colorism, yes, inter-ethnic conflict. There's inter-ethnic conflict in every community, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Venezuelan, Italian, Irish, like that happens. But that the larger picture is also that when we just talk about anti-Blackness or white people particularly being anti-Black, we're losing a conversation with younger people

about how white supremacy is the reason that included in Hollywood this happens. Now, what I will say too, and I hope people really hear me on this point, Steven Spielberg made a movie with Rita Moreno. They remade West Side Story. Okay. 20th Century Fox. This is for me, very critical. 20th Century Fox could spend $125 million to remake what is known in academic and all types of circles as one of the most racist movies and the most racist movie for depicting Puerto Ricans. There is a line in West Side Story

where Rita Moreno says, so glad I left Puerto Rico, I hope it sinks into the ocean. Rita Moreno and Steven Spielberg have remade West Side Story. Who was in that room, as you said? Who said in that room, this is a really good idea? Let's greenlight one of the most racist movies ever made that has already been remade hundreds of times on the Tony stage. That's why when Rita Moreno said what she said,

so many of us were like, oh my God, she's an elder. But actually, that interview with Stephen Colbert is such a concrete example to show the anti-Blackness in the passing white Latino, Latino, Latinx community. And lastly, I don't identify as Afro-Latinx or Black Latinx. I identify as Afro-Latinx or Black-Latinx. I identify as a Black Puerto Rican woman. I use the language that is inclusive, but I've also been one for over 25 years to say, I'm not Afro-anything. I'm an African descent. I'm a Black Puerto Rican.

Up until three years ago, it was very unpopular to say that. Now, unfortunately, what we're seeing is the same passing white Latino creatives, influencers, and that are the ones all being asked to write about why in the Heights was anti-Black. Like faculty people are being hired throughout the country for a growing Afro-Latinx, Latinx studies movement. And most of the people they've been hiring are Latinos who don't believe in Afro or Black Latinx. They believe in Latinidad, which is a methodology and a concept that actually asks you to erase your Blackness, erase your indigenousness. So the bigger picture is we as Afro-Black, Latino, Latinx folks,

this is our time right now to get loud. And it means hitting at all the levels. But ultimately, I have a goal right now, Roland. Honestly, I don't want West Side Story to come out. And I'm going to fight for that, and I'm going to build a collective of people. Not only should that remake should not come out, the same $125 million that was spent on that movie

is the same amount of money that studio should give to Puerto Rican organizations on the island in Puerto Rico, who are now on five days of no electricity once again. Our island has been colonized. Lynn and all these other forces are solidifying that colonization because ultimately their political goal is for statehood. And if anybody thinks Puerto Rico is going to be a state, you're living in the wrong

time in the wrong century. Puerto Rico will never be a state. We are going towards independence regardless of these sellout boricuas in Congress, in Hollywood, and in journalism. Jasmine, the thing here, the point when Rosa said this is the moment to get loud, that's the issue here. The fact that Afro-Latinos are expressing their view and they should and they're saying is you should just be happy with what you got. What that is, it reminds me of a concept called interest convergence by Derrick Bell. essentially the majority white folks, when those in power, lend out a hand to advance equity for people of color, but they only do it within the circumstances so that the benefits for white folks outweigh the benefits for people of color. And this is a good example of that, a very good example of what can be perceived as small progress, as a celebration, but what it really is is a manipulation tactic. And it's a fallacy of Latino representation,

of in the Heights specifically. If you go take a walk around the Heights today, I guarantee you, you will see Afro-Latino people walking around. Dominicans are the Latino subgroup that has the most prevalent identification of Afro-Latino. That identity resonates with that particular subgroup the most. So for them to misrepresent that subgroup in particular in this way is really baffling. Well, I'll say this here um it is uh i still laughing at bill maher

saying how he knows washington heights so well because his dad parked his car there on his way to manhattan oh that's how you know the neighborhood so well huh got it well years ago huh from 60 years ago yeah yeah but Yeah. But Washington Heights was white. You know, of course, you know, that's your if he's 65, that means even longer. Yeah. His experience, all of everybody's experiences growing up in the five boroughs in New York City were experiences of complete ethnic stratification. You know, Washington Heights is now known as the little Dominican Republic. It's even small cultural things. And one of my friends was like,

at the end, we all have different cultures that should be celebrated. Like, when the movie opens and he's selling piraguas, piragua's a very Puerto Rican term for shaved ice. Dominicans use a different term for even shaved ice. It's like those nuances are really important. But what's also important for people to understand for shaved ice. Dominicans use a different term for even shaved ice. It's like those nuances are really important. But what's also important

for people to understand and grapple with blackness and how we talk about in the United States, very rarely do we talk about blackness outside of the binary of African-American and European-American

as opposed to the black diasporic world, where it shows his heart the most. The Bronx, Washington Heights, even to this day, Brooklyn, and the five boroughs is where you'll find every, quote, Latino community somehow represented, but you're also seeing a growing Garafina community that is Black, a growing Black Belizean community, a growing Black Cuban community, the continual growth a growing black Belizean community, a growing black Cuban

community, the continual growth of a black Puerto Rican community, the continual growth of a black Dominican community. And it's not baffling because once we can align ourselves in solidarity with other brothers and sisters and non-binary folks on the issues that impact all of us around material resources, what they're afraid is that we're solidifying our ranks and that blackness is now inclusive, where whiteness is always exclusive. Excellent point there. Jasmine, your final comment. Yeah, I just want to add on to that and say something that's not getting a lot of shine in the media is that there was an important piece that was in the play that was left out of the movie. And that was a scene where the father expressed some anti-Black sentiments towards Benny and him dating Nina.

And that is not a coincidence. It has to do with the same issue of a lack of dark-skinned Afro-Latinos in leading roles. And that would have been a perfect opportunity to showcase the realities of what it is like for a lot of African-descendant Latinas dating monoracial Black men and the pushback that they get from their families. And that's an important piece that hasn't been talked about a lot that has been left out of the conversation.

All right, then. Rosa Clemente, Jasmine Haywood, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks. Got to go to a break. We'll be back on Roland Martin Unfiltered.

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.

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. 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 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. Slick Rick, it's a whole lot of black love here at Essence. Yes, there is. There is. Good to see everybody together, you know, yeah. Now, when you stood on that stage, and this is not even a Superdome, when you saw all those folks grooving, how does it actually make you feel? It inspires me, you know what I mean?

As long as I can make a move, it's like Peter Piper, you know what I mean? You got to keep on stepping your game up until you see everybody swaying. But then when you see multiple generations, though, getting it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Music is music. As long as it moves you from a child to an adult,

you know what I mean? It's going to move you. If it's good. All right. Well, man, it's good seeing you still doing your thing. Thank you, family. Good to see you too, from the cruise and all that. Absolutely. All right, folks, be sure to watch the 2021 Essence Festival of Culture Live Live Live Live Virtual Experience on EssenceStudios.com, also Essence.com, taking place this Friday through Sunday,

plus July 2nd through the 4th. Next Monday, we'll have a recap of the first weekend, and then on July 5th, we'll have another recap for that weekend. We appreciate the partnership with Coca-Cola. Thank you so very much. All right, folks, let's go to the home of Coca-Cola, Georgia, where Governor Brian Kemp is deciding whether Georgia government agencies are going to close next year for Juneteenth.

Guess what? To observe Juneteenth as one of the state's fixed 12 paid holidays, Kemp would have to give up either Confederate Memorial Day on April 26 or Robert E. Lee's birthday on January 19. He will announce his decision in the next few weeks. Ooh, that's gonna be a good campaign one right there, Michael. Mike, we can't hear you. I can't wait to see how he reaches his decision and who he talks to about his decision.

I don't know who he is. I imagine some of these state representatives that are going to say, if you don't support Robert E. Lee or the Confederate Day, we're going to pull our support. And how dare you even consider Juneteenth as a holiday? So I'll be curious. I mean, I think I know what Brian Kemp's going to do. He's not going to do the right thing. And it's unfortunate. But that's, you know, again, as we've talked about on several occasions, those kind of issues come to the ballot box.

If you are if you're not happy with those decisions that your elected leaders are making, vote them out. If you sit at home and cry about, you know, that your vote doesn't count, your vote doesn't matter, even though you saw firsthand that it does in the last election cycle in Georgia, you know you can make a difference. So we'll see what Brian Kemp does. But I have no I'm not holding my breath that he's going to do the right thing. That's that's that's a hell of a, you got Confederate Memorial Day, Julian, and Robert E. Lee's birthday. Let's see. So we got to choose between a traitor who had slaves

who didn't want us to be freed and the Confederates who didn't want us to be freed. And then we got to pick whether we're going to have the holiday where we got freed in Texas. Uh-oh. Okay.

All right. Julian, can you hear me? All right, y'all, fix her audio. Omicongo, your thoughts about that? Well, I think that I agree with Michael. Unfortunately, I think Governor Kemp is going to make the wrong decision and not be on the right side of history. But you know what? This is also a good time for us to not forget that we need to keep the pressure up on the corporations, the Coca-Colas and the like,

because we put a lot of pressure on them earlier this year as it relates to not supporting some of the efforts that were being made in Georgia, and now we're spending so much time speaking about some of this legislation that we can't take the eye off the ball of the people who fund these organizations and so who fund the Republican,

whatever you want to call it, network of voter disenfranchisement. So I believe that if we can keep that pressure on, calling out these companies, and as Michael said, reminding people of remembering when these next elections come around, maybe we'll get lucky and—well, not lucky. Maybe we will force Governor Kemp to make the proper decision. But we have to make sure that all of our efforts, 360, are focused on the corporate pressure as well as the political pressure.

And I think we might get a result that works in our favor. Laughing. I'm just laughing that the choice is Juneteenth, Confederate Memorial Day, or Robert E. Lee's birthday. Oh, I love it. I love it going into

an election year. I'm sure Stacey Abrams is like... Jumping at the bit. What you gonna do, Brian? What you gonna do? You gonna side with freedom or with the people who didn't want us free? I love it.

I love it. I love it. Alright, y'all. The Emory School of Medicine formally apologizes to a doctor more than 60 years after denying his application because he was black. As part of his Juneteenth programming, Emory School of Medicine invited Dr. Marion Hood to a virtual event for students, faculty, and staff members. The school's dean handed Dr. Hood a framed letter apologizing for the rejection letter he received in 1959. The 83-year-old doctor told the story about how he didn't allow the school's discriminatory policy to stop him. Dr. Hood went on to study medicine at Loyola University in Chicago, where he said he still faced discrimination. After graduating, he became a gynecologist and obstetrician in Atlanta,

where he delivered more than 7,000 babies before retiring in 2008. We've seen a lot of these, a lot of these taking place here, Michael, where these schools and universities are apologizing for their past and apologizing for these type of issues. Some will say, hey, too late. But frankly, for the person who experienced it, I think it's important. Yeah, it's, you know, it's so difficult when you're dealing with these kinds of issues related to, obviously, education,

both secondary education, university learning, postgraduate degrees, and where the fairness comes in. And I'm sure my other panelists will have more to say because he's in academia and will have certainly understand understand the kind of dynamics between fairness and race and socioeconomic issues, and how do you balance it to make it fair? I don't know. I think that's the challenge of how we move forward as a country and as a people, is try to try to how to make it fair. And that's going back to the NCAA decision from the Supreme Court earlier, is to try to how to figure out how to level the playing field. Omokongo? Well, in actuality, this actually ties back to the conversation you just had regarding the heights.

Because really what it comes down to is a question about representation and doing the right thing. Apologies are nice, but it has to be apology plus something else. We just saw another story over the weekend where a 99-year-old African American soldier was awarded the Purple Heart after being denied it all of these years. And so the recognition is important. But really, at the end of the day, I want to know, what is Emory doing? What are other universities doing to make sure that maybe provide some other types of financial assistance for future students who want to be in the medical school? We have to do more to correct the record. And again, as Michael was saying, it is really important that these people are getting the recognition for what they've done while they're still here because so many have passed without getting that recognition.

But we need more than apologies. It's sort of like with Juneteenth, right? We are happy that we got the holiday. We are happy for that. But as we said earlier, after the celebration, we need legislation and we need to fight. So Emory did the work in correcting the record, but we need to do more. Are they developing community programs for people in the area who may want to study medicine? Are they connecting Emory with the larger African-American community? These types of projects need to show that we can go beyond apologies and actually look towards making real change within the communities. And so we take the apology, glad he got it,

but they need to do a lot more. And a lot of organizations across different industries need to be doing the same. I'll say one other thing, Roland Martin, you talked about a couple of weeks ago of how many of these corporations decided to give $50 billion towards diversity initiatives, but only like $250 million went out. People talk a good game, but we got to force them to walk the walk. Absolutely. Let's talk about voting, folks. Criticism from Senate Democrats continues to pour in. Since Democratic Senator Joe Manchin blocked the passing of the four people, well, actually, he didn't. He said he's not going to vote for it.

It has to come up for a vote, so he hasn't blocked anything. Now Manchin is receiving backlash from GOP senators. Senator Lindsey Graham appeared on Fox News Sunday where he spoke about Manchin's voting compromise. Now, Senator, Manchin took out a lot of the basic Senate plans, S-1, the For the People Act, like public financing of congressional elections. Can you go along with the Manchin stripped-down version? And if not, why not?

Well, one, I like Joe Manchin a lot, but we had the largest turnout in the history of the United States, and states are in charge of voting in America. So I don't like the idea of taking the power to redistrict away from state legislators. You're having people move from red, blue states to red states. Under this proposal, you would have some kind of commission redraw the new districts. And I don't like that. I want states where people are moving to have control over how to allocate new congressional seats. So as much as I like Joe Manchin, the answer would be no. In my view, SR1 is the biggest power grab in the history of the country. It mandates ballot harvesting, no voter ID. It does away with the states being able to redistrict when you have population shifts. It's just a bad idea, and it's a problem that most Republicans are not going to sign up. They're trying to fix a problem most Republicans have a different view of. Now, folks, the Senate is scheduled for a test vote of the Four People Act tomorrow.

Senator Chuck Schumer actually took the floor where he talked about this very issue. I'm going to pull that video up. You can already see, first of all, there was a whole bunch of lying going on right there with Lindsey Graham, just straight lying. You know what I mean? Come on now, Lindsey, stop fronting. All right, here is Senator Chuck Schumer today on the floor of the United States Senate. I want my Republican colleagues to listen to some of the policies that have been proposed by Republican state legislatures and tell me how they're about election integrity, how about how they're about suppressing fraud, reducing

polling hours in polling places. How is that about election integrity? How does that reduce voter fraud? Mandating that every precinct, no matter how large or small, have the same number of ballot drop boxes. A county of a million and a county of a thousand, the same number. How does that reduce fraud? Don't give them water. Don't allow them to have a drink as they're waiting in the hot sun on lines to vote. Yeah, what does that have to do with voter fraud? It has to do with cruelty. It has to do with nastiness, and it has to do with suppressing the vote. Allowing a judge to overturn an election. Allowing a partisan state election board to replace a duly elected county elections board member if they're underperforming.

What does that have to do with fraud? What does that have to do with fraud? What does that have to do with fraud? Removing student IDs from the list of valid forms of identification. That's election integrity? Bunk. We know what you're doing. You don't want students to vote. Yeah. Don't have students vote. Turn them off to the whole process and make America even more alienated. Delaying the hours of Sunday voting until the evening, which coincidentally or not so coincidentally by these Republican legislators makes it harder for black churchgoers to

participate in voter drives after Sunday services. How despicable. Does that sound like Jim Crow, my Republican colleagues? It sure does to a lot of us. I challenge my Republican colleagues, I challenge you, Republican senators, come to the floor, defend these policies. Tell us how they secure the vote. We know what you're up to. America knows what you're up to. And not to debate this? Are you afraid to debate it? Do you not have any good arguments? Let's dispense with this nonsense. There is no real principle behind these policies. They're not about election integrity. They're not about voter fraud. These policies have one purpose and one I think the people who are responsible for the election are the people who are the

principal behind these policies. They're not about election integrity. They're not about voter fraud. These policies have one purpose and one purpose only. Making it harder for younger, poorer, nonwhite, and typically

democratic voters to access the ballot. Well, now, Michael, what do you think Schumer is doing by saying he's going to call it for a vote June 22nd? Forcing folks to get on the record? Forcing Manchin to be on the record? Absolutely. I mean, that's clearly what he's doing. I certainly liked his speech. I think that's what some of us have been hoping for from a lot of our leaders in Congress to stand up and not always try to figure out kind of the middle of the road or how can I make everybody happy? And he called them out. He said, this is Jim Crow. And it's

nice to hear a white politician say those things. And it's important that he puts it on the record. But yes, absolutely. It's time for Joe Manchin to have to show his cards. You know, he's played this game for the last several months of, oh, I want nonpart bipartisanship. Oh, we got to figure out a better way of moving forward. OK, now let's see where you are. And when you put the when he puts the rule up and then obviously then the vote. So we'll see what happens. But I'm glad Senator Schumer is finally saying enough is enough. You've had your time in the sun. So let's now see where you really are. McCongo? Absolutely. Look, first of all, Senator Graham, every time I hear these Republicans talk about state rights, I keep saying, wow, weren't you the guys who were talking about going into other states to help them overturn the election?

Lindsey Graham was talking about going into Georgia to see what was going on there. The hypocrisy is amazing. And then just the lies as it relates to things like voter ID. Look, Democrats are not against voter ID laws. They're not against voter ID. They're against restrictive voter ID. If you can vote with a hunter's license as your ID, you should be able to vote with a student license as your ID. Those are the types of things that we're calling for, being able to use utility bills and the like that people do in other areas.

And so it's ridiculous in terms of the hypocrisy. I am absolutely thrilled that that Senator Schumer is going to be bringing this up. Joe Manchin needs to be put on the spot and everybody needs to be on record. Look, when it comes to this type of nonsense, when it comes to voting rights, this is why we need to work towards ending the filibuster because the Republicans are going to talk a good game all throughout, but they are going to stay the party of no.

And Senator Schumer to get up there and call it Jim Crow and say, what are you all afraid to debate? Why they just get up there and lie and spin the truth. This is put up or shut up time. So I'm with it 100%. call it Jim Crow and say, what are you all afraid to debate? Why they just get up there and lie and spin the truth. This is put up or shut up time. So I'm with it 100 percent. And this is sort of why this just went out from Mark Elias, a voting rights lawyer. This tweet breaking Arizona Senate bill 1241 passes statehouse over vociferous dim opposition, pointing out that the bill promotes voter intimidation, violates ballot secrecy and security, and would be costly and unnecessary. And he, and of course, he then responded, if this is enacted, Arizona will be sued. That's what you're seeing happen all right now. Look, they got no choice to fight in the

courts. When you start talking about fighting the courts, you're still coming against those conservative judges, Michael. Right, exactly. And again, some of these courts will also be under the light to see where they come in on this. Obviously, we have a history of laws related to Jim Crow laws and intimidation laws and voter suppression laws. And so now we'll see where they are. Now, obviously, we were applauding Justice Kavanaugh a little while ago about his decision on the NCAA ruling. And now we'll see how he comes in on this one, because all these are going to eventually go to the Supreme Court, because obviously it's states' rights and state versus state or state versus the federal government. Hence why I know there are a lot of different issues where a lot of folks would like to see the filibuster blown up for particular issues. But if voting rights isn't one of them, there's no real legitimate list.

You know, there can be an argument on whether you should blow it up for infrastructure, an argument whether you should blow it up for immigration, an argument whether you should blow it up. As you know, I'm a big proponent of D.C. statehood, but there's no larger issue than voting rights. And to see what these states are doing, if you don't blow up the filibuster for this, then there's really no need. Because you better believe if the tables were turned, you know Mitch McConnell would blow up the filibuster

in half a second. So I don't know why we always, again, play this nice, oh, let's come together role when we're up against people that don't play the same rules. Right. Simple as that. Got to ask y'all this here.

Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, liberal, Democrat, having to answer some questions about him, his wife, and his family being long-time members of a private all-white beach club. This is how he was asked and how he responded. Okay. A little close. Okay. Back in 2017, you had expressed concerns about the membership of the all-white Bailey's Beach Club, said that you hoped it would become more diverse. Now, your family's been members.

Your wife is one of the largest shareholders. Has there been any traction in that? Are there any minority members of the club now? I think the people who are running the place are still working on that. I'm sorry it hasn't happened yet. Do you have concerns in 2021? I mean, obviously, it's been four years. You had remarks on the floor following the deaths of Breonna Taylor

and George Floyd saying, you know, hoping to root out systemic racism in the country. Your thoughts on an elite, all white, wealthy club again in this day and age. You know, should these clubs continue to exist? It's a long tradition in Rhode Island and there are many of them.

And I think we just need to work our way through the issues. Thank you. Michael, I'm trying to understand. How hard is hell no, no, hell no? Yeah, that was a little disappointing. I like Senator Whitehead. It was just disappointing. Wrong side of history, wrong answer, just terrible.

I mean, you know which clubs you belong to, and maybe you think when you're in public life, Disappointing. Wrong side of history, wrong answer, just terrible. I mean, you know which clubs you belong to, and maybe you think when you're in public life, hey, I need to disassociate myself with this club for the time being. Family, sorry, family, we can't be a member of this club for now. And, yeah, if you decide to go after you left the Senate, fine, and then go back, even though that would be wrong. But it's just too bad. You could have put Republican next to his name,

and that would have been less surprising. Disappointing. I'm sorry to see that happen. Well, look, I'm sorry. This ain't that damn hard on the Congo. First, you heard the reporter say this came up in 2017. Dude, it's four damn years. They're working their way through these issues? No.

What you should have said, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, is real simple. End this now or we will resign. I guarantee you on the Congo, if the U.S. Senator from Rhode Island had said to these white folks,

end this now or we are walking, they probably would have changed it. And they told him, no, he should have said good riddance. Absolutely. And to sit there and say, yeah, I'm sorry, this is still the case, acting as if he can't do anything about it. You are a United States senator.

And then he's used something towards the end of the conversation about it being a tradition. This is like, oh, I wish for the good old days or how it used to be. Again, as Michael was saying, these are like Republican talking points. And his wife being one of the largest shareholders, no, no, no.

If we're going to put pressure on corporations and other people to support voting rights and the like, we need to put pressure on him. We need to put pressure on that club to change this. This is ridiculous. And really, at the end of the day, I believe that there are probably some other Democratic senators who are just like that,

and they need to be on blast that they are going to be exposed as well. This is the benefits of what happens when you have good journalism. And quite honestly, Senator Whitehouse, the hypocrisy is amazing. You can't talk, don't put Breonna Taylor and other people's name in your mouth

if you're still going to be part of organizations like that. He can't be throwing his hands up. He needs to make an actual change. you said it's been four years there better not be a fifth one and hell i i look uh i guess who's in rhode island jeffrey osborne's from rhode island y'all y'all need some black people uh claudia jordan i think she's from rhode island as well there's some black people in rhode island I mean, I play in Jeffers Golf Tournament every year. I see a lot of them. Y'all, this is the BS here.

And I don't give a damn if he a Democrat. And the deal is, I'm not going to say, oh, well, no. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, that was a trash-ass answer. And what he should be saying is, to the club, change this policy now, or me and my family will resign. And if his wife is a shareholder, he should announce she is going to be selling her shares in this. If they don't change it, she will be selling her shares and donating it to a black cause. That's what he should be saying. That's how leaders lead.

Simple as that. Y'all got to go to a break. We come back. Where's our money segment? Coca-Cola makes a big decision and big announcement regarding the support of black and minority-owned advertising outlets. I'm going to explain when we come back on Roland Barth and the Filter. 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. Right? Thank you. The wishbone to keep you dreaming, the jawbone to help you speak truth to power, and the backbone to keep you standing through it all.

I'm running for Congress because you deserve a leader who will stand up fearlessly on your behalf. Together, we will deliver Medicare for all. Good jobs that pay a living wage and bold justice reform. I'm Nina Turner, and I approve this message. 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 FREEDOMRIGHT to 797979.

Well, you know what? It's so important that you talk about social justice. We're just talking about us as people, the ones that are lost, the ones that get caught up into stuff that makes no sense. But it's a lot of love out here. And it's like, that's what today is about, showing that coming out today is a day of peace.

So I feel like we're going to get our peace today. Yeah, you know what? I have a great team in Louisville. We do a program called Let the Kids Grow with Cursive for 2X. And to be able to reach so many different places, you know, it's love. Because losing too many kids to senseless violence. I'm working on my new movie, The Biopic, The Masterpiece, King of the South. All right, folks, don't forget Essence Festival of Culture. Live loud, virtual experience on EssenceStudios.com and Essence.com.

Friday through Sunday, this Friday through Sunday, and, of course, we will have a recap on Monday. And then, of course, again, July 2nd through the 4th, we'll have a recap on July 5th. Level of bad. We don't fight this fight right now. You're not going to have black on you. All right, folks, as you know, we have been fighting this issue of black economic empowerment with these ad agencies and major corporations for a very long time. The last few months, Byron Allen, Todd Brown, myself, Butch Graves with Black Enterprise, also Ice Cube, Diddy,

also, of course, so many others, so many others, Junior Bridgman, Don Jackson. You know, we've been, you know, issuing a clarion call, say support Black-owned media. Well, today, Coca-Cola made this announcement that they plan to double its ad spend on minority owned media. Now, this is what the story from Ad

Age says. Coca-Cola North America announced it will nearly double its media spend with minority owned companies over the next three years, pledging that no less than 8% of its yearly ad budget will be directed to black, Hispanic and and Asian-American-owned platforms and their partners by 2024. It says the story company already increased its minority-owned media spend this year more than five-fold compared to 2020. And then it says that Coca-Cola is also working to foster new relationships. It says with partners like Ebony Jet, Revolt, and MyCulture, as well as partners like Essence and Univision. Well, first of all, here's a quote. Following a thorough analysis of our marketing span,

we recognize we could do more to support an equitable media landscape by creating growth opportunities for minority-owned and led outlets, says Melanie Bolden, chief marketing officer of Coca-Cola North America. Now, if y'all been watching this show. You see that beginning last Monday, we started our partnership with Coca-Cola sponsoring these essence throwback moments. In addition to that, if you actually go to our social media account, what you will also see is how we have been posting essence throwback photos on our Instagram, Twitter, Facebook pages as well. All of that folks folks, is a part of this.

Now, why is this important? Why is this important? Because like you'll see right here. So if you go to my, so you see here, this is a photo of Remy Ma and Queen Latifah. Then, of course, you see this is a photo we had of Lester Holt when he was there. So we've been posting other photos as well here with Tashina Arnold. But here's the piece, because what we have been making clear

is that the money going to black-owned media. Now, that says no less than 8%. We still want to know what specifically is the black-owned media spin. Michael, here's what we're now seeing. We're now seeing companies like Coca-Cola, McDonald's came out with their announcement. General Motors came out with their announcement.

20 companies under Group M, but Group M has more than 100 brands. So there are more companies with Group M that have not accepted their 2% pledge with black-owned media. And so we're going to keep putting pressure on them. And for all these people, Michael, who say, oh, man, you shouldn't be calling folks out. No, the bottom line is, if this didn't happen, if Byron didn't drop his lawsuit, if we didn't sign that letter that ran on the front page for General Motors,

if these things did not happen, you would not be seeing this reaction from corporate America. I've had the same thing. I've had people telling me, well, man, you know what, you know, you keep calling out, you know, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi because, you know, she won't do these interviews with black owned media. You'll see right here. This is one of the this is one of the tweets that I sent out today. We've been using this. We've been using this. Where's Nancy graphic? We've been posting on Instagram, Facebook and all of our pages. We're going to show you all in a second.

So you see it right here. But this is why it's the call out. OK, we've been waiting for 11 damn months to get an interview with Speaker Nancy Pelosi. OK, so the same thing, calling out these companies and these ad agencies, look, if we haven't got money before, we ain't going to get money tomorrow. And so I'm glad to see the Coca-Cola announcement. I want to see more

companies. And what's happening is we're establishing a floor now, Michael. It's a floor. Not that .5%, not that 1%. It's a floor. We're also forcing these companies to look at their metrics, how they're measuring, because that's how they also try to knock us out. What's your metrics?

What are your numbers? And it's like, you're trying to compare us to them? When a company like Quibi, y'all remember Quibi? Jeffrey Katzenberg, Meg Whitman, remember that little app they announced last year that lasted seven months? They booked $150 million in revenue. And y'all, before they even launched, and they didn't have a single damn metric, Michael, and they booked $150 million in revenue. That shows you the games being played in advertising.

And so we welcome the Coca-Cola announcement. We welcome the others. We want to see more companies step up. The $300 billion being spent every year on advertising, Michael. And you clearly know this space better than I do, and I'm not sure. But I have two levels of skepticism. One, I'm glad that they're certainly, as you do anything, is more than what it was. So that's a good thing. But two levels of skepticism. First, that 8%, does that mean if it's split up with those four different groups, does that mean it's 2% per group? So obviously it's still 2% more than it was yesterday, but is that still enough?

Well, it's three groups, Black, Hispanic, and Asian-owned. And so we don't know. That's the total percentage is 8%. We don't know what specifically the Black-owned spend. We've been asking companies to have a Black-owned spend of at least 5%. Byron Allen's initial letters went out asking for 2% because it was one. He said it goes to two, doubles it.

But we then said to Byron, no, hell no, it should be a minimum of 5%. And some companies have been saying, oh, well, like, for instance, General Motors announced, you know, we're going to get to 8% by 2025. I kept saying, why you got to wait? And that's the whole piece there. But the floor is being established, but we still want to know what's the black own spin. Go ahead. Got it. Which was my skepticism. My second skepticism is I'm wondering if Coca-Cola, who has done great things in this country relative to whether it's as you've been

advertising the Essence Music Festival, whether it's the United Negro College Fund. Coca-Cola was a strong supporter of the Ron Brown Foundation. So I have no—Coca-Cola has done great things. But I wonder, strategically, they're saying maybe we need to do something with Black and of color media now, because this voting rights thing is going to get hot. And folks are going to start asking us to move our headquarters out of Georgia. And maybe if we do this, maybe some of those voices will say, well, wait a minute, and we'll have some friends in the media.

No, that's not what was happening. I can tell you there was a review before we dropped our General Motors letter and then we dropped that particular letter. We were pushing numerous companies. Okay, good. You know, this had been building. This had been building, and we'd been saying things privately. But then, of course, we went public. That was the case. The thing here, Omicongo, that I need people to understand,

and everything that Michael just said about the support of Coca-Cola and these other companies for these charitable deals,'s that's fine but that's charity we're talking investment aid and investment are two different things and that's the issue that we have been raising okay if a company gives a million dollars for an effort but no we want to know what about what about 100 200 million dollars so here's the deal. If you look at the numbers, you can just take 8%. Coca-Cola is spending, if they're spending $3 billion, let's say, in advertising, now all of a sudden you're talking about now spending upwards of nearly $300 million with minority agencies. And so again, that's what we're talking about. We're saying, and we're also saying, broaden it.

Don't just support, and that's why I think that announcement is important. And again, I can tell y'all. And here's the Coca-Cola. Y'all see that. The key is don't just buy Urban One. Don't just buy Radio One. Don't buy just TV One. Don't just buy Essence.

Okay? Don't just buy Radio 1. Don't buy this TV 1. Don't just buy Essence. OK, don't just buy the usual suspect. And we're saying don't sit and try to include BET. They are not black owned. Hey, Viacom CBS. And so that's what we've been specific with our ass on the Congo because and then we want to say track it. We're saying to the companies, hey, we want to see the check. Hey, I've had conversations with Walmart, Verizon, General Motors. Roe ain't seen the check. I've seen the Coca-Cola check. Why are we saying that?

Because a lot of companies have make announcements. They make announcements that look great, like all those companies who announced they were giving in the wake of George Floyd. $50 billion. And most of it has not been spent more than a year later. That's also what we're challenging. Absolutely. And I really got to give you and all of the other people that you mentioned your props, because one of the things I've always heard you say on these interviews and use the BET Viacom as an example. They'll give all of this money for companies and organizations that target Black people,

but not are run by Black people. And so this is happening as a direct result of the efforts that you and so many others that you mentioned have put in. And we have to make sure that we're keeping that pressure on because you talked about Quibi and the no metrics versus what we have to provide to be able to get these funds. It's extremely important.

We also have to make sure that the organizations that they do sponsor really do have a majority Black ownership, right? Because we know when we go back to those affirmative action policy days that some of these companies will get like one Black representative and say, oh, look here, we got it. Now give us that paper. And I think they know we're smarter than that now. And this actually ties into our first conversation tonight about the NCAA, right? People understanding Black power, people understanding what we do and what we can do economically,

and that needs to be rewarded, and it's coming from the efforts that you all have put in. So this is good. Like you said, this is a floor, and we need to keep that pressure up. And-and look, it's about... we are black folks who drop money. We invest money. We sit here and we spend money.

That's what we do. This is called return on investment. And so... and I love these people, folks who say, well, man, uh, you calling folks out, uh, uh, so you can get paid. Yeah. And guess what?

It also means so I can hire more people. That's right. That's what it means. I can hire more producers, more digital editors. I can have more shows. We can hire. We can travel more. We can do those.

That's, yeah. Because you know what? I don't see none of these folks bitching about Fox News with a billion and a half dollar profit. CNN getting a billion dollar profit.

Y'all, I ain't saying revenue. Profit. I even had some black people, Michael, I had some fools on Twitter saying, Roland, why are you running these Nina Turner ads? Because she paid for them.

I'm trying to understand why does ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, MSNBC, CNN, why all of them get to run ads? But I can't. Why is it that they get to get paid, but I can't?

And then they were like, well, the woman who's running against Nina, will you run her ads if she pay for them? This ain't hard. CNN runs Democrat ads, Republican ads. Would I run Republican ads? Yeah. Check clear. Y'all, this is a media

company. Our job is to run it like a company. This ain't charity. This is not a foundation. So don't come to me with your charity dollars. Come to me with six and seven figures. That's how we are able to grow, Michael.

This is business. And the same thing goes for the Democratic Party, the Democratic Governors Association, and the DSCC, and the DCCC. Y'all going to be one first vote next year. I'm expecting, let me put it on the table right now, Michael, from the DSCC, I'm expecting money from Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. Yeah, that's what I'm expecting. You damn right I am. Well, just like I'm sure the Lincoln Project ran a lot of ads on your platform. Nah, we were running that.

Lincoln Project going to cut a check. I'm sorry, what'd you say? They're going to have to cut a check. Oh, I thought those, oh, so those were not paid ads? No, we were talking about those. But they're going to have to be cutting a check too. Absolutely. I think, you know, some of these people that are on Twitter

that, you know, always have something to say to you, they're all the same people. And then, you know, just for whatever reason, have an issue with your show and your success. And, you know, that in my book is called hating. So, you know, obviously the haters will hate. But you're exactly right. Darn right you're calling people out.

And that's what you're in business for. So I don't take any umbrage for what you say. Well, here's the deal. We don't want to have to call people out. We don't. Look, I didn't want to have to call people out. We don't, look, I didn't want to have to sit here and call out Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her staff.

But when your ass can't find 20 minutes, 10 minutes, five minutes, and almost a whole year, yeah, we got a problem. And I don't know, I don't know of an nmpa interview she's done

i don't know an interview she's done with april ryan i don't know the interview she's done with other black radio so what that tells me is if y'all ain't talking no black people we got a problem and see that's the thing here look if i'm getting nothing today and I got nothing last week, what sense I'm going to get something next week? No. We got to call folks out. If people need to watch it, Omicron, they're going to have to understand the principles of business.

Black people have been shut out of the process for decades and centuries. King wrote his book, Why We Can't Wait. process for decades and centuries. King wrote his book, Why We Can't Wait. Y'all, and I said this, I'm 52.

I'll be 53 in November. I ain't trying to wait five years, four years, three years. I'm trying to get paid right now because we got to break this cabal because there's a there's a 15 18 20 year old brother or sister out there who wants to do this in the future and they should

not be fighting for one and two percent in 10 20 30 years final comment go ahead you're absolutely right. And when you talk about Speaker Pelosi and they're like, if you're going to be up there and celebrate people like John Lewis and wear the kente cloth and all of these other- Sing a little bit of voice and sing. Yeah, right, right.

You know, and happy Kwanzaa this and all of that. You got to support the platforms that he supported and the like. And so we have to fight for this. This day of the Happy to be here. Look, all of these other networks, you know, Ted Turner built the network, built an empire. This is where it starts. We can't just keep focusing on what the end product looks like.

We got to be part of this from the ground up. And like you said, don't want to wait five years. We don't want to wait five months. Look, we got other people coming up, journalism students, other people who want to build these empires. And we have to do the work now for a better tomorrow. It worked for other people who want to build these empires, and we have to do the work now for a better tomorrow. It worked for other groups who do it. Why not for us? Forget this happy to be here,

just happy to be on a network. Build our own. We come from a history of people who've done that, and we have to do this in this so important media space, this global media market. We have to do that. We have no choice. Hey, all y'all companies making announcements, I need to see checks being written,

direct deposits made. That's how I will judge you. I said to General Motors, I will praise y'all when I see checks written. I can praise Coca-Cola because I've seen the check written. The rest of y'all I met with, I ain't seen the check yet.

That's why I got to keep asking folks to give to our show. I shouldn't be. I should not. Y'all don't see Fox News asking folks to donate, because you know why? They get subscription fees. They get advertising fees. Nah, that day is over. So great announcement about Coca-Cola.

I want to see more companies stepping up as well. All right, y'all, time for Fit, Live, Win. All right, y'all. So I want to show y'all something right here. This is too funny. So, you know, Anthony Anderson, he been working out. They all part of the Will Smith Big Willie Challenge. And so what happened was Anthony dropped his video and he was trying to sit here and talk about me because I was joking with him about the video and all of this. So watch this.

Just watch this, y'all. After five days, I'm back. Oh, my word. Let's get it in. All right, so Anthony did that video, and I'm trying to see. He did another one. I'm trying to see. He did another video, and he tried to sit here and uh, and called me out.

Because when he did the first video, uh, dropping all this water, I said, man, stop fronting. You know doggone well, uh, you sat here and just ran some, just ran some water, uh, down. Is this it right here? Go to it. Now give me all sweat today. Just letting you know I'm in here getting it in. All right. I think this is the one here. Go to it.

All right. Let's see. I think this is the one where he was like, I don't know what happened to the audio. But anyway, Anthony was like, yeah, rollblader. I ain't pour a bottle down my chest. And so Jim Jones saw that and I said, and people jump on your timeline. Man, you ain't sweating. Is that an actual indication that you're working out? Well, Jim Jones is right now. Jim, glad to have you. So Jim, explain that because, again, a lot of people like, man, you putting the work in.

Why you ain't sweating? Why you ain't sweating? Well, first of all, you know how cold the damn room is, whatever. So talk about sweat and working out. Let me tell you this, Rowan. Anthony Anderson, he hopped in the pool right before he shot that video. That's what he didn't show. He took a little dip.

Then he did that. So if you're sweating, that doesn't mean you're losing weight. I'm going to give you three reasons today why sweating does not mean losing weight. First off, it's water weight rolling. So people will go in a sauna. They'll have a good workout. Say, man, I dropped three pounds. But yes, when you replenish your fluids, those three pounds come right back, which people don't know. Another thing is sweating is like your body's form of an air conditioner. Sweating is to cool your body down. That's all sweat is. It's cooling you off. Don't get fused being cooled off with burning fat. The last thing, Roland, you're losing so many essential minerals and other vitamins that your body needs when you do sweat that you lose so when you're done you have to replenish those minerals and those nutrients and those vitamins and you know what you drink sports

drinks you take stuff so what that does that puts the hydration right back in you so people don't understand yes you lost it it's water but you're gonna go you're gonna go what do you have to work out you drink a bottle of water you drink a gallon of water you're right back where you started all right so you see this video right here anthony in a sweatsuit have to work out? You drink a ball of water. You drink a gallon of water. You're right back where you started. All right, so you see this video right here, Anthony in a sweatsuit. Should you work out in a sweatsuit? No, there's no need to, right? There's no need to.

I think at the end of the day, I tell people. Hello? Yep. I tell people at the end of the day, cut your rest times, right? You don't have to. It's not about what you wear. Don't work out in.

I see people in the waistbands, the sweatsuits, all these different gimmicks. Just go to the gym and don't play around. Get it in for 45 minutes. That's the best way to lose some weight. All right, so, okay. So when you see the items that people wear underneath their body, and again, it's like I had one before.

And you see a lot of boxers doing this. Explain the issue because boxers, what they're doing is different than what we're doing. Absolutely. They're trying to make weight. Exactly. Exactly. You nailed it.

You nailed it, Roman. Unless you're working out for a fight in Vegas, which most 99% of people aren't, you don't have to do that. Boxers are trying to get down to their fight weight before the fight, so they have to drop that water. They drop that water, and they don't replace it. For that check.

There we go. But most people are not working out for that check, Roland. Okay, so there's no need for them to be cutting weight like they're a boxer. Ain't no need. And people don't understand, boxers, what they do, they hydrate, they do not replenish with water. They cut that weight, then they get in that ring.

Most of the times, people, after you cut that weight in the sauna or after you sweat, you go drink a Powerade, a Gatorade, a water. You go drink something. They do. Questions. I'm going to say a question here from... I'm ready for one.

All right, questions. Michael, and then Omokongo, and then we'll end the show. Questions. Uh, I'm gonna say a question here from... I'm ready for one. I'm ready for one. All right, questions. Uh, Michael and then Omicongo, uh, and then we'll end the show. Uh, Michael, your question for Jim Jones first. Let's go. Thank you. Um, well, hey, Jim Jones, how you doing, fella?

What's-what's going on, brother? On the, uh... I understand what you're saying about the whole, that kind of technical kind of sweatsuit, you know, that astronaut sweatsuits that makes you sweat, obviously. All right, so take that away for a second. What about people that kind of sweatsuit, you know, that astronaut sweatsuits that makes you sweat, obviously. All right, so take that away for a second. What about people that kind of wear that kind of spandex underneath that, I guess, is the same purpose, but it's not that plastic

kind of coating they wear? Does that help? Or are you suggesting just wear your most comfortable gear and get it in and don't worry about little tricks? Yeah, wear your most comfortable gear and get it in, and don't worry about little tricks. Yeah, wear your most comfortable gear. I tell you what, I've gotten myself down to about 9% body fat, and I haven't worn none of that. All I do is go in there with a T-shirt, just work out. How about they do this? If you eat right, I'd rather people eat right than wear a waistband

or a sweatsuit. Just go in the gym and watch your diet. It doesn't matter what you wear. The weight's not going to come off. It's not about what you wear. It's about what you do in the gym. Thank you, Jim. For sure.

For sure, brother. Omokongo, go ahead. Yeah, I think that your advice is great. And I think that a lot of people could really benefit from, from what you're saying. One of the questions I would have is what do you suggest that people are doing post workout to make sure that they're, they're keeping the fat off over time? Because you talked about how we just go and get the Gatorade and other drinks and put it all right back on. What's the goal?

What's the advice for consistency outside of the workout to make sure the weight stays off? Yeah, for sure. So the one thing I would say when you're working out, try to stay in a high intensity interval training. That's going to keep you in a more of a fat burning zone. That's the best way to do it. And when you do leave the gym, you can go you can drink. You're supposed to drink your water. What I'm saying is let's let's lose real fat, not the water weight. Right. Let's not fall in love with just oh i lost four pounds after i hit the sauna i have to add all this sweat that's not that's a that's a very

very tricky four pounds it's not real it's fake let's lose the real weight let's watch our diet let's tighten up the food and let's work out consistently and then the weight will stay off then you won't you won't have to worry about going and drinking a smart water then the weight's right back again so yeah let's just those are what we have to worry about going and drinking smart water then the weight's right back again. So yeah, those are what we got to worry about. They keep the true weight off. It's fool's gold. That sweat is fool's gold. I'm telling you. All right, then.

All right, Jim Jones, we still appreciate it. Thanks a lot. For sure. For sure. They can find me at G-Y-M-J-O-N-E-Z. All right, then. Let me thank Omokongo, Michael, for joining me on the show. Julianne as well. Folks, if y'all want to support Roller Mart Unfiltered, please do so by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar you give goes to support this show.

Cash app, dollar sign, rmunfiltered, venmo.com forward slash rmunfiltered, paypal.me forward slash rmartinunfiltered, zelle, roland at roland, that's martin.com, roland at rolandmartinunfiltered.com. All right, folks, just a couple more weeks and we're in the old office space and we're going to try a new office space. I can't wait to broadcast from there. I'll see you

guys tomorrow right here on Roller Mark Unfiltered from Los Angeles where I'll be attending the Paul Mooney Memorial Service and we'll be live streaming that on Wednesday. I'll see y'all from LA tomorrow.